Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio - 09.18.17

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: The United States has tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, and North Korea only has a handful, but the U.S. claims that North Korea is the greatest danger to world peace; and, author and historian Paul Street explores why Ta-nehesi Coates has it in for the Left.

Fifteen Democratic U.S. Senators have endorsed Bernie Sanders Medicare for All legislation. In the House, a majority of Democrats have co-sponsored a single payer health care bill. We spoke with Dr. Margaret Flowers, who works with a group called Health Over Profits. 

The United States is by far the most heavily armed nation on the planet, and has attacked more countries than any anybody else since World War Two. But Washington insists that North Korea is the biggest danger to the planet, and has pressured the United Nations Security Council to impose harsh sanctions on the Koreans. UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition, opposes U.S. sanctions and threats against North Korea.” Spokesperson Sara Flounders, explains.

TaNehesi Coats, the Black writer for the neoliberal magazine, The Atlantic, has blasted what he calls “the Left” for favoring class arguments over racial realities. The charge drew a quick response from author and historian Paul Street, writing in Counterpunch.

A new poll commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers union shows that public school parents care most of all about adequate funding for education, and that large majorities think there is too much time and attention paid to high stakes testing. We spoke with Dr. Monty Neil, executive director of the Fair Test organization, in Boston, and asked, why only 11 percent of parents think that so-called school choice is an important issue.

 

And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.11.17

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: Community control of the police activists in New York City take the struggle into the bowels of the subway system, while, in Philadelphia, activists present their case to the City Council; and, Dr. Anthony Monteiro says the time is right for a real progressive movement – but the Left doesn’t know how to take advantage of it.

Peace and environmental activists will hold a conference September 22nd and 23rd at American University, in Washington, to explore the possibilities of political cooperation. Veteran anti-war activist David Swanson is one of the organizers of the conference. According to Swanson, environmental organizations have historically avoided association with the peace movement.

President Donald Trump may have thought he would terrify North Korea, and the rest of the world, with his threats to bring down “fire and fury” if the U.S. doesn’t get its way. However, Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Dubosian scholar from Philadelphia, says, despite Trump’s huffing and puffing, the U.S. superpower isn’t so super any more.

Diop Olugbala, of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, has an important date coming up with the Philadelphia City Council. The Black Is Back Coalition and its allies are pressing for Black Community Control of the police.

In the Queens section of New York City, the Coalition to End Broken Windows Policing this year took the fight against police oppression into the subway system. Lauren Concepcion is an organizer with the “Swipe It Forward” campaign, which urges New Yorkers who have unlimited fare cards to swipe through low income and young people, so that they won’t get snatched up by the cops for jumping turnstiles. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Concepcion.

And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.04.17

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: from Bush to Obama to Trump, you can always count on U.S. presidents to keep the War Machine humming. We’ll speak with Professors Gerald Horne and Francis Boyle; and, we’ll hear some voices for prison abolition.

Houston, Texas, America’s fourth largest city, was sent reeling by Hurricane Harvey. Many tried to escape the storm, including Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific author and professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. We caught up with Dr. Horne in Atlanta, where he had found refuge. He said danger lurks in Houston’s water and in the ground.

The U.S. war in Afghanistan is in its 16 th year – a lot longer than that, if you count all the years that Washington was funding what became Al Qaida at their bases in the country. The Trump administration has committed the U.S. to man more years of war in Afghanistan, which tends to prove the rule that, once the U.S. occupies a country, it never leaves unless it is forced out. We spoke with Dr. Francis Boyle, the distinguished professor of International Law at the University of Illinois.

Prison abolition advocates rallied in 16 cities recently, under the banner, “Millions for Prisoners Human Rights.” The activists maintain that the U.S. prison system is just another form of slavery. The biggest event in the was held in Washington, DC. We’ll hear from three speakers. The first is Laura Whitehorn, who served 14 years in federal prison on political charges. Whitehorn is with the Northeast Political Prisoners Coalition.

Wilbert “Jazz, the Poet” Sanders is locked up in Pennsylvania’s McKean federal prison. Sanders submitted this piece of poetry to Prison Radio. It’s called “Politically Incorrect.”

“And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 08.28.17

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: The U.S. Justice Department demands to know the identities of 1.3 million people, because they visited a web site; Much of the U.S. Congress wants to make it a crime to boycott Israel; and, prisoner rights advocates demand repeal of the Amendment that makes slavery legal in the United States.

In the wake of racist violence in Charlottesvill, Virginia, the airwaves are full of discussion about President Trump’s ties to the so-called “alt-right.” Just what is President Trump’s core political base. We asked author and veteran journalist Chris Hedges.

More than 200 demonstrators face felony charges stemming from protests at Donald Trump’s inauguration, January 20, in Washington. Trump’s Justice Department is trying to force an internet hosting company to reveal the identities of all 1.3 million people that visited a website involved in organizing the inauguration protests. Civil liberties groups say the administration has declared war on the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. We asked Chip Gibbons, legislative oounsel with the group, Defending Rights and Dissent, if there is any precedent for the Justice Department’s dragnet.

August is traditionally a time to support the rights of those incarcerated in the U.S. prison gulag. This August 19 th saw rallies in cities around the country under the theme, Millions for Prisoners Human Rights, with the biggest event in Washington, DC. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Brother Dee, a currently incarcerated prison abolition activist who would rather prison officials not know his real name. Brother Dee said the rallies were a big success, despite the competition from racist statues and the eclipse of the sun.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, went on Prison Radio to note the passig of one of Black America’s premier social critics…and a very funny guy.

A bill has passed the U.S. House, and is now before the Senate, that would make it a crime, punishable by 20 years in prison, to boycott Israel for its repression of Palestinian people’s rights. Josh Reubner is policy director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. He says Israel’s supporters on Capitol Hill are willing to gut the U.S. Constitution to protect Israel from criticism.

And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.

Black Agenda Radio - 08.21.17

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: a push to put a reparations measure on the ballot, in Chicago; and, Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace, says Black self-determination and the fight against imperialism are inseparable.

A new survey shows that 56 percent of U.S. doctors now favor a switch to single payer health care. That’s a big increase since 2008, when the same poll showed only a minority of doctors supported single payer. We spoke with Dr. Margaret Flowers, of Popular Resistance, a long-time advocate of single payer.

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held its national conference in Chicago, this month. The conference explored the potential for running Black radical candidates for office based on the 19 points of the Coalition’s National Black Political Agenda for Self-Determination. Kamm Howard is active in both the Black Is Back Coalition and NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. Howard is spearheading a drive to put a reparations measure on the local ballot, in Chicago, next year. He says, it’s a question of power.

The latest addition to the coalition is the Black Alliance for Peace, founded by veteran human rights activist Ajamu Baraka, the 2016 Green Party vice presidential candidate. Baraka says the Alliance has no illusions that the vote, alone, will set Black people free.

The cease fire arrangement reached earlier this summer between U.S. and Russian forces in Syria, appears to be holding. In Philadelphia, Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro is confident that the forces of peace will ultimately triumph, in the world. Monteiro says even Washington’s European allies are tiring of endless wars.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, also hails from Philadelphia. He says the United States is in a class of its own when it comes to mass incarceration.

“And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.

Black Agenda Radio - 08.07.17

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: Anti-war activists have long called for the United States to cut back its military budget, but the United National Anti-War Coalition is demanding specifically, that Washington close down its one thousand military
bases around the planet; and, criminal justice reform activists warn Attorney General Sessions that the last thing the U.S. needs is more prisons.

But first – by almost unanimous votes, both Houses of the U.S. Congress have passed harsh economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. The lawmakers went a step further, forbidding the administration from removing these sanctions without first getting permission from Congress. President Trump reluctantly signed the bill, although he complained that parts of
it were unconstitutional. Historically, the U.S. Congress has rarely used its powers to curb presidents from making war, but now prevents presidents from moving towards peace by removing sanctions. We spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific author and professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston.

This year, President Trump submitted tp Congress the biggest military budget in the history of the United States. The Republican-controlled Congress then added on even more money, with the support of the leadership of the Democratic Party. The war budget funds not only nuclear weapons systems that can destroy all human life many times over, but the most massive network of overseas bases that the world has ever seen. UNAC, the United National Anti- War Coalition, has joined with other peace organizations to demand that these bases be shut down – all one thousand of them. Sara Flounders sits on UNAC’s executive committee. She says the United States is attempting to militarily occupy the planet.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions claims that crime has gone up in several U.S. cities because the Obama administration wasn’t imposing harsh enough prison sentences. Marc Mauer, the executive director of The Sentencing Project, in Washington, says Sessions’ “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” approach is counter-productive and socially destructive.

And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.

Black Agenda Radio - 07.31.17

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: Donald Trump’s enemies are happy that his administration seems to be falling apart at the seams, but Black political scholar
Anthony Monteiro says it’s not just Trump, but the whole capitalist imperial system that is in crisis; and, we’ll hear from an organizer with the New African Black Panther Party.

But first Four years ago, President Barack Obama gave the CIA authorization to arm and train Islamic jihadists to overthrow the government of Syria. Last month, President Donald Trump announced that that the covert CIA proxy war program in Syria has been cancelled. The Trump administration has also concluded agreements with Russia for ceasefires in several regions of Syria. We spoke with Ajamu Baraka, the veteran human rights activist and 2016 vice presidential candidate with the Green Party who has been busy pulling together a Black Alliance for Peace.

In recent years, and especially since the election of Barack Obama, the Democratic Party has equaled and often eclipsed the Republicans in their fervor for war. Few people would have predicted that the Democrats would become more warlike than a right wing Republican like President Trump. Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar based in Philadelphia, says the U.S. ruling class and its political system are in crises, and Donald Trump is just a system of the decline.

The original Black Panther Party for Self Defense has been defunct for decades, but its ideological children are still organizing, including within the U.S. prison system. The group called the New African Black Panther Party has established chapters in and outside the prisons. One of the party’s prison chapter co-founders, Kevin Rasheed Johnson, has been repeatedly transferred from penal facilities in Virginia, Oregon, and Texas, as the authorities try to curtail his organizing activities. Fellow party members recently lost track of Johnson, who seemed to have disappeared into the vast American prison gulag. Two weeks ago, Johnson’s comrades located him in a Florida prison, where was being held in solitary confinement. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with Tito “Fist” Rivera, another co-founder of the prison chapter of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party. He says the Party has formed an interracial alliance.

And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.

Black Agenda Radio - 07.24.17

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: A demand for freedom for members of the MOVE organization, who have been imprisoned for the past 39 years; and, Has the Reparations movement hit a legal dead end? No, says an activist who is pushing
to put reparations on the ballot, in Chicago.

James Forman Jr, the son of the legendary civil rights leader, has caused quite a stir with his new book, titled “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.” Forman is a professor of at Yale Law School. His book details how, during the 1970s and 80s, Black politicians pushed for draconian drug laws and policing strategies that resulted in the massive rates of incarceration in Black America. We spoke with Paul Street, a historian and author who has done extensive research on mass incarceration. Street is quite impressed with James Forman’s work.

Earlier this month, Black Agenda Report published an article by Dr. Jahi Issa and Reggie Mabry, which maintained that the Reparations movement is dead in the U.S, and will stay dead until activists change their legal strategy. Courts have rejected previous suits for reparations for the descendants of Black people enslaved in the United States. Issa and Mabry maintain that it does no good to bring suits against slavery, because slavery was LEGAL in the United States for most of the nation’s early history. The best way for Black people to get a favorable ruling in court, they say, is to challenge the U.S. government’s failure to stop the ILLEGAL importation of Africans after the international slave trade was outlawed in 1808. Kamm Howard is a veteran activist in the reparations movement. He’s on the legislative Commission of NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, and sits on the steering committee of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. Howard is organizing a campaign to put a reparations measure on the ballot in Chicago. He’s aware of Dr. Issa and Reggie Mabry’s criticism of previous reparations legal strategies.

Haitian political analyst Pascal Robert is a contributor to Black Agenda Report. Robert recently appeared on the pod-cast, Dead Pundits Society. He said that, for the first time in history, Black people in the United States are “operating in a political space to the right of white progressives.”

Back in 1978, nine members of the MOVE organization were sentenced to life in prison in the death of a Philadelphia policeman. Seven years later, in 1985, the cops bombed the MOVE residence, killing 11 people, including 5 children. The surviving members of the MOVE 9 remain in prison. On August 5 th , in Brooklyn, New York, an all-day event will be held at the House of the Lord Church, under the heading: “39 Years is Too Long: Free the Move 9.” MOVE minister of communications Ramona Africa spoke with Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser. She says the August 5 th event will feature more than just speeches.

Charles Diggs is locked up the Pennsylvania prison system. He wrote an essay for Prison Radio, about how best to return to society all of its “missing citizens” – like himself. Charles Diggs asks the question: Why are so many among the missing?

And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.

Black Agenda Radio - 07.17.17

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: The United States has always supported dictators in the Congo, but now Washington is acting like it wants the oust the guy it put in power; Mumia Abu Jamal says the tide is turning against barbaric medical practices in U.S. prisons; and, we’ll have a conversation with two Black authors that claim Reparations for slavery is a dead issue.

Reparations remains on the agenda of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, which will hold a national conference at Chicago State University, August 12th and 13 th . It’s the 8 year-old coalition’s first national conference outside the East Coast. Kamm Howard is the point person on reparations for Black Is Back. He’s chairman of the legislative commission of NCOBRA, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America.

Dr. Issa Jahi and Reggie Mabry authored a recent article in Black Agenda Report, in which they laid out what they believe is a new legal strategy to gain reparations for Black people in the United States. Jahi and Mabry contend that current reparations efforts will never be accepted by U.S. courts, and that, for the time being, reparations is dead. We spoke, first, with Dr. Issa.

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, took the Pennsylvania prison system to court for failure to treat him and thousands of other inmates with Hepatitis C. And he won, twice. The mass Black incarceration state continues its barbaric medical practices, but Abu Jamal says the tide is turning.

Two million people have been displaced by violence in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Untold numbers have been killed, with many bodies found in mass graves. According to Kambale Musavuli, of Friends of Congo, it is no coincidence that vast quantities of precious minerals have also been discovered in the Kasai region.

And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.

Black Agenda Radio - 07.10.17

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

The United States has embedded itself in Syrian territory, after six years of arming Islamic jihadist fighters to overthrow that government. Russia is also in Syria, but that’s at the request of the recognized Syrian government. There is no legal justification for the U.S. presence in Syria, according to Dr. Francis Boyle, the professor of international law at the University of Illinois.

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will hold a national conference in Chicago, August 12 and 13. The theme of the gathering is “The Ballot AND the Bullet: War and Peace in the Era of Donald Trump.” We spoke with Black is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela, and asked, What’s so different about the Donald Trump era?

The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, was a radio journalist before he was locked up in the death of a Philadelphia policeman. In an essay for Prison Radio, Abu Jamal speaks of Franz Fanon, the “Revolutionary Journalist.”

Diane, Rwigara, the 35-year old daughter of a businessman believed to have been assassinated by the regime of Paul Kagame, in Rwanda, is perservering in her presidential bid. People that challenge dictator Paul Kagame most often wind up dead, in prison, or in exile. David Himbara is journalist who fled Rwanda to avoid assassination. Himbara says Diane Rwigara has given Rwandans hope. He appeared on Phil Taylor’s radio program, “Unusual Sources,” in Toronto, Canada.

WBAI-FM Radio, in New York City, is being sued by the Empire State building, from whose towers it has been broadcasting since 1965. But the Empire State Building management claims WBAI owes more than 2 million dollars in back rent. The suit threatens not only WBAI, but other Pacifica stations in Texas and California, according to WBAI interim executive director Bill Crosiere

And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.