NAACP Image Awards Targeted for Protest
Benton Harbor, Michigan, activist Rev. Edward Pinkney plans to lead hundreds of pickets at the NAACP’s Image Awards ceremonies on February 1, in Los Angeles. “Our main objective is to wake up the NAACP, and show that they are out of touch with the community,” said Pinkney, longtime leader of the civil rights group’s local chapter. Pinkney charges the NAACP collaborated with a Whirlpool Corporation scheme to take over the Ben Harbor NAACP, in return for financial support. The Los Angeles protest will send the NAACP a message, said Pinkney: “We need you to stop taking these corporate dollars.”
White House and Republicans Play Fiscal Tag Team
The Obama administration and Republican congressional leaders “are pushing essentially the same solutions” to the so-called fiscal cliff problem. “Nobody on either side is talking about the military budget” or “serious taxation of billionaires; in fact, both sides are talking about cutting corporate taxes,” said David Swanson, publisher of the influential website War Is a Crime. “You don’t really have opposition between these two parties, you have agreement,” he said.
Arne Duncan Must Go
Black and progressive educators should push for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to be replaced early in Obama’s second term, said Dr. Sam Anderson, of New York City’s Independent Commission on Public Education. The concept of education as a “human right is historically rooted in our struggle to be free in this country, as Black people,” said Anderson.
Bill Clinton Most to Blame for Congo “Holocaust”
Millions of Congolese have died since 1996 due to policies set in motion by President Bill Clinton, said Prof. Yaa Lengi, of the Congo Coalition. Neighboring Uganda and Rwanda “are always coming up with schemes to foment chaos in eastern Congo” in order to exploit the region’s mineral resources. “Cell phones, lap tops, flat screen TVs – all those gadgets need the minerals of the Congo,” said coalition organizer William Misezuel.
More Bad News for Congo: Oil
“Of late there’s been a major oil discovery in Congo, which makes it even more attractive” to outsiders, said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. “The United States needs to put more pressure on the Rwandan and Ugandan regimes,” since Washington “is the puppeteer” of the relationship. Dr. Horne spoke on Regent Radio’s Saturday Morning Show, in Toronto, Canada.
UN Fails Haiti on Rights
A report by the Paris-based Federation of Human Rights charges the United Nations with failing to take responsibility for causing the cholera epidemic in Haiti, and with inflicting other human rights violations on the occupied nation. In addition to spreading cholera, UN troops have “violated Haitians’ rights in various ways, from rapes to extrajudicial killings,” said Dan Beeton, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington. The UN recently extended its occupation troops’ mandate for another year.
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.
Community residents say that Chicago's City Council should pass a slate of housing protections centered on low-income renters instead of advancing plans for a hotel near the Obama Center site.
Vietnam’s defeat of U.S. forces stands as a landmark anti-colonial victory, proving that determined resistance can overcome even the world’s most powerful military—yet its legacy remains fiercely…
In this week’s segment, we hear about an upcoming conference dedicated to Black, radical organizers in the U.S. But first, we have an update on the Congo and the principles of agreement between Congo…
The Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Rwanda recently signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington. Is Rwanda ending its M23 group’s incursion into the DRC?
The second National Black Radical Organizing Conference will convene in Indianapolis, Indiana, from May 30 through June 1. The conference theme is “Base-Building for Collective Power.” We are joined…
