1 February 2021 — Black Agenda Report

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
Billionaire Wealth Breaks All Records in Crisis / US Militarists Invent Enemies – and Russiagate — for Dollars / Abolish Police, from the US to Nigeria / Anti-Black Racism Is Environmental Hazard / The American Way of Fascism

Billionaire Wealth Breaks All Records in Crisis 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
The US billionaire class has grown at unprecedented speed during the pandemic and economic crises, increasing their wealth by over a trillion dollars and adding 46 new oligarchs to their numbers, according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies. Never has the world seen wealth accumulation at such a scale, said Omar Ocampo, a researcher for the study. “We need to create an economic system that does not allow for wealth tobe extremely concentrated,” said Ocampo. “ This could be done by “growing the labor movement” and instituting “workplace democracy and worker ownership.”

US Militarists Invent Enemies – and Russiagate — for Dollars 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
Russiagate is a fiction concocted by Democrats and intelligence agencies explain Hillary Clinton’s defeat and fuel a New Cold War, said Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst. “You can’t spend $740 billion a year if you don’t have a plausible enemy, like Russia and now China,” McGovern told Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal, of The Gray Zone. McGovern is active with Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Abolish Police, from the US to Nigeria 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
Crystal, a first-generation US citizen of Nigerian descent and activist with the Assata Collective, supports the abolition of police in both countries. “The call for abolition is very adamant from the Nigerian youth,’ who have launched a mass movement against police brutality and corruption, said Crystal, a college nursing graduate.

Anti-Black Racism Is Environmental Hazard 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
Environmental justice should be put at the cutting edge of the social justice movement, said Dr Ugo Edu, an African American Studies professor at UCLA, and a medical anthropologist who has done field work in Brazil. “If the police are stopping you arbitrarily, we should talk about that as creating an unsafe environment,” said Edu. “The kind of anxiety, the kind of vigilance that is necessary to ive in” such an environment “doesn’t bode well in terms of your health.”

The American Way of Fascism 

Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford 
In an essay for Prison Radio, Mumia Abu Jamal cited journalist Chris Hedges’ contention that “the Christian Right is always “ready to support repressive measures against all who do not embrace their movement.” American fascism has distinctly Christian characteristics, according to the nation’s best known political prisoner.