| Black Agenda Report

Dean Spade and Roberto Sirvent, BAR Contributors
BAR Abolition & Mutual Aid Spotlight: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
01 Apr 2020
The system is a disaster and the victims can best determine their own needs -- only the people save the people. “Mutual aid builds power from below, more effectively than any other means.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Brenna Greer’s “Represented”
01 Apr 2020
This book demonstrates the challenges of pursuing rights or recognition through capitalism and the market. “The more strategic route is to expose representational regimes that tie equality, civil rights, and humanity to normativity as constructed and lethal.”
Jojo Goldman
"I'm Detained at Rikers Island and I'm Sick With Coronavirus"
01 Apr 2020
“The corrections officers think it’s a joke, and I be telling them, ‘This is serious, man.’” “The Department of Corrections is not prepared to handle this crisis.”
Ed Morales
The Roots of Organizing: The Young Lords’ Revolution
01 Apr 2020
Historian Johanna Fernández makes the case for the Young Lords as profound thinkers as well as highly capable street activists. “The Lords synthesized ideology with practical political activity pretty much on the fly and constructed an urban version of liberation theology along the way.”
Global Information Network
South African Police Unleash Water Cannons and Rubber Bullets During Virus Lockdown
01 Apr 2020
The lockdown included bans on any sales of alcohol and cigarettes and even barred exercises outside the home. “Police were accused of tasering and beating a man to death after the man was caught going to buy beer.” Despite efforts by President Cyril Ramaphosa to enforce a pandemic lockdown at…
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
On Being Black, Southern And Rural In The Time Of COVID-19
01 Apr 2020
Elders and already sick folks are at risk down South, the Blackest region of the nation with the worst health care. “Black Southerners are once again in this nation’s peripheral vision—even as the global pandemic threatens to devastate our communities.”
Alan MacLeod
IMF Conditions Emergency COVID-19 Loan to Venezuela on Regime Change
01 Apr 2020
The IMF refused a COVID–19 emergency loan to Venezuela unless it agreed to overthrow President Maduro and installs the Washington-backed Juan Guaidó. “The country has nevertheless been showered with help from its allies, especially Cuba and China.”
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
“The American Disease”: Only the Overthrow of the Oligarchy Will Cure It
02 Apr 2020
Although the coronavirus provided the trigger for the current global shrinkage, the economic crisis was already looming when the pathogen made its physical appearance. “The Race to the Bottom cannot coexist with a living wage or a truly universal national health care system.”
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Freedom Rider: Standing with Venezuela and Iran
08 Apr 2020
The Trump administration wants a hot war with Iran or Venezuela, or both, and those of us claiming to be anti-war must be on our guard and ready for action. “The Democrats who say Trump must ask permission before killing people will in all likelihood give him the approval he seeks.”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Mengele Medicine: Death Panels of Boss Tweet and Pence
08 Apr 2020
STOP! No testing! No testing for the infection— big, big numbers could threaten the $election! STOP! No testing for us poor, us working-class— just fraudulent claims from a fat bag of gas! We say, “Healthcare for ALL,” they scream, “Expense!” practicing Mengele Medicine makes dollars— not sense—…