Corporate Democrats Stir Up War Fever Against Russia to Turn Election

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

The orchestrators of the anti-Russian war hysteria “have shown over the past several weeks that they are willing, and even eager, to bring down the whole edifice of U.S. social and political ‘checks and balances’ -- freedom of speech and other civil liberties -- to sustain the momentum of their neoliberal offensive in the world.” White Republicans stole the election, as usual, not Russians. Corporate Democrats want to steal the Bill of Rights.

Freedom Rider: Fighting for Southern Human Rights

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

The South, where more than half of the Black U.S. population lives, has based its economic appeal on the stinginess of its social safety net, the relative poverty of its people, and the savagery of its criminal justice system. Capitalism truly turns morality upside down. Mississippi is considered good for business because its “retrograde history of slavery and Jim Crow segregation creates a compliant and largely non-unionized source of labor.”

Gabbard’s Law: To End War on Terror, Stop Arming Terrorists

Submitted by Glen Ford on

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

If Tulsi Gabbard, Barbara Lee and a handful of other lawmakers have their way, Washington’s so-called “moderate” rebels in Syria would be cut off from American money and arms. The U.S. would also “be compelled to cut off aid to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, the biggest recipient of U.S. aid in the world.” The U.S. proxy war on Syria has always been illegal; Gabbard’s bill would make it doubly so.

 
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A Lesson from Standing Rock

Submitted by Danny Haiphong on

by Danny Haiphong

There have been very few people’s victories under the Obama administration. His corporate policies have prevailed mainly by default, due largely to the failure of progressives to confront the First Black President. “The anti-war movement has been buried in the Democratic Party graveyard throughout the duration of Obama’s tenure.” The Standing Rock Sioux, however, never waivered in their determination, and faced down Big Energy and the U.S. government.

Understanding the Grim economics of Incarcerated Labor

Submitted by This Is Hell on

Incarcerated Labor: A Hellish Interview of Prison Labor Activst Azzurra Crispino

by our friends at This Is Hell Radio

Prison labor activist Azzurra Crispino explains how a nation-wide prison work stoppage revealed mass incarceration's large-scale exploitation of incarcerated labor, and the brutal lengths the state will go to protect its interests - and calls for the public to embrace love in the face of fear, and humanizing prisoners as a starting point on the road to prison abolition.
Azzurra last spoke to This Is Hell! on day two of the nation-wide prison work stoppage: thisishell.com/interviews/917-azzurra-crispino

The Election of Donald Trump and the Implosion of Liberalism

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Samir Amin

Trump’s victory signals the inevitable implosion of the liberal order. This will pave the way for construction of the alternative, which comprises: at the national level, the abandonment of liberal economic management for the benefit of sovereign projects, giving rise to social progress; and at the international level, the construction of a system of polycentric globalization.

Trump’s Education Pick Will Continue Chartered Destruction of Detroit Schools

Submitted by Shea Howell on

by Shea Howell

A fabulously rich white woman who has never been a public school parent or student -- and who seems to despise public education – has been tapped for secretary of education. Betsy DeVos is largely to blame for the fact that 80 percent of Michigan charter schools are for-profit. She comes from a world that is implacably hostile to Black and poor communities. “Their reality sees our children as sources of profit and our educated adults as threats.”

Can the Black Panthers Offer Jamaicans Lessons on Checking Police Violence?

Submitted by Ajamu Nangwaya on

by Ajamu Nangwaya

The Caribbean is the source of many voices of liberation -- Franz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Kwame Toure, Bob Marley -- but Jamaica, in particular, might do well to study the experience of the Black Panther Party, which began as an armed cop-watch program. Tivoli Gardens, where police killed 70 people in 2010, would also “be in full agreement with Franz Fanon’s articulation of the role of the police.”

Fidel’s Legacy to the World on Theory and Practice

Submitted by Arnold August on

by Arnold August

People who know nothing about history or politics try to frame Fidel Castro as a stereotypical doctrinaire communist. The opposite is true: Castro has been described as “the anti-dogmatist par excellence.” He had an extraordinary ability to link theory and practice “like no other revolutionary of the 20th and early 21st centuries.” Castro seized “the moment based on the needs and aspirations of the vast majority of Cuban people at any given time.”

The Oil Siege Is Over, “The Cartel” Looks East

Submitted by Caleb Maupin on

by Caleb T. Maupin

The western-backed collapse of oil prices has abated, and most of the targeted governments are still standing, partly because China has not cooperated with the siege. “The intention with the drop (siege) was to put Russia, Venezuela, Iran, Ecuador, and Bolivia out of business.” The lesson is clear: “Despite the US victory in the Cold War, the monopolists do not have the unipolar world they desire.”

Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 12, 2016

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

Baraka: Fear of Trump Defeated the Green Party

Voters “wanted a change, but were concerned that if they stood with the Green Party challenge, that would in effect be a vote for Donald Trump -- and we know that the propaganda was very effective in advancing that notion,” said the Greens’ vice presidential choice, Ajamu Baraka. The veteran activist, who is also a BAR editor and columnist, told a conference of Southern Human Rights Organizers, in Jackson, Mississippi, that there is a “pattern of repression” against Black people and the working class in cities across the country -- most of them “administered and managed by Democrats.”

Dixon Defends Stein Vote Recount

Jill Stein and the Green Party are “not jumping into bed with the Democrats” with their call for a recount of votes in three mid-western states narrowly lost by Hillary Clinton, said Bruce Dixon, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party. “How are we going to ignore pervasive evidence of widespread, multi-state vote tampering, and then turn around in 2017 and tell people they should campaign for office” on the Green ticket? Dixon, who is also managing editor of BAR, said Bernie Sanders should have filed a recount complaint against Hillary Clinton for “stealing” the primary elections in states like Massachusetts and California. “It seems that Bernie and his people were too intent on staying in the [Democratic] club.”

The Democratic Party Can’t Be Fixed

“The powers in the Democratic Party preferred Trump to Bernie Sanders,” said veteran anti-war activist David Swanson, publisher of the influential web site War Is A Crime. “They wanted Hillary or nothing, and that’s what they got.” Those same people, he said, resist naming Rep. Keith Ellison as head of the Democratic National Committee. “The Democratic Party, in my mind, needs to be abandoned. The idea of taking it over and reforming it and fixing it is old, and getting a little tiresome.”

No to Trump and Clinton – Yes to Black Self-Determination

One day before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and six days before the presidential inauguration, the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will gather at Freedom Plaza, in Washington, DC. “The January 14 mobilization is part of the process of replacing, moving out of the way, those sell-out, opportunist leaders who have pretended to represent the interests of our people,” said coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela. He said the rally will highlight “our 19-point program to put self-determination at the center of Black political struggle” on the widest range of issues.

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.
 
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Are Jill Stein and the Green Party Being Played By Democrats? Will the Recount Split the Green Party?

Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Are Jill Stein and the Greens carrying sludge for Democrats? Doesn’t the failure to seek recounts in any state Hillary won prove she and the Greens are being played? Is there a difference between the ways Republicans and Democrats steal elections? Didn’t the Green Party itself refuse to endorse the recount? And what’s this about alleging “foreign operators” being responsible for electoral fraud? Surely Greens don’t believe that nonsense.

White Supremacy, U.S. Exceptionalism and Capitalist Dogma are All “Fake News”

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

The U.S. ruling class faces a crisis of legitimacy, having no solution to any of the multiple crises of capitalism. Therefore, it is compelled to lie about virtually everything, and to call speakers of truth purveyors of “fake news.” The false narrative must be maintained because “the world is outgrowing the U.S.-led, rigged economic and political system that is the last vestige of half a millennium of colonialism and white supremacy.”

Freedom Rider: Black Fear in the Age of Trump

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Having accepted the unacceptable and defended the indefensible when it came from Democrats, Blacks must now confront the white people’s president, Donald Trump. As in dark days of the past, we must cast off fear and cast out Black misleaders who are loyal only to themselves. “Creating political crisis should be the order of the day. That has always been the game changer, not necessarily getting Democrats into office instead of Republicans.”

Blacks Systematically Barred from Temporary Jobs in Chicago

Submitted by Glen Ford on

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

Chicago-area businesses and a national temporary worker staffing agency conspired to discriminate against Black applicants in favor of largely undocumented Hispanic workers, according to a suit filed in federal court. “It was said to be common for managers to ask MVP to only send them workers that listened to 107.9 FM, a Spanish language radio station in Chicago.”

 
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The Second Phase of the propaganda Fake News War: Economic Strangulation. What Comes Next?

Submitted by Dr. Marsha Cole... on

by BAR editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Adebayo

Frustrated and outraged at how reality has turned out, the ruling class denizens of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential tent are lashing out at truth-tellers. “Fake news” is whatever contradicts their lies, and Russia is their all-purpose boogeyman. “Google and Facebook have joined theri corporate media compatriots in an attempt to limit the public’s access to alternative news analysis and independent investigative reporting.”

When It Comes to U.S. Foreign Policy, the Truth Hurts

Submitted by Ronald Thomas West on

by Ronald Thomas West

A bill before Congress could be used to target “any website, or blog, that does not share the mainstream media’s proclivity to serve as the Public Relations arm of a given administration.“ All they have to do is claim it is being “manipulated” by the Russians. But, Moscow doesn’t have to lie to counter a lawless U.S. foreign policy. “The Russians only need to stick to the facts (omitting the pipeline) to ultimately win the propaganda war.”

A Eulogy for Fidel

Submitted by Danny Haiphong on

by Danny Haiphong

Fidel was a political giant, to whom the U.S. left is indebted, “not only because he and the Cuban people have protected Black revolutionaries such as Assata Shakur, Robert Williams, and Huey Newton from US government persecution.” The revolution he led built “a new society and a new people rooted in the principles of Marxism.”

Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK): How the Armed Struggle Succeeded

Submitted by Ronnie Kasrils on

by Ronnie Kasrils

Despite its 30 years of sacrifice, Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), the armed force of the South African liberation struggle, “does not feature in school history curricula, no official films have been produced, and no military record is established.” The author, a former MK commander, proposes to comprehensively set the record straight. The following is his address at the University of Witwatersrand on “the politics of armed struggle in Southern Africa.”

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