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

A Word on the Meaning of Political Self-Empowerment for Our Movement
Frank Chapman
13 Dec 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Image of Frank Chapman in a checkered shirt with his fist in the air
Frank Chapman

Frank Chapman wrote this statement to call for unity in struggle by Black, Latino and working-class communities.

Originally Published in Fight Back News

Editor’s note: Frank Chapman wrote this statement to call for unity in struggle by Black, Latino and working-class communities.

Chicago saw great victories earlier in 2023 through a united front under a Black and Latino leadership, with the first-in-the-country elections for democratic civilian oversight of the police, and the election as mayor of a trade unionist, Brandon Johnson. Johnson defeated a racist who was backed by the Fraternal Order of the Police, Paul Vallas. Vallas is known in Chicago history for introducing neo-liberal policies, which included major attacks on funding for public schools. 90% of Chicago Public School students are Black and Latino.

The unity that helped win these advances has been under attack. Political turmoil has emerged after the arrival in Chicago of 25,000 asylum seekers.

Alderperson Jeanette Taylor told a gathering of activists in her 20th Ward in October, “The Republicans are trying to divide us by sending thousands of immigrants here.” She explained, “We have more in common with each other than we do with those racists.”

Yes, we did it! Here in Chicago, we broke the chain of neo-liberalism that has held us in economic bondage for over four decades, from Reaganomics (trickle-down lies of the Eighties) to the present crisis in housing, the depression of real wages, and the rising tide of unpayable debt.

Our victory with the election of Mayor Brandon Johnson on April 4th created a crack in the system that has the potential of unleashing the most powerful democratic upsurge of the masses since the Sixties. It is because of this reality that “the powers that be” have gotten super busy in creating cracks in the coalition that got Mayor Johnson elected in the first place.

Seven months after the inauguration and we are still struggling to consolidate our victory in order for Mayor Johnson to make real the reforms he promised. At a time when we should be closing ranks to become a formidable force for progress, there are tendencies to shatter our unity, tendencies dividing our ranks and creating circular firing squads in the movement. The phase we are in now is that we must unite and fight our common enemy or lose all that we have gained up ‘til now.

Our focus in this phase should be to regroup and reeducate our forces to the reality that we must unite and advance or we will be defeated. The main question then is how we bring together the people – the working class and oppressed Black and Brown people – to the playing field with the mayor so we can move forward together to consolidate our gains and start building a real people’s movement for jobs, housing and a better life for all Chicagoans. Building a people’s movement for justice that will free the wrongfully convicted and bring the police (who are the cutting edge of mass incarceration) under community control in terms of regulating police misconduct by the Police Board, COPA and the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. We must build a united peoples movement for immigrants and asylum seekers bringing families out of the shadows of a police state.

Like Fred Hampton said, politics is war without bloodshed. What we are engaged in now is war and in war we must remain true to our principles and be willing to win by any means necessary.

Frank Chapman is Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Fight Back News exists to build the people's struggle. It provides coverage and analysis of some of the key battles facing working and low-income people.

African America
Latinos
Black Brown unity
Immigrant Rights
Justice
NAARPR
Working Class

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


Related Stories

Dr. Gerald Horne
Juneteenth Book Signing & Lecture with Prof. Gerald Horne
17 June 2026
Join us in person for Juneteenth vibes with Prof. Gerald Horne’s book signing & lecture!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Gambling Man
10 June 2026
Even though the table’s tilted; the dice are loaded;and the cards are marked; even though light-fingered
Wolfgang Bronner
Entertainment as Militarization: The Spectacle of the Super Bowl & WrestleMania in Nashville
06 May 2026
The spectacle of major sporting events does not simply distract from a city's crackdown on the working class.
Stephen Millies
The War Against Black Workers
04 March 2026
Black workers built a strong U.S. labor movement.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Resurrection City: The Dream…The Accomplishments, Jesse Jackson, 1968
18 February 2026
“The Poor People’s Campaign is the greatest single challenge ever unleashed upon our colonial system.”
Imani Nile
The Scramble for Mount Vernon? How Capitalists and their Black Middlemen are Colonizing the Jewel of Westchester County, New York
23 July 2025
A majority Black city in Westchester County, a northern suburb of New York City, suffers from years of Black political misleadership and is now
Alina Selyukh
Skulls Once Subject to Racist Study in Germany are Laid to Rest in New Orleans
04 June 2025
Looted African skulls come home after a century in German labs, exposing colonialism's history of dehumanizing "race science." 
Black Alliance For Peace
From George Floyd Back to the Structural Violence of Capitalism
28 May 2025
With the ritualistic murder of George Floyd by the occupation forces referred to as the police that roam the streets and barrios of the Black a
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Ryan Coogler, Shedeur Sanders, Karmelo Anthony, and Rodney Hinton, Jr
07 May 2025
Black people who are among the rich and famous garner praise and love, and so do those who are in distr
Maxwell Evans
South Side Neighbors Want Housing Protections Before City OKs ‘Luxury’ Hotel Near Obama Center
07 May 2025
Community residents say that Chicago's City Council should pass a slate of housing protections centered on low-income renters instead of advanc

More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Without Including Biden and Blinken and the Issue of Genocide, International Criminal Court Arrest Warrants Are a Sham
    27 Nov 2024
    The International Criminal Court finally indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, but this action is merely performative. If arrest warrants do not include war criminals like Joe…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Prospects for Fascism, Manning Marable, 1981
    27 Nov 2024
    Manning Marable reminds us that US fascism is institutional and normalized. The parallels of his 1981 essay with the present are obvious – US fascism remains ascendant.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Washington Post Attacks Eritrean Americans for Organizing in their Own Defense
    27 Nov 2024
    The Washington Post’s latest anti-Eritrea propaganda demonizes Eritrean immigrants defending themselves in the West.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report Contributor
    COP29 Summit Marked by Acrimonious Debate Over Emissions and Finance
    27 Nov 2024
    Annual climate gathering reflects divisions between the industrialized states and the Global South.
  • Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    The End of American Thanksgivings: A Cause for Universal Rejoicing
    27 Nov 2024
    Glen Ford wrote many powerful essays, but his unflinching analysis of the history of the holiday we call Thanksgiving endures 20 years after he wrote it.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us