16 July 2020 — Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report Presents: The Left Lens
Democrats Will Never Choose Transformative Change – So Give Them No Choice
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
An existential political crisis for the racial capitalist order will only happen when the left puts forward a viable political alternative.
Freedom Rider: Propaganda Won’t Get Rid of Trump
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
The biggest threat to Biden’s chances is the continuing suppression of black votes and the refusal of the Democrats to do anything about it..
The Great American Firewall: On the Question of Censorship
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
It should not surprise anyone that China would take protective measures against the threat of U.S. imperialism in the realm of cyber technology.
The Gates Foundation’s “Green Revolution” in Africa: Agribusiness Wins, Small Scale Farmers Lose
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Ann Garrison interviews Timothy Wise on why US-style corporate agriculture pushed by billionaire Bill Gates has been disastrous for Africa.
Hooey-hooey—Boss Tweet gotta GO!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Hooey-hooey—he gotta go—
Hooey-hooey—he gotta go!
AFRICOM and the Guise of Terrorism
Tunde Osazua
If AFRICOM’s mission is to fight terrorism, then why have terror attacks increased five-fold since the US began its military occupation of the continent?
Shelter in Race-Class Place
Paul Street
Black Americans are told to shelter in savagely unequal places where the necessities of life are scarce and Covid-19 is most lethal.
Letters from Our Readers
Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
This week you had the Democratic Party, Libertarianism, and Native American relations with African Americans on your minds.
BAR Book Forum: “Black Study and Abolition”
Jade Bentil
The books in focus explore the ways an anti-black world tries to interdict the possibilities of Black life, and how Black people resist and overcome such assaults.
BAR Book Forum: Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law’s “Prison By Any Other Name”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
Increased police technology, increased training and “community policing” tend to actually expand instead of decreasing policing.
Green Party is “Vital” to Growth of Grassroots Movement
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
The movement against police oppression “is long overdue, but it needs political organization in order to create lasting change,” said Margaret Kimberley, longtime Green Party activist and BAR editor and columnist. “The Green Party is vital” to expanding the popular struggle for healthcare, housing, education and peace. Ajamu Baraka, the 2016 Green Party vice-presidential candidate and a BAR editor and columnist, said “the Green Party has been driving progressive thought in the country for a number of years. Now we have an opportunity to provide the kinds of answers the people ar looking for.”
Movement for People’s Party Aims to Unseat Duopoly in 2024
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
“We have to do more than just create a new party,” said Nick Brana, national coordinator for the Movement for a Peoples Party (MPP). “The Democratic and Republican Parties are essentially committees of corporations,” but the MPP will be different. said Brana. “There needs to be no corporate money; we need to close the revolving door; and we need accountable elected leadership” of the new party, which intends to be on the presidential ballot in 2024.
Black Caucus Protects Cops, Not the People
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Most of the Congressional Black Caucus are “opportunists” who have “joined the neoliberals to derail any real attempt at challenging the devastating power of the police,” said Clarence Taylor, a professor emeritus of history a New York City’s Baruch College. Prof. Taylor is author of “Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City.” Brooklyn Black Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks are especially untrustworthy, said Taylor.
Barr’s New Task Force Is a Blatant Attempt to Target Racial Justice Protesters
Chip Gibbons
The attorney general’s theory rests on the premise that there is a set path by which one radicalizes into becoming violent.
Storming the Bastille: #BlackLivesMatter, “Allies” and the Fear of Black Revolt
Kathryn Bedecarré
Does the belatedness and ubiquity/banality of allyship echo an anxiety about the enormous restraint that African Americans have exercised?
How Black and Brown Workers Are Redefining Strikes in the Digital COVID Age
Mike Elk
White labor leaders are failing to understand non-traditional organizing that has developed from viral social media movements.
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Dump the Democrats
Riva Enteen
The Democrats are likely to put forward a Black woman prosecutor to legitimize the mass incarceration plague that Joe Biden helped inflict on Black America.
Ajamju Baraka on Race, Class and Protest in the United States
Look Left Staff
Black Alliance for Peace national organizer Ajamu Baraka urged vigilance against US “attempts to control the narrative” of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Truth + Justice = Green Party’s Trailblazing World Peace Platform
Lauren Smith
With ballot access in most states and a comprehensive new program for world peace, the Green’s national ticket is ready to battle the oligarchs’ duopoly.