AU Should Investigate “Barbarity” Against Blacks in Libya
Black Libyans, as well as sub-Saharan migrant workers, “have been treated barbarically” by NATO-backed rebels, said Prof. Vijay Preshad, director of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Three African members of the UN Security Council voted for the “no-fly” resolution that led to the NATO assault. Had Africa opposed the intervention, said Prof. Preshad, “I think the African Union would have come out of this with its head held high and said, We stood up to what was blatantly NATO’s attempt to capture the Arab Spring.” Even at this late stage, “It would behoove the African Union to take leadership” by sending a team to investigate atrocities in this “very racialized conflict.”
No Oversight on NYPD Spies
New York City’s intelligence and “counter-terrorism” budget is rivaled only by that of the FBI, said Faiza Patel, of the Brennan Center for Justice, yet “any rules that constrained them with respect to monitoring political activity have been gutted” and “there has been no oversight of what their intelligence activities are.” The City Council has “never held a hearing” on police spying, and there is no equivalent to the FBI’s inspector general to oversee the NYPD’s 500-officer, $93 million a year surveillance program, said Patel.
Wall Street Protest is Good Omen
“One of the things I’m most excited about” at the protests on Wall Street “is the enthusiasm and radicalization of a lot of young folks,” said Larry Holmes of Bail Out the People. “Targeting Wall Street was a shrewd and necessary idea; we live in a plutocracy,” said Holmes. “I hope that, sooner rather than later, labor is compelled to join it.” He thinks “2011 and 2012 is going to see a sea change in the level of mass protests and anti-capitalist political consciousness in this country.”
Mother and Child Poverty Deepens
Even as poverty rates hit record levels, “the poor are no longer referenced in the national debate,” said Timothy Casey, of Legal Momentum, the country’s oldest legal defense and education organization for women and girls. Female-headed households with children under six years of age are four times as like to live in poverty as married couple households, said Casey. What’s needed is “real welfare reform” that would raise the level of benefits for poor families.
Higher Premiums, More Uninsured, Sicker Population
“For almost a decade we’ve seen the number of uninsured increase by about a million a year,” said Dr. Garret Adams, president of Physicians for a National Health Program. Insurance companies continue to “siphon off about 30 cents on the dollar” while premiums get higher. But, because of the economy and high co-payments, “people are not going to the doctor as much and insurance companies are making even more money.”
The GOP’s Voter Suppression Offensive
Republicans used their 2010 gains in state legislatures to “pass a series of voter suppression measures” targeting traditional Democratic constituencies, said Brenda Wright, of Demos, the public policy outfit. “ Republicans constantly raise the specter of individual voter fraud. However, “impersonation of another voter at the polls is so rare as to be nonexistent,” said Wright.
BAR Columnist Dr. Jared Ball says Defying the Tomb, by incarcerated author Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, is “a programmatic ideological blueprint for us all.”
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 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
“Politicians have pulled out the fear card – socialism – to ensure that voters stay in their place,” said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner.
The “new regime is just a return to the old regime of endless austerity and war,” said Duboisian scholar Dr Anthony Monteiro, an organizer with the Philadelphia Saturday Free Schoo
President-elect Joe Biden “is not even giving a nod and a wink” to Medicare for All, despite its huge popularity among both Democrats and Republicans, said Dr Margaret Flowers, dir
Black excellence in boxing can be traced to the “battle royals” that pitted slaves against each other for the entertainment of white masters, said University of Houston professor Gerald Hor
The Black Misleaders give the impression of exercising black empowerment when they are in fact only promoting themselves.
