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

Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright , Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
COPing Out In Brazil: How The United Nations Reduces its Legitimacy More Than Global Emissions
19 Nov 2025
Despite being held in Brazil, a nation with the largest Black population outside of the African continent, COP30 has continued a thirty-year pattern of sidelining the specific climate threats to Afro…
Jon Jeter
In South Africa, White is the New Black: The ANC’s Failures Opens the Door for the Return of a Government Led by Settlers
19 Nov 2025
Decades of unmet promises and endemic corruption have eroded the ANC's legitimacy, creating a surge of support for a party led by South Africa's white minority.
Clau O'Brien Moscoso
“Only unity will make us free:” The Masses Build and Sustain a Zone of Peace through the Unity of Struggles
19 Nov 2025
As U.S. militarism intensifies across Latin America and the Caribbean, regional social movements are making the firm declaration that only a unified, mass-driven front can build a true "Zone of Peace…
Black Alliance For Peace
A Call for Mass Struggle Against U.S.-Led War on Venezuela and the Caribbean
19 Nov 2025
The assault on Venezuela's sovereignty represents a broader imperial strategy to discipline any nation that defies U.S. hegemony.
Jessica Washington
SNAP Recipients Crushed by Democrats Caving on Shutdown: “They Just Wasted It All”
19 Nov 2025
SNAP recipients were willing to sacrifice to protect health care benefits for themselves and others and they are furious that the Democrats' chose collusion with the Trump administration rather than…