Sojourner Truth Radio

In an action alert issues by the Haiti Action Committee they state that nearly 220 years ago, on November 18th, 1804, Haitian revolutionaries under the command of the legendary General Dessalines fought against the French army sent to restore slavery. A courageous Haitian commander, Francois Capoix, exemplified bravery by charging a fortification in the face of massive cannon and gunfire. Napoleon’s army was finally defeated in this Battle of Vertieres, securing Haiti's independence. Haiti Action asks that people around the world mark this anniversary known as Flag Day to demand an end to US intervention and foreign occupation. They further state that twenty years after the US-backed coup against the democratically elected President Jean Bertrand-Aristide and the popular Fanmi Lavalas government, Haiti remains under US/ UN occupation. And that there is not a single elected official left in the country. Hunger in Haiti has reached a historic high, with 50% of the population now facing acute hunger. According to UNICEF data, by 2023, “nearly one in four children in Haiti also suffer from chronic malnutrition, known as stunting, which has long-lasting physical consequences.” The leadership of Fanmi Lavalas, the political party in Haiti based in the poor majority, has referred to this violence and suffering as a slow-motion genocide. Haitians who flee this are being subjected to ruthless deportations both from the US and from the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean nations. Refugees are being forced to return to the life-threatening conditions from which they fled. On November 18, 2024 activists and organizations in the Caribbean and their supporters hae issued a statement in solidarity with the people of Haiti.

On the ST Weekly Broadcast, a round table discussion/analysis on the election results, international implications, Trump nominees thus far; what they see as way forward for social change. Our panelists are Jackie Goldberg, Laura Carlsen, Bill Gallegos

The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., a key player in the Civil Rights and Labor Movements and a close advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., passed away last week at the age of 95. Lawson was a proponent of non-violent direct action as a means for social, political and economic change. His teachings were instrumental in the strategy and execution of non-violent Civil Rights-era protests in the American South. He also played crucial leadership and advisory roles in labor movements across the US, including the Memphis sanitation workers strike of 1968 and the Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles.

Today on our weekly broadcast a deep dive into Haiti, not only the situation now on the ground, how the people are resisting and continuing to fight for democracy, the role of the international community, but the history of the role of the so-named core group, and the latest on Haiti’s Transitional Government with Haitian human rights campaigner Pierre Labossiere. Also, we hear the voice of Congresswoman Maxine Waters as she weighed in over the years on the situation in Haiti, including an historic clip of her speaking at a Congressional Hearing on Haiti at the time of the US backed coup vs Haiti.

Has an all-out war broken out between Israel and Lebanon? If so, what are the impacts and wider implications? How is this extension of conflict in the region related to the ongoing genocide by Israeli forces in Gaza? And what is the latest from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank? Our guest is Middle East expert and author Phyllis Bennis. And there is an explosion of voter suppression efforts being put in place by the Republican Party mainly targeting must win battle ground states in this year’s presidential election. What’s going on? What are the attacks? How can voters be protected? Barbara Arnwine an attorney and decades long voting rights expert beaks it down for us.

Today on Sojourner Truth, a deep dive into the August 29th 1970 Chicano Moratorium, where tens of thousands of Chicanos and their supporters took to the streets in East Los Angeles to protest the war in Vietnam and the oppression of Chicano people. Similar marches took place in several other states, but the one in EastLos was by far the largest. Police attached peaceful marchers, many were injured, and 3 were left dead. We are also marking the anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain which is celebrated on September 16th. Our guest is Bill Gallegos, a veteran Chicano liberation activist and author.

Special Earthwatch episode. An update on the struggle to save the shawnee forest at the same time cut through the jobs versus nature debate our guests are John Wallace Karen Furley and Sam Sterns, All campaigners based in southern Illinois.

Today on the Sojourner Truth Weekly Broadcast: We get an update on the Presidential election, a look at the contrast between the candidates of the two major political parties; key moments at the Democratic National Convention; and analysis on the race. Our guest is Jackie Goldberg. And for our annual Labor Day Special we focus on the labor union activism as we mark the upcoming 45th anniversary of the LA/Long Beach/Harbor Coalition whose theme is “Fighting for the Future of Labor”. Our guest is the award-winning writer Alex O’Keefe who has written for the TV hit show “The Bear”. Alex is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

PDA conference Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and our country. We seek to build a party and government controlled by citizens, not corporate elites-with policies that serve the broad public interest, not just private interests. As a grassroots organization operating inside the Democratic Party, and outside in movements for peace and justice, PDA has played a key role in the rise of the progressive movement. Our inside/outside strategy is guided by the belief that a lasting majority will require a revitalized Democratic Party built on firm progressive principles. For many decades, the Democratic Party declined as its leadership listened more to the voices of corporations and the donor class than those of average Americans. PDA strives to rebuild the Democratic Party from the bottom up " from every congressional district to statewide party structures to the corridors of power in Washington, where we cooperate with the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In its short history, PDA has succeeded in shaking up the political status-quo with its stated opposition to the Iraq war and to excessive military budgets; advocacy for universal single-payer healthcare, racial and economic justice; fighting environmental racism and the climate emergency; support for voter rights and the Equal Rights Amendment; and, notably, being the first national organization to ask Bernie Sanders to run for President as a Democrat, launching the Run Bernie Run campaign in early 2014.

Bernice Johnson Reagon, a civil rights activist who co-founded The Freedom Singers and later started the African American vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, died Tuesday at the age of 81. Her daughter, the acclaimed musician Toshi Reagon, shared the news of her mother's passing Wednesday night in a public Facebook post. It is impossible to separate liberation struggles from song. And in the 1960s — at marches, and in jailhouses — the voice leading those songs was often Bernice Johnson Reagon. Her work as a scholar and activist continued throughout her life, in universities and concert halls, at protests and in houses of worship. The future songleader was born in southwest Georgia, the daughter of a Baptist minister. She was admitted to a historically Black public college, Albany State, at the age of 16 and studied music. Albany, Ga., would become an important center of the civil rights movement when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested there in 1962, causing the media to descend on the town.

The left-wing alliance in France won the most seats in parliament in a dramatic election, dealing a surprise blow to the far-right party of Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile the push for electoral reform in the UK has received a shot in the arm after the “most disproportionate election in history”, according to campaigners and academics. Longstanding reform campaigners have become uneasy bedfellows with Reform UK’s Nigel Farage in recent days after Labour secured a 174-seat majority with just 34% of the popular vote. “This election has thrown the spotlight on to the electoral system as the result was the most disproportional on record,” said Darren Hughes, the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society. “We have already had a growing chorus of calls for PR [proportional representation] in the aftermath.” Farage said the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system was “unfair” after Reform took 14.3% of the popular vote – making it the third biggest party by vote share – but won only five seats. The Green party received 6.8% of the vote for its four seats. Tune in every Tuesday at 7AM on KPFK.org

Slavery still exists in California and several other states across the US, its not what we generally think of when we hear the word slavery, as in chattel slavery, but slavery inside prisons. What we are taught in history books is that slavery was abolished with the 13th amendment in the US which was ratified on December 6th, 1865. However, this did not apply to prisoners. Today on “Sojourner Truth”, we focus on the movement to finally abolish what is known as involuntary slavery in prisons in CA and other states. Our guests are Dorsey Nunn a founder of California Prisoners with Children and Stanley Thermidor with A New Way of Life.

The Rev. James M. Lawson, a United Methodist minister who became a principal tactician of nonviolent protest during the civil rights movement, leading sit-ins, marches and Freedom Rides that withstood attacks by mobs and police throughout the 1960s, died June 9. He was 95. He died of cardiac arrest en route to a Los Angeles hospital, said his son J. Morris Lawson III. As a young Methodist missionary, Rev. Lawson traveled to India, where he studied the principles of civil disobedience practiced by the anti-colonialist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi in his campaign against repressive British rule.

Malcolm X (born May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S."died February 21, 1965, New York, New York) was an African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who articulated concepts of race pride and Black nationalism in the early 1960s.

Today on ST we mark the Nakba which according to the UN means “catastrophe”. This year will mark 76 years since the 1948 forced removal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to establish the state of Israel. Even according to UN reports prior to the Nakba Palestine was a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society. In December of 1948 the UN General Assembly passed resolution 194 which called for the Palestinian right to return, for property restitution and compensation, this has not happened 76 years later. Indeed it was an act of the UN that caused the partition that displaced Palestinians from their land in the first place. According to the UNRW the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees mor than 5 million Palestinian refugees are throughout the Middle East. We are now 7 months into the genocide where more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed including 14,000 children. 8 thousand are reported missing. This followed the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct 7th where 1,200 Israeli’s were killed. Palestinian fighters have resisted the occupation of Palestine going back to the 1930’s, even before the Nakba, when the operation to remove Palestinians from their land had begun. Meanwhile according to the Washington Post, Israel receives more military and aid of any type than any other country in the world since WWII. The Post reports that since between 1946 and 2023 the US has provided 287 billion. For the past 7 months protests have been building in countries around the world, SA took Israel to the ICC, and most recently occupations have sprung up on university and college campuses across the US and across the world. Let us go to a clip about the impact of children of the genocide. Our guests are Zeiad Abbas Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance and Um Lana a Palestinian refugee living in Shatea Refugee camp in Gaza.

Today on Sojourner Truth, we continue our coverage on Haiti, bringing you the latest news on Haiti, from voices rarely heard in US media including Pacha Vobre who is on the Executive Committee of Fanmi Lavalas the political party of Haiti’s Jean Bertrand Aristide. He spoke from the ground in Haiti in April 2424 as part of an event organized by the Haiti Action Committee. Also we hear a presentation of an event entitled “From Haiti to Palestine’ which was held in March of 2024, you will hear the presentation given there by Robert Roth, a longtime human rights campaigner in particular for the grassroots movement for democracy in Haiti, Robert is with Haiti Action Committee. And in an exclusive, we hear an interview with the Barbados Ambassador to CARICOM, an economic and political union of 15 Caribbean states. Ambassador Commissiong was recently interviewed on Good Morning Barbados about Haiti, including the transitional government that CARICOM played a key role in negotiating.

Haiti crisis update: with guest Jeff Sprague, Pierre LaBossiere by Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod

Today on ST an update on Haiti. Well-armed death squads in Haiti, are continuing their campaign of terror against impoverished Haitians. Meanwhile some of the left in the US are confused and are promoting some of the key death squad leaders Guy Phillipe and Jimmy Cherizier (known as Barbque) as revolutionary leaders. And the agreement brokered by CARICOM, the Caribbean heads of state, to establish a Transitional Council after which the much hated Ariel Henry would step down, has yet been finalized. Another name we hear reported on the media is Moise Jean Charles whose political party Petit Dessaline formed an alliance with Guy Phillipe and Barbecue. Jean Charles is said to have ambitions to be President of Haiti. Moise Jean Charles first agreed to be part of the Transitional Council, then changed his mind and said he would not be on the council. He has yet again changed has now said yes his that party would be part of the Council. This has created confusion and further division. Our guest are journalist and Haiti expert Kevin Pina and Haitian human rights campaigner and co-founder of Haiti Action Committee Pierre Labossiere.

Welcome to ST as the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and increasing attacks on Palestinians on the West Bank, an on-line event was held on March 10th 2024. The program uplifted the stories and voices of women living in Palestine, they participated in an event that marked IWD entitled “we stand with Palestinian women, children, and their families against the Israel/US genocide including bombing and starvation”. The program also included the voice of a Palestinian American woman on the impact of the on-going genocide in Gaza on Palestinian children and families living in the US. The event was called by the Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color/GWS. We were joined by a wide-ranging planning group that brought women and men across movements standing in solidarity with and offering practical support via the Middle East Children’s Alliance to women, children and their families in Palestine. We worked directly with the Middle East Children’s Alliance in organizing the event. In addition to the planning group sponsoring organizations included: Alexandria House; Rev. Annie Chambers; Black Alliance for Just Immigration; Black Lives Matter/LA; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network; Haiti Action Committee; Indigenous Environmental Network; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Katea Stitt Program Director of Pacifica Radio’s WPFW, La Resistencia, Long Beach Area Peace Network; Los Angeles Baby Cooperative; Military Families Speak Out; Movement for Family Power; Orange County Peace Coalition; Payday men's network; Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW!; Pete White, Founder of LA CAN; Robin D. G. Kelley; San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice; Social Welfare Action Alliance; Social Workers Ending Poverty Together; US PROStitutes Collective; Veterans for Peace Chapter 110; Veterans for Peace LA; We Stand Up for All; Welfare Warriors; Women's March Foundation Los AngelesThe voices of Palestinian women are rarely heard, so we are glad to bring you their voices on today’s program.

Today on Sojourner Truth: A member of the military has died after setting himself on fire outside the White House in protest of the genocide in Gaza. The US rejected yet another cease fire proposal at the UN and instead has offered a watered-down version of a temporary pause for humanitarian aid. And despite an outcry from governments around the world with the notable exception of the US and UK, the Israeli PM Netanyahu has pledged to move forward with his threat to step up attacks on Rafah which is where thousands of Palestinians had fled following Israel’s call for Palestinians to flee the North of Gaza. South Africa is continuing to push for Israel to be charged with genocide. And in the US Congress is set to send 14.1 billion more to Israel including support for US military operations in the region. As protests against the genocide continue unabated in countries around the world, today we focus on what you the ST listener can do. We are raising funds for both your local Pacifica station as well as for the Middle East Children’s Alliance/MECA who are concretely addressing the humanitarian crisis as best they could with volunteers on the ground in Gaza. Our guest is Zeiad Abbas, executive director of MECA.