If the Left Doesn’t Critique Endless War, Who Will?
“We must raise the issues of war and imperialism in electoral politics in this country,” even if the Democrats don’t, said BAR senior columnist Margaret Kimberley, speaking at the annual conference of UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition. “In the debates, foreign policy is discussed very little, and when it is they all sound the same, even those who are supposed to be progressive,” said Kimberley.
“Respectable” Black Women Fought Mass Incarceration
Back in the days when 90 percent of southern prison inmates were Black, socially conservative Black clubwomen fought for prison reform, believing that “putting Black women in jail was hurting the Black community,” said Nikki Brown, professor of history at the University of New Orleans. The National Association of Colored Women, who practiced what we today call “respectability” politics, played a key role in creating alternatives to incarceration, said Brown, who authored an article titled, “Keeping Black Motherhood Out of Prison: Prison Reform and Woman-Saving in the Progressive Era.”
Last Surviving Member of the Move 9 is Released
Delbert Africa, imprisoned along with eight other members of the Move organization in 1978 in the death of a Philadelphia policeman, is finally free to “tell his story,” said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, who was convicted in the death of another Philadelphia cop in 1981. Abu Jamal recounted how a Black city councilman described Delbert Africa as “one of the greatest Black men that ever lived.” Two Move members died mysteriously in prison.
Black Scholar Praises Heroes and Indicts “Scoundrels” of McCarthy Era
The peace activists that were persecuted in the McCarthy era were not fighting just for the absence of war, but were “anti-imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist and demanded an end to United States policing of the world,” said Charisse Burden-Stelly, professor of Africana Studies and political science at Carleton College. The exemplars of this struggle were W.E.B. Dubois, Paul Robeson and Claudia Jones, “Peace was construed as a Soviet ploy to undermine the American way of life,” said Burden-Stelly. Sound familiar?
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The Dominican Republic is deporting Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent at an increasing rate and without any consideration for human rights. AfroResistance calls for all people of…
This week, we discuss efforts in Pennsylvania to end the sentence of life in prison without parole for felony murder. Also, we examine Syria and US imperialist policy there and elsewhere. First, we…
Prudence Iticka and Obioma Ohia recently returned from a delegation that traveled to Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, nations that recently formed the Alliance of Sahel States. They join us to discuss…
Quinn Cozzens joins us to discuss the case of Derek Lee, convicted of felony murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for a killing he did not commit. Derek Lee is challenging his…
Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report Executive Editor, was recently a guest on the Revolutionary Blackout Network with hosts Nick Cruse and James Fauntleroy. This is an excerpt of their wide-…
