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


  • "Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens" Demonstrates the Depths of New Cold War Propaganda against China
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    "Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens" Demonstrates the Depths of New Cold War Propaganda against China
    02 Dec 2020
    In the season finale, the liberal mask comes off and the program morphs into a screed for the U.S.’s New Cold War on China.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    02 Dec 2020
    This week the ideological education of the working class, the need for socialism, and the aims of a Biden administration were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Jessica Gordon Nembhard’s “Collective Courage”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Jessica Gordon Nembhard’s “Collective Courage”
    02 Dec 2020
    Many of the great African American thinkers, movers, and shakers were also leaders in the Black cooperative movement.
  • BAR Book Forum: Ana-Maurine Lara’s “Queer Freedom : Black Sovereignty” and “Streetwalking”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Ana-Maurine Lara’s “Queer Freedom : Black Sovereignty” and “Streetwalking”
    02 Dec 2020
    The author wants us to deepen our analysis of how power moves through the world to constrain Black life, and how queer Black people resist these constraints.  
  • How to Prevent Up to 40 Million People from Being Evicted
    Jerusalem Demsas
    How to Prevent Up to 40 Million People from Being Evicted
    02 Dec 2020
    Millions of Americans face eviction in a “completely predictable and entirely preventable” crisis as the CDC’s moratorium is set to expire on New Year’s Eve.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us