3 July 2019 — Black Agenda Report

Bruce Dixon, In His Own Words 

Memorial services for Black Agenda Report managing editor Bruce Dixon
will be held Saturday, July 6, 5:30pm to 7:30pm, at Hanley Shelton
Funeral Home, 473 Lawrence St. NE, Marietta, Georgia, 30060
(770.426.6333).

Freedom Rider: U.S. Prisons are Concentration Camps 

Margaret Kimberley, BAR editor and senior columnist
There were already thousands of concentration camps in the United States
before Donald Trump began his reign of terror over asylum seekers. They
are called prisons.

U.S. Militarism and the One-Sided Class War 

Ajamu Baraka , BAR editor and columnist While the Democratic presidential candidates rehearsed their anti-Trump lines for the debates, most of the Democrats in the Senate voted for
Trump’s record-breaking war spending bill.

Anti-imperialism is the Only Antidote for Austerity 

Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
While the Democratic presidential candidates rehearsed their anti-Trump
lines for the debates, most of the Democrats in the Senate voted for
Trump’s record-breaking war spending bill.

WikiLeaks, the Global Fourth Estate: History Is Happening 

Ann Garrison, BAR contributor
WikiLeaks made it possible for whistleblowers to expose government and corporate criminals anonymously.

For Brother Bruce 

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Here’s the FOIA requested, Redacted part of the story they never tell You.

Black Agenda Radio for Week of July 1, 2019 

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford 
Margaret Kimberley, Jeff Bryant, Howie Hawkins, Mumia Abu Jamal, Bobbie Bottoms Brown

The Democratic Party’s Fatal Contradiction 

Glen Ford, BAR executive editor
The Democrats have packaged their 2020 presidential primary like a
blockbuster Broadway theatrical production, with a huge cast of
performers

Letters from Our Readers  

by Jahan Choudhry, Comments Editor
This week Venezuela, Zionism in the Congressional Black Caucus, and Gandhi and the anti-colonial movement are discussed.

BAR Book Forum: Dana-Ain Davis’s “Reproductive Injustice” 

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
A world of reproductive justice must so be rooted in respect, care and a
willingness to challenge all of the practices and beliefs that place
people in hierarchical relations.

BAR Book Forum: Asad Haider’s “Mistaken Identity” 

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
We face a two-pronged menace: Trump, and the Democrats that failed to prevent his rise and won’t fight his policies.

The Dem’s Pale Version of Green New Deal 

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Howie Hawkins, candidate for the Green Party’s presidential nomination and the original architect of the Green New Deal, later adopted by the Greens, said leftish Democrats are putting forward a “diluted” version of his brainchild. The watered-down Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez measure is a non-binding resolution, but Hawkins notes that House Speaker Pelosi “won’t bring it to the floor for a vote.”

Starving Black Schools and Scapegoating Communities 

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Although many urban school districts are returning to local control following state takeovers, these Black and brown schools remain underfunded, said Jeff Bryant, senior correspondent for Our Schools. “The school districts that need the most money because of poverty issues, the density of special needs students – many of these districts actually get the least money from the state” and will wind up in the same shape as before states seized control.

Corporate Media Monger for War 

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
The corporate media seemed disappointed that President Trump “pulled back” from attacking Iran after that nation shot down a US spy drone. Said BAR senior columnist Margaret Kimberley: “For all of their alleged opposition to Trump, we can see that they are all still very much on board with the imperial project and with the belief that the United States has the right to intervene anywhere in the world, at any time.”

Jalil Muntaqim’s Family Awaits Him 

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Billie Bottoms Brown, the 85 year-old mother of Black Panther political prisoner Anthony Bottoms, also known as Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, hopes to take her son on a sea cruise if he is granted parole in September, his eleventh appearance before the board. Muntaqim has spend 48 years in prison in the death of two New York City cops. His co-defendant, Herman Bell, was released last year over the objections of the governor and the mayor. Billie Bottoms Brown says she’ll try to help Muntaqim “relax, unwind and try to reacclimatehimself to outside of those walls.”

America’s Triple Addiction: Lies, Race and War 

Kweli Nzito
A nation that claims to be a force for good should not need 800 military bases around the world to corroborate that claim.

Eddie Africa is Free 

Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
MOVE activist Eddie Africa was released from a Pennsylvania prison after four decades of incarceration in the death of a Philadelphia policeman. The officer likely died from police gunfire in the 1971 confrontation. Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, said Africa was subjected to “a kind of cruelty that most prisoners have never seen nor imagined,” including beatings and an attempt to castrate him.

Why Public Schools’ Best Days Could Be Ahead of Us 

Jeff Bryant
Many school districts that were seized by the states are returning to local control, but without adequate funding.

Facebook May Pose a Greater Danger Than Wall Street 

Ellen Brown
Facebook reportedly has high hopes that Libra will become the foundation
for a new financial system free of control by Wall Street power brokers
and central banks.

The Capitalist Coup Called Neoliberalism: How and Why It Went Down 

Colin Jenkins
Those who orchestrated the coup (the top 1%) claimed about a quarter of
all wealth during the 1980s, and now own over 40% of all wealth in the
country.