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

Jacqueline Luqman
Revolutionary Cuba Delivers Marching Orders To The US Left To Defeat Imperialism For All Humanity - Are We Listening?
24 May 2022
The author reports on her experiences with the May Day International Brigade in Cuba.
Benjamin Norton
US Meddling in Colombia’s Election, Warns Left-wing Vice Presidential Candidate Francia Márquez
24 May 2022
The top vice presidential candidate for Colombia’s May elections, Francia Márquez, called out the US government for meddling in the electoral process. The left-wing activist criticized the war on…
Roger D. Harris
Why Are Colombian Election Candidates Auditioning in Washington?
24 May 2022
Colombian vice presidential candidates recently appeared at a Town Hall in Washington. The US is determined to exert control, especially over political parties seeking independence and sovereignty…
Frederick Mills and William Camacaro
Summit of the Americas: US Policy of Exclusion Undermines its Own Hegemonic Aspirations
24 May 2022
The U.S. decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the upcoming Summit of the Americas confirms that the old Monroe Doctrine is alive and well in Washington. But these efforts inevitably…
Sara Sirota
International Political Actors Condemn Mounting Violence in Colombia's Presidential Election
24 May 2022
Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez Mina’s left-wing ticket could upend Colombia’s conservative status quo. But both leaders face repeated death threats.