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

The African World

Building an Institution: Ten Years of – BlackCommentator.com!

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

Is it possible that it has been ten years? Apparently so. And in this day when it seems like organizations and institutions come and go at the snap of two fingers, there is something to be said about BC not only being alive and kicking but growing. As someone who has been associated with BC…

Is it possible that it has been ten years? Apparently so. And in this day when it seems like organizations and institutions come and go at…

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The African World

Presentation on “MX” To the Left Forum in New York City, Saturday, March 17, 2012 [edited version]

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

Good afternoon.� My thanks to Herb Boyd for inviting me to participate on this panel and my thanks to Herb and Haki Madhubuti for inviting me to contribute to the book of essays in response to the publication of Manning Marable�s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Once we have established that Malcolm X was…

Good afternoon.� My thanks to Herb Boyd for inviting me to participate on this panel and my thanks to Herb and Haki Madhubuti for inviting me…

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The African World

What is happening with the Republicans?

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

Look, I have no idea who will win in November but I have to say that what I am seeing among the Republicans is more bizarre than anything I have ever witnessed. The �circle of clowns� of Republican candidates seems increasingly intent on proving that they are the voices of ignorance, fear and irrationalism.� I…

Look, I have no idea who will win in November but I have to say that what I am seeing among the Republicans is more bizarre…

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Cover Story

International Women’s Day and Black America – Women’s History Month

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

International Women�s Day (March 8th) introduces �Women�s History Month�, IWD came into being in the early 20th century as a result of the struggles of women workers in New York. Women around the world commemorate that day as a day of struggle and recognition of women�s on-going efforts toward achieving freedom and dignity. Yet in…

International Women�s Day (March 8th) introduces �Women�s History Month�, IWD came into being in the early 20th century as a result of the struggles of women…

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The African World

The Other Meaning of February 21st For Me

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

As a political activist, February 21st always brought to mind the assassination of Malcolm X and his historical legacy.� On February 21, 1989 all that changed for me when that date assumed a double meaning with the birth of my second child. My wife was told that she would need to have a caesarian delivery…

As a political activist, February 21st always brought to mind the assassination of Malcolm X and his historical legacy.� On February 21, 1989 all that changed…

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The African World

An Apology Ceremony That We Need to Publicize

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

On February 26th, a ceremony is to take place in California apologizing to the approximately 400,000 people of Mexican ancestry who were deported from the USA in a spate of ethnic cleansing that gripped the USA during the Depression. What is at stake in this ceremony is not only the apology but what it says…

On February 26th, a ceremony is to take place in California apologizing to the approximately 400,000 people of Mexican ancestry who were deported from the USA…

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The African World

Revolutionary Jose Maria Sison on US Imperialism and a Way Forward for the Philippines

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

In 2002, seemingly out of nowhere, then US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the USA henceforth considered the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and their armed wing, the New People�s Army (NPA), to be terrorist organizations. Additionally, they labeled a long-time Philippine revolutionary leader and theorist – Jose Maria Sison – to…

In 2002, seemingly out of nowhere, then US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the USA henceforth considered the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)…

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The African World

King, 1967 and Challenging Your “Friends”

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

Each year, at the time of the celebration of the life of Dr. King, little attention is focused on King�s April 1967 speech against US aggression in Vietnam.� We are exposed to remembrances concerning the 1963 March on Washington, and sometimes the events surrounding his murder in 1968, but little about his strong stand against…

Each year, at the time of the celebration of the life of Dr. King, little attention is focused on King�s April 1967 speech against US aggression…

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The African World

What are we to make of the USA, Israeli, Iranian dance of death?

By Bill Fletcher, Jr. Editorial Board

In watching the USA/Israeli vs. Iranian tensions play out, I found myself thinking about the similarities with the British/Argentine war in the early 1980s over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. Talk about a useless, purposeless war�except for one thing. The ruling elites of both countries needed it. In the early 1980s the Argentine military government was in…

In watching the USA/Israeli vs. Iranian tensions play out, I found myself thinking about the similarities with the British/Argentine war in the early 1980s over the…

Continue reading 4 min

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