Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host, Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Low wage workers get ready to converge on Richmond, Virgina, for a national convention to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; a Black political prisoner wins a long court fight against the State of Pennsylvania; and, Black people in the South American nation of Colombia try to forge a sustainable peace agreement with guerillas and the government.
-The two major political parties have chosen their presidential contenders. We spoke with veteran activist and author Kevin Alexander Gray, in Columbia, South Carolina. With Hillary Clinton, the corporate war hawk, heading up the Democrats, and Donald Trump, the white nationalist, in charge of the Republican Party, what’s a progressive voter to do?
– Since his capture and incarceration in 1972, political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz has spent most of his years in solitary confinement in Pennsylvania prisons. The former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member recently won a landmark court settlement that bars the State of Pennsylvania from putting him back in isolation again, and awards Shoatz a monetary settlement. Shoatz family members have been key activists in his defense team. We spoke with daughter Theresa Shoatz.
– Peace talks continue between the government of Colombia, in South America, and FARC guerillas who have been fighting the regime for two generations. Black Colombians and indigenous people have borne the brunt of displacement from the long years of civil war, but have largely been left out of the peace talks that have been going on in Havana, Cuba. Charo Mina-Rojas is with the National Afro-Colombian Peace Council and the Ethnic Commission that has been bargaining for Black and Native Colombian people’s rights.
Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left