Sojourner Truth Radio

The left-wing alliance in France won the most seats in parliament in a dramatic election, dealing a surprise blow to the far-right party of Marine Le Pen.

Meanwhile the push for electoral reform in the UK has received a shot in the arm after the “most disproportionate election in history”, according to campaigners and academics.

Longstanding reform campaigners have become uneasy bedfellows with Reform UK’s Nigel Farage in recent days after Labour secured a 174-seat majority with just 34% of the popular vote.

“This election has thrown the spotlight on to the electoral system as the result was the most disproportional on record,” said Darren Hughes, the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society. “We have already had a growing chorus of calls for PR [proportional representation] in the aftermath.”

Farage said the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system was “unfair” after Reform took 14.3% of the popular vote – making it the third biggest party by vote share – but won only five seats. The Green party received 6.8% of the vote for its four seats.

Slavery still exists in California and several other states across the US, its not what we generally think of when we hear the word slavery, as in chattel slavery, but slavery inside prisons.

What we are taught in history books is that slavery was abolished with the 13th amendment in the US which was ratified on December 6th, 1865. However, this did not apply to prisoners.

Today on “Sojourner Truth”, we focus on the movement to finally abolish what is known as involuntary slavery in prisons in CA and other states. Our guests are Dorsey Nunn a founder of California Prisoners with Children and Stanley Thermidor with A New Way of Life.

The Rev. James M. Lawson, a United Methodist minister who became a principal tactician of nonviolent protest during the civil rights movement, leading sit-ins, marches and Freedom Rides that withstood attacks by mobs and police throughout the 1960s, died June 9. He was 95.

He died of cardiac arrest en route to a Los Angeles hospital, said his son J. Morris Lawson III.

As a young Methodist missionary, Rev. Lawson traveled to India, where he studied the principles of civil disobedience practiced by the anti-colonialist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi in his campaign against repressive British rule.

Malcolm X (born May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S."died February 21, 1965, New York, New York) was an African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who articulated concepts of race pride and Black nationalism in the early 1960s.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Today on Sojourner Truth: A member of the military has died after setting himself on fire outside the White House in protest of the genocide in Gaza. The US rejected yet another cease fire proposal at the UN and instead has offered a watered-down version of a temporary pause for humanitarian aid. And despite an outcry from governments around the world with the notable exception of the US and UK, the Israeli PM Netanyahu has pledged to move forward with his threat to step up attacks on Rafah which is where thousands of Palestinians had fled following Israel’s call for Palestinians to flee the North of Gaza. South Africa is continuing to push for Israel to be charged with genocide. And in the US Congress is set to send 14.1 billion more to Israel including support for US military operations in the region.

As protests against the genocide continue unabated in countries around the world, today we focus on what you the ST listener can do. We are raising funds for both your local Pacifica station as well as for the Middle East Children’s Alliance/MECA who are concretely addressing the humanitarian crisis as best they could with volunteers on the ground in Gaza. Our guest is Zeiad Abbas, executive director of MECA.