Black Agenda Radio

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.

Black Agenda Radio - 08.22.16

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: Ajamu Baraka talks about the Clinton campaign’s dirty politics and lies against the Greens; the Black Is Back Coalition gathers in Philadelphia for a conference on Self-Determination; and, a courtroom victory in defense of public education in Detroit.

 

But first – one of the ways the Republicans and Democrats keep their monopoly on U.S. electoral politics, is by excluding third parties from the televised presidential debates.  The two major parties jointly own the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates, which excludes parties that fail to register 15 percent in the polls. However, veteran journalist Sam Husseini says the polling organizations are asking a trick question. Instead of asking people who they “want” to become president, they ask who people “plan to vote for” on the Election Day – which is a very different question.

The Clinton campaign has deployed its Internet trolls and slander-slinging operatives to besmirch the good names of Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka, on the Green Party’s presidential ticket. Baraka is a veteran activist, a founder of the U.S. Human Rights Network, and an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. He was recently interviewed by Eric Draitser, of Counterpunch Radio. Baraka says so-called liberals are doing much of the dirty work for the corporate war hawk, Hillary Clinton.

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held a conference in Philadelphia, this month, to put the finishing touches on a new document that puts forward a comprehensive list of demands within the context of Black Self-Determination. This Black Agenda for Self Determination covers 19 points, from Black community control of police to an anti-imperialist foreign policy. The Agenda will be submitted to various state conventions and then for approval at a national conference, in Washington, in November. Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela recounted how the coalition was formed, back in 2009.

In Detroit, a Michigan judge has upheld activists’ right to agitate against the privatization of the city’s public schools. Former teachers union president Steve Conn and Nicole Conaway, of BAMN, By Any Means Necessary, had l called for a massive sick-out and strike by teachers. We spoke with Steve Conn. He said the judge ruled that he and Conaway were just exercising their right to free speech.

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 - 08.15.16

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: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is trying to pull every Republican voter and fat cat contributor into her Big Tent Democratic Party, but what does that mean for Black and working people? And, Black activists remember the legacy of Robert Williams, the former NAACP leader in Monroe, North Carolina, who championed Black people’s right to armed self defense.

But first – the Green Party has assembled a full ticket to challenge the two-party duopoly system. Presidential candidate Jill Stein tapped veteran Black activist Ajamu Baraka as her vice presidential candidate. Baraka is a founder of the U.S. Human Rights Network and an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report.  Baraka accepted the vice presidential slot not long before the Green Party held its national convention in Houston, earlier this month. We asked him how that happened.

AjamuBarakaGREENS

Vice Presidential candidate, Green Party. Founder of the U.S. Human Rights Commission, veteran political activist, editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. Picked for the number two spot on the ticket by presidential candidate Jill Stein not long before the Party’s nominating convention, earlier this month, in Houston, Texas. How did that happen?

In: “It was something that was pretty sudden....”

Out: “...a plurality of votes can win this election.”

DrAnthonyMonteiroTRUMP-CLINTON 

In Philadelphia. Dubosian scholar, part of the Black Radical Organizing Committee.

On the Trump and Clinton economic positions.
In: “First of all, they’re political documents...”

Out: “...and increasing povert

In Detroit, this month, Black scholars and activists came together to celebrate the life of Robert F. Williams, the former NAACP leader in Monroe, North Carolina, who in the 1950s formed a Black Armed Guard to defend Black people from racist violence. Robert Williams and his wife, Mabel, were forced into exile in Cuba in 1961, where he wrote the book “Negroes With Guns” and published a newspaper called The Crusader. One of those who honored Williams was Dr. Akinyele Umoja, the chair of the African American Studies Department at Georgia State University, and author of the book “We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement.” He says Robert William’s legacy is relevant today.

 

DrAkinyeleUmoja_RobertWilliams 

Chair of the Department of African American Studies, Georgia State University. Author “We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement.” Founding member, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

One of speakers at a film forum honoring Robert F. Williams, the former NAACP leader in Monroe, North Carolina, in the 1950s, who formed a Black Armed Guard to defend Black people from racist violence. Williams and his wife, Mabel, were forced into exile in Cuba in 1961, where he wrote the book “Negroes With Guns” and published a newspaper called The Crusader.

In: “When we think about The Crusader...”

Out: “...Thank you all, Free the Land

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 - 08.08.16

 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: Low wage workers get ready to converge on Richmond, Virgina, for a national convention to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; a Black political prisoner wins a long court fight against the State of Pennsylvania; and, Black people in the South American nation of Colombia try to forge a sustainable peace agreement with guerillas and the government.

-– The two major political parties have chosen their presidential contenders. We spoke with veteran activist and author Kevin Alexander Gray, in Columbia, South Carolina. With Hillary Clinton, the corporate war hawk, heading up the Democrats, and Donald Trump, the white nationalist, in charge of the Republican Party, what’s a progressive voter to do?

- Since his capture and incarceration in 1972, political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz has spent most of his years in solitary confinement in Pennsylvania prisons. The former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member recently won a landmark court settlement that bars the State of Pennsylvania from putting him back in isolation again, and awards Shoatz a monetary settlement. Shoatz family members have been key activists in his defense team. We spoke with daughter Theresa Shoatz.

- Peace talks continue between the government of Colombia, in South America, and FARC guerillas who have been fighting the regime for two generations. Black Colombians and indigenous people have borne the brunt of displacement from the long years of civil war, but have largely been left out of the peace talks that have been going on in Havana, Cuba. Charo Mina-Rojas is with the National Afro-Colombian Peace Council and the Ethnic Commission that has been bargaining for Black and Native Colombian people’s rights.

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 - 7.25.16

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.

- Black activists took the fight against police terror to the cops’ doorstep, last week. Black Youth Project 100 and Black Lives Matter DC occupied the grounds of the Fraternal Order of Police union headquarters, in Washington. At about the same time, BYP100, Black Lives Matter and the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice staged a sit-in at the New York City offices of another police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Samantha Masters is a spokesperson for the activists in the nation’s capital.

- There’s been yet another acquittal in Baltimore of a police officer in the death of Freddie Gray. We spoke with Jill Carter, a member of the Maryland state legislature, who’s also a defense attorney who hails from an activist, civil rights family. Carter says, given that cops are so seldom charged with crimes against Black civilians, and hardly ever convicted, lots of folks were not surprised that it looks like no one will pay for the fatal injuries to Freddie Gray’s spine while in police custody.

- What does the rise of Donald Trump say about the United States? The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, files this report on The Trump Triumph.

- The grassroots rebellion in both the Democratic and Republican parties may bode well for the growth prospects of the Green Party and Jill Stein, their anticipated presidential candidate. Dr. Margaret Flowers is an honorary co-chair of the Green’s national convention, coming up in August, and one of the authors of a series of open letters the Greens have sent to various political constituencies, urging them to break with the two-party, duopoly system.

- Bruce Carter used to be an organizer with Black Men for Bernie, before Sanders capitulated to Hillary Clinton. Carter says he’s through with the Democrats, but he will be in Philadelphia this week when Clinton accepts her presidential nomination.

- The Olympic Games kick off next month in Rio De Janeiro, but Brazil is in political turmoil. The impeachment trial of the country’s elected President, Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers Party, is set to begin in mid-August. The corporate media in Brazil and the United States act as if Rousseff’s removal is a done deal. However, a federal prosecutor has ruled that the charges against Rousseff do not constitute a crime, and it is believed that there may be a large enough bloc in the Brazilian Senate to prevent her ouster. Maria Luisa Mendonca is director of Brazil’s Network for Social Justice and Human Rights and a professor of international relations at the University of Rio De Jenairo, which has been closed down since the so-called “soft coup”

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

Black Agenda Radio - 7.18.16

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.

– Something is different in Black America than it was two weeks ago. The police killings of Black men in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis, the massive protests that followed, and Micah Johnson’s retaliation against Dallas police, left a distinct mark on the Black psyche. We asked Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar and member of the Black Radical Organizing Committee, if he thinks something has changed in the mood and the minds of Black folks?

- Thousands are expected to descend on Philadelphia next week, for protests at the Democratic National Convention. Scott Williams, of the International Action Center, is an organizer for a “Shut Down the DNC” march, on July 26. However, before the protesters can confront the National Democratic Party, they first have to fight with the local Democrats and the police.

- Angelo Brown, a Black father of 15 children who was shot to death by police in Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis, was also known as Houdari Juelani, a general in the Revolutionary Black Panther Party. The police claim that Angelo Brown threatened them with a gun. His body showed signs of having been beaten. Dr. Ali Muhammad is Chief General in Command of the Revolutionary Black Panther Party. He’s also a doctor of neurological medicine. Dr. Muhammad talks about his slain comrade.

- Mumia Abu Jamal, a veteran of the original Black Panther Party for Self Defense, is glad to report on a victory for a fellow political prisoner.

- The long arm of civil law reaches at least as deep and far as criminal law – and, if you don’t have money, you will not find justice in civil law, either. Evictions, home foreclosures, domestic disputes – all of these arenas of conflict come under civil law. David Udell is executive director of the National Center for Access to Justice, located at Cardozo Law School, in New York City. His center has created a Justice Index, that measures access to civil court justice in all 50 states. Udell says the civil law caseload dwarfs the criminal justice system.

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

Black Agenda Radio - 7.04.16

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.

- In two three weeks, Philadelphia will host the Democratic National Convention and thousands of protesters who would like to shut the whole thing down. We spoke with Erica Mimes, of the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice, part of the People of Color DNC Resistance Against Police Terrorism and State Repression. They’ve teamed up with “Shut Down DNC” for a march at the height of the convention, on Tuesday, July 26^th. But Philadelphia officials have not yet granted them a parade permit. Mimes doesn’t expect fairness of the city.

- MONEY makes the world of the Democrats and the Republicans go round, according to Dr. Thomas Ferguson, professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, at Boston. Dr. Ferguson is author of the book, “The Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money Driven Politics.” He says says this election season has been quite unusual, on both sides of the two-party system. Bernie Sanders mounted a challenge to the Democratic establishment with mostly small campaign contributions, and Donald Trump used his personal fortune to raise issues that Republicans hardly ever talk about. Does that mean Donald Trump marches to a different drummer?

- Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, is among the speakers who will address a mass meeting on “The Politics of Incarceration in Palestine and the United States,” on July 15^th, at the Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Educational Center, in New York City. Nyle Forte, a young minister and Phad candidate from Newark, New Jersey, is also a speaker, along with others who recently traveled to Palestine. We asked Nyle Forte what Israeli treatment of Palestinians has to do with mass Black incarceration in the United States.

- On the 4^th of July in the year 1852, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, “There is not a nation on earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.” We spoke with Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist, and asked her if Frederick Douglass’s assessment sounds familiar, in the present day.

- Holidays like the 4^th of July don’t mean much to the 2.2 million people locked up in this country’s prisons. Political prison Yan Lahman has for months been denied direct communication with the outside world. His commentary, for Prison Radio, is titled “Prisoners’ Voices Blocked and Censorship of U.S. Prisons.” It’s read by Lynn Stewar, the people’s lawyer who has also been a political prisoner, herself.

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