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 Radio for Week of May 15, 2017
16 May 2017
🖨️ Print Article

UNAC and Black Alliance for Peace Blast U.S. Subversion of Venezuela

The newly founded Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) issued a joint statement denouncing U.S. “destabilization” and “attempts to cause regime change” in Venezuela. “We share the objective to revive the anti-war movement -- the anti-imperialist movement in the U.S.,” said BAP organizer Ajamu Baraka, the veteran human rights activist and 2016 Green Party vice presidential candidate. “We are, of course, committed to peace, but we understand that there can be no peace without justice, and that means people have to be prepared for struggle,” said Baraka.

Bizarro World: Faux “Leftists” Shill for the FBI

Purported “progressives,” apparently driven mad by Donald Trump, demonstrated this month in support of former FBI director James Comey. “It was disheartening to see left forces so anxious to combat Trump, they were actually supporting Comey,” said UNAC activist Sara Flounders. This strange strain of “leftists” seem to have forgotten the oppressive history and practice of U.S. spy outfits. “We have to be clear,” said Flounders. “All of these agencies are about absolute repression, subversion and assassination.”

U.S. Prisons: Geriatric Injustice

One out of every 7 of the nation’s prison inmates is serving a life sentence, according to a report by The Sentencing Project. For Blacks, the proportion of lifers is in 1 in 5. Despite a growing consensus for prison reform, “We see life sentences continue to accumulate,” said senior research analyst, Ashley Nellis. Most people “age out of bad behavior” in their 20s and 30s, “so incarcerating them for decades past that point serves no public safety benefit,” she said.

Mumia on Neoliberal Barbarism

Noting that Pennsylvania has locked up more juveniles for life than any other state, political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal excoriated Bill Clinton for pushing through his draconian anti-crime bill of 1994. “Children were cast into the hells of adult prison while the newly rich neoliberal class drank champagne and enjoyed the good life,” said Abu Jamal.

Don’t You Dare Call Malcolm X a “Civil Rights” Leader

What Malcolm X “was saying 50 years ago is just as relevant today as it was then,” said Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, an advisory board member of New York City’s Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Educational and Memorial Center, where the martyred leader’s 92nd birthday will be celebrated on May 19th. A “homogenized version” of his life and work depicts Malcolm X as a “civil rights leader of the 1960s,” said Imam Rashid, but Malcolm “used to make it clear that he was not a civil rights leader, but rather, a human rights leader.”

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.

 


More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Bulletin on Domestic Militarism and Repression - Vol. 1 Issue #4
    22 Jul 2026
    The National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7) reveals dangerous policies that many don't know exist. It is a domestic counterinsurgency mechanism that criminalizes anti-fascist organizing…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: How the Cuban Revolution was Made, Fidel Castro, 1979
    22 Jul 2026
    “In other words, people revolted against the system. But they did not know that the system was called capitalism.”
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Marco Rubio Represents a Clear and Present Threat to Global Climate Liberation…So Why is the U.S. Climate “Movement” Ignoring Him?
    22 Jul 2026
    The climate crisis is first and foremost a crisis caused by the U.S. denying other nations their sovereignty through imperialist violence, but the U.S. climate movement is more comfortable talking…
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Slimy green cesspool reflecting capitalist rule
    22 Jul 2026
    "Slimy green cesspool reflecting capitalist rule" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Essam Elkorghli
    NATO’s 77th Summit in Ankara, Türkiye: A Meeting of Warmongering and Endless Acronyms
    22 Jul 2026
    The engraved revolvers Erdogan handed out in Ankara showed that NATO has stopped pretending to be a defensive alliance and embraced its new role as the West's premier weapons trade fair.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us