Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 9, 2017 | Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 9, 2017

10 Jan 2017

🖨️ Print Article

Rally in DC for Black Self-Determination

Self-determination is the “missing ingredient” in contemporary Black politics, said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. The Coalition will hold a rally on January 14 at Freedom Plaza, on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, to advance “an independent Black agenda for our people, and not have us joined at the hip to the Democratic Party.” The time is ripe for a Black self-determinationist strategy, said Yeshitela, because “the Democrats, the Republicans, and the electoral process, itself, have fallen into disrepute.”

Reforming the Green Party

“We have to take our movement away from the non-profits, and the only way we can do that is if we can transform the Green Party into something more like the working class, socialist parties overseas,” said Georgia Green Party co-chair Bruce Dixon, speaking on a telephone call-in with party members across the country. “All of these parties are based on membership dues,” with their officers accountable to the membership -- something our current Green Party does not do,” said Dixon, who is also managing editor of Black Agenda Report. Some members warned that a dues structure might discourage involvement of low-income people, while others cautioned against “infiltration” of the Party by other groups. The Green Party garnered only about one percent of the vote in November.

Judge Orders Hep-C Cure for Mumia

A federal judge ruled that, within three weeks, Pennsylvania prison officials must begin administering a Hepatitis-C cure to the nation’s best known political prisoner. Atty. Bob Boyle, of Mumia Abu Jamal’s legal team, told BAR producer Kyle Fraser: “This judge ruled that the 8^th Amendment guarantees people in prison adequate health care under the ‘cruel and inhuman treatment’ clause.” Boyle said “upwards of 40 percent of the prisoners in the Pennsylvania system have chronic Hepatitis-C,” and could benefit from the ruling.

Mumia Abu Jamal suffered a near-death crisis in mid-2015 due to complications from the disease. When told of the judge’s ruling, he urged activists to “spread the word, because this is not what the Commonwealth wants people to know about -- that they engage in unconstitutional medical practices designed, not to cure, and not even to treat,” a deadly illness. “Here we have a cure, and the government of Pennsylvania refused to give it to thousands of people for years, until they got to the brink of death.”

Rev. Edward Pinkney Appeals for Help

“I was convicted with absolutely no evidence, no witness, no confession, no crime scene, by an all-white jury,” said human rights activist Rev. Edward Pinkney, serving his second stint in prison for helping Black people in Benton Harbor, Michigan, effectively exercise their right to vote. “I was given the death penalty for a 68 year-old man: 30 months in the prison system, with absolutely no evidence.” Pinkney has already served 25 months of his current sentence. “I am an innocent man, threatened, tried Nazi-style and convicted in an effort to isolate and silence me against the power of the land-grabbing, job outsourcing, blood-sucking, criminal Whirlpool Corporation, that has its headquarters in Benton Harbor. I need the people’s help,” said Pinkney. He can be contacted at the Muskegon state prison, inmate #294671.

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/black_agenda_radio_20170109.mp3

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio November 8, 2024
08 Nov 2024
In this week’s segment, we discuss whether Donald Trump will maintain or change the foreign policy positions he carried out in his first term. But first, we analyze the 2024 election domestically and…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Leftist Analysis of Trump's Victory
08 Nov 2024
Jacqueline Luqman, radical activist and co-founder of Luqman Nation joins us to discuss the 2024 election outcome, a resounding victory for Donald Trump.
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Gerald Horne Discusses Trump Foreign Policy
08 Nov 2024
Dr. Gerald Horne joins us from Houston to provide an analysis of US foreign policy in the wake of Donald Trump’s overwhelmming victory and return to the white house.
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Trump vs Harris - US Citizens Denied the Choice for Peace, People or Planet
06 Nov 2024
On November 3, 2024, BAR Editor and Columnist, Ajamu Baraka, participated in a panel discussion entitled "Trump vs Harris - US Citizens Denied Choice for Peace, People or Planet." Black Agenda Report…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
How Trump Won and What Black People Should Do
06 Nov 2024
Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris must be a wake up call to Black people. The Democratic Party is a dead end and a movement killer. Our survival depends on getting that corrupt wing of the…