Black Agenda Radio - 04.06.20

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: The word “Strike!” is on the lips of activists in the United States and Europe, where capitalist austerity has shaped the government’s response to the coronavirus epidemic. We’ll talk with an American activist in Spain who’s an expert on rent strikes, and a student activist at the University of California who proposes a strike for the people’s social welfare.

Cooperation Jackson, the Black activist and workers cooperative organization headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, is circulating a call for a general strike and a list of demands that would reorganize the economy to protect working people. The strike would begin on May first -- May Day. We asked Cooperation Jackson spokesman Kali Akuno: How to you launch a general strike when much of the country is under a general lockdown?

Peter Gelderloos is an American anarchist activist, now living in Spain. He’s author of many books and articles, including a recent study of rent strikes throughout history. Gelderloos says strikes are the best response to the capitalist-controlled government’s behavior in the epidemic.

Graduate student teaching assistants at the University of California have been engaged in a series of protests over wages and working conditions. Semassa Boko is a Phd candidate at the university’s Irvine campus. He’s using his experience to help launch a strike in response to the epidemic and social crisis. Boko wrote an article on the concept of a social welfare strike.