Democrats Don’t Even Pretend to Want Change
“Dumping the Democrats for good is the only way to resist Trump,” said Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley, addressing BAR’s panel at the Left Forum, in New York City. “What have they done since Election Day?” Kimberley asked. “They have refused to give even the appearance that they are willing to push for even meager reforms. We have to talk about replacing them and having a true workers party, a true peace party.”
Political Elite Use Russia-Baiting to “Medicate” U.S. “Crisis of Governance”
The U.S. is engulfed in a “crisis of governance” that has been “intentionally misunderstood” by the corporate media and the political elite, said Danny Haiphong, a contributing political analyst at BAR. Anti-Russian hysteria has been whipped up “to medicate political consciousness.” “They don’t want to discuss how Russia has absolutely nothing to do with the millions of incarcerated people in the U.S., or the fact that it is the U.S. monopoly capitalist economy, not the emerging capitalist economy of Russia, which has automated many of the jobs and siphoned much of the wealth that once belonged to a privileged sector of U.S. workers,” said Haiphong. “This system has run its course. War is all the system has left.”
The Ugly Americans
According to Dahoud Andre, the radio host and Haitian community activist who spoke at the BAR panel, Haitians wonder, “What’s the difference between Trump and the Democrats?” “From the perspective of our country, from the time we became independent we have been equally attacked by Democrats and Republicans. And, sometimes it is very difficult for us to understand the notion of ‘progressive Americans,’” said Andre. Solidarity is sorely needed. “It’s one struggle, whether its in Haiti, in Africa, in the Middle East, Asia, and also over here.”
A Real Left Would Demand Peace
“If you are resisting Russian collusion with Trump, then what you are resisting is a fantasy,” BAR executive editor Glen Ford told the opening plenary of the Left Forum. “And, if you are simply resisting Trump, the idiot in the White House, then you are simply a tool of a Democratic Party strategy.” Ford said the nation needs a rejuvenated anti-war movement, “or else we are defenseless against this kind of strategy on the part of the Democrats, who pretend that they are an alternative to the fascist-sounding and definitely virulently white nationalist forces in the Republican Party, but are themselves intent upon a war policy that can mean the extinction of the human race.”
Next week on Black Agenda Radio: Left Forum presentations by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon, BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka, the 2016 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, and Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro.
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.
Carbon and biodiversity offsets are the latest imperialist weapons used against African people and their nations. Self-determination is the key to ecological health for the continent.
Internationalism is the path toward Black liberation. Black people must resist the push to silo our movements and move in this spirit of Rosa Parks - with fearless integrity.
Aaron Bushnell's act of self-immolation is a symbol and a call for people around the world to break their silence and fight for a free Palestine.
In the time between the two imperialist wars, the spirit and politics of Pan-Africanism grew. African Americans continued to organize and built movements to resist rising fascism.
The West African trade bloc has lifted a majority of the sweeping sanctions it had imposed on Niger, including border closures and a freezing of state assets. The move followed soon after Niger, Mali…
