• Listen to this segment

The International Monetary Fund published an analysis of the global economic recession on Thursday saying that the downturn will be long and severe. The lending institution also stated that recovery would be sluggish as recessions based on a financial crisis are more difficult to emerge from. Ahead of releasing its World Economic Outlook report this week, the IMF …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

The Ludlow Massacre

Back in the day on April 20th, 1914 Colorado National Guardsmen machine-gunned a tent colony of striking coal miners. This episode of violence exactly ninety-five years ago came to be known as the “Ludlow Massacre.” Coal miners in the state had been on strike since September 1913 seeking to unionize the Colorado …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

This past week, President Obama, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and some economists in the media have expressed optimism about the state of the U.S. economy. Obama claimed to see “glimmers of hope,” while Bernanke cited statistics in home sales and constructions in February as reasons to be optimistic. The Wall Street Journal published a survey last …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

Young and upcoming film maker, Alex Rivera’s first feature length film, Sleep Dealer hits the theaters this weekend. Not your average science-fiction film, Sleep Dealer is set on the border between the US and Mexico at a time when workers sell their virtual cheap labor across borders without actually crossing them, poor people sell their memories …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

President Obama unveiled his plan yesterday to fund high-speed rail systems in 10 regions across the country, using $8 billion of the Economic Recovery funds. The Federal Railroad Administration will disseminate the funds as early as this summer, to projects in Chicago, Florida, the Pacific Northwest, and here in California. Last year, voters in this state passed …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report. This week’s commentary is on the antiwar movement and Obama.

Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information. …

• Listen to this segment

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

Back in the day on April 17th, 1961, the United States orchestrated the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by counterrevolutionary exiles seeking to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. A dramatic culmination of diplomatic strife between the two countries following the Cuban Revolution, the U.S. under the Kennedy administration preceded …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Thirteen people died yesterday in a violent shoot-out between Mexican soldiers and suspected drug traffickers in Guerrero, as reported by the newspaper Reforma. The traffickers were heavily armed and also threw grenades at the soldiers, who stumbled upon them as they were reportedly transporting narcotics down from the mountains. Drug-related border violence has claimed more than 6000 lives …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Tireless activist, author and champion for human rights, Blase Bonpane turns 80 this week! His friends and allies have a birthday celebration planned over the weekend to reflect on his life and political legacy. Blase Bonpane has worked for nearly 50 years as an advocate for peace in the realm of US foreign and domestic policy. He …

Read more

• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Yesterday was the deadline for Americans to file federal taxes, and some taxpayers used it as an opportunity to express their anger over off-shore tax havens that corporate America takes advantage of. Around the country and right here in Los Angeles, people gathered at post-offices to support a plan by President Obama to close off access to tax havens. New …

Read more