by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
This week the poet briefly contextualizes the candidates and campaigns of the capitalist parties running for the White House in 2016.
$campaigns & $elections
by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
âPromises, promises, promisesâ morphing into big liesâ
January snowing âappointmentsâ of Wall Street guys
Bloody war criminals wedded in one Plutocratic Party
Warring their way to banks, laughing loud and heartyâ
Playing a most reliable con game of bait and switch;
Sorting out which warlord faithfully serves the richâŚ
Their nonstop, smokescreen $elections and $campaigns
Red, white and blue Kool-Aidâfor bathing of brains
With blather, drowning out the resonant radical voices
With Thug-in-a-Rug-Golda-Plated Iron Lady âchoices:â
Mike and Ike, good cop, bad cop foils from the jumpâ
Bogeymen like Bush, McCain, Romney, and Trump!
Absent independent politicsâNovember sows danger:
Reaping crimson âhope and change,â like Drone RangerâŚ
Pentagon pimps propagandizing through the Apollo
Proving again, where cash flows, âleadersâ will followâ
But the 99% need not wait every four years to mobilize:
Strikes, boycotts, rallies, marches that buildâorganize,
Raise consciousness, raise money, canvass, phone bank
For salt of the earth, the masses, grassrootsâthe rank!
Raymond Nat Turner Š 2016 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is Artistic Director of the JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge, and a regular contributor to Dissident Voice, aaduna, and Struggle Magazine. Turner has opened for such people as James Baldwin, Peopleâs Advocate Cynthia McKinney, radical sportswriter Dave Zirin and CA Congresswoman Barbara Lee following her lone vote against attacking Afghanistan and a Steering Committee member of the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union
The Peopleâs Summit vs. G20 and the International Peopleâs Tribunal recently took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to counter the G20 Summit that occurred in the same city. Black Agenda ReportâŚ
The settler colony known as the United States inflicts violence upon Black people as a function of its existence. But the murder of a mother and her infant daughter by Missouri police officersâŚ
The domestic expression of imperialism has once again been made clear with the installation of a new cobalt refinery in an Oklahoma town. Through the extraction of raw materials from the global southâŚ
Nonprofit organizations of all orientations are under attack, with threats of withholding funding, for their association with Palestine solidarity activities. Climate justice organizations haveâŚ
Harry Haywoodâs work is a guiding light to help Black people analyze our position in the U.S. and rethink how we might engage in electoral politics. Are we building power toward revolution or are weâŚ
