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


  • Dr. Gerald Horne Discusses Events in Africa
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    Dr. Gerald Horne Discusses Events in Africa
    13 Sep 2023
    Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne about events in Africa including the coup in Niger, U.S. interference in the Sahel region and ECOWAS, African nations assisting U.S.…
  • Cops, Colleges, and Counterinsurgency: An Interview with Dylan Rodriguez
    Dylan Rodríguez , Roberto Sirvent
    Cops, Colleges, and Counterinsurgency: An Interview with Dylan Rodriguez
    13 Sep 2023
    An interview with Dylan Rodriguez.
  • A Justice System That Is Not Fair and Just For Everyone Is Not Fair and Just For Anyone
    Jacqueline Luqman
    A Justice System That Is Not Fair and Just For Everyone Is Not Fair and Just For Anyone
    13 Sep 2023
    A Black Proud Boy gets the Black people treatment in court, Stop Cop City activists are punished for supporting the Atlanta Black community, and prosecutors indict on specious and politically…
  • The Pyramid Scheme That is Racial Capitalism
    Jon Jeter
    The Pyramid Scheme That is Racial Capitalism
    13 Sep 2023
    Black people are both the focus of racist hate and of capitalist predation.
  • Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike amid Economic Crisis
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike Amid Economic Crisis
    13 Sep 2023
    Nigerian workers went on a two-day strike as the U.S. pressured their government to interfere in neighboring Niger. The people are fighting back against neo-colonial policies that create…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us