Sojourner Truth Radio

Sojourner Truth - Aquil Basheer - Thursday, May 2, 2019 by Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod

Sojourner Truth - Aquil Basheer - Thursday, May 2, 2019 by Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod

Breaking news out of Venezuela, US backed Juan Guaido the man who declared himself President of Vz though unelected, has been joined by a small group of Vz military defectors and have announced that today’s action, backed by the US is the beginning of the end of the Maduro government. Joining him is Leopoldo Lopez who apparently was freed by forces loyal to Guaido. We are joined by journalist Paul Dobson who is on the ground in Caracas.

Also breaking news, gun shots were fired at the US Embassy in Venezuela, this just days after I was in Haiti as part of a delegation led by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Danny Glover and attorneys Walter Riley and Brian Concanon were also part of the delegation. Today we bring you new testimony from women survivors of the politically and government backed massacres taking place in Lasaline and the surrounding areas in Haiti’s capital city of Port au Prince.

And on the white supremist attack on the Chabad of Poway Synagogue on April 28th that killed one person and wounded others, we speak with Dustin Craun, Executive Director of the Council of American Islamic Relations, San Diego.

We mourn the death of famed Black film director John Singleton, we speak with Lawrence Ware, Co-Director of the Center for Africana Studies and Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been yet again under attack by the Trump team and other Trump believers. This time, for a comment she made at the Fourth Annual Council of American Islamic Relations - Los Angeles banquet. A comment that was taken out of context. Trump published a Tweet with the World Trade Center burning in the background, along with a video featuring a clip from Congresswoman Omars speech at the banquet. The implications are serious. The congresswoman was called un-American and was berated by conservatives for downplaying the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.

In 2016, Ilhan became the first Somali-American, Muslim legislator in the United States. She was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 60B, where shes lived for the past 20 years. In 2018, she won the congressional seat vacated by Rep. Keith Ellison, the first American Muslim elected to Congress, becoming one of the first two U.S. Muslim women elected to Congress.

Within Congress, she has been a staunch critic of interventionist U.S. foreign policy, opposing

Israels occupation of Palestine and U.S. support for that policy. As a result, she has unjustly been slandered by some on both sides of the aisle as an anti-semite. On Saturday, March 23, 2019, not only was Congresswoman Omar berated by right-wing protesters before speaking at the CAIR-LA event, she was also subjected to hateful islamophobic comments afterwards. I attended and recorded the CAIR-LA event

Today, you will hear the speech Omar delivered at the event. You will also hear from CAIR-LA President Asif Harsolia, an active member of the local Muslim community, and Estee Chandler, a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Board of Directors. The common thread uniting all of the speakers includes fighting racism and Islamophobia in the age of Donald Trump and uplifting marginalized communities around the world.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been yet again under attack by the Trump team and other Trump believers. This time, for a comment she made at the Fourth Annual Council of American Islamic Relations - Los Angeles banquet. A comment that was taken out of context. Trump published a Tweet with the World Trade Center burning in the background, along with a video featuring a clip from Congresswoman Omars speech at the banquet. The implications are serious. The congresswoman was called un-American and was berated by conservatives for downplaying the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.

In 2016, Ilhan became the first Somali-American, Muslim legislator in the United States. She was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 60B, where shes lived for the past 20 years. In 2018, she won the congressional seat vacated by Rep. Keith Ellison, the first American Muslim elected to Congress, becoming one of the first two U.S. Muslim women elected to Congress.

Within Congress, she has been a staunch critic of interventionist U.S. foreign policy, opposing

Israels occupation of Palestine and U.S. support for that policy. As a result, she has unjustly been slandered by some on both sides of the aisle as an anti-semite. On Saturday, March 23, 2019, not only was Congresswoman Omar berated by right-wing protesters before speaking at the CAIR-LA event, she was also subjected to hateful islamophobic comments afterwards. I attended and recorded the CAIR-LA event

Today, you will hear the speech Omar delivered at the event. You will also hear from CAIR-LA President Asif Harsolia, an active member of the local Muslim community, and Estee Chandler, a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Board of Directors. The common thread uniting all of the speakers includes fighting racism and Islamophobia in the age of Donald Trump and uplifting marginalized communities around the world.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

Our team was recently on the ground in Haiti. Today, we continue our series of coverage. We will bring you the story of tortures and massacres in La Saline.

A story reported to be about gang warfare. But, as you will hear in today's report, that is far from the reality of what's going on in La Saline.

What we witnessed and recorded and are reporting on this exclusive today is an extreme humanitarian and human rights crisis and tragedy little known to the world. Ironically, the road leading up to La Saline is named "Crossroads Newly From Africa" in Haitian Kreyol. It was the road close to the port where enslaved Africans were bought and sold.

We visited La Saline, a part of impoverished Port-au-Prince, that has historically been a center of resistance going back to the Haitian Revolution of 1804.

Today, it is a stronghold of support for Lavalas, the popular party headed by former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The massacres have been the largest in Haiti since the July 23, 1987 massacre of peasants under the Duvalier dictatorship. Evidence shows that perpetrators of the massacres have a cozy relationship and backing from the present Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Indeed, the methods used to torture and kill are reminiscent of the brutal Duvalier days. People are hacked to death. They're burned alive. Their bodies are left on the street to be eaten by wild pigs and dogs.

It was jarring to hear the stories of the victims. And a reminder: this is happening after a 15-year U.N. occupation of Haiti and under a U.S.-backed regime. The recent mass protests that spread across Haiti were initiated in La Saline. Survivors of the La Saline massacres say they are a pointed attempt to use torture, killings and fear to dampen mass protests, using the people of La Saline as examples to protesters demanding Moise step down. They're also demanding to "overturn the cauldron," meaning ending the entire system of corruption and greed. In the lead up to the massacres, the wife of Moise went to La Saline, distributed money widely and met with the local community leader, reportedly in an attempt to corrupt that leader. Residents took the money, but by the end of her visit, it was clear La Saline residents would not support the Moise government and that they intended to continue their protests.

The Sojourner Truth team went to La Saline and video taped and recorded its residents telling their story.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is a grassroots movement uniting tens of thousands of people to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation's distorted morality.

This year, from June 17-19 in Washington D.C., the Poor People's Campaign will be hosting its nationwide Moral Action Congress. At the Congress, the Poor People's Campaign Moral and Constitutional Budget will be released, promoting a new economy that serves the interests of working people and not the one percent. The Congress will also feature a National Freedom School, with educational workshops on key issues affecting our country, and a forum for presidential candidates who are invited to hear their demands. The Poor People's Campaign has also planned a visit to Capitol Hill during the Congress and has even requested a hearing.

The Poor People's Campaign, which points out that there are over 140 million poor and low-income residents in the U.S., declared a state of emergency in the lead-up to the forthcoming Congress. Along with rampant poverty and inequality, this emergency also includes the fossil fuel invasion of Indigenous lands, the destruction of the environment, systemically-racist police institutions, military expansion across the globe and the growth of the private prison system.

In response to this declared emergency, the California's Poor People's Campaign organized a Truth and Poverty Bus Tour, which kicked off on Monday, April 1. The tour, concluded on April 13 with a public hearing on family separations at the U.S./Mexico border, traversed several locations across the state. These include the Yurok Reservation, Chico, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and Pacoima, among others. Through these hearings, the people of California were given a chance to voice their experiences and thoughts on important moral issues that must be addressed in the United States.

Today, we bring you voices from a Poor Peoples Campaign hearings held in Pacoima and Fresno, California. In today's show, you will hear Indigenous speakers in Pacoima discuss important issues affecting their communities along with low-wage workers. You will also hear from a victim of the prison-industrial complex. From Fresno, you will hear from community activists who are putting pressure on elected officials to combat rising costs of living, like water prices. Also, we hear testimony from a woman who works as a caregiver for her 100-year-old mother, speaking on behalf of her and her struggles.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is a grassroots movement uniting tens of thousands of people to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation's distorted morality.

This year, from June 17-19 in Washington D.C., the Poor People's Campaign will be hosting its nationwide Moral Action Congress. At the Congress, the Poor People's Campaign Moral and Constitutional Budget will be released, promoting a new economy that serves the interests of working people and not the one percent. The Congress will also feature a National Freedom School, with educational workshops on key issues affecting our country, and a forum for presidential candidates who are invited to hear their demands. The Poor People's Campaign has also planned a visit to Capitol Hill during the Congress and has even requested a hearing.

The Poor People's Campaign, which points out that there are over 140 million poor and low-income residents in the U.S., declared a state of emergency in the lead-up to the forthcoming Congress. Along with rampant poverty and inequality, this emergency also includes the fossil fuel invasion of Indigenous lands, the destruction of the environment, systemically-racist police institutions, military expansion across the globe and the growth of the private prison system.

In response to this declared emergency, the California's Poor People's Campaign organized a Truth and Poverty Bus Tour, which kicked off on Monday, April 1. The tour, concluded on April 13 with a public hearing on family separations at the U.S./Mexico border, traversed several locations across the state. These include the Yurok Reservation, Chico, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and Pacoima, among others. Through these hearings, the people of California were given a chance to voice their experiences and thoughts on important moral issues that must be addressed in the United States.

Today, we bring you voices from a Poor Peoples Campaign hearings held in Pacoima and Fresno, California. In today's show, you will hear Indigenous speakers in Pacoima discuss important issues affecting their communities along with low-wage workers. You will also hear from a victim of the prison-industrial complex. From Fresno, you will hear from community activists who are putting pressure on elected officials to combat rising costs of living, like water prices. Also, we hear testimony from a woman who works as a caregiver for her 100-year-old mother, speaking on behalf of her and her struggles.

News Headlines: April 23, 2019 by Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod

News Headlines: April 23, 2019 by Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod