Sojourner Truth Radio

Today on Sojourner Truth, we discuss the very real possibility of incorporating genetically engineered American Chestnut trees into wild forests, and the corporate and special interests pushing this forward as a false solution to address forest conservation with our guest, Executive Director of the Global Justice Ecology Project, Anne Peterman. We will also feature our Global Justice Ecology Project Earth Minute segment. We conclude the program with our guest, journalist Tina Gerhardt who covered the recent Cop 27 UN conference for The Nation magazine. We will discuss the public comment by the Tuvalu representative in response to the loss and damage funds agreement and its impact on countries in the global south.

Today on Sojourner Truth with guest host Nana Gyamfi, Professor Christopher Gaffney joins us at the top of the hour to talk about the injustices masked behind the mega sports event being hosted by Qatar, the World Cup. From unsafe working conditions to displacement, what is the environmental and economic impact that mainstream media is obscuring? Dr. Amara Enyia joins us in the second half of the program to discuss the forthcoming UN Permanent Forum on Peoples of African Descent and her role spearheading the permanence of this forum to help continue the legacy of efforts by the Global Black Diaspora to address global anti-Black racism and its vestiges to the world body. Finally we conclude with the recent announcement by a federal district Court in Washington DC that ordered the Biden administration to end its use of Title 42, an archaic health policy weaponized by President Trump, to prevent asylum-seekers from entering the United States. Over a million migrants have been expelled at the border witho

Today on Sojourner Truth civil rights icon attorney Barbara Arnwine joins Margaret Prescod at the top of the hour to share the work she and along with a coalition of organizers and organizations continue to do on the ground to ensure voters in Georgia are able to cast their vote despite the hurdles that have been put in place to deter voters, in attempts by the GOP to suppress the Black vote during one of the most contentious races in the nation. And Sara Hussein, a PhD graduate student worker in the history department at UCLA joins us for the second half of the program to discuss the nation's largest strike of higher education workers in the University of California system.

Today on Sojourner Truth we discuss the UN Climate Summit held in Egypt, or Cop 27, that culminated Sunday November 20th after two weeks of arduous negotiations. This victory is a direct result of mounting pressure from global civil society organizations present in Sharm el-Sheikh and in cities and capitals around the world, combined with strong leadership, 30 years in the making. A breakthrough deal is the establishment of a loss and damages fund to help poorest countries most impacted by climate change. Rich countries are agreeing to contribute to this fund but what will this actually look like? It will likely still be several years before the fund exists. Major lingering questions include: who would oversee the fund, how the money would be dispersed – and to whom. Many countries said they felt pressured to give up on tougher commitments for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order for the landmark deal on the loss and damage fund to go through. And the richest countries largely contribu

Today on Sojourner Truth our Friday Panel guests: historian Dr. Gerald Horne, journalist Laura Carlsen and LAUSD school board member Jackie Goldberg join us for the hour to discuss the G20 conference that just wrapped up and the role of the participating countries in the world contrasted with the Cop 27 conference on climate change where the wealthiest countries in the world made no real resolutions to address the climate crisis. We also discuss the midterm election winners and the impact these bicameral victories could have on the future of the House and Senate.

Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you our weekly Earth Minute in partnership with the Global Justice Ecology Project: You'll hear from Nnimmo Bassey, an award winning, storied environmentalist and Global Justice Ecology Project Board Member on his take on the United Nations Cop 27 conference.

Today on Sojourner Truth we speak to Earth Watch guest Dr. Shannon Gibson, Associate Professor at USC, whose research and courses cover global environmental politics, global public health, social movements, social justice and community-based research. Her students are presently accessing Cop 27 conference workshops and content remotely through the Wrigley Institute. We discuss the sentiment her college age students face by engaging with a conference like Cop 27, where with the exception of protesters from around the globe, most international diplomats and participants negotiating do not represent their age range or urgency to take action to mitigate global warming, and what Dr. Gibson is doing to prepare these future leaders facing this climate crisis. This interview is part of the Earth Watch weekly segment on Sojourner Truth in partnership with the Global Justice Ecology Project.

Today on Sojourner Truth we continue our coverage of the Cop 27 conference with our guest Dr. Shannon Gibson, Associate Professor at USC, whose research and courses cover global environmental politics, global public health, social movements, social justice and community-based research. Her students are accessing Cop 27 conference workshops and content remotely through the Wrigley Institute. We discuss the sentiment her college age students face by engaging with a conference like Cop 27, where with the exception of activists from around the globe, most international diplomats and participants negotiating do not represent their age range or urgency to take action to mitigate global warming, and what Dr. Gibson is doing to prepare these future leaders facing this climate crisis. We conclude with journalist and The Nation correspondent Tina Gerhardt who is covering Cop 27 and her take on what to expect in the last leg of Cop 27.

Today on Sojourner Truth, Nana Gyamfi guest hosts. Nana is an attorney & Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). Our first guest is co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, Cliff Albright who kicks off the show discussing some of the most contentious races in Georgia during the midterm, voter suppression and the conservative wave of votes cast by white women in Georgia. WNBA basketball superstar Britney Griner has been sentenced to a 9.5 year sentence in Russia for allegedly carrying cannabis cartridges in her luggage. Britney Griner is a recent example of a Black American being criminalized for a nonviolent crime, and while her case gained international awareness due to her celebrity as a pro star athlete, this is the reality for many Black Americans and immigrants criminalized for marijuana offenses impacting their daily experience, we contextualize the history of criminalization of cannabis in the U.S. and its continued iterations with executive director of the National Immigrati

Today on Sojourner Truth, our Friday round table panel is back with our panelists including: former member of the California State Assembly, and current LAUSD governing school board member Jackie Goldberg, international correspondent Laura Carlsen and historian Dr. Gerald Horne, we discuss the Brazil election and major changes in Israeli politics that place Israel the farthest to the right in its electoral history, we also discuss the U.S. midterm elections and the unexpected victories and losses. as well as the role in this historic midterm of Gen Z, the highest voting majority group than any other age group in the U.S.

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, or COP27, is the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference and is being held from 6 November until 18 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Today on Sojourner Truth journalist Tina Gerhardt, correspondent for The Nation Magazine covering Cop 27, joins us for the hour to discuss why debt and inequality will be key issues at COP 27 and the first week of COP27 including the speeches given by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, and CARICOM Chair. At COP 27, countries come together to take action towards achieving the world’s collective climate goals as agreed under the Paris Agreement and the Convention. Building on the outcomes and momentum of COP 26 in Glasgow last year, nations are expected to demonstrate at COP 27 that they are in a new era of implementation by turning their commitments under The Paris Agreement into action. The

Today is Election Day in the U.S. voters across the US will have their last opportunity to go to the polls and vote. It is a critical election that will determine which party Democrats or Republicans will control the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. Additionally, there are other key elections across the country including governors, mayors, judges and senators. Many are calling this election one of the most critical as it comes at a time that the country is polarized with the influence of Donald Trump strongly felt. This election will determine the direction of the country. Will it go in the direction of Italy, for example and shift further to the right, and if so what does that say about the state of civil rights, womens', lgbtq+rights, immigrants rights and ecological devastation? Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you a special on the significance and importance of voting, and the fight to defend the vote. You will hear the main speakers at a recent get out the vote webinar organized by

Sojourner Truth Radio continues our November 2022 election coverage. Today, we unpack polling results as they come in with our panelist roundtable including: Attorney and civil rights icon Barbara Arnwine, Progressive Democrats of America Executive Director Alan Minsky, Chicano Liberation and Environmental Justice artivist Bill Gallegos and London-based labor union artivist Sam Weinstein.

Today on Sojourner Truth: our Friday Roundtable is back. Dr. Gerald Horne, international journalist Laura Carlsen and school board member Jackie Goldberg join host Margaret Prescod to discuss the latest developments internationally. Beginning with the US Senate that has passed a short-term government funding bill that provides an additional $12.3 billion in aid to Ukraine. The Biden administration promises to maintain financial support for Kyiv to battle the Russian invasion. This while Russia has annexed four Ukraine territories in a controversial by force vote that is being condemned as a sham and a violation of international law by Ukraine, the United Nations, and the U.S. and its allies. What does this mean for the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and its continued impact felt across the globe? This Sunday's election in Brazil will be one of the most-watched in Latin America, as two polar ideological opposites fight for the presidency in the world's fourth-largest democracy. Current President Jair

Today on Sojourner Truth: We continue our coverage of the growing movement for restitution and reparations for people of African descent. Today we have an opportunity to hear a wide-ranging discussion on reparations by participants from across the continent of Africa at an event organized by Africans Rising. You will hear a variety of speakers including from Senegal, Kenya, the Sudan and more. Some ask pointed questions, others make statements and/or proposals. The discussion took place during the All-African Movement Assembly held on Aug 29-31, 2022 and organized by Africans Rising.

Today on Sojourner Truth: Guest host Nana Gyamfi will share excerpts from Vijay Prashad's recent speech: Democracy Beyond the US Empire hosted by the People’s Forum at the famed Riverside Church in Harlem, New York City. Prashad addresses US myth busting in the Global South and the co-opted words of the movement. Joining her for this discussion and further analysis of the blocades vs. Cuba and Venezuela is Manolo de los Santos, the co-executive director of the People’s Forum and co-coordinator of the People’s Summit for Democracy. Manolo is a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. The devastation of the present hurricane to hit Puerto Rico continues to reverberate. Here to discuss what Puerto Ricans are doing to help and for survival is Francisco Andres Santiago Cintron, coordinator of Accion Independista and community coordinator of the Red Comunitaria de Respuesta, which groups more than 13 communities around Puerto Rico on the principal of solidarity and sovereignty. Our final g

Today on Sojourner Truth, the yearly UN General Assembly Meetings were held at the UN headquarters in NYC from September 21-23, 2022. It is a time when heads of state or their representatives address the world. The occasion is used to promote, chastise, make proposals on vital issues facing their respective nation and the world. Quite often there is a disparity in focus and priorities when one contrasts the speeches from governments of the Global North to most of those from governments of the Global South. The Global North speeches tend to justify their form of government and their economic and social policies, while the Global South speeches often tend to point to the disparity in wealth and resources and the fact that it is the Global North that causes more of man-made climate change, the environmental crisis, and it is countries of the Global South that bears the brunt of climate. RE the term Global South, on the movement front, Fridays for Future, the movement founded by environmental justice campaigner

Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you Part 3 of our series coverage of the Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls, you will hear from a variety of speakers including: Reverend William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor Peoples Campaign, writer Phyllis Bennis, Planned Parenthood, immigration reform and prison reform organizers, faith leaders, and the testimonies from poor and low income people from across the U.S. detailing their first-hand experience with interlacing injustices: infringement on women's bodies and reproductive rights, generational poverty ensued by low wage work and the war economy/militarism and misallocation of resources, all of which are facilitated by what the PPC refers to as" a distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism, that needs to be reconstructed," in order to end these oppressive injustices once and for all.

Today on Sojourner Truth, Pierre Labossiere, founder of the Haiti Action Committee, and one of the most respected voices on Haitian politics, joins Margaret Prescod for the hour to give us an update on the latest developments in Haiti. Labossiere will also dispel inaccuracies promoted by the mainstream media, and give us good news on the status of a forthcoming hospital.

Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you excerpts from a recent webinar titled, Haitian Voices of Resistance Today. Listeners receive an update on the crisis in Haiti from organizers on the ground.