Black Agenda Radio

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 [...]

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 people gathered in East St. Louis, Illinois, and nearby Ferguson, Missouri, to mark one of the nation’s most deadly racist assaults, 100 years ago. Mumia Abu Jamal challenges the prosecutorial racism that put him in prison, 35 years ago. And, the Green Party puts forward a candidate for mayor of New York City.

But first – Rev. Edward Pinkney, the veteran community leader from mostly Black Benton Harbor, Michigan, is breathing free air for the first time in two-and- a-half years. Rev. Pinkney was released from prison after serving 30 months of a maximum ten year sentence for trying to recall a mayor allied with the giant Whirlpool Corporation, which has long dominated his city. The newly released political prisoner recalled his ordeal in the Michigan prison system.

A century ago, white mo [...]

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 nations leading anti-war organization held its national conference in Richmond, Virginia. And, James Baldwin, the great author, essayist, playwrite, and political thinker, is the subject of a three-day celebration, at the Saturday Free School, in Philadelphia.

The activists of the United National Anti-War Coalition, UNAC, certainly have their work cut out for them. The War Party is firmly in charge on both sides of the political aisle, among the Republicans in Congress and the White House, and the Democratic so-called opposition. Nevertheless, three hundred activists gathered in Richmond, Virginia, to explore strategies for peace  including a sizeable delegation from Black Agenda Report. This year’s conference was the most heavily Black in the history of UNAC, with Blacks making up about a third [...]

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. Earlier this month, Black Agenda Report was well-represented at the Left Forum, in New York City, the nation’s largest yearly gathering of leftwing activists, organizers and thinkers. This week, we continue our coverage of the presentations made at the Left Forum by the Black Agenda Report team, and those who work closely with us. Black Agenda Radio host Nellie Bailey served as moderator for two of our panels. She’ll be introducing BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon, and BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka, who ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket in 2016. We’ll also have presentations by Dr. Anthony Montiero, the Duboisian scholar based in Philadelphia, on the theme, “Understanding Our Resistance,” and Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance, who discusses ways to prevent the Co-Opting of the Left.

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. This week, and next week, we’re dedicating the whole program to the Black Agenda Report team’s activities at the Left Forum, in New York City. The Left Forum is the nation’s biggest yearly gathering of leftwing activists. The Black Agenda Report panel is always well-attended. You’ll hear presentations by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley, contributing political analyst Danny Haiphong, and Haitian community activist Daoud Andre. We’ll also bring you my presentation to the opening plenary session of the Left Forum. Next week, we’ll have presentations by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon, BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka, who ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket, last year, and from Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar and a longtime comrade of BAR. Black Agenda Radio’s Ne [...]

This is Black Agenda Radio, a weekly hour of African American political thought and action

The American Civil Liberties Union says the sheriff’s department in Madison County, Mississippi, has turned the jurisdiction into a “Constitution-free zone” for Black people, who are systematically targeted for illegal stops, searches and arrests. ACLU staff attorney Joshua Tom says the Madison County Sheriff enforces a racial regime that resembles the worst aspects of inner city policing, PLUS Mississippi-style repression.

Kevin Alexander Gray, author and veteran activist from Columbia, South Carolina. Gray has gone to a lot of funerals, lately, with the passing of giants of the southern human rights movement.

For almost two generations, the People’s Organization for Progress, POP, has been challenging the powers that be from their base in Newark, New Jersey. POP has been described as one of the foremost grassroots community organizations in the country. Larry Ha [...]

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: Why Russians have a healthy dislike for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; Afro-Colombians have launched a general strike in the mostly Black city that serves as the country’s largest port; and, for the first time in a very long time, supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal think there may be a way to get him a new trial.

But first – voters in the majority Black city of Jackson, Mississippi, the state capital, go to the polls on June 6, to pick a new mayor. The front-runner is Antar Lumumba, son of former mayor Chokwe Lumumba, the radical Black activist and lawyer who died during his first year in office in 2014. Kali Akuno is a key activist in Lumumba’s campaign, and a veteran of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. The Lumumba team has run and won, in Jackson, and run and lost. But the current race doesn’t [...]

This is Black Agenda Radio, a weekly hour of African American political thought and action.

Obamacare remains in a kind of limbo in the U.S. Congress, having been repealed in the House but with no action pending in the Senate. On the single payer health care front, a majority of House Democrats have finally signed on to Congressman John Conyers’ Medicare for All bill. However, Democratic Party leaders have not gotten behind the measure, and Bernie Sanders has not introduced a single payer bill in the Senate. In Chicago, we spoke with Dr. Susan Rogers, a board member of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley recently wrote an article titled “The Democratic Party Death Spiral.” Kimberley maintains that the Democrats know what they have to do to win back the presidency and the Congress: that they must support health care for all, higher wages and [...]

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Coming up: A new report shows that one out of every five Black prison inmates in the U.S. is serving a life sentence; Why in the world would an organization that calls itself leftist demonstrate on behalf of the former head of the FBI?; and, This week marks Malcolm X’s 92 nd birthday.

But first – veteran human rights activist and 2016 Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka is busy pulling together BAP, the Black Alliance for Peace. The Alliance recently issued a joint statement with UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition, denouncing U.S. subversion against the socialist government of Venezuela. Baraka will be one of the speakers at UNAC’s national conference in Richmond, Virginia, on June 16 through 18 th . He says UNAC and the Black Alliance for Peace are a perfect fit.

Sarah Flounders, of the United National Anti-War Coalition, says D [...]

This is Black Agenda Radio, a weekly hour of African American political thought and action.

A judge has ordered Harris County Texas, which includes the city of Houston, to stop keeping low level offenders in jail because they are unable to pay bail. The case was brought by the Washington-based Civil Rights Corp. Executive director Alec Karakatsanis says his firm is working to eliminate the bail system, entirely.

Haitian activists in Brooklyn, New York, are vowing to prevent Hillary Clinton from giving the commencement speech at mostly Black Medgar Evers College, next month. Dahoud Andre is with Komokoda, the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti.

The Trump Administration continues to insist, without any convincing evidence, that the Syrian military is responsible for a chemical weapons attack in Idlib Province, last month. The U.S. bombed a Syrian military base, supposedly in retaliation for the chemical attack. But Theodore Postol, a professor em [...]