Strength & Solidarity

Best Of: North Korea: What future do Koreans want, and do they agree?

While Strength&Solidarity is on a break we’re taking the chance to re-up some favourite episodes.Back in December we featured an episode about North Korea – but with a twist. Beyond the ritual condemnations of egregious practices under Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, it’s rare to get a close-up view of what the people who escape from North Korea think and feel about their lives and the future they want. Hanna Song, Executive Director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, reflects on what she has learned – a more nuanced and complex picture than is usually painted.And in the Coda, a Zimbabwean human rights lawyer relies on soccer to keep things cordial. Music by Oliver Mtukudzi.Follow us on our new Substack newsletter: strengthandsolidarity.substack.comQuick LinksClick here to read the Episode 48 Transcript.Hanna Song bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanna-song-25055a114/Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB): https://en.nkdb.org/NKDB: 2024 White Paper on North Korean Human Rights: https://en.nkdb.org/activitynews/?idx=125777386&bmode=viewUN: Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-idprk/reportofthe-commissionof-inquiry-dprk

Best Of: The Coda #24: Seamus Heaney’s Casualty - on violence, complicity and freedom

While Strength&Solidarity is on a break we’re taking the chance to re-up some favourite episodes.Coda #24 featured criminal justice and human rights expert Chris Stone reading and reflecting on a poem by Seamus Heaney, called Casualty. This famous poem of the Northern Ireland Troubles tells the story of an event that followed Bloody Sunday, the day in 1972 when British soldiers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians in Derry as they were protesting internment without trial.Quick LinksSeamus Heaney’s Casualty: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51607/casualty-56d22f7512b97Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1972)Chris Stone: https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/christopher-stoneSymposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights: https://strengthandsolidarity.org/about/

Best Of: Iran: Building a movement for rights in exile

While Strength&Solidarity is on a break we’re taking the chance to re-up some favourite episodes.Last April, in Episode 51, I talked with Negin Shiraghaei, founder of Azadi Network, about her work to build a network for Iranians in the diaspora – as a common space for advancing human rights and democracy at home. She talked about the complexity of the task, and the value of embracing lessons from failure.Here's the orginal show notes:In the quarter century since Iran’s Islamic revolution, thousands of Iranians have left their home to live in exile. Although they all have a country in common, that diaspora is hugely diverse – coming from different generations and with a wide range of origin stories, political allegiances and views about the change they would like to see in Iran. When in 2022 a young woman in Iran was beaten and killed by the morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly, anger across the exile community suggested favorable  conditions for a diaspora movement for rights in Iran to emerge. But what form should such a movement take? The founder and co-director of Azadi Network, Negin Shiraghaei, reflects on the choices she and other organizers faced as they took up that challenge.And in the Coda, Turkish eco-activist Burcu Meltem Arik shares a poem by Nazim Hikmet reminding us of what nature can teach us about resilience. Music Credit: Ben Sığmazam by Özge Arslan, 2023Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.orgWe are now publishing our newsletter on Substack, if you would like to subscribe: https://substack.com/@strengthsolidarity⁠

Best Of: The Coda #3: When African independence struck a chord with US activists

Strength&Solidarity is taking a break and that gives us a chance to re-up some favourite episodes.Here’s Coda #3 in which US civil rights veteran  Charles Cobb Jr looks back to 1963 and a chance meeting between some young black activists in the segregated south and a future Kenyan Vice President.  That event went on to be celebrated in a song that became a favourite in the civil rights movement.And don’t forget there are nearly 50 codas for you to explore – young activist poets in Sudan’s brilliant but sadly defeated revolution; a young US lawyer recalling the profound connection he found in 1980s El Salvador; a human rights ED who took up his guitar and sang us a lovely Mercedes Sosa song – not to mention favourite poems, music and activities – from wild swimming to reading to the kids at bedtime. It’s a treasure trove for you to explore - take ten minutes out to decompress and experience someone-else’s world.

58. Tunisia: Queer courage as strategy

It can sometimes seem as though fighting for queer rights in a hostile society is an unwinnable project.  All too often, punitive laws, state violence, economic exclusion and social hostility are stacked against a community that is isolated and excluded. That’s certainly true in Tunisia and other North African countries. But in this episode, queer Tunisian activist Assala Mdawkhy tells host Akwe Amosu that creating safe spaces and building a movement for LGBTQI rights should be taken as indicators of staying power and eventual success. Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.orgWe are now publishing our newsletter on Substack, if you would like to subscribe: ⁠https://substack.com/@strengthsolidarity⁠