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


  • Divided World: The UN Condemnation of Russia is Endorsed by Countries Run by the Richest, Oldest, Whitest People on Earth But Only 41% of the World’s Population
    Roger Stoll
    Divided World: The UN Condemnation of Russia is Endorsed by Countries Run by the Richest, Oldest, Whitest People on Earth But Only 41% of the World’s Population
    28 Mar 2022
    The UN General Assembly vote on Russia's intervention in Ukraine indicates that most of the world's people do not condemn this action. The reality is a far cry from U.S. claims that Russia is…
  • Francia Márquez Mina, a Black woman activist from the predominantly Black and forgotten region of the Pacific coast, is Colombia’s First Black Vice Presidential Candidate.
    Janvieve Williams Comrie
    Francia Márquez: Colombia's First Black Vice Presidential Candidate
    25 Mar 2022
    Francia Márquez Mina, a Black woman activist from the Black region of the Pacific coast, is Colombia’s First Black Vice Presidential Candidate.
  • The Ongoing Covid Disaster
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Ongoing Covid Disaster
    23 Mar 2022
    Pollsters have advised Joe Biden to declare covid over. But the pandemic revealed all the shortcomings of a political system which is dedicated to austerity and to protecting capitalist…
  • Ukraine: War and the Challenge of Human Rights in the United States and Beyond
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ukraine: War and the Challenge of Human Rights in the United States and Beyond
    23 Mar 2022
    The U.S. justifies wars of aggression in the name of human rights. The term has no meaning domestically either, as the people's needs are subordinated to those of the ruling class.
  • MANIFESTO: The Gary Declaration: Black Politics at the Crossroads, 1972
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: The Gary Declaration: Black Politics at the Crossroads, 1972
    23 Mar 2022
    In 1972, thousands of Black people met in Gary, Indiana to establish a political and economic platform that would influence the US presidential elections. The document from this meeting, The National…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us