Strength & Solidarity

Israel’s war on Gaza and its population has now been underway for 13 months. An estimated 42,000 Palestinians have died from the violence.  A further 62,000 are reported to have died from starvation, and 5,000 more for lack of medical care and drugs.  The vast majority of those who have lost their lives are women and children.  Despite the clamor for powerful states to intervene and stop the killi...

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Strength & Solidarity Season 6 will start in November. Meanwhile we’re repeating some of our favourite shows from past seasons. This week we're revisiting episode 37, first released, November 9, 2023. Original Episode Description from November 2023: Uganda has become one of Africa’s frontlines in the battle for LGBT rights. In 2014 a law was passed criminalizing same-sex conduct but it was...

Strength & Solidarity Season 6 will start in November. Meanwhile we’re repeating some of our favourite shows from past seasons. This week we're revisiting episode 39, first released, December 21, 2023. Original Episode Description from December 2023: The ⁠Universal Declaration of Human Rights⁠ (UDHR) turned 75 on the 10 December 2023. Passed by the UN General Assembly in the wake of two br...

Strength & Solidarity Season 6 will start in November. Meanwhile we’re repeating some of our favourite shows from past seasons, starting with episode 40,  first released,  January 11, 2024. Original Episode Description from January 2024: It is now three months since the October 7 brutal attack by Hamas on targets in Israel which triggered the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in which a reported 21,...

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 th...

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. htt...

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 act...

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 pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

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 a...

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 pod@strengthandsolidarity.org  

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...

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.   ...

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 aroun...

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 pod@strengthandsolidarity.org    

Many grow up being told that although there are bad guys in the world, the police are there to keep you safe. But this episode hears from someone who had to recognize that police saw her community not as deserving of protection, but as the source of problems. In communities where there is already too much traumatizing violence, a heavy-handed police response frequently increases the harm. Accordin...

For decades, Latin America’s reporters have treasured a celebration of their craft by one of their most beloved writers, the late Gabriel Garcia Marquez - a great novelist but also a passionate journalist. Jonathan Bock was, until recently, one of them. He runs an organization in Colombia that defend media freedom and he is having to face up to a harsh reality. For a list of supplemental readings...

It is now three months since the October 7 brutal attack by Hamas on targets in Israel which triggered the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in which a reported 21,000 people have so far been killed. In the US, as much as widespread condemnation was expressed after the Hamas attack, the subsequent death toll in Gaza and suffering of surviving civilians have shattered whatever remained of a consensus on...

Human rights lawyer Carmen Cheung Ka-Man helps communities around the world secure accountability for crimes committed against them. But she is also an artist, for whom making is a metaphor – an effort to find solutions within the constraints of her craft and skills. She sees printmaking is a restorative practice, reconnecting beauty with the struggle for truth and justice. For a list of supplemen...

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) turned 75 on the 10 December 2023. Passed by the UN General Assembly in the wake of two brutal world wars, it expressed an aspiration for a new world, one in which every human being’s rights would be acknowledged and respected, and international law would regulate the actions of states and hold them accountable for violations. That vision is as powe...

Lissette Gonzalez leads the investigations and research team at PROVEA, a Venezuelan human rights organization. Well-versed in the tools of human rights activism, she knows they don’t resonate for everyone. A poem, however, channels what people are feeling and can have greater impact. She makes her case with Rodilla en Tierra, by Oriette D’Angelo. For a list of supplemental readings and additional...

An activist finds themselves in conflict with their government and they make the decision to go into exile. They are able to find somewhere to take them in. Do they sigh with relief and keep a low profile? Stay engaged in the struggle but leave the frontline work to others? Or do they double-down on publicly challenging the oppression that drove them into exile? Bahraini activist Sayed Al Wadaei w...

Uganda has become one of Africa’s frontlines in the battle for LGBT rights. In 2014 a law was passed criminalizing same-sex conduct but it was nullified by the courts on a technicality. This year that same legislation was revived, passed again in parliament and signed into law by President Museveni. The penalties it prescribes include the death penalty and the queer community is vulnerable and anx...

In the early 1970s, a group of disabled American teens found themselves at a summer camp with new freedom to think for themselves. The selfhood, courage and joy they tapped into was to power a revolution in US culture and policy towards disability. The story of those activists is told in the documentary film, Crip Camp, and Mexican disability activist Maryangel Garcia-Ramos explains how much it me...

Strength & Solidarity Season 5 will start in November. Meanwhile we’re repeating some of our favourite shows, continuing with episode 27,  first released,  December 8, 2022. Palestinian activist Issa Amro grew up studious and apolitical – until his university was permanently shuttered in 2003 by the Israeli military in response to the second intifada. The campaign he and others launched to get...