| Black Agenda Report

by BAR poet-in-residence Raymond Nat Turner
Poem For Zigi
05 Jul 2017
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner This week's offering from BAR's poet in residence was also published this week at Dissident Voice.
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Black America is “Pro-Peace,” but Its Politicians Work for the War Party
06 Jul 2017
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford The Black Alliance for Peace will have to work around or against the Black Misleadership Class. “For these infinitely self-centered creatures, even the Mother Continent is unworthy of basic human empathy, much less solidarity.” The Congressional Black Caucus won’t…
How Paul Robeson Found His Political Voice in the Welsh Valleys
11 Jul 2017
by Jeff Sparrow Paul Robeson, the great artist and activist, began his journey to becoming a global “people’s singer” through his contact with Welsh mining communities. “Throughout the 1930s, the analogy between African Americans and workers in Britain (and especially Wales) helped reorient Robeson…
Motsoko Pheko
Why Africans Have No Land in South Africa
11 Jul 2017
by Motsoko Pheko If South Africa is an independent, decolonized, democratic country under the control of its Black majority, then why is 93% of the land still owned by whites? The author maintains that the real anti-colonial struggle was betrayed, and “became a civil rights movement.” The…
It is Necessary to Unify the Brazilian Black Movement
11 Jul 2017
by Puneet Chadha and Jamile Araújo More than half of Brazil’s population is of African descent, yet concerted action among Afro-Brazilians has often been elusive. Black organizations from across the nation gathered in the city of Salvador to resist the “regressive measures” imposed by the “…
The Cops have been Indicted in the Laquan McDonald Case, But Who Will Protect the Community?
11 Jul 2017
by Jeffery Robinson After an obscenely long wait, three Chicago cops now face charges of lying to cover up an extrajudicial execution of a Black teenager by one of their own. However, this is no time to claim that “the system works.” The indictments hardly touches the culture “that emboldened them…
Norman Solomon
“Think Through the Implications of Our Actions”: an Open Letter to Rep. Barbara Lee
11 Jul 2017
by Norman Solomon Et tu, Barbara Lee? The only member of Congress to vote against the invasion of Afghanistan appears to have gone over to the dark side with a tweet expressing outrage at President Trump’s willingness to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The author urges Lee not “to participate…
Jahi Issa
Reparations is Dead: How to Resurrect It
12 Jul 2017
by Dr. Jahi Issa and Reggie Mabry The moral case for Black reparations has effectively been made, but the legal argument has met much frustration in the courts. The authors believe that the period after 1808, when U.S. participation in the international slave trade was outlawed, is key to clearing…
by BAR contributor Ann Garrison Ann Garrison
Israel and Rwanda, Partners in Persecution
12 Jul 2017
by BAR contributor Ann Garrison The world’s greatest human rights abusers have seats on the UN Human Rights Council, including Rwanda which, along with Israel, claims “genocide” privileges to trash other people’s rights. Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame is soliciting help from Israel to fight Islamic…
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong
July 4th and the Crisis of US Exceptionalism
12 Jul 2017
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong U.S. imperialism has finally found the enemies it has been searching for all these years. Most of the world’s people are already in some form of resistance to Washington’s bullying. Love of war is what makes the U.S. truly exceptional. Domestically, “only an…