Sojourner Truth Radio

Today on Sojourner Truth we discuss the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including: the assassination of Palestinian Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the largest disposition of Palestinians since 1999 with Phyllis Bennis director of the New Internationalism Project at The Institute for Policy Studies, focusing on U.S. Middle East and war policy. Phyllis also serves on the board of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Today on Sojourner Truth: Our Friday Roundtable is back with panelists: peace activist and school board member Jackie Goldberg, Mexico-based journalist Laura Carlsen and Professor Gerald Horne. Each of our panelists have chosen topics they will be discussing including: COVID-19 profiteering and the current state of infections, the recent bombings in Occupied Palestine and Israel's role, climate change, the January 6th attack on the capital and much more.

Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you a conversation with Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Black feminist theorist and theoretical physicist and Selma James, long-time feminist activist and Wages for Housework co-founder, to discuss, "Our Time is Now," an anthology by Selma James and the legacies of inter-generational feminism. Selma James is a women's rights and anti racist campaigner and author. From 1958 to 1962 she worked with C.L.R. James in the movement for West Indian federation and independence. In 1972 she co founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign, and in 2000 helped launch the Global Women's Strike whose strategy for change is Invest in Caring, Not Killing. She coined the word unwaged, which has since entered the English language. In the 1970s she was the first spokeswoman of the English Collective of Prostitutes. She is a founding member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. She co authored the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community, which l

Today on Sojourner Truth: We bring you updates on the Child Tax Credit in the U.S. with our guest Anna Aurilio, the Federal Campaign Director of Economic Security Project Action. We will also speak with Nell Myhand, Quad Chair of the California PPC and member of the Bay Area Poor Peoples Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Steering Committee who will share details about their forthcoming action and the latest on their work locally and nationally to amplify the voices of low/no wealth people and the demands for resources to meet basic needs for housing, education, healthcare, and a livable climate. Finally, we will hear about the upcoming webinar on Haiti and receive an update on the latest in Haiti with our guest Seth Donnelly, an educator, author and organizer with the Haiti Action Committee.

Today, as we culminate Earth Week, we are bringing you a special broadcast on the environment: Part 3 of Hoodwinked in the Hothouse: Would Build Back Better Burn Billions? This is the third panel of a series that builds on the momentum created by the most recent report on the impact of climate change on indigenous and frontline communities titled, HOODWINKED IN THE HOTHOUSE (THIRD EDITION): RESIST FALSE SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE. As part of President Biden’s infrastructure plan, federal and state governments are providing billions in so named “climate subsidies”, policy incentives and tax breaks to dangerous and dirty energy industries. These include: biomass and waste incinerators; nuclear power, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure for fossil-fuel facilities, frontline and environmental justice communities are facing increased pollution burdens and toxic threats. Today’s panel discussion highlights emergent threats of climate false solutions across U.S. federal and state policy l

Today on Sojourner Truth, as the month of April wraps up, we honor national poetry month with Boyle Heights-based poet Ron Baca, who will share some of his poems and discuss his connection with Homeboy Industries.

A recent rain bomb struck South Africa, killing and injuring thousands. We discuss this climate change catastrophe with ecologist and organizer Desmond D'Sa, for our weekly Earth Watch segment in partnership with the Global Justice Ecology Project.

Today on our weekly Earth Minute segment in partnership with the Global Justice Ecology Project, we will hear about the recent decision by the President Biden administration to resume oil and gas drilling on public lands, being condemned as a reckless failure of climate leadership.

Today on Sojourner Truth the French Presidential Election will take place this Sunday. In response, on Monday, several dozen undocumented migrants, known as sans-papiers, and their supporters took over unoccupied apartments in the 9th arrondissement section of Paris to demand rights for all, citing the right to adequate housing and the plight of the undocumented migrant as two issues that have been absent in the French Presidential campaign. Protestors from the collective Chapel du vous, are using one of the occupied apartments as an embassy for immigrants, calling on the example of Ukrainian refugees who in a matter of weeks, had access to a system to facilitate accommodation, documents and free access to transportation. Activist and expatriate Benoit Martin joins us from France to discuss these protests and the forthcoming French Presidential Election. A recent rain bomb struck South Africa, killing and injuring thousands. We discuss this climate change catastrophe with ecologist and organizer Desmond D'Sa

Three decades ago, in the summer of 1990, activists from Earth First! occupied the Fairview Timber sale site in the Shawnee Forest— which is located in Southern Illinois for 79 days — using their bodies to block the logging equipment and using legal strategies to challenge the harvesting of the lumber in court. This historic action has come to be known as the Shawnee Showdown. This relatively small group of activists were successful in stopping commercial logging in the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois for 17 years. But in 2013, the Forest Service won a motion to lift the injunction. Currently, thousands of acres at the Shawnee National Forest are scheduled for logging operations. Shawnee is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they allow logging on public lands, wood is then sold to logging companies at a price that is below market value. The fight to save the Shawnee Forest continues today, with the most recent attempt by organizers to transfer the Shawnee National Forest out of the U

Today on Sojourner Truth we begin our Earth week coverage with Hoodwinked in the Hothouse Part 2: Frontline Voices of Indigenous Resistance beyond Climate False Solutions. This panel features Indigenous organizers from frontline communities that are disproportionately impacted by false solutions to the climate crisis. From Anishnabeg communities in Canada fighting the contamination of water to Diné communities in Southwest Turtle Island, climate false solutions such as nuclear power, megadams, fracking, and many more continue to cause displacement, contamination of land, food, & water, and disaster in Indigenous communities worldwide. Todays speakers include :Kandi White representing the Indigenous Environmental Network Leona Morgan of Diné No Nukes and Lucien Wabanonik, Anishnabeg Tribe and Innu First Nations The panel will share stories from the frontlines about their efforts to stop the ongoing impacts of false climate solutions such as nuclear power and radioactive waste dumps, enhanced oil recovery fo

Today on Sojourner Truth, journalist Laura Carlsen, peace activist and school board member Jackie Goldberg and Dr. Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History & African-American Studies at the University of Houston, are back for this Friday's roundtable edition. Discussing the recent police killing of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya in Grand Rapids Michigan, the latest on the Presidential election in France and the looming danger of a possible win by the far right. Could this win escalate the war in Ukraine? Also, Haitian immigrants are not being given the same refugee and asylum treatment as Ukrainian refugees in the U.S. and throughout Europe, it is undeniable but what can be done?

Today on Sojourner Truth, April is national poetry month, and we are joined by Oklahoma-born/Seattle-based poet Jasmine Elizabeth Smith who will share some of her work. Jasmine Elizabeth’s poetic work is invested in the Diaspora of Black Americans in various historical contexts and eras. Jasmine received her MFA in Poetry from the University of California in Riverside. Jasmine Elizabeth Smith currently works as an associate guest editor for the Black Earth Institute’s: About Place Journal while teaching a variety of English and writing courses in south Seattle: Jasmine Elizabeth Smith's creative and professional endeavors include building the visibility of Black women in outdoor spaces, arts advocacy for historically marginalized communities, and using her creative work to speak to the lacunas within Black history to bring greater foresight to our present moment.

Today on Sojourner Truth we discuss the latest developments in the Ukraine Russia war with Dr. Gerald Horne. Dr. Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History & African-American Studies at the University of Houston, he has written more than 30 books. His most recently published book is “The Bittersweet Science: Racism, Racketeering and the Political Economy of Boxing.” He is also the author of “The Dawning of the Apocalypse:The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century,“ White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa, From Rhodes to Mandela,” “Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music, to name a few. Dr. Horne was granted the “Ida B. Wells and Cheik Anta Diop Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Leadership in Africana Studies.”

Today on Sojourner Truth, our weekly Earth Minute discusses the latest findings in a report on the impacts of climate change, and how a group of scientists are taking action.

Our weekly Earth Watch guest is Dr. Gary Wockner. Dr. Gary Wockner is a Global Environmental Activist, Scientist, Writer specializing in river and water protection and climate change. Noted by publications as a “Eco-Rockstar Impacting the Planet,” and a “River Hero”, Gary is author of numerous magazine articles and newspaper columns as well as the 2016 book, “River Warrior: Fighting to Protect the World’s Rivers”. Gary founded and directs three river protection organizations, the biggest of which, Save The Colorado, focuses on protecting the Colorado River. Dr. Wockner joins us today to share how the fight for clean water is unfolding and what we can do about it.

Today on Sojourner Truth, we discuss the latest developments on the Ukraine Russia war with Dr. Gerald Horne. Our weekly Earth Minute relays the latest findings in a report on the impacts of climate change. Our Earth Watch guest is Dr. Gary Wockner, arch defender of the Colorado River who will share how the fight for clean water is unfolding and what we can do about it. Finally, April is national poetry month, we conclude with Oklahoma- born/Seattle-based poet Jasmine Smith who will share some of her work.

Today on Sojourner Truth Today on Sojourner Truth Minneapolis prosecutors announce they will not charge the police officer who shot and killed 22 yr-old Amir Locke during a no-knock raid in February. We speak to Minneapolis-based activist and organizer with Reclaim the Block, D.A. Bullock on this decision.

Today on Sojourner Truth we speak to law professor and writer Alfred de Zayas on the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Prosecutors will not charge the police officer who shot and killed 22 yr-old Amir Locke during a no-knock raid in February. We will speak with Minneapolis-based activist D.A. Bullock on this decision. And this week's Earth Watch guest is founder and Executive Director of Dogwood Alliance, Danna Smith who will give us an update on forest protection in the U.S.

Today on Sojourner Truth, our weekly Earth Minute is an open letter to the Nature Conservancy.