Black Agenda Radio Commentaries

By Glen Ford

What's Black Agenda Radio Commentaries about?

Black Agenda Radio is a production of Black Agenda Report, www.blackagendareport.com, the weekly journal of African American political thought and action. Each week Black Agenda

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Black Agenda Radio Commentaries episodes:

05.24.2019
The Battle For Ballot Access is a Century Old. It's Time to Break it Open
In 1916 a socialist ran for president of the United States. The US Post Office, stretching bck to the American Revolution, had always granted free or nearly free postage for newspapers and magazines, so socialist tracts and magazines had...
05.02.2019
Biden's Poll Balloon is Black Voters
Joe Biden announced his candidacy for president last week. You might imagine that in the age of Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren, with some of the leading Democrats talking up free college tuition, the abolition of student debt, Medicare...
04.18.2019
Is the Apartheid Colonial Settler State of Israel “Reparations” For Jews? ADOS Thinks So.
ADOS stands for American Descendants of Slaves, a group founded by Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore, supposedly advocates of reparations for the descendants of Africans enslaved in the US. Moore is a former LA County prosecutor, Carnell a former...
04.03.2019
Tulsi Gabbard is a Sheepdog; Greens' Howie Hawkins is 2020's ONly Real Peace Candidate
The Real Peace Candidate for 2020 Isn’t Tulsi Gabbard, It’s Howie Hawkins by Bruce A. Dixon Respectfully, my comrade and friend Danny Haiphong is wrong. Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is not a peace candidate. To extent that...
03.17.2019
ADOS Shrinks Reparationist Politics to Fit the Cramped Horizon of Tribalism
“ADOS followers throw away the internationalism of their forbears, embracing instead a sometimes polite, but always frank hostility toward immigrants of all nations on the grounds that they’re either economic competition for native-born blacks...” Why can’t y’all just decide to...
03.07.2019
Reparations Now? Maybe In Order to Get the Job Done It's Time To Call It Something Else
If we seriously want to accomplish the heasv y lifting of reparations for the descendants of Africans in the western hemisphere it miht be time to call it something else
02.28.2019
Facing 2020 and Bernie 2.0: What the Greens Must Do
Bernie has upped his game for 2020, forcing everybody else to do the same. The challenges are particularly steep for the Green Party, which must field a 2020 campaign aimed achieving national ballot access, and building a new kind of...
02.06.2019
HR 1 Cuts Green Party Funding, Sics Cops on Left Dissenters
HR 1 pretends to be a voting rights bill, a take the money out of politics bill, but those are merely bait. Its real legislative payload are a funding cutoff to third party presidential candidates, and an institutional requirement that...
01.25.2019
Some Early Lessons From the Los Angeles Teachers Strike
Los Angeles was not West Virginial or Oklahoma or Arizona. LA teachers followed the Chicago model, and spent many months organizing their membership, forging deep organic ties with school communities, and even advancing their vision of what they called the...
01.17.2019
House Democrats’ HR 1 – Faking the Funk on Voting Rights, Spreading Fear and Gunning For the Greens in 2020
HR 1 is a truckload of cynical promises which House Democrats have neither the ability nor the intent to keep, along with a couple deadly measures to institutionalize a new McCarthyism and prevent the Green Party from running an effective...
01.11.2019
Raising the Bar on a Green New Deal
Our place as Greens, as leftists generally then, is not to whine about how the Democrats stole our Green New Deal slogan and slapped it onto their half-assed efforts to appear responsive to the looming crises around us. What we...
01.03.2019
Michelle Obama's Memoir "Becoming" -- Lots of Stories, Few Lessons
If anybody else had written it, the first hundred pages of Michelle Obama’s book “Becoming” would stand as a brief, but warm and fuzzy memoir of growing up on the black south side of Chicago. But Michelle Obama is NOT...
11.15.2018
Count Every Voter, Count Every Vote
Trump and his followers are writing a brand new playbook, one suitable for delegitimizing future elections whose outcomes are inconvenient.
11.09.2018
Was This Really The Most Important Mid-Term Election of Our Lives? Maybe Not.
We hear "most important election of our lives" stuff every two years now, loudest of all from those whose careers depend on marshalling a big vote election day, and ignoring the people's will afterward in deference to their investor-contributors.
10.31.2018
How Stupid Do Stacey Abrams, Lucy McBath and Congressional Democratic candidates think we are?
Stacey Abrams thinks all she has to do is show up unapologetically black with dreads and ride the black girl magic to the governor's mansion this year and the white house soon after, without the bother of telling voters her...
10.18.2018
Why I'll Be At The Womens March on the Pentagon This Weekend
When Republicans are out and out warmongers the Democrats are utterly silent on war and peace, and peace parties banned from the ballot in many states, what should those who stand against empire be doing?
09.27.2018
Maynard Jackson Movie Muddles Black Politics, Mangles Black History
Sam Pollard's Maynard Jackson documentary currently on Netflix is lazy black history denuded of black politics in the service of black elites.
09.20.2018
How the Politics of Black Unity Shields Black Politicians From Accountability
Florida's Andrew Gillum and Georgia's Stacey Abrams are within striking distance of the governors' mansions in their respective states. The black political class is demanding unity behind them, without any means of holding anyone's feet to the fire. Have we...
09.13.2018
Two Thirds of "Progressive" Democratic Congressional Candidates Are Silent on Foreign Policy. Why? Don't They Trust Democratic Voters?
There are serious obstacles to a Democratic sweep of the House in November. But what will we get in the event it does happen? Most of the progressives are entirely silent on foreign policy. What does that mean? We’re told...
08.31.2018
The Manufactured McCain: Lifting Up A Bloodstained Lying Venal Servant of Capitalist Empire
John McCain was a bloodstained bribe taking, lying war criminal and politician who constructed a myth of himself as outsider and war hero. Lifting him up justifies and sanctifies the empire of capital. Soon they'll be naming parks and schools...
08.27.2018
Why the Bue Wave Missed St. Louis Missouri
Success has a thousand mothers, but not failure. Everybody has an explanation for why Ocasio-Cortez won in NYC. But nobody is offring reasons why Cori Bush failed in St. Louis. Here's why....
08.07.2018
US Fake World War 2 History Underlies Permanent Bipartisan Hostility Toward Russia
If you grew up in the US you were taught that Uncle Sam and the Brits defeated Nazi Germany in WW2. The fact is, the USSR took most of the casualties -- 27 million dead -- and did most of...
07.26.2018
Organizing 201: AOC's 120,000 calls a benchmark for organizing
Everybody claims to be an organizer nowadays. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez offered up some clarity when she explained on Daniel Denvir's The Dig podcast that her campaign was based upon shoe leather canvass and street heat to extract names and contact info,...
07.19.2018
As Trump Readies Concentration Camps, Where is the Green Party?
At this pivotal moment in the nation's history, an opposition political party ought to be hard at work delivering its message, building and expanding its base, communicating with activists and the public. The Green Party isn't doing any of these...
07.12.2018
Democrats Share the Blame For Trump's Supreme Court
Since the Warren court of the 1950s Republicans have declared their intent to pack US courts with rabid right wingers. In sixty-odd years Democrats have never put forth a strategy to stop them. In 2005 and 2006 John Kerry and...
07.01.2018
Sure We Can Elect The Occasional Democrat Progressive. Then What?
the Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez victory in NYC proves once again that we CAN elect progressives to public office from time to time. But what then? The left has no institutions with whi9ch to hold them accountable.
07.01.2018
On Magical Thinking VS Sober Analysis of the Ocasio-Cortez Victory in NY
Being the only sober guy at a victory party is isn't fun. After writing earlier this week that we can sometimes elect progressives but we can’t hold them accountable, friends and comrades are all over Facebook accusing...
03.08.2017
Democrats Fight Trump, the Man, But Not His Austerity and Militarism
“The Democrats cynically see the impending disaster as an opportunity to position themselves for the 2018 and 2020 elections.” At the end of last month, Donald Trump unveiled his military budget, obscenely inflated by $54 billion dollars -- a...
03.07.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 6, 2017
An Electoral School for Black Self-Determination The Black political class has “become servants of the Democratic Party and other institutions outside of our communities,” and must be replaced, said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition for Social...
03.01.2017
Time For A Movement For Free Tuition at HBCUs and Public Colleges
Instead of worrying about where Kellyanne Conway's feet are, or blasting Betsy DeVos's ignorance on HBCUs we should insist that black college presidents start or join a movement for free tuition at HBCUs and public colleges and universities. Millions of...
02.28.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 27, 2017
No Justice to be Found in Louisiana “Louisiana has the most broken public defender system of any state in the country,” said Kristen Clark, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which joined with the Southern Poverty...
02.11.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 13, 2017
Trump Pursues His Vision of a Whiter USA The ban on Muslims is a step towards regulating the ethnic mix of the population. Sanctuary Movement to Expand Its Resistance Rather than go on the defensive, activists seek to broaden resistance...
02.11.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 13, 2017
Trump Pursues His Vision of a Whiter USA The ban on Muslims is a step towards regulating the ethnic mix of the population. Sanctuary Movement to Expand Its Resistance Rather than go on the defensive, activists seek to broaden resistance...
02.07.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 6, 2017
Protests in Dixie Against Trump’s “White Supremacist Government” Hundreds gathered in Columbia, South Carolina, to protest President Trump’s ban on refugees and visitors from seven mostly Muslim countries. “We’ve got to put pressure on Republican legislators who support Trump, and...
02.01.2017
#ProgressiveHypocrite of the Month for February 2017: Former Clinton-era Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
#ProgressiveHypocrite of the Month for February 2017: Former Clinton-era Secretary of State Madeleine Albright A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon “Progressives” is the name Democrats call themselves when they need to...
02.01.2017
Democrats, Including Bernie Sanders, Won’t Fight for Medicare for All
“Because Obama had used the trick terminology ‘universal health care’ to describe his program, the public became confused and demoralized about the whole subject of government health care.” Democrats will tell you that the Republicans are the reason the U.S....
01.30.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 30, 2017
Obamacare is Doomed; It’s Time for Single Payer Instead of attempting to salvage the doomed and fatally flawed Affordable Healthcare Act, progressives should seize the time and push for single payer health care, said pediatrician and political activist Dr. Margaret...
01.25.2017
Flint’s 1000-Plus Days Without Safe Drinking Water
“Residents have been fooled ‘too many times’ and will never trust the water again.” Flint, Michigan, a city that used to be famous for producing cars but gained notoriety almost three years ago for its poisoned water supply, last week...
01.24.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 23, 2017
Irrationality Reigns: After All the Lies, Some Folks Still Believe the CIA Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party’s vice 2016 presidential candidate, said he is appalled at the spectacle of “progressives” and even self-styled radicals “parroting the Democratic line that the...
01.18.2017
Is It Time To Revoke John Lewis’s Lifetime Civil Rights Hero Pass?
Is It Time To Revoke John Lewis’s Lifetime Civil Rights Hero Pass? A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon Sheroes and heroes are people who take risks, who make great personal...
01.18.2017
An Ever-Smaller Circle of Billionaires Controls the Planet’s Wealth
“Billionaires must be made extinct, one way or the other.” The world is being strangled, smothered and starved to death by billionaires – 1,826 of them, by Forbes magazine’s count. The ever-deepening concentration of wealth that is both the...
01.17.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 16, 2017
The Democrats: Serving the One Percent, Blaming the Russians The Democrats are using the Russians as a scapegoat to avoid confronting “the rightwing Wall Street-captive party that they’ve become,” said activist and educator Paul Street, author of several books on...
01.11.2017
Obama’s Last Presidential Lies
“Obama spent his first term sabotaging every effort to create mandatory limits on emissions.” Barack Obama has spoken to the nation as president for the last time. Hallelujah! The man I dubbed the “more effective evil” now gets a chance...
01.10.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 9, 2017
Rally in DC for Black Self-Determination Self-determination is the “missing ingredient” in contemporary Black politics, said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. The Coalition will hold a rally on January 14...
01.03.2017
Obama’s Pardons Distract from the Horror of Mass Black Incarceration
“The system is deliberately racist, brutal, arbitrary and malevolent.” President Obama, a master of public relations, now has bragging rights for having granted clemency to a record number of federal prisoners – 1,176 of them, at last count, more...
01.02.2017
Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 2, 2017
Obama, Trump, Clinton, Bush – They All Serve the Same Masters When Donald Trump recently stated a willingness to escalate the arms race, it caused a great media stir. But President Obama set in motion a trillion dollar nuclear weapons...
12.26.2016
Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 26, 2016
Green Vs. Lesser-Evilism The Green Party must learn how to “differentiate ourselves from the Democrats.” Otherwise, said Dr. Margaret Flowers, the party’s recent candidate for U.S. Senate from Maryland, “If Trump runs again, it will be another ‘anybody-but Trump’ year,...
12.21.2016
Go to DC to Fight for Black Self-Determination – Not for Clinton and the CIA
“The Black servants of the Democratic Party have made a pact with that section of the U.S. ruling class that has rallied around Hillary Clinton.” If the U.S. ruling class and the spies and national security goons that serve them...
12.20.2016
Black Agenda Radio Week of December 19, 2016
Cop Unions Try to Gut Newark Review Board If police a union suit succeeds in denying subpoena power to Newark, New Jersey’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, the People’s Organization for Progress may have to relinquish its seat on the body,...
12.14.2016
Gabbard’s Law: To End War on Terror, Stop Arming Terrorists
“The United States has spent billions of dollars to arm, train and protect whole armies of jihadist terrorists in Syria.” Ever since the passage of the Patriot Act in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, it has been a crime...

What's Black Agenda Radio Commentaries about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Black Agenda Radio Commentaries episodes:

The Battle For Ballot Access is a Century Old. It's Time to Break it Open

Biden's Poll Balloon is Black Voters

Is the Apartheid Colonial Settler State of Israel “Reparations” For Jews? ADOS Thinks So.

Tulsi Gabbard is a Sheepdog; Greens' Howie Hawkins is 2020's ONly Real Peace Candidate

ADOS Shrinks Reparationist Politics to Fit the Cramped Horizon of Tribalism

Reparations Now? Maybe In Order to Get the Job Done It's Time To Call It Something Else

Facing 2020 and Bernie 2.0: What the Greens Must Do

HR 1 Cuts Green Party Funding, Sics Cops on Left Dissenters

Some Early Lessons From the Los Angeles Teachers Strike

House Democrats’ HR 1 – Faking the Funk on Voting Rights, Spreading Fear and Gunning For the Greens in 2020

Raising the Bar on a Green New Deal

Michelle Obama's Memoir "Becoming" -- Lots of Stories, Few Lessons

Count Every Voter, Count Every Vote

Was This Really The Most Important Mid-Term Election of Our Lives? Maybe Not.

How Stupid Do Stacey Abrams, Lucy McBath and Congressional Democratic candidates think we are?

Why I'll Be At The Womens March on the Pentagon This Weekend

Maynard Jackson Movie Muddles Black Politics, Mangles Black History

How the Politics of Black Unity Shields Black Politicians From Accountability

Two Thirds of "Progressive" Democratic Congressional Candidates Are Silent on Foreign Policy. Why? Don't They Trust Democratic Voters?

The Manufactured McCain: Lifting Up A Bloodstained Lying Venal Servant of Capitalist Empire

Why the Bue Wave Missed St. Louis Missouri

US Fake World War 2 History Underlies Permanent Bipartisan Hostility Toward Russia

Organizing 201: AOC's 120,000 calls a benchmark for organizing

As Trump Readies Concentration Camps, Where is the Green Party?

Democrats Share the Blame For Trump's Supreme Court

Sure We Can Elect The Occasional Democrat Progressive. Then What?

On Magical Thinking VS Sober Analysis of the Ocasio-Cortez Victory in NY

Democrats Fight Trump, the Man, But Not His Austerity and Militarism

Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 6, 2017

Time For A Movement For Free Tuition at HBCUs and Public Colleges

Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 27, 2017

Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 13, 2017

Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 13, 2017

Black Agenda Radio for Week of February 6, 2017

#ProgressiveHypocrite of the Month for February 2017: Former Clinton-era Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

Democrats, Including Bernie Sanders, Won’t Fight for Medicare for All

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 30, 2017

Flint’s 1000-Plus Days Without Safe Drinking Water

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 23, 2017

Is It Time To Revoke John Lewis’s Lifetime Civil Rights Hero Pass?

An Ever-Smaller Circle of Billionaires Controls the Planet’s Wealth

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 16, 2017

Obama’s Last Presidential Lies

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 9, 2017

Obama’s Pardons Distract from the Horror of Mass Black Incarceration

Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 2, 2017

Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 26, 2016

Go to DC to Fight for Black Self-Determination – Not for Clinton and the CIA

Black Agenda Radio Week of December 19, 2016

Gabbard’s Law: To End War on Terror, Stop Arming Terrorists