The Next World

Host Max Rameau is joined by two leaders of New Orleans' workers’ bill of rights campaign, which recently passed in the November elections. Britain Forsyth is an organizer with Step Up Louisiana and a member of the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee, and Nadiyah Muhammad is a Step Up member/organizer who's been heavily involved in the workers’ bill of rights campaign. Together,...

Host Max Rameau is joined by Erika L. Anthony, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Cleveland VOTES, and Molly Martin, a member of the Cleveland Catholic Worker and the lead organizer for the People's Budget Cleveland grassroots ballot initiative campaign, for a conversation on Cleveland’s fight for participatory budgeting, and why sometimes losing an election is still a victory. Earning 49.1...

Today on the show: a special panel discussion addressing the questions: How can communities build power in the face of colonization, natural disasters, and corporate profiteering? In Puerto Rico and the Hawaiian island of Molokai, residents have been grappling with some of the highest energy costs in the nation, while for-profit utilities amass record profits. But communities on both islands have...

Host Max Rameau talks with Manju Rajendran of Durham Beyond Policing. Together, they discuss the landscape of organizing in North Carolina, abolition, healing justice, and the work of building and maintaining community. Manju Rajendran is a facilitator, trainer, conflict transformation practitioner, and organizer with 27 years of local, state, regional, and national-level experience. Her work is g...

Host Max Rameau talks with Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders, Inc and Black Power Media. Together, they discuss the movement to Stop Cop City, its national relevance, and the strategy behind the movement. They also discuss creating accessible political media, and what Kamau's learned from his time in Palestine. Kamau Franklin is the founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Kam...

DSC Communications Coordinator Tafari Melisizwe and Coordinating Committee Member Andrew Hairston of Texas Appleseed join organizer, writer, and radical political theorist Geo Maher for a robust conversation on policing and social justice movements. The episode begins with Geo laying out the ideas of his book A World Without Police , and then continues with a conversation with Tafari and Andrew ab...

Today on the show: a special panel discussion featuring leaders who are utilizing co-governance strategies in organizing. Hear from Elianne Farhat of TakeAction Minnesota,  Faduma Fido of People’s Economy Lab, and Tarson Núñez, member of the Governance Board of People Powered. The discussion is moderated by Kesi Foster, Co-Executive Director of Partners for Dignity & Rights. Elianne Farhat (sh...

Host Max Rameau talks with leaders of the Cooperation New Orleans Loan Fund: Tamah Yisrael, the Education and outreach coordinator, and Tamara Prosper, the Loan Steward. Together, they discuss unions, capitalism, and organizing for cooperative economics in the deep south. BIOS Tamara Prosper is the Loan Steward at Cooperation New Orleans. She is an avid reader and writer who grew up in the suburbs...

Host Max Rameau talks  with Judith Le Blanc of the Native Organizers Alliance. Together, they discuss organizing in Native nations, protecting sacred spaces, lessons from Standing Rock, and celebrating victories. Judith LeBlanc is a member of the Caddo Tribe who has an endless appetite for fry bread, an inter-tribal culinary delight! As the executive director of Native Organizers Alliance (NOA), s...

On this episode, Mississippi organizers discuss their work to end state sanctioned violence in schools. We explore the statistics behind the fight to end corporal punishment in Mississippi  and the other 18 states where it is still legal, and how Mississippi organizers have made progress in this crucial fight for change. This a fight for human rights, children's rights, dignity, and respect....

On this episode, leaders from Black and immigrant community organizations discuss their work and draw out lessons and challenges for communities and local governments interested in working together to advance racial and economic justice. They discuss their fights for safe water infrastructure, stopping wage theft, combating police violence, and building restorative justice in schools. Featuring: B...

On this episode, we talk with Aisha Ahmed, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and the International League of People’s Struggle. Together, we look at the current resistance in Palestine, fighting against fascism, Black-Palestinian solidarity, and strategies for liberation. Aisha Ahmed is an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement and the International League of People’s Struggl...

On this episode, we talk with Rukia Lumumba from the People’s Assembly, Jackson, Mississippi. Together, we discuss the state of Mississippi’s attempts to disenfranchise Black political power, and the revolutionary organizing happening now in response. Rukia Lumumba was named a "New Activist" by Essence magazine and an "Emerging Leader" by the Congressional Black Caucus. She is...

On this episode, hear from a recent panel discussion featuring Sofia Lopez, Tomás Rivera, James DeFilippis, & Kesi Foster. Together, they discuss strategies to wrest control of housing from the real estate industry. Sofia Lopez is Deputy Campaign Director of Housing for the Action Center on Race and the Economy.  Tomás Rivera is Executive Director of the Chainbreakers Collective.  Dr. James De...

On this episode we present a panel discussion featuring Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Raj Patel, Rafaela Rodriguez, & Kesi Foster. Together, they discuss how what we eat connects to labor rights, health, culture, and more. Jessica Gordon Nembhard is professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College, CUNY. Dr. Gordon Nembhard is...

On this episode, we talk with Njera Keith and Kristina Brown, the co-founders and Ministers of Cohesion of 400+1, a Black cooperative federation based in Texas. Together, we discuss reproductive justice, creating and holding Black space, revolutionary organizing, vanguardism, and gender politics in social movements. Njera Keith is a Diaspora oriented Black organizer whose focus is the development...

Seventeen years after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, join us in exploring the legacy of Katrina and education justice. In conversation with host Max Rameau is Ruth Idakula, Program Director of Dignity in Schools Campaign. Ruth discusses the principles of restorative justice, New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina, how to sustain yourself in this work, and her own path from a childhood...

Join us in exploring art and abolition, with host Max Rameau and artist, professor, writer, and prison abolitionist Bryonn Bain . Bryonn talks with Max about his new book Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape , and the multimedia production of his play Lyrics from Lockdown ,  playing at the Apollo Theatre on August 29th . They also discuss the Prison Industrial Complex, organizing through the ar...

On this episode, we discuss the intersection where food justice meets Black liberation. Joining host Max Rameau are Mama Savi Horne and Baba Fred Carter, two organizers who are also on the board of the National Black Food & Justice Alliance. Baba Fred Carter works with Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living, a 40 acre off-grid eco campus in Illinois that is engaged in a campaign ag...

On this episode, part two of a two part interview, Mamyrah Prosper discusses the aftermath of the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, as well as grassroots responses. This interview was recorded just days before the recent earthquake added to the turmoil in Haiti. Mamyrah Prosper is International Coordinator for Community Movement Builders , and Assistant Professor of Global and Inte...

On this episode, part one of a two part interview, Mamyrah Prosper discusses her personal history as the daughter of a political prisoner in Haiti through her movement activism and work as a scholar, as well as recent Haitian political history, from the Duvaliers through Jovenel Moïse. Stay tuned for part two, as we discuss the assassination of Moïse and the aftermath, as well as grassroots respon...

Cole WIlliams of the Greater New Orleans Citizen's Relief Team talks with host Max Rameau about liberating homes owned by the city of New Orleans, renovating them, and moving in unhoused people. Described as having ​ “the heart of Bob Marley, soul of Sam Cooke and grit of Etta James” ,​ New Orleans-based Cole Williams and The Cole Williams Band (CWB) has rooted their sound in the tradition of...

M. Adams, Co-Executive Director of Freedom, Inc , talks with host Max Rameau about Black-Asian solidarity, lessons from multiracial organizing in a mostly white Midwest city, and their recent victory in removing police from schools in Madison, Wisconsin. M. Adams is a community organizer and co-executive director of Freedom Inc. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Adams has been in Madison since 2003. A...

Philadelphia Housing Action used direct action to force the city of Philadelphia to relinquish over 60 vacant homes for a community land trust for housing for the homeless. Sterling Johnson and Jenn Bennetch, two organizers with Philadelphia Housing Action, join host Max Rameau to discuss their victories and setbacks in their work to take over vacant housing in Philadelphia, and explore lessons fo...

This episode, adapted from a recent webinar hosted by Partners for Dignity & Rights, is an important conversation on community solutions to the interconnected crises we are facing in this political moment. Liz Sullivan-Yuknis of Partners for Dignity & Rights facilitated a conversation with frontline organizations, including:  Scot Nakagawa, ChangeLab Adriana Foster, United Workers Letha Mu...