Black Agenda Report for Week of August 8, 2016 | Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Report for Week of August 8, 2016

08 Aug 2016

🖨️ Print Article

Voters Have Choices Outside the Duopoly

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are both “evil” people, but U.S. voters do have choices this election season, said South Carolina activist and author Kevin Alexander Gray. “It’s good that people are running on various third parties, to give Americans a little bit of education,” as opposed to watching them make one or the other bad choice,” said Gray, author of Waiting on Lighting to Strike. “One of the good things about Barack Obama leaving office, particularly for Black people, is that perhaps they’ll pick up their signs, pick up their feet, and follow behind the youth that are out here in the streets challenging the system.”

Low Wage Workers to Converge on Richmond

The U.S. labor movement made an historic error in the post-World War Two era in failing to commit sufficient resources to organizing in the heavily Black South. But activists in the current movement to unionize low-paid workers and raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour vow not to repeat that mistake. “We will highlight that low wages and racial inequality is not only hurting Black and brown people, it’s hurting the working poor white people, as well,” said Terrance Wise, a leader of Fight for 15, which will hold a national conference of low-wage workers in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy, August 12 and 13. “Until we can build our movement and bring all workers together to demand economic justice and racial equality, we won’t gain any ground,” said Wise, a Burger King employee from Kansas City.

Russell “Maroon” Shoatz Wins Solitary Confinement Settlement

Pennsylvania prison officials have agreed to pay a monetary settlement to political prisoner Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, and to never again place the former Black Panther in solitary confinement, where he spent 22 of the past 44 years. His daughter, Theresa Shoatz, is “elated because it opens the door to other prisoners who are still in solitary confinement in Pennsylvania.” The legal action was spearheaded by the Pittsburg-based Abolitionist Law Center, with virtually no assistance from Black elected officials. “Our state representatives are useless,” said Ms. Shoatz.

Afro-Colombian Rights Recognized in Peace Talks

FARC guerillas and the government of Colombia have agreed in principle to “make sure the rights and interests of Afro-descended and indigenous peoples will be respected” in the resolution of the South American country’s two generations-long civil war, said Charo Mina-Rojas, of the National Afro-Colombian Peace Council. Representatives of the Colombian government and demobilizing guerillas agreed to include such assurances in the peace document being hammered out at negotiations in Havana, Cuba. However, Mina-Rojas said some elements of FARC have not agreed to lay down their arms and “do not fully recognize” Afro-Colombians’ collective land rights.

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.

listen

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/BlackAgendaRadio_20160808.mp3

More Stories

Clau O'Brien Moscoso
Peruvian Coup Regime Approves Lithium Mining as Puno Rejects Plan Without Nationalization
26 Apr 2023
The people of Peru demand that their lithium reserves benefit that nation through a nationalization process, and that their environment be protected when their resources are extracted.
Peoples Dispatch
It’s Not Military Force But an End to Impunity That Can Bring Peace to the Congo
26 Apr 2023
Kambale Musavuli talks about the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the discovery of mass graves in North Kivu, in Eastern DRC. He also explains why the solutions…
Abayomi Azikiwe
Democratic Transition in Sudan Further Delayed by Military Clashes
26 Apr 2023
The current crisis between military factions in Sudan is a result of foreign interference and the subversion of democracy. The people of that nation need a return to civilian rule.
Black Alliance for Peace US Out of Africa Network
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #46
26 Apr 2023
The impact of the U.S./NATO destruction of the Libyan state is still being felt. AFRICOM is still the great destabilizer of the entire African continent.
Initiative Communiste
Wuambushu, An Ignoble and Disgusting Propaganda Operation Under the Sun of Mayotte
26 Apr 2023
Mayotte is a French overseas territory island located in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar. It is also near the Comoros Islands, whose citizens travel to Mayotte as undocumented…