Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Agenda Report for Week of August 8, 2016
08 Aug 2016
🖨️ Print Article

Voters Have Choices Outside the Duopoly

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are both “evil” people, but U.S. voters do have choices this election season, said South Carolina activist and author Kevin Alexander Gray. “It’s good that people are running on various third parties, to give Americans a little bit of education,” as opposed to watching them make one or the other bad choice,” said Gray, author of Waiting on Lighting to Strike. “One of the good things about Barack Obama leaving office, particularly for Black people, is that perhaps they’ll pick up their signs, pick up their feet, and follow behind the youth that are out here in the streets challenging the system.”

Low Wage Workers to Converge on Richmond

The U.S. labor movement made an historic error in the post-World War Two era in failing to commit sufficient resources to organizing in the heavily Black South. But activists in the current movement to unionize low-paid workers and raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour vow not to repeat that mistake. “We will highlight that low wages and racial inequality is not only hurting Black and brown people, it’s hurting the working poor white people, as well,” said Terrance Wise, a leader of Fight for 15, which will hold a national conference of low-wage workers in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy, August 12 and 13. “Until we can build our movement and bring all workers together to demand economic justice and racial equality, we won’t gain any ground,” said Wise, a Burger King employee from Kansas City.

Russell “Maroon” Shoatz Wins Solitary Confinement Settlement

Pennsylvania prison officials have agreed to pay a monetary settlement to political prisoner Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, and to never again place the former Black Panther in solitary confinement, where he spent 22 of the past 44 years. His daughter, Theresa Shoatz, is “elated because it opens the door to other prisoners who are still in solitary confinement in Pennsylvania.” The legal action was spearheaded by the Pittsburg-based Abolitionist Law Center, with virtually no assistance from Black elected officials. “Our state representatives are useless,” said Ms. Shoatz.

Afro-Colombian Rights Recognized in Peace Talks

FARC guerillas and the government of Colombia have agreed in principle to “make sure the rights and interests of Afro-descended and indigenous peoples will be respected” in the resolution of the South American country’s two generations-long civil war, said Charo Mina-Rojas, of the National Afro-Colombian Peace Council. Representatives of the Colombian government and demobilizing guerillas agreed to include such assurances in the peace document being hammered out at negotiations in Havana, Cuba. However, Mina-Rojas said some elements of FARC have not agreed to lay down their arms and “do not fully recognize” Afro-Colombians’ collective land rights.

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.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/BlackAgendaRadio_20160808.mp3

More Stories


  • NYC to Celebrate Release of Last Move 9 Prisoner
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    NYC to Celebrate Release of Last Move 9 Prisoner
    10 Mar 2020
    “We want to show our appreciation and love for what this 73 year-old man has gone through,” said Gwen DeBrow, one of the organizers of a reception for Delbert Africa, who was
  • Women Lead Fight Against Police Violence in UK
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Women Lead Fight Against Police Violence in UK
    10 Mar 2020
    One reason Black women are in the forefront of British anti-police violence campaigns, is to counter the capitalist smear that Black families are “not capable of raising children, leading to crimin
  • Fear Pervades Black Politics, and Makes Us Agents of Our Own Oppression
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Fear Pervades Black Politics, and Makes Us Agents of Our Own Oppression
    05 Mar 2020
    Many Black voters recoiled in abject terror at the very thought that the Democratic Party – “our” party, in many Black folks’ minds – might fracture under the challenge of the Sandernistas.
  • Freedom Rider: U.S. Continues Its War on the Rest of the World
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: U.S. Continues Its War on the Rest of the World
    04 Mar 2020
    The duopoly corporate parties enforce silence and ignorance on foreign policy to ensure that Americans have neither the knowledge nor the tools to resist their country’s policy of endless war.
  • Why it is Unlikely Sandernistas Will Catch Russiagate Fever and Why He Should Be Held Accountable Anyway
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Why it is Unlikely Sandernistas Will Catch Russiagate Fever and Why He Should Be Held Accountable Anyway
    04 Mar 2020
    Bernie Sanders’ rise to frontrunner status has done nothing to challenge the endless wars waged by the US, yet he is sure to face more smears and attacks the more his campaign succeeds.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us