Black Agenda Radio – 10.31.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Washington, DC is the site, this weekend, for a National Black Political Convention on Self-Determination. The event was organized by the Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, which has rallied and marched on the White House every November since President Obama’s first year in office. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela says Black Is Back is determined to put Black self-determination back on the agenda. Much of the world would agree that the current U.S. presidential campaign is one of the strangest in modern times. Not only did the Republicans and Democrats nominate the nation’s two most unpopular politicians, but the election is occurring when the entire capitalist system is in crisis. We spoke with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar with the Black Radical Organizing Committee. If you believe the U.S. corporate media, then you probably think that the people of Venezuela are starving, and that most of them are out in the streets demanding the head of President Nicholas Maduro and the overthrow of his Socialist Party government. But is any of that true? We asked Dr. George Ciccariello-Maher, who teaches politics at Drexel University, and is author of the book, “We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution.” Political prisoner Rev. Edward Pinkney turned 68 years old this month, still serving a 2 ½ to ten year sentence on election tampering charges. Marcina Cole was a courtroom observer at Rev. Pinkney’s trial, in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She teamed up with David Sole, of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, to visit Pinkney in prison and to arrange a birthday party for him, in Detroit. And that it’s for this edition of Black Agenda Radio. 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.

Black Agenda Radio – 6.06.16

Welcome, this is Black Agenda Radio, the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford with my co-host, Nellie Bailey., here is a weekly hour of African American political thought and action

– Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney says Black people have no stake in the Republican or Democratic parties. McKinney was the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2008. She has since earned her PhD in Leadership and Change. We asked McKinney if she has ever seen anything like the current disarray in both major parties this election season?

– Political activists from around the nation are planning to be in Philadelphia, in late July, for the Democratic National convention. Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a native Philadelphian, a member of the Black Radical Organizing Committee, and one of the organizers of last January’s national conference on the Black Radical Tradition. Dr. Monteiro says this is the most “consequential” election season in, perhaps, a century.

– Rev. Edward Pinkney is serving a sentence of 30 months to ten years in prison for allegedly tampering with a voter petition in his hometown of Benton Harbor, Michigan. The mostly Black city has long been under the thumb of the Whirlpool Corporation. Rev. Pinkney spoke to Prison Radio on how he became a political prisoner.

– Studies show that Black girls are suspended or expelled from school at six times the rate of white girls. Education Week magazine spoke with researchers on the causes of these wildly disproportionate punishments. Adrienne Dixson, a professor of Critical Race Theory at the University Illinois.

– The United States seems to be closer to its long time goal of overthrowing the left wing government in Venezuela. The Venezuelans say Washington is gearing up for a military intervention. Utrice Leid, host of Leid Stories, on the Progressive Radio Network, recently interviewed Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston.

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.