The New Dark Age

As U.S. imperialism loses its capacity to compete outside the military sphere, its foreign policy options shrink, accordingly. “Since the U.S. is superior to the rest of the world ONLY in military terms, Washington finds its ultimate advantage in turning the whole world into a battlefield.” Permanent War follows the same logic as a death cult. In fact, one created the other – literally.

Craig Hicks was a dangerously belligerent man who lived in an apartment with a wife, four handguns, two shotguns and six rifles. His whiteness protected him from police attention or public censure. Hicks seems to have held a range of political views, “but more than anything Hicks was serious about being a white man.”

Young activists in Greece and Spain are making great strides because they’ve been able to do something black activists in the US have not. The European left has abandoned their so-called socialist parties, the equivalent of US Democrats. But until black activists step firmly outside the Democratic party in the US, their movements will shrivel, be betrayed and die, because that’s what the Democratic party is — where movements go to die, BAR executive editor Glen Ford observes.

A “left” that is not anti-imperialist is a phony left, but that’s what passes for radicalism in the U.S. Fortunately, Black Lives Matter activists “are making the connection between violence and militarization in the internal colonized areas of the U.S. and the state violence being waged by the U.S. state beyond its’ borders.”

“Gib us ‘bout as much just-us as de ropes, an’ de trees…”

Many citizens of the Dominican Republic appear to define their national identity largely in opposition to the Blackness of Haiti, with which it shares the island of Hispaniola. Both nations have also been repeatedly invaded by the United States, whose influence has added another layer of pathology to Dominican racism: lynching.

NBC has punished its multimillion dollar anchorman for lying to the people about his personal history. But the corporate media produce and transmit lies of momentous import all the time. “Brian Williams’ mistakes due to the ‘fog of memory’ or his lies are just a very small part of a much larger scheme of lies perpetrated by the network he serves.”

KKK-Style Lynching of Haitian in Dominican Republic

Police were quick to dismiss race as the motive for the lynching of a 24 year-old Haitian man despite anti-Black riots and the burning of Haitian flags on that same day in Santiago, the Dominican Republic’s second largest city. “They specifically did this to terrorize, and to make it clear that this is KKK-style stuff that’s going on here,” said Dahoud Andre, a Haitian community activist who helped organize a New York City protest against the murder. A 2013 court decision paved the way for expulsion of many Dominican descendants of immigrants from neighboring Haiti. However, Andre blamed the turmoil on multinational corporations that control the country “lock, stock and barrel. Dominicans,” he said, “are used as proxy racists to do what is happening to Haitians.”

Newark Police Review Board Won’t Replace Protests

Mayor Ras Baraka’s draft plan for Newark, New Jersey’s first Citizens Complaint Review Board “is pretty good, and we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater,” said Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP). The board would be empowered to subpoena witnesses, investigate police wrongdoing and recommend punishments, but its recommendations could be vetoed by the city’s police director. POP and four other community organizations would name members to the board. Asked if POP’s involvement with the board might lead it to hold back on protests, Hamm said: “This is not in any way going to change the activist nature” of POP. “If we did such a thing we would betray the very people we say we’re fighting for.” Public feedback on the plan continues until the end of the month.

U.S. to Answer at UN for Treatment of Political Prisoners

Veteran human rights lawyer Efia Nwangaza and other activists are preparing to meet with U.S. and international diplomats on the plight of former Black Panthers Assata Shakur and Russell “Maroon” Shoatz. Nwangaza said the U.S. must respect Shakur’s rights as a political exile in Cuba, and provide necessary medical care to Shoatz, who is suffering from prostate cancer. Since 2010, Nwangaza has been a lead activist in focusing international attention on U.S. treatment of political prisoners from the COINTELPRO and civil rights eras, which will culminate in a United Nations Periodic Review of U.S. behavior on May 11 in Geneva, Switzerland. Contributions to support the effort should be sent to the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina, where Nwangaza is director.

Obama Wants Unlimited Powers to Expand Wars

President Obama’s request for congressional authorization to engage in combat against the so-called Islamic State and its “associates” for three years “could very easily lead to an expansion of the U.S.-led war on ISIS to neighboring countries…and where the whole world is a potential battlefield,” said Sarah Lazare, a staff writer with CommonDreams.org. Lazare wrote a recent article titled “Obama Seeks Broad Powers to Wage Geographically Limitless War.”

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: Click here to download.  One hour.