a speech by Amiri Baraka, recorded earlier this month in Newark
Give Obama a break, some of his supporters argue. He's got to get elected first. Till them he can't be seen acknowledging the needs of Black America for job creation on a vast scale, for an end to foreclosures, the repeal of No Child Left Behind, the equitable rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, and lowering of the prison population and cutting military budget to free up money for these and other human needs.
Poet, playwright and longtime activist Amiri Baraka has a different take on the Obama candidacy, and the responsibility of the politically conscious.
In this speech he cautions those who imagine Obama will make a difference without a strong left movement pressuring and pushing him further and faster than he and his corporate backers really want to go.
"Even if there's gonna be a black president," said Baraka in Newark early this month, "if we don't do nothin' he won't do nothin'... the less we do, the less we can expect Obama to respond to us..."
Baraka took to task those who criticize Obama without actually organizing anything on the ground in their communities.
"The question," he said, "is what will you do, where will you go with the one opening that they leave you which they claim is democracy."
This is a 36 minute audio recording. Click the flash player below to hear the streaming audio. If you prefer to download the MP3 file instead, click the mic icon at right.
THIS AUDIO IS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE
Regrettably we cannot publish the full credits for this audio piece at the moment because the server at www.radio4all.net is down or busy at BAR publication time. When the server is up again we will do so. Our thanks, meanwhile to the great people at
www.radio4all.net for making it and much else available.
After you contribute to BAR, you should drop a little on them too.
The U.S. is committed to invading Haiti but needs Black “leaders” to give them cover.
The enemies of affirmative action programs are not just slick conservatives and vulgar racists, but also greasy liberals, argues Gerald Horne. And their efforts to dismantle such programs began as…
Haitians protest oligarchic rule, UN occupation, and foreign military "intervention."
All of Haiti's ills stem from interventions, invasions and interference in its affairs. The new call for a US/UN/CARICOM invasion is part of a long running plan to undermine the sovereignty of the…
This week’s featured scholar is Ampson Hagan. Hagan is Dean's Research Associate Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University. His article is “Coloniality of…
