Friday News

Certainly, things must change. Over five decades of economic sanctions, an embargo, etc. didn’t work to help Cuba at all. Yet, Cuba still has a strong resiliency. America once illegally occupied Cuba totally militarily and imposed Jim Crow temporarily there. Even today, America has occupied some of Cuba's territory like Guantanamo Bay. America is hypocritical for lecturing nations on democracy, but its human records record is abysmal to put it lightly. Cuba helped out black African anti-imperialist forces to defeat imperialist terrorists in Angola. Even now, they have given a mass amount of medical aid to West Africa, so West Africans can further fight against the ebola illness. Cuba should be given Kudos for those great actions. Now, change should come, but it must be the right change. It must be a change where corporate elites won't rule Cuba. We have to study history too. Batista was a Western backed thug. Cuba had its revolution. During the 1960’s, the U.S. government funded terror campaigns all over Cuba. The U.S.’s Operation Mongoose supported such evil destabilization efforts against Cuba. The FBI hypocritically wants to jail a freedom fighter like Sister Assata Shakur, but it has not jailed a real terrorist named Luis Posada Carriles (who is a CIA asset). He or Luis was involved in the bombing of the Cubana Airliner in 1976, which killed 73 people on-board (including children). Bush Sr. pardoned Posada of all American charges in 1990. Therefore, the embargo (which has harmed human lives in Cuba) must end and there must be a better relationship between Cuba and America. It is also hypocritical for the U.S. to have such restrictions on Cuba, but it has aided tyrannical, reactionary governments for decades. I have no problem with the remaining three of the Cuban Five being released since there is no conclusive evidence of them being guilty of the charges of which they were accused of. Yet, we should make changes in the right way not in a neo-imperialist way. Western corporations should not dominate Cuban resources. There is racism in Cuba, but racism is everywhere. So, we have to fight it globally. Racism should be condemned, opposed, and eliminated in America and in Cuba. Afro-Cubans should be totally liberated to fulfill their own destinies. Afro-Cubans should unite socially, politically, and economically with African Americans and all peoples of black African descent (as advocated by Malcolm X via his speeches and his own OAAU charter, Kwame Ture, Kwame Nkrumah, and others). Whether we are black Americans, black Africans, Afro Brazilians, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Cubans, Afro-French, Afro-British, Afro-Venezuelans, etc. we are one black people. We are one. I am in solidarity with all people of black African descent globally. Also, freedom fighters like Assata Shakur, etc. living in Cuba should be pardoned. U.S. imperialism must be opposed. The Western economic oppression against Cuba must end now. Cuba should be independent and free.


This crisis of prison abuse is symptomatic of the overall injustices found in the prison industrial complex. Rikers’ Island is not the only place where abuse, torture, and other indignities are found. They exist across America and globally. Decades ago, the uprising in Attica has shown the world that the human dignity of prisoners have been ignored by evil guards and nefarious wardens. Today, we still have the same problems which existed back then as explained by George Jackson including others. The mistreatment and the abuse that goes on constantly against prisoners cause some prisoners to be worse off emotionally and psychologically than when they originally came into the prison system. There is no justification for any abuse of any prisoner or any human being for that matter. The prison industrial complex also has been funded by big corporate dollars, so it is not just about prison officials. This situation is big business. This is a human rights issue. America readily proclaims itself as a human rights oasis, but this story and others prove that proclamation to be a myth. I do have hope (as I have hope that we will be free in the future, but we have to fight for our freedom) and people have every right to fight for solutions. American society has failed to adequately address racism and police terrorism. Police terrorism is a pernicious evil. We know that the plutocracy benefits heavily not only from policies that restrict our civil liberties, but they benefit heavily from our record economic inequality (which progressive leaders like Dr. King, etc. wanted to combat). The police are the armed extension of the state. The plutocracy now controls the state since the state is dominated by corporate/Wall Street interests. There is economic oppression, police terrorism, and political repression all over America. That is why things must change. The old school BPP had a lot of great ideas in fighting back against oppression. Black lives do matter, because innocent human life is valuable. Human life has superior value than property. We don’t need the status quo where there is a massive militarization of the police in local communities and where we see a disgraceful criminal justice system. That is why protesters and other activists want justice. Enough is Enough.


This new movement has been heavily made up by the youth and the working class. We not only need unjust laws gone and crooked cops being punished. Structural changes are needed, so the poor are empowered and black people have real justice. Grassroots organizing is very important. One of SNCC’s strengths was that it used grassroots organizing to fight back against oppression as advanced by Ella Baker (who is the ideological Mother of SNCC itself. Ella Baker was an excellent supporter of SNCC). SNCC also caused Dr. King to be more radicalized and SNCC publicly opposed the unjust Vietnam War before Dr. King did so publicly. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. heroically stood up for the poor and the oppressed. He was right to disagree with the Vietnam War too. The events of Selma prove that we have to be free by organization, sacrifice, courage, and resistance. There is no liberation by reform. We can only be liberated by revolutionary change. Bill O'Reilly will be Bill. He is totally ignorant to the fact that teenage pregnancy rates in the black community are declining. Also, for him to talk that way to Martin Luther King III shows where his agenda and arrogance lies. I have no respect for Bill O'Reilly, his views are repugnant, and social justice is a goal that I will always endorse. Many corporate telecoms are funding many groups to attack net neutrality. There should not be a corporate control of the entire Internet or all of the structures of society. We should always oppose poverty and empire. Some of these groups today refuse to explicitly condemn imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and militarism. As for me, I support net neutrality.


Sometimes the truth is so obvious, that it stares us in our faces. A black person being inclusive of all people of black African descent (in a positive fashion) is not about advancing racism. It is about advancing our core interests and respecting our human dignity. When Asians, white ethnic groups, Indians, etc. do these similar actions, folks don’t readily call these people racists or bigots. They just allow them to do their own thing. Therefore, we have the right to express our own self-determination. The post-racial types always lecture us on exclusion, but we should exclude people who don’t care for us or who are outright racists. That type of exclusion is fine with me. We don’t hate anyone in a vicious fashion. We believe in treating our neighbors as ourselves. Yet, we do believe in loving our black people and not compromising our cultural integrity for social accommodation. We want freedom not oppression. We want a cooperative system where our people are respected not token "black capitalism." Our ancestors built civilizations and made great contributions for humanity, therefore we have the right to build up our infrastructure today. This has been advocated not only by Malcolm X and nationalists. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after 1965 increasingly spoke about black people having the right to express self-determination and to support black institutions (especially in his last public speech in Memphis. He wanted to combat the terrible indignities that Memphis sanitation workers have suffered). We have to think in a more selfless level, because the knowledge of self is one vital ingredient that we should have in order for us to be liberated. The people of old (if you watch their speeches and words) were extremely articulate, conscious of the world, and very courageous. There are people like that today, but our society is much more dominated with corporate distractions, materialism, and other distracting things. Paul Robeson was a heroic black man just like Ida B. Wells was a heroic black woman. They stood up for our people.


We know what we are up against. We are against imperialism and their arms of oppression. The oligarchs are oppressing not only black people, but other people too. The death of Eric Garner and Michael Brown has galvanized the nation. A new movement which is against racist police brutality is spreading worldwide. We do know that U.S. imperialist wars and the mass incarceration state are related to each other. The state is funding the same weapons used overseas to conduct imperial operations that are also being used to suppress protesters’ rights. The LRAD sound weapon, which can harm human beings in many ways, has been used in Ferguson and other places against protesters. The LRADs have been used against the Palestinians and in Honduras too. The wealth of the capitalist ruling class is enriched by the U.S. imperialism’s military and intelligence operations. There are hundreds of U.S. military bases in 156 countries. Obviously, reform doesn’t work fully to help humanity. The prison industrial complex is still very powerful. Louisiana, a state which is over 30 percent Black, has the most prisoners’ per-capita than any other nation-state on the planet. Every 28 hours, a Black American is murdered by US security forces of some kind. These developments of white supremacy are the historical bedrock of imperialism and the driving force that set the #BlackLivesMatter movement into motion in cities around the US. The capitalists want people to follow Wall Street and the two party system establishment. Many police officers act as occupiers of the poor black communities nationwide. The Pentagon trying to stop the black rebellions of the 1960’s is similar to how the establishment now is trying to stop revolutionary change. Many Democrats have unfortunately acted in subservience to fascism (just like the reactionary Republicans) instead of progressive ideologies. The Black Lives Matter movement is about black Americans and others being tired and fed up with police terrorism and racist occupation. This is a movement about ending Western imperialism and creating a system of justice. It is about having real solidarity with people and ending oligarchy (where a small financial elite controls the majority of the Earth’s wealth). Protests continue and the people want to be heard.

By Timothy