Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 18, 2016 | Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 18, 2016

19 Apr 2016

🖨️ Print Article

Elections are a “Distraction” – Take it to the Streets

A spokesperson for the group that confronted Bill Clinton on his mass Black incarceration and anti-welfare policies, provoking a 13-minute tirade by the former president, said Bernie Sanders’ campaign is “another distraction, another cop-out from getting in the streets to demand justice.” Megan Malachi, of the Philly Coalition for Racial, Economic and Legal (REAL) Justice, told BAR: “As a coalition, we will not and have not endorsed any candidates, because we believe that electoral politics will not liberate the Black and poor communities. But, we definitely want to take the politicians to task for constantly and consistently betraying the aspirations of poor people.”

“Renounce and Reject” the Black Misleadership Class

Pennsylvania holds its primary election on April 26. Veteran activist and scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro, a co-founder of the Philadelphia-based Black Radical Organizing Committee (BROC), calls it a contest between “Hillary Clinton versus the people.” Monteiro is “convinced that Black people in Philadelphia will express their opposition, not only to Hillary and her corporate 1% backers and her war plans, but they will renounce and reject the Black Misleadership Class.”

Coalition Will Craft a National Black Agenda

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations “intends to move our general struggle forward by initiating an independent Black agenda for self-determination,” said chairman Omali Yeshitela, speaking at a Coalition conference in New York’s Harlem. The process will “culminate with our traditional November rally, march on the White House and national conference, where we will unveil our own agenda, created independent of the participation and wishes of either of the bourgeois political parties.”

One of the Coalition’s principal demands is Black community control of the police. “There has clearly been an intensification of oppression of African people since the Ferguson rebellion, and since Baltimore,” said Diop Olugbala, of the African People’s Socialist Party, a coalition member organization. “Marching, demonstrating, protesting is extremely important,” but not “if it is separated from strategic goals and demands.”

Nellie Bailey, longtime tenants activist and co-host of Black Agenda Radio, told the conference that “housing activists are engaged in class warfare with finance capital for living space. We have to build a national movement that is a broad tent, that will bring in progressive forces” that can unite around principles of unity.

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR BLACK AGENDA RADIO

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

listen

https://blackagendaradio.podbean.com/mf/play/3847bz/BAR_041816.mp3

More Stories

Clau O'Brien Moscoso
As Elections Near, Ecuador's Working Poor and Colonized under Siege - Part 2
26 Mar 2025
Ecuador was once a safe country with some of the best economic prospects in the region. Today, Ecuador has a nearly 500% increase in violent crimes and a marginalized population of poor, African, and…
Jacqueline Luqman
It Is Time To Reckon With The Reactionary Rantings of ADOS/FBA
26 Mar 2025
The ADOS and FBA (American Descendants of Slavery and Foundational Black Americans) movements have gained influence by advocating for reparations exclusively for Black Americans descended from U.S.…
Mark P. Fancher
The Folly of So-Called Foundational Black Americans
26 Mar 2025
So-called Foundational Black Americans may tell themselves they are noble protectors of ancestral legacy, but they are, in fact, little different from European groups in this country that…
Diaspora Pa'lante Collective
What is Esencia and what will happen to Puerto Rico if this is constructed?
26 Mar 2025
Capitalist developers and political opportunists are feeding off Puerto Rico's land and resources to privatize the island. The people suffer from deteriorating infrastructure and increasing…
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Gaza Journalists Hossam Shabat, Mohammed Mansour Killed in Israeli Airstrikes
25 Mar 2025
Journalists Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour were killed in targeted Israeli airstrikes, as the death toll among media workers continues to rise.