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


  • Voting rights
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Congress Must Restore Preclearance Provision to the Voting Rights Act
    28 Jun 2024
    Kareem Crayton joins us to discuss the legacy of the Supreme Court Decision, Shelby County v. Holder, and why congressional legislation is needed to restore Voting Rights Act protections.
  • DC Crime Bill
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Washington DC Communities Mobilize Against New Crime Bill
    28 Jun 2024
    We are joined by Pan-African Community Action member Oliver Robinson, who will explain the harm of the DC Secure Omnibus Crime Bill and discuss their upcoming town hall.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Jamaal Bowman, AIPAC, Phony Progressives, and Black Misleadership
    26 Jun 2024
    Jamaal Bowman is more of a clown than he is a congressman. His lack of seriousness and AIPAC money defeated him in a primary election. The lesson is to fight for and mobilize the people, who will…
  • Ron Daniels
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EDITORIAL: Ron Daniels and the Haiti Support Project [are] at it Again…, Ezili Dantò, 2005
    26 Jun 2024
    A 2005 editorial from Ezili Dantò reminds us that when it comes to Haiti, Black huckster Ron Daniels is cruising on the wrong side of history.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ansar Allah Are Not Working with Al-Shabaab - Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad
    26 Jun 2024
    US and EU forces have been unable to defeat Ansar Allah and now the US is floating a story that they’re working with Al Shabaab.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us