Sojourner Truth Radio

Our guest is historian and author Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz providing insightful historical context on America's gun obsession, racialized policing, its roots in the wars vs Indigenous nations and slave patrols, leading up to the power of the NRA and inability of Congress to take real action vs. gun control in the U.S.

Today on Sojourner Truth: Attorney and Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) Nana Gyamfi joins us to discuss the recent Los Angeles mayoral candidate forum sponsored by BAJI, why has Karen Bass been the only responsive candidate? And Attorney Matt Simmons joins us for our weekly Earth Watch segment guest who will be updating us on the recent victory in Fort Bragg, CA Jackson Forest. The Save Jackson Coalition was pleased to learn that three controversial timber harvest plans located in Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF) had been withdrawn. The plans constitute a total of 1479 acres (over 2 square miles) of forest now taken off the chopping block. Our final guest is historian and author Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz providing insightful historical context on America's gun obsession, racialized policing, its roots in the wars vs Indigenous nations and slave patrols, leading up to the power of the NRA and inability of Congress to take real action vs. gun control in the U.S.

Today on Sojourner Truth: Our Friday roundtable is back with journalist Laura Carlsen, school board member Jackie Goldberg and Professor Gerald Horne. We unpack the recent mass shootings and the present state of gun violence in this country. What is its impact on countries like Haiti and Mexico? How do we move forward with actual solutions vs. political rhetoric? And on the international front: the growing misinformation in Haiti, to the point that the representatives invited to the upcoming Summit of the Americas are problematic. Also, how is the U.S. alignment with China in light of the war in Ukraine unfolding?

Today on Sojourner Truth: Our weekly Earth Minute covers the latest updates regarding pollution.

Today on Sojourner Truth we discuss why some Latin American countries are threatening to boycott the upcoming Summit of the Americas to take place in the U.S., with our guest Guillaume Long. Our guest for the second half of the hour Liz Hilton, will give us an update on the Draft Act in Thailand. What is it? And if it passes how will the state have the power to shut down grassroot organizations?

Today on Sojourner Truth: On this 2nd anniversary of the death of George Floyd we explore what has and has not changed to address police brutality of black lives, in Minnesota and nationwide. President Biden has just signed an executive order to address police misconduct but does it really have any impact on abusive police actions? We discuss this with our panelists Tristan Taylor, co-founder of the Minnesota-based organization Detroit Will Breath, an integrated, youth-led, militant organization fighting against police brutality and systemic racism in Detroit. Our other panelists joining us for the hour are teacher and Minnesota-based activist Marcia Howard and #BLM member and PhD student and founder of the Tacoma Action collective, Jaleesa Trapp. And for our Earth Minute today, we receive an update on air pollution.

Today on Sojourner Truth our Weekly Round Table is back! We tackle the white supremacist murder of ten Black people in Buffalo NY, the present day and historical context of these types of attacks; the great replacement theory; the broader national and international political implications. White supremacy is imbedded deeply in the US but it goes beyond US borders, indeed it is global, here is what the public safety official in Canada had to say. Also, we discuss the latest news from the war in the Ukraine. This as at least 1,700 Azov fighters who have been associated with Neo-Nazis surrender their position in Mariupol, they had taken refuge in the Azovstal steel plant. Boris Johnson is encouraging the Ukrainian Prime Minisiter to keep the war going and the U.S. steps up military funding for Ukraine. Meanwhile other leaders in Europe are calling for a negotiated end to the war. All while there are increasing worries about arms smuggling as the flood of weapons to the Ukraine continues unabated. We also discus

Today on Sojourner Truth we honor Malcolm X on his birthday with a special show featuring archival clips of his speeches, joining us to discuss Malcolm X and his social justice stance is author of "The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," Dr. Peniel Joseph. Dr. Joseph contextualizes the white supremacist shooting in Buffalo NY rooted in Malcolm X's era. And Black Lives Matter LA held a vigil for the stolen lives in Buffalo, we end our show with their chant honoring Malcolm X and the victims of the Buffalo massacre.

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?