Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 11, 2016 | Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 11, 2016

12 Jan 2016

🖨️ Print Article

Philadelphia Conference Reasserts Black Radical Tradition

Hundreds of activists, academics and organizers from around the country descended on Temple University, in Philadelphia, January 8-10, for a conference titled “Reclaiming Our Future: The Black Radical Tradition.” The multi-generational crowd heard presentations from Angela Davis, Cornel West, Anthony Monteiro and Charlene Carruthers, of Chicago’s Black Youth Project 100, and took part in panel discussions on the widest range of issues, from war and peace, to police and prisons, to gentrification, queer resistance, and emancipatory culture.

A Devastating Critique of Campaign Zero’s DeRay McKesson

At a panel on “Challenging White Supremacy,” Umi Saleh, the Dream Defenders activist formerly known as Phillip Agnew, said social media provides “an asylum for neoliberal values...at the expense of building real community power.” Saleh blasted Campaign Zero leader DeRay McKesson for “counter-revolutionary and anti-movement” agitation against building grassroots organizations. Too often in social media, “We aren’t fighting white supremacy,” he said, “we are vying for virtual validation.” Twitter-based social media activists like McKesson are “crowned” leaders, but have no notion social responsibility. “Social media cannot replace the work that organizers must do,” said Saleh.

Accountability, New Leadership and Socialism

Veteran organizer Jamala Rogers, author of the new book Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion, agreed that “you can’t have a principled debate in 140 characters” on Twitter. “We hold white supremacy accountable, but we don’t hold ourselves accountable,” she said. Activists must address critical questions, such as “Where are the working class leaders that we are developing as a movement?” and “Why aren’t we projecting our aversion to capitalism?” Bernie Sanders, a “gray haired, old white man,” openly espouses socialism, “but we’re scared,” said Rogers.

Fight White Supremacy, Defeat Capitalism

Longtime activist, UCLA history professor and author Robin D.G. Kelly pointed to the “democratic revolutionary vision” of the 1960s National Welfare Rights Organization, the Black Panther and Young Lords parties, and even the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which in 1964 called for a national minimum income, an end to the draft, withdrawal from Vietnam and a boycott of South Africa. Later, however, Black elected officials “helped manage the transfer of wealth to the rich” and promoted schemes for “multiculturalism and diversity” which, ultimately, “do not disrupt white supremacy.” Said Kelly: “You cannot wage an assault on white supremacy without fighting against capitalism.”

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://s36.podbean.com/pb/64a2003ca3cc4f51c8caebc820376957/5693dbe2/data2/fs185/277790/uploads/BAR_011116.mp3

More Stories

Black Agenda Radio
International Court of Justice Hears Case Against Israel, U.S. Continues Support of Zionism - Part 1
12 Jan 2024
Richard Medhurst, independent journalist, joins to discuss events in Gaza as the International Court of Justice prepares considers South Africa’s invoking the genocide convention against Israel.
Black Agenda Radio
Joe Biden Used Mother Emanuel AME Church As a Campaign Backdrop
12 Jan 2024
Marcus McDonald, lead organizer with Charleston Black Lives Matter and Tamara, Palestinian American organizer with Free Palestine Charleston, join to discuss how an historic Black church was used for…
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
"Voter Integrity" Group Gets Legal Permission to Challenge Voter Eligibility
12 Jan 2024
Andrew Garber of the Brennan Center joins us to discuss a Georgia judge’s decision in favor of True the Vote, an organization whose mass challenges of voter eligibility limit the franchise,…
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Ban the War Criminals from King Day Celebrations
10 Jan 2024
Most Martin Luther King birthday celebrations are tawdry displays of political cynicism and cooptation. The people must recapture the day from war criminals and their Black misleadership puppets
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SPEECH: Haiti: A Black Revolution Will Repeat Itself, 1966
10 Jan 2024
On the 220th anniversary of Haitian independence, we reprint the speech given at the first Solidarity Conference of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America by Haitian revolutionary, Paul…