The news of Britney Griner’s release in exchange for Russian Viktor Bout was met with some very interesting and troubling conversation at least in the social media world yesterday. For some reason people took great objection to the trade, bemoaning the fact that Griner – a star of the WNBA – was exchanged for a “convicted arms dealer” Viktor Bout, and such a trade was a bad one. I had several people comment that because Bout is such a bad guy because he is a “convicted arms dealer,” they had nothing to celebrate since he was released. Oh, celebrating Britney . . .
Economic Sanctions
The Venceremos Brigade & the Necessity of Solidarity with Cuba
The Venceremos Brigade (VB) is the youngest and oldest Cuba solidarity delegation in the US. By that I mean the VB, whose name means the “We Shall Overcome” Brigade, is the longest running US-Cuba solidarity delegation in existence with a base of brigadistas who are predominantly African, Indigenous, Chicanx, poor, working class, queer, and trans young people. The Venceremos Brigade was formed in 1969 by a group of US-based students and activists who wanted to show their solidarity with the Cuban revolution while also challenging imperialist US policy towards Cuba, including the genocidal economic blockade and the US government’s ban . . .
Cuba Burns and the US Stokes the Flames
The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party and the All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union would like to express our total solidarity with the Cuban people and their revolution as they battle a major ongoing disaster in the province of Matanzas that has been greatly exacerbated by the genocidal US economic blockade. On Friday August 5th, 2022 lightning struck a major oil storage facility in Matanzas, a province in the western part of Cuba. The lightning ignited a fire at the facility that killed several people, wounded over a hundred more, and sent a large cloud of smoke containing hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere, . . .
head bone (snuffuhnassi)
head bone (snuffuhnassi) a poem on how imperialism is connected to war is connected environmental destruction by Devyn Springer. . . .
African Liberation Day 2022: Smash Neo-Colonialism!
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 . . .
Between A Rock & A Hard Place: Reflections on Cuba
My body has been back in the United States of Amerikkka for three days, but it’s a shell housing a consciousness forever stuck there and then with them. Perhaps it’s a “blackened” consciousness, forever outside of time and place, which would explain why it feels like I’m out of time; matters are urgent. After being in Cuba, time, itself, passes differently—somehow slower yet faster, a cautious drag and then a rushed pull like a tug of war. Time now skips past me with its tongue stuck out and hands wagging at its ears like a teasing bully. I trace its . . .
Biden Means What He Says
Joe Biden may appear to be a confused old man when he blurts out whatever comes to mind. But his outbursts shouldn’t be ignored. They always reveal his plans. “I mean what I say when I say it!” Those words were spoken by president elect Joe Biden in December 2020 during a meeting with a group described as “civil rights leaders.” Video of the meeting was leaked and Biden’s insulting and dismissive attitude towards Black people was clear even to those who ignored this tendency he has shown throughout his 50 years of public life. Biden did us a favor . . .
Dis Naija na banana republic
“Dis Naija na banana republic”, is what the cab driver said to me during our trip. While the banana industry may not be the main benefactor of widespread and deepening corruption in Nigeria (it’s the oil), there is a general lack of class analysis and revolutionary consciousness owing mostly to decades-long imperialist propaganda and baked-in capitalist ideals across much of Nigerian society. The driver, a worker like myself, can point out these stark problems through generalizations e.g., ‘dis politicians dey benefit from how tings don spoil’, or can bring up specifics related to long fuel queues or poor power supply. . . .