Episodes
Monday Jan 25, 2021
Black Agenda Radio - 01.25.21
Monday Jan 25, 2021
Monday Jan 25, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The people of Haiti have not been allowed to govern themselves since the United States overthrew their elected president, 15 years ago. We’ll get an update on the Haitian people’s struggle to take back control of their island nation. And, Not since the McCarthy era has the threat of censorship loomed so large in the United States. The Democrats seem intent on making it impossible to even discuss ending the rule of the rich.
But first -- The last time Joe Biden was part of the administration in power, the U.S. got involved in seven new wars. Black Agenda Report contributing editor Danny Haiphong has some predictions on how long it will take President Biden to start his own armed conflict.
Haitians continue to mount street protests demanding the resignation of president Jovenal Moise, accusing the U.S.-backed politician of massive corruption and brutality. We spoke with Daoud Andre, the Brooklyn, New York-based organizer of the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti.
The young political organizing group called the Dissenters last week held an online discussion of the prospects for war and political oppression under the new U.S. administration. One of the speakers was Ajamu Baraka, national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace and a former Green Party vice presidential. Baraka said corporate politicians are anxious to impose a regime of censorship, so that Americans won’t be able to even discuss how to end the rule of the rich.
Also on that program was Robin D.G. Kelley, the activist, author and UCLA professor of history. He elaborated on Ajamu Baraka’s analysis.
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 01.18.21
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: We hear a lot of discussion these days about the history of genocide against Black Americans, but many people are still unaware that Black leftists presented a petition to the United Nations charging the U.S. with genocide, 70 years ago. And, Patrice Lumumba, the first elected prime minister of the Congo, was assassinated 60 years ago, with the collaboration of the United States. A group of scholars marked the occasion with a discussion of Lumumba’s political legacy.
But first – it’s been one helluva year, politically and on the public health arena. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held a national conference, last week, to sum up the changes and challenges that emerged in 2020. Black Is Back is a Coalition of organizations. Betty Davis is a New York City activist who chairs the Coalition’s Community Control of Education Working Group. She says Black folks need to seize control of their local education budgets.
Ajamu Baraka is a veteran activist who ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket in 2016. He’s national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, which is part of the Black Is Back Coalition. Baraka told the Coalition’s year-end conference that U.S. imperialism was clearly in disarray in 2020.
In 1951 Black entertainer and activist Paul Robeson and other Black leftists presented a petition to the United Nations demanding that the United States be held accountable for a long list of crimes against its Black population. The petition was titled “We Charge Genocide.” Last week, Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly joined other Black activists and academics to commemorate the events of 70 years ago, in an online seminar. Dr. Burden-Stelly is a professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Carleton College, and part of the team that produces BAR’s Black Agenda Review. She reminds us that U.S. government atrocities against Black people have never stopped.
Also present to commemorate the “We Charge Genocide” petition of 1951, was Dr. Trevor Ngwane, a lecturer at the Center for Sociological Research at the University of Johannesburg. Dr. Ngwane is co-author of the book, “Urban Revolt, State Power and the Rise of People’s Movements in the Global South.” He says Black South Africa is quite familiar with colonial perpetrators of genocide.
Sixty years ago, the legally elected prime minister of the newly independence Democratic Republic of the Congo was assassinated as a result of plots orchestrated by the United States and its European allies. The Friends of Congo celebrate January 17 as Patrice Lumumba Day. To mark the occasion, activists and academics held on online seminar, moderated by Dr. Samuel T. Livingston, Associate Professor and Director of the African American Studies Program at Morehouse College. Among the speakers: Ludo De Witte, a Belgian sociologist and historian and author of his book, “The Assassination of Lumumba”; Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, a professor of African and Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Ira Dworkin, associate professor of English at Texas A&M University. Dworkin is author of “Congo Love Song: African American Culture and the Crisis of the Colonial State.” He Black Americans immediately recognized the assassination of Lumumba as a crime against all people of African descent.
Monday Jan 11, 2021
Black Agenda Radio - 01.11.21
Monday Jan 11, 2021
Monday Jan 11, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: More and more, these days, we hear activists describe themselves as Black anarchists. But, what is Black anarchism. And, a Black author based in Europe says we all need to cultivate and make use of our “sensuous knowledge.”
But first – the white supremacist assault on the U.S. Capitol was aided and abetted by police officers. So says Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-Founder of the Washington-based Partnership for Civil Justice. The Partnership is demanding “a fully public investigation” into the way the cops responded to the massing of President Trump’s followers at the Capitol. African Americans are near universally agreed that, had Black people stormed the U.S. Congress in such a manner, police would have used deadly forced against them.
"Ebony "Sima Lee" Outlaw is an Afro-Indigenous womanist, emcee, poet, teacher and photographer, currently living in Baltimore. She also calls herself a Black anarchist – a description that has been adopted by growing numbers of Black activists. We asked "Ebony ‘Sima Lee’ Outlaw how she became attracted to Black anarchism.
A prominent Black writer and social critic, based in Europe, has produced a new book with a tantalizing title. Minna Salami is a public intellectual of Nigerian, Finnish and Swedish descent. Her latest work is titled, “Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone.” We reached Salami in the United Kingdom. Her book treats “sensuous knowledge” as a deeply political subject.
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Black Agenda Radio 01.04.20
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The old Year, 2020, laid bare the fundamental contradictions of capitalism. We’ll hear from Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace, who says electoral politics must be secondary to grassroots organizing. And, U.S. involvement in the African nation of Cameroon has created humanitarian crises on both sides of the the Atlantic Ocean.
But first – the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is in its 12th year of advocacy for Black self-determination, world-wide. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela says the Covid-19 epidemic and economic breakdown have exposed the United States as a power in decline.
Four years ago, Ajamu Baraka ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket. He then formed the Black Alliance for Peace, which has taken the lead in demanding the dismantling of the U.S. Military Command in Africa and an end to the police occupation of Black communities in the United States. Baraka was recently interviewed by Dr. Jared Ball on his influential podcast, “I Mix What I Like.” Baraka said electoral politics can be important, but only as a tool of grassroots organizing.
All but one nation in Africa is collaborating with AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa that was created by the George Bush administration but vastly expanded under President Obama. AFRICOM is deeply involved in the west African nation of Cameroon, where the United States supports a French-speaking government that is at war with both Boko Haram fighters and its own English-speaking population. Journalist Joe Penny has been covering the Cameroon conflict for The Intercept.