How Did Berniecrats Claim the Jackson Mississippi Movement? Do They Want To Be Claimed? Should They?

Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

When Jackson's mayor-elect Chokwe Antar Lumumba stepped to the podium at the cynically misnamed "Peoples Summit", the annual June pilgrimage of Berniecrats, he carried with him the credibility of a half century's organizing and struggle in Mississippi and around the country. He put this clout behind Our Revolution and the Berniecrats, who are fundamentally allergic to even the mention of global empire, Israeli apartheid, regime change, drone wars and the disastrous impact of the warfare state. Is that what the Jackson movement wanted?

Democrats Gone Mad: The Year of Living Stupidly

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Nobody voted for the War Party in November of 2016, but that’s who’s in power. Which is why both Democrats and Republicans talk of virtually nothing but Russians and war. Polls show most voters think there’s no evidence that Trump “colluded” with Russia, and they believe that much of what they see in the mainstream media is “fake news.” The Russian obsession is delegitimizing, not just Donald Trump, but the government and the media.

Freedom Rider: Leave North Korea Alone

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

U.S. presidents treat other nations like Dred Scott – as having no rights that the United States is bound to respect. North Korea is called “rogue” – the U.S. term for a country that “dares to exist on its own terms.” The dignity of peoples is foreign to Washington’s rulers, who cannot conceive that it is better to engage with an adversary “than to demonize it on a regular basis.”

In Healthcare Battle, Corporations Continue to Win While Public Loses

Submitted by Ajamu Baraka on

by BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka

Both Trumpcare and Obamacare are privatized insurance systems tailored to the needs and greed of healthcare corporations. Corporations wrote the Affordable Care Act, and only the rich benefit from Trumpcare. “The only rational objective for the majority of the people in the U.S. is to move toward the complete elimination of the for-profit healthcare system.”

July 4th and the Crisis of US Exceptionalism

Submitted by Danny Haiphong on

by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong

U.S. imperialism has finally found the enemies it has been searching for all these years. Most of the world’s people are already in some form of resistance to Washington’s bullying. Love of war is what makes the U.S. truly exceptional. Domestically, “only an opposition that fights for a potential world war with Russia is acceptable to Washington.”

Israel and Rwanda, Partners in Persecution

Submitted by Ann Garrison on

by BAR contributor Ann Garrison

The world’s greatest human rights abusers have seats on the UN Human Rights Council, including Rwanda which, along with Israel, claims “genocide” privileges to trash other people’s rights. Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame is soliciting help from Israel to fight Islamic jihadists – in a nation that is 95 percent Christian.

Reparations is Dead: How to Resurrect It

Submitted by Jahi Issa on

by Dr. Jahi Issa and Reggie Mabry

The moral case for Black reparations has effectively been made, but the legal argument has met much frustration in the courts. The authors believe that the period after 1808, when U.S. participation in the international slave trade was outlawed, is key to clearing the legal hurdles to reparations.

Black Agenda Radio for Week of July 10, 2017

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

U.S. War Crimes Against “Muslims of Color”

The illegal U.S. presence in Syria is a “Nuremburg crime against peace,” said Dr. Francis Boyle, the renowned professor of international law at the University of Illinois, at Champaign. “It was Obama that started” the aggression against Syria,” said Boyle. “Trump’s just exacerbating it. This is really a clash of civilizations between diehard white Judea-Christian neo-con Zionists against Muslims of color, to destroy them and steal their oil and gas.”

Black Is Back Coalition to Gather in Chicago

“We cannot support any imperialist agenda that’s coming from America,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. The coalition is gearing up for a national conference in Chicago, August 12 and 13, under the theme: “The Ballot and the Bullet: War and Peace in the Era of Donald Trump.” “Donald Trump is symptomatic of a severe crisis of the whole social system of capitalism, that’s born of slavery and colonialism and world domination,” said Yeshitela.

Mumia Remembers Franz Fanon

In an essay for Prison Radio, Mumia Abu Jamal, who was a radio journalist before he was imprisoned in the death of a Philadelphia policeman, noted that Wretch of the Earth author Franz Fanon was also a “revolutionary journalist.” Fanon’s reporting for the Algerian revolutionary press from 1957 to 1960, and his 1964 collection Towards the African Revolution “condemns Arab and African collaborators and dissects how French forces used torture to intimidate the Algerian resistance,” said the nation’s best known political prisoner.

A Challenge to Rwandan Dictatorship

Diane Rwigara, the 35 year-old daughter of a businessman believed to have been assassinated by Paul Kagame’s Rwandan regime, has delivered a “shock to the system,” according to David Himbara, himself an exile from Kagame’s terror. Speaking to Toronto radio host Phil Taylor, Himbara said Ms. Rwigara’s campaign for the presidency is already a kind of people’s victory. “Regardless of the outcome of the election, Diane Rwigara has already won,” said HImbara. “She has given people courage.”

New York’s Pacifica Station Resists Empire (State Building)

An impressive roster of elected officials is urging the owners of the Empire State Building to back off their threat to evict Pacifica radio station WBAI-FM from the tower it has broadcast from since 1965. The building’s owners claim WBAI owes them over $2 million in back rent. Station interim director Bill Crosier says the non-profit corporation, which also owns stations in Texas and California, has been paying $12,000 a month for the last three years, which they believe is a fair market rate. Crosier appreciates the letters of support from elected officials. “We’ve been standing up for the rights of people who don’t have political influence for a long time.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

U.S. War Crimes Against “Muslims of Color”

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

The illegal U.S. presence in Syria is a “Nuremburg crime against peace,” said Dr. Francis Boyle, the renowned professor of international law at the University of Illinois, at Champaign. “It was Obama that started” the aggression against Syria,” said Boyle. “Trump’s just exacerbating it. This is really a clash of civilizations between diehard white Judea-Christian neo-con Zionists against Muslims of color, to destroy them and steal their oil and gas.”

Black Is Back Coalition to Gather in Chicago

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

“We cannot support any imperialist agenda that’s coming from America,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. The coalition is gearing up for a national conference in Chicago, August 12 and 13, under the theme: “The Ballot and the Bullet: War and Peace in the Era of Donald Trump.” “Donald Trump is symptomatic of a severe crisis of the whole social system of capitalism, that’s born of slavery and colonialism and world domination,” said Yeshitela.

Mumia Remembers Franz Fanon

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

In an essay for Prison Radio, Mumia Abu Jamal, who was a radio journalist before he was imprisoned in the death of a Philadelphia policeman, noted that Wretch of the Earth author Franz Fanon was also a “revolutionary journalist.” Fanon’s reporting for the Algerian revolutionary press from 1957 to 1960, and his 1964 collection Towards the African Revolution “condemns Arab and African collaborators and dissects how French forces used torture to intimidate the Algerian resistance,” said the nation’s best known political prisoner.

“Think Through the Implications of Our Actions”: an Open Letter to Rep. Barbara Lee

Submitted by Norman Solomon on

by Norman Solomon

Et tu, Barbara Lee? The only member of Congress to vote against the invasion of Afghanistan appears to have gone over to the dark side with a tweet expressing outrage at President Trump’s willingness to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The author urges Lee not “to participate in a profoundly irresponsible meme that castigates instead of encourages diplomatic discourse between the highest levels of the American and Russian governments.”

It is Necessary to Unify the Brazilian Black Movement

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Puneet Chadha and Jamile Araújo

More than half of Brazil’s population is of African descent, yet concerted action among Afro-Brazilians has often been elusive. Black organizations from across the nation gathered in the city of Salvador to resist the “regressive measures” imposed by the “putschist government” of Michel Temer. “To tackle this serious crisis, of national and international scope, it is important and necessary to unify the Brazilian black movement organizations.”

Why Africans Have No Land in South Africa

Submitted by Motsoko Pheko on

by Motsoko Pheko

If South Africa is an independent, decolonized, democratic country under the control of its Black majority, then why is 93% of the land still owned by whites? The author maintains that the real anti-colonial struggle was betrayed, and “became a civil rights movement.” The descendants of white settlers were allowed to keep their stolen spoils. “Apartheid” was declared the problem – “a colonial a ploy to hide colonial theft of the African country.”

How Paul Robeson Found His Political Voice in the Welsh Valleys

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Jeff Sparrow

Paul Robeson, the great artist and activist, began his journey to becoming a global “people’s singer” through his contact with Welsh mining communities. “Throughout the 1930s, the analogy between African Americans and workers in Britain (and especially Wales) helped reorient Robeson, both aesthetically and politically.” The bond with Wales remained, “even after Robeson became, in Pete Seeger’s words, ‘the most blacklisted performer in America.’”

Black America is “Pro-Peace,” but Its Politicians Work for the War Party

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

The Black Alliance for Peace will have to work around or against the Black Misleadership Class. “For these infinitely self-centered creatures, even the Mother Continent is unworthy of basic human empathy, much less solidarity.” The Congressional Black Caucus won’t even complain of genocide in the Congo, much less war against Syria. Even the Movement for Blacks Lives’ position on peace is weak. Malcolm, MLK and Du Bois would disapprove.

Freedom Rider: America’s Embarrassment

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Much of America is embarrassed by Donald Trump’s boorish ways -- as if bad manners and geopolitical ignorance are the worst faults a president can have. Trump is a truly repugnant human being, but he did not attack seven nations (Obama), destroy a major social welfare program (Clinton), or authorize massive new surveillance on Americans (Bush and Obama). The corporate media cleaned up the images of previous presidential defectives.

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