A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
The Democrats claim their warmongering is justified by a manufactured Russian threat, while Donald Trump wants to turn the U.S. war machine on China and Iran. For those that want peace, the destination is Richmond, Virginia, where the United National Anti-War Coalition will hold a national conference independent of the two parties of war. This year’s conference will boast "the largest Black presence in UNAC’s history.”
Ditch Both War Parties: Anti-War Coalition Maps Independent Course to Peace
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
“The Democrats and the Republicans offer nothing but war and misery to all the world’s peoples, but we in the belly of the beast have a special responsibility to dismantle this juggernaut of planetary death.”
On June 16 through 18, the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) will hold its annual conference, under the theme: “Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad: Building a Movement Against War, Injustice and Repression.” For three days, the convention center in Richmond, Virginia, will likely be the sanest building in the nation, the one place where you won’t be subjected to a barrage of warmongering fantasies about Russian threats to a non-existent American democracy. Instead, hundreds of activists from a broad range of organizations will be hard at work building alternatives to the Democrats and Republicans who have plunged the world into endless war and condemned most people in the United States to a dismal future of economic insecurity, the worst health care system in the developed world –- and if you’re Black, the ever-present threat of sudden death at the hands of police.
The all-seeing, eternally-listening, omnivorous data-crunching mechanisms of the national security state that was once justified by manufactured fears of Soviet Russians, then exponentially expanded to cage, kill and contain Black revolutionaries, and then vastly reinforced again to criminalize Black people as a group, creating the world’s biggest mass incarceration police state; this same repressive machinery that, after 9/ll, tracked and entrapped Muslim Americans like hunted prey, now spies upon the electronic communications of the entire world, mapping, profiling and, when possible, actively manipulating every wired person on the planet, as if the whole of humanity is a security risk to the rulers of the U.S. empire.
The madness comes full circle, with war fever whipped to a frenzy by constant repetition of baseless, spy agency-supplied and corporate media-magnified lies and outright nonsense, claiming that Russia, the all-purpose villain, has hijacked U.S. elections and is exerting effective control over the racist, rightwing billionaire in the White House. But of course, rich, racist white people have always been in control of the United States, and have always rigged the electoral system to their own benefit.
A Large Black Presence Expected
The Democrats and the Republicans offer nothing but war and misery to all the world’s peoples, but we in the belly of the beast have a special responsibility to dismantle this juggernaut of planetary death. This year’s United National Anti-War Coalition conference, in Richmond, will have the largest Black presence in UNAC’s history: more than a third of the speakers will be Black, including several from Black Agenda Report and Ajamu Baraka, who is pulling together the Black Alliance for Peace. The Black Alliance for Peace is already part of the UNAC coalition. As Ajamu Baraka says: “The Democratic Party wants war with Russia, the Trump administration wants war with China, so it’s up to the people to demand and struggle for peace against both pro-imperialist parties.”
Black people have historically been the most pro-peace constituency in the United States, so it is logical and righteous that we’ll be well-represented in Richmond, on the weekend of June 16.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected].
In this week’s segment, we discuss the anniversary of victory in Europe in World War II, and the disinformation that centers on the U.S.'s role and dismisses the pivotal Soviet role in that conflict…
Roger McKenzie is the international editor of the UK-based Morning Star Online, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world. He joins us from Oxford to discuss his new book, “The…
The late Bruce Dixon was a co-founder and managing editor of Black Agenda Report. In 2018, he provided this commentary entitled, "US Fake History of World War II Underlies Permanent Bipartisan…
Nadiah Alyafai is a member of the US Palestinian Community Network chapter in Chicago and she joins us to discuss why the public must be aware of the Nakba and the continuity of Palestinian…
Black people who are among the rich and famous garner praise and love, and so do those who are in distress. But concerns for the masses of people and their struggles are often missing.
