Black Alliance for Peace

Black Alliance for Peace (also referred to as BAP) is a non-profit organization based in the United States that is focused on human rights from an anti-war, anti-imperialist perspective. The Latin American and Caribbean Community Center Inc. is the fiscal sponsor of the organization.

The mission of the organization is "to recapture and redevelop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical black movement."^[2]

History[]

Founded in April 2017 by Dr. Ajamu Baraka, the Black Alliance for Peace is part of the renewed effort to organize the anti-war movement based within the Black community in the United States. The organization's founding members agreed to ten points of unity: the right to self defense; self determination; anti-imperialism; working-class foundation; intersectionality; anti-patriarchy; decolonization; prisoner support; black unity; and southern roots.^[3]

Structure[]

BAP National Organizer and Spokesperson Dr. Ajamu Baraka.

Coordinating committee[]

The Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace currently consists of eleven activists and scholars.^[1]

Current members:

• Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer and National Spokesperson
• Charisse Burden-Stelly, scholar
• Dedan Waciuri, Black Workers for Justice
• Erica Caines, BAP-Baltimore
• Jaribu Hill, Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights
• Margaret Kimberley, Editor and Senior Columnist for Black Agenda Report, Member of Administration Committee for United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
• Netfa Freeman, Pan-African Community Action (PACA)
• Nnamdi Lumumba, Ujima People’s Progress Party
• Paul Pumphrey, Friends of the Congo
• Rafiki Morris, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP)
• Salome Ayuak, Horn of Africa Pan-Africans for Liberation and Solidarity (HOA PALS)

Advisory committee[]

BAP's Coordinating Committee is advised by a group of notable individuals that compose the organization's Advisory Committee.^[1]

Current members:

• Janvieve Williams Comrie, human rights activist
• Mireille Fanon, activist and Scholar
• Charo Mina-Rojas, Columbian gender-rights activist
• Opal Tometi, Black Lives Matter co-founder
• Cornel West, public intellectual
• Tukufu Zuberi, internationally known filmmaker and sociologist

Former members:

• Glenn Ford, Black Agenda Report executive editor (deceased)

Objectives[]

The organization is simultaneously campaigning on nearly a dozen various issues, with a focus on peace, people-centered human rights, and anti-imperialism education.^[4]

Domestically, BAP opposes Israeli training of American police forces and the Department of Defense's 1033 program that allows military grade equipment to transfer into the possession of civilian police departments.^[4][5] In addition to calling for accountability for police brutality and the elimination of Operation Relentless Pursuit, the organization is calling for a 50% reduction in the U.S. military budget to finance the human-rights needs of the American public.^[4][6] The organization is calling on the U.S. Congress to pass legislation in support of the abolition of nuclear weapons.^[7]

On foreign affairs, BAP's primary campaign is its demand to shut down the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and end all U.S. intervention on the continent of Africa.^[8] This is reinforced by BAP's other aims to abolish NATO, close the 800+ U.S. foreign military bases, end all foreign interventions and illegal sanctions, and to uphold global norms by complying with international law.^[4]

Regional issues[]

Africa[]

Horn of Africa[]

In June 2021, BAP condemned U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Ethiopia, calling for a resolution independent of conflicting American and NATO interests.^[9] The organization also opposes any foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Eritrea.^[10]

Latin America[]

Haiti[]

Early March 2021, BAP led a solidarity rally in the District of Columbia in support of Haitians opposing President Jovenel Moïse for refusing to relinquish his ending term of office in February 2021, with Moïse contesting his term does not expire until 2022.^[11] BAP characterized Moïse as a "dictator" backed by the United States, EU, and OAS.^[11]

BAP reinforced its anti-interventionist position on Haiti following the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, alleging the guise of protection and need for stability as possibly being used by Western powers as a pretext for foreign intervention into Haiti.^[12]

Venezuela[]

In January 2019, the Black Alliance for Peace stated its opposition to American intervention in the Venezuelan presidential crisis.^[13] Soon after this statement, BAP joined the ANSWER Coalition, CODEPINK, and Popular Resistance in occupying the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C. at the invitation of President Nicolás Maduro, hoping a viable protecting power agreement would be established.^[14]

Middle East[]

Iran[]

Consistent with its assumed anti-war position, BAP organizers joined in a global day of protest on January 25, 2020, in response to escalating tensions with Iran by the Trump administration specifically calling for "No War Against Iran."^[15]

Palestine[]

In response to support for Palestine by Black Lives Matter, BAP spokesperson Dr. Ajamu Baraka praised the development of Black Americans adopting the struggles of Palestinians, as the existence of Palestine is threatened by the present Israeli government.^[16]

See also[]

• Anti-war movement
• List of anti-war organizations
• Black Panther Party
• Racism in the United States

References[]