The age of classical colonialism in Africa changed the course of history. Exploited trade agreements and pseudo alliances between African nobility and European merchants led to heightened warfare, looting, and genocide across the continent. No mineral or raw material was safe, from gold to palm oil to diamonds. The transatlantic slave trade emptied the continent of capable hands, bodies, and minds to the tune of 12 million Africans. The developing European capitalist class burned their way across Africa from all sides, exploiting every contradiction and weakness they could find. Then came the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, which was an exercise in . . .
Black Alliance For Peace
Ukraine, War Crimes and White Power
Neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush nor Barack Obama, Donald Trump or Joe Biden will be held to account for drone attacks on Somalia, or for continuing the destruction of the Somali state. In a just world the Obama administration’s destruction of Libya in 2011 and the ongoing humanitarian crisis would be prosecuted as a war crime. The Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest death rate of all, with some 6 million people killed when Uganda and Rwanda, U.S. proxies, invaded that country in 1996. NATO is far from the defensive alliance it claims to be. It is an aggressor and must be dismantled. . . .
Class Struggle and Freedom Beyond Colonial Borders
The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp relief how truly interconnected our world is, how superficial colonial borders are, and thus how the struggle for freedom must link localized organizing to broader global insurgencies. Of course, this is not new. Though our epoch offers unique challenges, problems, and articulations of the dialectic between repression and resistance, history doesn’t repeat itself—but it rhymes. . . .
HC RADIO: Marxism and the Black Caribbean
In this episode of Hood Communist Radio, Erica is going to sit down with our comrade Kim to discuss anti-communism and how it impacts the left in the US. You know, how, when everybody always does the whole, “listen to Black women” thing, they’re never talking about Black women who identify as Marxist-Leninist. . . .
The Most Revolutionary Thing We Can Do This Year
Well, some highlights from my observations from this past year. Some things that I still enjoy looking back on: That magic moment in March, when a New York Times article exposed that Democrats were hesitantly admitting that they did in fact drop the ball during Obama’s administration in regard to his rescue package, that really wasn’t. Democrats were angry at the consistently cheap Republicans who didn’t want to give any assistance to struggling Americans during the Coronavirus pandemic, but they also admitted that the rescue package from Obama’s first term was woefully lacking, too cautious and too deferential to those . . .
Imperialism: Unpacking The Primary Contradiction
It must be continuously reiterated that domestic and global imperialism are counterparts. It is what connects Africans in the U.S. directly to struggles against imperialism worldwide. . . .
People(s)-Centered Human Rights & Malcolm X
Originally published on Pambazuka. There was something quite different with Malcolm’s approach to human rights that distinguished him from mainstream civil rights activists. By grounding himself in the radical human rights approach, Malcolm articulated a position on human rights struggle that did not contain itself to just advocacy. He understood that appealing to the same powers that were responsible for the structures of oppression was a dead end. Fifty-six years ago on February 21st, the world lost the great anti-colonial fighter, Malcolm X. Around the world, millions pause on this anniversary and take note of the life and contribution of . . .
All States Aren’t Bad
Despite what is being said in online fodder, a state is not inherently bad. A state is simply the governing institution of a society. This governance takes on the form of a formal government, schools, universities, and law enforcement agencies. A state is not neutral as these institutions are the vehicle through which one class maintains dominance over other classes. States each have their own specific class characters. If a nation is building socialism, the ruling class is not the small sect of corporations, but the people. In a socialist state, the masses would maintain dominance (ie. dictatorship of the proletariat). However, paternalism embedded in the US left completely ignores and rejects this. . . .