Black Agenda Radio

Black Agenda Radio - 12.26.16

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

The Democrats continue to blame their loss in November on the Russians, and have whipped up a new McCarthyism and a war fever of the kind that used to be peculiar to Republicans. It’s not a pretty sight. We spoke with Dr. Margaret Flowers, who ran for the U.S. Senate from Maryland on the Green Party ticket. 

Police reform activist Robert Gangi is considering a run for mayor of New York City, to challenge the “Broken Windows” policing policies adopted by supposedly liberal Mayor Bill Deblasio. Robert Gangi is director of PROP, the Police Reform Organizing Project. He’s been sending teams of young investigators and activists into the city’s courts to document what actually happens to New Yorker caught in the jaws of the criminal justice system. Gangi says that, frankly, most cause that come into the courts are “crap.”

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 - 12.19.16

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.

For more than half a century, criminal justice reform advocates have pushed for community review boards to investigate and punish police brutality. It’s commonly accepted that these review board are toothless unless they have the power to subpoena witnesses. However, police unions are seeking a court injunction against Newark, New Jersey’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, established by Black Mayor Ras Baraka. The People’s Organization for Progress, POP, has a seat on the Review Board. POP chairman Larry Hamm isn’t surprised that the cops want to shut the board down.

Street protests continue, in Haiti, where all three of the nation’s largest parties charge yet another election has been rigged. The U.S.-backed candidate, Jovenel Moise, supposedly won a phenomenal 55 percent of the vote, while Maryse Narcisse, the candidate of Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, was allocated less than 10 percent of the vote. Observers point out that, if Moise was so popular, his supporters should be dancing in the streets. But instead, the streets are full of protesters. Pierre Labossier, of the Haiti Action Committee, has just returned from Haiti. We asked him what he thought about Moise being given 55 percent of the vote. 

The people of East Aleppp, in Syria, have finally been liberated after four years of occupation by U.S.-backed Islamic Jihadists. Fares Shehabi is an independent member of the Syrian parliament, from Aleppo. He’s also head of the Syrian Chamber of Industry. Shehabi was interview by Patrick Hinningson, of the “Sunday Wire” program on Alternate Current Radio. Shehabi has been greeting his countrymen recently freed from the jihadists.

Last month, at the Schomburg Center in New York’s Harlem, MOVE activist Ramona Africa appeared on a program organized by Inside the Activists Studio. Ramona Africa is a survivor of the mass incarceration and killing of MOVE members by Philadelphia Police. Robyn Spencer is one of the organizers of Inside the Activists Studio. Spencer was interviewed by Black Agenda Report producer Kyle Fraser.

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 - 12.12.16

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

 

Ajamu Baraka, who ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket, was a featured speaker at a conference of Southern Human Rights Organizers, in Jackson, Mississippi. Baraka was a co-founder of the U.S. Human Rights Network. He believes that progressive voters were too scared of Donald Trump to give the Greens a try.

Bruce Dixon, the Managing Editor of Black Agenda Report, is also a co-chair of the Georgia chapter of the Green Party. Dixon was recently interviewed by Ann Garrison, on Pacifica Radio station KPFA, in Berkeley, California. He was asked, Why is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein forcing a recount of the vote in three Midwestern states?

The Democratic Party seems to have gone Russia-crazy, blaming the Kremlin for Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump, and smearing web sites that don’t toe the U.S. line on foreign policy as dupes of the Russians – including Black Agenda Report. We spoke with veteran anti-war activist David Swanson, publisher of the influential web site “War Is A Crime.”

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is mobilizing for a rally in the nation’s capital, next month. While other groups will be expressing their anger at, or support for, Donald Trump, Black is Back Chairman Omali Yeshitela says the Coalition will gather to demand Black Self- Determination, on January 14 th.

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 - 12.05.16

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

President Donald Trump’s administration will not look anything like the picture painted by candidate Trump, who railed against the influence of corporations and special interests. A news study by the advocacy group Public Interest shows that 70 percent of the people on Trump’s transition team are affiliated with corporations. Former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin has been nominated for Secretary of State. But, the Barack Obama and Bill Clinton administrations were also top-heavy with Wall Street bankers. We asked Rick Claypool, research director for Public Citizen, why should the Trump administration be any different? 

In Philadelphia, activists will gather for a conference, December 9 and 10, aimed at bringing a more rigorous scientific analysis to the struggle for social justice. Nandita Chaturvedi is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, and an organizer of the conference on Revolutionary Science for Radical Times.

Back in April of this year, an army of police descended on a neighborhood in The Bronx, in New York City, and arrested 120 young men on conspiracy to commit a wide range of crimes. It was the largest police sweep in New York City history, even bigger than a similar roundup, two years ago, that dragged 103 young people in Harlem to prison. Both sweeps were centered on public housing projects. Paula is the mother of a teenager swept up in this year’s police raid in The Bronx. She chose not to use her last name, in fear of police retaliation against her son.

The Syrian government, with the help of Russia and other allies, seems on the verge of winning back control of Aleppo, its biggest city, much to the onsternation of the United States, which has for years armed and financed Islamic Jihadist fighters. Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley is an activist with the United National Anti-War Coalition, and part of the Hands Off Syria Coalition. She spoke at a Coalition gathering in New York City, last week.

In Washington, last week, the anti-war group Code Pink held a two-day People’s Tribunal on the Iraq War, as a step towards making the United States accountable for its aggression against that country. The Tribunal was covered, live, for two days by The Real News Network. One of those who testified was Michael Sampson, a Florida native and co-founder of the Dream Defenders and now a labor organizer in the Washington area.

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 - 11.28.16

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

Donald Trump has had little to say about what he’ll do to Medicare, but lots of Republicans in Congress would like to put the nation’s premiere health care program on the chopping block. Nancy Altman is co-director of Social Security Works. She says, the same people that are trying to privatize Social Security also have plans to change Medicare.

No constituency was more opposed to Donald Trump’s bid for the White House than Black people. A storm of controversy is swirling around the role that so-called “Identity Politics” played in the Democrats’ loss. We spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African American studies at the University of Houston, and one of Black America’s most prolific authors.

Diana Johnstone is author of the highly acclaimed book, “Queen of Chaos: the Misadventures of Hillary Clinton.” Johnstone lives and writes I Paris, France. In a recent article, Johstone urged Clinton supporters to stop panicking, and THINK.

Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley was recently a guest on the Taylor Report, a popular political program on radio station CUIT, at the University of Toronto, Canada. Kimberley was asked to describe the legacy that Barack Obama will leave behind when he exits the presidency in January.

For the 47 th year in a row, over a thousand Native Americans and their allies gathered in Plymouth, Massachusetts last Thursday for the Annual Native American National Day of Mourning. Nellie Bailey was there, covering the event for Black Agenda Report. But, the commanding presence in Plymouth was political prisoner Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement activist who has been behind bars for 41 years. Native American elder Bert Waters read Peltier’s statement to the crowd.

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’sthe place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.

Black Agenda Radio - 11.21.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Ajamu Baraka, a founder of the U.S. Human Rights Network and an editor and columnist with Black Agenda Report – was also the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate. We asked Baraka how he felt about the Green’s performance. Historian and author Paul Street is a keen observer of the crisis in the U.S. two-party electoral system. He says, if the Democrats offer nothing to working class voters, then they shouldn’t expect to win states like Michigan and Ohio.  Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal, the nations best known political prisoner, are planning a giant rally, in Philadelphia, next month. Abu Jamal is battling hepatitis C, but the Pennsylvania prison system refused to treat him for the disease, which also afflicts thousands of other inmates. Pam Africa says Mumia’s supporters are fighting to keep him alive. Mumia, himself, with a commentary on the election of Donald Trump. He titles it “Tears and a Smile.” President-Elect Donald Trump appears to have chosen Mike Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, as the next director of the CIA. Ray McGovern fighting the ever-growing power of the national security state. McGovern was recently interviewed by Paul Jay, of the Real News Network. McvGovern says, there’s a big problem with naming Mike Pompeo as CIA Chief. 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 - 11.14.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. we spoke with Dr. Cornel West, Black America’s most prominent public intellectual. Dr. West was a key supporter of Bernie Sanders, during the Democratic primaries. When Hillary Clinton won the nomination, Dr. West endorsed the Green Party’s presidential ticket. We asked Cornel West if he was surprised at Donald Trump’s victory. Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar and activist from Philadelphia, was one of the few observers on the Left that thought Donald Trump might win the election. Monteiro says Trump’s triumph is a result of the political crisis in the ruling class. Congress opens its lame duck session, this week. It could be the last chance for passage of President Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership corporate trade rights deal. Donald Trump made defeat of TPP a key goal of his campaign. Hillary Clinton claimed she also opposed TPP – although nobody believed her. Kevin Zeese is with Popular Resistance, which has been fighting TPP every step of the way. We asked Zeese if Trump’s win at the polls spells doom for Obama’s pet project. The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations last week held a national conference on Black Self-Determination, in Washington. Black is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela outlined the Coalition’s 19 point document on applying the principle of self-determination to the whole range of political issues. That was Black is Back Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela. Black Agenda Report senior columnist Margaret Kimberley was one of the speakers at the conference. Kimberley said self-determination means breaking with the warmongering, corporated-controlled, mass incarcerating Democratic Party. 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 - 11.07.16

Welcome, to the radio program that brings you News, Commentary and Analysis, from the Black Left. Cooperation Jackson, an organization made up of activists rooted in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement that, for a brief time, controlled City Hall in Jackson, Mississippi, continues to build institutions for Black self-determination in the region. Kali Akuno is a spokesperson for Cooperation Jackson. He says their current big project is to get ownership of a high-tech, 3-D Fabrication production facility. They call it the “Fab Lab.” Health insurance costs are going through the roof, as the dwindling number of private insurance companies that participate in the ObamaCare program raise rates and lower services in states across the country. Folks shouldn’t be surprised, according to Dr. John Geyman, Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. Dr. Geyman is am noted author, and recently published an article that said Obama’s Affordable Care Act is imploding, and beyond repair. That should have been expected, since the legislation was never designed to keep health care costs down. Professor John Geyman, speaking from Seattle.In Detroit, parents, educators and activists came together for a “Community Conversation on the Crisis in the Schools,” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The gathering was organized to address the question: “Who Created the School Crisis, and How Are We Responding To it?” Detroit has the second-largest concentration of charter schools in the country, right behind New Orleans. The city’s educational crisis began with the state takeover of the public schools, in the 1990s, and dramatically worsened after Michigan imposed emergency financial managers over the system. One of those on the panel was Dr. Thomas Pedroni, professor of Curriculum Studies at Wayne State University. The opposition to Venezuela’s Socialist government last year captured the country’s legislature, and is now attempting to seize the executive branch by hook or by crook. Opposition politicians tell foreign media that Venezuelans are starving due to government mismanagement and the collapse of world oil prices,and the U.S. corporate press reports that, as Truth. We spoke with Maria Paez Victor, a Venezuelan-born sociologist living in Toronto, Canada, who recently wrote an article titled, “Hating Venezuela.” We asked Dr. Victor, Who are these people who hate Venezuela so much and spread disinformation about its Socialist government?

Black Agenda Radio - 10.31.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Washington, DC is the site, this weekend, for a National Black Political Convention on Self-Determination. The event was organized by the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, which has rallied and marched on the White House every November since President Obama’s first year in office. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela says Black Is Back is determined to put Black self-determination back on the agenda. Much of the world would agree that the current U.S. presidential campaign is one of the strangest in modern times. Not only did the Republicans and Democrats nominate the nation’s two most unpopular politicians, but the election is occurring when the entire capitalist system is in crisis. We spoke with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar with the Black Radical Organizing Committee. If you believe the U.S. corporate media, then you probably think that the people of Venezuela are starving, and that most of them are out in the streets demanding the head of President Nicholas Maduro and the overthrow of his Socialist Party government. But is any of that true? We asked Dr. George Ciccariello-Maher, who teaches politics at Drexel University, and is author of the book, “We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution.” Political prisoner Rev. Edward Pinkney turned 68 years old this month, still serving a 2 ½ to ten year sentence on election tampering charges. Marcina Cole was a courtroom observer at Rev. Pinkney’s trial, in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She teamed up with David Sole, of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, to visit Pinkney in prison and to arrange a birthday party for him, in Detroit. 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 - 10.24.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Coming up: former Black Panthers celebrated the party’s 50 anniversary, in Oakland, California, where it all began; and, a Haitian political activist says Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, is the greater evil of the 2016 U.S. presidential contest. But first, It’s been 20 years since the start of the genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a bloodbath that continues, provoked, according to United Nations reports, by U.S. allies in neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. The Friends of Congo noted the 20th anniversary of the genocide with an all-day teaching session in New York City. One of the speakers was Nita Evele, of the Congo Global Action Coalition. Hundreds of former members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense gathered in Oakland, California, to mark the organization’s 50 th anniversary. The event saw four days of intense discussion on the burning issues that confront today’s Black liberation movement. The weekend also marked the 80th birthday of former Black Panther Party chairman and co-founder Bobby Seale, who was roasted and honored. Seale said, from the very beginning, he just wanted to put more Black people in elected office. If you are from Haiti, Bill and Hillary Clinton may look like the greater evils of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Haitian community political activist Daoud Andre led a protest against New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whose office has been investigating Donald Trump’s charitable organization. Andre says Schneiderman is showing his political bias by leaving Bill and Hillary Clinton’s multi-billion dollar, global fund-raising empire untouched.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.