Almost a fifth of the oil imported by the U.S. comes from Africa, and in the decade to come this percentage will rise. The eastern part of Nigeria, from which Big Oil has pumped more than a trillion dollars worth of black gold since the 1960s, remains the poorest part of the country, and one of the most ravaged and polluted on earth. Thousands of gas flares have burned for decades, generating acid rains that have poisoned fisheries and crops. The land is crisscrossed by thousands of miles of leaking pipes and dotted with oil slicks. The air is unbreathable, cancers are endemic, there are no schools or hospitals and life expectancies are among the lowest on the African continent. Shell Oil is on trial in a New York courtroom, accused of hiring the Nigerian government to murder its own citizens for protesting the pollution of their environment and demanding a share of oil revenues be spent where the oil is extracted.
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Louisiana is one of several states passing punitive measures in response to fears stoked by orchestrated crime panics.
Half of the projects funded through the law have been allocated to expanding highways.
From the era of Malcolm X to the present, progressive forces have supported the Palestinian and Arab struggles against Zionism and imperialism.
Gus Griffin joins us to discuss Maryland's new legislation which allegedly reforms juvenile justice, but is in fact an expansion of the carceral state to include young children.
Shaka Shakur, a revolutionary New Afrikan political prisoner speaks to us from Virginia, where he is now being held.
