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

Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of 12/23/13
24 Dec 2013
🖨️ Print Article

NSA Spying Recommendations

Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, was surprised at the scope of a presidential panel’s recommendations to limit spying by the National Security Agency. Some of the 46 proposals reached “beyond the NSA, to also suggest measures to curtail FBI abuses,” said Buttar, who noted that lots of agencies spy on Americans, “including the Postal Service.”

Detroit as Model for Urban Subjugation

A federal bankruptcy judge’s ruling could allow bankers and corporations to “go after pension funds around the United States,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, Detroit community activist and editor of the Pan African News Wire. Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that retiree pensions deserve no more protection than any other creditors. “We’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, that are tied up in these pension funds,” said Abayomi.

People’s lawyer Thomas Stephens said “capital is facing a catastrophe, that it created, in Detroit and everywhere else. Where better than Detroit to work out the model” for subjugating urban America?

Vast Inner City Land Grab

A new breed of Wall Street-backed mega real estate companies has been spending $100 million per week for over a year – for a total of $7.5 billion – buying up foreclosed homes to turn them into rental properties, said journalist and author Laura Gottesdiener. One firm, the Blackstone Group, has purchased more than 40,000 homes in 14 cities. The volume is such that “not only are they controlling home prices in these cities, pushing them up, but it’s very likely they’ll be able to price-fix the rental rates, as well.” Gottesdiener is author of A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home.

New Oscar Grant Book

Five years after Oscar Grant was killed by a transit police officer, journalist Thandisizwe Chimurenga is publishing a new book on the subject. The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant “takes a look at the way the media and the court system also murdered” the young Oakland father, said Chimurenga, founder of the Ida B. Wells Institute. “I’m also looking a police murder in general through the lens of this case.”

 

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


  • The CIA Goes HBCU
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    The CIA Goes HBCU
    10 Oct 2019
    The world’s most prolific assassins, regime changers and disinformation specialists have been given free rein to recruit and shape curriculum at the largest Black higher education system in th
  • Freedom Rider: Botham Jean, Joshua Brown and Antonio Williams
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Botham Jean, Joshua Brown and Antonio Williams
    09 Oct 2019
    The death of a police murder witness in Dallas is reminiscent of another police atrocity and coverup in New York City.
  • Impeachment and the Long Road to a Democratic Party Defeat in 2020
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Impeachment and the Long Road to a Democratic Party Defeat in 2020
    09 Oct 2019
    Impeachment helps the Democratic Party catch a breath of temporary relief from subjects such as Medicare for All or climate catastrophe.
  • Black Agenda Report’s 13th Anniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon
    by BAR Staff
    Black Agenda Report’s 13th Anniversary: An Evening of Information and Inspiration for Liberation, and a Tribute to Co-Founder Bruce Dixon
    09 Oct 2019
     6p to 9p on Saturday, October 26 at the People’s Forum, 320 West 37th Street, New York City. 
  • Five Years Later, Do Black Lives Matter?
    Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
    Five Years Later, Do Black Lives Matter?
    09 Oct 2019
    Five years since its inception, a look at what the Black Lives Matter movement accomplished and the important work it left unfinished.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us