Episodes
Monday Dec 31, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 12.31.18
Monday Dec 31, 2018
Monday Dec 31, 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: Mumia Abu Jamal wins a victory in court, and celebrates a legal win for sick inmates in Pennsylvania’s prisons; and a police reform group wants to safeguard mentally ill people from police violence.
a New Year is dawning, and it’s been two years since investigations began into the so-called Russiagate scandal. But Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley says, the main charge against President Trump, Wikileaks and the Russian government remains unproven.
If there is an anti-war faction in the Democratic Party, it’s been very quiet in the wake of President Trump’s decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria. We spoke with longtime peace activist Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center. Flounders is also active in the Hands Off Syria Campaign. The Democrats are screaming to high heaven with outrage at Trumps plans for a Syria pullout..
A Philadelphia judge has ruled that the nation’s best known political prisoner has the right to present another appeal of his 1982 conviction in the death of a police officer. Mumia Abu Jamal proved his contention that a prosecutor in his case, who went on to become a judge, unconstitutionally influenced Abu Jamal’s previous appeal, which was turned down. Meanwhile, Abu Jamal continues to turn out award-winning journalism for Prison Radio. This week, he reports on another victory for Pennsylvania prison inmates.
Millions of white people live in New York City, but you wouldn’t know that if you visited the courts and jails of the city’s five boroughs. The Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP, reports that close to 9 out of 10 people facing arraignment in local courts on any given day, are Black or Latino. PROP executive director Robert Gangi says his group’s new project is to change the way mentally ill people are treated in New York.
Wednesday Dec 26, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 12.26.18
Wednesday Dec 26, 2018
Wednesday Dec 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: Is the U.S. empire coming apart at the seams? A Black political analyst says, “Yes, it is.” And, Americans think they are the nicest, most generous people in the world, even as they bomb a great portion of the planet. But a new book shows that American Niceness is a mask, and even a weapon.
President Donald Trump shocked the U.S. military and imperial establishment with his decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria and to remove half of American military personnel from Afghanistan. The Black Alliance for Peace welcomed Trump’s withdrawals. Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party 2016 candidate for vice president, is the lead organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace.
The Democrats and others in the U.S. War party act as if Donald Trump is the cause of the U.S. domestic and international crisis. But Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Dubosian scholar based in Philadelphia, says Trump didn’t create the acute crisis that U.S. imperialism is undergoing…that it’s been a long time coming.
Americans, especially white Americans, seem to think that they are among the nicest people in the world, both personally and as a nation. Most of the world does NOT share that opinion. Dr. Carrie BRAY-man, a professor of English at Buffalo State University, in New York, has written a book on the subject. It’s called “American Niceness: A Cultural History.” BRAY-man says smiling faces can be very dangerous.
Monday Dec 17, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 12.17.18
Monday Dec 17, 2018
Monday Dec 17, 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: Students at Seton Hall University say they’ll renew demands for African Policies Studies professors of their own choosing; a new study reveals how much force the police use against civilians in every city and town in New Jersey; and, we’ll talk with the author of a new book on the imperial presidency of George Bush, the Elder
But first – There are some in the Black community that advocate all boys schools for Black males, as a way of combating high rates of drop-out and incarceration, and to install pride among young Black males. Keisha Lindsay has written a book on the subject. Lindsay is an associate professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. She’s author of the book, ““In A Classroom of Their Own: The Intersection of Race and Feminist Politics in All-Black Male Schools.” She says there is a long history of Black support for projects that promise Black-oriented education
At Seton Hall University, in South Orange, New Jersey, Black, brown and other minority students have banded together under the banner of the “Concerned 44” to stage a series of protests. Chris Duran is a spokesman for the students, who say they represent the 44 percent of the student population that are members of ethnic or gender minorities. They plan to renew their protests, after the holidays, to push a list of demands
Also in that state, New Jersey Advanced Media released a report documenting how police departments in every city and town in the state used force against civilians. Activists on the ground have found the report very useful in pressing their case against police racism and brutality. Zayid Muhammad is a veteran organizer with the Newark Communities for Accountable Policing, or N-CAP. We asked him if there were any surprises in the New Jersey Advanced Media report
George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st U.S. President and father of president Number 43, was laid to rest two weeks ago, with great pomp and ceremony. We spoke with noted author and professor of politics Anthony DiMaggio, who wrote an article for Counterpunch, titled, “Imperialist in Chief: A Critical History of George H.W. Bush’s War On Iraq.” DiMaggio says all U.S. presidents, of either party, seek to build and defend the American empire
Monday Dec 10, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 12.10.18
Monday Dec 10, 2018
Monday Dec 10, 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 new book maintains that the real Russiagate conspirators are the CIA and the Deep State, which concocted the allegations in order to destroy any chance of peace with Moscow: Activists fighting for Community Control of the Chicago police have targetted virtually the entire city council for ouster in the next elections; and, the American Public Health Association endorses treating police violence as a national public health issue.
The Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference gathered its forces for a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, this past weekend. Black Agenda Report was there.
The Mueller investigation into the so-called Russiagate scandal is reported to be nearing a conclusion, but after two years, there’s still no hard evidence of collusion between Wikileaks, the Russian government and the Trump election campaign. Dan Kovalik is a longtime activist and author, whose new book is titled, “The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin.” Kovalik says the spinners of the Russiagate tale are ginning up war fever, trying to destroy any chance that a peace movement will re-emerge in the United States.
Activists in Chicago are building on their unprecedented recent victory, with the murder conviction of the white cop that killed Laquan McDonald. Frank Chapman is a veteran community organizer with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. He reflects on the state of the movement since the rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014
Hah-Day Rivera is an activist with Critical Resistance, a group of health professionals and anti-policing organizations that recently got the American Public Health Association to endorse the principle of treating police violence as a public health issue. Ms. Rivera is co-author of the ground-breaking report that convinced the Association that fundamental changes need to be made in how policing is done in the United States.
Monday Dec 03, 2018
Black Agenda Radio - 12.03.18
Monday Dec 03, 2018
Monday Dec 03, 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: After gaining an historic murder conviction of a killer cop, anti-police repression forces in Chicago are gearing up for a massive campaign to change the make-up of the entire city government; and, supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal preparingfor another court hearing in their 37-year long struggle to throw out his conviction in the death of a Philadelphia policeman.
First Senator Bernie Sanders, who is presumed to be getting ready for another run at the Democratic presidential nomination, last month unveiled a ten-point domestic program, full of multi-trillion dollar initiatives for Medicare-for-All health care, a massive remake of U.S. national infrastructure, free college tuition, and a dismantling of the mass incarceration regime. But Sanders has little to say on foreign policy or about reducing the military budget that eats up most of federal tax monies. Frustrated with Sanders, over 100 noted intellectuals and activists sent a letter, calling on the senator to come out against U.S. militarism. David Swanson is a veteran anti-war activist and publisher of the influential web site, War Is A Crime. He was one of the framers of that letter.
Black activists in Chicago plan to build on their recent victory, with the historic murder conviction of the cop that killed Laquan McDonald, by changing the balance of power of the city’s board of alderman. Aislinn Pulley is with Black Lives Matter, Chicago. She says the momentum is on the movement’s side.
Supporters of the nation’s best known political prisoner scrambled to bring as many activists to Philadelphia as possible for another court hearing in Mumia Abu Jamal’s challenge to his life prison sentence in the 1981 death of a police officer. Johanna Fernandez is with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. She was interview by Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser.
Pam Africa is part of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal and Minister of Information for the MOVE organization. MOVE has supported Mumia ever since his arrest in 1981, just as Mumia, as a young radio reporter, was one of the few that provided coverage to the MOVE 9, who were imprisoned in the death of a Philadelphia cop, in 1978. Pam Africa explained why they had to scramble to get to court for the latest hearing.