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


  • Tutwiler Prison for Women
    Center for Constitutional Rights
    Imprisoned Workers Bring State Lawsuit to Abolish Involuntary Servitude in Alabama’s Prisons
    08 May 2024
    On International Workers’ Day, the suit challenges the constitutionality of government actions to punish resistance to forced labor among the majority-Black prison population.
  • Message of solidarity on a tent in Gaza
    Women United Against Genocide
    In Solidarity with the Student Protests Against Genocide
    08 May 2024
    Women United Against Genocide issued this statement expressing solidarity with the campus protests calling for divestment from Israel and encouraging communities to provide material support.
  • Rebecca Weiner
    Wyatt Reed , Max Blumenthal
    Columbia Crackdown Led by University Prof. Doubling as NYPD Spook
    08 May 2024
    Rebecca Weiner is a Columbia U. professor who also serves as intelligence director of the NYPD. Mayor Eric Adams credits her with spying on anti-genocide student protesters and directing the…
  • Anti-war march in New York City
    Sara Flounders
    Three U.S. wars Threaten World War Three: $95 Billion Targets Palestine, Iran, Russia and China
    08 May 2024
    The recent aid package passed by the U.S. Congress reveals its true priorities - a multifront war that threatens the stability of the world.
  • Antony Blinken
    Jerry Grey
    The State Department Report on Human Rights
    08 May 2024
    Blinken knew exactly what he was doing. The release of the State Department’s “2023 Country Report” on the eve of his arrival in China was no coincidence.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us