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Haiti crisis update: with guest Jeff Sprague, Pierre LaBossiere by Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod

Today on ST an update on Haiti. Well-armed death squads in Haiti, are continuing their campaign of terror against impoverished Haitians. Meanwhile some of the left in the US are confused and are promoting some of the key death squad leaders Guy Phillipe and Jimmy Cherizier (known as Barbque) as revolutionary leaders. And the agreement brokered by CARICOM, the Caribbean heads of state, to establish a Transitional Council after which the much hated Ariel Henry would step down, has yet been finalized.

Another name we hear reported on the media is Moise Jean Charles whose political party Petit Dessaline formed an alliance with Guy Phillipe and Barbecue. Jean Charles is said to have ambitions to be President of Haiti. Moise Jean Charles first agreed to be part of the Transitional Council, then changed his mind and said he would not be on the council. He has yet again changed has now said yes his that party would be part of the Council. This has created confusion and further division. Our guest are journalist and Haiti expert Kevin Pina and Haitian human rights campaigner and co-founder of Haiti Action Committee Pierre Labossiere.

Welcome to ST as the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and increasing attacks on Palestinians on the West Bank, an on-line event was held on March 10th 2024. The program uplifted the stories and voices of women living in Palestine, they participated in an event that marked IWD entitled “we stand with Palestinian women, children, and their families against the Israel/US genocide including bombing and starvation”. The program also included the voice of a Palestinian American woman on the impact of the on-going genocide in Gaza on Palestinian children and families living in the US. The event was called by the Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color/GWS. We were joined by a wide-ranging planning group that brought women and men across movements standing in solidarity with and offering practical support via the Middle East Children’s Alliance to women, children and their families in Palestine. We worked directly with the Middle East Children’s Alliance in organizing the event. In addition to the planning group sponsoring organizations included: Alexandria House; Rev. Annie Chambers; Black Alliance for Just Immigration; Black Lives Matter/LA; Every Mother is a Working Mother Network; Haiti Action Committee; Indigenous Environmental Network; International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Katea Stitt Program Director of Pacifica Radio’s WPFW, La Resistencia, Long Beach Area Peace Network; Los Angeles Baby Cooperative; Military Families Speak Out; Movement for Family Power; Orange County Peace Coalition; Payday men's network; Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW!; Pete White, Founder of LA CAN; Robin D. G. Kelley; San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice; Social Welfare Action Alliance; Social Workers Ending Poverty Together; US PROStitutes Collective; Veterans for Peace Chapter 110; Veterans for Peace LA; We Stand Up for All; Welfare Warriors; Women's March Foundation Los AngelesThe voices of Palestinian women are rarely heard, so we are glad to bring you their voices on today’s program.

Today on Sojourner Truth: A member of the military has died after setting himself on fire outside the White House in protest of the genocide in Gaza. The US rejected yet another cease fire proposal at the UN and instead has offered a watered-down version of a temporary pause for humanitarian aid. And despite an outcry from governments around the world with the notable exception of the US and UK, the Israeli PM Netanyahu has pledged to move forward with his threat to step up attacks on Rafah which is where thousands of Palestinians had fled following Israel’s call for Palestinians to flee the North of Gaza. South Africa is continuing to push for Israel to be charged with genocide. And in the US Congress is set to send 14.1 billion more to Israel including support for US military operations in the region.

As protests against the genocide continue unabated in countries around the world, today we focus on what you the ST listener can do. We are raising funds for both your local Pacifica station as well as for the Middle East Children’s Alliance/MECA who are concretely addressing the humanitarian crisis as best they could with volunteers on the ground in Gaza. Our guest is Zeiad Abbas, executive director of MECA.

Today on Sojourner Truth for our Weekly Broadcast, we take a deep dive into the situation on the ground in Haiti. Next month will mark the 20th anniversary of the US/Canada/France supported coup against Haiti’s first democratically elected President, Jean Bertrand Aristide. The crisis facing Haiti today from death squads referred in the media as gangs, to an unelected government cannot be separated from the 2004 coup. The instability that followed the coup is deeply connected to the US aiming to control the Presidency of Haiti, and so the efforts across political parties and civil society activists in Haiti to implement a Haiti led solution to the present crisis has been undermined by western powers every inch of the way.

And now Guy Phillippe one of the CIA trained leaders of the 2004 coup was released from the US prison and within weeks of his release, the international main-stream media are hailing Phillippe as the leader of the opposition in Haiti! Who is Guy Phillippe, what role has he played over the past decades in Haiti? Why is he now being heralded by the forces that be?

Meanwhile the Supreme Court in Kenya has blocked Kenya from sending Kenya police to lead a US financed force in Haiti. The President of Kenya is appealing the court’s decision. Why is the US, while not committing its own troops, pressing so hard for yet another occupying force to be sent to Haiti, this time led by Black nations? Our guest is Norluck Dorange a senior journalist in Haiti.

As what is being dubbed a genocide going on in Gaza, with now over 25,000 killed the majority of whom are women and children, and with over 62,000 injured. The US anti-war movement is struggling to impact the US Congress and President Biden to actively call for and work for a ceasefire, as well as to stop funding Israel’s military operation. The US historically provides over $3 billion in aid each year to Israel, the largest to any other country. Additionally, the Biden administration bypassed Congress through an emergency provision in the Arms Export Control Act to sell Israel $106 million worth of tank ammunition. Biden’s unilateral support for Israeli policies in Gaza has earned him the moniker “Genocide Joe”. Our guest is Kevin Martin, President of Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund.

And there is news on the Child Tax Credit. After millions of families were disappointed when Congress allowed the popular expanded CTC to expire after one year, there is new hope for a bi-partisan deal to bring back some elements of the expanded CTC. But who will be left out of the credit? The Expanded CTC lifted at least 4 million children out of poverty and cut child hunger by ¼. In contrast the new bipartisan proposal under pressure from the GOP would roll back some of the earlier gains of the Expanded CTC. The new proposal would lift 400,000 children out of poverty leaving behind millions of the most impoverished. Congresswoman DeLauro who has championed the CTC for over two decades said that the bi-partisan CTC proposal “will keep millions of children in preventable poverty.” Most NGO advocates on Capitol Hill including the Children’s Defense Fund, Economic Security Project and others are supporting the bi-partisan compromise though they admit it doesn’t go far enough out of fear of no action in this Congress on the CTC and with the hope that it can be improved on in 2025.

We will hear remarks by Congresswoman Gwen Moore a champion in Congress against poverty, as she spoke during the House Ways and Means Committee Hearing this past Friday on the proposed compromise. And our guest is Phoebe Jones Schellenberg who has been actively supporting bringing back the expanded CTC. Phoebe is with Care Income Now and is a co-coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike in the US.