Imperialism Out! Turtle Island (The U.S.), Ukraine and African Freedom

Anti-War Resistance Generation Activism Progressive Spotlight

We cannot understate the United States government's desire or historical capacity for violent conflict. 20,000 years ago, the first known Native Americans crossed an ancient land bridge here. They settled Turtle Island or otherwise called The Americas. Indigenous American communities are thousands-strong, a power you sense en masse.

Sovereignty is always defended with life. An estimated 60,000,000 or more original residents of Turtle Island died in this way (x). We give our eternal respect to these true freedom fighters. Of course we also remember women's power—and undeniable contributions today.

"Before border wall construction, Quitobaquito was a site of religious ceremonies and a place of prayer," Tohono O'odham Indivisible activist Amber Ortega reminds us on this stolen soil.

Currently two Eastern European nations, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, avoid nuclear disaster on the world's opposite end. Leader Vladimir Putin authorized a horrific assault against neighboring Ukraine. This occurred on February 24th after two Ukrainian provinces' independent recognition: Donetsk and Luhansk. Attacks have only escalated on active power plants since that fateful day. How are these points all connected?

Countless death could follow without ceasefire or properly maintained civilian corridors. Anti-Black discrimination targets African emigrants from Ukraine. We must abolish imperialism if Earth's future is our #1 priority.

MARCH INDEX


HISTORY | HISTORY CONTINUED | PRESENT DAY | SOLUTIONS

HISTORY (CONTINUED)

U.S. IMPERIALISM

Anglo/European invasion was also military-driven, as Spanish fleets already landed in the Americas circa 1492 with no intent on stopping (Father Serra). Foreign missionaries erected brutal labor camps and boarding schools in Native American [Algonquin, Guale, Taino, Tongva] territory (A Crown of Thorns: The Enslavement of California's Indians...). Franciscan presence dissuaded most Pacific establishment by the UK or Russia's contemporary empires. Each claimed British Columbia, California and Alaska respectively.

Any produced goods were colonial property, and enriched the missions or mother country: food, natural resources, human beings. Future invaders did not deviate much apart from their chosen faith: Anglican, Protestant, Calvinist.

Successive waves of settlers unseated Indigenous leadership from power. These First Nations face unspeakable conditions today. Columbus' disgusting genocide has still not passed us after 530 years. And militarization as a modus operandi permeates our world. This is nothing but direct legacy. History matters. It should not be repeated here.

We revisit Ukraine and American involvement's vicious coup-collapse cycle again. The Biden administration's proposed an even $10 billion emergency assistance (Reuters). Congress may multiply that ten times over via a $1.5 trillion general defense budget. This devilish detail could be approved in the same omnibus bill.

And House Resolution 956 [Supporting the People of Ukraine] is disingenous at best. Rep. Meeks does not mention how NATO expansion, separatist support and fascism led to such crises. Read the Earth Future Action Democracy in Ukraine report here!

UKRAINIAN CRISIS AND U.S. INVOLVEMENT

Justifiable anger was thoroughly exploited so that Yanukovych couldn't maintain control. He had been forced onto a political tightrope by Putin and Western hegemony. Peripheral sanctions were infuriating Crimea and the former Soviet Union. See a timeline of those related sanctions.

Increasing trade blockades plus growing distaste for the European Union gave Yanukovych a famously unpopular choice: join the EU to little triumph, or be financially linked with Putin. Ukrainian citizens wanted option one. President Yakunovych left the EU.


HISTORY | HISTORY CONTINUED | PRESENT DAY | SOLUTIONS

PRESENT DAY

Protests spread across the Ukraine immediately. 2014's Euromaidan resistance changed hands, and became an extremely dangerous, anti-Russian regime.

Democratic negotiations have repeatedly soured as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Putin to retreat, reconsider. He also did not hold back criticism for the U.S. while requesting aircraft on the Zaporizhzhia (power plant) issue (Kyiv Independent).

"The issue is not only President Biden, the issue is the indecision of the whole world. And I tell you frankly that all these steps, and the world is stronger than Putin's military…

I would really not like any decisions regarding diplomacy, Europe, NATO, Ukraine and our independence, nuclear weapons that we heard about, or the likelihood of a nuclear strike. I would not want it to depend only on this team that gave birth, lives and dies in military uniform," President Zelensky clarified to United States press.

PROFITEERING

But here is an enormous dilemma. Ukraine would also be part of a revolving arms door. Do you know militarism's cost? The United States war profiteers shamefully use crucial funds on army omnipresence instead of housing, national health insurance and student debt. Domestically $15.4 billion already equips numerous enforcement units like Customs and Border Patrol, ICE, and national police departments.

Affiliated weapons are not limited to acoustic cannons (Ferguson's protests) or armored trucks, grenade launchers, even DHS robot dogs. Congress just introduced the Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act: an ominous program that upgrades Tohono O'odham border patrol to special agents. Now the Nation faces suppression by uniformed tribal members.

Science fiction has always warned us about today's circumstances. Unfortunately, this is real. Imperialism's shockwave emanates from the U.S. to Ukraine, Africa to Asia. It relies on division and conquest.

The Defense Logistics Agency is the defense supply chain overseer of a $41.8 billion industry (About DLA). In other words, the DLA enforces American interests abroad which allow acquisition, allocation and sale of weapons material. Welcome to 1033 Program (Black Alliance for Peace's bulletin breaks down further distribution).

DLA's final 1033 stage is full defense implementation, 100% militarization since 1997. Excess artillery arms 8,800 American officer units, several rebel coalitions and dictatorships. A Mutual Extortion Racket lends great context.

"In 2017, 10% of the $2.2 trillion in American factory output went to produce weapons sold to the Defense Department...From 2012 to 2015, 45.8% of all arms delivered to the Middle East came from the United States, and in 2016, 35 of the 57 major American arms sales proposed were to countries in the Middle East and North Africa, making up $49 billion of the total $63 billion of proposed sales (A Mutual Extortion Racket: The Military Industrial Complex and U.S. Foreign Policy, pg. 4).


AFRICOM soldiers

AFRICOM benefits as an overseas counterpart. Civilian casualties were U.S. military afterthoughts, but at least seven are public knowledge after AFRICOM airstrikes. Don't they matter? You can especially witness the war profiteering's corrosive impact through a tragic Drug War: a major cause behind police brutality for African and Black people everywhere. Even as they flee Ukraine, racism delays their evacuation.

AFRICAN DIASPORA, PROTESTS & PROGRESS

Black women, queer and gender non-conforming people have been notable leaders in this anti-imperialist movement. Divestment must happen at home too. Take Action Saint Louis (Missouri, U.S). Their fierce decriminalization efforts have won electoral seats for Tishaura Jones's criminal justice reform in the city, saved others from eviction or worse. Tishaura would be Saint Louis' first Black woman as mayor.

Action STL founder/M4BL leader Kayla Reed understood two things. First, progress required dedication and a better way. "We decided to say, ‘Well, how can we put our hands on the scale?’ We're organizers. We talk to people, we mobilize them to action. Can we mobilize them to take an action and vote a particular way?" (St. Louis American).


ActionSTL

Secondly, Reed needed a strong grassroots network. Fellow protesters transcended the inactive civilian oversight board to disrupt local police unions (Reveal News). See The People's Plan. How else has Saint Louis shifted? The answers may give us hope.

Brittany Ferrell is a Black femme civil/health/maternal rights activist at Whose Streets' epicenter: a documentary about Ferguson's splintered solidarity along racial lines. She navigates her hometown by building effective means for change.

Her tactics were disruptive actions like human chains on the highways and planned sit-ins, weekly marchs. This all forced Saint Louis' reluctant leaders to relent. Non-violence is not always the solution, but it should be the main method of communication.

"It [Ferguson] reminds me that I can continue to imagine a better world for us. And by us, I mean all black people and people of color, especially those of us impacted by multiple oppressions. We’re in it for the long haul," Ferrell wisely revealed in 2018 (The Source). The States' most segregated cities are demographically, politically changing.

Will more follow? Yes. Burkina Faso decided no more French colonialism. Mali continues a fierce Yerewolo Debout Sur Les Remparts movement on their heels (x).

"The fight against injustice and impunity will be the basis of the starting point of the new stage of our struggle," leader Sikiri Kouyaté promised.

"If you sow injustice, you reap a revolt" can be seen on central Parisian protest banners. Assa Traoré is determined in her brother's justice (Adama Traoré) and transnational support for the African diaspora (France24). She will not allow a totalitarian French police state, among thousands who demand accountability from extremists.

"The next five years is ours, not the ­candidates’. The future belongs to us. Let’s all reject racism, discrimination, social injustice, everything which reduces and divides us. Let’s claim a world that resembles us." (Socialist Worker) View Assa Traore's support for the progressive candidate Anasse Kazib!

So that brings us to a visible link between anti-imperialism, African empowerment, Ukraine and the U.S. What does freedom truly resemble for all?


SOLUTIONS

Black Alliance for Peace is a vital collective whose radical Coordinating Committee members include Ajamu Baraka, Margaret Kimberley and Nnamdi Lumumba of Ujima People's Progress Party. Learn more via Antiwar Resistance. BAP educates the public about strategies for peace, plus necessity in defunding police. AFRICOM Month of Action was one critical step toward this.

Baraka reiterates that "the conditions will persist that translates into suffering and even death for the colonized, the working classes, the oppressed, and all of global humanity.

The right to peace is fundamentally intertwined with the right to life, and both rights are “People(s)-centered human rights." (Black Agenda Report)

Margaret Kimberley also serves as chairperson for United National Antiwar Coalition's administrative board. She assessed the increasing crackdowns in June 2021.

"Domestic oppression is necessary in order to diminish political activity which may bring attention to foreign policy. The impetus to practice control internationally is closely aligned with the desire to keep domestic populations suppressed.

If the people are unaware of their government’s actions or powerless should they become informed, they cannot act against international imperialism and discover the connections with their domestic condition." (Fars News Agency)

We absolutely support a worldwide ceasefire and end to warfare altogether. Planetary health is at stake. Actual poison has accompanied these military missions. Peace advocates, lawmakers and UN Security Council members should unify in a legitimized space so a future can be defined beyond NATO.

Russia and Ukraine should receive an official apology for American government's responsibility. Sanctions have to end since they constitute war crimes, not permanent solutions. This is a detailed World Future Fund proposal.

The non-white world powers (classified as Global South) have nearly non-existent representation in the UN Security Council. What if India, Japan, Ghana, or Nigeria became permanent delegates? Decision-making would no longer be predominantly Western.

United Nations' Ad Hoc Working Group...on Africa tackles statehood with a continental, generalized viewpoint. Meanwhile, the African Union counts 54 member-states. They all present important perspective as Africa's combined voices.

The three African UN Council representatives did use their platform to uplift #AfricansInUkraine. Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani levelled deep sorrow for Ukrainian refugees while condemning racists en route (8,983rd UN Security Council Meeting).

"The mistreatment of African peoples on Europe’s borders needs to cease immediately, whether to the Africans fleeing Ukraine or crossing the Mediterranean...

The only way out of this increasingly dangerous crisis is for the prioritization of diplomacy to limit all military manoeuvres and to open the path to negotiation for peace," Kimani stressed with additional caution against sanctions.

Whether Ukraine or Russia predicted the international attention is irrelevant now. Earth has taken notice. Solidarity is soaring. President Zelensky's speech sent chills down our spine today, March 8th, 2022.

"We can do this together as people of the world. And if the world stands aloof, it will lose itself. Forever. Because there are unconditional values. The same for everyone. First of all, this is life. The right to life for everyone." (Address by President Volodymyr Zelensky)

Imperialism has an end date. Transfer power on a consistent basis. We are divesting from fascist structures today, so progressive ones thrive tomorrow.


Anti-War Groups, Militarization and Assistance

Action Saint Louis

Anti-War Resistance

Black Alliance for Peace

Campaign Zero

Earth Future Action

Indigenous People's Movement

Indivisible Tohono

Mutual Aid

Native American Genocide (World Future Fund)

No To NATO - global anti-imperialist group(s) who coordinates war machine disruption!

The People's Plan

Protect Native Elders

Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative - Atlanta, GA; Black LGBTQIA+ sex worker advocacy group and anti-police brutality initiative

United National Antiwar Coalition

Yerewolo Debout Sur Les Remparts Movement (Mali)

Groundings with the African and Colonized World: International Women’s Day (Black Alliance for Peace, 3-08-22)

For African and Colonized People, To Understand Ukraine: De-Center Europe and Focus on Imperialism (Black Alliance for Peace, 3-1-22)

Biden's Border Surveillance Empire Should Scare You Regardless Of Politics (Los Angeles Times, 2-10-22)

Robot Dogs Take Another Step Towards Deployment At The Border (Science and Technology Doctorate (DHS), 2-01-22)

Building A Movement To Shut Down AFRICOM (Monthly Review, 10-05-21)

Why Police Reform Fails (Reveal News, 5-08-21)

Who Manufactures The Riot Control Weapons Used On Black Lives Matter Protesters? (CorpWatch, 7-15-20)

Global Protest Movements: Could They Lead To Change? (CQ Researcher, 5-01-20)

 

Progressive Voices

Ajamu Baraka

Elias Castillo

Mayor Tishaura Jones (Saint Louis, MO)

Anasse Kazib

Margaret Kimberley

Kayla Reed

Situation Du Mali : Le Mouvement Yèrèwolo Lance Son « Appel sous le drapeau » (Maliweb, 3-08-22)

“We Are The Future”: A Solidarity Rally with Anasse Kazib (Révolution Permanente, 3-03-22)

Amid Violence, Mass Forced Displacement, ‘Lives of Millions’ of Ukrainian Civilians At Stake, Humanitarian Affairs Chief Tells Security Council (United Nations Security Council's 8,983rd Meeting, 2-28-22) (Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani)

Anti-racists Mobilise In France Before Presidential Election (Socialist Worker, 2-15-22)

Ukraine: What Does It Have to Do With Black Folks? (Black Agenda Report, 1-05-22)

Margaret Kimberley: AFRICOM Against Every African Everywhere (Fars News Agency, 6-12-21)

The Ferguson Movement Is On the Cusp of Revolutionizing Political Power in St. Louis (St. Louis American, 5-08-21)

Thousands Rally In Fresh Paris Protest Against Racism and Police Brutality (France24, 6-13-20)

Activist Fights For Her Community (Washington University in Saint Louis, The Source, 10-30-18)

 

Russia and Ukraine's Conflict: Aid, News Sources

Black Is Polish Aid

Caribbean and African Diaspora Thread

Direct Relief - Ukraine

I Support Ukraine

Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (Poland)

Nova Ukraine

QUA (LGBTQ+ Ukrainians in America)

Peace In Ukraine

Razom For Ukraine

Russian Duma

Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky

U.S. Ukrainian Activists

Jinjer, Ukrainian Metalcore Band, Denounce War— Raise €130,000+ With Napalm Records (3-23-22)

How to Help LGBTQ+ and Black Ukrainian Refugees (them., 3-02-22)

How To Provide Aid to the People of Ukraine (Earth Future Action)

Black Ukrainian Lawmaker Reveals Plight of Overlooked Population (Axios, 2-25-22)