America Kills

by  Ron Williams


America loves

to kill

It has been killing

since it arrived here

many moons ago

Arriving on those ships

racked with poison,

disease,

Piss,

feces,

cruelty,

hate

and barbarism

It spilled the blood

of the ancestors

all over

mother nature’s floor

it spilled

until there was no more

resistance

to the theft

and rape

of the land

Then it brought

the black ones

the blue hues from

the motherland

the drummers,

the blacksmiths,

the artisans

and artists,

the mothers,

the weavers,

the spinners,

the storytellers

and put them

to the chain,

the whip

the penis,

and to death

if one nostril

flared

Then it struggled

against itself

to free itself

But it still brought

the rope,

the firing squad,

the electric chair,

then the needles

It has turned guns

upon itself

in every city,

Every suburb,

every county,

every parish

It has bombed itself

into pieces

then strung the pieces

together

and called it

progress

America

has a love affair

with killing

It will kill

with the Old Testament

in one hand

And the canon

in the other

It will kill the killers

to demonstrate that

killing is wrong

It glorifies killing

on the cathode ray tube

It makes killing

a trillion dollar industry

It puts killing

on the New York

Stock Exchange

You cannot get away

from the kill

If you’re in America

It kills you

in the ghettos and in the

barrios

It kills you

in the classroom and in the

courtroom

It kills you

in the factory

and in the coalmine

It kills you

down at the docks

and up on the

satellite towers

It kills you

If you eyeball it

America

kills the peacemakers

Remember

Medgar, and Martin

Malcolm

Remember

Emmett Till

and Fred Hampton

and Amadou Diaolo

and James Byrd

and Youssef Hawkins

and Sean Bell

they have killed

and are trying to kill

All political prisoners

Remember

George Jackson,

Jonathan Jackson,

Mumia,

Leonard,

Marshall,

the Cuban Five

Troy Davis

And it tries to kill

You

Because YOU

ARE

TROY DAVIS

Because WE

ARE

TROY DAVIS

The world

cries their innocence

And America

kills them anyway

Masturbating

over the magazines

and videotapes

of death

and destruction

drowning itself

in the elixir

of hate

and zero tolerance

As vultures

feasted on the brains of

dead indigenous

red people

as they

were completing their

Manifest Destiny

they prayed

for

No mercy

And in this

technological age

there is no mercy

in America

for it devises new ways

and pathogens

for mass destruction

Biological

Political

Economic

Environmental

Familial

and Spiritual

America

crunches numbers

on its kills

like its own

Census data

America

bathes in blood

like Elizabeth Bathory

America

nation builds

on top of indigenous

body parts

America drinks oil

and excretes

fascism

America

is the number one

gang banger

gangster rapper

Mafioso

terrorist sleeper cell

rogue nation

professional hit organization

of this

third planet

of the

solar system

America

washes itself

with bullets

and dries off

with genocide

This world

will never be free

as long as America is

locked and loaded

That is why

the innocent like

Troy Davis

die

because the prison bars

and our neighborhoods

and our communities

are shaped like

crosshairs

and in our oppression

we have become fatally

conspicuous

We need to

camouflage our existence

and Sun Tzu our tactics

and be the

Spook Who Sat By The Door

to eliminate the targets

on our backs

and turn this oppression

around

because America

has a hard-on

for our bones

it places them over mantle pieces

like antelope horns

and stuffed animal heads

within their secret society houses

and retreats

and situation rooms

We are the culmination

of the struggle

and resistance

and perseverance

and empowerment

of our ancestors

While America shouts

for more blood

more oil

more

conflict diamonds

more coal,

more

human trafficking

and more

of our silence

we shout

for solidarity

and peace and justice

and

freedom and human rights

and

all power to the people

There will

come a time

when America

will no longer Kill

and cannibalize

our people

when our ancestors

will rise up from their

resting places

and suffocate it

with its own

Manifest Destiny

because as it sows

so it shall

reap

There will

come a time

where the

United States

of America

will dissolve and dissipate

and wither

and will be reborn into

the United Workers

of America

the United families

of America

the United communities

of America

the United neighborhoods

of America

the United Peoples

of America

Those new seeds

will be sown

and we will be

the peace

we wish to seek

in the world

our generations

long thirst for Justice

quenched

our bellies of liberation

filled

our future

lain in the ground

of equality

It will be then

as we wipe dry

those Trails of Tears

and shut down

those prison cells

and welcome

our brown people

across open

borders

We will proclaim

to the world

finally

that America

loves to

LOVE

9/22/11

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AFRICOM, the 4-G Upgrade

by Chioma Oruh on Wednesday, March 30, 2011

In May 2009, President Muammar Gadaffi met with General William “Kip” Ward, former commander of the USAFRICOM to express his support of the “new America”.  Ironically, 2009 was also the same year that Gadaffi decided to nationalize more oil fields than previously under state control in the past. Admittedly, despite his socialist rhetoric Gadaffi remains a complex neocolonial political force that has made many selfish, opportunist and controversial moves while all the time retaining his position as ruler of Libya. Perhaps his over confidence as state ruler for life led him to make the miscalculations made in relationship to US military presence in Africa. Or could he really have sipped on the same kool aid that suggests Obama’s America is somehow a different flavor from any other presidency in US imperialist history? Whatever the case maybe, Gadaffi’s struggles are the gateway drug for many more foreign military exercises to come in Africa.

Imperial Military in Realtime

In the midst of the UN resolutions 1970 and 1973 that sanctioned a no fly zone and gave permissions for NATO sponsored air strikes, Gadaffi has woken to a sobering hangover that this “new America” is no different than the old one.  The question remains, when will the rest of the African world awake to the upgraded version of militarism of white power in black face? Just hours after President Barack Obama (also fondly known as the white house-negro) announced at the National Defense University his plans to order warships into the Mediterranean for “humanitarian reasons” did the US make a move. On the morning of March 29th, a U.S. Navy P-3C Maritime Patrol aircraft, a U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft and guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG-52) engaged with the Libyan Coast Guard vessel Vittoria and two smaller crafts in a military altercation. This is the first big military move after 100+ missiles launched on Libya on March 19th.  Even as Obama made promises to the television audience that he would not commit any ground troops, the A-10 Thunderbolt that just attacked Libya is well known to be an aircraft specifically designed for ground troop support.  Such military moves make the arrival of US troops an inevitable move and war its only mission.

Obama also noted that the military attack of Libya is done in “coalition” efforts led by NATO and endorsed by the Arab league.  Forget that the weak opposition of the African Union hasn’t got much press, what’s most ironic is that Obama didn’t even bat an eye as he made the same illegitimate case for war that George Bush did in 2003 at the dawn of the Iraq War.  Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya is looking a lot like Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is also important to note that the US contributes the most military weaponry and manpower to NATO, and so whether it’s the war in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya, NATO is code word for US military command efforts.  In the case of Libya, AFRICOM is already being mentioned with curiosity as militarists at the Pentagon are salivating at the opportunity to give their four-year efforts a test-run.

AFRICOM: the Centerfold of the US Command Plan

The current political climate in North Africa is truly the perfect storm for AFRICOM to flex its muscles and sharpen its mission to “ conduct sustained security engagement through military-to-military program, military-sponsored activities and other military operations” in Africa.   Born as the brainchild project of Donald Rumsfeld as he stood on his last political leg during the Fallujah scandal in 2006, former President George Bush brought AFRICOM to public attention in a February 2007 press statement announcing this new and humanitarian version of a military command program. It spent its first year as a concept with a $50 million budget focused on public relations.  Four years later, not only does AFRICOM’s have a budget increase of $302 million, but it has its headquarter in Stuggart, Germany, sub-stations at US Embassies throughout Africa and many active programs on the ground.  One of its prominent programs is called “Hub” training as part of the African Partnership Station (APS). “Hub” has trained soldiers and police from Djibouti, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique and Tanzania by US naval forces.  APS focuses on maritime law and concentrates its focus on border nations that allows for US military forces an excuse to remain involved in all strategic trade posts at all times.

AFRICOM, unlike its counterpart in the Middle East and parts of Asia known as CENTCOM, is young and fresh without the historic baggage of dethroning the Shah in the 1950s, fighting Israel’s war for her in the 1960s, getting kicked out of Afghanistan in the 1970s, making a mess in Iran in the 1980s, being exposed as a gluttonous oil-monger in Kuwait in the 1990s and completely going war-crazy with the dual assaults on Iraq and Afghanistan in the first decade of the 21st century.  AFRICOM is part and parcel of a neocolonial makeover plan to give imperialism a new strategy with new leadership and new methods of forwarding an age-old imperial agenda to carry a big stick with a flashing smile.

Gadaffi is an easy mark to make a moral argument for “humanitarian intervention” as his own contradictions as an illegitimate political patriarch allow for imperial exploitation.  As traumatizing as it is to hear of over 100 missiles dropping on the Libyan people or the Djibouti sub-station (along with the US embassies in Tunisian and Egypt) being used as a launch pad for future military aggression, the worst of military aggression is yet to come.

The Future of US Militarism, AFRICOM in 4-G

Retired AFRICOM commander, Kip Ward, is currently on a speaking tour to continue to assist with the public relations of AFRICOM as he has passed the baton to General Carter F. Ham. Unlike Ward and many other generals, Ham has extensive combat experience to go along with his officer training. In sum, he is a strategist and has been called the “go-to guy” for Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Why the upgrade? It’s simple. The US is going to war on Africa and will execute an aggressive campaign to intervene in the plethora of unstable states in the region.  It is safe to say that the training wheels are off and AFRICOM as a military machine is fully operational.

It is estimated the US Defense budget will reach $1 Trillion in 2012 and because AFRICOM’s budget is sure to increase significantly as war necessitates more weapons, infantry support, intelligence operations and administrative staff salaries.  The AFRICOM website alludes to a substantial increase in funding and credits this potential inflated budget to a re-shuffling of monies given to the DoD as part of a $150 Billion “reinvestment for efficiency savings”.  When the real numbers are announced, jaws are most certain to drop.  Yet, any surprised responses on the US stepping up its military aggression on Africa are unfounded. The motivation for sustained military presence in Africa are too many to list, yet, it is important to outline some key places that will be met with greater force in the next few years.

Coastline countries will be of increasing interest for maritime operations. Countries that border places like the Gulf of Guinea (Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria), the Gulf of Aden (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia) and Africa’s borders on the western Indian Ocean (Kenya, Madagascar, South Africa).  Of course Libya, which borders the Mediterranean, is significant and is the christening border location for these increased military strategies. In addition to the oil-resource that border countries offer, they also are strategic trade posts (with the War on Drugs as the perfect excuse to create stations as AFRICOM has already launched the APS training programs).  Each of the countries listed as border countries are sure to make headlines in the next coming months as unstable and creating the necessary political climate for more US “humanitarian intervention”.  Cote d’Ivoire will soon erupt in a civil war, upcoming Nigerian elections is sure to irritate the militants of the Niger Delta, Somalia remains unstable, Ethiopia-Eritrean border tensions are sure to result in conflict in the region, Kenyan and Ghana drug trade will allow for foreign intervention, oppositional forces in Madagascar will make more aggressive moves against the newly elected government and South Africa’s President Zuma will eat his words for speaking out against the US attack on Libya.  Of course, there are also countries of the Great Lakes, with particular focus on the DRC, which are of high interest to the US imperial agenda due to resource wealth. Political instability in the region also gives way to increased military aggression.

All the while, AFRICOM will continue to make headway and state-sovereignty in every African country (both on the coast and in the mainland) will continue to deteriorate. Of course, this story has a potential plot twist with the birth of a new African liberation movement looking to unify and define itself. Obama is living out the main reason he was allowed the seat of presidency of a historically unapologetic white supremacist nation-state project of Manifest Destiny. The dual dose of a reality check that both AFRICOM and Obama offer is filled with the promise to rejuvenate a defeated liberation movement waiting in the periphery to make real revolution for Africa. And for this reason (and many more) luta continua!

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Protecting Our Children: Ensuring the Rights of Incarcerated Mothers

Submitted By Iresha Picot, The Assata's Daughters Project
Melinda is currently serving a thirty-six month sentence in state prison. She leaves behind two small children with her elderly aunt, whom after eight months in the aunt’s care, can no longer care for the children. They are placed into foster care and Melinda looses contact of them. Upon her release from prison, Melinda has learned that she has lost all parental rights of her children under the 1997 Bill Clinton initiative Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). While the ASFA was to ensure that children be moved out of foster care into adoption, this act has made it far more likely, that incarcerated mothers of children in foster care will lose their children permanently. The state can terminate parental rights in certain circumstances, with a shorter timeline for parents to complete services and regain custody or face termination. If a child is in foster care for 15 of the past 22 months of a parent’s incarceration, the state can move to terminate the parent’s rights except under certain circumstances (i.e. kinship). In addition, for women who are incarcerated for longer than two years (women in state prison serve an average of 36 months), this law can almost guarantee the loss of custody of their children. In most cases, after parental rights are terminated, they cannot be regained.

According to the 2008* Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1.7 million children under age 18, had a parent in state or federal prison. The number of children with a father in prison increased from 881,500 in 1991 to more than 1.5 million in 2007, a 77 percent increase.  During that time, the number of children with a mother in prison increased by 131 percent, from 63,900 to 147,400.  Over half of the parent’s incarcerated stated that they were the caregivers of their children.

Prison Abolitionists today have attributed the dehumanization and economic profits of Black and Brown bodies in the Prison Industrial Complex to that of Slavery. The thief of children from their incarcerated parents is with no exception. During slavery, children were ripped away from their mothers and sold into slavery without ever seeing their children again. This Adoption and Safe Families Act is no different. Moreover, with Black Women being the fastest growing group in prison, and being sentenced to prison six times more likely than white women, we can almost be sure as to whom this affects the most.

Forty-eight states besides Hawaii and Vermont have implemented ASFA. Last year, New York passed The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) Expanded Discretion Bill. The new law allows for foster care agencies and courts to take into account the special circumstances of parents in prison or residential treatment when determining a child's fate. I think all states should push this law to amend this act and demand the government for reunification of incarcerated parents with their children.

The Assata’s Daughters Project, an organization that my comrade Natasha and I created, is seeking to garner signatures to amend the Adoption and Safe Families Act for Pennsylvania. Our hope is that with enough interest, we can get Senators to sponsor this bill and take it all the way to the Governor! I propose that people help to amend this bill in their own states!

Please sign the petition! (<< Click link)

In Solidarity

(Originally published on Facebook, Monday, October 17, 2011)

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