Episodes
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Black Agenda Radio - 01.28.19
Monday Jan 28, 2019
Monday Jan 28, 2019
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: Women in business and politics are being praised for acting like cutthroat capitalists and war-mongering men. But, is that feminism? And, a leader of South Africa’s newly-formed Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party explains why workers must take political power in that country.
Dr. Martin Luther King is popularly known as a civil rights leader, but he was also deeply committed to the labor movement. Peter Cole teaches African American history at the University of Western Illinois. Cole is author of the book, "Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area.” He says labor issues were a top priority for Dr. King, who early on saw himself as a kind of socialist.
Women are engaged in all kinds of activities these days, including war, torture and cut-throat corporate business. But, is that progress? Dean Spade is a professor at the Seattle University School of Law, and co-author of a recent article titled, “There’s Nothing Feminist About Imperialism.”
South Africa has been under Black political rule for the past 25 years, since the end of apartheid. But the African National Congress government left control of the economy in the hands of white business interests. The gap between rich and poor has gotten even bigger. After decades of frustration, activists centered in the nation’s largest labor union, NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers, last year formed a new political party to fight against white monopoly capitalist rule. Irvin Jim is the leader of NUMSA and a key architect of the new Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party. Last week, he traveled to New York City to speak with American activists at the People’s Forum.
Also on hand at the People’s Forum was Dr. Cosmas Musumali, the General Secretary of the Socialist Party of the southern African nation of Zambia. The ruling party of Zambia has declared the Socialist Party to be a danger to national security, and party members are under constant danger of imprisonment. Dr. Musumali told his New York audience that the imperialist powers have enlisted African governments as collaborators in neocolonialism.
Monday Jan 21, 2019
Black Agenda Radio - 01.21.19
Monday Jan 21, 2019
Monday Jan 21, 2019
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: South Africa has been under Black political rule for a quarter century, but remains the most unequal society in the world. We’ll speak with the author of a book on South Africa’s poor people’s movement. And, the investigation into alleged collusion between Wikileaks, the Trump campaign and the Russian government is going into its third year, but there is still no hard evidence of so-called “collusion.” So, what’s behind all the anti-Russia hysteria?
The celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday is both a national holiday and a political institution. But, Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, points out that Dr. King’s writings have not been incorporated into the nation’s public school curriculums.
South Africa remains the world’s most unequal nation, despite the overthrow of white rule and racial apartheid, 25 years ago. Kerry Chance is an anthropologist at the University of Bergen, in Norway. She’s author of a new book on the millions of poor South Africans that struggle to find homes to raise their families. Dr. Chance’s book is titled, “Living Politics in South Africa’s Urban Shackland.”
Since before the votes were counted in November, 2016, the Democrats and elements of the national security state have charged that Hillary Clinton lost the election because of collusion between the Russians, Wikileaks and the Trump campaign. But, more than two years later, there is still no hard evidence of collusion. We spoke with Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and one of the founders of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
Monday Jan 14, 2019
Black Agenda Radio - 01.14.19
Monday Jan 14, 2019
Monday Jan 14, 2019
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: Marxists have been calling on workers of the world to unite for more than a century and a half. But can workers still change the world. A new book says, Yes. And, Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal urge Philadelphia’s chief prosecutor not to stand in the way of possible pathway to freedom.
The Democrats seem certain to step up their investigations of the Trump administration, now that they are a majority In the U.S. House. That also probably means even more frenzied efforts to link Russia to the Trump presidential campaign. Stephen Cohen is the nation’s best known expert on Russia, having studied that nation’s politics in both the Soviet era, and after Russia became capitalist. Cohen spoke with Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford, who remembers the tail end of anti-Russian hysteria during the McCarty Era. But Ford cannot recall anything during the McCarthy era that was as manic, loud and relentless has today’s hysteria against Russia. Professor Cohen, agrees.
Russia may be capitalist, but socialists around the world still seek the overthrow of the rule of the rich. Michael Yates is an editor with the prestigious left publication, Monthly Review. He’s a longtime labor education and a prolific author. Yates’ latest book is entitled, “Can the Working Class Change the World?” Yates think they can, and must. But, most Americans don’t think of themselves as being in the working class, and very few know that 200 million Indian workers recently staged a two-day, general strike.
Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, rallied in Philadelphia, last week, demanding that the city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, do nothing to interfere with Abu Jamal’s chance to appeal his conviction in the death of a policeman, 38 years ago. A long list of people took to the microhone, beginning with a high school classmate of Abu Jamal, when Mumia was known as Wesley Cook.
Monday Jan 07, 2019
Black Agenda Radio - 01.07.19
Monday Jan 07, 2019
Monday Jan 07, 2019
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 two corporate parties, the Democrats and Republicans, monopolize electoral politics in the United States. But the Black Is Back Coalition says there is still reason to pursue independent Black politics. And, after 37 years behind bars, Mumia Abu Jamal has won the right to another appeal, and a possible new trial – or freedom.
But first -- President Trump’s “trade war” with China sometimes seems destined to escalate into a military confrontation. We spoke with Dr Gerald Horne, the prolific author and professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Some in the Trump administration have expressed pleasure at reports that China’s economy is slowing down, even though many economists believe that it was only a strong Chinese economy that kept the whole world from being plunged into a depression, following the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. Dr. Horne says the U.S. is shooting itself in the foot with its China policy.
The Democrats are flexing their congressional muscle, having taken over leadership of the U.S. House, this month. But the Democratic Party seems divided into three factions. One faction believes that all they have to do to become a majority party is to run against Donald Trump. Another faction looks forward to collaborating with Trump as much as possible. And the third, more progressive faction believes the only way to win is by putting forward the kind of big programs, like Medicare for All, that large majorities of the public supports. Omali Yeshitela is no Democrat. He’s chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition, which will hold another in its series of electoral politics schools, in St. Louis, in April.
Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal are ecstatic over a Philadelphia judge’s decision that could allow the nation’s best known political prisoner another chance to appeal his conviction in the death of a police officer, 37 years ago. We asked Prof. Johanna Fernandez, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, if there’s finally a real pathway to freedom for Abu Jamal.