Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

Editorial Board

Bill Fletcher, Jr.

Jr.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is the executive editor of globalafricanworker.com, former president of TransAfrica Forum, and a lifetime trade unionist. He is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, and the author of The Man Who Changed Colors, “They’re Bankrupting Us” - And Twenty Other Myths about Unions and the novel The Man Who Fell From the Sky. He is also the co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice, which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA. Mr. Fletcher is also Co-editor of "Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral". Other Bill Fletcher, Jr. writing can be found at billfletcherjr.com. Contact Mr. Fletcher and BC.

309 pieces

Commentary

The Labor Movement Is in a Fight for Its Existence Against a Neofascist Threat

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

For unions to survive, they must embrace antifascism.

In countries across the capitalist world, trade union movements are being challenged to their very core by the growth of right-wing populist and neofascist mass movements.…

Continue reading 9 min

The African World

Black History Month Cover Story: Discussing History During Black History Month

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

The attack on so-called critical race theory has been an attack not only on African American history but an attack on any history that addresses oppression, oppressive systems, and atrocities.

For years, I held an ambivalent view of Black History Month. On the one hand, it was and is a source of pride in that we…

Continue reading 3 min

The African World

Thousands March in Rabat for Palestine; What About Western Sahara?

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

Humans possess the ability to hold, within their minds, completely contradictory and/or inconsistent viewpoints.

When I saw the picture of tens of thousands demonstrating in Morocco’s capital Rabat in support of Palestinian self-determination, I had very mixed emotions. For sure,…

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Cover Story

A Defense of Fiction: Writing “The Man Who Changed Colors”

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

I wanted to tap into the Cape Verdean experience to show the expansive and complicated nature of racism and that the experience with British and “American” oppression in North America was not the only experience of racism,

When I wrote my first published novel, The Man Who Fell From the Sky, I encountered considerable skepticism from a number of friends and colleagues. Why,…

Continue reading 5 min

The African World

‘B4’ It’s Too Late: The Socialist Left’s Role in Fighting Autocracy

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

It is important to be clear that the right-wing populist/authoritarian movement that has become energized since 2009 did not appear out of nowhere.

B4—the Broad Front Opposing the Right—can’t be about the status quo. While it must be aimed at defeating all attacks on our democratic rights, its thrust…

Continue reading 12 min

The African World

Emulating Malcolm X

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

May 19th is an important day on which we should remember the invaluable contributions of Malcolm X. It is also a day to emphasize that emulating Malcolm X goes beyond appearance, oratory or militancy: it is about building a lasting struggle for liberation and justice, and creating the organizational vehicles through which we can pursue that course.

Regardless of one's analysis of the Nation of Islam - then or now - the reality is that it provided a stepping stone for numerous black…

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The African World

Twenty Years On: Remembering Nadra Floyd on November 7th

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

When someone affects your life so deeply that you not only must remember them, there are special moments when you need to remind others of the immense value that person held, not only for you but for so many others.

November 7, 2001, started as a beautiful autumn day. As was normal, I put in a morning call to my good friend, Nadra Floyd, who resided…

Continue reading 10 min

The African World

The GOP: Worker’s Party or Party of the White Republic?

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

We must be clear. This illusory pro-worker conservatism has nothing to do with labor rights, income inequality, occupational health and safety, or progressive economic development—urgent issues that confront workers every day.

The Republican Party is a "working class party" now, according to its nationalist wing. But a deeper look at its pro-worker rhetoric reveals a longstanding trope…

Continue reading 12 min

The African World

The Republican Party As the Party for Dictatorship

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

Bipartisanship in Congress and in our state legislatures must be based upon the expansion of democracy rather than its contraction.

It is now clear; it is no longer hidden. The Republican Party has announced itself to be the political party-for-dictatorship. How do we know? In 43…

Continue reading 3 min

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