A New Generation, Same Struggle
Despite an interim of more than 30 years, the current wave of protests shares similar goals to the 1989 student rebellion at Howard University, said Josh Myers, a professor of African Studies who wrote a book on the subject. “People are saying, ‘We want authority over ourselves,’ and I think that’s the same kind of thrust that we saw with the students in 1989.”
“Zero Degree Rage” Focuses Black Minds
Nicholas Brady, professor of Africana Studies at Bucknell University and author of an article titled “Zero Degree Rage,” sees massed popular emotion as a liberatory weapon. “Rage focuses the collective effort and widens its scope, so that suddenly the police, as an institution, becomes the problem, not individual police officers,” said Brady.
Elite Deploy Spy Hi-Tech Against the People
Recent reports show the US military spied on George Floyd protests in 15 cities with planes, helicopters and drones. But Baltimore has long been under aerial surveillance, according to Vanessa Beck, of the Black Alliance for Peace. “This militarized response to a virus and to the protests is being used by the neoliberal elite to increase their wealth and control,” said Beck.
Will Blacks Oppose or Defend US Empire?
Defense of Haitian independence was the first foreign policy focus of African Americans, said Brandon Byrd, professor of history at Vanderbilt University and author of “The Black Republic: African Americans and the Fate of Haiti.” With the US now an imperial superpower, Blacks must “question not only the US as a national project, but also question what role we as African Americans have in that national project.”
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:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
Black Caucus Protects Cops, Not the People
The movement against police oppression “is long overdue, but it needs political organization in order to create lasting change,” said Margaret Kimberley, longtime Green Party activ
“We have to do more than just create a new party,” said Nick Brana, national coordinator for the Movement for a Peoples Party (MPP).
Most of the Congressional Black Caucus are “opportunists” who have “joined the neoliberals to derail any real attempt at challenging the devastating power of the police,” said Clarence Tayl
The Black movement will be asphyxiated by the ubiquitous fingers of the Democratic Party if it does not build independent nexuses of people’s power.
