Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 15, 2017
16 May 2017
🖨️ Print Article

UNAC and Black Alliance for Peace Blast U.S. Subversion of Venezuela

The newly founded Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) issued a joint statement denouncing U.S. “destabilization” and “attempts to cause regime change” in Venezuela. “We share the objective to revive the anti-war movement -- the anti-imperialist movement in the U.S.,” said BAP organizer Ajamu Baraka, the veteran human rights activist and 2016 Green Party vice presidential candidate. “We are, of course, committed to peace, but we understand that there can be no peace without justice, and that means people have to be prepared for struggle,” said Baraka.

Bizarro World: Faux “Leftists” Shill for the FBI

Purported “progressives,” apparently driven mad by Donald Trump, demonstrated this month in support of former FBI director James Comey. “It was disheartening to see left forces so anxious to combat Trump, they were actually supporting Comey,” said UNAC activist Sara Flounders. This strange strain of “leftists” seem to have forgotten the oppressive history and practice of U.S. spy outfits. “We have to be clear,” said Flounders. “All of these agencies are about absolute repression, subversion and assassination.”

U.S. Prisons: Geriatric Injustice

One out of every 7 of the nation’s prison inmates is serving a life sentence, according to a report by The Sentencing Project. For Blacks, the proportion of lifers is in 1 in 5. Despite a growing consensus for prison reform, “We see life sentences continue to accumulate,” said senior research analyst, Ashley Nellis. Most people “age out of bad behavior” in their 20s and 30s, “so incarcerating them for decades past that point serves no public safety benefit,” she said.

Mumia on Neoliberal Barbarism

Noting that Pennsylvania has locked up more juveniles for life than any other state, political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal excoriated Bill Clinton for pushing through his draconian anti-crime bill of 1994. “Children were cast into the hells of adult prison while the newly rich neoliberal class drank champagne and enjoyed the good life,” said Abu Jamal.

Don’t You Dare Call Malcolm X a “Civil Rights” Leader

What Malcolm X “was saying 50 years ago is just as relevant today as it was then,” said Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, an advisory board member of New York City’s Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Educational and Memorial Center, where the martyred leader’s 92nd birthday will be celebrated on May 19th. A “homogenized version” of his life and work depicts Malcolm X as a “civil rights leader of the 1960s,” said Imam Rashid, but Malcolm “used to make it clear that he was not a civil rights leader, but rather, a human rights leader.”

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. Length: one hour.

 


More Stories


  • Free Mumia event flyer
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Free Mumia Coalition of New York City Joins Mobilization in Philadelphia
    04 Jul 2025
    Gil Obler is an organizer with the Free Mumia Abu Jamal Coalition of New York City. He joins us from New York to discuss the Saturday, July 5th rally and march at Malcolm X memorial park in…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Necessity of Birthright Citizenship for Black People
    02 Jul 2025
    Black citizenship was non-existent for the first 200 years that enslaved and free people were present in what became the United States. Even long-standing legal victories are tenuous, and now…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Black Refugees Unwelcomed! Gaou Guinou Balewa, 1973
    02 Jul 2025
    “Haitian refugees and political exiles find themselves being refused the hospitality granted others.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Aggressors Unnamed in Rwanda-DRC “Peace Agreement”
    02 Jul 2025
    Rwandan and M23 forces are the aggressors in the DRC. They are integrated under Rwandan command.
  • Jon Jeter
    Mamdani’s Train is Running But Blacks Wonder if There is Space for Them
    02 Jul 2025
    Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist vision won NYC’s primary but lost Black voters to scandal-plagued Cuomo by 20 points, exposing the left’s racial blind spot even as Wall Street prepares to spend…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us