January 17
GUEST: Margaret Kimberley, member of Black Alliance for Peace and senior reporter with the Black Agenda Report, talks about the U.S. militarism in Africa and the need to actively resist racism and colonialism wherever it appears.Petition: Demand the U.S. End its Occupation of Africa
"Black power matters. All else is nonsense."
Margaret Kimberley has strong words for movements that don't demand justice, and according to her, justice only comes through power. We talked about Black Lives Matter. What had happened to the organization, and why had it achieved so little change? Young Black men are still being shot down in our streets. Black people's lives are still shaped by racism and lack of economic oportunity.
Margaret would like to see more effort spent on a global movement for equal rights, the type of power that Malcolm X and MLK envisioned before their assassinations by the state. Exposing and resisting the U.S. militarization of Africa is one way to forge anti-imperialist links with the rest of the world.
There has to be a movement to "reclaim the people's resources," and Margaret includes the United States as a battleground. The rich own everything, and the poor nothing. Demands must be made. We talked about MLK's Riverside Church speech, given one year before he was killed in Memphis. He was issuing a demand for racial and social justice, and for the first time it included all races, religions, and ethnicities in the call. That is were the real power lies. Overcoming racism will lead to overcoming the exploitive system we all live under.
