Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio - 05.06.19

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: a former New York City cop writes a book on why police brutality matters, and what to do about it; the President of The Congo says he faces a threat from ISIS, even though his country has very few Muslims; and, the United States has already succeeded in killing at least 40 thousand Venezuelans, through sanctions.

During the Obama administration, shortly after the Black rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri, federal officials mounted a campaign against what they called “Black Identity Extremists.” Soon, federal agents were also claiming that ISIS was somehow involved in the Black liberation struggle. Some of the best reporting on government political surveillance has been done by Alice Speri, of The Intercept. She says there’s nothing paranoid about Black activists who think Uncle Sam is spying on them.

Former New City cop Joe Ested has written a book, titled “Police Brutality Matters.” Ested says new laws are needed, to rein in the lawmen. He suggests that Congress pass a Bad Cop Bill.

The new president of the Democratic Republic of Congo is asking for United States help for a problem that may not exist. President Félix Tshisekedi fears that ISIS might target his country, which is already beset by internal and foreign-supported armed groups. We spoke with Maurice Carney, of Friends of Congo, in Washington, DC, and asked Carney, How could ISIS be a problem for the Democratic Republic of Congo, where only two percent of the nation is Muslim?

Also in the nation’s capital, a progressive think tank released a study that showed U.S. sanctions against Venezuela have already led to massive deaths, especially among vulnerable groups like dialysis and diabetes patients who are now cut off from adequate treatment. Mark Weisbrot is co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.29.19

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: Mumia Abu Jamal speaks on the U.S. war against fellow political prisoner Julian Assange; a noted writer and anthropologist ponders why so many people that claim to be leftists can’t help bad-mouthing the Wikeleaks founder; and, a Black doctor in Canada says her profession is in denial about racism.

Black women are the fastest-growing part of the U.S. prison population, which gives new meaning to Mothers Day in Black America. In Greenville, South Carolina, the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination is part of a coalition that is raising bail money for Black women and girls facing incarceration. Malcolm X Center director Efia Nwangaza explains.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is locked away in a British jail, as he prepares to fight extradition to the United States. Assange was recently evicted from his sanctuary in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he had spent seven years. Black American political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal has spent 37 years incarcerated in Pennsylvania. He files this report for Prison Radio, titled “The Wars Against Assange.”

Maximilion Forte is a professor of anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. In a recent article, Professor Forte wrote that the U.S. campaign against Julian Assange is really a war against free speech. In addition to the U.S government’s vendetta against Assange, lots of Americans that claim to be part of the Left can’t seem to resist expressing their personal disdain for the whistleblower.

Recently on Black Agenda Radio, Black Canadian journalist Eternity Martis said a “health crisis” exists among Black people in Toronto, Canada, and that anti-Black bias in the medical profession is a big part of the problem. One of the doctors quoted in Martis’s article is Onye Nnorom, a community health specialist on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Nnorom says the problem with Canadian health care is that doctors are in denial about racism.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.22.19

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: It’s been a great month for Mumia Abu Jamal. For the first time in decades, there’s a chance for a real legal path to freedom for the nation’s best known political prisoner. We’ll hear from Mumia and leaders of the movement to release him from a Pennsylvania prison.

The Meuller Report has been a disappointment to Democrats and most of the  U.S. corporate media. For more than two years, they have been spinning a tale of “collusion” between Wikileaks, the Russian government and the Trump campaign. But Special Counsel Robert Meuller’s verdict was that there was no collusion. Coleen Rowley is a former FBI agent and whistleblower who exposed the Bureau’s failures leading up the 9/11 attacks. Rowley has closely followed the Russiagate saga. Both Meuller and most of the news media continue to accept as Biblical Truth that Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee emails and gave them to Wikileaks. But, Rowley agrees that there’s still no proof that that’s the way it happened.

The prospects for freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, changed radically this month, 37 years after he was found guilty in the death of a Philadelphia policeman. Larry Krasner, the district attorney of Philadelphia, announced that he would not try to reverse a local court decision allowing Abu Jamal to appeal his conviction. Noelle Hanrahan is a producer and founder of Prison Radio, where Abu Jamal has for decades been a journalist – which was his profession before his arrest in 1982. Hanrahan explains how the legal breakthrough happened.

Johanna Fernandez is a professor of history at Baruch College, in New York, but she spends much of her time as an organizer with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. We asked Fernandez if she’s talked with Mumia since the good news arrived.

Abu Jamal was in great spirits even before he got word that the district attorney would not stand in the way of his appeal. Mumia’s supporters held a gala fundraiser in Berkeley, California, featuring Angela Davis, Alice Walker and Judith Ritter. From imprisonment in Pennsylvania, Abu Jamal spoke to the crowd at the Evening for Justice and Freedom.

Pam Africa is with the MOVE organization, in Philadelphia, and a key member of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal. She spoke at the gala, in Berkeley, and paid respect to Mumia’s prison-mates.

 

Black Agenda Radio - 04.15.19

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: Howie Hawkins, a possible Green Party presidential candidate, talks about one of his original ideas, the Green New Deal; the Black Is Back Coalition explores the possibilities of electoral politics under late stage, imperial capitalism; and, South Carolina activists pay respect to those killed in a prison disturbance.

It’s taken a while to count all the votes, but it appears that community control of the police has made a giant leap forward, in Chicago. Activists ran a full slate of candidates in support of CPAC, the proposed Civilian Police Accountability Commission. Frank Chapman is with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. He says community control of the police is now backed by a substantial bloc of new members of the Chicago city council.

The Green New Deal -- a plan to transform the way the nation uses energy while at the same time ensuring adequate incomes for all and addressing the historical wrongs against minorites – has won the support of supermajorities of Democrats, under the sponsorship of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly called “AOC.” But the Green New Deal originated in the Green Party, more than a decade ago. And a key player in formulating the original Green New Deal was Howie Hawkins, its former candidate for governor of New York. Hawkins is now exploring a bid for the presidency, under the Green Party banner. We asked Hawkins, what’s GOOD about the Democrat’s version of the Green New Deal?

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, held the third of its electoral politics schools in St. Petersburg, Florida, earlier this month. Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela greeted the participants.

Nellie Bailey is with Harlem Fight-Back Against War at Home and Abroad. She told the Black Is Back Coalition electoral school that U.S. imperialism’s arsenal of war includes the weaponization of the U.S. dollar.

Ajamu Baraka is a former Green Party vice-presidential candidate and now lead organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace. Baraka was in Venezuela when it was plunged into darkness, last month, by a suspected U.S. cyber weapons attack. He says the Black and brown populations of that country support the socialist government

This weekend, anti-mass Black incarceration activists in South Carolina commemorated the deaths of at least seven inmates during disturbances at the Lee County state prison, a year ago. Efia Nwangaza is Director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina, and a key link between prison inmates and their supporters on the outside.

 

Black Agenda Radio - 04.08.19

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: Canada is possibly best known to those of us who live south of its border as place where everyone has access to single payer health care. However, racism is killing disproportionate numbers of Black Canadians, just like in the U.S; And, we’ll talk with a talented artist and intellectual from Kenya, whose current project is using comic books to help African girls navigate the terrain of sex, health and patriarchy.

Russiagate has consumed the U.S. corporate media for the past two years, but the “no collusion” verdict of the Mueller investigation has caused the once-superheated scandal to finally fizzle. In Philadelphia, Duboisian scholar Anthony Monteiro says the implosion of Russiagate lays bare the deep crisis afflicting U.S. empire.

Eternity Martis, is an award-winning Black journalist from Canada, whose work focuses on issues of race and gender. She’s author of a recent article on The Health Effects of Anti-Black Racism in Canada. Martis says Blacks in Toronto face a variety of health challenge, directly related to race. However, when people in the United States think of Canada at all, it’s often with admiration for their single payer health care system.

Thousands of young girls in Canada are illuminating their own lives through the lens of comic books. Ann Moraa is a writer, editor, and performer who is dedicated to telling compelling stories through an African feminist lens. For the last five years, she’s been developing comics and magazines targeting girls in her east African country.

 

 

Black Agenda Radio - 04.01.19

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: The whole basis for the millions of words  and two maddening years of Russiagate has collapsed, but the near-state of war between the two nuclear superpowers continues; We’ll speak with a reearcher who studies African women at war; and, a Haitian activist explains why the people want their U.S.-backed government to step down.

Anti-war forces have converged on the nation’s capital to denounce the aggressive policies of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty organization that links the militaries of the United States and Europe. Official Washington is staging an elaborate 70th birthday party for NATO on April 4th. That’s also the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, who more than half a century ago indicted the United States as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. We spoke with Ajamu Baraka, the lead organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace. Baraka says the NATO birthday party is a celebration of state violence.

David Swanson is an activist with World Beyond War, and publisher of the influential web site “War Is A Crime.” Swanson says Russiagate has dramatically increased tensions between the two nuclear super-powers.

Haiti has been occupied by foreign militaries ever since the United States overthrew its elected government in 2004, and was the victim of several U.S. military invasions and occupations in the 20th century. Haitians have been taking to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, demanding that their U.S.-backed government step down. Daoud Andre is a Brooklyn-based radio host and an activist with the Committee to Organize Against Dictatorship. We spoke with him, last week.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, is also an acclaimed author who has written extensively on the violence inherent in the U.S. State. U.S. warmakers have long had their eyes on Venezuela.

Selinka Makana is a scholar at the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality at Columbia University. Makana was born in Kenya, and specializes in studying African women at war. She’s author of a recent article titled “Contested Encounters: Towards a 21st Century African Feminist Ethnography.” Dr. Makana says the social science of ethnography must be de-colonized.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.25.19

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: the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to look at the constitutionality of a Jim Crow era law, in Louisiana; the Black Alliance for Peace joins demonstrations in Washington against U.S. war policies; and, Muslim and Jewish activists say white supremacy is behind the campaign to silence Rep. Ilhan Omar.

The Ujima People’s Progress Party is gearing up for a statewide conference, in Baltimore, Maryland. Nnamdi Lumumba is one of the organizers of Ujima, which has chapters throughout the state of Maryland. The theme of the conference is, “Elections and Beyond: Building Independent Solutions for the Black Community.”

Activists from around the nation traveled to New Orleans to join protests against Louisiana’s Jim Crow-era law that allows defendants to be convicted when only 10 of 12 jurors turn in a guilty verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court last week agreed to decide on the constitutionality of the law. We spoke with Belinda Parker Brown, of Louisiana United International, one of the groups demanding that the thousands of people now imprisoned under the 10-2 law be set free.

Anti-war activists from around the country are getting reading to converge on Washington, DC, for a week of protests against U.S. wars. Actions will begin on March 30 and continue to April 4. That’s the anniversary of the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, but instead, official Washington is throwing a big party to celebrate the formation of NATO, the U.S. military alliance with Europe, Netfa Freeman is with the Black Alliance for Peace.

The arrival of two Muslim women in the U.S. Congress has focused unprecedented attention on Israel’s policies towards Palestinians. A recent congressional resolution claimed to denounce all forms of religious and racial bias, but was widely seen as being directed against Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Suad Abdul Khabeer is an anthropologist, artist and activist who teaches at the University of Michigan. She teamed up with other Muslim and Jewish women to write an article titled, “How Targeting Ilhan Omar Instead of White Supremacy Furthered Both Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.”

One of Khabeer’s co-writers is Asha Noor, a racial justice and human rights activist of Somali descent. Noor emphasizes that white supremacy is the grandfather of all the other religious and racial evils.

The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, has some thoughts on the massacre of Muslims at prayer in New Zealand.

 

 

Black Agenda Radio - 03.18.19

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: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has gone heads up with the Israel lobby, but what kind of dirty tricks do supporters of the apartheid state have in store for her;  We’ll tell the story of the rise and demise of a reform school for Black girls in the Jim Crow-era South; and, a Black social worker and activist explains her plans to Ramp Up the struggle for Black disabled people’s rights.

The arrest of seven heavily armed mercenaries outside the Central Bank in the capital of Haiti, during civil unrest in that country last month, has raised questions about the stability of the U.S.-backed regime. The soldiers-for-hire were quickly plucked from confinement by the U.S embassy and flown out of the country, and then released when they landed back in the United States. Haitians of all political stripes have a whole range of theories about what the mercenaries were up to. Jake Johnston, of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, traveled to Haiti to investigate the case, and filed an extensive report.

A recent congressional resolution aimed at freshman Representative Ilhan Omar, one of only two Muslims in the U.S. House, has focused national attention on Israel’s unrivaled influence on American government policies. Omar declared that members of Congress should not be compelled to pledge loyalty to a foreign government. She had earlier said that the Israel lobby’s power was “all about the Benjamins” – meaning, the vast amounts of money at its disposal. We spoke with Chris Hedges, the political analyst and former New York Times foreign correspondent.

There was a time, no so long ago, when young Black girls Down South were locked away if they didn’t conform to white people’s wishes, or the codes of behavior favored by upper class Blacks. Lauren Henley is a doctoral student in history at the University of Texas, at Austin. She’s doing a study of Black female criminality in the U.S. south from the Reconstruction Era to World War Two. Henley found an illuminating case study in the poignant history of the founding and demise of a reformatory for Black girls in Jim Crow-era North Carolina. It was called the North Carolina Industrial School for Negro Girls, also referred to as the Efland Home.

When folks say Black Lives Matter, Villisa Thompson wants to make sure they mean Black disabled people’s lives matter, too. Thompson is an activist social worker and writer, and a recognized leader in the struggle for rights of the Black disabled community. She’s the creator of Ramp Your Voice and the hashtag “DisabilityTooWhite.” We asked Thompson how her politics impacts her profession.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.11.19

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: A supporter of Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar says Democratic leadership is on a collision course with the party’s voter base; a supporter of sex workers in South Africa talks about the priorities of African feminists; and, we’ll hear from a political activist organizing in the bowels of the U.S. prison gulag.

Advocates for community control of the police in Chicago took the battle to the electoral arena, last month, fielding candidates in each of the city’s 50 city council districts. Before the February 26th election, only one city councilman could be counted on to support C-PAC, the proposed Civilian Police Accoutability Commission. But Frank Chapman, of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, says community control advocates are now a force to be reckoned with.

Ilhan Omar has only represented Minneapolis in the U.S. Congress since January, but Democratic Party leadership has already targeted her with two congressional Resolutions, indirectly charging Omar with anti-Semitism because of her criticism of the Israel lobby. Shahid Buttar is a lawyer and human rights activist, and a former director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Buttar plans to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the upcoming Democratic primary, in San Francisco. He says Democratic leadership is trying to show leftish members of the party who’s boss.

Women in Africa are reshaping what it means to be a feminist. Nkozo Yingwana is a doctoral student and researcher for the African SexWorker Alliance. Yingwana identifies as an African feminist scholar-activist. She wrote a recent essay on sex work and feminism in Africa, titled, “We Fit in the Society by Force.”

Last month, hundreds of inmates froze for days in their cells when power went out at the infamous Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC, in Brooklyn, New York. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with a federal prisoner who is organizing behind the bars with IWOC, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, and who spent time at MDC and wrote an essay on the power failure. He calls himself John Brown 912.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.04.19

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: Both Republicans and Democrats in the US claim it’s alright to threaten Venezuela with invasion, because its not a democracy. But we’ll talk with a veteran Black activist who was an official observer of democracy in action in Venezuela. And, a call for the abolition of poverty, by getting rid of the class that is hoarding all the wealth.

Angela Davis, the human rights activist, was initially disinvited from an event of the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis’s home town, apparently because of her support for Palestinian rights. The month before, CNN fired Mark Lamont Hill for supporting Palestinians in a speech at the United Nations. We spoke with Michael Fischbach, a professor of history at Randolph-Macon College and author of a new book titled “Black Power and Palestine.” Fischbach says Black American empathy with Palestinians and Arabs is nothing new.

The South American nation of Venezuela has held more elections in the past 20 years than any other nation in the western hemisphere, and maybe the entire world. But the corporate media and both political parties in the United States insist that Venezuela’s socialist government is a dictatorship. President Trump has seized billions in Venezuelan assets, and is threatening military action. In Greenville, South Carolina, Efia Nwangaza is a people’s lawyer and director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination. Nwangaza was among the international observers that have verified all of Venezuela’s elections as free and fair.

The popular backlash against deepening economic inequality gets more intense by the day. William Anderson is co-author of a book titled, “As Black as Resistance: Finding Conditions for Liberation.” In an article in Truthout, Anderson said it’s time to heed Dr. Martin Luther King’s call for the abolition of poverty.