Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 4, 2016 | Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 4, 2016

05 Jan 2016

🖨️ Print Article

Building a Black “Movement” from the Current “Momentum”

Dr. Cornel West, the nation’s best known Black public intellectual and a keynote speaker at this weekend’s conference on the Black Radical Tradition, at Philadelphia’s Temple University, said Black America is not yet experiencing a mass social movement. “I would say it’s significant motion and momentum that can become a movement if we can sustain it. We’ve got a significant number of brothers and sisters who have broken the back of fear,” said West, a co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. The path to a full-blown movement starts “with the criminal justice system, and we connect it to mass unemployment, mass underemployment, then connect it to a critique of capitalism and a critique of empire.”

Chicago’s Mayor Failing the “Pacify the Blacks” Test

Rahm Emanuel “is not doing his job,” said activist, scholar and author Paul Street. “One of the main jobs for a mayor of Chicago, frankly, is to keep the Black community in line and non-rebellious, so that downtown finance and real estate interests can continue their endless gentrification and expansion, free of disturbance.” Calls have intensified for Emanuel’s resignation or recall from office for covering up police crimes against Blacks.

Obama to Press for TPP in State of the Union Address

President Obama will “make a very big push” for congressional passage of his Trans Pacific Partnership corporate trade treaty in his January 12 State of the Union Address, said Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance. However, Zeese believes TPP can be defeated. “We’re going to have our people out in force on-line, in the Twittersphere and social media, getting out the facts, because we expect a lot of dishonesty from the president,” said Zeese, who notes that the top Democratic and Republican candidates to succeed Obama oppose TPP.

The Semantics of Terror

On January 25, the U.S. and its allies will meet with the government of Syria and its Russian ally to discuss which of the West’s jihadist proxy armies might be considered legitimate players in any future peace process. Washington considers all of the armed groups except ISIS and al-Qaida to be “moderate rebels.” Sara Flounders, of the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC), said: “They asked Saudi Arabia to head up the countries that will be vetting these terrorist groups. Now, who is most directly responsible for the arming and funding – from ISIS on through – of terrorist groups operating in Syria and Iraq and throughout the entire region?” The whole exercise, said Flounders, “is an outrageous fraud.”

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/g9iuda/BAR_010416.mp3

More Stories

Tamanisha J. John , Kevin Edmonds
The Caribbean People’s Debt to Cuba
25 Feb 2026
Caribbean governments are betraying Cuba through silence and compliance with U.S. empire. The only way to challenge this failure of leadership is for the people to build an anti-imperialist movement.
Gerald A. Perreira
Turning Its Back on Cuba: Government of Guyana Sells Its Soul
25 Feb 2026
Cuba has provided Guyana with doctors, scholarships, and healthcare for nearly five decades. In return, Guyana's government has turned its back at the moment of Cuba's greatest need.
Jason Myles
The Rainbow and the Machine: The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon
25 Feb 2026
Jesse Jackson's legacy is complicated and sometimes contradictory, as he engaged in both radicalism and in political expediency.
Murtaza Hussain , Ryan Grim
Epstein Flipped Israel’s Gaza-Tested Biometric Scanners Into Nigeria Ports Deal for UAE
25 Feb 2026
Former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak used the Boko Haram threat to pilot an Israeli facial recognition scanning program in Nigeria, while Jeffrey Epstein facilitated oil and logistics deals.
Resumen Latinoamericano
Ship Carrying Russian Fuel Heads to Cuba
25 Feb 2026
Cuba is facing severe energy shortages as US sanctions restrict fuel imports. The Russian shipment now heading to the island will help a nation struggling to maintain vital services for its citizens.