29 October 2020 — Black Agenda Report

The Billionaires’ Duopoly Wins on Tuesday 

Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Allegiance to the Democratic half of the duopoly – whether active or passive – is still allegiance to corporate rule, not a strategy for transformative change.

Freedom Rider: Campaign Confusion in the Age of Collapse 

Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
Biden always obliges Trump by denying that he will do anything that rank and file Democrats want and that would in fact increase his odds of winning.

COVID-19 Exposes Economic Misery as U.S. Capitalism’s “New Normal” 

Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Neoliberal capitalism is incapable of containing the pandemic or facilitating an economic recovery for the masses.

Bankrolling blu klux klans?  

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Rhythms of red, white, blue ‘party’ lights flashing beneath screaming sirens; The rush of warm crimson drawing 2, 4, 6, 8, 10—and then some.

Whatever Happened to Left Solidarity? 

Howie Hawkins
In hopes of getting rid of Trump, progressives have followed Trump to the right.

We’re All Living in a Future Created by Slavery 

Ameer Hasan Loggins
The carceral class is made up of persons of African descent who are systematically stigmatized as unfit for freedom and deserving of the dehumanization that comes with being incarcerated.

Black Bolivia and the Socialist Electoral Triumph 

Erica Caines
Indigenous and Afro-Bolivians spent every day resisting the coup to complete the socialist aspirations of their party.

Letters from Our Readers 

Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor
This week you discussed the role of racism in foreign policy, Black America and the duopoly, and global elites’ plans for exploiting the Covid crisis.

BAR Book Forum: Danielle Morgan’s “Laughing to Keep From Dying” 

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
There is nothing strange about Black folks laughing at the sheer immensity of ways we can die.

Health Justice and Black Liberation: Antoine Johnson 

Gwendolyn Wallace and Roberto Sirvent 
We have to consume things with Black liberation and environmental justice in mind.

Towards a “De-White Supremification of Amerikkka” 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford , Lydia McCaskill
Lydia McCaskill, a masters and doctoral student at North Carolina Central University and activist firebrand in her hometown of Gastonia, proposes a process of “de-white supremification” in the US, similar to “de-Nazification” of Germany after World War Two. “The purpose would be “to remove any, every and all things that represent or signify any type of white supremacy in Amerikka,” said McCaskill, who has launched a “Stop Injustice in North Carolina Initiative.”

Malcolm X was a Black Internationalist 

Especially in the latter years of his life, Malcolm X represented “a reemergence of Black radicalism” after the suppression of the McCarthy period, said Desmond Fonseca, a PhD candidate in history at UCLA.  Fonseca noted that Malcolm, incensed at US subversion of the newly independent Congo, declared: “You can’t understand Mississippi if you don’t understand what’s going on in the Congo.” Today, said Fonseca, Black Democrats, including the Congressional Black Caucus, have nothing to say about Africa.

The Rich Will Use Crisis to Further Immiserate Workers 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford , Anthony Monteiro
Over half the US workforce would be “made redundant” if the Wall Street and high-tech oligarchs are allowed to restructure the economy under cover of the Covid-19-induced crisis, said Duboisian scholar Anthony Monteiro. The rich want to bring about a “fourth industrial revolution” in which “unemployment or part-time employment and semi-employment will define what work means,” said Monteiro, an organizer with the Philadelphia Saturday Free School. Hi-tech corporations will “make trillions in profits as they dispense with labor.”

Black Agenda Report Presents: The Left Lens Episode 7: Presidential Election

SPECIAL PREVIEW of the 2020 Left Lens
Co-Hosts Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong discuss the significance of the 2020 presidential election. What will a Joe Biden presidency or a 2nd term for Trump mean for the oppressed? Find out here!

What the Political Realignment Suggest about the Prospects for Fascism 

Ashton Rome 
The Democratic Party has seemingly accomplished the impossible – a revival of centrism in the midst of its collapse.

Paul Robeson’s American Ballad 

Gregory N. Heires 
Brilliant and amazingly multitalented, Robeson was once among the most popular men in the U.S;, but became a non-person under relentless red-baiting.

Free Ruchell “Cinque” Magee! 

Kameron Hurt 
Ruchell Magee is the longest-held political prisoner in the United States and the world.

Haiti and a Long History of Assault 

Lautaro Rivara 
For fifteen years Latin American nations collaborated in the military occupation of Haiti, but have yet to apologize for their crimes.

Twitter Surveillance Startup Targets Communities of Color for Cops 

Sam Biddle
Insiders say Dataminr’s “algorithmic” Twitter search involves human staffers perpetuating confirmation biases, searching specific neighborhoods, streets, and even housing complexes for crime.

Capitalism Made Women Of Color More Vulnerable To The COVID Recession 

Tithi Bhattachary 
Black women and Latinas have performed the bulk of the essential work during lockdown and borne the brunt of the recession.