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 June 12, 2017
13 Jun 2017
🖨️ Print Article

Democrats Don’t Even Pretend to Want Change

“Dumping the Democrats for good is the only way to resist Trump,” said Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley, addressing BAR’s panel at the Left Forum, in New York City. “What have they done since Election Day?” Kimberley asked. “They have refused to give even the appearance that they are willing to push for even meager reforms. We have to talk about replacing them and having a true workers party, a true peace party.”

Political Elite Use Russia-Baiting to “Medicate” U.S. “Crisis of Governance”

The U.S. is engulfed in a “crisis of governance” that has been “intentionally misunderstood” by the corporate media and the political elite, said Danny Haiphong, a contributing political analyst at BAR. Anti-Russian hysteria has been whipped up “to medicate political consciousness.” “They don’t want to discuss how Russia has absolutely nothing to do with the millions of incarcerated people in the U.S., or the fact that it is the U.S. monopoly capitalist economy, not the emerging capitalist economy of Russia, which has automated many of the jobs and siphoned much of the wealth that once belonged to a privileged sector of U.S. workers,” said Haiphong. “This system has run its course. War is all the system has left.”

The Ugly Americans

According to Dahoud Andre, the radio host and Haitian community activist who spoke at the BAR panel, Haitians wonder, “What’s the difference between Trump and the Democrats?” “From the perspective of our country, from the time we became independent we have been equally attacked by Democrats and Republicans. And, sometimes it is very difficult for us to understand the notion of ‘progressive Americans,’” said Andre. Solidarity is sorely needed. “It’s one struggle, whether its in Haiti, in Africa, in the Middle East, Asia, and also over here.”

A Real Left Would Demand Peace

“If you are resisting Russian collusion with Trump, then what you are resisting is a fantasy,” BAR executive editor Glen Ford told the opening plenary of the Left Forum. “And, if you are simply resisting Trump, the idiot in the White House, then you are simply a tool of a Democratic Party strategy.” Ford said the nation needs a rejuvenated anti-war movement, “or else we are defenseless against this kind of strategy on the part of the Democrats, who pretend that they are an alternative to the fascist-sounding and definitely virulently white nationalist forces in the Republican Party, but are themselves intent upon a war policy that can mean the extinction of the human race.”

Next week on Black Agenda Radio: Left Forum presentations by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon, BAR editor and columnist Ajamu Baraka, the 2016 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, and Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro.

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


  • BAR Book Forum: Adia Harvey Wingfield’s “Flatlining”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Adia Harvey Wingfield’s “Flatlining”
    15 Apr 2020
    How do black workers fare when organizations say they want to attract more minority employees even as they have largely shifted resources away from labor?
  • BAR Abolition and Mutual Aid Spotlight: Ejeris Dixon
    Dean Spade and Roberto Sirvent, BAR Contributors
    BAR Abolition and Mutual Aid Spotlight: Ejeris Dixon
    15 Apr 2020
    Mutual aid efforts are proliferating in this time of epidemic, organizing communities towards self-determination by creating mechanisms that oppose the state violence.
  • Cuba Under Media Attack for Sending Doctors, Not Bombs, to Help Covid-19 
    Belen Fernandez
    Cuba Under Media Attack for Sending Doctors, Not Bombs, to Help Covid-19 
    15 Apr 2020
    Media outlets have exploited the current pandemic to disseminate rank anti-Cuban propaganda.
  • The Cognitive Dissonance of “Democratic Socialists”— Cults Die a Slow Death
    Quetzal Cáceres
    The Cognitive Dissonance of “Democratic Socialists”— Cults Die a Slow Death
    15 Apr 2020
    The blame-anyone-other-than-Sanders apologists exposed themselves as devotees to a cult of personality devoid of any real political strategy.
  • Sanders Supporters Pledge to “#DemExit” and “#GreenEnter” to Make a Home in a Party That Shares Their Core Values 
    Independent Political Report
    Sanders Supporters Pledge to “#DemExit” and “#GreenEnter” to Make a Home in a Party That Shares Their Core Values 
    15 Apr 2020
    Online contributions to the Green Party tripled after Sanders’ capitulated to Biden, and ten times as many people signed up to volunteer.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us