Black Agenda Radio - 12.09.19

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: The corporate media claims that Medicare for All is a far left issue, but how could that be, when polls show that supermajorities of Americans are in favor of single payer? Supporters of political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal believe the legal barriers to his freedom are falling; and, a Jamaican-born scholar says Rastafarians are in the forward ranks of the global movement for Black liberation.

Another meeting between President Trump and other heads of state of NATO countries has ended in discord and confusion. However, Ajamu Baraka, of the Black Alliance for Peace, says the disarray in the North Atlantic Treat Organization is not necessarily a bad thing.

Polls show that Medicare For All continues to garner support from huge majorities of Democrats, and even about half of Republicans. The future of health care in the United States is also a multi-trillion dollar economic issue. We asked Kevin Zeese, of Popular Resistance, if the corporations that profit from privatized health care are panicking at the growing popularity of Medicare for All.

 Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal rallied in a number of cities last week, as part of a push to finally free the nation’s best known political prisoner. Linn Washington is a legal scholar who has closely followed Abu Jamal’s case. He took part in a teach-in in New York City

For most Americans, Rastafarians are associated with music and marijuana. But Dave Dunkley, a professor of Black Studies at the University of Missouri, says Rastas played a key role in the emergence of a global Black liberation movement. Dr. Dunkley has authored a number of books on the subject, and wrote a recent article about the man who is credited with founding the Rastafarian movement, Leonard Percival Howell.