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During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Environment:
Judicial Sovereignty: Victoire Ingabire and the African Court “The Court should intensify the war against the impunity and brutality of African police states and their non-African sponsors.” Friends and supporters of Rwandan political prisoner Victoire Ingabire are still waiting for the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to rule on her appeal. In 2011, Victoire attempted to run for president against military dictator Paul Kagame and went to prison instead. She was convicted of conspiring with terrorists, urging Rwandans to rise up against the government, and contradicting the official, legally enforced history of the Rwandan Genocide. By Ann Garrison, BAR contributor, Chief Charles A. Taku 
Freedom Rider: Donna Brazile — No Honor Among Thieves “The Democratic Party had its thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton.” One year ago Donald Trump’s election to the presidency turned American politics upside down. His victory proved that the Democratic Party is on its death bed. It reached this low point because of people like Donna Brazile, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) interim chair at the time of the debacle. She and the rest of the party leadership thought they could continue giving mere lip service to their image of fairness and inclusion and win the presidency again. But the man who struck at the heart of white identity prevailed and the Democrats haven’t been the same since. By Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
Race, Repression and Russiagate: Defending Radical Black Self-Determination “Once again, Black opposition is being cast as somehow foreign influenced and, therefore, a security threat that justifies special targeted repression.” It is absurd and an insult to argue that Russian propaganda efforts “deepen political and racial tensions in the United States,” as proposed by Julia Ioffe in a recent article in the Atlantic. By Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
A Brief Review of the Philadelphia Conference That Celebrated an Enemy of the US Government “The conference condemned the many ways in which Temple and other academies of ‘higher education’ fully collaborate with the gentrification, poverty, and oppression experienced by working class and poor Black Americans.”Huey P. Newton was the co-founder of the Black Panther Party — one of the most controversial political organizations in US history. The Black Panther Party espoused revolutionary goals and possessed a concrete ten-point program to achieve them. Huey Newton was a key leader throughout the duration of the Party’s life. His courageous opposition to police violence placed the organization in the national spotlight. Under his leadership, the Black Panther Party was labeled “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 1969. By Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
Kneeling and the (Re)Signification of the Black Fantastic “By utilizing their seismic platform as well as the medium of mass communication, the performative act of kneeling during the anthem unsettles the naturalized mythos of the racial state.”On September 1, 2016, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid took a knee during the national anthem before an exhibition game against the San Diego Chargers. One can only imagine if either athlete realized the extent to which their silent demonstration would inspire a generation and forever change the visual economy of the National Football League. By James Hill, Jr
Black Women Radicals of the Past Offer the Best Hope for Our Future “In the latter half of the 20th century, black women theorists offered critical insight into how we might develop emancipatory strategies.” With the rise of Trump’s authoritarianism, the FBI’s recently leaked memo labeling anti-police brutality protesters as “Black Identity Extremists,” and the increased militarization of ICE and Border control, many are searching for strategies to combat the newest wave of authoritarianism. Activists and scholars often look to the writings and speeches of major leaders of the 1960s and 1970s—Malcolm X, Frantz Fanon, and Stokely Carmichael—among others, for insight on how to organize today. To be sure, these leaders can inform our contemporary organizing approaches. However, there is a broader intellectual and activist tradition from which we can draw. In order to combat current manifestations of white supremacy and imperialism, it is important to widen our cannon. This can be achieved, in part, by re-examining black women thinkers who have provided us with a rich and expansive genealogy of liberation theories. In the latter half of the 20th century, black women theorists offered critical insight into how we might develop emancipatory strategies that are ideologically flexible, gender inclusive, and global in scope. By Ashley Farmer 
Buffalo Soldiers Go To Africa “The last thing any African in the U.S. wants or needs is the prospect of death in pursuit of a corporate agenda in Africa.” In black barbershops across the U.S. where old school brothers talk trash about sports and beg young bloods to either comb or shave the tops of their nappy fades, there may be little knowledge of goings-on in Africa. There is however concern and bewilderment in those shops about the death of Sgt. La David T. Johnson in Niger last month. By Mark P. Fancher
Recolonization of Africa by Endless War “Washington is running a gruesome protection racket I Africa, “simultaneously creating the conditions for armed groups to thrive while offering protection against them.” Six years ago, on October 20th, 2011, Muammar Gaddafi was murdered, joining a long list of African revolutionaries martyred by the West for daring to dream of continental independence. By Dan Glazebrook
Sabotaging Apartheid “We got into what I call a Faustian pact with big business from Mandela onwards.”Ronnie Kasrils has led a titanic political life. Growing up in a Jewish family in Johannesburg in the middle of the twentieth century, he was radicalized by apartheid and joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1961. By Ronnie Kasrils, Marcus Barnett
Youth Incarceration in the United States, Explained “First Lady Hillary Clinton referred to certain youths as ‘super-predators.’”Since its infancy, the United States has impacted children through the penal establishment. Youth incarceration has taken many different forms, from boarding schools for indigenous children, to institutions that aimed to “pray the gay away” for LGBTQ youth, funneling children into legalized second-class citizenship through Japanese internment camps, juvenile detention or underfunded schooling. The criminalization of youth has influenced social crises that have defined our country, like lynching. By Prince Shakur
Black Bolsheviks and White Lies: Reflections on the Black Radical Tradition “American blacks needed no outsiders to awaken their sense of the tremendous contradiction between America’s professed beliefs and its actual practices.” A lot of nonsense has been written about the role of Putin’s Russia in subverting “our democracy.” As though our democracy had been functioning perfectly (even reasonably) well, until these shadowy Russian forces purchased a few Facebook ads that sent us all into the streets. It’s a laughable concept. I’m sorry, did Putin acquit George Zimmerman or Jason Stockley? Did Putin shoot 12-year-old Tamir Rice? Russia did not carry out the drug war against African Americans or implement policies of mass incarceration, or pass voter ID laws in the U.S. — all of which have contributed to disenfranchising millions of African Americans over the years? By Peta Lindsay
“Africologists” Will Snitch on You “Cultural nationalists” — including those that call themselves Africologists — “don’t want to change the world; they want to change how they can move in it,” said activist Kashara White, speaking at an all-day conference on the life and work of Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton, at Temple University, in Philadelphia. “Their Black nationalism is not Huey’s Black nationalism,” said White, who majored in African American Studies. “They want money” and “a positive relationship to capitalism. They will snitch on you” to the white authorities. By Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
“Swipe It Forward” Black Youth Project 100 activists are urging New York City subway commuters to share their unlimited fare cards with poorer riders. “There’s no reason to believe that Black people are jumping turnstiles at a higher rate than white people, but we know that 90 percent of those arrested are Black or brown,” said Rahel Mekdim Peka, of the “Swipe it Forward” campaign. ByNellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Mumia on the Passing of AIM Leader Dennis Banks, the American Indian Movement leader who “sought to organize scattered native clan members into a militant, cohesive unit,” died last week at the age of 80. Banks “was among thousands of young activists of native, indigenous communities who rose up to speak and act on behalf of the oppressed,” said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner. By Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Puerto Rico Getting the Detroit Treatment Puerto Rico, a hurricane-ravaged colony of the U.S., has been subjected to much the same financial dictatorship as Detroit, a Black internal colony, said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Detroit-based Pan African News. “Here again, you have these financial decisions, against the will of the people, made by a small group of people, to the detriment of the people,” said Azikiwe. Detroit was forced into bankruptcy in 2013, its citizens stripped of control of their local affairs. By Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Rex Tillerson is “Yesterday’s Man” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who some fellow Republicans believe has been politically “castrated” by President Trump, demanded that Iran get out of Iraq, its neighbor and close ally. “I think Mr. Tillerson will be departing Washington for his sprawling ranch in Texas before the Iranians leave Iraq,” said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston. Tillerson’s “loose talk should not be taken seriously. He is yesterday’s man By Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
FOIA Response on Citigroup Justice Department Referrals: DOJ Draws a Dark Curtain Around Its Actions On March 11, 2016, the National Archives released a trove of documents related to the work of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) and their investigation of the causes of the 2007-2010 financial crisis. As a result of reviewing those documents, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a September 15, 2016 letter to the Inspector General of the Justice Department and to then FBI Director James Comey seeking to find out why the Justice Department had not prosecuted any of the individuals or corporations that were referred to it by the FCIC. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
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