First of all I hate that nationalistic jingoism “homeland,” but that’s what y’all’s president said yesterday in his speech about the inevitable unfolding chaos in Afghanistan, and the man was belligerent in saying the quiet part about US imperialism in Afghanistan out loud. He might as well have stood at the podium and said, “We went into Afghanistan for payback against the terrorists we helped create when we used the Afghan people to fight the Soviet Union in the 80s, and that’s all we cared about. We did that and to hell with them people and their country!” . . .
Opinion Pieces
Finding Black Liberation in the Politics of Being Left Alone
Days after a 21-year old white gunman walked into two Atlanta massage parlors and fatally shot eight people –six of them Asian –the writer Zaid Jilani appeared on the internet news program, Rising to aver: “There is not a white supremacist wave of terrorism or hate crimes or anything like that.” That is, in fact, exactly what is happening according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who told Congress in February that domestic terrorism investigations have doubled over the past four years to nearly 2,000, while the number of arrests of white supremacists over that same span has nearly tripled. Those . . .
“Progressive Politicians” Shouldn’t Shut Down Dissent Like The Establishment Does
Former Congresswoman Nina Turner, left of practically every Democrat even if she isn’t as left as we are, lost to neoliberal Democrat-backed Shontal Brown in the Ohio special election for Congress last night. Brown was the choice for Hillary Clinton, James Clyburn, and the rest of the liberal elite, but she was notably also backed by the reactionary pro-Zionist lobby group Democratic Majority for Israel. DMFI obviously opposes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement against Israel as anti-Semitic, and they spent $738,000 opposing Nina Turner and $203,000 supporting Shontel Brown, with a large portion of the spending ($351,000) going towards . . .
Black August, Letter Writing and the ‘Harm Reduction’ Administration
There are four major components in the yearly commemorations of Black August: study, fast, train, and fight. People are encouraged to study the works and words of former and current political and politicized prisoners. People are encouraged to fast from sunrise to sunset. People are encouraged to train and become more physically active. People are encouraged to fight against the system. However, one of the lesser centered but equally important aspects of Black August is letter writing. Nearly a half-century ago, Gresham Sykes wrote in The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison that, “life in the . . .
‘We are in Nobody’s Backyard’: Rejecting Geopolitical and Historical Fatalism
Except for the hum of US helicopters flying overhead, there was a deafening silence throughout the Caribbean region, during the recent Operation Tradewinds, Progressive and Pan-African forces did not utter a word, as soldiers from Guyana, Brazil, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago participated in this region-wide military exercise with army personnel from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and the Netherlands. We were told that Operation Tradewinds was “a US Southern Command sponsored combined joint exercise conducted with partner nations to enhance the collective ability of defense forces and constabularies . . .
Miami, Florida Does Not Speak for Cuba
n the city of Miami, the right wing Cuban American political establishment has used protests on the island to call for a range of intervention, with the mayor Francis Suarez urging U.S. airstrikes or direct military invasion, ignoring feelings of Cubans on the ground. . . .
Maintenance of Denial
We are witnessing today the final days of a militaristic empire, the rapid descent of an obsolete failed United States. There is nothing unique about America. Empires rise and empires fall throughout time memorial. It is empirically calculated that the average civilization only lasts 340 years. Like Captain Ahab’s pathological obsession with catching the great white whale, Moby Dick which led to his and his crew’s destruction, Americans’ obsession with consumption, celebrity, money, and greed are mechanisms that maintain our denial of a nation in peril. The denial of our descent is partially maintained because every other week our white . . .
The Challenges for Independent Revolutionary African Media
Very recently, the Hood Communist Collective (an independent revolutionary African blog source) came up against the demand for $600.00 USD to pay for our domain name. In our bi-weekly team meeting, we discussed chipping in to raise the money before the suggestion came up about fundraising within our communities to raise that money. We decided to embark upon that suggestion and literally within an hour of launching an internet crowdsource requesting donations, we had raised the entire amount needed. As for my book, A Guide for Organizing Defense against White Supremacist, Patriarchal, and Fascist Violence, the book has sold in . . .