Episodes
Monday Jul 25, 2016
Black Agenda Radio - 7.25.16
Monday Jul 25, 2016
Monday Jul 25, 2016
This is Black Agenda Radio, the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Your hosts are Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey, here they are with a weekly hour of African American political thought and action.
- Black activists took the fight against police terror to the cops’ doorstep, last week. Black Youth Project 100 and Black Lives Matter DC occupied the grounds of the Fraternal Order of Police union headquarters, in Washington. At about the same time, BYP100, Black Lives Matter and the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice staged a sit-in at the New York City offices of another police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Samantha Masters is a spokesperson for the activists in the nation’s capital.
- There’s been yet another acquittal in Baltimore of a police officer in the death of Freddie Gray. We spoke with Jill Carter, a member of the Maryland state legislature, who’s also a defense attorney who hails from an activist, civil rights family. Carter says, given that cops are so seldom charged with crimes against Black civilians, and hardly ever convicted, lots of folks were not surprised that it looks like no one will pay for the fatal injuries to Freddie Gray’s spine while in police custody.
- What does the rise of Donald Trump say about the United States? The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, files this report on The Trump Triumph.
- The grassroots rebellion in both the Democratic and Republican parties may bode well for the growth prospects of the Green Party and Jill Stein, their anticipated presidential candidate. Dr. Margaret Flowers is an honorary co-chair of the Green’s national convention, coming up in August, and one of the authors of a series of open letters the Greens have sent to various political constituencies, urging them to break with the two-party, duopoly system.
- Bruce Carter used to be an organizer with Black Men for Bernie, before Sanders capitulated to Hillary Clinton. Carter says he’s through with the Democrats, but he will be in Philadelphia this week when Clinton accepts her presidential nomination.
- The Olympic Games kick off next month in Rio De Janeiro, but Brazil is in political turmoil. The impeachment trial of the country’s elected President, Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers Party, is set to begin in mid-August. The corporate media in Brazil and the United States act as if Rousseff’s removal is a done deal. However, a federal prosecutor has ruled that the charges against Rousseff do not constitute a crime, and it is believed that there may be a large enough bloc in the Brazilian Senate to prevent her ouster. Maria Luisa Mendonca is director of Brazil’s Network for Social Justice and Human Rights and a professor of international relations at the University of Rio De Jenairo, which has been closed down since the so-called “soft coup”
Visit the BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday
Monday Jul 18, 2016
Black Agenda Radio - 7.18.16
Monday Jul 18, 2016
Monday Jul 18, 2016
This is Black Agenda Radio, the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Your hosts are Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey, here they are with a weekly hour of African American political thought and action.
– Something is different in Black America than it was two weeks ago. The police killings of Black men in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, the massive protests that followed, and Micah Johnson’s retaliation against Dallas police, left a distinct mark on the Black psyche. We asked Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar and member of the Black Radical Organizing Committee, if he thinks something has changed in the mood and the minds of Black folks?
- Thousands are expected to descend on Philadelphia next week, for protests at the Democratic National Convention. Scott Williams, of the International Action Center, is an organizer for a “Shut Down the DNC” march, on July 26. However, before the protesters can confront the National Democratic Party, they first have to fight with the local Democrats and the police.
- Angelo Brown, a Black father of 15 children who was shot to death by police in Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis, was also known as Houdari Juelani, a general in the Revolutionary Black Panther Party. The police claim that Angelo Brown threatened them with a gun. His body showed signs of having been beaten. Dr. Ali Muhammad is Chief General in Command of the Revolutionary Black Panther Party. He’s also a doctor of neurological medicine. Dr. Muhammad talks about his slain comrade.
- Mumia Abu Jamal, a veteran of the original Black Panther Party for Self Defense, is glad to report on a victory for a fellow political prisoner.
- The long arm of civil law reaches at least as deep and far as criminal law – and, if you don’t have money, you will not find justice in civil law, either. Evictions, home foreclosures, domestic disputes – all of these arenas of conflict come under civil law. David Udell is executive director of the National Center for Access to Justice, located at Cardozo Law School, in New York City. His center has created a Justice Index, that measures access to civil court justice in all 50 states. Udell says the civil law caseload dwarfs the criminal justice system.
Visit the BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday.
Monday Jul 04, 2016
Black Agenda Radio - 7.04.16
Monday Jul 04, 2016
Monday Jul 04, 2016
This is Black Agenda Radio, the radio magazine that brings you news,
commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Your hosts are
Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey, here they are with a weekly hour of African
American political thought and action.
- In two three weeks, Philadelphia will host the Democratic National
Convention and thousands of protesters who would like to shut the whole
thing down. We spoke with Erica Mimes, of the Philly Coalition for REAL
Justice, part of the People of Color DNC Resistance Against Police
Terrorism and State Repression. They’ve teamed up with “Shut Down DNC”
for a march at the height of the convention, on Tuesday, July 26th. But Philadelphia officials have not yet granted them a parade permit. Mimes doesn’t expect fairness of the city.
- MONEY
makes the world of the Democrats and the Republicans go round,
according to Dr. Thomas Ferguson, professor of political science at the
University of Massachusetts, at Boston. Dr. Ferguson is author of the
book, “The Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and
the Logic of Money Driven Politics.” He says says this election season
has been quite unusual, on both sides of the two-party system. Bernie
Sanders mounted a challenge to the Democratic establishment with mostly
small campaign contributions, and Donald Trump used his personal fortune
to raise issues that Republicans hardly ever talk about. Does that mean
Donald Trump marches to a different drummer?
- Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, is among
the speakers who will address a mass meeting on “The Politics of
Incarceration in Palestine and the United States,” on July 15th,
at the Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Educational Center, in New York
City. Nyle Forte, a young minister and Phad candidate from Newark, New
Jersey, is also a speaker, along with others who recently traveled to
Palestine. We asked Nyle Forte what Israeli treatment of Palestinians
has to do with mass Black incarceration in the United States.
- On the 4th
of July in the year 1852, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass
said, “There is not a nation on earth guilty of practices more shocking
and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.”
We spoke with Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report editor and senior
columnist, and asked her if Frederick Douglass’s assessment sounds
familiar, in the present day.
- Holidays like the 4th
of July don’t mean much to the 2.2 million people locked up in this
country’s prisons. Political prison Yan Lahman has for months been
denied direct communication with the outside world. His commentary, for
Prison Radio, is titled “Prisoners’ Voices Blocked and Censorship of
U.S. Prisons.” It’s read by Lynn Stewar, the people’s lawyer who has
also been a political prisoner, herself.
Visit the BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday.