Corporate Obama
Obama’s election “was a pretty nice deal for the top one percent that owns half the wealth,” says Paul Street, author of the new book, The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power. Street’s 2008 volume, Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics was perhaps the most blistering examination from the Left of then-candidate Obama.
Taking Risks for Peace and Justice
Rosa Clemente, the Green Party’s 2008 vice-presidential candidate and a founder of the National Hip Hop Political Convention, says Hip Hop politics must be prepared to take risks in 2012. Two years ago, folks that Clemente considered allies wound up going with the Democrats – and look what that got us!
The Decline of Black Detroit
In 1969, the Detroit-based League of Revolutionary Black Workers was a huge influence on Black Left and labor politics. Today, the U.S. auto industry is broken and retirees make up a majority of United Auto Workers membership – but the League’s General Baker continues to organize for decent health care benefits.
Social Forum Dilemma
Dr. Jared Ball met friends and influenced people at the recent U.S. Social Forum, in Detroit, but sensed that “a vague desire at the forum for ‘consensus politics’ meant in the end ‘no politics.’ No clear goals and no clear steps to reach them.”
Bad Health and Poverty
Living in “concentrated poverty” is much worse than simply being poor, according to a new study. Robert Phillips, of the California Endowment, reports that Black and Latino youth are unhealthy because “their neighborhoods are unhealthy.”
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. Length: One hour.
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Read against the terrible incineration of Rafah today, this poem of resistance and refusal, by Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim, is as powerful now as it was fifty years ago.
I spoke to William Sakawa, a producer and reporter with the Nairobi-based media outlet African Stream, about Kenyan President William Ruto’s agreement to invade Haiti for the US.
"Hearing! Hearing! Hearing!" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
This week’s featured authors are Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill V. Mullen. Their book is The Black Antifascist Tradition: Fighting Back From Anti-Lynching to Abolition.
Despite the undeserved loyalty of Black people to the Democratic Party, lawmakers continue to push policy that ignores concerns about climate change and environmental damage in their communities.
