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


  • BAR Book Forum: Marzia Milazzo’s Book, “Colorblind Tools”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Marzia Milazzo’s Book, “Colorblind Tools”
    24 May 2023
    This week’s featured author is Marzia Milazzo. Milazzo is an associate professor of English at the University of Johannesburg. Her book is Colorblind Tools: Global Technologies of Racial Power.
  • Approval of US Troops to Train Peruvian Armed Forces Proves US Behind Coup
    Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    Approval of US Troops to Train Peruvian Armed Forces Proves US Behind Coup
    24 May 2023
    US SOUTHCOM is strengthening ties with Peru's coup government by training that country's military and police force.
  • US Post-9/11 Wars Caused 4.5 million Deaths, Displaced 38-60 Million People, Study Shows
    Ben Norton
    US Post-9/11 Wars Caused 4.5 million Deaths, Displaced 38-60 Million People, Study Shows
    24 May 2023
    Wars the US waged in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan following September 11, 2001 caused at least 4.5 million deaths and displaced 38 to 60 million people, with 7.6 million children…
  • Abolish the GILEE Program and Stop Cop City: A Statement From the Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta Citywide Alliance
    Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta City-Wide Alliance
    Abolish the GILEE Program and Stop Cop City: A Statement From the Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta Citywide Alliance
    24 May 2023
    The purpose of U.S. law enforcement training in Israel is to learn the violent tactics used against Palestinians and bring them back to this country. 
  • Rising Tensions in Colombian Government Peace Talks with the ELN
    Peoples Dispatch
    Rising Tensions in Colombian Government Peace Talks with the ELN
    24 May 2023
    Colombia's president Gustavo Petro met with Afro-descendant, Indigenous and peasant communities affected by illicit crops and guerrilla and paramilitary groups in Colombia. Talks between the…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us