Black Agenda Radio - 04.15.19

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Howie Hawkins, a possible Green Party presidential candidate, talks about one of his original ideas, the Green New Deal; the Black Is Back Coalition explores the possibilities of electoral politics under late stage, imperial capitalism; and, South Carolina activists pay respect to those killed in a prison disturbance.

It’s taken a while to count all the votes, but it appears that community control of the police has made a giant leap forward, in Chicago. Activists ran a full slate of candidates in support of CPAC, the proposed Civilian Police Accountability Commission. Frank Chapman is with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. He says community control of the police is now backed by a substantial bloc of new members of the Chicago city council.

The Green New Deal -- a plan to transform the way the nation uses energy while at the same time ensuring adequate incomes for all and addressing the historical wrongs against minorites – has won the support of supermajorities of Democrats, under the sponsorship of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly called “AOC.” But the Green New Deal originated in the Green Party, more than a decade ago. And a key player in formulating the original Green New Deal was Howie Hawkins, its former candidate for governor of New York. Hawkins is now exploring a bid for the presidency, under the Green Party banner. We asked Hawkins, what’s GOOD about the Democrat’s version of the Green New Deal?

The Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, held the third of its electoral politics schools in St. Petersburg, Florida, earlier this month. Black Is Back chairman Omali Yeshitela greeted the participants.

Nellie Bailey is with Harlem Fight-Back Against War at Home and Abroad. She told the Black Is Back Coalition electoral school that U.S. imperialism’s arsenal of war includes the weaponization of the U.S. dollar.

Ajamu Baraka is a former Green Party vice-presidential candidate and now lead organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace. Baraka was in Venezuela when it was plunged into darkness, last month, by a suspected U.S. cyber weapons attack. He says the Black and brown populations of that country support the socialist government

This weekend, anti-mass Black incarceration activists in South Carolina commemorated the deaths of at least seven inmates during disturbances at the Lee County state prison, a year ago. Efia Nwangaza is Director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina, and a key link between prison inmates and their supporters on the outside.