| Black Agenda Report

Glenn Daigon
A Publicly Owned Bank for LA?
26 Sep 2018
A city-owned bank could extend the credit lines of community banks and credit unions to offer loans to low-income residents and help bankroll affordable housing. “LA public bank advocates estimate Los Angeles pays $3.14 billion in debt service, the cost to borrow money, from Wall Street.” If Los…
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Micol Seigel’s “Violence Work”
26 Sep 2018
The author shows why racist police brutality has survived and even grown despite every attempt to integrate, oversee, educate, and otherwise reform the police. “Police reform can’t work, because the rock-bottom function of police is to do the work of the state, and the work of the state is violence…
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Daniel Raventós’ and Julie Wark’s “Against Charity”
26 Sep 2018
Conspicuous charity is one way of making great wealth seem respectable and even blessed in religious terms. “An unconditional universal basic income would be a just and viable way of confronting the grave abuse of society’s less privileged members.”
Ramsin Canon
Death of a Torturer
26 Sep 2018
Jon Burge gleefully coerced confessions from black men to get them convicted of crimes they often hadn’t committed and keep them in cages for the rest of their lives. “Burge and his command were good at their jobs: ‘solving’ crimes by supplying a steady stream of convictions to prosecutors.”
by BAR contributor Danny Haiphong
What Syria Continues to Teach Us
26 Sep 2018
Leftists should turn their attention to the New Guard Fascists -- the enemies of the people at the top of the class structure and the armed body, the state, that protects the class structure. “New guard fascism controls the levers of the economy, media, and military within the imperialist orbit.”
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Freedom Rider: World War Dangers in Syria
26 Sep 2018
Israel has bombed Syria at will, apparently with Russian permission, but that may change after the downing of a Russian plane. The American public is being force-fed dangerous lies about its government’s war policies.”
by BAR contributor Ann Garrison Ann Garrison
Standing with Julian Assange
26 Sep 2018
Pacifica radio stations are known as havens for leftwing thought and action, but the Berkeley station and the national Pacifica board have yet to come to the defense of Wikileak’s Julian Assange. “Pacifica has incrementally moved to the right, along with the rest of the country.”
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Black People Don’t Need Bill Cosby’s Kind of “Race Man”
26 Sep 2018
Cosby represents a Black American political right wing whose views of the Black poor are just as crude and dehumanizing as their white counterparts. “Cosby slandered poor Black people in terms the worst white supremacist would admire.”
Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
Letters From Our Readers
29 Sep 2018
Readers were eager to respond to “Letter to Kaepernick: Where Do You Go From Here,” “Black People Don’t Need Bill Cosby’s Kind of Race Man,” and “Trump Wants to Tax Protests in DC.” We received strong responses raising reflections on history.
Netfa Freeman
Shutting down AFRICOM and the New Scramble for Africa
03 Oct 2018
The US must cease its military occupation of Africans at home and abroad, and abandon its attempt to rule the world by force. “U.S. Special Forces troops now operate in more than a dozen African nations.” Marking exactly 10 years after the establishment of AFRICOM, short for U.S. Africa Command,…