Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 21, 2015 | Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 21, 2015

21 Dec 2015

🖨️ Print Article

Michigan Water Crisis Rooted in Crisis of Democracy

In majority Black Flint, Michigan, the mayor has declared a state of emergency due to unsafe water, while in mostly Black Detroit tens of thousands of poor people have been shut out of the water system. Both jurisdictions were plunged into crisis under the dictatorial powers of state-appointed emergency financial managers. Thomas Stephens, a people’s lawyer and activist, blames corporate governance. “The problems with water affordability and access in Detroit, leading to a public health crisis, and the problems with lead and other contaminants in Flint actually have the same root cause: treating water, a necessity of life in our communities, as if it were a widget, something to be dealt with pursuant to the corporate bottom line.”

Exploring the Black Radical Tradition

Activists and intellectuals will converge on Temple University, in Philadelphia, for a conference on “The Black Radical Tradition In Our Time,” January 8 through 10. Keynote speakers include Angela Davis, Cornel West, Anthony Monteiro and Charlene Carruthers, of Chicago’s Black Youth Project 100. Larry Hamm, chairman of Newark, New Jersey’s People’s Organization for Progress, will speak at one of the conference panels. “The conference is needed,” he said, “because we do need a theoretical understanding of what is happening, and at the same time, those who are involved in theoretical work need to hear from people who are involved in the actual organizing on the ground, so that we can have a synthesis of the two.”

Prison as an Incubator for Hepatitis C

About 100 supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal gathered at a Scranton, Pennsylvania, courthouse where a federal judge heard arguments to compel the state prison system to treat the nation’s best known political prisoner for Hepatitis C, which caused complications that almost killed him earlier this year. Joe Piette, of Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, said 8,000 Pennsylvania inmates carry the infection. “People are tested routinely for HIV, but they’re not tested for Hep C,” said Piette. “So they go back to the community when they get out of prison and it just spreads throughout the community.”

Venezuelan Revolution Down, But Not Out

The Socialist Party founded by the late Hugo Chavez was soundly defeated in legislative elections, earlier this month. The voting took place amid raging inflation and deep shortages of consumer goods. “The reality is that this was a deliberately constructed scarcity for the purpose of psychological warfare against the people of Venezuela,” said Eric Draitser, a New York-based political analyst who recently returned from a fact-finding trip to Venezuela. After the victory of the U.S.-backed parties, said Draitser, “all of a sudden, those items began magically returning to store shelves.” Draitser’s most recent article on Venezuela is titled “The Revolution That Will Not Die.”

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR BLACK AGENDA RADIO

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 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

listen

http://blackagendaradio.podbean.com/mf/play/frg6q2/BAR_122115.mp3

More Stories

Alan MacLeod
The CIA Built Hundreds of Covert Websites. Here’s What They Were Hiding
13 Aug 2025
As governments worldwide crack down on "foreign disinformation", America’s most powerful intelligence agency has been caught running the largest known network of fake media outlets.
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio August 8, 2025
08 Aug 2025
In this week’s segment, we discuss a protest exposing corporate media’s collusion with the U.S. and Israeli governments in reporting genocide and how ICE is violating the law and human rights with…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
ICE Mass Deportations in New York
08 Aug 2025
We’re joined by Mario Bruzzone, Vice President of Policy at the New York Immigration Coalition. He joins us from New York City to discuss Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions taking…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Gaza Media Accountability Encampment
08 Aug 2025
The Gaza Media Accountability Encampment began in response to what organizers call the media’s “complicity in manufacturing consent for Israel’s crimes against humanity.” Activists are demanding an…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
"The Kenyan President is a Colonizer"
08 Aug 2025
Marcela Onyango is a Luo stand-up comedian and writer based in Brooklyn and Washington DC. She is the founder of Feel the News on TikTok, a columnist for Shado Mag and host of a monthly show, Feel…