Black Agenda Radio - 01.14.19

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.