Black Agenda Radio - 09.04.17

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: from Bush to Obama to Trump, you can always count on U.S. presidents to keep the War Machine humming. We’ll speak with Professors Gerald Horne and Francis Boyle; and, we’ll hear some voices for prison abolition.

Houston, Texas, America’s fourth largest city, was sent reeling by Hurricane Harvey. Many tried to escape the storm, including Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific author and professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. We caught up with Dr. Horne in Atlanta, where he had found refuge. He said danger lurks in Houston’s water and in the ground.

The U.S. war in Afghanistan is in its 16 th year – a lot longer than that, if you count all the years that Washington was funding what became Al Qaida at their bases in the country. The Trump administration has committed the U.S. to man more years of war in Afghanistan, which tends to prove the rule that, once the U.S. occupies a country, it never leaves unless it is forced out. We spoke with Dr. Francis Boyle, the distinguished professor of International Law at the University of Illinois.

Prison abolition advocates rallied in 16 cities recently, under the banner, “Millions for Prisoners Human Rights.” The activists maintain that the U.S. prison system is just another form of slavery. The biggest event in the was held in Washington, DC. We’ll hear from three speakers. The first is Laura Whitehorn, who served 14 years in federal prison on political charges. Whitehorn is with the Northeast Political Prisoners Coalition.

Wilbert “Jazz, the Poet” Sanders is locked up in Pennsylvania’s McKean federal prison. Sanders submitted this piece of poetry to Prison Radio. It’s called “Politically Incorrect.”

“And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.