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

Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of May 14, 2012
15 May 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

NATO to Plan More War in Chicago

This week’s NATO summit meeting, in Chicago, “will be full of aggressive activities: plans for energy wars around the world, new decisions about how the U.S will maintain hegemony in the oil-rich Middle East and Afghanistan,” said Chris Gavreau, spokesperson for UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition. Thousands of demonstrators are expected to converge on the city.

Boycott the Two Major Parties

“We know him as a war president, we know him as an anti-civil liberties president, we know him as an austerity president – that’s the record,” said Dr. Tony Monteiro, professor of African American Studies at Temple University, in Philadelphia, speaking of Barack Obama. “The same goes for Mitt Romney.” Progressives and the Black Left should “boycott the two major parties” this election cycle.

Obama the Militarist

The president proclaims his militarism “proudly, with repeated references to ‘taking out’ al Qaida operatives through the most illegal methods imaginable,” said political analyst Paul Street, author of The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama and the Real World of Power. Street noted that Obama called his own health care program “centrist,” while admitting that it is modeled on a plan developed by the rightwing Heritage Foundation in the Nineties.

Derivatives Wreak Havoc at Banks

JP Morgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, gambled away billions because neither party made any real “effort to crack down on derivatives in general,” said Doug Henwood, editor of Left Business Observer. “It’s remarkable how little has changed since the financial crisis” of 2008, said Henwood. “This is precisely the sort of thing that was supposed to be stopped.”

Cap Earnings of Rich

The U.S. should return to President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1942 proposal to use tax policy to cap wages at $25,000 a year – $364,000 in current money – said Johnny E. Williams, associate professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. Prof. Williams recently authored the article “Toward a Maximum Wage,” published in Counterpunch. A maximum wage should be linked to the minimum wage, he said. If the max goes up, so would the minimum, creating “a sense of community.”

Obama’s Allegiances

President Obama’s “policies are similar to the Bush administration but, in my opinion, are far worse, because he presented himself in 2008 as a change agent,” said Abayomi Azikewe, editor of the Pan African Newswire. Today, people see Obama as he really is, “a representative of the banks, the transnational corporations and the Pentagon – pure and simple.” Azikewe spoke with host Solomon Commissiong on Your World News, broadcast on WPWC Radio, in Washington, DC.

 

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Tuesday at 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.


More Stories


  • Indict and Punish the Perpetrators of Covid Mass Death
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Indict and Punish the Perpetrators of Covid Mass Death
    21 May 2020
    Not just Trump, but the whole US ruling class must pay for the mass Covid death toll among Blacks, because only the ruling class has the power to systematically allocate life-death chances for
  • Freedomrider: Obamagate is Real
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedomrider: Obamagate is Real
    20 May 2020
    Obama’s fans like to think of the First Black President as scholarly and above the fray of dirty politics, but he appears to have conspired with the FBI to set up the incoming administration.
  • American Exceptionalism and the American Left’s China Double Standard
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    American Exceptionalism and the American Left’s China Double Standard
    20 May 2020
    The threat that the American Left sees in China aligns with the white supremacist underpinnings of American exceptionalism.
  • Neoliberalism, Intervention and Anti-Blackness: A Webinar* Presentation
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Neoliberalism, Intervention and Anti-Blackness: A Webinar* Presentation
    20 May 2020
    The elevation of anti-blackness as a kind of universal problem eliminates the basis for solidarity among the colonized and puts some African Americans on the side of U.S. imperialism.
  • Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Trump vs. Biden: The China-Hating Contest Is On Like Donkey Kong
    20 May 2020
    Trump and Biden promise their fans a roaring hate-fest this election cycle, as they vie for the honor of defending America’s right to full spectrum dominance of every corner of the globe.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us