Black Agenda Radio - 03.08.21

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: Calls are mounting to abolish the cops on US college campuses. And, where does the US get the right to dictate who governs Haiti? We’ll speak with a longtime fighter for Haitian sovereignty.

But first – It’s been confirmed that the nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, has been infected with Covid-19. Abu Jamal is a senior citizen prisoner, having spent the last 39 years in the Pennsylvania prison gulag. Longtime Mumia supporter Dr. Johanna Fernandez held a press conference to demand that Abu Jamal and all elderly inmates and political prisoners be set free. Fernandez was joined by Mumia’s movement doctor, Ricardo Alvarez, and Rev. Kieth Collins, who has known Abu Jamal since they were both youngsters in Philadelphia. Dr. Fernandez said setting Mumia freeis good medicine, as well as justice.

That was Rev. Keith Collins, speaking from Philadelphia.

The modern Free Speech Movement began on California college campuses in the
Sixties, and soon led to demands that campuses be free of police. But instead, cops have become even more deeply entrenched and militarized at US colleges, just as in the larger society. Dylan Rodriquez is a professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside, and he has plenty of experience combating the cops. Dr. Rodriguez says both the university system and its campus police are undergoing a crisis of legitimacy.

That was Professor Dylan Rodriguez, speaking from the University of
California, at Riverside.

The Haitian people have made it plain that they want to be rid of Jovenel Moise, the incredibly corrupt president imposed on Haiti by the United States. Thousands of Haitians have been in the streets for weeks, demanding that Moise step down. But the regime refuses to budge, and has responded with gunfire that has left dozens dead. Dr. Jemima Pierre is an anthropologist in the Department of African American Studies at UCLA, and an activist with the Black Alliance for Peace. Pierre was interviewed by Dr. Jared Ball on his influential podcast, “I Mix What I Like.” She says Washington is the source of Haiti’s misery.