Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 5, 2017
Holding the Line Against Neoliberalism in Jackson, MS
Cooperation Jackson activist Kali Akuno said the grassroots movement can count on broad aspects of unity with the overwhelmingly Black capital city’s political class. However, “in the era of neoliberalism we are fighting to get those same political forces to not concede to the dictates of big business, to the corporations, to capital, and to not make concessions to privatization” or weaken protections to working people.
Beware the Dangers of Reformism
Reformers often wind up legitimizing and strengthening police power, said Dylan Rodriguez, professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Much of what is called “police brutality” is, in practice, “fully endorsed or, at least condoned by the legal system,” he said. It is simply “policing”—American-style. Professor Dylan authored an article for Black Agenda Report, titled “’Mass Incarceration’ as Police Endorsement.”
PROP Calls for Free Mass Transit for NYC Poor
“Our position is that the city should provide free fares to low income people,” said Robert Gangi, of the Police Reform Organizing Project, who notes that 85 to 90 percent of the 20,000 people annually charged with fare-beating are Black and brown. “Everyone has to be able to use the subways to have a decent life” in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio objects to the Manhattan district attorney’s decision not to prosecute subway fare-beaters, claiming there is no evidence linking turnstile jumping to poverty.
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:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
Maurice Carney is the Executive Director of Friends of the Congo. He joins us to discuss the ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in eastern Congo, where the Rwandan government continues its…
Tag, a Spirit of Mandela coordinating committee member, joins us to talk about their upcoming community forum at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn on Saturday, February 1st. This is the first in a…
Margaret Kimberley was recently a guest on Jamarl Thomas's YouTube podcast. She discussed her latest Black Agenda Report article on “The Death of DEI.” The issues surrounding DEI are contradictory.…
Black people must be discerning about racist attacks on DEI programs while also acknowledging that “diversity” can be a con that damages Black politics, just as it was meant to do.
Langston Hughes’s 1943 poem against fascism is precise, droll, and eternal.
