Obama's Era of No-Change / Strategy for Africa Revealed: Intensified Militarization / Militarized Hispanics / Congo Genocide - and lots more.... ~BAR June 20

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Black Agenda Report

News, commentary and analysis from the black left

Top Ten Things That Have and Have Have Not Changed In the Era of Obama

 managing editor Bruce A. DixonBy BAR

In the spirit of Bill Clinton's 1992 "the Man From Hope" slogan, Barack Obama in 2008 declared himself the candidate of Hope and Change. So what about it? Are the real changes, if we can find them, at all what Obama voters hoped for?

White House Strategy for Africa Revealed:

Intensified Militarization and War on Terror

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

The White House has put in writing its policies for sub-Saharan Africa. The problem is, there's hardly a word of truth in the document, and not a single mention of AFRICOM, the U.S. military command on the continent. The presidential paper repeats Obama's 2009 lecture to Africans on "good governance." He also warned that they avoid the "excuses" of blaming "neocolonialism" and "racism" for their problems. Meanwhile, AFRICOM is "positioning the U.S. to launch coups at will against African civilian, or even military, leaders that fall out of favor with Washington."

Freedom Rider: Obama Has the Power

by editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

When President Obama doesn't want to do something, he pleads the limits of presidential power or resistance from Republicans. But, when a novel move is to his political benefit, the world is his oyster. So far, gays and Latinos have benefited from Obama's newfound insights or powers. Obama could just as easily issue executive orders "to change policies on incarceration, or address the foreclosure crisis, or bring federal dollars to economically devastated communities." But he won't, because Black folks won't ask him to. Their support is free.

Stop-and-Frisk March: Silence is Not Golden

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The Father's Day "Silent March" against stop-and-frisk drew thousands to New York's Fifth Avenue - but it's not a tactic that should be repeated any time soon. The NAACP's first wordless procession against lynching, in 1917 - cited as inspiration for Sunday's event - was shaped by fears and anxieties that have no place in a modern Black movement. Ninety-five years ago, and for generations, Black protesters dressed in their Sunday best and often "abstained from shouts and sloganeering, so as not to appear dangerous in the eyes of whites."

Photo by Tony Savino

Obama Memo Deferring Some Deportations Not a Victory For Latinos, Immigrants or Human Rights

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Professional Latino leaders, tied hand and foot to corporate donors and the Democratic party, are celebrating the president's announcement that a small number of the undocumented will be eligible for deferral of their deportations. But is this really a victory for all immigrants or just those on the way to college and the military.

The Black Panther vs The Corporate Candidate

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The corporate media are screaming like banshees in fear that former Black Panther Charles Barron might win a seat in Congress. Their preferred Black politico is Hakeem Jeffries, a charter school supporter flush with corporate funds. "The media demonization machine has kicked into high gear on Charles Barron, with the New York Times calling him a 'showboat' and 'provocateur.'" But of course, that's what happens when rich white men claim the privilege of choosing Black leadership.

Citigroup's Role in the Rape of Haiti

by Peter James Hudson

Citibank's role in the U.S. subjugation of Haiti in the first quarter of the 20^th century sounds quite familiar, a century later. The bank demanded that Washington send troops to "stabilize" the country, fantasizing that the Haitians would welcome the Marines. "The Haitians saw it as robbery, pure and simple, and indicative of a growing threat to the republic's sovereignty." U.S. troops "pacified" the country, killing thousands during a 19-year occupation.

Obama's Not the First Black President - He's the First President Who is Black

by Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

Obama may be Black, but he's not that kind of president. "If he were the first Black President he would be using his bully pulpit to champion legislation targeting unemployment in urban areas, poverty, income disparity, and other issues." This particular Black man is, essentially, a functionary of a government in the service of wealth and empire. "The President's efforts will not address chronic income disparity or the wealth gap."

Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo Genocide

by Antoine Roger Lokongo

Six million Congolese have died since 1996 so that western corporations could retain unfettered access to the region's mineral wealth. Rwanda and Uganda turned the eastern Congo into a cauldron of death - with impunity, protected by their patrons, the U.S. and Britain. Although the evidence of Rwanda's role in the Congo genocide is irrefutable, Tutsi strongman Paul Kagame's regime "will simply get away with it and recommence again tomorrow - as long as minerals need to be supplied to the West."

AFRICOM's Imperial Agenda Marches On

by Dan Glazebrook

U.S. neo-colonialism is, in many respects, not that different from the old European colonialism. The goal of American policy in Africa is to turn African states into black Gunga-Dins, "fighting and dying for western interests in the coming colonial wars against Africa." Already, the U.S. Africa Command exerts immense influence over African militaries. "Fourteen major joint military exercises between AFRICOM and African states are also due to take place this year."

Obama-Aid: Psychologically Bad for Black Folks

by Solomon Comissiong

Obama-Aid ought to be tasting stale and nasty after three-plus years, but Black folks are still swilling it. "His supporters did not give a damn that he backed FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) or even that he justified the amoral verdict that acquitted the murderous police officers who took the life of Sean Bell." Obama-Aid is definitely bad for the brain. "In essence, people of color in America have allowed their collective conscience to be neutered."

Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey - Week of June 18, 2012

Backwards Logic: Obama's "We Got Your Back" Black Campaign Ad

The Obama 2012 campaign's radio ad, in which a chorus of Black voices assures the president that "We got your back," implies a "reciprocal relationship" between Blacks and Obama - "that we're all in this together," said Dr. Johnny Williams, professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. However, "there's been very little that he's done directly for Black people to show us that he's got our back."

Why Wisconsin mobilization and Occupy movement "Faltered"

The "biggest ongoing labor rally since the 1930s got shunted into electoral politics...because there wasn't also the pursuit of independent movement building," said Arun Gupta, co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street Journal. The problem, said Gupta, was not simply that Democratic Party and labor union "honchos" steered the movement into an unsuccessful bid to unseat Republican Scott Walker. Rather, the Wisconsin mobilization and the Occupy movement, "despite their potential, have been faltering because of...a lack of organization, a lack of discipline, and a lack of strategy."

Medicaid for All Would Have Passed Constitutional Muster

President Obama could have avoided constitutional problems if he had chosen a health care plan that "most people have long supported" and which is "constitutionally safe": Medicare for All, said political analyst and author Paul Street. "All you have to do" to create a single-payer system "is to go into the Medicare bill and take out the clause that says its for people over 65 - and just say its for everybody." Instead, Obama pushed a bill that guaranteed price-setting power to the drug and insurance "mafias." The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on Obama's health care legislation, which requires people to purchase private insurance.

Obama Violates His Own Law on Congo Killings

Friends of Congo is circulating a petition demanding that Washington cut off funds to nations that "destabilize" their neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Executive director Maurice Carney notes that the law was authored by Sen. Barack Obama and co-sponsored by Sen. Hillary Clinton, now U.S. Secretary of State. Rwanda and Uganda are both guilty of destabilizing the DRC, "resulting in the death of millions of Congolese," said Carney. Both Rwanda and Uganda are close allies of the U.S.

No Compromise with Capitalism

"You have to have, as an objective, overturning the system of capitalism, itself. And to do that, you've got to be organized," said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the African People's Socialist Party, founded in 1972. Yeshitela was speaking at the national convention of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, in Philadelphia.