Don’t Depend on Obama
“Whatever happens in November, our job doesn’t change,” said anti-racism activist Tim Wise, author of Dear White America: A Letter to a New Minority. “The symbolic value of a Black face in a high place does not necessarily translate into structural change.” A mass movement is necessary to force elected officials to address social issues, “because they are not going to do it in and of themselves.”
COINTELPRO Never Ended
The government’s Counter Intelligence Program of the Sixties was never shut down, said Larry Pinkney, former Black Panther and political prisoner. The Feds continue to plant provocateurs in activist ranks. “It’s the oldest trick in the book,” said Pinkney, “and the reason it has consistently worked is, we’ve got too many ‘sheeple’ out there who are about to find themselves in a situation where they have no Constitutional or human rights.”
Offshore Trillions
Measuring the global elite’s offshore cash stashes is “like estimating the size of a black hole,” said James Henry, author of Tax Justice Network-USA study titled “The Price of Offshore, Revisited.” Between $21 trillion to $32 trillion is hidden from tax collectors, said Henry, a former chief economist for the McKinsey consulting group. Developing nations are actually net lenders to First World countries, “to the tune of $11 trillion, which is exactly opposite the way global capital markets are supposed to function.”
Africa at Crossroads
“The African Union has proven itself incapable of resolving armed conflicts” in Libya, the Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau, said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston. South Africa, the sub-Saharan powerhouse, is key to continental security. “It’s either get South Africa off the sidelines or invite in the United States or some outside power – and, obviously, the latter is too ghastly to contemplate.”
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.
Roger McKenzie speaks with us about the wave of Islamophobic and racist attacks in the UK. We also discussed his Morning Star Online article, “Only Class Solidarity Will Defeat Racism.”
The United Kingdom’s ugly history of subjugating people in the global south has created a deeply racist country. The criminal ruling class exploits, but white racism blames the desperate newcomer.
It cannot be said that the U.S. has free and fair elections. Yet, the country regularly uses the false virtue of democracy to enact regime change when its interests are threatened by a…
To commemorate Black August, read Safiya Bukhari's essay on political prisoners and political movements. Her words resonate today.
Kamala Harris’s vaunted “environmental justice unit” prosecuted only the most trivial violations in San Francisco’s toxic Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood.
