Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Coronavirus, Militarism and the End of an Illusion
Black Alliance For Peace
25 Mar 2020
Coronavirus, Militarism and the End of an Illusion
Coronavirus, Militarism and the End of an Illusion

People are waking people up to the fact that the US state and government does not belong to them but to a capitalist class that is only looking out for itself.

“The ‘sheltering in place’ order is starting to look like a convenient tool for the state to manage the growing frustration, fear and anger.”

“The nation that considers itself to be the apex of capitalist achievement on planet Earth turns out to have no health care system worthy of the name – a testament to the sucking moral vacuum at America’s imperial, white settler colony core. A lowly virus – a form of being that exists at the very border between “life” and “not-life” – has revealed the world’s superpower as butt-naked and very much afraid. (Glen Ford)

Coronavirus and second economic collapse in just ten years should finally put to rest the fairy-tale of U.S. Exceptionalism.

Trump’s “Make America Great” and Obama’s “U.S. Exceptionalism” are slogans that reflect an ongoing commitment to the normalized assumption of white racial and civilizational superiority. The idea that the territory that became the United States, and its settler population, were specially anointed by a god who gave them providence over the land and the Indigenous people is so ingrained in the national imagination that its extension to rationalize and justify U.S. imperialist policies was seamless.

The U.S. over the years shamelessly boasted of its “greatness” and being number one in all things, including having the best healthcare system in the world. And even though Bernie Sanders and healthcare movements in the U.S. consistently revealed the devastating reality of a system that generated billions of dollars for the healthcare industry while simultaneously generating unnecessary deaths, bankruptcies and millions without coverage -- the mythology that the U.S. had a workable system remained in place, until now.

The coronavirus has dramatically stripped away the veneer of the for-profit healthcare system to expose a patchworked and completely dysfunctional system held together by state programs and two national programs, Medicare and Medicaid, that are still unable to provide basic coverage to millions of citizens and non-citizens.

“The mythology that the U.S. had a workable system remained in place, until now.”

But it is not just the absence of a public healthcare system that exposes the lie of U.S. exceptionalism. Black Alliance for Peace Coordinating Committee and Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberley writes that COVID-19 is not just a health emergency but it has exposed the causes of inequality and suffering in the U.S.  

And what is the source of inequality and suffering?   

Union del Barrio says that coronavirus has “unmasked the sick brutality of capitalism.”

The brutality and criminality of the colonial/capitalist system of state violence is reflected most graphically by the illegal and immoral policy of sanctions imposed on 39 nations by the U.S. and its Western allies. Sara Flounders from the International Action Center exposes the role of Big Pharma as part of U.S. effort to destroy the capacity of nations to protect their population’s health. She details the inhumane policies being imposed on nations like Venezuela and Iran, that are being denied the ability to import medicinesand medical equipment to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. 

BAP is concerned with the troubling signs that the global recession and disruption of the national economy that has resulted from the coronavirus crisis is now seen as a serious security threat by the capitalist oligarchy. The state, with the full support of corporate media, appears to be a conditioning the public to accept draconian restrictions on basic civil liberties and human rights under the guise of the public health emergency.  

“Venezuela and Iran are being denied the ability to import medicines.”

Ahjama Umi raises the very important point that we must resist efforts to panic the public into supporting a growing police state.

It is becoming clear that if the issue is really about containing the spread of the virus, there are effective protocols for combatting pandemics. Mark P. Fancher, a member of BAP’s Africa Team, discusses the measures that are in place in Africa, in nations like Nigeria, for preventing, tracking and containing infection; measures that could have been easily applied to the U.S.

But with the repressive proclivities of the U.S. national security state, it is important that we view critically some of the measures being called for: from the use of the military to national lockdowns.

The “sheltering in place” order is starting to look like a convenient tool for the state to manage the growing frustration, fear and anger as it becomes apparent that the economic and racially stratified healthcare delivery system are unable to protect the lives of the working class.

As the system finds itself immersed in a crisis that is deepening by the day, the propensity for violence and ferocious repression on the part of the U.S. state must be seen as a real threat to the people. BAP will continue to monitor the situation.

The oppressed should have no illusions.

The conservative pro-business measures offered by the capitalist class to deal with the consequences of COVID-19 are waking people up to the fact that the state and government does not belong to them but to a capitalist class that is only looking out for itself.

That revelation of truth will be the only positive that will emerge from the crisis.

Netfa, Brandon, Vanessa, Jaribu, Margaret, Dedan, YahNe, Paul, Ajamu

BAP Coordinating Committee

The Black Alliance for Peace is a people(s)-centered human rights project against war, repression and imperialism.

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at [email protected]

U.S. Imperialism

Trending

Elizabeth Warren Wants Green Bombs, not a Green New Deal
Parallels Between Black and Palestinian Struggles
Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
Bill Cosby Should Have Been Denounced by Black America Long Ago
The Black Wall Around Barack Obama: Who Does It Protect Him Against?
How Complacency, Complicity of Black Misleadership Class Led to Supreme Court Evisceration of the Voting Rights Act

Related Stories

Freedom Rider: Capitol Riot Brings U.S. Foreign Policy Home
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Capitol Riot Brings U.S. Foreign Policy Home
13 January 2021
There needs to be soul searching and truth telling about invasions, interventions, coups and sanctions that are far more destructive than the Trump
White Rightwing Chickens Roost Violently at Capitol
BAP Coordinating Committee
White Rightwing Chickens Roost Violently at Capitol
13 January 2021
The Democrat-aligned oligarchy will try to use last week’s racist violence as an excuse to impose a corporate brand of fascism.
Coup d’état or Insurrection – What’s Good for the Goose… 
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III
Coup d’état or Insurrection – What’s Good for the Goose… 
13 January 2021
Under what authority does the American government have the right to instigate and execute coup’s against democratically elected governments in othe
The “Non-Aligned” Nations Realign
Wilmer J. Leon III
The “Non-Aligned” Nations Realign
14 October 2020
The formerly colonized peoples of the planet say No to US bullying, sanctions and regime change.
The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange
John Pilger
The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange
09 September 2020
The collusion of powers wants to bury Julian alive in their war on the very principle of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and democracy.
No to the New Cold war with China
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
No to the New Cold war with China
29 July 2020
The African radical, anti-imperialist, internationalist movement, sees the Chinese state and the Chinese people much differently than the U.S.
Building Power to Win is the Revolutionary Approach to Bourgeois Electoralism”
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Building Power to Win is the Revolutionary Approach to Bourgeois Electoralism”
17 June 2020
We must make clear that it is imperialism that degrades and destroys the earth, makes water a commodity, food a luxury, education an impossibility,
Update on Charges Against the Venezuela Embassy Protectors
Ajamu Baraka and Bahman Azad
Update on Charges Against the Venezuela Embassy Protectors
17 June 2020
It was agreed that dropping the federal charges and seeking no jail time in return for pleading to a very low-level DC Code charge was an important
Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
20 May 2020
Trump and Biden promise their fans a roaring hate-fest this election cycle, as they vie for the honor of defending America’s right to full spectrum
Fighting the Invisible Enemy: Imperial Fascism 2020, Not Covid-19
Lauren Smith
Fighting the Invisible Enemy: Imperial Fascism 2020, Not Covid-19
06 May 2020
What could possibly be a more effective way to seal borders, discourage protest, and position the United States into perfect alignment for WWIII?

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 25, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 25, 2021
    26 Jan 2021
    Biden Will Resume “Humanitarian” Wars
  •  “Expect Push for Censorship Under Biden
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    “Expect Push for Censorship Under Biden
    26 Jan 2021
    Under the new administration, the State will attempt to “constrict political analysis and alternative information, to impose on us an ideological conformity,” said Ajamu Baraka, na
  • Haitians Tell President “Get Out by February 7”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Haitians Tell President “Get Out by February 7”
    26 Jan 2021
    Protesters gather regularly in cities around the country to demand that Haitian President Jovenel Moise step down by February 7.
  •  Biden Will Resume “Humanitarian” Wars
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Biden Will Resume “Humanitarian” Wars
    26 Jan 2021
    The Biden Administration will “shift back to the ‘humanitarian’ interventionism model of US imperialism,” said Danny Haiphong, contributing editor of Black Agenda Report and co-hos
  • Trump as Othello in a Corporate Theater
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Trump as Othello in a Corporate Theater
    21 Jan 2021
    Trump the straw man has finally been knocked down, giving the Democrats a victory that costs their corporate masters nothing.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us