Anti-War Conference Welcomes Black Alliance for Peace

The United National Anti-War Coalition’s recent conference in Richmond, Virginia, featured the most Black participation and speakers in UNAC’s history. The theme of the conference was “Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad.” Black Agenda Radio presents excerpts of remarks by Charo Mina-Rojas, Ana Edwards, Maurice Carney, Glen Ford, Clarence Thomas, Ralph Poynter, Ajamu Baraka, Larry Hamm, Margaret Kimberley, and Jaribu Hill. UNAC welcomed the founding of a new affiliated organization, the Black Alliance for Peace.

Philly School Holds 3-Day Focus on James Baldwin

The Saturday Free School, a center of community organizing and transformative political thought and study, will celebrate the life of James Baldwin on July 7, 8 and 9, at Philadelphia’s historic Church of the Advocate. The legendary author, essayist and playwright, who died in 1987, “is one of the most important thinkers of our time,” said student and activist Elias Gonzales. His colleague, Kayla Watkins, explained: “We’re connecting Baldwin to Coltrane, we’re connecting Baldwin to Dubois.” Although Black historical movements are often viewed as separate, “in reality, different questions are posed in order to find the same solutions.”

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

Part Two: Speakers at the UNAC Conference in Richmond, Virginia

Time for a Constitutional Right To Vote

“We need visionary demands,” said Bruce Dixon, speaking at the Black Agenda Report panel at the annual Left Forum conference in New York City. A constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote would “invalidate” all the restrictions that disenfranchise so many in the United States. “If it’s not in the Constitution, any sheriff, any mayor, any governor or state legislature, any county official, can make a rule that interferes with your right to vote,” said Dixon. Democrats had “the moral high ground” to pass such an amendment in the 70s and 80s, but instead decided to rely on the U.S. Supreme Court to safeguard voting rights.

Democrats Spread Confusion in Black America

“We need revolutionary change in this country,” said Ajamu Baraka, the veteran human rights activist who ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket and is currently organizing the Black Alliance for Peace. The Democratic Party has been “the main impediment for us developing the kind of radical, oppositional politics and consciousness that we have to build,” said Baraka, an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. “Most of our community understand where the Republicans are coming from, but it has been the Democratic Party that has been the source of ideological confusion” in Black America.

The Rulers are in Crisis

The rulers of the U.S. face a “crisis of legitimacy,” said Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar and frequent contributor to Black Agenda Report. “All of the institutions of governing and ruling the people are being rejected by the people,” said Monteiro. This crisis exists in “all the major centers of global capitalism,” and demands that the left make “strategic decisions about how we move forward.”

Don’t Get Paranoid About Infiltrators

At a Left Forum panel on “Infiltration and Cooptation of the Left,” veteran activist Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance, said a “security culture” to identity agents of the state is “useful” to movement organizations. But, “we don’t want to create paranoia.” Zeese advocates a “nothing to hide” approach, based on the fact that “what we are doing is right, we’re on the right side of the issue.” If an organization does become hopeless infiltrated, however, “it’s OK to just leave and start” another one.

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.

“We need revolutionary change in this country,” said Ajamu Baraka, the veteran human rights activist who ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket and is currently organizing the Black Alliance for Peace. The Democratic Party has been “the main impediment for us developing the kind of radical, oppositional politics and consciousness that we have to build,” said Baraka, an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. “Most of our community understand where the Republicans are coming from, but it has been the Democratic Party that has been the source of ideological confusion” in Black America.

At a Left Forum panel on “Infiltration and Cooptation of the Left,” veteran activist Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance, said a “security culture” to identity agents of the state is “useful” to movement organizations. But, “we don’t want to create paranoia.” Zeese advocates a “nothing to hide” approach, based on the fact that “what we are doing is right, we’re on the right side of the issue.” If an organization does become hopeless infiltrated, however, “it’s OK to just leave and start” another one.

A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

The good news about last weekend’s Peoples Summit, the annual gathering of Berniecrats in Chicago, was that 4,000 Democratic party activists were in one place howling for Medicare For All and not leaving anybody behind. The bad news was that not a word was said of the 16 year war in Afghanistan, the thousand US military and drone bases around the planet, and the crushing burden global empire lays upon ordinary citizens.