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.
Kenyans have been protesting President William Ruto’s Finance Act that increases taxes on essential goods while making concessions to foreign capital.
Quiet as it’s kept, the African continent is the most susceptible to the impacts of climate change. And it has a history of colonialism, capitalist extraction, and labor exploitation to blame for…
The European Union failed to bully the members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) into renouncing its neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict.
Opposing the latest call for the invasion of Haiti, ending legacy admissions in New York, felony murder sentencing in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Jemima Pierre is a professor in the African American Studies and Anthropology Departments at UCLA.
