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 June 18, 2012
19 Jun 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

Backwards Logic: Obama’s “We Got Your Back” Black Campaign Ad

The Obama 2012 campaign’s radio ad, in which a chorus of Black voices assures the president that “We got your back,” implies a “reciprocal relationship” between Blacks and Obama – “that we’re all in this together,” said Dr. Johnny Williams, professor of sociology at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. However, “there’s been very little that he’s done directly for Black people to show us that he’s got our back.”

Why Wisconsin mobilization and Occupy movement “Faltered”

The “biggest ongoing labor rally since the 1930s got shunted into electoral politics…because there wasn’t also the pursuit of independent movement building,” said Arun Gupta, co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street Journal. The problem, said Gupta, was not simply that Democratic Party and labor union “honchos” steered the movement into an unsuccessful bid to unseat Republican Scott Walker. Rather, the Wisconsin mobilization and the Occupy movement, “despite their potential, have been faltering because of…a lack of organization, a lack of discipline, and a lack of strategy.”

Medicaid for All Would Have Passed Constitutional Muster

President Obama could have avoided constitutional problems if he had chosen a health care plan that “most people have long supported” and which is “constitutionally safe”: Medicare for All, said political analyst and author Paul Street. “All you have to do” to create a single-payer system ”is to go into the Medicare bill and take out the clause that says its for people over 65 – and just say its for everybody.” Instead, Obama pushed a bill that guaranteed price-setting power to the drug and insurance “mafias.” The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on Obama’s health care legislation, which requires people to purchase private insurance.

Obama Violates His Own Law on Congo Killings

Friends of Congo is circulating a petition demanding that Washington cut off funds to nations that “destabilize” their neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Executive director Maurice Carney notes that the law was authored by Sen. Barack Obama and co-sponsored by Sen. Hillary Clinton, now U.S. Secretary of State. Rwanda and Uganda are both guilty of destabilizing the DRC, “resulting in the death of millions of Congolese,” said Carney. Both Rwanda and Uganda are close allies of the U.S.

No Compromise with Capitalism

“You have to have, as an objective, overturning the system of capitalism, itself. And to do that, you’ve got to be organized,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, founded in 1972. Yeshitela was speaking at the national convention of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, in Philadelphia.

 

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


  •  Bethesda, Maryland Desecrates Black Bodies and History
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Bethesda, Maryland Desecrates Black Bodies and History
    08 Jun 2021
    "I’m describing crimes against humanity,” said Dr Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a leader of the fight to save Moses Macedonia African Cemetery from further destruction by developers.
  •  The Democrat-Republican Symbiosis
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    The Democrat-Republican Symbiosis
    08 Jun 2021
    Like Democratic administrations before them, the Biden-Harris White House “needs the Republicans to give them cover” for failing to serve the needs of the people, said Dr.
  • Norman Finkelstein: Truth and Justice Are the Ultimate Test, Not International NGOs
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Norman Finkelstein: Truth and Justice Are the Ultimate Test, Not International NGOs
    02 Jun 2021
    Even Human Rights Watch says Israel is committing crimes against humanity in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and in Gaza, and the idea of a Jewish state in the context of Palestine is not legit
  • Freedom Rider: Lab Leak Theory and Anti-China Mania
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Lab Leak Theory and Anti-China Mania
    02 Jun 2021
    Most virologists still believe that COVID-19 is far more likely to have originated naturally, but US espionage and disinformation agencies disagree.
  • Return of the Lab Leak Conspiracy Shows Biden is a Democrat with Trumpian Characteristics on China
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Return of the Lab Leak Conspiracy Shows Biden is a Democrat with Trumpian Characteristics on China
    02 Jun 2021
    Now Biden and his top allies have given credence to the lab leak conspiracy, as they escalate their confrontation with China.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us