Originally published in Black Alliance for Peace
“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories...” (Amilcar Cabral)
It was under the Democrats and the first “Black” president that the Department of Defense 1033 program that militarizes local police forces was expanded by 2,400%; the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) expanded by 1,900%; Libya, the most prosperous African and Pan African nation was attacked and destroyed; the war on Yemen began; the Occupy Wall Street Movement was smashed; the FBI created the “Black Identity Extremist” label; the banks were bailed out from the economic collapse that they created, but not the working class; Black people lost more wealth than was lost at the end of Reconstruction in 1870s; and, despite police killings across the country, including Mike Brown in Ferguson, the Obama administration only brought Federal charges against one killer-cop. Yet, with the return of Trump, opportunists in our communities and beyond are telling us that the real culprits in our oppression and the targets for opposition are Trump and republicans.
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) rejects this kind of ahistorical opportunism.
We are clear. The anti-democratic duopoly is made up of representatives of the capitalist class and provides cover for what is, in reality, the dictatorship of capital. In this, the duopoly reveals the class nature of the state. This dictatorship, the true enemy of the people, is the target of our agitation and organizing.
Focusing attention on the Trumpian wing of the capitalist class as the primary or principal contradiction facing the people in the U.S. or in the world obscures the reality that the dominant wing of capital, finance capital, along with the U.S.-based transnational corporations, have captured and are operating through both parties. However, it is the democratic party wing of the dictatorship of capital that has championed what is popularly referred to as neoliberalism. Neoliberalism, first given coherence under Ronald Reagan, eventually migrated to the democratic party under Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council, whose “third way politics” aligned with both neoliberals and neoconservatives (neocons). Trumpism is the particular (national) manifestation of the global crisis of neoliberal capitalism. The republican party’s capture of the executive and all branches of government will not resolve the structural contradictions of neoliberal capital. What we can expect, then, is the strengthening of the repressive state apparatus and more targeted repression. To be clear, this process would have continued under a Harris administration because Harris promised to maintain the same trajectory of state repression in the name of capital. Because of the bipartisan jettisoning of liberal democratic and human rights in favor of the capitalist order, it does not matter which individual is sitting in the white peoples’ house. Therefore, the correct approach for opposition forces is one that grounds the people’s understanding of the objective structural contradictions of the capitalist order and that builds their capacity to struggle against that order – regardless of which wing of the duopoly represents it. Focusing on only one part of the duopoly is akin to focusing on only one faction of the capitalist class.
Despite any rhetoric to the contrary, BAP expects Trump will govern as a neoliberal. That is why certain elements of the ruling class turned to him again. Continued austerity, especially at the state and local levels, will persist, as well as privatization of public assets, tax breaks for the capitalist class, the suppression and repression of labor, fiscal and monetary policies that prop up capitalist profits and undermine human rights and, of course, the targeted use of military power to advance the interests of the capitalist dictatorship. We believe, however, that Trump will make as his main mission the primary concern of the neoliberal elite: smashing the movement toward de-dollarization.
We cannot afford to have any illusions or harbor any sentimentality about the nature of this system. As we organize in political spaces controlled by Black democrats, it would be suicidal if we did not understand the role these neocolonial puppets play – primarily against any organized opposition – in the war that capital is waging against the people. Under Biden-Harris, we saw police, judicial, and media suppression of mobilizations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, the student intifada, the Uhuru 3, African Stream media, and many others. And it is no coincidence that so-called “cop cities” are being constructed across the country in those urban areas being managed by Black democrat party functionaries or, what Black Agenda Report refers to as the “Black Misleadership Class.”
This corrupted Black petit-bourgeois professional/managerial class, positioned in government, corporate and non-profit sectors, provides the buffer and role models for individual material advancement at the expense of the Black working class.
And while we are dealing with cop cities, we also understand what is coming with the mass deportations of non-white migrants and the violent law and order rhetoric that is already emanating from the Trumpian forces. But let us not forget that, under the Biden-Harris regime, mass deportations rose by 250 percent, of which Harris campaigned on being “tough” on the border. Anti-immigrant rhetoric is also bipartisan.
Like all people, we want to live decent, prosperous lives in peace and in harmony with all humanity and nature. But we are going to have to fight for peace. And for that struggle, BAP is guided by the principles of the Black radical peace tradition that states clearly:
Peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather the achievement by popular struggle and self-defense of a world liberated from the interlocking issues of global conflict, nuclear armament and proliferation, unjust war, and subversion through the defeat of global systems of oppression that include colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.
That is the task and the responsibility that we take on. We are not afraid of any individual or oppressive system. We gladly take on this fight with the certainty that one day we will defeat the Pan-European white supremacist colonial/capitalist patriarchy that is the enemy of collective humanity.
The struggles and sacrifices being made by the Palestinian peoples to defend their dignity and popular sovereignty is the example we embrace. This is why we say that no matter the circumstances, no matter the challenge, no matter the intensity of the repression, we are building on the sacrifices of our people and guided by revolutionary principles. Our call will always be:
No Compromise, No Retreat!
Coordinating Committee, Black Alliance for Peace
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