Leid Stories – 02.09.16

Leak at NY Nuclear Power Plant Again Raises Safety Issue

Haiti: A Horror Show As Clinton’s Toady President Leaves Office

It was to be a raucous Mardi Gras in Haiti today, the annual carnival celebration coinciding with the election of a new president. Instead, a somber mood envelops the country. Michel Martelly, the singer Hillary Clinton helped install as president, left office on Feb. 7 and left total chaos in his wake—postponed elections, a now-leaderless country, violence and turmoil in the streets, and a legacy of corruption that harkens back to the Duvalier regime of 30 years ago. Kim Ives, editor of Haïti Liberté, discusses the current situation.

Paul DeRienzo, who has been reporting on “America’s Fukushima”—actual and looming disasters of America’s nuclear program and at several nuclear power plants—discusses a radioactive leak into the ground water beneath the Indian Point nuclear facility in Buchanan, N.Y., that was found to be 65,000-percent higher than “normal” levels.

Black Agenda Radio – 02.08.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

– DeRay McKesson, the Twitter communicator who was a charter school supporter in Minneapolis before he joined the movement for justice, in Ferguson, Missouri, is running for mayor of Baltimore, as a Democrat. McKesson’s Campaign Zero organization met twice with Hillary Clinton, and he has developed a close relationship with the national Democratic Party. Black Maryland state lawmaker Jill Scott, who once ran for mayor herself and is considered the most radical politician in Baltimore, calls DeRay McKesson’s campaign “ridiculous,” and explains why she’s not going to run for City Hall, this year.

– Lynne Stewart, the people’s lawyer who served 28 months in federal prison for the crime of zealously defending her client, and her husband Ralph Poynter, the veteran human rights activist and educator, want to make sure that the incipient new movement for justice keep up the fight to free all political prisoners. We spoke with the couple, in Brooklyn, New York.

– A congressional committee has been holding hearings on the catastrophe in Flint, Michigan, the majority Black city whose water was poisoned under the control of an appointed emergency financial manager. Dr. Cynthia McKinney, the former six term congresswoman from Georgia and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate, was active in congressional hearings on the Katrina disaster back in 2005. McKinney is now in Bengladesh, teaching a course in political science and leadership, the discipline in which she earned her PhD. We asked Dr. McKinney if she thinks the current hearings will succeed in holding powerful people and government agencies accountable for what happened in Flint.

– Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly, who became president of Haiti in an election racked with fraud and foreign interference in 2010, left office this past weekend, when his term expired. He’s being replaced by a transitional government appointed by the country’s Parliament, which came into office in elections in August that were also fraudulent, in the eyes of most Haitians. These were followed by presidential elections in October that were widely believed to be rigged, and the cancellation of a run-off election that had been scheduled for last month, due to massive protests. Jerome Franz is a Haitian community activist, now living in Miami. He says most Haitians still support the Fanmi Lavalas party of former president Jean Bertrand-Aristide, who was ousted in a U.S.-backed coup in 2004. We spoke to Jerome Franz shortly before the new interim Haiti government was announced.

Glen Ford – The Clintons: “We Came, We Stole, Haitians Died”

“The discrediting of the elections would also reflect very badly on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.” The island nation of Haiti is on the verge of finally ejecting the criminal President Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly, the dance hall performer and gangster who was foisted on the Haitian people by the United States through the bullying of then Secretary of State Hillary …

Nixon Boumba – The Struggle for Land Justice Knows No Borders: Corporate Pillaging in Haiti

The January 2010 earthquake provided a perfect opportunity for many to come and do business in Haiti. Even prior to the earthquake [4], Bill Clinton led the discussion on developing Haiti through corporate investment. President Martelly turned that approach into a credo: “Haiti is open for business [5].” We understand the pretext for this so-called development. The concept of extraction isn’t very …

Leid Stories – 11.12.15

Thousands Protest ‘Electoral Coup’ in Haiti; Detroit’s Schools Failing Miserably; The Season of Grassroots Action?

The results of the first round of Haiti’s Oct. 25 national elections, widely viewed as rigged to favor current President Michele Martelly’s candidates, have touched off a series of protests and deadly clashes between rival groups. Kim Ives, a co-founder and editor of the international weekly newspaper Haïti Liberté, reports.

Under state-imposed management, Detroit’s public schools are performing dismally, with 96 percent of eight-graders found not proficient in math and 93 percent not proficient in reading. Elena Herrada, a “member-in-exile” of the Detroit School Board and an activist with Detroiters Resisting Emergency Management, discusses the grassroots uphill battle for quality education for the city’s mostly poor children.

Two days after fast-food workers staged demonstrations across the nation calling a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights, students are taking to the streets today with a Million Student March demanding relief from student-loan debt, tuition-free colleges and a minimum wage for campus workers. Is this the season of grassroots political action?

Leid Stories – 11.04.15

Hemispheric History: The U.S., Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Dr. Gerald Horne, the John J. and Rebecca Moores chair of history and African American studies at the University of Houston and frequent analyst of world affairs on Leid Stories, discusses his latest book, Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States, the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic.
Horne has written more than 30 books, and more than 100 scholarly papers and reviews, on struggles against imperialism, colonialism, fascism, racism and war.

Leid Stories – 11.02.15

Widespread Uncertainty About Fairness of Elections in Haiti

A 42-Year War for Freedom the U.S. Would Rather Forget

Kim Ives, a co-founder and editor of the international weekly newspaper Haïti Liberté, and an award-winning filmmaker and documentarian, reports on two key stories we’ve been discussing on Leid Stories—Haiti’s Oct. 25 elections and the deportation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic under a controversial race-specific law.
One hundred and eighty years ago today, bands of First Nations warriors and Africans who had freed themselves from slavery engaged U.S. soldiers in Florida in defense of their land and their freedom. Lasting for seven years, from 1835 to 1842, it was the second time, between 1816 and 1858, that U.S. forces would meet combined military resistance.
Historian Jan Carew brings to light this neglected chapter of U.S. history, erroneously recorded as the Seminole Wars.

Black Agenda Radio – 11.02.15

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

– Outrage continues to build Richland County, South Carolina, where a white policeman was caught on video manhandling a Black female high school student. Efia Wangaza is a people’s lawyer and director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina. She’s part of a coalition of citizens and parents that have launched a series of actions against in-school violence, especially against Black girls.

– The school-to-prison pipeline starts before Black and brown students even set foot in kindergarten, according to a new study by the Center for American Progress and the National Black Child Development Institute. Researcher Maryam Adamu says the study shows that lasting harm is inflicted on Black and brown children in pre-school, where they suffer disproportionate suspensions and expulsions.

– Activists in Newark, New Jersey, turned out for a forum organized to prepare for the installation of a new Civilian Complaint Review Board, appointed by Mayor Ras Baraka. The Black-led People’s Organization for Progress , P.O.P, will be represented on the board, along with other community groups. Larry Adams is vice-chairman of POP. He says the Review Board MUST the power to subpoena witnesses and police records.

– The nation Haiti held a second round of elections on October 25th, this time for president. Back in August, legislative elections were marred by massive voter suppression by allies of the current government. The Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti set up a hot-line to report irregularities in both elections. The first tallies from October’s presidential ballots should be released, later this week. But, Institute director Brian Concannon says the U.S.-backed Haitian regime has tampered with that election, too.

– The Haiti Action Committee, based in the San Fransisco Bay Area, was part of a human rights and labor fact-finding delegation to the island nation. Haiti Action’s Pierre Labossiere and his colleagues believe the turnout of voters was NOT low, but that the vote was suppressed by the ruling party. He disputes that only 20 to 30 percent of Haitians attempted to vote.

Leid Stories – 07.30.15

Haiti In Focus: 100 Years After U.S. Occupation; Chelsea Clinton Handles Family Business; Mass Deportations to Dominican Republic Loom; Pressure Mounts Against Hillary’s Personally Selected President Veteran journalist Kim Ives, a prizewinning documentarian and editor of the news weekly Haïti Liberté, reports on four key developments in Haiti that not only affect Haitians and Haitians in the diaspora directly, but …

Confidential Documents: Red Cross Itself May Not Know How Millions Donated for Haiti Were Spent by Justin Elliott

The American Red Cross is under pressure this week to answer detailed questions from Congress about the spending of nearly half a billion dollars it raised after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. But internal documents newly obtained by ProPublica and NPR call into question whether the Red Cross itself has an accurate accounting of how money was spent. The reports, assessments …