Black Agenda Radio

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.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.25.19

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: A new book lays out the real relationship between the police and Black America. It’s titled “Your Enemy in Blue”; a new and deeper look at Eleanor Bumpers, the Black grandmother killed by New York City police 34 years ago; and, a grandfather with a radio show speaks up for the common people in Zambia, southern Africa.

Much of the world is appalled at the U.S. attempt to provoke a coup in Venezuela, and to put opposition politician Juan Guaido in the presidency. In New York City, the December 12th Movement demanded that the United Nations condemn Washington’s violations of international law. Roger Wareham is a human rights attorney and a member of D-12.

The Black Alliance for Peace also condemns the Trump administration’s regime change policy in Venezuela as a white supremacist assault disguised as a humanitarian intervention.The police are no friend to the Black community in the United States, says author Kristian Williams, who’s written a new book. It’s titled “Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America.”

Thirty-four years ago, Eleanor Bumpers was killed by police in her public housing apartment in The Bronx, New York. The cops that shot-gunned the grandmother to death claimed she threatened them with a kitchen knife. Bumpers became a symbol of police disregard for Black lives. LaShawn Harris was a child in that Bronx neighborhood when Bumpers was cut down, in 1984. Harris is now an Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University. She recently published a comprehensive study of the life and times of Eleanor Bumpers, in the political journal “Souls.” The article is titled, “Beyond the Shooting: Eleanor Gray Bumpurs, Identity Erasure, and Family Activism Against Police Violence.”

Deep in the countryside of Zambia, in southern Africa, a man in his sixties called “GoGo Breeze” holds forth on one of the country’s most popular radio shows. Harri Englund is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He’s written a book titled “Gogo Breeze: Zambia’s Radio Elder and the Voices of Free Speech.” We asked Professor Englund why an African elder with a radio show rates scholarly attention.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.18.19

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: A fellow immigrant comes to the defense of Ilhan Omar, the Black congresswoman who stood up to both the Zionist lobby and former death squad organizer, Elliot Abrams; and, we’ll discuss the Restorative Justice doctrine of the prison abolition movement.

the United States has declared economic war on the socialist government of Venezuela, and seems on the verge of military action. The Trump administration blatantly seized billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets, and has declared its intention to replace Venezuela’s government with a president of Washington’s own choosing. We spoke with Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace.

The U.S. government, both corporate political parties and the corporate media routinely lie about Venezuela, claiming the Socialist government is a dictatorship. Ron Kovalik is a lawyer and author, who has served as an official observer of Venezuela’s elections process.

Ilhan Omar, the new Black congresswoman from Minnesota, was last week chastised by the top Democrat in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, for saying that congressional support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins, baby” – meaning, it’s all about the huge amounts of money that Zionists wield in the U.S. political process. Congresswoman Omar, who was born in Somalia,  also confronted President Trump’s Hit Man on Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, who 40 years ago managed death squads in Latin American for the Regan Administration, and was convicted of lying to Congress. We spoke with Sha-hid Boo-TAR, a lawyer and former head of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Boo-TAR was born in Pakistan. Last primary season, he ran against Nancy Pelosi, for Congress. Boo-TAR says Congresswoman Omar is a brave and righteous woman.

President Trump surprised lots of people with his support of a recently passed prison reform bill. Trump loudly and proudly campaigned as a law and order candidate. Vincent Lloyd is a professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University. Lloyd is author, along with Joshua Dubler, of a recent article on “restorative justice” – a philosophy to replace and abolish mass incarceration. We asked Lloyd how prison abolition is faring in the Age of Trump.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.11.19

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: Rich people try to make us like them by giving money away, but their philanthropy is all about staying in power; and, feminism looks and sounds different to a landless African women in Uganda than it does to a rich white woman in the United States.

President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to proclaim that there will never be a socialist government in the United States. We spoke with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Duboisian scholar.

A handful of rich people own more wealth than half of the world’s population, and just three billionaires own more wealth than half the people in the United States. But rich people claim that society is better off because of their wealth. Carl Rhodes disagrees. Rhodes is a professor of Organization Studies at the University of Technology, in Sydney, Australia. He’s co-author of a recent article on the ways that rich people justify their status in society by giving some of their money away.

Lots of people call themselves feminists, but the feminist project looks different, based on history, race and geography. Dr. Alicia Decker is a professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She’s also co-director of the African Feminist Initiative, which is currently publishing a new issue of its journal, Meridians.

Dr. Maha Marouan is also part of the African Feminist Initiative, and a professor at Penn State. Dr. Marouan teaches African American Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She was born in Morocco. Marouan says Muslim women in the U.S. are especially vulnerable to discrimination and attacks.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.04.19

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: The U.S. goes all-out for regime change in Venezuela; A new book challenges the dominant discourse on AIDS; And, what’s taking Bernie Sanders so long to declare himself a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination?

Black activists in Chicago are determined to defeat many members of that city’s  50-person Board of Aldermen, only one of whom supports community control of the police. Last month, Frank Chapman, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, predicted that by the end of January the movement would recruit at least 70 candidates who are pledged to support creation of a Civilian Police Accountability Commission. We spoke with Chapman again, this week.

The Trump administration has seized billions of dollars in Venezuela’s holdings in the United States, and signed the money over to a Venezuelan opposition politician named Juan Guaido, who named himself president of the country, last week. The U.S. is attempting to cripple Venezuela’s economy in order to overthrow the socialist government that has repeatedly won free and fair elections over the past twenty years. Joe Emersberger has written frequently on the U.S. campaign for regime in Venezuela.

The Democrats already have a sizeable number of declared presidential candidates. However, Bernie Sanders, the man who almost beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries, and who polls show is the most popular politician in the country, has yet to declare his candidacy. We spoke with Danny Haiphong, who writes a weekly column for Black Agenda Report.

Darius Bost is a professor of Ethic Studies at the School for Cultural and Social Transformation at the University of Utah. His most recent book was featured in the BAR Books Forum. It’s titled  “Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence.” Professor Bost says he wants to challenge the dominant queer theoretical discourse, that says the AIDS crisis is over.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.28.19

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: Women in business and politics are being praised for acting like cutthroat capitalists and war-mongering men. But, is that feminism? And, a leader of South Africa’s newly-formed Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party explains why workers must take political power in that country.

Dr. Martin Luther King is popularly known as a civil rights leader, but he was also deeply committed to the labor movement. Peter Cole teaches African American history at the University of Western Illinois. Cole is author of the book, "Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area.” He says labor issues were a top priority for Dr. King, who early on saw himself as a kind of socialist.

Women are engaged in all kinds of activities these days, including war, torture and cut-throat corporate business. But, is that progress? Dean Spade is a professor at the Seattle University School of Law, and co-author of a recent article titled, “There’s Nothing Feminist About Imperialism.”

South Africa has been under Black political rule for the past 25 years, since the end of apartheid. But the African National Congress government left control of the economy in the hands of white business interests. The gap between rich and poor has gotten even bigger. After decades of frustration, activists centered in the nation’s largest labor union, NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers, last year formed a new political party to fight against white monopoly capitalist rule. Irvin Jim is the leader of NUMSA and a key architect of the new Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party. Last week, he traveled to New York City to speak with American activists at the People’s Forum.

Also on hand at the People’s Forum was Dr. Cosmas Musumali, the General Secretary of the Socialist Party of the southern African nation of Zambia. The ruling party of Zambia has declared the Socialist Party to be a danger to national security, and party members are under constant danger of imprisonment. Dr. Musumali told his New York audience that the imperialist powers have enlisted African governments as collaborators in neocolonialism.

 

Black Agenda Radio - 01.21.19

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: South Africa has been under Black political rule for a quarter century, but remains the most unequal society in the world. We’ll speak with the author of a book on South Africa’s poor people’s movement. And, the investigation into alleged collusion between Wikileaks, the Trump campaign and the Russian government is going into its third year, but there is still no hard evidence of so-called “collusion.” So, what’s behind all the anti-Russia hysteria?

The celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday is both a national holiday and a political institution. But, Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, points out that Dr. King’s writings have not been incorporated into the nation’s public school curriculums.

South Africa remains the world’s most unequal nation, despite the overthrow of white rule and racial apartheid,  25 years ago. Kerry Chance is an anthropologist at the University of Bergen, in Norway. She’s author of a new book on the millions of poor South Africans that struggle to find homes to raise their families. Dr. Chance’s book is titled, “Living Politics in South Africa’s Urban Shackland.”

Since before the votes were counted in November, 2016, the Democrats and elements of the national security state have charged that Hillary Clinton lost the election because of collusion between the Russians, Wikileaks and the Trump campaign. But, more than two years later, there is still no hard evidence of collusion. We spoke with Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and one of the founders of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.14.19

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: Marxists have been calling on workers of the world to unite for more than a century and a half. But can workers still change the world. A new book says, Yes. And, Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal urge Philadelphia’s chief prosecutor not to stand in the way of possible pathway to freedom.

The Democrats seem certain to step up their investigations of the Trump administration, now that they are a majority In the U.S. House. That also probably means even more frenzied efforts to link Russia to the Trump presidential campaign. Stephen Cohen is the nation’s best known expert on Russia, having studied that nation’s politics in both the Soviet era, and after Russia became capitalist. Cohen spoke with Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford, who remembers the tail end of anti-Russian hysteria during the McCarty Era. But Ford cannot recall anything during the McCarthy era that was as manic, loud and relentless has today’s hysteria against Russia. Professor Cohen, agrees.

Russia may be capitalist, but socialists around the world still seek the overthrow of the rule of the rich. Michael Yates is an editor with the prestigious left publication, Monthly Review. He’s a longtime labor education and a prolific author. Yates’ latest book is entitled, “Can the Working Class Change the World?” Yates think they can, and must. But, most Americans don’t think of themselves as being in the working class, and very few know that 200 million Indian workers recently staged a two-day, general strike.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, rallied in Philadelphia, last week, demanding that the city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, do nothing to interfere with Abu Jamal’s chance to appeal his conviction in the death of a policeman, 38 years ago. A long list of people took to the microhone, beginning with a high school classmate of Abu Jamal, when Mumia was known as Wesley Cook.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.07.19

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 two corporate parties, the Democrats and Republicans, monopolize electoral politics in the United States. But the Black Is Back Coalition says there is still reason to pursue independent Black politics. And, after 37 years behind bars, Mumia Abu Jamal has won the right to another appeal, and a possible new trial – or freedom.

But first -- President Trump’s “trade war” with China sometimes seems destined to escalate into a military confrontation. We spoke with Dr Gerald Horne, the prolific author and professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Some in the Trump administration have expressed pleasure at reports that China’s economy is slowing down, even though many economists believe that it was only a strong Chinese economy that kept the whole world from being plunged into a depression, following the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. Dr. Horne says the U.S. is shooting itself in the foot with its China policy.

The Democrats are flexing their congressional muscle, having taken over leadership of the U.S. House, this month. But the Democratic Party seems divided into three factions. One faction believes that all they have to do to become a majority party is to run against Donald Trump. Another faction looks forward to collaborating with Trump as much as possible. And the third, more progressive faction believes the only way to win is by putting forward the kind of big programs, like Medicare for All, that large majorities of the public supports. Omali Yeshitela is no Democrat. He’s chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition, which will hold another in its series of electoral politics schools, in St. Louis, in April.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal are ecstatic over a Philadelphia judge’s decision that could allow the nation’s best known political prisoner another chance to appeal his conviction in the death of a police officer, 37 years ago. We asked Prof. Johanna Fernandez, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, if there’s finally a real pathway to freedom for Abu Jamal.

Black Agenda Radio - 12.31.18

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: Mumia Abu Jamal wins a victory in court, and celebrates a legal win for sick inmates in Pennsylvania’s prisons; and a police reform group wants to safeguard mentally ill people from police violence.

a New Year is dawning, and it’s been two years since investigations began into the so-called Russiagate scandal. But Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley says, the main charge against President Trump, Wikileaks and the Russian government remains unproven.

If there is an anti-war faction in the Democratic Party, it’s been very quiet in the wake of President Trump’s decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria. We spoke with longtime peace activist Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center. Flounders is also active in the Hands Off Syria Campaign. The Democrats are screaming to high heaven with outrage at Trumps plans for a Syria pullout..

A Philadelphia judge has ruled that the nation’s best known political prisoner has the right to present another appeal of his 1982 conviction in the death of a police officer.  Mumia Abu Jamal proved his contention that a prosecutor in his case, who went on to become a judge, unconstitutionally influenced Abu Jamal’s previous appeal, which was turned down. Meanwhile, Abu Jamal continues to turn out award-winning journalism for Prison Radio. This week, he reports on another victory for Pennsylvania prison inmates.

Millions of white people live in New York City, but you wouldn’t know that if you visited the courts and jails of the city’s five boroughs. The Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP, reports that close to 9 out of 10 people facing arraignment in local courts on any given day, are Black or Latino.  PROP executive director Robert Gangi says his group’s new project is to change the way mentally ill people are treated in New York.