slavery

Nigeria, Oh, Nigeria, Cry for me, Nigeria!

So, good friend, Madu, who I met decades ago, at UT-El Paso. He was coming through buildings where part-time English faculty had offices. That big smile, that large voice, and an open hand. He was working the used/discount book gig: going to colleges to get books from faculty and bookstores that might have been extra […]
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Palestine is a Loud Echo of Britain’s Colonial Past and a Warning of the Future

[This is the transcript of a talk I gave to Bath Friends of Palestine on 25 February 2022.] Since I arrived with my family in the UK last summer, I have been repeatedly asked: “Why choose Bristol as your new home?” Well, it certainly wasn’t for the weather. Now more than ever I miss Nazareth’s […]

Forgive Thyself and Others: Reparations Now!

The question of Reparations for the historical crime of slavery is not primarily about money. Rather it is about spiritual cleansing and healing. It is about recognizing the fact that systemic physical and mental torture have long hands that stretch out across time and space. It is about acknowledging the attempted physical and spiritual destruction […]
The post Forgive Thyself and Others: Reparations Now! first appeared on Dissident Voice.

Forgive Thyself and Others: Reparations Now!

The question of Reparations for the historical crime of slavery is not primarily about money. Rather it is about spiritual cleansing and healing. It is about recognizing the fact that systemic physical and mental torture have long hands that stretch out across time and space. It is about acknowledging the attempted physical and spiritual destruction of a people and the[Read More...]

Solidarity Forged From Slave Chains

February is black history month and with conservatives challenging Critical Race Theory, there’s one thing when studying history,  we have to always remember and it is the victors that write the history. It is the duty, therefore, of every socialist to tell it like it was, and is, at every opportunity. In the battle of ideas that we wage against the ruling class, we must not concede them one inch[Read More...]

US Past and Present

Recently there has been much discussion about the teaching of US history. In the past and perhaps slightly less so in the present, the full story of our history and of the founding fathers hasn’t been presented. The founders’ inspirational and impressive accomplishments have been highlighted. The fact that many of the founders were slave […]
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Anti-Imperialism You Can Try at Home – Reparations May Be One Cure for What Ails Us

Robin Rue Simmons had been very curious about the truth of American life as a young person. But it was only after she finished high school, left her native Evanston, Illinois, and returned as an adult — ready to buy a house in the historically Black neighborhood in which she grew up — that she delved deep into her city’s[Read More...]

Lingering Peculiarities: Slavery and Manumission in the Roman Empire

The question does not bear asking, but in a global economy greased by what has been termed disposable people, the past’s previous examples of the same may be a country worth visiting.  The prod along for such a journey came with the discovery of yet another gem from the ruins of Pompeii.  The news headlines […]
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Can Mass Subjugation Save Democracy?

American Institute for Economic Research, July 7, 2021 Can Mass Subjugation Save American Democracy? James Bovard Beatings will continue until morale improves” has morphed from an old joke to the latest prescription for national salvation. “Compulsory National Service Could Unite America,” whooped a New York Times Op-ed headline last week. Prominent media outlets, think tanks, […]

American Slavery and Global Capitalism

Edward Baptiste’s The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism attempts to provide a material analysis of the development of Slavery in the United States leading up to the Civil War. In doing so he reveals the origin of capitalism, and Western Economic Supremacy, to be the Southern Slave Plantations, who provided Northern and English Capitalists with[Read More...]