Strength & Solidarity

People power has been on display in Kenya as tens of thousands of citizens faced down tear gas and live bullets forcing the government to withdraw legislation that would have mandated higher taxes.  Notwithstanding enthusiastic praise for leaderless movements, Gen Z and the power of digital tools, it should not be forgotten that Kenya has a deep tradition of grassroots organizing dating back to the bitter struggle against British colonial rule. It has regularly re-emerged in subsequent decades to challenge authoritarian rule, election theft and corruption.  One emergent grouping currently organizing countrywide is the Social Justice Centres movement and its coordinating body, the Social Justice Centres Working Group.  National Convenor Happy Olal talks about how the movement took root in the capital Nairobi a decade ago, and has kept on growing.

And in the Coda, how an invitation to tell personal histories revealed Burmese women’s powerful activism.

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/

Contact us at [email protected]

Although women were, and still are, deeply involved in Burma’s fight against  military rule, their contributions were often invisible.. Activist and advocate Debbie  Stothard recalls that when she started paying attention, she discovered that “the auntie making our tea in the kitchen was a former resistance fighter.” She began getting women to write down their stories, with remarkable results.

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/

Contact us at [email protected]

Back in 2020, a hashtag - #MilkTeaAlliance – began appearing across the Internet. Netizens in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines seemed to be building a cross-regional solidarity movement to support pro-democracy activists, like the young people defying the generals who launched Myanmar’s coup in 2021.  Even though the hashtag was so visible online, it was hard to see an actual movement in the real world.  Did it really exist?  How did it come about and who did it represent? And with the apparent waning of the hashtag’s use, is it about to disappear? We talk to Marc Batac, co-founder and facilitator of the Milk Tea Alliance (Friends of Myanmar).

And in the coda… Why does a Malaysian human rights leader moonlight as a TV script writer?

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/

Contact us at [email protected]

Sevan Doraisamy started writing film scripts when he was still a student and despite a shift into social justice activism and – eventually – leadership,  he has never stopped.  He explains why it’s important to him and how it helps him to avoid burning out. 

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/

Contact us at [email protected]

In 2022 the United States’ Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to an abortion, triggering a flood of measures in multiple states to restrict reproductive rights. But further south, that same year, Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled in the opposite direction.  Colombian feminists had mounted a massive campaign and legal strategy to get abortion removed from the penal code and although they didn’t fully achieve that goal, abortion was decriminalized up to 24 weeks - a huge victory for the reproductive rights movement.  Catalina Martínez Coral, Vice-president in Latin America for the Center for Reproductive Rights recalls the strategy behind the campaign. 

And in the coda… a library becomes an inspiration and a home for Germany’s black and diaspora community. 

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ 

Contact us at [email protected] 

Racial justice activist Daniel Gyamerah celebrates the foresight of an Afro-German woman who over the course of her lifetime collected hundreds of books by black authors and bequeathed them to Berlin’s black and diaspora community to create the library that became EOTO – Each One Teach One.  

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ 

 Contact us at [email protected] 

The shack dwellers of South African cities have been abandoned by their government, left to try and make homes on land they don’t own, without sanitation or electricity, and vulnerable to adverse weather or corrupt and violent law enforcement. But being poor and marginalized doesn’t mean you are powerless. The social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo which organizes in the informal settlements has a membership of 120,000 and rising, and a remarkable record of defending its communities against eviction, despite a series of assassinations and deaths at the hands of the police during evictions that have taken 25 of its grassroots leaders. Abahlali’s General Secretary, Thapelo Mohapi, explains the movement’s organizing approach, strategies, and it's formal structures, and how it is responding to violent attacks and marginalization by the ruling ANC.

And in the coda… Audre Lorde shows a Sierra Leonean activist how her fear might be a guide to her purpose. 

 https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ 

 Contact us at [email protected] 

Eleanor Thompson, a Sierra Leonean human rights lawyer and social justice activist in Freetown has been reading an essay by Audre Lorde, written during a period of heightened awareness of her mortality. Lorde reflects on the ways we avoid speaking our truth in case we provoke anger or rejection and comes to see that our fear may in fact be a guide to our purpose, a powerful insight for Eleanor.   

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ 

Contact us at [email protected] 

Activists can boost their power and impact by combining their efforts, but persuading diverse actors to work together can be challenging.  Organizations and movements working on multiple issues may disagree on policy and principle or set conditions on their collaboration so bringing them into alignment can take energy and resources that are in short supply. The Rising Majority coalition with around 70 member organisations combines black, indigenous and other groups of people of colour, as well as movements on race, climate, gender, policing, labor issues, immigration and economic and environmental justice – in short, its members’ priorities are varied. Rising Majority grew out of the Movement for Black Lives - M4BL for short - amid the realisation that even though individual groups had overarching goals in common, they weren’t taking advantage of their collective power.  Rising Majority’s National Director Loan Tran, explains why that changed in 2017.   

And in the coda…a UK activist discovers that if you want to keep going, you have to learn to stop. 

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ 

Contact us at [email protected] 

Katrina French is an activist in constant motion, pursuing multiple projects in her area of expertise, racism in UK policing and the criminal justice system.  But there came a moment when she realized she was close to burning out and decided to take avoiding action. 

https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ 

Contact us at [email protected]