Monday, July 1, 2019: Women Confront the Crisis in Haiti

In this episode of KPFA Women's Magazine we talk about how women are coping with an escalation of government-sponsored violence in Haiti, and a political crisis we hear little about but which has been going on for over a year. Judith Mirkinson, president of the SF Bay Chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild and the Comfort Women Justice Coalition and Leslie Mullin, long-time member of the Haiti Action Committee, talk about what they learned on recent trips to Haiti. Haitians have been in the streets for almost a year protesting government theft of millions of dollars. In November, paramilitaries associated with the Haitian army and police massacred dozens of civilians in the neighborhood of LaSaline, as UN troops did nothing to protect the people.

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Also on today's show:
Toni Morrison Comes to Film

Monday, October 10, 2016 - Hurricane in Haiti and How to Help

Marilyn Langlois, board member of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, joins us to talk about the disastrous impact of Hurricane Matthew and how we can help.  HERF is a grassroots volunteer-run organization working directly with community projects in Haiti.  Marilyn also discusses the presidential election, now postponed, in which Dr. Mayrise Narcisse seeks to become the first woman president of Haiti. Narcisse is the candidate of Fanmi Lavalas, the popular party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in U.S.-backed coups in 1991 and 2004.

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Also on this show:  Rad Women Worldwide, an interview with author Kate Schatz
and Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion
 
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Twice Censored: Underreported Women's and Gender Issues of 2010

The Project Censored List of Top 25 Censored Stories of 2009-2010 includes not one story related to a women's or gender issue. NOT ONE! Does that mean women's issues get lots of attention? We don't think so. Instead, it points to the masculinist bias of even the progressive media and media watchdogs.

So producer Kate Raphael has produced her own quite inexhaustive list of censored or underreported stories related to women and gender in the last year. See what you think. If you want to comment on one of her choices or suggest one of your own, please email us at kpfawomensmag@gmail.com.

Listen to the show, which also includes memorial tributes to Dorothy Height, Wilma Mankiller and Mary Daly.


The list below is not in ranked order, though Kate feels that Iraq does belong at the top.

-- The impact of 7 years of occupation on Iraqi women (Malihe Razazan of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa comments)

-- Sexual assault in the military hits epidemic proportion (includes excerpt of report by Scott Shafer of KQED TV)

-- New mammogram guidelines stir controversy (interview with Barbara Brenner of Breast Cancer Action)

-- Grassroots women's organizations are leading in the rebuilding of Haiti (interview with Yifat Suskind of Madre International [Malihe points out that Madre's website doesn't even mention Iraq!))

-- Pregnant women prisoners in California still face shackling, and thousands of abused women are still in prison for defending themselves (interview with Karen Shain of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children)

-- Victoire Ingebirre Umuhoza was the leading challenger to Rwandan president Paul Kagame, except instead of being allowed to run, she was imprisoned (Ann Garrison interviewed Ingebirre for WINGS)

-- Many women political prisoners in Iran are held in solitary confinement and without access to lawyers, families or medical care (interview with Malihe Razazan)

-- Global gatherings like the Cancun climate conference, the G20 and the U.S. Social Forum were covered from start to finish by progressive media, but several major international women's gatherings didn't even rate a headline. These included the 15 year review of the Beijing Platform for Action, the Global Maternal Health Conference and the third African Feminist Forum (interview with Nigerian feminist scholar Amina Mama).

-- Year of the Disabled Lesbian (interview with Laura Rifkin, founder of the Fabled Asp project)

-- Disabled women led the fight against cuts to In-Home Support Services and other social welfare programs, with ArnieVille, a tent city in Berkeley (Jean Stewart, Jan Santos and Hannah Jo Karpalo talk about the creative protest known as ArnieVille).

-- More bad news for women workers: Republicans in the Senate filibustered to block passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have required employers to prove that wage disparities were job-related, not gender based.

-- Did you know there were women working on oil rigs and leading the clean up of the Gulf? Coastal Women for Change is one of a number of women's organizations that sprung into action when the Deepwater Horizon well blew up. (Merle Savage, general foreperson on the Exxon Valdez cleanup, begs President Obama to make BP give the Gulf cleanup crews respirators and tell them the truth about the risk.)

-- Same sex marriage and Don't Ask Don't Tell were all over the media, both mainstream and progressive, but where were the voices of queers who aren't interested in heteronormative marriage or seeing queers join the imperialist military? (Excerpt from the documentary "Beyond Gay Marriage" by Women's Magazine's Lisa Dettmer)

Connecting the Dots: Feminism, Community Media, Spirituality and Eliminating Violence Against Women

16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women and Girls

Nina Serrano speaks with MamaCoAtl, coordinator and founder of San Francisco's yearly observance of the United Nations Day to End Violence against Women and Girls.  MamaCoAtl sings an original song as part of this breathtaking interview. 11:03

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Events scheduled during 16 Days of Action to End Violence:

Tuesday 11/23 - noon - Rally at San Francisco City Hall

Thursday 11/25 - sunrise -  Earth Healing Ceremony on Alcatraz Island

Saturday 11/27 - 5 PM - Rompiendo Cadenas/Breaking the Chains, Healing Workshop and Concert, Dance Mission Theatre, 3316 24th Street, San Francisco

Friday 12/10 - 5:15-6:15 - Women in Black - Silent vigil at Market and Montgomery, San Francisco
                      - 7 PM - Closing Ceremony, Songs for a New Beginning, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, San Francisco



Mary Ratcliffe: Strengthening Our Communities Through Community Media

Mary and her husband, Willie Ratcliffe, took over the San Francisco Bay View in 1992 and have built it into the nation's largest circulation Black newspaper.  In this interview with Kate Raphael, Mary talks about her history as president of the unusual National Organization for Women chapter in Fairbanks, Alaska, a hilarious encounter with Betty Friedan, how women won the right to work on the pipeline, and what she and her husband have tried to do with the Bay View.  As a long-time racial and media justice activist, she also shares her views on the past and current crises at KPFA and Pacifica and how we can put the community back into community media. 35:13
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Haitian Women in the Forefront and Suppressed Women's Histories

As Haiti disappears from our TV screens and our attention returns to
domestic issues, the people of Haiti are now in even greater peril as
the rains begin threatening a public health disaster. But the people
of Haiti are not just standing in the rain waiting to be rescued. They
are organizing, both in the U.S. and in Haiti, where over 50 grassroots groups met in Port Au Prince to demand input into the future of Haitian reconstruction, and the issues of women and children are front and center.
Lisa Dettmer talks to well known Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat about how the Haitian American community is responding to the Earth quake in Haiti, and with Beverly Bell, editor of "Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance," about the grass roots movements organizing in
Haiti and creating a new paradigm for Haiti's future. Beverly is the coordinator of the organization Other Worlds Are Possible.

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Kate Raphael talks with Max Dashu, founder of the Suppressed Histories Archives, about her 40 years of groundbreaking work on women’s power and contributions to many cultures. Orthodox history says men have always dominated women, but Max Dashu says otherwise. Hear about the evidence she has unearthed over the last 40 years.

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