Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio - 10.30.17

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Black and Brown students at Philadelphia’s Temple University hold an all-day conference on Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton and the Struggle for World Peace and Self-Determination; and, a New York City DJ reports on the ten days she spent among the people of Palestine, under Israeli military occupation.

Dr. Johnny Wlliams, a professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut, has been put on a leave of absence, in the wake of organized white protests against a statement he posted on social media, this summer. Dr. Williams was angry over police killings of Black people. He had recently read a post by someone that called himself “Son of Baldwin,” who titled his piece, “Let Them Ef-fing Die.”

In Philadelphia, this past weekend, students from Temple University’s Black and Brown Coalition held an all-day conference on Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton and the Struggle for World Peace and Self-Determination. Some of the organizers, like Davya Nair, are also members of the Philadelphia Saturday Free School. Nair spoke on the subject of Education for Liberation.

Elias Gonzalez also spoke at the panel on Education for Liberation. He learned something early on when he joined the Philadelphia Free School, two years ago.

Christie Love is a New York City area DJ and political activist, who recently returned from a ten-day trip to Israeli-Occupied Palestine. DJ Christie Lover reported back to “Existence for Resistance,” one of the organizations that made her trip in solidarity with Palestinians possible. Christie Lover told Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser what she learned about the day-to- day lives of Palestinians.

And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 10.23.17

 Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Ten years after a murder conviction was thrown out because of racist prosecution practices, the Philadelphia District attorney is pressing for the death penalty against Sugar Bear Lark. And, activists across the country turn out for National Stop Police Brutality Day.

 

People around the world are marking the 100 th anniversary of the Great October Russian Revolution. Next year will mark the 15oth anniversary of the birth of the great scholar and activist W.E.B. Dubois. In Philadelphia, Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro is celebrating both anniversaries.

 

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office wants to kill Robert Lark, a 63 year old Black man who has been imprisoned almost 40 years in the death of a shopkeeper for. Lark is better known as “Sugar Bear,” a politically active prisoner whose death sentence was overturned ten years ago because Blacks were systematically kept off the jury. Sugar Bear is a prison contemporary of Mumia Abu Jamal, a fellow Black Philadelphian and the nation’s best known political prisoner. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Dr. Johanna Fernandez, a professor of history and African American studies at Baruch College and an activist with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. Fernandez was asked, is Sugar Bear Lark a political prisoner?

 

In many cities across the United States, activists took to the streets this past weekend for National Stop Police Brutality Day. Larry Hamm, chairman of Newark, New Jersey’s People’s Organization for Progress, explains.

 

Black women are the fastest growing population in U.S. prisons. At the Pennsylvania prison for women, in Muncy, inmate Terry Harper presented this essay for Prison Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 10.16.17

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The city council in Philadelphia rejects the idea of Black Community Control of the Police, so activists take the concept directly to the people; and, the Black and indigenous peoples of Colombia, South America,
demand that the government respect their rights to collective ownership of the land.

The Black Is Back Coalition is preparing for its annual March on the White House and national conference, on November 4 th and 5 th . The theme of the conference is “The Ballot AND the Bullet: Elections, War and Peace in the Era of Donald Trump.” We spoke with Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela.

Diop Olugbala is a Black is Back activist in Philadelphia, where he was one of the organizers of a local conference on Black community control of the police.

In Colombia, South America, the government has signed a peace deal with FARC guerillas to end a 60 year war. Part of that agreement called on the government to recognize Black and indigenous Colombians’ collective right to land, and to develop their own economies. However, Charo Mina Rojas, of the Afro-Colombian organization Black Community Process, says the government has resisted actual implementation of the agreement.

Charles Diggs is a long-time inmate at the Graterford State prison, in Pennsylvania. He’s written an essay for Prison Radio, titled, Fear of Love. 

And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 10.09.17

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: A Philadelphia Judge has supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal worried; Canadians of Caribbean descent organize for political solidarity; and, Is the U.S. trying to depopulate its island colony of Puerto Rico?

A question of religion and Black radicalism. Dr. Vincent Lloyd is a professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University. Dr. Lloyd wrote a recent article for Black Agenda Report, in which he maintained that Black American religion is rooted in radicalism, exemplified by leaders such as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. Lloyd said that what he calls “secularism” means being caught up in “the world as it is,” and not as it should be.

Donald Trump is almost certainly the most disliked man in Puerto Rico. Trump’s insulting remarks in the wake of Hurricane Irma cut deep into Puerto Rican pride. The U.S. colony has lost 10 percent of its population in the last decade due to U.S. economic policies. Some folks believe that the real goal of U.S. policy is to depopulate the island. We spoke with Kevin Cashman, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington.

The Caribbean region has been battered by both global warming and neocolonial political relationships. Runako Gregg is a co-founder of the Canada-based Caribbean Solidarity Network. He spoke to us from Toronto.

It’s been 100 years since the Russian Revolution changed the history of the world. Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African Amerian Studies at Houston University, was part of a celebration of the past century of Struggle for Scientific Socialism. Dr. Horne discussed the seminal work of historian Philip S. Foner, author of the book, The Bolshevik Revolution and Its Impact on American Radicals, Liberals, and Labor.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, are worried about the recent conduct of Judge Leon Tucker. The Pennsylvania judge had earlier demanded that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office provide all of its files on Abu Jamal’s case, so he could determine if the DA had shown a bias towards his political allies in the Fraternal Order of Police. However, last month Judge Tucker appeared to ease up on his pressures on the DA’s office. Sophia Williams, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, is worried.

And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 10.02.17

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: an activist with the Black Alliance for Peace urges anti-war and environmental groups to make their movements look more like the people of planet Earth; and, the chairman of the Jericho Movement talks about the plight of America’s aging political prisoners – in particular, the attack on former Black Panther Herman Bell.

The media is full of discussion, nowadays, about racist behavior, but not much attention is paid to the actual material conditions of Black life in the United States. Black Agenda Report contributor Danny Haiphong recently wrote an article on the precarious financial state of Black families. It’s titled, “Black America: The Wealth-less Community.”

Peace and environmental activists came together for an historic conference in Washington DC, to explore ways to strengthen collaboration between the two movements. One of those on hand was Rev. Lukata Mjumbe, a Black minister in Irvington, New Jersey, and veteran human rights and environmental justice activist. Rev. Mjumbe is on the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace.

The Jericho Movement does its best to represent the interests and welfare of political prisoners in the United States. The Jericho Movement’s list is shrinking, not because the U.S. isn’t creating new political prisoners, but because activists incarcerated in the Sixties and Seventies are dying off. The surviving imprisoned radicals still catch hell from prison guards. Sixty-nine year old former Black Panther Herman Bell was seriously injured when he was attacked by New York State prison guards, last month. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with the chairman of the National Jericho Movement, Jihad Abdulmumit.

The news on corporate media is largely fake or non-existent, but there are a few broadcast outlets that serve the people’s information needs. One of them is WMXP radio, in Greenville, South Carolina, which is run by the folks at Greenville’s Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination. Veteran people’s lawyer and activist Efia Nwangaza is the Center’s executive director.

And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.