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 July 6, 2015
07 Jul 2015
🖨️ Print Article

Shut Down the Prisons from the Inside

Prison inmates with the Free Alabama Movement have been placed in solitary confinement for advocating a national prison work strike. “Their argument is that all the attempts at prison reform and appealing to legislative bodies and courts to thwart the explosion of mass incarceration have failed, and that the only mechanism left is to shut down these prisons,” said former New York Times correspondent and veteran prisons activist Chris Hedges, whose recent article is titled “America’s Slave Empire.” The prison gulag “can’t function without unpaid or poorly paid labor,” said Hedges. The imprisoned strike leaders urge outside supporters to boycott corporations that profit from prison labor, including the fast-food giant, McDonald’s.

Newark is the Destination, July 25

“We have a pandemic of police brutality all around the United States,” said Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, drumming up support for a Millions March Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice and Economic Inequality, July 25, in Newark, New Jersey. “We demand an end to the murder of unarmed people by the police, and to the use of excessive force by the police,” said Hamm, speaking in Plainfield, New Jersey. “First and foremost, we want community control and civilian oversight of all police forces in the United States. This is critical to any effort to reform the police.”

“Rise Up October” to End “Police Terror”

The co-founders of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network fired up an organizing meeting for the “Rise Up October” campaign against “police terror,” set for October 22-24. Veteran activist Carl Dix told the New York crowd: “We’ve got to do this because Black people continue to be targeted by racist killers, in and out of uniform, and this must stop.” The Charleston massacre was not simply the act of a “crazy, lone wolf. The rage that drove him was nurtured by the white supremacy that has coursed through the veins of America since the very first Africans were dragged to these shores in slave chains” said Dix.

Dr. Cornel West, the Union Theological Seminary-based public intellectual and activist and Network co-founder, said “young folk of all colors – but disproportionately chocolate – have been at the center of this movement for the last year or so. It’s been very much a new school leadership, and I like that.”

Twin Flags of White Supremacy

Dr. Jared Ball, a host for the Baltimore-based Real News Network, asked: Why the solitary focus on the Confederate flag, when Black people have been enslaved, Jim Crowed and mass murdered under the stars and stripes for the entire history of the United States? Marshall “Eddie” Conway, a former Black Panther political prisoner and current producer for the Network, replied: “That Confederate flag is flying over Chicago and wherever there is white supremacy. We need to recognize that as a distraction from who’s really getting the benefits” from the economic arrangement in the U.S. – the ruling class.

Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston, said: “We need to get to the nub of the question, which is the genocidal origins of the United States.”

Rwandan Suspect in Congo Genocide Arrested in Britain

Karenzi Karake, the intelligence chief for Rwanda, was arrested in Britain for overseeing mass murder of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Three Spanish aid workers were among the victims, prompting an investigation and issuance of warrants by a Spanish judge. “It is a great embarrassment to the British authorities, because the British government is the number one donor to the Rwandan government,” said Claude Gatebuke, founder of the African Great Lakes Action Network and a survivor of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The Congo genocide followed. “Even when Rwanda was invading the Congo and causing mayhem, to the tune of six million dead, the British government continued to support” the regime headed by Paul Kagame, Karenzi Karake’s boss.

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.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://blackagendaradio.podbean.com/mf/web/u8dzf2/BAR_070615.mp3

More Stories


  • Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration
    Historic Genocide Case Heard in Barbados Supreme Court: Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration Demands Accountability Over Gaza Atrocities
    09 Jul 2025
    Barbados’ Supreme Court is now at the center of a historic genocide case against Israel, as Caribbean activists demand their government sever ties with the apartheid state.
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Kenyan Police Attack Youth-led Demonstrations Against Brutality
    09 Jul 2025
    At least 16 were killed in protests marking the first anniversary of mass actions against neo-liberal tax hikes and continuing state repression.
  • Said Bouamama Blog
    Settler Colonialism in Light of F. Fanon: Algeria yesterday, Kanaky today... (Part 1)
    09 Jul 2025
    As settler-colonial violence escalates from Kanaky to Palestine, Fanon’s century-old warnings are critical today—capitalism’s genocidal expansion demands revolution.
  • Inae Oh
    What $100 Billion in New ICE Funding Would Look Like
    09 Jul 2025
    The staggering increase is ICE enforcement is difficult to process. These numbers will help.
  • Margaret Kimberley and Dimitri Lascaris
    Dimitri Lascaris , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Donald Trump's Big, Beautiful Con-Job w/ Margaret Kimberley
    09 Jul 2025
    This past week, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed Donald Trump's signature budget bill, which Trump dubbed "One Big Beautiful Bill Act". Dimitri Lascaris spoke with Margaret…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us