Sojourner Truth Radio

Today on Sojourner Truth’s Weekly Broadcast we mark MLK Day which was celebrated on his national holiday on Monday January 20th. Long held political prisoner and Indigenous leader Leonard Peltier’s was released from prison after his sentence was commuted by Joe Biden. Our guest is Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network. Black historic figure Marcus Garvey was finally granted a pardon by Joe Biden. Also, we are joined by SoCal artist Michael Massenburg about the interrelationship between art and politics, including an update on a permanent memorial for the scores of Black women victims of serial murders in South LA.

On January 1, 1804, Haiti achieved a milestone that would forever change history, becoming the first free Black republic after a grueling war for independence that began in 1791. This pivotal moment declared not only Haiti’s liberation from colonial rule but also inspired enslaved people and independence movements across the Americas. Join us as we explore how Haiti's victory became a beacon of hope and resistance, challenging Western powers and igniting a revolutionary spirit that resonates to this day.

Today on Sojourner Truths Weekly Broadcast we spend the hour with professor and author Dr. Gerald Horne for a wide-ranging discussion on his reaction to the 2024 election results what can movements for change do now? What do Trumps picks for his administration indicate about his policies from immigration to Gaza to people of color in the US and more? Also focus Africa: President Bidens trip to Angola, whats that about? Whats going on in Chad, Niger, Mali and the wider implications. Some African countries are cutting ties with previous colonial powers, what are the wider implications

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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