Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

What The Left Left At O’Hare
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jun 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

To fly the friendly skies of the National Security State, one must first be prepared to jettison all leftist baggage.

 

What The Left Left At O’Hare

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I recall, it was like TSA had groped,

Probed and lightened their load:

“You can’t carry independent politics aboard”

“Militant mass-action is forbidden aboard the aircraft”

“Proletarian Internationalism must be dumped out here”

“Revolutionary attitude toward the state is absolutely forbidden beyond the gate!”

“You are allowed to bring aboard:

2oz see-through plastic bottles of social-chauvinism

2 oz plastic bottles of reformism

2 oz plastic bottles of tokenism

Unlimited humanitarian interventions in see through plastic is allowed”

 

Happy campers boarding in ’08,

Gate 1%, O’Hare, via Ronald

Reagan, “the left” powered

Down principles, turned off

Theoretical devices, kept its

Seatbelts buckled low and tight—

Paid high prices for complimentary

Kool Aid, mini-bottles of beer and

Headphones for feature films like

0 Dark 30 looped eight years on

Their non-stop flight—

Making their descent

Three years left in the

Holding pattern, acting as

Floatation devices under one

Seat aboard… Air Force One…

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 All Rights Reserved 

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • National Lawyers Guild
    The National Lawyers Guild Disputes Carter Center Statements on 2024 Venezuelan Presidential Elections
    14 Aug 2024
    The U.S. has crafted a narrative of a stolen election in Venezuela, supported by the Carter Center as a source. The National Lawyers Guild refutes this false claim.
  • Ramzy Baroud
    Why Israel’s Strategy of Fear, Humiliation is Destined to Fail
    14 Aug 2024
    Israel depends on acts of terror to maintain dominance over the Palestinian people. But that tactic will never succeed in breaking the will of the people - it has only grown stronger.
  • Akela Lacy
    After Michael Brown’s Killing, Wesley Bell Called for “Accountability on Both Sides” in Ferguson Racism
    14 Aug 2024
    The AIPAC-backed challenger to Rep. Cori Bush also said the decision not to release Darren Wilson’s side of the story was “tragic.”
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio August 9, 2024
    09 Aug 2024
    In this week’s segment, we examine why there are violent racist and Islamophobic riots in Britain. But first, we talk about the upcoming trial of the Uhuru Three, which is yet another state attack on…
  • Uhuru rally
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Solidarity With the Uhuru Three
    09 Aug 2024
    Omali Yeshitela joins us to discuss the looming federal trial of the Uhuru Three on charges of being foreign agents. We also talk about this year’s presidential election and the defeat of…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us