jBlack Agenda Radio for Week of March 26, 2018
Baraka on Leftists That Collaborate with Empire
âWe have not made a revolution in the U.S., but we have all these ârevolutionary theoristsâ that know exactly how to do that,â said Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka, sarcastically. He recently returned from a conference in Caracas in solidarity with Venezuela. Baraka called âcollaborationâ with U.S. aggressions against Venezuela and Syria âreally shameful on the part of people who call themselves leftists or radicals or whatever.â Any genuine left must oppose imperialism. âOur position, as citizens of empire, is to put a brake on empire.â
U.S. at Peace? Some Americans Think So
The U.S. Senate voted down, 55 to 44, a bill co-sponsored by Bernie Sanders that would have ended U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabia-led war against Yemen. However, veteran anti-war activist David Swanson saw the action as a sign of progress, given that the Senate has never conducted such a vote based on the War Powers Act. Swanson, publisher of the influential web site WarIsACrime.org and director of World Beyond War, has found that Americans âaround the country think that the U.S. is at peace, or think itâs engaged in a war somewhere, but canât remember the name of the country.
Outlaw Poverty, Says Activist
Nyle Fort, an activist with the Poor Peopleâs Campaign, was among the speakers at a New York City event designed to bring Black and immigrant communities together on issues of mass incarceration and deportation. Fort urged the crowd to âdream of a world where poverty is illegal.â The event, held at Manhattanâs Holy Rood Church, was titled âBreak Down Walls and Prison Plantations: Mumia, Migrants and Movements for Liberation.â
Theft is Part of U.S. DNA
You canât understand the present-day United States if you donât know its bloody history, said Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peopleâs History of the United States and her new book, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment. The nationâs roots in organized theft of labor and land explains âwhy we have a real estate broker as president, just like our first president, the land speculator George Washington.â
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:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
The brutal exploitation of life in colonial Venezuela was key in the making of capitalism, but the process also met fierce resistance from enslaved peoples.
In this segment we discuss the shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl, how restoring voting rights of those convicted of felonies increases public safety, and Margaret Kimberley's thoughts on JoeâŚ
Dr. Gerald Horne is an author and historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.
Dr. Melina Abdullah is Director of Black Lives Matter Grassroots and Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles. She is also a Professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University LosâŚ
Dr. Kristen Budd is a Research Analyst with the Sentencing Project. She joins us from Washington to discuss their new report, âIncreasing Public Safety by Restoring Voting Rights.â The reportâŚ
