Sojourner Truth Radio

Today, we commemorate the sixth anniversary of the March 11th Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The disaster was triggered by an 9.0 earthquake followed by a tsunami. Contamination from the accident spread across the Pacific Ocean. Now the Japanese government is sit to lift evacuation orders for the area surrounding Fukushima. Our guests are Radioactive Waste Watchdog Kevin Kamps and Arnie Gunderson, nuclear power expert.

Also, we continue our Women's History Month coverage with voices from the March 8th International Women's Strike in Los Angeles. We hear from Native American Tongva elder Gloria Arellanes, then hear the reading of the International Women's Strike and International Women's Strike manifesto, drafted by women around the world, plus the International Women's Strike U.S. platform, read by Felicia Montes, Ivy Quicho and Nancy Berlin.

Today, a group of Dine grandmothers from Big Mountain and the Black Mesa area have been speaking out as part of a tour of California during Women's History Month, including participating in the International Women's Strike in Los Angeles. To discuss the latest situation at Black Mesa, where the Navajo continue to face forced relocation, are Danny Blackgoat, a resident of Big Mountain; and Tanya Selig, an organizer from Guerilla Food Not Bombs.

Also, we listen to voices and music from the International Women's Strike's Los Angeles event. We will hear from Salina Begay, a Black Mesa grandmother and elder; Sabina Virgo, an environmental activist with 350.org; and Jackie Goldberg, who has served on the Los Angeles City Council as head of the Los Angeles School Board and in the California State Assembly. The event hosted a multi-racial, raucous crowd that at its height reached 1,000 attendees. They joined women all over the world in over 50 participating countries.

For our weekly Earth Minute, Anne Petermann of the Global Justice Ecology Project reflects on the year since Honduran activist Berta Caceres was assassinated.

Today: our International Women's Day Special. Women in over 50 countries around the world will take time off from waged and unwaged work for the whole day, for several hours, or even for a few minutes.

The International Women's Strike was coordinated by women in Poland following their one-day strike on October 3, 2016, which defeated government attempts to criminalize abortion. Similar mobilizations happened in Korea. Mass protests against men's violence in Argentina brought out hundreds of thousands of people against femicide. Joint actions in several countries on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women also brought out women in the thousands.

The strike of Poland followed the example of women in Iceland who took a day off in 1975 and brought the country to a halt. They repeated that feat in a strike in 1985. The Women's Marches against Trump mobilized millions across the U.S. as well as internationally.

Under the banner of "Solidarity is our Weapon," women today are taking action. Our guests include Barbara Smith, Ashley Bohrer and Annie Chambers.

The Trump administration is solidifying its anti-immigrant policies. On Monday, March 6, Trump signed a new version of the Muslim Ban, this after a U.S. Court of Appeals blocked his first attempt at a ban. Meanwhile, he is continuing plans for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and has stepped up mass deportations around the country. Our guest is Isabel Garcia, an Arizona-based immigrants rights activist.

On March 8, women across the US will participate in the International Women's Strike, with a platform that includes an end to gender violence, reproductive justice for all, labor rights, full social provisioning, environmental justice for all, and anti-racist and anti-imperialist feminism. Our guests are Thailand-based Liz Hilton, London-based Argentinian Nina Lopez and Los Angeles-based Pat Alviso of Military Families Speak Out.

On our weekly roundtable: the ban, the wall, the threats towards Iran, the Supreme Court pick, white nationalism in the White House, and "alternative facts." Two chaotic weeks into Trump's presidency, we break down the congressional, national and global reaction to the president's recent actions. Our panelists are Jackie Goldberg, Dr. Gerald Horne and Laura Carlsen. Barbara Arnwine, Civil Rights Movement veteran and human rights leader, also joins us to break down the judicial record of Neil Gorsuch and his potential impact on communities of color.

Today, we launch our Black History Month series. Our guest is Dr. Gerald Horne.

For our weekly Earth Watch, we discuss the environmental threat of the Sabal Trail Pipeline that will carry natural gas from Alabama down to central Florida. Our guest is Anita Stewart, journalist and environmentalist active with the Green Party.

Then, we continue to bring you speeches from the historic Women's March, held the day after Trumps inauguration.You will hear from Bernie Sanders, transgender activist Janet Mock, singer and actor Janelle Monae, and listen to Part 2 of the speech given by Angela Davis.

Trump has made good on his campaign promises to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as to place a ban on travelers and refugees coming from seven Muslim-majority countries. There is a 90-day ban on people coming from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia until vetting measures even more intense than those already in place is solidified "though new exceptions will be made for Christians. There are at least 90,000 people from those countries that have already received U.S. visas and who will now be barred from entering.

Meanwhile, protests have broken out at international airports around the country with tens of thousands of participants. They are joined by protesters in other countries; this week, 10,000 gathered in central London, opposing the ban and demanding that conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who visited and was seen holding hands with Trump, disinvite him from visiting the UK. Iran responded to the ban by saying they will ban Americans from entering their country and will stop using the U.S. dollar. Yet, despite the backlash, in a recent by Reuters/Ipsos poll, more Americans approve of Trump's ban than disapprove.

As legal challenges to Trump's ban are increasingly being filed, acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates was fired by Trump after she instructed the Department of Justice not to defend Trumps order in the face of legal challenges.

Our guests are Antonio Gonzalez, President of the William C Valasquez Institute, who was in Mexico when the flap over the wall broke out; and Sue Udry, Executive Director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee / Defending Dissent.

Plus, what role does art and film play in our current political climate? The 25th Pan African Film festival gets underway next week. The festivals founder and Executive Director, Ayuko Babu, joins to discuss the importance of the festival.

On January 21, 2017, millions of women gathered in Washington, D.C., in over 40 cities across the United States, and in countries across the world, from Kenya to Antarctica, to say no to Trump and to make the case that women's rights are human rights. It was a global mobilization that gives some indication of the organic movements to come. Today, we bring you Part One of in our coverage of Black women activists who were in Washington, D.C. for the march, but not on the main stage. You will hear from women who have been at the forefront of Black women's resistance: from the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, to the original 1963 March on Washington, to Black power movements to the movements of today.

Included in this one-hour special are the voices of Dorie Ladner, Ruby Sales, Fania Davis, Andrea James and Gwen Moore. Please look out for our future segments with Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Reverend Dyan Akousa McCray Peters.

On today's roundtable, we look at Mexico and Donald Trump's proposal for a 20 percent tax on goods coming from Mexico to build his promised wall. What are the implications? Then, we discuss Trump's call for an investigation into voter fraud. Is it just a route to more voter suppression? Next, how do you build a resistance movement? Breaking down all of this and more are our guests Jackie Goldberg, Laura Carlsen and Dr. Gerald Horne.