Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio - 06.11.18

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: A welfare rights leader rallies to support the poor people of mostly Black Benton Harbor, Michigan; the financial board overseeing Puerto Rico is trying to divert disaster aid money to satisfy a debt to the bankers; a Black book store in Harlem, still standing; and, Mumia Abu Jamal says Donald Trump is crowning himself King.

Kshama Sawant, the Socialist Alternative Party leader who serves on the city council in Seattle, Washington, is being sued for defamation by two city cops. Sawant called the police killing of an unarmed Black man “a brutal murder.” Defending against such suits costs a lot of money. Emerson Johnson is part of the Kshama Solidarity Campaign. He says, the cop’s suit is an effort to silence opponents of police lawlessness.

The powers that control mostly Black Benton Harbor, Michigan, were overjoyed when local activist Rev. Edward Pinkney was sent to prison for 30 months for allegedly tampering with election petitions. But a higher court later exonerated Pinkney of all charges. Within weeks, Pinkney was leading protests against the Whirlpool corporation, which has dominated Benton Harbor’s politics for decades, and Whirlpool’s pet project, the PGA senior golf tournament, which Pinkney said contributes nothing to the Black city. On hand for the protests was Marian Kramer, head of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and widow of the legendary Detroit activist, General Gordon Baker.

Recently, the world learned that as many as 5,000 Puerto Ricans died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, far more than originally thought. Now, a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, shows that the appointed financial board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances has been trying to divert disaster relief aid to finance the island’s debt. We spoke with Lara Merling, one of the authors of that report.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, says the United States now appears to have a King in charge: Donald The First.

Black book stores are disappearing at an alarming rate. In Harlem, New York, Jenifer Wilson operates the Sister’s Uptown Bookstore and Cultural Center. She told Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Frasier why she opened a book store Black America’s most famous neighborhood.

Black Agenda Radio - 06.04.18

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: The United States government has been trying to overthrow the government of Venezuela for most of this century. But the ruling socialist party keeps getting elected by the people, in ballots that international observers have repeated said are among the free-est and fairest in the world. Venezuelans last month voted to keep president Nicholas Maduro in office. The Black Alliance for Peace sent human rights activist Efia Nwangaza to observe the election, and we’ll present her full report.

Dictators have come and gone in Africa, but only one of them, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, has been in power for 32 years. Museveni was Ronald Reagan’s favorite African strongman, and Museveni’s military has been a tool of U.S. policy in Africa, ever since. The Ugandan army has wreaked havoc among its neighbors, destabilizing Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and intervening in South Sudan’s civil war. Last month, a coalition of Pan Africanist organizations came together with a campaign to expose the Ugandan regime as a menace to Africa. It’s called Stop Museveni. Milton Allimadi, the publisher of New York-based Black Star News, and a native of Uganda, explains.

The U.S. corporate media, acting like mimicks of the U.S. government, has been slandering Venezuela ever since newly elected president Hugo Chavez declared that his country would stop taking orders from Washington, back in 1998. The United States has been trying to overthrow his government ever since. Over the last 20 years, Venezuela has held more elections than any other nation in the hemisphere, possibly the world – all of them certified by global observers as free and fair. But the U.S. corporate media continues to claim that the socialist party government of the current president, Nicholas Maduro, is illegitimate. The Black Alliance for Peace sent an observer, veteran human rights activist Efia Nwangaza, to the latest election in Venezuela, last month. She reported back on a call-in program, last week, hosted by Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberley, who is also part of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.28.18

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: a national conference was held in North Carolina, last week, in hopes of revitalizing the Black liberation movement. And, the film “Black Panther” turned Black super-hero images into a worldwide box office smash. We’ll talk with someone who’s been turning out Black superhero comic books for more than 40 years.

Mumia Abu Jamal and his longtime collaborator, Stephen Vittoria, have a new book out. It’s titled “Murder Incorporated: Empire, Genocide and Manifest Destiny – Book One: Dreaming of Empire. The book is a sweeping examination of the white settler and colonial project from Christopher Columbus to the present day. The authors will later release Books Two and Three, covering CIA interventions around the world and perpetual U.S. wars, the mass security and surveillance state, and the delusion of a post-racial America. Six years ago, Stephen Vittoria produced the documentary film, “Long Distance Revolutionary: A journey with Mumia Abu Jamal.” Vittoria explains how he got into the book venture with Mumia.

Black super-hero characters are all the rage in the wake of the huge box office success of the movie “Black Panther.” But the Black comic book hero genre has been out there for many decades, pioneered by people like Professor Turtel Onli, of Onli Studios, in Chicago, producers of a long list of comic book titles. Professor Onli told us how he got started in the Black super-hero business.

In Durham, North Carolina, last week, activists from around the country came together for a National Assembly for Black Liberation, aimed at injecting new life into the Black Freedom Movement. One of those who spoke was Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, based in Newark, New Jersey.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.21.18

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: Israel’s massacre of unarmed Palestinians has once against shocked the sensibilities of the world, unless, of course, you are a U.S. Democrat or Republican, in which case, whatever Israel does is fine; And, the Move 9 have been imprisoned for nearly 40 years, but the struggle to free them, continues.

Rev. Edward Pinkney, the activist from Benton Harbor, Michigan, was exonerated, this month, of election tampering charges that put him prison for two and a half years. Rev. Pinkney is back pursuing his old nemesis, the Whirlpool Corporation, which has dominated the poor, Black town for decades. Rev. Pinkney is set to disrupt Whirlpool’s pet project, the local PGA senior golf tournament.

Israel has once again shocked the world, methodically slaughtering Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza. Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli snipers, and literally hundreds more wounded and maimed, as they demanded the right to return to their ancestral lands that were seized by the apartheid Zionist state. We spoke with journalist and educator Vijay Prashad, and asked him what the Gaza massacres show about Israel.

Protesters inhave been trying in vain to stop the Philadelphia Orchestra from going on trip to Israel. Susan Abulhawa is with the Philly Don’t Orchestrate Apartheid Coalition.

President Donald Trump delighted the Israeli regime, by recognizing Jerusalem as the apartheid state’s capital, in clear violation of international law. But Black Agenda Report’s Bruce Dixon says the Democrats are just as guilty of coddling the Israelis as the Republicans.

Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Mike Africa Jr, of the Philadelphia MOVE Family, whose father and mother, Mike Africa senior and Debbie Africa, and other MOVE members have been locked up for four decades in the death of a policeman. Supporters of the MOVE 9 have recently been organizing on behalf of Puerto Rican relief, as well as raising money for legal defense. Mike Africa Jr says

Black Agenda Radio - 05.14.18

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: There has not been one pause in U.S. wars since the invasion of Iraq, and the corporate media has been beating the drums for every one of them, with play-by- play from lying generals and the CIA; a new study shows that three out of four people renters that get evicted would not have been put out of their homes if they’d had a good lawyer; and, Mumia Abu Jamal says farewell to a central figure of Black Liberation theology.

No sooner had President Trump withdrawn from the agreement international agreement with Iran, than Israel launched massive attacks against Iranian and Syrian military targets in Syria. We spoke with Ajamu Baraka, the veteran human rights activist and lead organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace.

Fifteen years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, almost everyone responsible for the attack now admits that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Yet, the same voices that spread lies about Iraq are constantly on television and in newspaper op-ed pages, beating the drums for a wider war against Syria and Iran, and demonizing Russia. Jeff Cohen is one of the nation’s foremost critics of corporate media. Cohen is director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithica College, in New York. He was a founder of the watch dog group FAIR, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. He says military and CIA liars and spies get top bllling in the corporate media.

A new study shows that one of the most effective ways to combat homelessness and neighborhood instability is to strengthen renters’ rights. The report, by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, is co-authored by Tristia Bauman. She says there is far too little affordable housing to go around, and tenants rights need to be protected.

The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, marks the passing of the man who became known as the father of Black Liberation Theology.

Black Agenda Radio - 05.07.18

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: Inmates at prisons across the nation will go on strike, in August, against slavery behind the bars; the Democratic Party sides with CIA spies and the FBI, in its suit against Wikileaks; and, Winnie Mandela is remembered as a voice against compromise with white corporate power in South Africa.

In a unanimous vote, the Michigan Supreme Court last week exonerated and set free Rev. Edward Pinkney, the Benton Harbor, Michigan, activist who spent two and a half years in prison for allegedly tampering with signatures on an election recoil petition. At his trail before an all-white jury, Rev. Pinkney had argued that the charge was baseless, but it took 30 months in prison for him to get the State Supreme Court to agree with him. Nevertheless, he’s a happy man.

The Democratic National Committee last month brought a multimillion dollar law suit against Wikileaks, the Russian government and the Trump administration, blaming all three for Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the 2016 election. The suit against Wikileaks is especially disturbing, because it could cripple the ability of journalists to report on government wrongdoing in the United States. In Washington, we spoke with Chip Gibbons, of Defending Rights and Dissent.

The South African liberation movement lost one of its most militant advocates with the death of Winnie Mandela, last month. The former wife of Nelson Mandela was a leading figure in the more radical wing of the African National Congress, the party that came to power with the end of apartheid but now rules in close collaboration with white corporate forces. Black Agenda Report editor and columnist Marsha Coleman-Adebayo hosts a radio program titled “What’s At Stake” on Pacifica station WPFW, in Washington DC. Coleman- Adebayo took an in-depth look at Winnie Mandela’s life and struggle, which was sometimes at odds with her former husband and his political allies.

Prison slavery Abolitionists are planning a nationwide prison strike from this coming August 21st to September 9th. The inmates have put forward a list of ten demands, including an end to work without wages behind the bars. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with two of the organizers.   Brother Akin Yele works with the inmate group, Unheard Voices OTCJ, based in South Carolina, where fighting among inmates at the Lee Correctional Facility left seven dead and many injured, last month. Brother Dee is a member of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.30.18

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: a call for a new kind of peace movement, one that cares about the whole of humanity; Mumia Abu Jamal’s lawyers believe they have a good case for ending his long incarcartion; and, the government of Colombia has detained two women activists in the struggle for Black territorial and community rights.

President Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton, is said to have never seen a war he didn’t like – but, that applies to a lot of Republicans AND Democrats. We spoke with Phyllis Bennis, director of the New International Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, in Washington. Bennis thinks Bolton is an especially dangerous man.

President Trump came into office promising to be tough on China, and he has been pushed by the Democrats to increasingly confront Russia. However, with Asia now, not only the population center of the planet, but also home to the most dynamic economies, the U.S. role in the world seems more and more to be holding back human progress. In Philadelphia, Duboisian scholar and lifelong activist Dr. Anthomy Monteiro says what’s needed in the U.S. is a new kind of peace movement.

Also in Philadelphia, supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, will gather on April 30th for a hearing in a Pennsylvania state court. Lawyers for Abu Jamal believe they have a good case for overturning his conviction or gaining a new trial in the 1981 death of a police officer. Ronald Castille was a top prosecutor at the time. Castille later became a judge, and repeatedly turned down Mumia’s appeals. Gwen DeBrow, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, says Castille should not have been allowed anywhere near Mumia’s appeals process. She thinks there may be a real path to freedom for Abu Jamal, but you also need big demonstrations to make that happen.

Black Colombian community organizations are demanding the release from detention of two of their leaders, Sara Quiñonez and her mother Tulia Maris Valencia. The women are members of the Black Communities Process, or PCN, which advocates for Black territorial and civil rights in the war torn South American country. Charo Mina-Rojas is a spokesperson for Black Communities Process. She explains what happened to her comrades.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.23.18

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: Durham, North Carolina, becomes the first city in the country to prohibit its police force from collaborating with Israel; a prison activist in South Carolina indicts the state for the death of seven inmates in the worst prison violence in a quarter century; and, the Bronx welcomes home two of the 120 young men imprisoned in the biggest police raid in New York City history.

Russia says it will soon move its most sophisticated air defense systems to Syria, so that the west will pay a high price if it repeats this months attack on Syrian forces. We spoke with Dr. Francis Boyle, the renowned professor of international law, at the University of Illinois. There is still no evidence that the government of Syria actually carried out any chemical weapons attack on civilians. But, in a sense, that really isn’t the point, is it, Dr. Boyle?

The city council in Durham, North Carolina, unanimously voted to prohibit its police force from engaging in training or other exchanges with the Israelis. That’s a first for any city in the United States. The ban was pushed by a Coalition of ten organizations, under the heading “Demilitarize Durham to Palestine.” Ajamu Amir Dillahunt, of Black Youth Project 100, explains.

Seven prison inmates were killed and at least 17 injured in violence at a prison in Lee County, South Carolina. Officials call it the worst prison conflict in a quarter century. South Carolina’s governor claims the root cause of the violence is the proliferation of illegal cell phones behind the bars. But Efia Nwangaza, director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina, says the governor’s fixation with cell phones is…nonsensical.

Two years ago, New York City police and federal agents staged a massive raid on five housing complexes in the Soundview section of The Bronx, hauling away 120 young men on conspiracy to commit a whole range of crimes. It was called the largest gang raid in the city’s history. Two years before that, in 2014, cops and federal agents staged a similar raid at two Harlem housing projects, arresting 100 people on conspiracy charges. On Friday, community members and activsts will welcome home two of the men arrested in the 2016 Bronx raid. The “Welcome Home Party,” at the Bronx Social Center, was put together by the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, Black Youth Project 100, Take Back the Bronx, and the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. Kraig Lewis was doing graduate work in college when he was hauled off in the raid and locked up in the infamous Metropolitan Detention Center, or “MDC,” for almost two years. He spoke with Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.09.18

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: a Black activist announces her campaign for the U.S. senate, at a Black is Back Coalition electoral politics school in St. Louis; a Black prosecutor in Virginia explains why its important to make cops accountable when they kill unarmed people; and, Mumia Abu Jamal remembers Winnie Mandela. 

Activists took to the streets in cities around the country to protest the Sacramento police killing of Stephon Clark, an unarmed young Black man shot to death in his grandmother’s back yard. Black Agenda Report senior columnist Margaret Kimberley says the burst of protest activity is a good sign.

In St. Louis, Missouri, over the weekend, the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held a school on electoral politics to promote transformational change. One of those on hand was Coffee Wright, a longtime activist who is running for the U.S. Senate, from Missouri.

 

Members of the National Black Caucus of Young Elected Officials Network held a press conference, last week, demanding local and national political reforms in the wake of the police killing of Stephon Clark, in Sacaramento, California. One of the officials on hand was Stephanie Morales, the young Commonwealth’s Attorney for Portsmouth, Virginia, who successfully prosecuted a police officer for killing an unarmed Black man. Morales handled the case, herself.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Mario Cuomo are demanding that the state parole board reverse its decision to parole Herman Bell, the former Black Panther who has been in prison for almost four decades in the killing of a police officer. Ralph Poynter is an activist with the New Abolitionist Movement, and the husband of the late people’s lawyer and political prisoner Lynne Stewart. Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio say that no one that kills a cop should ever go free. Ralph Poynter says these two politicians should pay a heavy price for trying to keep Herman Bell in prison.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, spoke on the passing of Winnie Mandela, the widow of the the man who was once the world’s best known political prisoner.

Last week marked the 50 th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the peace and justice advocate. The week also saw Israeli troops move down nearly a score of unnamed Palestinian protesters, in Gaza. Black Agenda Report managing editor Bruce Dixon has this commentary.

Black Agenda Radio - 04.02.18

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: The cops in Sacramento, California, shot Stephon Clark in the back in his grandmother’s backyard, sparking protests all across the country, including New York City; and, a New Jersey judge sides with the police union, ruling that a community complaint review board violates the due process rights of cops.

President Trump alarmed lots of people when he appointed the serial warmonger, John Bolton, as his national security advisor. Bolton has urged military attacks on both North Korea and Iran. Sara Flounders, of UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition, says the U.S. empire is in a state of disarray, confusion and desperation.

A New Jersey State Supreme Court judge dealt a blow to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s effort to establish a Civilian Complaint Review Board with the power to investigate and subpoena the police. The judge sided with the Fraternal Order of Police union in ruling that the board constitutes a violation of police officer’s right to due process. We spoke with Larry Hamm, chairman of POP, the People’s Organization for Progress, which has been fighting police brutality in Northern New Jersey for almost 40 years. Hamm says the judge’s ruling is a serious setback to the struggle against police abuse of the community.

The police killing of Stephon Clark, in Sacramento, California, shocked Black communities across the nation. In New York City, activists clashed with police at demonstrations in Manhattan. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Shannon Jones, of Bronxites for NYPD Accountability. Jones says Stephon Clark was the victim of a shoot-the- Black-man- on-sight policy.