The New Dark Age

'Socialism or Barbarism'

Black Agenda Report 14 September 2017

14 September 2017 — Black Agenda Report

Neil deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye on GMOs. It’s About Class Rule Not the Shiny Tool

Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
Science educators Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye think that trusting our genetic futures to the profiteering manipulators of corporate GMO technology is a good idea. After all, trusting our energy future to capitalist profiteers got us disastrous climate change. What could go wrong?

The Black Panthers Didn’t Fight Symbols

Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
Johnny Reb’s footprint on the landscape is tiny compared to the 5,000 state and federal prisons and jails that crater the nation. Statues and idols deserve to fall, but toppling symbols is neither the beginning nor the end of struggle.

Freedom Rider: Hurricanes and Capitalism

Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
Recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida reveal a great deal about the United States and how little it does for its people. Of course hurricane winds destroy material things and injure and kill humans. But natural disasters also destroy the myths of American democracy, exceptionalism and greatness…
The whole social, political and economic structure of the U.S. is a monument to racism. So if we’re looking for stuff to tear down, it’s a target rich environment.
Assaulted by Las Vegas police, Michael Bennett didn’t speak out for more than a week because he didn’t want to distract attention from the suffering in Houston, his hometown.”
The NFL has 32 masters calling the shots for the entire plantation.

Glen Ford interviewed at The Real News Network: School Segregation Makes A Comeback

The Real News Network
And you thought it was gone? In some places, Ford points out, it never left.

Black Agenda Radio for Week of September 11, 2017

Our weekly one hour radio show/podcast produced by Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
This week: David Swanson on how peace and environmental activists are finding common ground, Dr. Anthonly Monteiro on the increasing illegitimacy of the US empire at home and abroad, Diop Olugbula for the Black is Back Coalition on ensuring police accountability, and “swiping it forward” in the NYC subways.
Click the link above for the whole show, or any of the next four items for the individual segments.

Peace and Enviro Activists Seek Collaboration

Anti-war and environmental activists will hold a joint conference at American University, in Washington DC, September 22 and 23, to foster closer collaboration between the two movements. Historically, said veteran peace activist David Swanson, the big environmental groups “don’t think it’s strategic to get involved with offending funders and media outlets by taking on the ‘patriotic’ public warmongering machine.” The U.S. military is the world’s biggest polluter.

U.S. Rulers Seen As Illegitimate

American government, business and media institutions have lost legitimacy in the eyes of the people, said Duboisian scholar Dr. Anthony Monteiro. “This is a real opportunity for movement building, for coalition building,” said Montiero. “The growing contradiction between the majority of the American people and the elite is probably sharper than at any time in the last 70 years.”

Make the Cops Accountable

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations and its allies will present a resolution to the Philadelphia City Council, this week, demanding Black community control of the police. Coalition spokesman Diop Olugbala said the resolution proposes that a commission, “democratically elected on the block and neighborhood level,” would be empowered to “hire, fire, train and discipline police forces in our community.”

“Swiping It Forward” in the NYC Subways

The Coalition to End Broken Windows Policing has been descending into the New York City subway system, urging folks with unlimited fare cards to swipe entrance for young and poor riders, so they won’t be swept up by the cops for turnstile hopping. “We’re also highlighting the increase in homelessness because of increasing rents,” said activist Lauren Concepcion.

Palestinian Women in U.S. to Connect with Communities of Struggle 

Kristian Davis Bailey
Four months ago I sat in the apartment of a family of Palestinian refugees in Burj el Barajneh camp, just outside of Beirut. It was the final night of a trip to examine the potential for relationships and exchanges between Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Black people in the US.

How Women Were at the Helm of the Black Panther Party 

Manmeet Sahni
When one looks back at the revolutionary Black Panther Party, one envisions iconic Black leaders sporting black berets and leather coats, with their rifles tucked on their side, mobilizing crowds on campuses and streets across the United States.

Widening the Tent for a Multiracial Labor Movement

Barbara Ransby
I grew up in Detroit in the 1960s and ’70s, which is to say, I grew up in a union town. My father, Charlie Ransby, did backbreaking work most of his life and was a lifelong union member. He worked in a small plant that cleaned industrial gloves for the Big Three auto companies (GM, Ford and Chrysler). His life was hard, but he was clear it would have been a lot harder if he and his co-workers were not organized.

People are Radicalizing the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela

An interview with Christina Schiavoni
Amidst imperialist interference, the people in Venezuela are carrying on the task of reorganizing their society. The real-life picture of Venezuela is far different from the reports the mainstream media continuously circulates. The following interview with Christina Schiavoni, a researcher and food sovereignty activist, provides a different view of the life of the Venezuelan people…

Why I Will Boycott the NFL

by Don Santina
Yes, yes, I know, no one will notice if I don’t attend a National Football League game this season or watch one on television. And the sky won’t fall if I refuse to read about those games in my daily sports section, listen to sports talk radio or discuss the seasonal ups and downs of the 49ers and the Raiders with my cousin or my father-in-law…

Blacks, DACA, and Immigration

by Ken Morgan
Donald Trump recently rescinded DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA protects those minors that undocumented family members brought to America — and keeps them from being deported. The National Association of Social Workers suggests that DACA rescinding effects 800,000 persons. Working class black people need to support protests and resistance to this cruel act.

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