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
Muriel Bowser is proving that Black faces in high places donât break systems, they grease them. While slashing wages for tipped workers and handing billionaires stadium deals, D.C.âs mayor is theâŚ
The Democratic Party would rather silence critics like Hogg than fix its own rot. Their reliance on Black Misleaders to do the dirty work exposes once again that the Democrats care more about powerâŚ
Malcolm X didnât just fight for Black liberationâhe waged war on empire itself. As U.S. militarism tightens its grip on Africa and beyond, his revolutionary internationalism burns brighter than everâŚ
Malcolm X understood that âoppressed peoples must commit themselves to radical political struggle in order to advance a dignified approach to human rights.â Whatâs needed is a bottom-up mass movementâŚ
"A few lines for the Poet Ojenke..." is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
