Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio 05.24.21

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: When millions marched for justice for George Floyd, corporate
philanthropy put millions of dollars in the hands of Black Live Matter founders. We’ll
explore the effect all that money had on the Movement. It’s not your grandmother’s
capitalism anymore. People now examine the role that race plays in the class conflict.
And, Blacks in the US are less likely to battle the cops, these days, than two
generations ago? We’ll explore how that happened.
But first – the movement for community control of the police is strongest in Chicago,
where the board of Alderman is poised to put the cops under the tightest leash in the
nation. Frank Chapman is executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and
Political Repression, which leads a strong community control coalition.

That was Frank Chapman, of the National Alliance Against Racist and
Political Repression, speaking from Chicago.

The racial nature of capitalism is now better understood, largely thanks to a rejuvenated
Black liberation movement. Justin Leroy is a professor of History at the University of
California, at Davis, and has co-authored a book titled “Histories of Racial Capitalism.”
Dr. Leroy says the US electoral system leaves the money classes, the capitalists, in
power after every election.

That was Justin Leroy, speaking from the University of California, Davis.

After more than 20 million people protested the killing of George Floyd and other victims
of police repression, last summer, corporate foundations poured millions of dollars into

the accounts of Black Lives Matter founders. Has all that money eroded the
revolutionary character of the Movement? We put that question to Imani Wadud, an
activist and doctoral student in American Studies at the University of Kansas.

That was Imani Wadud, at the University of Kansas.

Author, activist and researcher Elizabeth Hinton’s new book, “America on Fire: The
Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion,” shows that Black urban revolts
have dropped off dramatically since their peak in the early 1970s. Hinton explained why,
in an interview with fellow activist and author Keeanga Taylor.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.17.21

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: Much of the radical activist sector of Black America is gearing up for an international tribunal in October, that will indict the United States for its many crimes against humanity. The US puppet states Uganda and Rwanda have caused the deaths of at least six million Congolese in recent decades, but Washington blames Congo’s troubles on Islamic extremists. The problem with that rational is, very few Muslims live in the Congo. And, we’ll have a report on the systematic poisoning of a small Black town in Florida.

 

But first – The lop-sided war between Palestinians and their Zionist occupiers has spread to the streets of Israel, where Arab citizens have taken to the streets. For an overview of the fighting in Israel and the occupied territories, we spoke with Sara Flounders, a longtime activist with the International Action Center, in New York City.

In October, a commission of jurists from =around the world will convene in the United States for an International Tribunal on US Human Rights Abuses.  The organizing campaign leading up to October is called “In the Spirit of Mandela,” and was kicked off with a Webinar featuring Jihad Abdulmumit, a former Black Panther political prisoner and current co-chair of the Jericho Movement.

The United States is trying to blame the ongoing slaughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Islamic fundamentalist jihadists – despite the fact that hardly any Muslims live in that country. Kambale Musavuli spent years organizing in the United States. He’s now back in his native Congo, and working as an analyst for the Illinois-based Center for Research on Congo-Kinshasa. Musavuli says its not Muslims, but the US-backed governments of Rwanda and Uganda, that are to blame for the death of six million Congolese. 

The mostly Black town of Tallevast, Florida, was a poor but hard-working community where most of the families owned their homes and found ways to educate their children. But the water, land and people of Tallevast were poisoned by industrial polluters, including some of the biggest names in the military-industrial complex. James Manigault-Bryant is a descendant of one of Tallevast’s founding families. Dr. Manigault-Bryant is now a professor of Africana Studies at Williams College. He wrote a recent article for the Boston Review, titled “Poisoning Tallevast.”

Black Agenda Radio 05.10.21

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 US Census Bureau caused a big stir when it predicted that
Anglo Whites would become a minority of the US population by either the year 2042 or
2045. But, what impact will the huge Latino immigrant influx have on racial attitudes
deep into the 21 st century? We’ll explore that question. And, the South American nation
of Colombia is gripped by protest, as the US backed government attempts to impose a
harsh austerity regime. We’ll hear from a Black Colombian activist.
But first – the Covid-19 pandemic has worked vast changes in US life, but some things
remain the same -- such as the fact that women still do most of the housework, and
immigrants assume much of the burden of cleaning up the country. We spoke with
Nicole FROI-Oh, a Colombian-Brazilian journalist and researcher who authored an
article titled, “The Pandemic Housework Dilemma Whitewashed.”

That was journalist and researcher Nicole FROI-Oh.

Census Bureau data seem to show that white majorities will become a thing of the past
in the United States before the mid-point of the 21 st century, largely because of
continued immigration. However, what happens to that calculation if many of those
immigrants from Latin America insist on claiming to be white? Could that prolong the
existence of white majorities in this country? We posed that question to Professor
Shantee Rosado, of the Africana Studies and Latino and Caribbean Studies
departments at Rutgers University. Professor Rosado’s current book project is titled,
“Latinxs and the Emotional Politics of Race and Blackness in the U.S.”

That was Dr. Shantee Rosado, speaking from Rutgers University.

The South American nation of Colombia, where millions of Black people have been
driven from their homes in recent decades, is in the midst of a general strike against the
US backed regime. President Ivan DOO-Kay’s police and military have killed scores of
protesters. We spoke with Sharo Mina-Rojas, a leader of the Black Communities
Process organization in Colombia, which is manning blockades of the roads near the
largely Black city of Cali.

Black Agenda Radio 05.03.21

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: Haiti, a country whose popularly elected president was
overthrown by the United States in 2004, suffers under yet another leader imposed by
the US, who wants to change the constitution to make himself even more powerful. And,
the death of the dictator of the African nation of Chad has France and the United States
worried about how they’ll keep control of the volatile Sahel region.
But first – the corporate media would have you believe that President Joe Biden is the
spitting political image of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But veteran activist Margaret
Flowers, of Popular Resistance, rejects that comparison. Flowers says the Biden
presidency is as corporate as they get.

That was Margaret Flowers, of Popular Resistance, speaking from
Baltimore.

The Haitian people have been protesting almost non-stop ever since Jovenel Moise was
named president after winning only a small fraction of the nation’s voters in an election
fraught with irregularities, in 2016. Moise now proposes to change Haiti’s constitution,
so that he can rule with immunity from prosecution for crimes. We spoke with Daoud
Andre, a Brooklyn-based radio host and an organizer with the Committee to Mobilize
Against Dictatorship in Haiti. Andre says Washington calls the shots in Haiti.

That was Daoud Andre, of the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship
in Haiti, speaking from Brooklyn, New York.

For the past 30 years, the oil-rich, but dirt-poor, nation of Chad, in Africa’s Sahel region,
was run by Idris DAY-bee, a dictator backed by both France and the United States. But
DAY-bee was reported killed in combat with rebels, last week, and his son is now in
charge. Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African American Studies at the
University of Houston, is adept at interpreting political events around the world. Horne
was interviewed by Willmer Leon and Garland Nixon on Sputnik Radio.

Black politics is a vibrant force in the United States, including behind
bars. Bilal Abdul Salem Bey is incarcerated in Hutchinson, Kansas. He’s a member of
the New Afrikan Black Panther Party, and filed this report for Prison Radio.