Beyond Borders's podcast WRFG

This week the Beyond Borders crew starts with our regional round-up discussing news from around the Caribbean and Latin America.  While technical difficulties prevented our interview on Venezuela, we discuss the issue of US imperialism in Latin America with a focus on the School of the Americas located at Fort Benning in Georgia.  We also learn that the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) will return to Georgia this November to call for tech closure of the SOA.
 
In the second hour we check in with Uche Onwa who spent about 3 months in detention at the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC) after being detained on his way to a human rights conference dedicated to supporting those in the LGBTQ community.  Uche shares his previous advocacy work in Nigeria, his experiences in detention in the US, and his role in pushing the City of Atlanta to end their detention agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).   Uche also discusses his new leadership role at the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP).  Learn more at: http://www.qdep.org
 
Finally we wrap up the program with a discussion on resistance to nuclear weapons organized by seven Kings Bay Plowshares activists in St. Mary's, Georgia.  The activists share their philosophy, dedication to non-violent civil disobedience, and even treat listeners to a celebration of their values in song.  Learn more at: https://www.kingsbayplowshares7.org

On this week's program, the Beyond Borders Crew checks in with several Venezuela solidarity actions happening around the US and the rest of the world in places like New York City, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Pensacola, Florida.  These coordinated actions are united in their opposition to US military intervention in Venezuela and seek to expose the so-called "humanitarian aid crisis" at the Venezuela-Colombia border as a PR stunt manufactured by the US government and others supporting the attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro.  
 
In the second hour, the team explores the connections between white supremacy and racism throughout Latin America and the US as they interview a group of students from Kennesaw State University (KSU) resisting overt threats against black students and other student of color on campus made by white students with openly white supremacist views.  Many of those fighting injustices on campus are working together as a part of a student organization called KSUnited that formed to address racism on campus and originally defended the rights of student athletes using their freedom of speech to resist racism and white supremacy by kneeling at sporting events.  Their work played a crucial role in the resignation of former KSU president, Sam Olens, due to his mishandling of student protest.  Now KSUnited and their allies are calling for the university to defend victims of racist threats and devote resources to the construction of an anti-racist center on campus. You can find more information on this incidents and student responses in Arielle's reporting here:
Student Targeted by Racial Discrimination in Group Chat Speaks Out
Events Held to Address Racial Climate on Campus
Night of Healing Event Addresses Racial Climate on Campus

The studio team is joined by Guerchang Bastia a renowned artists, changemaker and political activists hailing from Hinche, Central Ayiti to talk about his music, fighting for rights in Haiti, the youth, and the opportunities to support changemaking. 
Music as a cultural weapon to challenge patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism, etc is explored as well as the central role of Hinche as a center of political and popular challenge to the status quo.
Check out his music here.
2nd Hour
Beginning on March 10, thousands of people throughout southwestern Colombia took to the streets. The "Minga in Defense of Life, Territory, Democracy, Justice, and Peace" brings together people fed up with the government's empty promises and the continuation of a war that dispossesses and displaces them, as it simultaneously destroy the planet: Madre Tierra, Uma Kiwe, Mother Earth.
 
Over the course of three weeks, the Minga has been subjected to threats, attacks, and racist vitriol emanating from the Colombian nation-state.
 
According to a recent statement from Pueblos en Camino:
What is this Minga for? Well, it's to defend life, territory, justice, and peace for the peoples without owners. It is not a "direct action" to negotiate with an elected official currently holding office, if they are invited (and it's good to invite them). [The Minga] convenes us to understand, to rise up, to rescue our memory, to recognize a path without the state. That's right -- without the state -- because the state can't solve the problems it causes. Because the state exists to exploit and dispose of life; to destroy and exploit the territories; to commit injustices and cover them up in order to make war, which is its supreme instrument. The state is, well, the patriarchy.
[...]
So what does the Minga want? We want to live in peace. We want to live the good life in our territories. We want to sing and dance to the rhythms of Mother Earth.
To learn more about the Minga, we are joined by Manuel Rozental, who is part of Pueblos en Camino (https://pueblosencamino.org/) and participated in previous Mingas.

In this episode we were able to speak with Claudia, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and have a glimpse at her US imperialism, separation, and patriarchy have impacted her. She also tells the story of a woman diagnosed with cancer who was still forced to work The Second Shift (the additional labor women have to perform outside of the workplace at home). We also talked to Josue, (and a woman whose name I don't remember) about issues with the caravan and how there is oppression against members of the caravan and those reporting on it. Priyanka Bhatt from Project South also came and gave us a quick update on Georgia Detention Watch and (I think???) we talk a bit about 21 Savage and how immigration is not just a (non-black) latinx issue

Kevin, Arielle, and Jovan are joined in the studio by Ras Kofi Kwayana to discuss Bob Fest ATL 2019 and the upcoming weeks of event. The impact and continued vibrations of Bob Marley and his impact on the world are discussed in depth.
In the second hour, the team is joined by Bassey Etuk of Project South to discuss the #RAMificationsofPATRIOTISM and callers call in to discuss their beliefs on the matter as folks come to Atlanta to watch the superbowl!
The show closes out with conversation about Langston Hughes and his triple consciousness and an extended musical selection for Beyond Borders After Dark!
 
Enjoy
 
For info about Bob Fest ATL 2019 visit
http://www.ondafarm.com/home/bobfest/
Kids Who Die
This is for the kids who die,
Black and white,
For kids will die certainly.
The old and rich will live on awhile,
As always,
Eating blood and gold,
Letting kids die.
Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi
Organizing sharecroppers
Kids will die in the streets of Chicago
Organizing workers
Kids will die in the orange groves of California
Telling others to get together
Whites and Filipinos,
Negroes and Mexicans,
All kinds of kids will die
Who don’t believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment
And a lousy peace.
Of course, the wise and the learned
Who pen editorials in the papers,
And the gentlemen with Dr. in front of their names
White and black,
Who make surveys and write books
Will live on weaving words to smother the kids who die,
And the sleazy courts,
And the bribe-reaching police,
And the blood-loving generals,
And the money-loving preachers
Will all raise their hands against the kids who die,
Beating them with laws and clubs and bayonets and bullets
To frighten the people—
For the kids who die are like iron in the blood of the people—
And the old and rich don’t want the people
To taste the iron of the kids who die,
Don’t want the people to get wise to their own power,
To believe an Angelo Herndon, or even get together
Listen, kids who die—
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodies’ll be lost in a swamp
Or a prison grave, or the potter’s field,
Or the rivers where you’re drowned like Leibknecht
But the day will come—
You are sure yourselves that it is coming—
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky—
The song of the life triumphant
Through the kids who die.
(Langston Hughes)

In the first hour with have an update of regional news and the studio team is joined by the Venezuelan consul in New Orleans, Jesus “Chucho” Garcia for a wide ranging conversation on a variety of topics involving Venezuela and the region at large.
In the second hour, Georgia Detention Watch provides an update on the situation in the state and students from Freedom University join in on a conversation on liberatory education today.