News - Middle East: “Imperialist war is no solution to the long-term crises of US capitalism,” according to an African American journalist and political analyst.

“Both the Democrats and Republicans represent the ruling interests in the US including the Pentagon. These policies, if continued, could lead to an even deeper malaise within the body politics of the country,” Abayomi Azikiwe said during an interview with Press TV on Sunday.

He also said the United States has experienced “the reemergence of anti-Asian hate crimes along with police and vigilante attacks on African Americans, Latin Americans, Muslims and the immigrant communities.”

Azikiwe, an editor at the Pan-African News Wire, made the remarks while commenting on an analysis of mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which revealed a nearly 30 percent increase in gun-related deaths among Americans up to age 19 between 2019 and 2020.

The researchers said these deaths include incidents of suicide, accidental shootings, and homicides, with homicides outpacing the other two categories.

“There are various reasons for this increase in my opinion. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic created tensions within families and communities. An overall social dislocation and alienation set in during the early phase of the pandemic,” Azikiwe said.

“Millions were told to not come to work. The ones who can be considered fortunate were able to work from home in the technical fields. However, others were put out of work and business because of the lockdown and the fear of contracting the virus. In homes where there were already problems, the situation could easily escalate and become violent,” he said.

“In addition to the economic downturn coupled lately with an inflation rate not witnessed in over four decades in the United States, many families and neighborhoods are under tremendous pressure. During this period as well, racial violence accelerated. The US has experienced the reemergence anti-Asian hate crimes along with police and vigilante attacks on African Americans, Latin Americans, Muslims and the immigrant communities,” he added.

The study also revealed the rise in shooting deaths among America’s youngest is part of a larger increase in homicides in that same time period.  Gun deaths across the US rose 33 percent. Black Americans, who make up 14 percent of the US population accounted for nearly half of the country’s homicide victims, according to FBI data released in the fall of 2021.

Azikiwe said that “most African Americans are within the working-class population in the US.”

“With the slowdown in the economy and a significant restructuring of the workplace and the labor market in general, people have been forced to adapt to the new reality of a society impacted by the worst public health crisis in more than a century. The federal government realized in the spring of 2020 that in order to avoid a depression on the scale of the 1929-1941 years, it must provide enhanced jobless benefits, loans and subsidies for businesses and direct payment to every household in the US,” he noted.

“Under both Presidents, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, several trillion dollars in assistance was provided to various sectors of the working class and ruling interests for the purpose of preventing a complete collapse of the national economy. Since the spring of 2021, there has been no new funds to address the ongoing pandemic in the US. Evictions are resuming in cities, suburbs and rural areas across the country. People are being told to go back to work, yet millions have either retired or resigned from their jobs since the summer of 2021,” he said.

“In fact, today, the ruling class is saying that there is an extreme labor shortage in the country. What the masses are saying is that they are not willing to go back and work under the same conditions which prevailed prior to the pandemic.

A recent poll indicated that 64 percent of those surveyed said they would rather quit than go back and work in an office. All of these factors speak to the failure of the Biden administration to pass social spending legislation that could provide the support which is needed in the current period of social transitions,” he observed.    

The Biden-Harris administration announced last year a comprehensive strategy to combat gun violence and other violent crime.