Statement from Black Alliance for Peace, October 17, 2024
Resistance to Oppression is a Human Right
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) recognizes that we are in a moment of increased and increasingly dangerous political repression. Peoples’ resistance to oppressive, militaristic, and genocidal policies enacted by the U.S. national security apparatus are once again being met with persecution, marginalization, violence, and even lawfare. The latest example being the sanctioning of Samidoun, an organization advocating on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, as an operation supporting a group that the U.S. state designated as a “terrorist” organization.
BAP is not interested in debating the merits of these charges because the weight of evidence on state actions suggests that the state bears the responsibility to prove that it is not engaged in another crude effort to smash all opposition to zionist settler colonial fascism. Having lost the narrative on its support for the zionist apartheid state and bogged down in another militaristic adventure in Ukraine, we see an almost desperate attempt by the U.S. political elite (and its Western minions) to crush dissent. It is using a variety of tools: federal and local police, the propaganda apparatus in the form of the corporate media, and the legal system.
Just in the last year, this infrastructure of repression has been weaponized against independent media such as African Stream, which was deplatformed from Meta, Google, and TikTok after U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claimed, without evidence, that the site is controlled by Russia. Radio Sputnik was also forced to end its programming, and the U.S. FBI convicted the “Uhuru 3” – Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess & Jesse Nevil – on conspiracy charges. Meanwhile, the violent crackdown of pro-Palestine/anti-genocide student protests across college campuses continues.
The punishment of those who openly oppose U.S. government policies, particularly in opposition to U.S. support of zionist occupation and genocide, is in full swing as the state and its foreign state agents, like AIPAC and the ADL, move to designate organizations, entities, or individuals that support Palestinian resistance as “terrorists” or supporters of “terrorism.” The objective of this repression is not just to silence political opposition, but to criminalize it – totalitarianism in practice.
We in the Black Alliance for Peace fully understand the dangerous times we are in. Yet, we remain unyieldingly committed to our principles, to People(s)-Centered Human Rights, to people’s liberation struggles, and to the right of all individuals and people to resist colonialism, dictatorship, global imperialist warmongering, and all forms of oppression. For BAP, “No Compromise, No Retreat!” is more than a slogan. Ultimately, it is our response to the deepening repression; and it is an affirmation of the ongoing struggle that must be waged in order to finally defeat the dark forces of oppression and build a new world.