Spear staff

“As many as 200,000 people could die from COVID-19 in the U.S.”⁠—double the current government estimate⁠—if there are no measures taken to stop the rampant COVID-19 pandemic sweeping through the colonial U.S. prison system, according to a recent study by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 

As of May 8, there have been 4,929 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in San Diego County and 165 deaths. The death rate of 3.3 percent, San Diego County’s COVID-19 death rate is 55 percent of the U.S. national average. Tijuana, the Baja California city across the false border, comparatively has 1,136 verified cases—77 percent fewer cases than San Diego—but 226 deaths!

PARIS—Throughout April thousands of young Africans and Arabs locked down in the impoverished Paris suburbs rose up in fierce resistance against the ongoing French colonial state repression which has intensified as the coronavirus spreads.

HAITI—Plain and simple, the first Workers' Revolution in the world took place on the island of Ayiti, the true name of the land that makes up both Ayiti (Haiti) and the Dominican Republic.

“We are hungry, we got no jobs and we can’t pay our rent and bills!” 

Editor’s note: Bub Myers from the Uhuru Furniture store in Philadelphia has been locked down in the clutches of the colonial prison system in Pennsylvania for over a year for a minor parole violation with no trial or conviction.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has the sixth largest U.S. rapid transit system by ridership and the fifth largest overall transit system. Sixty-four percent of its workforce is African, as well as forty-eight percent of its overall ridership of 4 million people. 

COVID-19 is not a medical problem; it is a political problem. Its origins must be put in the context of what’s happening in the world today and who stands to profit from this deadly form of biological warfare. 

Editor’s note: This article appeared in the New York Amsterdam News on May 7, 2020. The Burning Spear salutes Assemblyman Charles Barron who is a long-standing member of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations.