Black Agenda Radio for Week of Nov 14, 2016 | Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio for Week of Nov 14, 2016

15 Nov 2016

🖨️ Print Article

Cornel West: Class Becoming “Much More Central”

“We are witnessing the end of the neoliberal era,” said Dr. Cornel West, the nation’s most prominent Black public intellectual, assessing the import of last week’s election. West backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries, then endorsed the Green Party’s presidential ticket. The election “did not go left-populist, following Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein,” he said. Instead, “it went rightwing-fascist. But the neoliberal era is coming to a close and the neoliberal establishment is being exposed. The issues of class now are becoming much more central.”

Trump Supporters Mounted an “Insurrection”

Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro was among the few observers on the Left that thought Donald Trump would win at the polls. But, even he was startled at the scope of Trump’s sweep. “I felt that the insurgency would grow and deepen, but I never thought that it would become an insurrection,” said Monteiro. “In a certain sense, white working and poor people in these small, rust belt towns have a sense of achievement in having brought the Clintons down that Black people had in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected with a huge Black turnout,” he said. Monteiro is one of the organizers of a Conference on Political Science for Radical Times, set for December 9-10, in Philadelphia.

TPP “On Its Death Bed”

With Donald Trump’s victory, President Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership corporate rights trade deal is “looking like it’s on its death bed,” said Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance. “We’ve worked for five years to make TPP stand for Toxic Political Poison, and that seems to have happened,” said Zeese. Trump won in “the rust belt that was destroyed by NAFTA” -- Bill Clinton’s jobs-exporting bill of a generation ago -- “and was going to be threatened again by TPP.” Zeese said Obama may make a last bid to pass TPP in the lame duck session of Congress that begins this week.

Finally, a Practical Guide to Black Self-Determination

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations adopted a 19-point Black Political Agenda for Self-Determination, at a conference in Washington. The document applies the principle of self-determination to the broadest range of issues, from Black Community Control of the Police, to Mass Black Incarceration, to Nationalization of the Banks. “Everybody wants self-determination,” said Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela, “but what does it mean, practically?” The 19 points give direction to the struggle. “This isn’t something you work on every four years,” said Yeshitela. “This is something you work on every day. This is our program.”

Margaret Kimberley, an editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report, told the conference: “When we meet together, today, we are showing the world what self-determination looks like.” Voting for “your enemies” is not self-determination, and “thinking that electoral politics is the only road to liberation is not self-determination,” said Kimberley.

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_20161114.mp3

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio November 28, 2025
29 Nov 2025
In this week’s segment, we talk to a man whose brother was killed by an NYPD officer who the police commissioner, reappointed by Zohran Mamdani, refused to fire from his job. But first, we discuss a…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
China Changes Everything
29 Nov 2025
Jacqueline Luqman is a radical activist based in Washington DC, and the co-founder of Luqman Nation, an independent Black media outlet. She joins us from Washington to discuss a newly published book…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Mamdani Reappoints NYPD Commissioner Who Refused to Punish Killer Cops
28 Nov 2025
Samy Feliz is an organizer with Justice Committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement against police violence and systemic racism in New York City and empowering low-income…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Illegal Orders, Liberal Hypocrisy, and Fake Outrage
26 Nov 2025
Democrats recruit military veterans and former intelligence agency operatives to run for office to prove their pro-war credentials. A contrived fight with Donald Trump shouldn’t fool anyone.
Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
United Nations Security Council Resolution on Gaza is a Surrender to U.S. Led Global Fascism
26 Nov 2025
By approving a U.S. "peace plan" that legitimizes genocide and ends the right to resist, the United Nations Security Council has not just failed Palestine—it has actively consolidated a new era of…