Eight Years Of Clarity Positions BAP In The Right Place As The U.S. Empire Crumbles
Since our founding on April 4, 2017, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) has engaged in work to raise the consciousness of the public around the issues of U.S. militarism, imperialism, zionism, and the need for people’s struggle against the these evils with our campaigns, statements, newsletters, actions and other work. We have provided critical clarity on the material facts on the ground regarding imperialist machinations and oppression all over the world. From our earliest days, we identified the attacks on our communities as a war on African peoples, and introduced our flagship campaign, No Compromise, No Retreat: Defeat the War on African People in the U.S. and Abroad. From this, we focused on every aspect of this ongoing war that impacts us and connects us to those struggling against the same forces around the world.
BAP opposed the militarization of our communities through the 1033 Program and the training of U.S. police forces by the fascist Israeli Defense Force (IDF). We demanded that the U.S. military command in Africa, AFRICOM, be shut down years before the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States and their expulsion of the French and U.S. militaries from their territory. We established the U.S. Out of Africa Network as the organizational arm of our Shut Down AFRICOM campaign, and it has been comprised of radical to revolutionary parties and people's organizations across the length and breadth of the continent. We joined with diasporic Africans organizing themselves in the U.S. under the name Africans United to amplify their demand for France and the US to leave African nations. We defended Haitian sovereignty through several Hands Off Haiti events, including in-person rallies at the embassies of the African countries involved in the imperialist police deployment.
We defended the sovereignty of Cuba and engaged with embassy officials from Zimbabwe and Eritrea as well to bring information about the effect of sanctions to the people. We worked in coalition with other organizations to demand the dismantling of NATO and to Close all Foreign U.S. Military Bases.
We engaged with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in their call to establish the Americas as a ‘Zone of Peace,’ free from imperialism and foreign intervention, which led us to co-create the U.S./NATO Out of Our Americas Network to continue and broaden this work. Our analysis of the denial and violation of the human rights of our people under imperialist attack domestically and abroad demanded a campaign to focus on raising the issue of establishing and defending People-Centered Human Rights, connecting the struggle of the people for human rights and dignity in Global North with those in the Global South engaging in the same.
We engaged in the struggle against the proliferation of domestic bases for militarized police units, otherwise known as Cop Cities, and connected it to the expansion of the U.S. imperialist empire with its 800+ military bases around the world. We identified vehicles through which U.S. imperialism is exported around the world and domestically and worked to popularize their existence, impact, and their connections to the worsening material conditions of the people. Our public political education encapsulated these connections and presented them to our communities across the country and in several countries around the world.
We provided clear and comprehensive education to our communities on the aspects of the imperialist attacks on Afghanistan, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, The Sahel, Somalia, Sudan, Palestine, and more, providing facts to counter pro-imperialist lies and connecting our peoples’ domestic struggle to the international fight against U.S. imperialism. We’ve highlighted programs such as the 1033 Program that continues to make surplus military equipment available to law enforcement organizations at every level of U.S. society; legislation like the Countering Malign Russian Activities In Africa Act, which was introduced by a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, an entity subservient to the political duopoly which is therefore hostile to the concept of self-determination for African people anywhere in the world.
All of this work and so much more that we do not have the space to mention is produced by BAP members organized through BAP grassroots structures like our city-wide alliances in conjunction with regional organizers, member organizations, and the BAP national leadership structures.
BAP’s maturity through our unwavering commitment to the Black Radical Peace Tradition and to a dialectical analysis of history, politics, and material conditions has matured us in our eight years of consistent and consistently growing work. Our growing engagement with our communities has reflected that to a level of expertise and excellence that is nearly unmatched by organizations bigger, older, and much better financed than us.
In our eight years of existence, BAP has presented our analysis to our people, and we have moved people and people-centered organizations to join in this work. BAP’s single-minded focus, ideological discipline and clarity, and the decision to embrace a new and dynamic leadership model has developed and matured this formation to be especially prepared to confront the challenges of our work in the U.S. and beyond at this critical historic juncture.
On our eighth anniversary, we reflect on all that we have done, the accomplishments we have seen, and the work that remains ahead of us. All that we have done and all that we will do could not and cannot be done without you. YOU, BAP membership, have built this plane while you have flown it. Our work and our unwavering line have kept us focused on the struggle against our collective enemy - U.S. capitalist dictatorship and its domestic and international manifestations and impacts. This work and our clarity and consistency have earned us the solidarity, trust, and respect of the people struggling for liberation in this country and abroad, and that is no small feat for a formation so young. And we have done it with no corporate ties, financing, or promotion. Just your passion, commitment, creativity, and drive.
What we have accomplished with BAP has been done with real People Power. With it, we can and will do even more. Our crystal clear analysis of the interconnectedness of foreign and domestic policy through capitalist exploitation and imperialist hegemony positions BAP as one of the driving forces for the intensified battle that we must continue to engage against our oppressors. BAP is not only a beneficiary of the best of the principles of the Black Radical Peace Tradition, but we have grown to be standard-bearers of it for our people. Because of this incredibly committed, dynamic, and enthusiastic group of Africans and Accomplices - Solidarity Network stand up! - liberation in your lifetime is no longer out of the realm of possibilities. Being counted among your ranks is an honor.
No Compromise, No Retreat!
Happy BAPversary, Comrades!
