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

Jacqueline Luqman
The History Of Affirmative Action Exposes Its Reactionary Weaknesses
12 Jul 2023
Affirmative action began as a reparations program but ends as a "diversity" project which barely benefits Black people.
Clau O'Brien Moscoso
Peru’s Black Misleadership Class Complicit with Coup Regime and International Far Right
12 Jul 2023
The U.S. isn't the only country with a duplicitous Black political class. The coup government in Peru has Black "leaders" who protect and defend the right wing who ousted an elected president and…
Jamal Abdulahi
Kenya Committing Atrocities in Somalia with US Backing
12 Jul 2023
The US "war on terror" brought nothing but terror to the Horn of Africa. Kenya is a US client state which has spent years destabilizing Somalia under the guise of fighting terrorism.
Jon Jeter
Mourning Mutulu Shakur and the Black Radical Tradition that Modernized America
12 Jul 2023
The late Mutulu Shakur and other Black radicals were responsible for improving the lives of millions of people in the U.S. The counter revolution ended that period of progress, but the political…
Akinyele Umoja
Mutulu Shakur
12 Jul 2023
Mutulu Shakur passed away just seven months after being paroled. Like other political prisoners he was released only when he was terminally ill. The US has more political prisoners and incarcerates…