Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Agenda Report for Week of August 15, 2016
16 Aug 2016
🖨️ Print Article

Greens are Alternative to “Democratic Plantation”

Ajamu Baraka, the veteran Black activist tapped as Jill Stein’s presidential running mate, said the Green Party can make a difference, this year, by “building an alternative to the Democratic plantation” and “transcending the politics of fear.” Baraka is a co-founder of the U.S. Human Rights Network and an editor and columnist for Black Agenda Report. “With the continued deterioration of the democratic processes, and of this economy, and the clear tendency on the part of the state to repress political opposition, our time is limited in terms of the extent we can take advantage of the limited democratic space that does exist,” said Baraka.

Neither Trump Nor Clinton Can Resolve Crisis

Although both major party candidates acknowledge that the economy is benefiting only the One Percent, the difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton lies in how they “identify the source of the problem,” said Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar and Black Radical Organizing Committee activist from Philadelphia. “Clinton says that the policies of financialization, of Wall Street privilege, of trade deals like NAFTA and TPP, are not fundamentally wrong – that we should tweet them, not change them,” said Dr. Monteiro. “Trump, in essence, argues that the problem of the American economy is grounded in the export of capital, and that this is the source of the impoverishment of the American working class.” Monteiro believes “Trump’s stating of the problem is far more accurate than Clinton’s,” but neither of them “provide a solution to the problem.”

Roots of Black Movement for Self-Defense

Black scholars and activists came together, in Detroit, to celebrate the life of Robert F. Williams, the former NAACP leader in Monroe, North Carolina, who in the 1950s formed a Black Armed Guard to defend Black people from racist violence. Among the speakers was Dr. Akinyele Umoja, chair of the African American Studies Department at Georgia State University and author of the book We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement. “There were already people in the South practicing armed self-defense,” said Dr. Umoja. “The thing that distinguishes Williams is that he was an advocate. Most people were quite” members of informal protective networks, but Williams advocated self-defense in his newspaper, The Crusader, and “people began to look at the movement he and others were talking about.”

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.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/BlackAgendaRadio_20160815.mp3

More Stories


  • Food, Land and Power: Revisiting Black Cooperative Movements
    Julian Agyeman and Kofi Boone
    Food, Land and Power: Revisiting Black Cooperative Movements
    24 Jun 2020
    Land loss has plagued black America since emancipation – is it time to look again at ‘black commons’ and collective ownership?
  • Seize the Time or Face Fascism
    Riva Enteen
    Seize the Time or Face Fascism
    24 Jun 2020
    Either we seize the time and bring power to the people, or we must be prepared to face overt fascism.
  • Black Agenda Radio for Week of June 22, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of June 22, 2020
    22 Jun 2020
    A New Generation, Same Struggle
  • Will Blacks Oppose or Defend US Empire?
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Will Blacks Oppose or Defend US Empire?
    22 Jun 2020
    Defense of Haitian independence was the first foreign policy focus of African Americans, said Brandon Byrd, professor of history at Vanderbilt University and author of “The Bl
  • Vanessa Beck
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Elite Deploy Spy Hi-Tech Against the People
    22 Jun 2020
    Recent reports show the US military spied on George Floyd protests in 15 cities with planes, helicopters and drones.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us