Episodes
Monday Oct 21, 2019
Black Agenda Radio - 10.21.19
Monday Oct 21, 2019
Monday Oct 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: Gay, lesbian and other LGBTQ persons have garnered more political support than ever. But what does that mean for poor Black and Brown LGBTQ young people who are homeless on the streets of New York? And, peace and national reconciliation may finally be on the horizon in Syria, after eight years of U.S.-regime-change warfare against that country. We’ll hear from Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace.
There can be little doubt that the U.S. empire is in deep disarray – and it’s not all about Donald Trump. Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar, says U.S. imperialism faces a multitude of crises, at home and abroad. Dr. Monteiro will be one of the speakers at Black Agenda Report’s 13th anniversary celebration, this Saturday, October 26th, at the People’s Forum, in New York City. The title of his talk will be, “Towards a Left that is Worthy of Black People and the Working Class.
Black Alliance for Peace lead organizer Ajamu Baraka will also speak at the Black Agenda Report anniversary affair. Baraka is an editor and columnist at BAR. We asked Baraka for his analysis of the situation in Syria, where the eight year long U.S. regime-change war appears to be unraveling. After years of collaboration with the United States, the Syrian Kurds have now realigned with the national government in Damascus. We asked Baraka if peace and national reconciliation is finally in the cards for Syria.
Monday Oct 14, 2019
Black Agenda Radio - 10.14.19
Monday Oct 14, 2019
Monday Oct 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: The struggle for adequate, quality food as an important part of Black self-determination; the fight against mass Black incarceration opens a new front in New York City; and, Venezuela is in an epic battle for socialism and national independence against the almighty Dollar.
The New York Times earned praise, and some criticism, for its recent “1619 Project” – a series of essays on the first Black slaves imported to Virginia, 400 years ago. We spoke with Josh Myers, a Howard University professor of African American Studies who delivered a lecture on the arrival of the first Africans in Jamestown. The question we posed to Myers was: If the arrival of Blacks as slaves in British America is viewed as the beginning of the Black saga, then the European colonial assault on Africa and most of the world is not part of the story. Black American slavery and oppression is depicted out of context.
U.S. sactions against Venezuela are ravaging that country’s economy, and have already caused the deaths of at least 40,000 people, due to shortages of medicine. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country’s deteriorating economic conditions. Nicholas Evan Ayala is co-editor of Anti-Conquista, a journal that defends the Venezuelan revolution. We began our conversation with Ayala by asking him to translate the publication’s title, “Anti-Conquista.”
Food stores have abandoned Black communities across the United States, forcing residents to eat badly or travel to other neighborhoods to shop. Ashante Reese is a professor of anthropology at Spelman College, in Atlanta. She’s written a book, titled, “Black Food Geopgraphers: Race, Self-Reliance, and Fund Access in Washington, DC.” We asked Professor Reese, How bad is the situation in what some people call “food desert” neighborhoods?
Activists in New York City are trying to prevent the construction of four new prisons in the different boroughs of the city, designed to replace the jail cells that will be lost when the infamous Rikers Island Jail is closed down. The “No New Jails” movement says now is the time to phase out mass incarceration, not replenish it. Ben NDugga-Kabuye is with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
Donti Mitchell is a prisoner of the State of New York. In this report for Prison Radio, Mitchell asks the question: “What kind of society are we?”
Monday Oct 07, 2019
Black Agenda Radio - 10.07.19
Monday Oct 07, 2019
Monday Oct 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: U.S. cops act like soldiers and U.S. soldiers think they are the police of the world. A Black activist explains the connection. And, another left activist says this is the year to take on the corporate Democrats on their own turf, and he’s targeted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is preparing to descend on Washington, on the first weekend in November, as the Coalition has done every year since Barack Obama’s first year in the White House. The arch racist Donald Trump is now the chief executive. But Black Is Back Chairman Omali Yeshitela says the enemy remains the same: U.S. Imperialism and white supremacy.
Mass Shootings, Militarism and Policing Are Chapters in the Same Manifesto.” So says the title of a recent article by Dereka Purnell, a movement lawyer, writer and activist. We asked Purnell how she came to that conclusion.
Another movement lawyer, Shahid Buttar, is running for Congress to unseat Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi in her home district of San Francisco. Buttar is a lifelong activist and former director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Until now, he had rejected electoral politics, but this year he sees an opening for the left. Buttar thinks his campaign is doing well.