Black Agenda Radio - 01.22.18

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 U.S. military has spread its tentacles across the length and breadth of Africa, leading to millions of deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But Margaret Kimberley says the Congressional Black Caucus hasn’t said a peep about Washington’s culpability in the slaughter.

NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, has written a primer explaining all you need to know about HR 40, the congressional legislation on reparations for the descendants of American slaves that has been sponsored for the past 27 years by Detroit Congressman John Conyers. However, no sooner was the ink dry on the primer for HR 40, than Congressman Conyers announced that he is resigning his seat, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. We spoke with one of the authors of the HR 40 primer, NCOBRA legislative director Kamm Howard.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, rallied in Philadelphia, hopeful that a legal opening has developed that might lead to a reversal of his 1982 conviction in the death of a policeman. A Pennsylvania state court is looking into the behavior of Ronald Castille, a prosecutor who helped convict Mumia and then went on to become the same judge who rejected Mumia’s appeal. Dr. Johanna Fernandez, a Baruch College history professor with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, explained the legal issues involved.

Mumia Abu Jamal’s brother, Kevin Cook, was also on hand at the rally.

Mumia Abu Jamal has dedicated his latest Prison Radio essay to a father and daughter whose names are now inscribed on the lists of martyrs in the Black struggle.

Since the founding of AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa, in 2008, U.S. troops have spread across the face of the continent. Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley says the Congressional Black Caucus has been glaringly silent on the U.S. militarization of Africa. Kimberley was part of a panel discussion on AFRICOM, at a Baltimore conference of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases.

Also at that conference against U.S. foreign military bases, was Maurice Carney, of Friends of Congo.