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 April 26, 2024
26 Apr 2024
This week, we discuss the New York Governor’s refusal to include a housing voucher program in the latest budget and how the U.S. has been permitted to assist Israel in its war crimes. First, we…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Columbia Students Mobilize in Solidarity with Palestine
26 Apr 2024
Danny Shaw and Jalsa join us to discuss the ongoing protest at Columbia University, where students are protesting the institution’s involvement with Israel and mobilizing in solidarity with the…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
New York State Fails to Meet Housing Needs
26 Apr 2024
Adolfo Abreu joins us from New York City to discuss the Housing Access Voucher Program and why it is important to meet the housing needs of New Yorkers.
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Gaza War Crimes Go Unpunished
26 Apr 2024
Margaret Kimberley joined Revolutionary Blackout Network to talk about the lack of international enforcement for the ICJ ruling calling on Israel to end its war crimes.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Watching US Fascism in Action from China
24 Apr 2024
The contradictions and embarrassing antics of the fascist war-mongering United States appear with stark clarity when viewed from an outside perspective. Especially within nations like China, where…