Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio - 03.26.18

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 U.S. Senate voted down a bill, sponsored by Bernie Sanders, that would have ended U.S. participation in the war against Yemen: activists gathered, in New York City, to explore ways to end the U.S. governement war against Black people and immigrants; and, and Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz explains why white American men are so committed to keeping their guns.

Ajamu Baraka, the national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, recently returned from an historic meeting of representatives of 100 countries in Caracas, Venezuela, in solidarity with the Venezuelan socialist government. Venezuela is set to hold elections in April, but the Trump administration says it won’t recognize the election result as legitimate, and has threatened to take military action. Baraka appeared on the Popular Resistance podcast program, with Kevin Zeese and Dr. Margaret Flowers. He says peace-loving people should stand with Venezuela.

The U.S. Senate last week voted on a bill, sponsored by Bernie Sanders, that would have ended U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led war against Yemen. The measure was defeated, 55 to 44, but David Swanson, the author and anti-war activist, says that’s actually the closest the Senate has gotten to shutting down a war in a long, long time.

In New York City, activists gathered for a conference designed to bring Blacks and immigrant communities together on issues of mass incarceration and mass deportation. The event was titled, “Breaking Down Walls and Prison Plantations: Mumia, Migrants and Movements for Liberation. One of the speakers was Nyle Fort, a PhD candidate at Princeton University and activist with the Poor People’s Campaign.

This week, we resume our conversation with historian Roxanne Dunbar- Ortiz. Ortiz is author of “An Indigenous People’s History of the United States,” which looks at the establishment of the U.S. through the prism of Native American struggles, and her new book, “Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment,” which explores the role of white militias in waging genocide and maintaining slavery and Jim Crow. Native Americans were also enslaved by the millions, and suffer even higher rates of incarceration than Blacks.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.19.18

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: Black and Latino activists come to grips with tensions between the communities over jobs and prejudice. A new report shows that, the way things are going, it will take 75 years to cut the U.S. prison system in half – and even then, it will still be the largest in the world. And, we’ll have a report from the courageous journalist, Eva Bartlett, on Syria.

gun control advocates often despair at matching the political clout of the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbies in the nation. Historian and acdtivist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, however, is not surprised at all tht the NRA wields so much influence. She’s author of a new book, titled, “Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment,” which explores the deep roots of U.S. gun violence in the centuries of genocide and slavery. Dunbar-Ortiz deplores the historical ignorance of the corporate media, especially in their coverage of mass shootings. Typically, when the media cite the grim body counts of past mass killings, they ignore the long history of massacres of Blacks and Native Americans.

In Washington, the Sentencing Project has a new report out, summing up the setbacks and the progress that’s been made in prison reform. Nazgol Ghandnoosh is The Sentencing Project’s senior research analyst, and author of the report. She calculates that, at the current pace, it would take 75 years for the U.S. prison population to be cut in half. On average, the national prison population has shrunk since reaching a peak in 2009. We asked Ghandnoosh if she’s encouraged by the numbers.

On this Friday, March 23, some of the strongest currents in the Black and Latino movements will come together at New York City’s Holyrood Episcopal Church. The event is called, “Breaking Down Laws and Prison Plantations: Mumia, Migrants and Movements of Liberation.” Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with one of the organizers, Johanna Fernandez, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.

Eva Bartlett is a courageous Canadian war reporter who, along with British journalist Vanessa Beeley, has exposed the so-called White Helmets of Syria as a public relations unit of al-Qaida. The western corporate media claim the Syrian government is deliberately starving the people of East Ghouta, an al- Qaida occupied neighborhood near Damascus. They said the same thing about Aleppo. But Eva Bartlett covered the battle of Aleppo and visited the liberated town of Madiya, and saw no evidence of Syrian government atrocities. Bartlett spoke with the Global Research News Hour about her time in the town of Madiya.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.12.18

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: Activists in New York held a tribunal on ethnic cleansing, another term for the gentrification that is destabilizing Black neighborhoods across the country; and, the organization created by and for U.S. political prisoners gets ready to celebrate its 20 th anniversary.

Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific Professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston, has another book out. It’s titled The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17 th Century North America and the Caribbean.”

In New York, the December 12 th Movement organized a city-wide Tribunal on Ethnic Cleansing, to identify and denounce the forces behind gentrification of Black neighborhoods. Black Agenda Radio’s Nellie Bailey is a veteran tenants organizer. She was among those that testified before the tribunal.

 Activist and Episcopal Priest Father Frank Morales told the tribunal the gentrifiers need to be confronted on the streets of the targeted neighborhoods.

The National Jericho Movement was founded by, and in support of, political prisoners in the United States. The movement is now 20 years old. Black Agenda Radio Producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Jericho co-chair Jihad Abdulmumit.

Black Agenda Radio - 03.05.18

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 scholar and activist asks, when does support for prison and police “reform” actually amount to propping up these racist institutions; and, the mayor of New York City claims turnstile jumping has nothing to do with poverty.

Last summer, the voters in Jackson, Mississippi, elected Antar Lumumba mayor of the overwhelmlngly Black city. Antar Lumumba is the son of the late activist Chokwe Lumumba. Some folks are already describing Jackson as “the most radical city in the country” – a very premature assessment. We spoke with Kali Akuno, an activist with Cooperation Jackson, a community self-help organization that is trying to establish cooperative enterprises owned by the local workers.

People that petition and agitate for reform of the police and the mass Black incarceration system may actually be bolstering the power of those racist institutions. Dr. Dylan Rodriguez, a professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, at Riverside, says “reformers” tend to legitimize the very system they criticize – as opposed to those who would abolish prisons and reinvent the way communities are made secure. Prof. Professor Rodriguez authored an article for Black Agenda Report, titled “Mass Incarceration as Police Endorsement.” He understands that some “reformers” might be insulted at being described as allies of police and prisons.

In New York City, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance says his office will stop prosecuting people for fare beating on New York City subways. But Mayor Bill DiBlasio objects, claiming that that turnstile jumping has nothing to do with poverty. Robert Gangi is executive director of the Police Reform Organizing Project, which monitors a court system where, on any given day, 85 to 90 percent of the defendants are Black and brown – many of them charged with fare beating.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.26.18

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 leading scholar and activist predicts that U.S. imperialism is on a course towards chaos and collapse, and that imperialism’s main currency, the dollar, will precipitate that decline. And, we’ll hear a reading of Assata Shakur’s poem, “Affirmation,” by Black political prisoner Sundiata Acoli.

the City of Philadelphia declared 2018 the Year of W.E.B. Dubois, marking the 150 th anniversary of the birth of the great Black political activist, scholar and social scientist. In 1899, Dubois published his famous sociological study of the Black people in Philadelphia. It was not only the first such study of Black people in the United States, but many consider it to be the first example of sociology based on hard scientific data. The first of many symposium’s on Dubois’s life and work was held last weekend at the historic Church of the Advocate. The crowd heard a special tribute to Dubois from Philadelphia’s most internationally famous son, political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal.

The Church of the Advocate symposium on W.E.B. Dubois was organized by Philadelphia’s Saturday Free School. One of the panel members was Ismael Jimenez, a public school teacher.

That was Ismael Jimenez, speaking at the W.E. B. Dubois symposium at the Church of the Advocate, in Philadelphia. Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford was also on that panel. Ford focused on the political and historical importance of DuBois’ book, “Black Reconstruction.”

The symposium was presented by activists at the Saturday Free School, one of whose organizers is Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar and political activist. Dr. Monteiro says U.S. imperialism is bound to fall, and its currency, the dollar, will precipitate imperial decline.

Prison Radio brings the voices of the incarcerated to the outside world, including Mumia Abu Jamal’s essays and commentaries. Prison Nation organized a reading by prisoners of poem, “Affirmation,” by exiled Black Panther and former political prisoner Assata Shakur, who lives in Cuba. One of those that took part in reading the poem was Sundiata Acoli, who was with Assata Shakur when they had a fatal encounter with New Jersey police, in 1973. Acoli remains in prison, and will not be available for parole until the year 2032, when he will be 94 years old.

 

Black Agenda Radio - 02.19.18

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 glimmer of hope for some modest reform in the Mass Black Incarceration regime; Mumia Abu Jamal explains why White Supremacy actually means White MALE Supremacy; New York City activists take the fight against police repression underground, into the subways; and, Why do so many liberals, and even some supposed Leftists, seem to be in love with the FBI.

The United States has backed regime change in Venezuela for most of this century. But now Washington appears to be escalating hostilities, threatening military action against the socialist-led country. Ajamu Baraka is lead organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace.

The Senate Judiciary Committee easily passed a bill to give judges more latitude in sentencing, bypassing some mandatory-minimum guidelines and providing a way out of prison for some of those convicted under the old, racist 100-to- 1 crack cocaine laws. The Washington-based Sentencing Project works constantly for criminal justice system reform. Kara Gotsch, the Sentencing Project’s director of Strategic Initiatives, says the Senate Committee action is… a very Big Deal.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, has long been broadcasting essays and commentaries for Prison Radio. He explains why White Supremacy actually means White MALE Supremacy.

Shannon Jones is a veteran organizer with Bronxites for NYPD Accountability. She and her comrades spend lots of time underground, in the New York City subway system, fighting police racism and repression. Jones explained to Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser what the Swipe It Forward campaign is all about.

Ever since Hillary Clinton’s campaign blamed her defeat on the Russians, folks that claim to be people of the left have been having a love affair with the FBI and the CIA. Professor Ward Churchill has some ideas on how that happened. Churchill is co-author of the book, “Agents of Repression,” a study of the FBI’s campaign to destroy Black and Left organizations. He was interviewed by veteran broadcaster Don DeBar, of Community Public Radio News.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.12.18

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 professor of international law says the U.S. acts like a rogue nation in the world, invading, assassinating and launching unjust wars at will; and, that includes the ultimate threat of nuclear war. We’ll speak with an activist who says the Trump administration is making human extinction more likely.

Public school teachers in cities across the country took part in a Black Lives Matter Week of Action, last week. In Washington, DC, the activities were organized by the DC Area educators for Social Justice, a project of Teaching for Change. We spoke with organizer Deborah Menkart.

U.S. forces attacked and claimed to have killed about 100 Syrian soldiers. Syria and Russia are warning that the U.S. is playing with fire, and has no right to station soldiers on another country’s territory. But the fine points of international law don’t seem to matter to Washington. We called Dr. Francis Boyle, the esteemed professor of international law at the University of Illinois, at Champaign.

The Trump Administration is moving forward with former President Obama’s plans for a trillion-dollar makeover of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The administration’s views on nuclear war can be discerned in the recently released “Nuclear Posture Review.” Greg Mello, executive director of the anti-nuclear weapons Los Alamos Study Group, has read the document, and he finds it very scary. But Mello notes that it was President Obama who was determined to create an adversarial relationship with the Russians.

Historian Peter Hudson, a professor of African American Studies at the University of California, in Los Angeles, has a new book that explores how U.S. banks destabilized the economies and governments of the Caribbean and Latin America. It’s titled “Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean.” Dr. Deborah Thomas is a professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She was on hand for a coming out event at UCLA for Dr. Hudson’s book.

Black Agenda Radio - 02.05.18

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: For the 22 nd year in a row, community activists vow never to stop fighting for the freedom of Black political prisoners, and to reunited their families. And, a noted scholar and activist explains how white supremacy shapes U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

Black Agenda Report Managing Editor Bruce Dixon has caused a big stir in left political circles with his latest article, titled “Intersectionality is a Hole. Afro-Pessimism is a Shovel – We Need to Stop Digging.” Dixon says the term “Intersectionality” has become a tool to pull people away from class-based struggle against the capitalist rulers. Dixon appeared on the long-running and highly influential Chicago radio program, “This is Hell,” hosted by Chuck Mertz.

In his interview with “This is Hell” host Chuck Mertz, Bruce Dixon made reference to Jeffrey B. Perry, the esteemed activist and scholar. Perry has spent decades studying and popularizing the works of Hubert Harrison, the early 20 th century Black socialist, and Theodore Allen, author of “The Invention of the White Race.” Glen Ford spoke with Jeff Perry.

In New York City, last week, the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee held its 22 nd annual dinner in Tribute to Black Political Prisoners and Their Families. Dayqui Kioni Sadiki chairs the committee.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.29.18

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: Baltimore police officers are on trial, charged with corruption and abusive of power so massive and blatant, a former police chief compares them to 1930s gangsters; And, one of the former political prisoners known as the Soledad Brothers is fighting for release on parole.

Amazon, one of the world’s largest corporation, has pared down to 20 the list of cities that it is considering for its second world headquarters. The commercial giant claims it will bring $5 billion in investment and 50,000 jobs to the table. The cities and states are, in turn, offering billions of dollars in tax subsidies and other giveaways to Amazon, whose major stockholder, Jeff Bezos, is the world’s richest man. We spoke with Greg LeRoy, of Good Jobs First, an organization that has fought for decades against corporate bullying of cities and workers. LeRoy says cities always lose out in these mega- deals with corporations.

In Baltimore, a trial is underway of police charged with robbing and extorting citizens, drug dealing and other crimes and corruption. The former police chief of Baltimore has described the cops involved as behaving like gangsters from the 1930s. Many believe the case is closely linked to the shooting death of a policeman last year, which led to a multi-day lockdown and siege of an entire neighborhood. Carl Dix is a co-founder, along with Cornel West, of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. His hometown is Baltimore.

A group of law students at the Southern University Law Center, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission on behalf of John Clutchette, a 75-year old California prison inmate who was known in the early 1970s as one of the Soledad Brothers, along with George Jackson and Fleeta Drumgo. The men were charged, but acquitted, in the death of a prison guard. The Southern University law students and their legal advisor, attorney Angela Allen-Bell, say California governor Ed Brown is wrong in trying to reverse the state parole board’s decision to release Clutchette, who’s been serving time on a later murder conviction. They want the Human Rights Commission to consider the long history of state dirty tricks and frame-ups against Black political activists in the U.S. John Clutchette, however, was NOT a political prisoner when he was first locked up, in 1966. Ryan Thompson, one of the authors of the appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission, explains.

For decades, and especially in the last several years, the U.S. corporate media has been full of tales of Russian meddlings and aggressions against the United States. But, much of the world sees a very different picture. Phil Willay to is editor of the Virginia Defender, and a member of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, which recently held a national conference at the University of Baltimore. Wilayto says all the talk about supposed Russian provocations is a propagandistic distraction from Washington’s long history of attempting to militarily strangle Russia.

Black Agenda Radio - 01.22.18

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 U.S. military has spread its tentacles across the length and breadth of Africa, leading to millions of deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But Margaret Kimberley says the Congressional Black Caucus hasn’t said a peep about Washington’s culpability in the slaughter.

NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, has written a primer explaining all you need to know about HR 40, the congressional legislation on reparations for the descendants of American slaves that has been sponsored for the past 27 years by Detroit Congressman John Conyers. However, no sooner was the ink dry on the primer for HR 40, than Congressman Conyers announced that he is resigning his seat, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. We spoke with one of the authors of the HR 40 primer, NCOBRA legislative director Kamm Howard.

Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, rallied in Philadelphia, hopeful that a legal opening has developed that might lead to a reversal of his 1982 conviction in the death of a policeman. A Pennsylvania state court is looking into the behavior of Ronald Castille, a prosecutor who helped convict Mumia and then went on to become the same judge who rejected Mumia’s appeal. Dr. Johanna Fernandez, a Baruch College history professor with the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, explained the legal issues involved.

Mumia Abu Jamal’s brother, Kevin Cook, was also on hand at the rally.

Mumia Abu Jamal has dedicated his latest Prison Radio essay to a father and daughter whose names are now inscribed on the lists of martyrs in the Black struggle.

Since the founding of AFRICOM, the U.S. Military Command in Africa, in 2008, U.S. troops have spread across the face of the continent. Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley says the Congressional Black Caucus has been glaringly silent on the U.S. militarization of Africa. Kimberley was part of a panel discussion on AFRICOM, at a Baltimore conference of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases.

Also at that conference against U.S. foreign military bases, was Maurice Carney, of Friends of Congo.