The Montgomery County Senate Delegation in Maryland recently published a letter, not condemning the ongoing genocide and occupation in Palestine by the Israeli state, but rather an immigrant justice organization, CASA, that spoke out in support of Palestinians and their struggle for liberation. CASA is a national organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for working-class Black, Latine, Indigenous, and immigrant communities with its power-building model focusing on human services, community organizing, and advocacy. Recently, CASA has been in the news for “a rent stabilization bill that limits dramatic rent hikes and protects approximately 40%of the county’s population, the . . .
Opinion Pieces
The Black Misleaders Promote Zionism
In 2021 this columnist wrote, “The Palestine Litmus Test.” At that time Israel, a bastion of zionism, was carrying out one of its periodic attacks against Gaza, deliberately targeting civilians, and in doing so practicing war crimes. Now the zionist state is intent on completely destroying Gaza, killing as many people as possible and driving out the survivors so that the region can be open for settlement and for oil and gas extraction. The horrific scenes of carnage have evoked revulsion for millions of people in the United States and around the world. Huge protests have taken place nationally and . . .
Zionism, Settler-colonialism and the Myth of Democracy
Zionism is settler-colonialism and settler-colonialism is an act of genocide. This current wave of massacres of Palestinians in Gaza is part of a long process of ethnic cleansing that began with murderous attacks on Palestinian villages prior to and in 1948, then proceeded to the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians in the Nakba. The ethnic cleansing is all these acts of settler-colonial dispossession and deprivation including military assaults, destruction of homes, crops and cultural sites, arrests, rape and torture, blockades and denial of water and food as well as killing of women and children. In the age of capitalist . . .
Cop City: A New Hub of White Minority Rule
The proposed Atlanta Cop City uber police militarization training base and headquarters is a reincarnation of antebellum South Carolina’s Citadel, 1842. The Citadel traces its origins to an arsenal constructed by the state of South Carolina to defend white Charlestonians against possible slave uprisings following Denmark Vesey’s thwarted rebellion of 1822 which was preceded by the Stono Rebellion and Haitian Revolution. Originally the Citadel consisted of the Citadel Academy in Charleston and the Arsenal Academy in Columbia. The Arsenal was burned by General Sherman’s forces during the U.S. Civil War and never reopened. But the Citadel Academy, occupied by Union . . .
Voting and the Illusion of Democracy
Democracy is not possible under capitalism. The very nature of the beast is that capital, profit, is concentrated in the hands of an engorged minority who use it to further enrich themselves at the expense of the vast majority of the world’s people, and to the detriment of planet Earth herself. Poor and working class people cannot participate in this wealth-driven process because we have been locked out of the all-important ability to acquire sufficient wealth to determine our own destiny. Still, under capitalism, a system that can more accurately be called “profitism”, we have been indoctrinated to believe with . . .
Pan-Africanism and Digital Technology
Digital technology in its current form is here to stay – or at least until we break the supply chains draining the Congo and her kind – and we know how much of a role it plays in communication. For better and worse, the devices and networks that enable this technology to function have become quite important in the functioning of urban society, and not necessarily the rural communities. It is important to make this distinction because if or when the servers that run the internet that we are so addicted to crashes, it is the people in ‘modern’ society . . .
Plantationization
I live on a plantation. One of the largest plantations still in operation. I never realized that I was on a plantation until about a decade or so ago. Up until then, I thought I lived a normal existence. It was a nice working class and lower-middle class community. There were also families on public assistance. It wasn’t perfect; it had its share of thugs, hoodlums, and players. The plantation community maintained a balance between all facets of life. This gave us a false sense of respectfulness, security and stability. My early years were spent on the plantation until my mother . . .
TikTok & Neo-Colonialism: The Race to Serve the Enemies of Humanity
Social media in general and Tiktok in particular have exploded across the entire planet. Everything from losing weight to romantic tips to movie and show clips are featured in short, quick video snippets for millions of people to experience in a matter of moments. Situated evenly among the catalog of topics are wide ranging and hard-hitting videos that attempt to discredit any efforts to promote the actual histories of colonialism, slavery, and current day oppression of marginalized people everywhere. These specific types of videos range in topic from denying the existence of systemic white supremacy to support for zionist israel . . .