Black Agenda Radio for Week of April 23, 2018
Corporate Media “Could Care Less” About International Law
University of Illinois professor of international law Dr. Francis Boyle said the illegality of U.S. attacks against Syria and occupation of its territory is a non-issue for U.S. corporate media. “They couldn’t care less,” said Boyle. “They’re all bought and paid for by big business and interlocked with the arms industry. We have the best media that money can buy, just like we have the best Congress that money can pay for.”
Durham NC Bans Police Exchanges With Israel
A ten-group coalition won unanimous passage of a bill prohibiting the Durham police department from exchanges of training or information with Israel -- the first city in the U.S. to do so. “If you’re going to exchange information and be trained by Israel, that means you’re going to get trained in apartheid tactics,” said Ajamu Amir Dillahunt, of Black Youth Project 100, part of the Demilitarize Durham2Palestine Coalition.
South Carolina Wants to Silence Inmates at Troubled Prison
“Brothers are going to find a way to communicate with the outside, and they will no longer tolerate the kind of human rights abuses that previous generations experienced,” said longtime prisoner rights advocate Efia Nwangaza, director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina. The state’s governor blames cell phones for violence that left 7 inmates dead and at least 17 injured at the Lee County corrections facility -- the deadliest prison disturbance in a quarter century. Nwangaza said any effort to confiscate all cell phones behind the bars would result in “all out war.”
Homecoming for Two of the Bronx 120
Two years ago, New York City police and federal agents stormed into five housing developments in the Soundview section of The Bronx and swept up 120 young men on criminal conspiracy charges. Officials claimed it was the biggest “gang” raid in NYC history. This Friday, community organizers will welcome home two of those arrested. Kraig Lewis was doing graduate studies in college when the raid hit. “It felt like they were kidnapping us,” he told Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser.
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.
Mumia Abu Jamal on the passing of Black music great Aretha Franklin: “She returns to the celestial choir after 76 summers of earthly life.”
“Those hearings that are coming up on August 30th could lead to a new trial for Mumia,” said Orie Lumumba, of Family and Concerned Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal.
The underground radicals of the 1960s and 70s were prescient in their political analysis, according to Stephen Dillon, author of Fugitive Life: The Queer Politics of the Prison
Wall Street bankers brought their brand of racism to the US imperial project in the Caribbean and Latin America, said Peter James Hudson, author of Bankers of Empire: How Wall
“The whole imperialist system is in a state of severe crisis,” said Black Is Back Coalition chairman Omali Yeshitela, at the coalition’s annual conference, in St. Louis.
