Fascism with a Democratic Party Face

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

BAR and 12 other leftwing web sites have been put on a hit list publicized by the Washington Post. Fascists of the Democratic kind are responsible. “Had Clinton won the election, she would have begun a campaign of repression against the Left along the same national security lines as the Washington Post article, with that paper probably leading the propaganda charge.” Donald Trump isn’t the only fascist to worry about.

Freedom Rider: Black Agenda Report on the Honor Roll

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

The Democrats, through their PropOrNot web site and a compliant corporate media, have targeted BAR and other sites as purveyors of Russian propaganda and partly responsible for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. We’re proud to be on their hit list. Their ludicrous neo-McCarthyism shows the Democrats are not really a party at all, but a “gigantic marketing scheme meant to keep fearful progressives in line.” And the Washington Post is revealed as a lying rag.

Occupy White Owned Land Says EFF’s Malema -- and Solidarity with the Cuban People in Wake of Castro’s Death

Submitted by Dr. Marsha Cole... on

by BAR editor and columnist, Dr. Marsha Adebayo

In the transition to Black majority rule, the African National Congress shelved the Freedom Charter, the guiding document of the South African liberation struggle. The Charter maintained that the nation’s natural resources and land belonged to the people. Julius Malema, of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, has been charged with riotous assembly for calling on Blacks to occupy white-“owned” land.

The Contradictions of the Trump Phenomenon and the Desperation of the US War Machine

Submitted by Danny Haiphong on

by Danny Haiphong

Many of the folks tearing their hair out over Donald Trump’s victory were far less alarmed at the Democrats’ role in the unending wars for global domination. For them, war is a sideshow to domestic politics, even when it kills millions. They claim to be anti-racist, but “imperialist war is the truest expression of white supremacy, whether it manifests in the police occupation of Black America or the military occupation of Africa through AFRICOM.”

Barack and Fidel: A Beyond Bizarre Comparison

Submitted by Netfa Freeman on

by Netfa Freeman

It is laughable – or pitiful – to compare Barack Obama to Fidel Castro. The fundamental truth is: “Barack Obama is the president of imperialism, PERIOD. By necessity he must be a mass murdering, lying, enemy of humanity. It is an unspoken prerequisite for that job. Fidel Castro is the opposite, PERIOD.” That’s why a long line of U.S. presidents has tried to assassinate Castro over 600 times, and committed 1,000 acts of terror against his people.

Reparations Hypocrisy: God Bless The Liberal That’s Got His Own

Submitted by Julian Cola on

by Julian Cola

After two and a quarter centuries, legions of Americans are calling for repair of the U.S. voting system by abolishing the Electoral College. However, white liberals just “lost an election, not hundreds of years of labor, their names, languages, cultures, and customs. But they insist upon repair, a rapid solution to an age-old problem.” There is an even more fundamental structural problem in U.S. society awaiting a fix: reparations for slavery.

Twelve Ideas Post-Election from Front Line Organizers

Submitted by Bill Quigley on

by Bill Quigley 

Never in living history -- not even when Ronald Reagan won the White House -- have activists been so visibly distraught. The author has gathered some suggestions for coping with post-election trauma. “We need to stay centered, to foster actual human connection and build a shared commitment to struggle together.” 

Black-White Earnings Gap Returns to 1950 Levels

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Patrick Bayer and Kerwin Kofi Charles

Gains in Black educational levels have been largely nullified, according to the authors. “The economic benefits that should have come from the substantial gains in education for black men over the past 75 years have been completely undone by the changing economy.” Joblessness is built into the system. “In 1960, 19 percent of black men were not working; in 2014, that number had grown to 35 percent of black men,” including those in prison.

Black Agenda Radio for Week of Nov 28, 2016

Submitted by Nellie Bailey a... on

GOP Plans Stealth Attack on Medicare

Republicans in Congress have “never really liked Social Security or Medicare” because the programs “work and they completely go against the ideology that the private sector is always better,” said Nancy Altman, co-director of Social Security Works. The GOP will act “in the dead of night, so the people don’t know what’s happening,” and sneak a privatization bill into a “reconciliation” measure that “the Democrats can’t filibuster,” Altman predicted. “They want to give seniors and people with disabilities a check and say, ‘Good luck, go out and get private insurance.’”

What Do You Mean by Identity Politics?

Lots of people talk about how “identity politics affected the election, but the term is never specifically defined,” said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. “As you tease out the rhetoric, it appears to suggest that organizations like Black Lives Matter is identity politics, and people protesting against being shot down in the streets by officers of the state is identity politics.” The only good news to come out of the election, said Horne, “is that Donald J. Trump will probably prove to be the Gorbachev of the United States of America” by accelerating the decline of U.S. imperialism and white supremacy.

2016 was Bound to be a Bad Year

The “panic and hysteria” of some Hillary Clinton supporters “is really very childish,” said Diana Johnstone, author of Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton. “The fact is, there wasn’t going to be a good outcome to that election, anyway; you had two terrible candidates, so you should have been prepared for that.” The Democrats crazily search for Russians behind every web site. “The idea that Russia interfered with the election is absolutely absurd,” said Johnstone, speaking from her home in Paris. “It sounds to me like they’ve decided they’re going to make war against Russia -- and they’re all into that,” including the media.

President Obama’s Hollow Legacy

Barack Obama was “beloved” by large numbers of Black people, but it was a one-way affair. “Politicians score points with white people by assuring them they’re not going to do anything for Black people, and Obama was no exception,” said Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley. “In order to win, Black people have to be thrown under the bus.” Obama “gave white people a message that he would not in any way upset the status quo,” said Kimberley, speaking on the Taylor Report on CUIT radio, in Toronto, Canada. “His is a hollow legacy.” Hillary Clinton lost because “you can’t transfer one person’s popularity to another.”

Peltier on Standing Rock Protests

One thousand people took part in the 47th annual Native American National Day of Mourning, last Thursday, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Placards declared “We Are Not Vanishing” and “We Are Not Conquered,” as an Elder read a message from political prisoner Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement activist who has been locked up for the past 41 years. The Standing Rock protests “are the greatest gathering of our people in history, and has made us more connected than every before,” said Peltier. “Water is life, and we cannot leave this issue to our children and grandchildren.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
 
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So Why is the Green Party's Jill Stein Filing For Recounts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania?

Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Is the Green Party's Jill Stein jumping into bed with Hillary and the Democrats in her call for recounts in PA, WI and MI?  Or are Greens trying to lead the movement for voting rights, for fair elections tht count every vote, and to protect Green candidates in local races from having their elections stolen out from under them, often by Democrats?

Obama’s Musings on False Narratives and Fake Stories

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

So-called “fake news” has Obama shook up – probably because he and other presidents want to keep their monopoly on false narratives. “The ruling class, which Obama so faithfully serves, has lost control of the social and political narrative, without which it cannot ‘protect’ its wealth, privilege and power. It is a crisis of legitimacy, rooted in the crisis of capitalism, itself.”

Keith Ellison as DNC Chair: Another High Place, Another Empty Black Face

Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on

A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

In a decade on the House Financial Services Committee Keith Ellison hasn’t targeted the credit card racketeers, or the banksters who flooded the market with predatory home and student loans or federal officials who refuse to relieve underwater homeowners. Democratic party leaders need another empty black face to front the DNC, someone who blames Wikileaks and the Russians for Hillary’s defeat. Ellison will do just fine.

 
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Freedom Rider: How Not to Protest Trump

Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Donald Trump’s many evils are manifest and obvious. But let’s stop pretending that some historical line has been crossed in U.S. political and social relations. “The dictates of white supremacy are ever present and the numbers of white people who do anything serious about it are small.” Newly outraged Democrats act like they’ve never seen a fascist. “There is an ample supply of domestic fascists. They are the people who wear police uniforms.”

Obama's Departure is One Reason to Feel Optimism for Trump's Arrival

Submitted by Danny Haiphong on

by Danny Haiphong

Fears of Trump should not obscure the fact that Barack Obama’s reign was a disaster. “Black America is in a worse condition than before, working class people as a whole have lost ground to a low-wage economy, and the world is closer to a World War III scenario than at any point prior.” The struggle continues, but “it is important to ensure that the protests against Trump are not allowed to be channeled back into the Democratic Party graveyard.” 

No More American Thanksgivings

Submitted by Glen Ford on

by Glen Ford

“The core ideological content of the holiday serves to validate all that has since occurred on these shores – a national consecration of the unspeakable, a balm and benediction for the victors, a blessing of the fruits of murder and kidnapping, and an implicit obligation to continue the seamless historical project in the present day.”

Trump Says Go Back, We Say Fight Back

Submitted by Robin D.G. Kelley on

by Robin D.G. Kelley

The author writes: “I am not suggesting that white racism alone explains Trump’s victory. Nor am I dismissing the white working class’s very real economic grievances. It is not a matter of disaffection versus racism or sexism versus fear. Rather, racism, class anxieties, and prevailing gender ideologies operate together, inseparably, or as Kimberlé Crenshaw would say, intersectionally.”

Congressional Hawks Rush to Intensify War in Syria

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Rick Sterling

Warmongers in the U.S. Congress -- Democrats and Republicans – are in a mad dash towards war with Russia in Syria. A “No Fly Zone” resolution passed the House with little debate, cloaked in “humanitarian” language that blames the besieged Syrian government for the totality of the deaths in the U.S.-backed proxy war. The bipartisan regime changers are desperate to complete their mission before the regime change that will occur in Washington, on January 20.

Donald J. Trump’s 10 Point Plan to Put America First: A Response

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

by Tanya Golash-Boza

How will Donald Trump’s rhetoric on removing what he calls “illegal aliens” be put into actual policy? One thing is certain: It will take a lot more than even a tripling of the current ICE force of 5,000 to surpass President Obama’s record-breaking deportations.  “ICE would still rely on local law enforcement to do the bulk of arrests.” Congress would also have to revise existing immigration laws.

Confusing Jihad with Hirabah Won't Build a More Peaceful World

Submitted by Hugh Esco on

by Hugh Esco

The author, a reader and colleague of BAR, offers a corrective to our use of the word “jihad,” a term that, in “an Islamic conception, has nothing to do with ‘holy war.’” In this “appeal,” Mr. Esco warns: “When we fail to interrupt this abuse of human language, We lend support to registration programs and internment camps, to islamaphobic attacks and imperial wars of aggression.”

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