Black Agenda Radio

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.

Black Agenda Radio - 10.17.16

This is Black Agenda Radio, a weekly hour of African American political thought and action. Hillary Clinton’s supporters having been whipping up a hysteria, claiming that Donald Trump is such a dangerous fascist, that progressives cannot afford to vote their consciences and support Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka, of the Green Party. But Black Agenda Report’s Glen Ford told activists of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, in Atlanta, last week, that the world may not survive a Hillary Clinton in the White House. Ford said Clinton’s proposed “no fly” zone over Syria would lead almost immediately to a war between the United States and Russia, the world’s two nuclear super- powers. And, Glen Ford said Donald Trump isn’t the only candidate with fascist tendencies.The United States claims it is the premiere democracy on the planet, but this country has the lowest voter turnout in the industrialized world. Part of the reason is the U.S. practice of denying the vote to people with felony records. A new study by the Sentencing Project, in Washington, shows that six million Americans have been disenfranchised because of criminal records. According to the Sentencing Project executive director Marc Mauer, only the United States treats ex-felons like non-citizens. 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 - 10.10.16

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

A report by a United Nations panel indicted the United States 

for its history of “racial terrorism and inequality” and reaffirmed the need for 

reparations for African Americans. We spoke with Kamm Howard, of N-COBRA, 

the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America.

Nobody but Democrats and Republicans is allowed to take part in the nationally televised presidential and vice presidential debates. However, Democracy Now has been presenting “Expanded Debates” that allowed Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka to answer the same questions posed to the major party candidates. Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine were essentially in agreement about the conflict in Syria, both advocating for a “no fly zone” that could put the U.S. at war with Russia at any moment. Ajamu Baraka says the Democrats and Republicans are on a path towards global destruction.

Donald Trumps endless embarrassments make it less and less likely that he will become President of the United States. However, lots of people that claim to be progressives say they have no choice but to support Hillary Clinton because Trump will bring about a fascist regime in this country. Paul Street, the  historian and political analyst, isn’t buying that argument. He says the Democrats are engaged in scare-mongering.

Nate Parker’s film, “Birth of a Nation,” about Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion against slavery, has been getting mixed reviews. Perhaps the movie’s biggest flaw is its failure to show Nat Turner as a revolutionary organizer. For that kind of information, we thought it was a good idea to present part of a speech, delivered this summer, by Dr. Melvin Peters, an associate professor of African American Studies at Eastern Michigan University.

By a slim margin, a deal to end Colombia’s half-century long war between the government and FARC guerillas was defeated in a referendum at the polls, earlier this month. Colombians of African descent and indigenous people have suffered most from the conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than five million people from their homes. Mina- Rojas was disappointed with the vote, but not surprised.

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 - 10.03.16

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

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton argued for 90 minutes at week’s presidential debate, but very little emerged in terms of concrete policy proposals. Trump and Clinton clashed over police stop-and- frisk policies, which were ruled unconstitutional as practiced in New York City. Trump said the country needs more stop-and- frisk. Clinton said it was an “ineffective” way to fight crime. For those who are not schooled in the law and the history of stop-and- frisk, the whole exchange might have seemed murky. So, we spoke with Chip Gibbons, the policy and legislative counsel for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

World War Three could start at any moment in Syria, where U.S. and Russian forces are arrayed on opposite sides of the battlefield. The Russian military is in Syria at the invitation of that country’s government. The U.S. is supporting Islamic jihadists, and last month killed 62 Syrian government soldiers that were under attack by ISIS. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has long pushed for a “no fly zone” over Syria – although she didn’t bring up the idea in last week’s debate with Donald Trump. The Green Party has been frozen  out of the televised debates. Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate, says peace wouldn’t stand much of a chance with Clinton in the White House.

While Trump and Clinton were debating each other at Hofstra University, in New York, Jitu Brown was among the protesters demonstrating outside. Brown is a leader of the Journey for Justice Alliance, made up of 40,000m activists in community organizations in 24 cities across the country. The Alliance demands “comprehensive equality” in education, and a national moratorium on charter schools.Journey for Justice Alliance, 40,000 active members of community organizations in 24 cities around the country. He was among the protesters at last week’s debate. The Journey for Justice Alliance platform demands a national moratorium on charters schools.

 

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 - 09.26.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. the national prison strike that began on September 9, continues, although the corporate media has almost completely ignored the story. Pastor Kenneth Glascow is the chief spokesman, on the outside, for the Free Alabama Movement, which spearheaded the strike. Glascow says the revolt against slave labor behind the bars began in Alabama’s Holman Prison. The Obama administration has spent billions of dollars waging a proxy war against the government of Syria, in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and now threatens to ignite a war with Russia. Two weeks ago, U.S warplanes attacked a Syrian military base, killing over 60 government soldiers who were fighting the Islamic State. We spoke with Duboisian scholar and veteran political activist Dr. Anthony Monteiro, and asked if he believed Washington’s claim that the bombing was a mistake.The Uhuru Movement held its annual conference in Ferguson, Missouri, this month. Kalambayi Andenet is president of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. She says the liberation movement must be based among the same people that it wants to set free.The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement is part of the African People’s Socialist Party, led by Omali Yeshitela. He said the current movement is a continuation of the struggle that began 600 years ago, with the European assault on Africa. In recent months, the one-party ethnic dictatorship in Ethiopia has killed hundreds of protesters from the Amhara and Oromo groups. Ethiopia is a main U.S. ally in Africa, despite its horrific human rights record. Tsigereda Mulugeta is the U.S. based vice president of the Ethiopian People’s Congress of Struggle, or SHENGO. 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 - 09.19.16

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. Coming up: Black Youth 100 take their legislative demands to the U.S. Capital, in Washington, The Uhuru Movement celebrates a 25 th anniversary, in Ferguson, Missouri, and, the U.S. Justice Department continues its near-perfect record of refusing to indict cops in the killing of unnamed Black people. But First professional football player Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to honor the U.S. flag and national anthem has reignited a discussion of the historical relationship between Black people and the U.S. government, past and present. Dr. Gerald Horne is a professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and probably the nation’s most prolific writer on the subject of Black folk’s loyalties – and opposition to – the United States, since Colonial times. Dr. Horne says Kaepernick’s example has caught on like wildfire. BYP100 and the National Black Justice Coalition held their first “lobby day” – Build Black Futures Advocacy Day – on Capitol Hill, presented a list of legislative demands. Black Virginia congressman Bobby Scott was on hand. Chairman, People’s Organization for Progress, Newark, New Jersey. U.S. Justice Department refused to bring charges against the Bridgeton, New Jersey cop that killed Jerame Reid, an unarmed Black man who had his hands raised – in full view of video cameras – when he was shot down at point blank range. How could the Justice Department avoid this case? On March 31 of this year, a swarm of Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy pursued a car carrying three Black teenaged girls, aged 15 and 16, and chased it into a small lake. The girls drowned, while video tape shows officers standing around, talking to each other at the edge of the water for the five minutes it took for the girls’ care to sink into the pond. 25th anniversary of the Independent People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, annual conference, in Ferguson, Missouri. Kunde Ngudi Mwamvita, mother of 16  year old Dominique. He first lawyer wanted her to get a makeover, speech lessons, so that she would appear more acceptable. Uhuru movement got her a new lawyer, and embraced her cause.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.12.16

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. Coming up: vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka says the

Green Party will fight for the rights of all oppressed people; Blacks in Ferguson,

Missouri, suspect the cops are behind the killing of a young activist; and, Blacks

in Colombia want to make sure that a peace deal between the government and

rebels also safeguards the rights of African descended peoples.

Veteran anti-war activist David Swanson is urging corporate

media networks and cable channels to hold their own debates that include the

presidential candidates of the Green and Libertarian Parties.

The Green Party held a massive rally in Chicago, recently, for Jill Stein

and Ajamu Baraka, their candidates for president and vice president. Baraka

says the people are demanding answers to some serious questions.Twenty-year- old Black political activist Darren Seals’ body was found shot

and burned inside his car in Ferguson, Missouri, last week. No one has been

charged in Seals’ murder, but folks on the street suspect that the police are

involved. We spoke with Edwin Chanell, whose New Generation Black Council

works with gang members in the St. Louis area. Chanell was a close associate of

Revolutionary Black Panther Party local leader Houdari Juelani, also known as

Angelo Brown, who was shot to death by cops in nearby Belleville, Illinois, earlier

this year. Chanell also collaborated with Darren Seals, and believes the cops

played a role in his death. Colin Kaepernick’s name is by now a household word, after the football

player’s refusal to stand and honor the national anthem. But, 31 years ago,

Hardy Williams lost his position as a Los Angeles high school coach when he

turned his back on the national anthem. Williams sued his school principle and

the school district, and won a $25,000 settlement. The life-long educator says

he’d been shunning the flag and the anthem for years before the authorities

finally took action against him, in 1985. On September 26 th , the Colombian government and FARC guerillas will

sign a peace deal to bring an end to more than 50 years of civil war. Shortly

afterwards, a national referendum will be held on the peace deal. However, Afro-

Colombians and indigenous peoples worry that their rights may be disregarded in

the process. Charo Mina-Rojas is a spokesperson for the Afro-Colombian

struggle to maintain their territorial rights. Mumia Abu Jamal, the United States’ best known political prisoner is

making an appeal for Prison Radio, which carries his commentaries and reports

from other activists locked up in the American Gulag. 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. I’m Nellie

Bailey. Our thanks to the good people at the Progressive Radio Network.

Black Agenda Radio - 09.05.16

20^th Anniversary of Clinton’s War Against the Poor

It’s been 20 years since President Bill Clinton and the U.S. Congress destroyed “welfare as we knew it” by replacing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the “workfare” regime called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The result, saidMaureen Taylor, chairperson of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, is growing poverty in the United States. Taylor says TANF should be changed to DANF, standing for “Disappearing Aid for Needy Families.” Residents of Michigan are only eligible for cash assistance for five years in their lifetimes. It’s a shame, said Taylor, how the political class is “turning, not against poverty, but trying to turn the nation against poor folks.”

Judge Finds Way to Avoid Ordering Hep C Cure for Mumia

A federal judge agreed that it is unconstitutional for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to deny curative medical treatment to Mumia Abu Jamal and thousands of other prisoners suffering from Hepatitis C. However, the court then ruled that Abu Jamal’s suit was technically flawed. Noelle Hanrahan, a director of Prison Radio who works closely with Mumia, was outraged that the state has condemned thousands of prisoners to early and unnecessary deaths. “You can’t construct a situation that is more grossly inhumane,” she said.

Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, was more upbeat about the ruling. “It’s a good beginning that a federal judge recognizes that what the Commonwealth is doing, and has been doing for years, is not only unjust but unconstitutional, a violation of fundamental fairness and the human right to life,” he said.

Clinton and Trump Fear TV Debate with Stein and Johnson

“Our view is that if you have the potential for 270 Electoral College votes -- if you are on enough ballots to achieve that -- then you should be in the debate,” said Kevin Zeese, the veteran activist recently named as senior advisor to the Green Party’s Jill Stein-Ajamu Baraka presidential ticket. Zeese notes that polls show half the American public wants the televised debates open to Stein and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate. However, the debates are a joint venture of the Democratic and Republican parties, who call the shots. “It’s a disgrace to democracy,” said Zeese, “that they can choose who they will debate.”

Obama Neutralized Blacks for Most of His Term

Barack Obama’s presidency has been “the highest expression” of the U.S. government’s long campaign to “neutralize the Black liberation movement,” said BAR regular contributor Danny Haiphong, who this week posted the ninth in his ten-part series on the Obama legacy. “It really wasn’t until 2014, when Obama was in his last years, that any semblance of a movement against issues like police brutality and racism began to come back to the fore,” said Haiphong. Black liberationist politics has been suppressed for two generations, said Haiphong, “with the help of a Black misleadership class that has diluted, sanitized and almost destroyed, up until recently, the Black Radical Tradition.”

U.S. Anti-War Movement Under Attack

A recent article by Terry Burke in the leftish magazine In These Times attacked a broad range of anti-war activists and groups for opposing the U.S. war against Syria. Burke claims U.S. activists aren’t listening to “the Syrian people.” In response, Sara Flounders, of the United National Anti-War Coalition, said the U.S. insists on regime change in Syria, and “anyone who has any confusion as to where that leads has only to look at Libya and at Iraq and see the howling wasteland that has been created” by U.S. intervention.

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. 

Black Agenda Radio - 08.29.16

This is Black Agenda Radio, the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Your hosts are Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey, here they are with a weekly hour of African American political thought and action.

Rights Lawyers Target Arkansas Debtors Prison

The district court in Sherwood, Arkansas, is in gross violation of a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to imprison people for debt, according to a class action suit filed by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Arkansas ACLU. Much like the pattern of abuse documented by the U.S. Justice Department in Ferguson, Missouri, Sherwood derives as much as 12 percent of its revenues from “imposing mounting fines or fees tied to very low level offenses,” said Lawyers Committee president Kristen Clarke. One of Clarke’s clients wound up spending 25 days in jail and owing nearly $3,000 to the courts because she bounced a $28.93 check. “Our hope is that we can bring national attention to this problem, and that we might inspire action by the Congress to breathe life back into this Supreme Court ruling,” said Clarke.

Reformers Hope Private Prison Phase-Out Will Spread

The Obama administration’s announcement that it will phase out contracting with private prisons in the federal system is “a real notable moment,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, in Washington. “It’s yet another indication that the growing critique and challenge to mass incarceration is really gaining ground,” said Mauer. The vast bulk of the nation’s 2.4 million inmates are held in local and state institutions, and most immigrants under detention are not affected by the  executive order. However, Mauer is “hopeful” that there will be a “spillover effect.”

Mumia: Trump or Clinton – Choose Your Poison

The nation faces “incredibly grim” choices for president, according to America’s best known political prisoner. Mumia Abu Jamal said Donald Trump is “an overt racist” while Hillary Clinton is a neoliberal that “supported one of the most poisonous public policies in decades: the prison industrial complex.” Neoliberalism, he said, is the “politics of repression with a smile.”

A Green Foreign Policy Against Permanent War

“Permanent war is a central part of the elite agenda,” said Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka, in an interview on Pacifica radio station KPFA. Since the presidency of George W. Bush, the U.S. has tried to impose “full spectrum dominance” over the entire planet, said the veteran human rights activist and editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. “That policy was adopted and embraced by the Obama administration, and it is also embraced by Hillary Clinton.” Obama’s so-called “free trade” agreements are “the economic arm of full spectrum dominance,” said Baraka.

Confused Writer Claims Anti-War Movement is “Imperialist”

In an article in the leftish magazine In These Times, Terry Burke denounced activists that oppose the U.S. proxy war against Syria as being, themselves, “imperialist.” Burke lashed out at a long list of activists and organizations, including UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition. “That’s illogical,” said Margaret Kimberley, an editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report who serves on UNAC’s administrative committee. Burke and her ilk “are not opposed to U.S. intervention,” and are “pro any intervention run by a Democratic president,” said Kimberley, while UNAC “is steadfast in opposing American intervention abroad. That means we must oppose the 5-year-long war of terror waged against the country and the people of Syria.”

Philippines War May Be Nearing Resolution

The Philippine government and communist guerillas of the New People’s Army wrapped up the first phase of negotiations to end a 50-year-long war in the former U.S. colony. Bernadette Ellorin, chairperson of Bayam USA, which represents the above ground and armed resistance forces, said the breakthrough occurred because President Rodrigo Duterte “was not elected as the usual U.S. hand-picked candidate of the Philippines.” The country’s army and police, however, have “historically been a proxy army for the U.S...to kill off the longest armed revolution in the region against the U.S. – the Philippine revolution,” said Ellorin. Phase Two of the talks begins in October. In the meantime, President Duterte has ordered his armed forces to respect the mutual ceasefire.

Visit the BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday.