Green Party Candidates Face Arrest: An Interview With Green Party VP Candidate Ajamu Baraka

By Dennis J Bernstein, Reader Supported News

10 September 16

 

he latest twist in the 2016 presidential campaign comes with the issuing of warrants for the arrest of the presidential and vice presidential candidates running on the Green Party ticket, Dr. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka. Baraka was notified on Wednesday. Stein had been notified on Tuesday. According to an extended radio interview on Pacifica Radio’s Flashpoints show on Wednesday, only hours after he had been notified by authorities, Mr. Baraka told host Dennis Bernstein that they were being charged regarding their trip over the weekend to Standing Rock, North Dakota, to stand with the indigenous tribes resisting the oil pipeline expansion through sacred native burial grounds.

Dennis Bernstein: Welcome back to Flashpoints, Ajamu Baraka. You were, in fact, at Standing Rock. You have indicated you had the strongest desire to stand by the indigenous communities. Could you explain why you feel so strongly about this issue?

Ajamu Baraka: We traveled to the site to stand in solidarity with the people, the indigenous resisters there. We had a chance to communicate with folks and break bread with people for a couple of days. We went out to the front line sites to be in solidarity with the folks. We addressed the people and they were very happy that we were, in fact, there. In the process, there were comments being written on the machines the people had commandeered.

And so, as an act of solidarity, we also added our comments to that process. But because we are being surveilled and those images were communicated around the world, the local authorities thought that it would be a proper and good thing to then levy charges against us for criminal trespassing and vandalism. Which is interesting because all of the crimes that we witnessed, and many of your listeners witnessed, in terms of the images we saw coming from those sites, protestors are being attacked with dogs, and all of that. They would then spend their times, resources, and energy in attempting to intimidate us with flimsy charges.

DB: So have you been served by the police? How do you know they are seeking you and Jill Stein?

Baraka: We haven’t been officially served. But we were notified that those charges were pending. They charged Jill yesterday, and then they added me today. It’s been reported in the local press there that the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office is indicating that they were going to levy charges against us, and that arrest warrants had, in fact, been issued.

DB: So is this ... do we know if this is the first time in the history of the United States that a presidential and vice presidential candidate have been served with a warrant while they were running for office? I guess Hillary and all those e-mails, and all that stuff … well, nothing there.

Baraka: No charges. We get charged.

DB: You stepped over a certain line when you wrote on the side of a company truck in protest of their attacks on the sacred burial grounds, including using trained attack dogs against peaceful protesters. What did you write on the truck?

Baraka: I said that what we needed in North Dakota was authentic decolonization.

DB: Authentic decolonization.

Baraka: That’s what I wrote.

DB: And what does that mean to you? Obviously, they didn’t like it.

Baraka: Well, it means that basically the issues that are facing the indigenous people are issues that are a reality because indigenous people don’t have full control over their sovereignty, the sovereignty over their land that they originally owned. That this company has trampled on ancestral land, threatening water that they [indigenous peoples] are the protectors of. They have trampled on burial grounds, and the only recourse that the indigenous appear to have is to make appeals to the U.S. authorities and to put their bodies on the line, to try to stop this. Now, if there were not a settler occupation, then they wouldn’t have those kinds of issues. So, you know, if there’s going to be real social justice here in this place we call the United States of America, then we have to address this issue of the rights of indigenous ... the issue of sovereignty and self-determination. And that means that we have to have a process of authentic decolonization. We’re not going to have social justice as long as there’s continuity in this settler colonial project. And that’s a very difficult conversation, because all of us are implicated – those of us who came voluntarily, our ancestors, and involuntarily. We have to have a conversation about what it really means to have a decolonized United States of America.

DB: Are you concerned? If you decide to surrender – I don’t know if you will or you won’t – but these days black men are in danger when they’re in custody of law enforcement. And it doesn’t matter which direction you are facing, you oftentimes end up getting shot in the back. Your concerns about your relationship with law enforcement, and the nature of racism in this country?

Baraka: Well, of course, there are those concerns. I mean, especially when we are talking about North Dakota. Are we’re talking about parts of the country in which, you know, white supremacist activity has been part of their traditions. And a population where only 1% of the population is, in fact, African-American. Yes, there will be that concern. And we are in discussions with our legal team about how we’re going to deal with this.

DB: Remind people what distinguishes your candidacy, and Jill Stein’s candidacy, from the other folks who will definitely not be arrested, apparently in both cases, in major candidates, Clinton and Trump, no matter what they do.

Baraka: I think that’s the most obvious distinction, that we are under arrest warrants as a consequence of standing in solidarity with people who are resisting injustice, people who are resisting the concentrated power of corporate America and the colonial state. That would never happen with the other major party candidates because, of course, they represent the elite. They represent the 1%. And that is the major distinction here. Basically, we stand with the people. We are struggling for a real democracy and social justice, and an end to the colonial project. So the policies that we are advocating for, are representing, and our transitional plan, that is our platform...these are policies that we feel as important, important reforms on the road towards the kind of fundamental change that has to take place in this country for us to really begin to address the ongoing issues of oppression, and structural exploitation here in this country. So, those are the distinctions, that we are about fundamental change, and the other two parties are managing the status quo.

DB: Now, finally, What was going through your mind when you saw these folks release the dogs, use the dogs to attack the indigenous community while all they were doing was defending sacred burial grounds. What were some of the thoughts going through your mind? It must have got you going.

Baraka: It reminded me of all of the colonial struggles that we have seen and been a part of for decades. It reminded me of Birmingham, it reminded me of South Africa, it reminded me of all of these [UNCLEAR 10:49 audio spasm] concentrated white power has used the power of the state to try to maintain its dominance. And the use of dogs seems to be something that has been a permanent part of the process. Dogs were used in the South to run down slaves, enslaved people running from slavery, to run down people who had escaped from prisons, to intimidate Muslim detainees in these black sites and places like Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Dogs were used by the Conquistadors throughout the Americas. Now there’s this relationship between the colonial project and Europeans, and the use of these dogs. So all of that flies through my mind as I follow scenes where these security guards are coming out and using these dogs in a very aggressive and dehumanizing way.

DB: All right, Ajamu Baraka, We’re going to follow this closely. A very amazing presidential campaign takes another turn. Thanks so much for being with us.

Baraka: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

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Dennis J Bernstein is the executive producer of Flashpoints, syndicated on Pacifica Radio, and is the recipient of a 2015 Pillar Award for his work as a journalist whistleblower. He is most recently the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom.

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