Black Agenda Radio - 11.25.19

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: Much of what you read in the corporate media is pure propanganda, a fictionalized account of the world. Margaret Kimberley and other reporters unmasked these lies before a packed crowd in New York City; we’ll get a report on the racial dimensions of the struggle for socialism in Venezuela; and, activists say “F” the police and their brutal presence in the New York subway system.

Activist and author William C. Anderson says radicals should not bow to pressures to tone down their demands, just to get along with the Democratic Party. Anderson co-authored a book called “As Black as the Resistance,” and recently wrote an article for Truthout titled ,”No Matter Who’s Elected, We Must Keep Demanding More.”

Margaret Kimberley, co-founder and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report, teamed up with acclaimed journalists Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate before a packed house in midtown Manhattan. The subject was Propaganda – the lies that corporate media tell in service to US imperialism.

The socialist government that the late President Hugo Chavez brought to power in Venezuela 20 years ago is still standing, despite the efforts of three US presidents to overthrow it. Dario Azzelini is a visiting fellow at the Latin American Studies Program, at Cornell University. He’s an Italian who was raised in Germany and lived for years in a poor barrio in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Azzelini wrote a book, titled, “Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela,” in which he argues that workers and peasants are building socialism from below in that country. We asked him why the right-wing has not been able to mount a successful coup against the Venezuelan government, despite crippling US sanctions and total support for regime change from the American media and the two corporate political parties.

Shannon Jones is an organizer with Bronxites for NYPD Accountability, part of a coalition from across New York City that has mobilized against high subway fares and police brutality underground. The coalition recently brought a thousand protesters to confront the police in Brooklyn, under the banner of “F.T.P” We asked Shannon Jones what “F.T.P” stands for.