jBlack Agenda Radio for Week of March 26, 2018
Baraka on Leftists That Collaborate with Empire
âWe have not made a revolution in the U.S., but we have all these ârevolutionary theoristsâ that know exactly how to do that,â said Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka, sarcastically. He recently returned from a conference in Caracas in solidarity with Venezuela. Baraka called âcollaborationâ with U.S. aggressions against Venezuela and Syria âreally shameful on the part of people who call themselves leftists or radicals or whatever.â Any genuine left must oppose imperialism. âOur position, as citizens of empire, is to put a brake on empire.â
U.S. at Peace? Some Americans Think So
The U.S. Senate voted down, 55 to 44, a bill co-sponsored by Bernie Sanders that would have ended U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabia-led war against Yemen. However, veteran anti-war activist David Swanson saw the action as a sign of progress, given that the Senate has never conducted such a vote based on the War Powers Act. Swanson, publisher of the influential web site WarIsACrime.org and director of World Beyond War, has found that Americans âaround the country think that the U.S. is at peace, or think itâs engaged in a war somewhere, but canât remember the name of the country.
Outlaw Poverty, Says Activist
Nyle Fort, an activist with the Poor Peopleâs Campaign, was among the speakers at a New York City event designed to bring Black and immigrant communities together on issues of mass incarceration and deportation. Fort urged the crowd to âdream of a world where poverty is illegal.â The event, held at Manhattanâs Holy Rood Church, was titled âBreak Down Walls and Prison Plantations: Mumia, Migrants and Movements for Liberation.â
Theft is Part of U.S. DNA
You canât understand the present-day United States if you donât know its bloody history, said Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peopleâs History of the United States and her new book, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment. The nationâs roots in organized theft of labor and land explains âwhy we have a real estate broker as president, just like our first president, the land speculator George Washington.â
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:am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.
Hassan El-Tayyab, of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, discusses securing congressional support for a cease fire between Israel and Hamas.
Kareem Crayton is senior director for voting and representation at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Zulu Sharod is Chairman of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party which is based in New Jersey.
Ali Abunimah is Director of electronicantifada.net, an independent online news publication and educational resource focusing on Palestine.
In this week's segment we hear about the state of Black politics in Newark and across the country.
