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


  • Summit of the Americas Flops While Workers Summit of the Americas Exposes Cracks in the Imperial Façade
    Roger D. Harris
    Summit of the Americas Flops While Workers Summit Exposes Cracks in the Imperial Façade
    22 Jun 2022
    The U.S. effort to exert control at Summit of the Americas failed spectacularly. The Workers Summit of the Americas in Tijuana, Mexico showed the strength of people's movements around the world.
  • Warriors we are…
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Warriors we are…
    22 Jun 2022
                                                           …
  • The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign & Black Alliance for Peace Center Opposition to War
    Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign/POOR PEOPLE’S ARMY
    The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign & Black Alliance for Peace Center Opposition to War
    22 Jun 2022
    As groups prepared to gather in Washington D.C. to discuss poverty, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign and Black Alliance for Peace say that in the spirit of Dr. King, opposition…
  • Why Does the United States Have a Military Base in Ghana?
    Vijay Prashad
    Why Does the United States Have a Military Base in Ghana?
    22 Jun 2022
    Why would the government of Ghana allow a U.S. military base on its territory? Kwesi Pratt Jr., a journalist and leader of the Socialist Movement of Ghana explains.
  • Hubert Harrison, Tribune of the People: Part Three, The Struggle for Equality
    Sean I. Ahern
    Hubert Harrison, Tribune of the People: Part Three, The Struggle for Equality
    22 Jun 2022
    Hubert Henry Harrison was one of the foremost Black socialist and nationalist thinkers of the early 20th century. He was known as "the father of Harlem radicalism." This is the last of a three-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us