When We Fight We Win! The Podcast

Indigenous activists and allies have been on the frontlines to #FreeLeonardPeltier – for over 47 years. Leonard Peltier is a writer, activist, fine artist, humanitarian, and political prisoner, wrongfully convicted of a crime that he did not commit. We speak with the co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Carol Gokee - who movingly uplifts the truth behind Leonard Pelt...

"Inside these prison walls, love is really the closest thing that you have to freedom." - Comrade Pitt Panther, Prison Radio Correspondent.   This episode focuses on the work of Prison Radio and the #LoveNotPhear campaign to free journalist, author and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal. We hear from organizers and family members of incarcerated people, and incarcerated folks themselves, mobilizing movement...

In this episode of Sounds of Resistance, we feature Lizbeth Román, an independent queer artist from Puerto Rico whose bohemian, spiritual, and poetic energy distinguishes her music. In this lively and honest conversation, we will hear more about her art, transfeminist politics, colonialism in Puerto Rico, and the role of music in the fight for social change. The episode was recorded LIVE on Januar...

What does the future of housing organizing look like? There's an ongoing global housing crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, disproportionately affecting the working class and communities of color. This episode features City Life | Vida Urbana (CLVU), a 49 year old organization fighting for housing justice and building peoples' power in Boston, statewide, and nationally. We first hear from the co-...

Despite the current climate change scenario, gas pipeline projects continue to move forward in the United States. Enbridge's Line 3 "replacement" pipeline in Anishinaabe territory is the latest development that has triggered a new struggle against fossil fuel dependency. The Indigenous-led camp resistance in Northern Minnesota is committed to protecting and honoring the land and water.   In this e...

What would you do if you inherited 27 million dollars at age 21? This episode is about Sam Jacobs and a network of donors who use lessons and inspiration from social movements to reclaim a new narrative around philanthropy.   Traditionally funders hold onto power, hoard money in private foundations and donor-advised funds and control giving based on the funders own views and priorities. Because of...

In this episode, we return to New Orleans to speak with #LakeeshaHarris of Women with a Vision, Inc. about sex worker organizing and the decriminalization of consensual sex work. We look at the history of prostitution and sex work in the US, recent victories in shifting culture and policies around sex work, the struggle against sex trafficking narratives, and decriminalization as a labor and aboli...

Living less than ten years away from the severe effects of climate change, we look at the sea-level rise and what it means for coastal communities of color. From San Juan to Miami, we explore what is known as 'climate gentrification,' some of the events driving climate refugees from the Caribbean to the US, disaster policing, and mutual aid through an intersectional lens. This episode features Van...

Following the dream of breaking the cycle of generational wealth, this Black working-class community of first-time homebuyers discovered that the City of New Orleans built the houses over a toxic landfill and never remediated the soil. The residents have contended all kinds of health issues and have the second-highest sustained rates of cancer in the entire state of Louisiana.   For over 40 years,...

In this episode, we explore the US's student debt crisis and its intersections with class, race, and gender. Millions of college graduates have a debt burden, which takes on an emotional, mental, and physical toll. Every day, more and more adults can't improve their quality of life because going to college was an expense out of proportion.   The Debt Collective is organizing to demand the cancella...

Elizam Escobar was an artist, painter, poet, and member of the FALN (Armed Forces for National Liberation). He was arrested with 10 other Puerto Rican freedom fighters in a van in Chicago, Illinois on April 4th, 1980. They were all charged with seditious conspiracy.   In this episode, we interview his lawyer, longtime friend and one of the leaders in the campaign to Free All Puerto Rican Political...

How do we make this world safe for Black people? The US is inciting a war on poor and working-class communities -- through law enforcement -- that is deeply racialized and deeply gendered. Policing and mass control maintain the hegemony, while patriarchy plays out in how we respond to harm through violence and punishment. Abolition through a Black feminist lens offers a radical approach to address...

In this two part episode, we devote our conversation to the importance of Abolishing the Police in all of its forms. A world without cops is a step forward to live in a safe, inclusive, accountable, and thriving society.   Part 1 focuses on the importance of abolishing the police inside campus, at the universities. We go to Los Angeles to interview student activist, Oceana Gilliam and UCLA profess...

Do YOU want social movements to win? In this two-part episode we explore the problematic and controversial role of philanthropy inside social movements. Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson of the legendary Highlander Center guides us and philanthropy institutions to consider what will be required. When We Fight, We Win!: The Podcast is available across all major podcast platforms.

In this two-part episode we explore the problematic and controversial role of philanthropy inside social movements. In this first part we feature Vini Bhansali, Executive Director of the Solidaire Network, a community of donor organizers mobilizing critical resources to the frontlines of intersectional movements for racial, gender and climate justice. This episode offers a critical view into how n...

In our second episode, we interview Black feminist lawyer and activist, Zoán Tanís Dávila Roldán of La Colectiva Feminista en Construcción about the #EstadoDeEmergencia campaign. As multi-pronged attacks and femicides have risen alarmingly after Hurricane María and most recently, during the Covid19 pandemic, women, Transgender women, and girls of color - especially from low-income, Black, immigran...

We delve deep into the most recent elections in Puerto Rico, in which progressive candidates gained historical support, and in which a referendum about the islands annexation to the US was held. Oscar López Rivera, shows us how the electoral system in Puerto Rico is built on a colonial system designed by and for the dominant elite and Washington. It is the U.S. Congress and a federally appointed F...

Today, 98% of farmland in the entire United States is white-owned. That is the lowest it has been in history. What does this mean for communities of color now?  We talk to  Leah Penniman  of  Soul Fire Farm , which heals ancestral wounds and works to end racism and injustice in the food system. Much of the formerly owned Black and brown land was stolen, and is still owned by the descendants of whi...

According to  Jitu Brown , the organizer's job is to create a space where people can begin to actually envision what they want to see, then create the experiences where people begin to win. The continued closures of our public schools and high-stakes testing illustrate the institutionalized racism that is embedded in our educational system. Jitu reflects on his work as National Director of  Journe...

We reflect on the role of art and cultural strategy in movement building, and how imagining creative processes outside the dominant narratives supports intersectional and vibrant social justice movements, which allow us to be free!  The absence of headlines in mainstream media about violence against trans people, as well as their lived experiences, has challenged both Micah Bazant and Kemi Alabi t...

How can we stand together to ensure the educational future of the next generation? Listen to the voices of  AgitArte , the  Federation of Teachers of Puerto Rico ,  Journey for Justice Alliance , and  the Alliance for Quality Education  as they worked together to convene  The Transnational Encounter to Defend Public Education . This forum was held to explore how solidarity between two nations is i...

Are Jews white? Why would the Jewish community choose to stand up for immigrant communities? Stosh Cotler of Bend the Arc shares with us the lessons that she's learned as a leader in the modern Jewish resistance movement.

Content warning: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), family separation, police brutality   In this second episode of our podcast, Hosts Dey Hernández and Greg Jobin-Leeds interview Cristina Jiménez. Cristina is an Ecuadoran immigration activist who co-founded United We Dream in 2008. Cristina talks about the conditions that lead immigrants to leave their countries to seek a better future wh...