Sunday 6/1/14 Show: Black Workers take the Lead

Photo: League of Revolutionary Black Workers.

The next show will air on Sunday, June 1, 2014 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. During this membership/fund drive special, Suga’ In My Bowl will feature a February 2014 panel discussion at The Brecht Forum that explored the embrace of Marxism by large sections of the Black Movement in the United States during the early 1970s. As a period of rapid social change in which the benefits gained during the Civil Rights Movement were beginning to be felt and Black mayors were being elected all over the country, Black workers also began to take increasingly militant action at the point of production in a variety of industries.

Activists responded to all these factors in numerous ways, one of which was a turn toward Marxism. Exploring this turn, panelists will speak to how they came to embrace Marxism, what influenced them to do so, the increasing sectarianism that followed, and speak to the legacy of the Marxist turn on movement forces today.

Participants include Komozi Woodard (Professor of History, Public Policy & Africana Studies at Sarah Lawrence College), Cleo Silvers (former member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and NYC based community organizer), Sam Anderson (activist-teacher-writer), Joan Gibbs (former member of and co-chair of the Brecht Board) and Yusuf Nuruddin (Lecturer of Africana Studies, College of Liberal Arts at University of Massachusetts Boston), moderator.

Broadcast show produced, engineered, edited, and hosted by Joyce Jones. Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.

If you missed it, there’s still time to pledge for our Amiri Baraka Presente 4-CD package with an April 2014 presentation hosted by The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church and a conversation between Amiri Baraka, Joyce Jones, Hank Williams, and Kazembe Balagun. You can also just donate to WBAI (starting at only $5) and it will help the station a lot and help keep us on the air. But be sure to join us for what’s sure to be a great show!