Africa

Precious Minerals + Rogue President = Mass Death in Congo

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

Two million people have been displaced from their homes by violence in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 80 mass graves have recently been discovered. Not coincidentally, huge deposits of coltan and other precious minerals have been found in the region, said Kambale Musavuli, of Friends of Congo. The killings are widely blamed on soldiers of President Joseph Kabila, who refuses to step down despite having used up his two terms in office. “This is the same area where King Leopold II of Belgium caused the death of millions of Congolese, a hundred years ago,” said Musavuli.

South African Communist Party is “Pro-Capitalist and Anti-Socialist”

Submitted by Zwelinzima Vavi on

by Zwelinzima Vavi

The newly-formed South African Federation of Trade Unions rejected an invitation to attend a congress of the South African Communist Party (SACP), which is a stalwart ally of the ruling African National Congress and, until recently, President Jacob Zuma. Trade union leader Zwelinzima Vavi accused the SACP of being as guilty as Zuma of “implementing a neoliberal program that is anti-poor, anti-working class, pro-capitalist and anti-socialist.”

Israel and Rwanda, Partners in Persecution

Submitted by Ann Garrison on

by BAR contributor Ann Garrison

The world’s greatest human rights abusers have seats on the UN Human Rights Council, including Rwanda which, along with Israel, claims “genocide” privileges to trash other people’s rights. Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame is soliciting help from Israel to fight Islamic jihadists – in a nation that is 95 percent Christian.

Black Agenda Radio for Week of July 10, 2017

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

U.S. War Crimes Against “Muslims of Color”

The illegal U.S. presence in Syria is a “Nuremburg crime against peace,” said Dr. Francis Boyle, the renowned professor of international law at the University of Illinois, at Champaign. “It was Obama that started” the aggression against Syria,” said Boyle. “Trump’s just exacerbating it. This is really a clash of civilizations between diehard white Judea-Christian neo-con Zionists against Muslims of color, to destroy them and steal their oil and gas.”

Black Is Back Coalition to Gather in Chicago

“We cannot support any imperialist agenda that’s coming from America,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. The coalition is gearing up for a national conference in Chicago, August 12 and 13, under the theme: “The Ballot and the Bullet: War and Peace in the Era of Donald Trump.” “Donald Trump is symptomatic of a severe crisis of the whole social system of capitalism, that’s born of slavery and colonialism and world domination,” said Yeshitela.

Mumia Remembers Franz Fanon

In an essay for Prison Radio, Mumia Abu Jamal, who was a radio journalist before he was imprisoned in the death of a Philadelphia policeman, noted that Wretch of the Earth author Franz Fanon was also a “revolutionary journalist.” Fanon’s reporting for the Algerian revolutionary press from 1957 to 1960, and his 1964 collection Towards the African Revolution “condemns Arab and African collaborators and dissects how French forces used torture to intimidate the Algerian resistance,” said the nation’s best known political prisoner.

A Challenge to Rwandan Dictatorship

Diane Rwigara, the 35 year-old daughter of a businessman believed to have been assassinated by Paul Kagame’s Rwandan regime, has delivered a “shock to the system,” according to David Himbara, himself an exile from Kagame’s terror. Speaking to Toronto radio host Phil Taylor, Himbara said Ms. Rwigara’s campaign for the presidency is already a kind of people’s victory. “Regardless of the outcome of the election, Diane Rwigara has already won,” said HImbara. “She has given people courage.”

New York’s Pacifica Station Resists Empire (State Building)

An impressive roster of elected officials is urging the owners of the Empire State Building to back off their threat to evict Pacifica radio station WBAI-FM from the tower it has broadcast from since 1965. The building’s owners claim WBAI owes them over $2 million in back rent. Station interim director Bill Crosier says the non-profit corporation, which also owns stations in Texas and California, has been paying $12,000 a month for the last three years, which they believe is a fair market rate. Crosier appreciates the letters of support from elected officials. “We’ve been standing up for the rights of people who don’t have political influence for a long time.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

Why Africans Have No Land in South Africa

Submitted by Motsoko Pheko on

by Motsoko Pheko

If South Africa is an independent, decolonized, democratic country under the control of its Black majority, then why is 93% of the land still owned by whites? The author maintains that the real anti-colonial struggle was betrayed, and “became a civil rights movement.” The descendants of white settlers were allowed to keep their stolen spoils. “Apartheid” was declared the problem – “a colonial a ploy to hide colonial theft of the African country.”

Herstory: The Soweto Uprising and the Erasure of Black Women

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Thando Sipuye

There are many distortions in the dominant narratives around the 1976 students’ uprising. One of the most critical of these is the persistent, subtle projection of that uprising as the exclusive initiative of young men, to the complete exclusion and erasure of the invaluable contributions and sacrifices of young women. This constitutes epistemic violence against Black women.

Ethiopia: Collective Punishment by Internet Clampdown

Submitted by Alemayehu G. Mariam on

by Alemayehu G. Mariam

Shutting down and criminalizing use of the internet has become a weapon in the government’s cyber warfare strategy against the Ethiopian people, particularly the youth. The internet is making it exceedingly difficult for dictatorships to cling to power and rule tyrannically. It has created a walless, borderless, wireless, seamless, restless and fearless world.

“Zuma Must Fall” and the Left: Lessons from Zimbabwe

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Munvaradzi Gwisai

Faced with a growing crisis, South African President Zuma has raised the prospect of a radical reorientation of the ANC and the possibility of radical economic transformation. Alarmed, another faction of the South Africa’s capitalist class has thrown its support behind the “Zuma Must Fall” movement. The author says there are lessons for South Africa from the movement that rose up against Mugabe in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s.

The Failure of the Socialist Movement in Nigeria

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Osaze Lanre Nosaze

Africa’s most populous nation has lots of parties that call themselves “socialist” or “communist,” but “all of them fail by the crucial criterion of possessing sufficient interventional capacity for sustained and broad-based influence over the agenda, course, pace, and outcomes of the social conflict between the oppressed and the oppressors.”

Fortress Europe: The Rise of Fascism and Racism in the Netherlands

Submitted by Thomas C. Mountain on

by Thomas C. Mountain

Police in a small Dutch town broke up a long-scheduled and totally peaceful gathering of Eritreans from all over Europe, as the event was besieged by Ethiopians pretending to be Eritreans. Meanwhile, “a well known Dutch ‘human rights activist’” was heard on her cell phone “ranting and raving against Eritrea and provoking the ‘protesters’ to carry out their attacks.”

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