Black people have had a long, brutal, and disgusting history in the US & Cuba because of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade which is connected to colonialism that then became imperialism in the 20th century. The Spanish were the ones to first establish a population of enslaved Africans to begin working on exports that would be used to enrich the colonizers in the 16th century. The genesis of enslaved Africans first coming into Cuba could be traced to 1511 when Diego Velasquez conquered the island of Cuba in 1511-12. One cannot talk about slavery in Cuba without mentioning the Spanish and . . .
Theory Corner
Black History Month: From Negro History Week to Pan-African Historical Context
Originally published on The Black Commentator in 2008 “Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” – Carter G. Woodson “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots” – Marcus Garvey The need to once and for all embrace a reasonable and comprehensive interpretation of African history that inspires and uplifts Black people is evident when examining how Black History Month is celebrated in US culture. Like most other historic reflections, Black History Month is . . .
White Squatters Rights in Crisis
The white-on-white crime events of January 6th, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol was an eye-soaring squint into the internal class contradictions of white supremacy. More specifically, it was a historical snapshot capturing a long-running legal dispute over preemption or what I refer to as white squatters rights: the unabashed freedom of white Europeans to illegitimately occupy stolen land and property. Contemporarily, squatting is when a person (think invader) moves into an uninhabited home (think land), refuses to leave, and also claims it as their own (sound familiar?). Originally, Senator Henry Clay designed The Pre-Emption Act of 1841 as a compromise . . .
Black Labor and Liberation in the Disposable Era
Since the rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, Black people throughout the United States have been grappling with a number of critical questions such as why are Black people being hunted and killed every 28 hours or more by various operatives of the law? Why don’t Black people seem to matter to this society? And what can and must we do to end these attacks and liberate ourselves? There are concrete answers to these questions. Answers that are firmly grounded in the capitalist dynamics that structure the brutal European settler-colonial project we live in and how Afrikan people have . . .
“The threat comes from the neoliberal Right”
Originally published on Kosmodromio who spoke with Ajamu Baraka, human rights defender whose experience spans thirty years of domestic and international education and activism, national coordinator of the Black Peace Alliance (BAP) and US vice-presidential nominee of the Green Party of the United States for the 2016 election. A few days after the elections how would you describe the political landscape in the US today? Cause here in Europe there is the feeling that America remains deeply polarized. What Donald Trump’s defeat and Joe Biden’s victory means for the American people? It remains to be seen in practice what truth . . .
Venezuela: A People’s Democratic Process
“A Member of the African Observer Delegation in Venezuela for the 6 December 2020 Elections” “Battle of Ideas” Around Voting and the Democratic Process. Voting is a tool of a democracy, an integral part of a democratic process. Governments and Political Parties express their character through how they use this tool. This tool can be used as a weapon for the people or against the people. Venezuela gets this. The Venezuelan government has chosen to render voting as an instrument of the masses, ensuring full, unfettered participation and a democratic outcome. The PSUV has proven that the political education and . . .
Will This Be the Radicalization of Black Lives Matter?
Ten Black Lives Matter chapters are demanding that those who have amassed millions of dollars in the movement’s name submit to both a financial and political accounting. On Monday a group of local Black Lives Matter chapters issued a statement to the public calling for more transparency and accountability from the Black Lives Matter Global Network (BLMGN), the umbrella structure for the Black lives matter structures. In what appears to be an ongoing internal discussion, the chapters claimed that BLMGN not only did not collaborate on political visioning and collective analysis with the chapters but shockingly, with the millions reported . . .
Africans Must Recognize the Difference Between Marxism and Scientific Socialism
Science is important. The masses of African people, as oppressed people, must base our struggle for liberation on scientific knowledge and action. Just because Europeans claim science as their invention does not mean that science belongs to them or that African people ought to reject scientific truth. Our people have been scientists for thousands of years. We knew the laws of science long before Europeans discovered them. The same must be said about scientific socialism. Amílcar Cabral theorized reafricanization and returning to the source. He also understood dialectical materialism and organized his people for revolution to transform their material conditions . . .