Episodes
Monday Nov 26, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 11.26.18
Monday Nov 26, 2018
Monday Nov 26, 2018
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: Russiagate is all Democrats and other members of the War Party want to talk about, but the author of a new book says the whole affair was concocted by the former head of the CIA; a Black activist and writer from Canada cautions that the Great White North has its own history of racial repression and police brutality; and, Mumia Abu Jamal has a requiem for the fading U.S. empire.
Dublin, Ireland, was the site of the world’s First International Conference Against U.S. and NATO military bases. The U.S. has between 800 and 1000 military bases around the world, and a military budget that equals all the other nations on the planet, combined. The United States has taken upon itself the duties of world policeman, waging war by military or economic means with no regard for international law. The U.S. is now the main military power in Africa, with an entire military command centered on the continent. Paul Pumprhey is a veteran Black activist and a founding member of Friends of the Congo. He told the conference in Ireland that the U.S. has been exploiting and causing mass death in the Congo for well over a century.
For more than two years, the Democratic Party and most the U.S. corporate media have been waging a non-stop campaign to blame Russia for the myriad social and political conflicts that plague the United States. They call their conspiracy theory “Russiagate.” Ron Ridenhour is a longtime activist and author, now living in Denmark, whose new book is titled ““The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert.” Ridenhour says there is nothing the U.S. military industrial complex fears more than the prospect of world peace. He says the whole Russiagate affair is a misinformation campaign concocted by former CIA director John Brennan to rekindle the Cold War.
Lots of folks in the United States think that Canada is a country of racial tolerance. But Robyn Maynard, a Black activist based in Montreal, Canada, says Don’t believe the Canadian hype. Maynard is author of the new book, “Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present.” She says there’s more to policing and repression of Black Lives than just brutal cops with sticks and guns.
The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, reports for Prison Radio on the Twilight of U.S. Empire.
Monday Nov 19, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 11.19.18
Monday Nov 19, 2018
Monday Nov 19, 2018
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 world’s biggest corporation has chosen its two new headquarters cities, but some folks want Amazon to go back where it came from; we’ll hear from a Muslim liberation theologian, who says Islam should be on the side of the poor and oppressed; and, Mumia Abu Jamal files a report for Prison Radio
The Republican Party lost control of the U.S. House in the recent elections, but strengthened its hold on the Senate. Historically speaking, President Trump’s party was not beaten as badly as presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama were, in midterm elections. We spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific author and activist who teaches History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.
Amazon, the biggest corporation in the world, owned by Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, has decided to move its second corporate headquarters to the “power” cities of New York and Washington, DC. Cities and states across the country promised Amazon billions of dollars in tax incentives and subsidies if the corporation would bring 50 thousand jobs to town with it. The New York City half of the new headquarters will be located in the Long Island City, Queens neighborhood. But the city’s negotiations with Amazon have been super-secret. Maritza Silva-Farrell is executive director of Align, an alliance of New York community groups and labor organizations. She doesn’t trust Amazon one bit.
When we hear the term “liberation theology,” most of us think of the Christian religion. But there are liberation theologians in the Muslim faith, as well. Shadaab Rahemtulla is a Muslim liberation theologian, who teaches at the University of Jordan. He’s the author of a new book, titled, “Koran of the Oppressed: Liberation Theology and Gender Justice in Islam.” Professor Rahemtulla says a pro-poor, pro-equality, and pro-peace Islam is part of the global Muslim conversation.
The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, has filed a report for Prison Radio. It’s about A Man Who Knew Too Much.
Monday Nov 12, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 11.12.18
Monday Nov 12, 2018
Monday Nov 12, 2018
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 scholar of Native American and Black U.S. ancestry finds a path to greater unity among the two groups, in Hip Hop; Pan Africanists from the United States and elsewhere in the Diaspora make common cause with townspeople in Sierra Leone, West Africa; and, What role did the CIA play in the election of a fascist as president of Brazil?
An educator who has long studied policing in the United States says efforts to curb law enforcement abuse of Black communities are largely misdirected. Alex Vitale is a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and coordinator of the college’s Policing and Social Justice Project. Vitale is author of the new book, “The End of Policing.” He says attempts to reform the police simply won’t work.
Kyle Mays teaches at the Department of African American Studies and the Native American Center at the University of California, in Los Angeles. Mays is author of the new book, “Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in North America.” He gives equal attention to the histories of both peoples.
On January 1st, Brazil, the colossus of South America, with the largest Black population outside of Africa, will fall under the rule of Jair Bolsonaro, a racist and fascist, by any definition. Bolsonaro was elected president after a long period of political chaos that saw the legislative overthrow of the left-wing Workers Party government of Dilma Rousseff and the imprisonment of her predecessor, “Lula” da Silva. The United States had long sought to undermine the Workers Party. We spoke with Alexander Main, director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington. Main is a longtime observer of Brazilian politics. He says Brazilians suspect the CIA had a hand in the defeat of the Left, and the rise of Bolsonaro.
Foday Ajamu Mansaray is a Black American Pan Africanist, now living in Freetown, the capital of the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Mansaray is executive director of the Black Star Action Network International, which includes many ex-patriots from the Black Diaspora who have chosen to live and work on the continent. The Black Star Network’s latest project is called the “Be Clean” campaign.
Monday Nov 05, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 11.05.18
Monday Nov 05, 2018
Monday Nov 05, 2018
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 researcher tells how solitary confinement has been used to punish Black prison inmates for political reasons since at least the 1950s; a new book traces the growth of the armed and violent white power movement in the United States; and an international tribunal finds the United States guilty of crimes against the lives and rights of the people of Puerto Rico.
Activists in the prison abolition movement have been assessing the effectiveness of the latest national prison strike, which took place between August 21st and September 9th. Max Parthas is an internationally recognized prison slavery abolition activist, a spoken word artist, and former co-host of the Black Talk Radio program, Abolition Radio. Parthas and other abolitionists say slavery was legalized for prison inmates by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. He was interviewed by Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser, who asked, How did the latest national prison strike advance the cause of abolition?
A new book shows that, at least as far back as the 1950s prison officials have used solitary confinement as a political punishment against Black inmates. Brittany Friedman is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, and author of new the book, “Solitary Confinement and the Nation of Islam.”
Kathleen Belew teaches history at the University of Chicago, and is author of a new book that puts the recent killings of Blacks and Jews in historical perspective. Belew’s book is titled. “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.”
A people’s international tribunal put the United States government on trial for crimes against the people of Puerto Rico, an island country seized by the U.S. 120 years ago, and which was recently ravaged by a deadly hurricane. The people’s tribunal verdict was read in New York City.