Black Agenda Report on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of October 17, 2011

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Capitalism in Deep Crisis

“I think a lot of the major players and thinkers at the top of the capitalist economic order have concluded that this is a crisis of such depth and consequence that it might lead to the end of capitalism, itself,” said Dr. Tony Monteiro, professor of African American Studies at Philadelphia’s Temple University. “There is a certain resignation, that finance capitalism has gotten out of control. They don’t know where the crisis will break out next.”

Delayed Reaction to Meltdown of 2008

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a delayed response to the 2008 financial meltdown, said Ashley Smith, of the United National Anti-War Coalition. “It took a couple of years, but now the winds of resistance to the consequences of this crisis are blowing across the world,” said Smith. “I think we” in the U.S. “have been slow to respond because a lot of people looked to the Obama administration to address the crisis. Finally, people began to say, enough is enough, to take matters into our own hands. The movement of 99% against the 1% has become a lightning rod for all the different social movements.”

Don’t Be Afraid of Revolution

“This is a revolt, and when enough of us engage in that revolt, we’ll have a revolution,” said Dennis Trainor, an organizer with the October2011 occupation of Washington, DC’s Freedom Plaza. “Representative democracy hasn’t worked in this country for a long time,” said Trainor. “The demands that we’re formulating in Freedom Plaza aren’t directed at those people, because those people failed us. Don’t be afraid of the word revolution. If enough of us don’t participate in the systems that oppress us, then those systems will come down.”

Newark Protest Marathon and OWS

Daily demonstrations by the People’s Organization for Progress in Newark, New Jersey, share commonalities with the Occupy Wall Street movement, said P.O.P. organizer Larry Adams. Both are “responding to the impact of the decline of imperialism and its rapid efforts to put the burden on the masses.” At the top of P.O.P.’s demands is “a national jobs program, not government sponsorship of corporations in hope they’ll hire, but direct employment by the government of the unemployed,” said Adams. P.O.P. is prepared for a 381-day-long protest, the duration of the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott.

Black Is Back Annual Conference in Philly

Under the banner “Stop the Wars and Build a Resistance,” the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations holds its yearly conference in Philadelphia, November 5. “We think Philadelphia is prototypical of the kind of problems that really function as warfare against the Black population in the United States,” said Black is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela. “Obama is interpreting the Occupy Wall Street movement as something that is in opposition to Republicans, as if this is not the same Wall Street that gave him more money than any other candidate” in the 2008 race. In Philadelphia “we have the local version” of Obama, Black mayor Michael Nutter.

Colombia Trade Pact Displaces Blacks

Passage of the Colombia Free Trade pact “will have a devastating impact on Afro-Colombians, and contribute to the displacement of millions that has already taken place,” said Saladin Muhammad, of Black Workers for Justice. President Obama has been “just as aggressive as all the other presidents in this imperial country” in pressing for so-called free trade agreements that harm both U.S. and foreign workers, he said.

“White Paper” Blasts MINUSTAH in Haiti

In seven years of deployment, the United Nations occupying force in Haiti has perpetrated “numerous human rights violations ranging from sexual abuse and exploitation to violent attacks on people’s protests…murder, and introduction of cholera into the country,” said Deepa Pachang, co-author of a Harvard students’ “White Paper.” The UN force, known by the acronym MINUSTAH, has been “ineffective” in protecting the 600,000 thousand displaced persons living in camps, said Pachang. Grassroots Haitian groups are demanding reparations for 6,000-plus cholera deaths and the half a million that have been made sick by the disease, introduced into the country by Nepalese soldiers with MINUSTAH.

Fight for Mumia Innocence

Attorneys for Mumia Abu Jamal continue to seek ways to make a legal claim for his innocence, said Christina Swarms, of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a previous sentence of death in the case. “Life in prison without the possibility of parole is a death sentence,” said Mumia supporter Pam Africa. “We are not winning. We have to step it up,” she said, recalling that death penalty opponents withdrew in droves from the Abu Jamal support movement after the death penalty was first lifted, in 2001.

Grades Changed to Prevent Black Valedictorian

In an Old South spin on grade cheating scandals, the Sumter County NAACP has file a complaint with the Southwest Georgia District Attorney, demanding that teachers who altered high school student grades to keep a Black girl from becoming valedictorian, be prosecuted under the same laws as are applied to teachers that upgraded high stakes standardized test scores, elsewhere. In addition, local NAACP president Matt Wright says the Sumter County teachers “should not be allowed to teach in any school system in the United States.” The conspiracy against potential Black valedictorians goes back at least eight years, says Wright.

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 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.