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


  • Freedom Rider: Israel and the U.S. Assassinate Peace
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Israel and the U.S. Assassinate Peace
    02 Dec 2020
    Israel and Saudi Arabia are doing everything in their power to prevent Biden from rejoining the nuclear agreement -- and Biden’s team has nothing to say.
  • The Black Agenda Review: A Manifesto of First Principles
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    The Black Agenda Review: A Manifesto of First Principles
    02 Dec 2020
    The Black Agenda Review will function as a weekly supplement to the regular editorial content of the Black Agenda Report.
  • Will This Be the Radicalization of Black Lives Matter?
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Will This Be the Radicalization of Black Lives Matter?
    02 Dec 2020
    Ten Black Lives Matter chapters are demanding that those who have amassed millions of dollars in the movement’s name submit to both a financial and political accounting.
  • People Power (Or 30 min. men and women every 4 yrs?)
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    People Power (Or 30 min. men and women every 4 yrs?)
    02 Dec 2020
    The People earned a dancing in the streets day, horn honking, slogan shouting day—collective sigh/exhale of relief day…Yes, The People deserve
  • "Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens" Demonstrates the Depths of New Cold War Propaganda against China
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    "Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens" Demonstrates the Depths of New Cold War Propaganda against China
    02 Dec 2020
    In the season finale, the liberal mask comes off and the program morphs into a screed for the U.S.’s New Cold War on China.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us