Strength & Solidarity

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 17. Queer rights activist Henry Koh reflects that in his home country Malaysia, the only space where queer people are acknowledged is on screen – in flamboyant characters played for laughs. He reflects on growing up gay in a society that expects you to stay in the closet.For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/Contact us atpod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Strength & Solidarity returns this week with more conversations about global struggles to secure rights, equality and justice. We get curious about the tools and tactics activists are using and the strategies they adopt, and we ask what’s working, and why?  Join Akwe Amosu and her guests from all over the world – our first round of interviews look at activism in the US, Sudan, Libya and Myanmar.  And check out “The Coda” – a regular opportunity for someone in the human rights field to tell us about the poems, music and people that inspire them.  Take a listen, subscribe and send us your feedback: pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

The final episode of Season Two gets an up-close look at the roots of the increasingly prominent pro-Palestine solidarity campaign, BDS. Co-founder Omar Barghouti recalls the steps leading to the movement’s formation by a large coalition of Palestinian civil society groups, explains it’s architecture and describes some ofthe ways it has tried to have an impact. He rebuts accusations that BDS is anti-semitic and points to places, including Israel, where support is growing. In this episode: The building of the BDS movement  For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Send your ideas and feedback to pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 15. When Mike Davis, CEO of Global Witness, wants to take a break from calling out states’ harm to the environment or corporate corruption, he dons a wetsuit and heads out into the waves.

South Korea’s human rights record looks quite good –unless you’re a member of a minority.  LGBTQI  persons, people of minority faiths and foreigners have a tough time, and it’s getting tougher. Human rights lawyer PillKyu Hwang is the director of the GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation, and works with other lawyers and activists to uphold and defend minority rights. He talks about the social, economic and political backdrop to exclusion and the strategies they areusingto push back. In this episode: •How rights defenders are challenging xenophobia in South Korea •And in the Coda –finding inner calm by swimming in turbulent waters For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Send your ideas and feedback to pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Decades of police impunity against black citizens in the US were interrupted this year with a rare conviction for murder of Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed George Floyd. What changed? A bystander filmed the crime with her smart phone and made a cover-up impossible. All over the world, citizens and activists are using their phones the same way, to document violent repression. But what is the impact of capturing and processing such footage on the mental health of the person doing the filming, or the activist who views and uses it to campaign for justice? The organization “Witness” works with frontline defenders sometimes in dangerous and emotionally searing conditions, helping to secure video evidence. Witness’ director, Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, talks about the impact of secondary or vicarious trauma on her staff.  In this episode: •The trauma that comes with witnessing human rights abuse •And in the Coda –A song about a much-loved bar in Argentina  For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Send your ideas and feedback to pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 14. Economic and social justice campaigner Ignacio Saiz tells us about a song that means a great deal to him -Balderrama, by the great Mercedes Sosa. It celebrates a famous bar in Argentina’s far northern town of Salta, whose musicians and regulars cherish the community that gathers there.

We’re devoting the whole of this episode to a conversation with Indian social justice campaigner Harsh Mander, a renowned activist on behalf of the poor, the marginalized and those suffering from identity-based hatred. He has worked in a host of campaigns especially on access to health services and food security, and against homelessness and child labour and he has taken a passionate stand against xenophobia and discrimination, Mander fought against the Citizenship Amendment Act, introduced by the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi and widely perceived to be discriminatory against Muslims. But the law passed in December 2019 despite major protests and weeks later, when the pandemic took hold, the government took the opportunity to shut down political opposition.  Harsh Mander talks with host Akwe Amosu and her colleague Chris Stone, principal moderator of our Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights, about the impact of Covid 19, political repression, and new sites of activism in defence of rights. In this episode: Social justice campaigner Harsh Mander talks about the fight for rights in India For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Send your ideas and feedback to pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

The past decade has seen some spectacular social movements emerge, mobilising hundreds of thousands of people in defence of rights and sending powerful images of protest around the world. This revitalized activism is gaining energy despite rising authoritarianism. To hold the ground they gain, though, activists need to sustain their movements in between battles and turning a loose, ad hoc network into an organization isn’t easy. But one group in the Democratic Republic of Congo seems to be finding a way. Lucha - Lutte Pour Le Changement- is nearly a decade old yet it remains a grass roots movement. Fred Bauma, a member of the movement since its early months in 2012, explains how they are doing it. And in the Coda, Zimbabwe youth activist Namatai Kwekweza gets into some good trouble. In this episode: • Keeping faith with the grass roots while building for the long haul • The Coda: Congressman John Lewis fires up an activist in Zimbabwe For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, please visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Send your ideas and feedback to pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Excerpted from Strength and Solidarity Episode 12. Inspired by the late US Congressman John Lewis, activist Namatai Kwekweza reflects on the difference between bad trouble and good trouble and explains why she’s determined to keep making a noise about injustice: “I personally believe that if the noise didn't really achieve anything, then they wouldn't be telling us to keep quiet.”