Black Agenda Radio - 12.04.17

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: Why are Americans obsessed with guns? Mumia Abu Jamal explores the genocidal roots of U.S. gun culture; and, a Black radical put one of its own in the mayors office in Jackson, Mississippi. But, does winning elections actually bring power to the people. Not necessarily, says activist Kali Akuno.

But first, much of the world was shocked by reports on CNN that Black Africans are being sold at auction in Libya, where the United States and NATO overthrew the government of Muammar Gaddafi, six years ago. We spoke with Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations.

The Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party is trying to take credit for the election, earlier this year, of Black radical lawyer Antar Lumumba to City Hall in Jackson, Mississippi, the overwhelmingly Black state capital. The new mayor is the son of Chokwe Lumumba, a former activist in the Republic of New Africa and founder of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, who was elected mayor in 2013 but died after only eight months in office. Mayor Antar Lumumba’s name is now closely associated with Bernie Sanders’ “Our Revolution” organizations and its wealthy contributors. Kali Akuno was one of those that first suggested that Black activists in Mississippi run candidates for office. Akuno is a founder of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and of Cooperation Jackson, which seeks to form cooperative enterprises in the Black community. He wrote an essay in Black Agenda Report, titled, ““Casting Light: Reflections on the Struggle to Implement the Jackson-Kush Plan.” Akuno Akuno fears that some of his comrades have become too invested in simply winning elections, rather than empowering the people and transforming society.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, has a new essay for Prison Radio. Abu Jamal takes a look at the genocidal roots of the gun culture in the United States.

 After six years and half a million deaths, the Syrian government and its Russian, Lebanese, Iraqi, and Iranian allies are finally winning the war against ISIS and other Islamic Jihadist fighters backed by the United States. Only a very few western reporters have actually covered the war on the ground. One of them is Vanessa Beeley, a courageous British journalist who expoed the so-called White Helmets as nothing but a propaganda front organization for al Qaida in Syria. Beeley says the defeat of ISIS, mainly by the Syrians and Russians, has drawn together a “Peace Bloc” in the region, as opposed to the “War Bloc” headed by the United States. Beeley appeared on The Taylor Report, hosted by Phil Taylor, on radio station CIUT, in Toronto, Canada. She said the U.S. is rapidly becoming isolated in the world.