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

A Word on the Meaning of Political Self-Empowerment for Our Movement
Frank Chapman
13 Dec 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Image of Frank Chapman in a checkered shirt with his fist in the air
Frank Chapman

Frank Chapman wrote this statement to call for unity in struggle by Black, Latino and working-class communities.

Originally Published in Fight Back News

Editor’s note: Frank Chapman wrote this statement to call for unity in struggle by Black, Latino and working-class communities.

Chicago saw great victories earlier in 2023 through a united front under a Black and Latino leadership, with the first-in-the-country elections for democratic civilian oversight of the police, and the election as mayor of a trade unionist, Brandon Johnson. Johnson defeated a racist who was backed by the Fraternal Order of the Police, Paul Vallas. Vallas is known in Chicago history for introducing neo-liberal policies, which included major attacks on funding for public schools. 90% of Chicago Public School students are Black and Latino.

The unity that helped win these advances has been under attack. Political turmoil has emerged after the arrival in Chicago of 25,000 asylum seekers.

Alderperson Jeanette Taylor told a gathering of activists in her 20th Ward in October, “The Republicans are trying to divide us by sending thousands of immigrants here.” She explained, “We have more in common with each other than we do with those racists.”

Yes, we did it! Here in Chicago, we broke the chain of neo-liberalism that has held us in economic bondage for over four decades, from Reaganomics (trickle-down lies of the Eighties) to the present crisis in housing, the depression of real wages, and the rising tide of unpayable debt.

Our victory with the election of Mayor Brandon Johnson on April 4th created a crack in the system that has the potential of unleashing the most powerful democratic upsurge of the masses since the Sixties. It is because of this reality that “the powers that be” have gotten super busy in creating cracks in the coalition that got Mayor Johnson elected in the first place.

Seven months after the inauguration and we are still struggling to consolidate our victory in order for Mayor Johnson to make real the reforms he promised. At a time when we should be closing ranks to become a formidable force for progress, there are tendencies to shatter our unity, tendencies dividing our ranks and creating circular firing squads in the movement. The phase we are in now is that we must unite and fight our common enemy or lose all that we have gained up ‘til now.

Our focus in this phase should be to regroup and reeducate our forces to the reality that we must unite and advance or we will be defeated. The main question then is how we bring together the people – the working class and oppressed Black and Brown people – to the playing field with the mayor so we can move forward together to consolidate our gains and start building a real people’s movement for jobs, housing and a better life for all Chicagoans. Building a people’s movement for justice that will free the wrongfully convicted and bring the police (who are the cutting edge of mass incarceration) under community control in terms of regulating police misconduct by the Police Board, COPA and the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. We must build a united peoples movement for immigrants and asylum seekers bringing families out of the shadows of a police state.

Like Fred Hampton said, politics is war without bloodshed. What we are engaged in now is war and in war we must remain true to our principles and be willing to win by any means necessary.

Frank Chapman is Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Fight Back News exists to build the people's struggle. It provides coverage and analysis of some of the key battles facing working and low-income people.

African America
Latinos
Black Brown unity
Immigrant Rights
Justice
NAARPR
Working Class

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Mark P. Fancher
The Foolish, Futile Struggle to be Both African and American Will be Televised
29 July 2026
Corporate media require American identity politics which contradict African authenticity.
Dr. Gerald Horne
Juneteenth Book Signing & Lecture with Prof. Gerald Horne
17 June 2026
Join us in person for Juneteenth vibes with Prof. Gerald Horne’s book signing & lecture!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Gambling Man
10 June 2026
Even though the table’s tilted; the dice are loaded;and the cards are marked; even though light-fingered
Wolfgang Bronner
Entertainment as Militarization: The Spectacle of the Super Bowl & WrestleMania in Nashville
06 May 2026
The spectacle of major sporting events does not simply distract from a city's crackdown on the working class.
Stephen Millies
The War Against Black Workers
04 March 2026
Black workers built a strong U.S. labor movement.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Resurrection City: The Dream…The Accomplishments, Jesse Jackson, 1968
18 February 2026
“The Poor People’s Campaign is the greatest single challenge ever unleashed upon our colonial system.”
Imani Nile
The Scramble for Mount Vernon? How Capitalists and their Black Middlemen are Colonizing the Jewel of Westchester County, New York
23 July 2025
A majority Black city in Westchester County, a northern suburb of New York City, suffers from years of Black political misleadership and is now
Alina Selyukh
Skulls Once Subject to Racist Study in Germany are Laid to Rest in New Orleans
04 June 2025
Looted African skulls come home after a century in German labs, exposing colonialism's history of dehumanizing "race science." 
Black Alliance For Peace
From George Floyd Back to the Structural Violence of Capitalism
28 May 2025
With the ritualistic murder of George Floyd by the occupation forces referred to as the police that roam the streets and barrios of the Black a
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Ryan Coogler, Shedeur Sanders, Karmelo Anthony, and Rodney Hinton, Jr
07 May 2025
Black people who are among the rich and famous garner praise and love, and so do those who are in distr

More Stories


  • Kenya Committing Atrocities in Somalia with US Backing
    Jamal Abdulahi
    Kenya Committing Atrocities in Somalia with US Backing
    12 Jul 2023
    The US "war on terror" brought nothing but terror to the Horn of Africa. Kenya is a US client state which has spent years destabilizing Somalia under the guise of fighting terrorism.
  • Mourning Mutulu Shakur and the Black Radical Tradition that Modernized America
    Jon Jeter
    Mourning Mutulu Shakur and the Black Radical Tradition that Modernized America
    12 Jul 2023
    The late Mutulu Shakur and other Black radicals were responsible for improving the lives of millions of people in the U.S. The counter revolution ended that period of progress, but the political…
  • Mutulu Shakur
    Akinyele Umoja
    Mutulu Shakur
    12 Jul 2023
    Mutulu Shakur passed away just seven months after being paroled. Like other political prisoners he was released only when he was terminally ill. The US has more political prisoners and incarcerates…
  • Haiti – CARICOM caves in to US pressure
    A.T. Freeman
    Haiti – CARICOM caves in to US pressure
    12 Jul 2023
    The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has succumbed to US pressure and endorsed a new invasion of Haiti.
  • More Than Meets the Silk Press: Kamala Harris and U.S. Imperialism
    Salifu Mack
    More Than Meets the Silk Press: Kamala Harris and U.S. Imperialism
    12 Jul 2023
    Kamala Harris can be the object of derision for her word salads and oddly nervous laughter. But she plays an important role in promoting US imperialism and the cynical politics of representation.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us