Today on Sojourner Truth, we present our International Women's Day program with our featured guest joining host Margaret Prescod:  State Chair for the Michigan Welfare Rights organization, Maureen Taylor. 
We discuss the work being done to address the most pressing issues women face today: reproductive rights, and economic disparities for women and mothers in the workplace.

3.8.2023 IWD: Maureen Taylor

Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod is a news & public affairs program that airs Tuesday through Friday on KPFK Radio from 7 to 8 AM (PST), and nationwide on Pacifica Radio networks. 

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Sojourner Truth brings you news and views on local, national & international policies and stories that affect us all. We draw out how those of us most impacted -women, communities of color and other communities are responding. We also discuss the inter-relationship between art and politics.

News

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.

Free Palestine special with host Margaret Prescod

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.

Continued coverage on Haiti, from voices rarely heard in US Pacha Vobre

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

Haiti crisis update: with guest Jeff Sprague, Pierre LaBossiere

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.

Death squads are continuing their campaign of terror in Haiti

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.

3.8.2023 IWD: Maureen Taylor

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