Black Agenda Report for Week of August 15, 2016 | Black Agenda Report

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.

listen

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

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Solidarity with the Alliance of Sahel States
11 Oct 2024
Prudence Iticka and Obioma Ohia recently returned from a delegation that traveled to Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, nations that recently formed the Alliance of Sahel States. They join us to discuss…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Ending Life Without Parole, Death by Incarceration, in Pennsylvania
11 Oct 2024
Quinn Cozzens joins us to discuss the case of Derek Lee, convicted of felony murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for a killing he did not commit. Derek Lee is challenging his…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Syria and Imperialism: A Revolutionary Blackout Network Conversation
11 Oct 2024
Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report Executive Editor, was recently a guest on the Revolutionary Blackout Network with hosts Nick Cruse and James Fauntleroy. This is an excerpt of their wide-…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Eric Adams and the Death of Black Politics
09 Oct 2024
The indictment of New York City mayor Eric Adams is the latest example of moribund Black politics. Rich donors and corporate media decide who will be elected to office, while the people’s needs go…
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
October 7th, The Election and Capitalist Crisis, A Conversation with Ajamu Baraka
09 Oct 2024
Margaret Kimberley and Ajamu Baraka discuss the US upcoming presidential election, and the historic events unfolding in Western Asia - where Israel continues its onslaught of the region with an…