Warrior Connection – 06.19.16

The June 19th edition of Warrior Connection was a discussion with Alanna Hertzog on our relationship with the earth. Alanna is Administrative Director and a United Nations Non-Governmental Representative for the International Union for Land Value Taxation. She is also Co-Director of Earth Rights Institute and International Liason for the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. She is a recipient of the International Earth Day Award from the Earth Society Foundation.

Her book – The Earth Belongs to Everyone – received the Radical Middle Book Award. Chapters include: Democracy, Earth Rights and the Next Economy; Sharing Our Common Heritage; Land for People, Not for Profit; Financing Local to Global Public Goods; Women, Earth and Economic Power; Restructuring Economic Relationships; and Economics of War and Peace.

In 2014 she was the Democratic Party candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 9th District and for the Green Party in 2001. Her E.F. Schumacher Lecture was published as Democracy, Earth Rights and the Next Economy.

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.

This Can’t Be Happening – 05.25.16

Greg Haddock, an activist in Germany with the #BernieOrBust movement that is urging Americans to pledge not to vote for Hillary Clinton if she gets, or steals, the Democratic presidential nomination from Bernie Sanders, talks about the campaign and about efforts to pressure Sanders to run in the coming General Election as an independent or as the Green Party’s candidate if he doesn’t get the Democratic Party’s nod.

Leid Stories – Election 2016: What We Should Have Learned By Now – 05.18.16

As Election 2016 progresses toward various parties’ nominating conventions this summer, (for Republicans, July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio; for Democrats, July 25-28 in Philadelphia, Pa.; the Green Party, Aug. 4-7 in Houston, Texas; the Libertarian Party, May 27-30 in Orlando, Fla.), presidential hopefuls are in the final stretch of the primaries, looking to claim their spots as their parties’ standard bearers in the general election. The duopoly has outdone all other major parties in the still-ongoing battle of attrition. Donald Trump is the last person standing in the Republican field of 17; Hillary Clinton is being touted as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

By all indications, Election 2016 will be a watershed moment in U.S. electoral politics—though for reasons that should alarm even a casual observer. Leid Stories has been looking at this historical moment in terms of what politics and the political process have come to mean and be for the masses of people. We continue this discussion, focusing on what we are learning, or have learned, about our relationship to the political apparatus, and ways in which we can affect political outcomes through an increased consciousness and strategic use of power.

Black Agenda Radio – 05.09.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective with your host Glen Ford and co-host, Nellie Bailey.

– Thousands of teachers went on sick-out in Detroit, last Monday and Tuesday, shutting down the city’s public schools. The sick-out was led by Steve Conn, who was elected president of the local teachers union but deposed at the urging of the national American Federation of Teachers. Steve Conn and activists from the BAMN organization, By Any Means Necessary, have been holding teacher sick-outs since November, to protest Governor Rick Snyder’s efforts to privatize the public schools, which are already more than half charter.

– The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations plans events in a number of cities, to put together a National Black Political Agenda. The project came out of a Black Is Back Coalition national conference, in Harlem, last month. Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela, explains.

– In Seattle, Washington, city councilwoman Kshama Sawant, head of the Socialist Alternative Party, has launched a petition calling on Bernie Sanders to run as an Independent candidate for president, after he fails to win the Democratic presidential nomination, in Philadelphia, this summer. Sawant says the nation needs a third party, to represent the 99 percent. But, what about the Green Party, which is already on the ballot – or will be – in a majority of states in November?

– Paul Street is an historian, an activist and author, who wrote early on that Barack Obama was a corporate politician who, as president, would side with Wall Street and the Pentagon. Paul Street’s latest book is titled, “They Rule: The One Percent Versus Democracy.” Street says Hillary Clinton will pull the Democratic Party even further to the Right, packing it with Republicans who prefer her to Donald Trump.

Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour – 05.05.16

The Trans Pacific Partnership is a catastrophe poised to kill what’s left of our nation, says Dr. Margaret Flowers. Long-time activist and Green Party candidate for Senator from Maryland, Margaret works to FLUSH THE TPP and warns that this proposed trade deal is “NAFTA on steroids”. These terrible trade deals turn every ounce power over to giant corporations who rig our economies to the benefit of the super rich. NAFTA utterly destroyed America’s industrial base, and the TPP will be even worse, says Flowers.

We’re joined 30 minutes in by Bob Fitrakis, who recalls the dynamics of the Democratic campaign of 1992, when NAFTA was downplayed by candidate Bill Clinton, only to have him pass it once in the White House.

The question then becomes: now that Donald Trump has labelled NAFTA “the worst trade deal ever signed,” how will Hillary duck the issue in the upcoming presidential contest. And would she, once in the White House, stick it to the American economy the way she and Bill did in the 1990s.

Sadly, the question answers itself. Is the only answer that Bernie Sanders must now run as a Green with Jill Stein? Stay tuned!!!!

Progressive Commentary Hour – 04.12.16

GUEST 1: Ellen Brown

Ellen Brown is an economist and attorney in Los Angeles who is now the founder of the Public Banking Institute – a non profit economic venture to find viable, sustainable solutions to America’s banking crises by promoting people-owned state and community banks. Last year she ran as the Green Party candidate for California State’s Treasurer. Ellen has written extensively about the private financial cartels and the Federal Reserve. Her recent book, “The Public Bank Solution: From Austerity to Prosperity”, introduces a safe soluble public banking alternative to the credit-based system of the current big banks. Her writings also frequently appear on the website of the Center for Global Research, where she is a research associate.

She is the host of the radio program Its Our Money, heard every Wednesday at 3 pm Eastern here on the Progressive Radio Network, and her website is WebOfDebt.com

GUEST 2: Guy McPherson

Dr. Guy McPherson is a professor emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. He has specialized in forest resources, energy decline and climate change and its economic consequences. In the past he has also taught at Texas A&M and University of California at Berkeley. Having become disillusioned with the American university environment and academia, and after attempts by university officials to silence his outspokenness about the human causes of climate change, Guy abandoned his tenured position as a full professor for ethical reasons of conscience. He is the author of several books, the latest entitled “Extinction Dialogs: How to Live with Death in Mind.” He is also the co-host with Mikey Silwa of the radio program Nature Bats Last heard every Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm Eastern time on the Progressive Radio Network. His website is GuyMcpherson.com

Progressive Commentary Hour – 03.01.16

Dr. Jill Stein is the 2016 presidential candidate for the Green Party and a strong advocate for greater third party representation in election campaigns and debates. Dr Stein is a medical physician of internal medicine and a pioneer in advocating environmental health issues in Massachusetts. During her presidential run in 2012, she received enough votes making her the most successful woman presidential candidate in US history. Dr. Stein is a Harvard magna cum laude and received her doctorate from Harvard Medical School. Over the years she has been active in Massachusetts campaigns to better protect women and children from toxic pollution that has been associated with earning disabilities. She is also on the national board of directors of the organization Physicians for Social Responsibility favoring a national universal healthcare program and has won awards for her public health efforts in clean water policies and children’s health. Her website is Jill2016.com