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


  • Brittney Griner and the U.S. State
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Brittney Griner and the U.S. State
    14 Dec 2022
    Brittney Griner's ordeal in Russia is over. But she has been secreted away for "reintegration" and the U.S. continues its own brand of international hostage taking.
  • ESSAY: Negroes Speak of War, Langston Hughes, 1933
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Negroes Speak of War, Langston Hughes, 1933
    14 Dec 2022
    What benefits do Black folk get by endorsing or participating in the white man’s war? Revisiting an anti-war statement by Langston Hughes.
  • On International Human Rights Day: Money for Ukraine and War But Austerity for the People
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    On International Human Rights Day: Money for Ukraine and War But Austerity for the People
    14 Dec 2022
    The U.S. does not respect the right to health care, housing, employment, or education while making war on the rest of the world. What does the idea of human rights amount to in this country?
  • Ghost Stories of Capitalism: Racism is REAL, and It’s a Class Struggle
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ghost Stories of Capitalism: Racism is REAL, and It’s a Class Struggle
    14 Dec 2022
    From culture wars to identity politics, it's easy to get sucked into toxic rhetoric and forget the reality of racism staring the US in the face.
  • If the US Told Rwanda and Uganda to Get Out of Congo, the War Would End
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    If the US Told Rwanda and Uganda to Get Out of Congo, the War Would End
    14 Dec 2022
    Rwanda and Uganda continue their plunder and destabilization of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as proxies of the United States.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us