Sojourner Truth - Friday, May 15, 2026

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1. That's it for today's Living in the USA.
2. Our social media maven is Renee Reynolds.
3. Thanks as always to Rye Cooter for our theme music, Mambo Sinuendo.
4. You can listen online anytime you want at livingintheusapod.com.
5. I'm John Wiener.
6. We'll be back next week talking about politics, thinking about the left, and living in the USA.
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14. You're listening to KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles.
15. Thank you.
16. The program that you're about to hear is a rebroadcast and has previously aired here on KPFK.
17. This is Ace Estwick general manager of KPFK 90 FM Last Saturday afternoon over 600 people filled into First Congregational Church of Los Angeles in Koreatown for an event KPFK produced called Samud
18. Samud is an Arabic word that resists translation.
19. Most people render it as steadfastness.
20. But as the comedian Amr Zahar told The Room,
21. what it really means is we're not going anywhere.
22. For the next hour, we're going to share pieces
23. of that night with you.
24. Amr will open, you'll hear the poet Jaya John,
25. and we'll close with a labor panel moderated by our own Sonali Kodhakkar of Rising Up
26. and anchored by Chris Smalls, the Amazon worker who built a union out of a Staten Island warehouse,
27. was released by an Israeli prison last fall after the IDF boarded his humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza,
28. and just last week was arrested in New York for protesting Jeff Bezos' Met Gala.
29. KPFK is in our Spring Fun Drive,
30. and I'll be back at the half hour with Gary Baca
31. to tell you about a new thank you gift.
32. Stay with us.
33. Good afternoon.
34. Wonderful.
35. Well, my name is Amir Zahir.
36. That's Amir Zahir if you can't speak Arabic or if you're white.
37. and we are here today to celebrate the strength of the Palestinian people.
38. We are here.
39. I'm very, very honored when they asked me to be the host and emcee of today's event
40. here as we celebrate the great work of KPFK and the theme, yes, you can clap for them,
41. who have been standing up for justice for as long as they've been around.
42. And the theme of today's event, the title of today's event, which is Samud.
43. And Samud in Arabic, for those of you who don't know, we usually translate it as steadfastness.
44. But what it really means is we're not going anywhere.
45. And it applies to everybody in Palestine, but it applies to everybody here in America and Los Angeles as well.
46. Now, for those of you who don't know me, I am a comedian, I'm a lawyer, I'm a professor, I travel around the world, I go to Palestine.
47. I never visit Palestine, I return to Palestine, because we're all going to return one day.
48. And I was there, I was in Palestine a few months ago, I'm originally from the city of Nazareth in Palestine,
49. which, it feels weird to be a Palestinian from Nazareth in a church, but whatever.
50. So I'm originally from the city of Nazareth in Palestine, and I was there a few months ago.
51. I don't know if anybody follows me. I was there a few months ago doing comedy shows.
52. It was the first time I'd done comedy shows in Palestine since October 7th.
53. I've done maybe a hundred before then.
54. But now we waited a few years, waited until the timing was right.
55. It's never fully right, but we waited until we thought it was okay.
56. And I was able to do a little comedy tour in Palestine.
57. My first show at part of that tour was a day of shows in Nazareth in the old city,
58. in a Palestinian-owned businesses in the old city of Nazareth,
59. which, as all of you know, was under full Israeli control.
60. I had three shows. The first show was at 5 o'clock.
61. The second show was at 7 o'clock. The last show was at 9 o'clock.
62. And they were all sold out. I'm very lucky, you know.
63. And after the first show, the 5 o'clock show, we got done around 6.30,
64. and I walked outside, and I saw the Israeli police were kind of like milling around.
65. You know, there are a lot of Arabs congregating in one place and having a good time,
66. and apparently this was a problem.
67. And they came up to me the police and they said we like to talk to you I said is this optional They said no
68. I said, can we do it tomorrow? I'll come by, we'll have a cup of coffee, I have two more shows.
69. They said, no, now.
70. So now it's about 15 minutes before my next show starts, people are lining up,
71. and luckily there was a lawyer who came to my first show, she was a fan of mine,
72. she said, hey, I'll come with you to go talk to the police.
73. I said, great.
74. walked into the police station. I said, hey, I'm here. They said, okay, come on in. I said,
75. my lawyer's with me. They said, no, no lawyers. I said, oh, I thought this was the only democracy
76. in the Middle East. I thought I'd get a lawyer. They said, no, no lawyers. I said, why?
77. They said, because this isn't a real interrogation. We just want to have a conversation with you.
78. I said, well, I'd be honored. So I walked in and after they took about half an hour to figure out
79. how to work the computer and register me into their system or whatever, they said to me, well,
80. on stage when you're talking and you're telling jokes, do you engage in incitement against the
81. state of Israel? I said, of course not. They said, are you thinking about engaging incitement against
82. the state of Israel? I said, of course not. Of course not. They said, do you support Israel or
83. are you against Israel? I said, I would prefer not to answer this question. They said, no, you have
84. to answer. We've got to put it in the computer. I said, okay, you know, neither, you know, whatever.
85. neutral. They, you know, whatever, just put, just whatever goes in that thing, just, you know, put it.
86. Then they said, well, we'd like to inform you that if you continue in your incitement
87. and threats against the state of Israel, you could be in prison for a very long time. We don't know
88. how long, but you could be. And as you might know, in Israel, they have something called
89. administrative detention, where they can hold you for six months without a lawyer and then renew it.
90. And there's many Palestinians, in fact, right now about 1,200, who are sitting in jail under
91. administrative detention. No charge, no lawyers, no nothing. So they said, we'd just like to inform
92. you of that. I said, okay, thank you for the information. Then they gave me a piece of paper
93. in Hebrew. They said, sign this. I said, I don't speak Hebrew. They said, no, it's okay. It's just
94. what we were talking about. I said, no, you know, I don't speak Hebrew. And my lawyer's right outside.
95. let her come inside she'll read it to me and i'll sign it they said no no lawyers so i wrote in
96. english on the piece of paper i do not understand hebrew and i signed my name next to that
97. they finally let me out now it's like uh 8 15 8 20 i had a show at seven o'clock and i live in
98. dearborn i thought i thought i understood like arab gossip and how quickly people learn stuff
99. i walked out of that police station there were already six arab guys with phones in front of
100. my face. Alhamdulillah, we are so proud of you. You're a hero. I'm like, bro, they just took me
101. for an hour. It's not. My cousin, I live in, I'm from Nazareth. So my cousin was there with me and
102. I said, hey man, it's 8.15. I had a seven o'clock show. What happened to those people? He said,
103. they heard what happened to you and they're sitting waiting for you to come back. I said,
104. alright then let's go time to tell jokes so I went back ran back I did the seven
105. o'clock show at 830 I did the nine o'clock show at 945 I did two shows the
106. next night in Haifa I did a show a couple nights after that in Ramallah for
107. 800 people we recorded that show and it gonna come out very soon but the palette the real story is not me the real story is the Palestinians in Nazareth and everywhere in Palestine who heard what was happening to a brother of theirs and said you know what we just going to chill
108. and we're going to wait and we're going to hang out until he comes back because this happened to all of us before.
109. And that, that is Samud. That is, we're not going anywhere.
110. Samud is...
111. Samud can be anything from a hunger strike in an Israeli jail for months
112. to we're not going to let you mess up our Friday night,
113. we still want to go to a comedy show.
114. That is what we have been doing for 77 years.
115. They've been trying to get rid of us and luckily they're very bad at it.
116. And we are very stubborn.
117. And as I was sitting in that room, you know, I have four grandparents,
118. all of whom were born in Palestine, and none of them are buried in Palestine,
119. against their will. I have two grandparents buried in Fresno, California. They didn't want
120. to be buried there. And so I was just thinking in that room, you know, for those two hours,
121. just don't disappoint them. That's all I was thinking about. They were my Samud for a long
122. time. Don't disappoint them. I also was thinking, I'm an American, you know, they got to treat me
123. good, but then I remembered that the American ambassador to Israel is Mike Huckabee. And I said,
124. what am I going to do? Call Mike Huckabee? You know, he doesn't. Mike Huckabee's hanging out
125. in Jerusalem waiting for Jesus to come back, and Jesus might come back. But if he does, the first
126. thing he's going to say is not going to be, where is Mike Huckabee? I must see Mike Huckabee.
127. So we are not going anywhere, and that's what this event is today about. We are going to be
128. here all day celebrating the strength of the Palestinian people. We have a wonderful lineup
129. of cultural performances, panels, intellectual talks. We really hope to fill everybody up.
130. So the first person I'd like to welcome to the stage is someone who I think all of you in Los
131. Angeles know, a man who has used his pen and his words and his poetry to talk about justice for as
132. long as any of us can remember. Please help me welcome to the stage Dr. Jaya Jha.
133. By the way, to help with the energy in this grand sanctuary,
134. I'm going to ask each of you to pretend as though you are black.
135. And this is a black church.
136. And we're going to...
137. Y'all can feel me? You feel me?
138. Yeah. Okay.
139. Okay.
140. Thank you.
141. Thank you.
142. Today, we are all Philistine.
143. Today, we are all Philistine.
144. We have gathered here today to ignite the Levantine sun inside our hearts
145. and stroke the lush garden of our souls like lovers.
146. Today we give reverence to life by giving reverence to phallastin, which is life.
147. Today we are the sensuous, supple, seeping song of Samud.
148. Deep rooted in our homeland, forever returning home, building again, growing again,
149. we are an eternity of aching, dying, birthing. We are an infinity,
150. of moons. Prideful legacy of Sumud, endless caravan of resistance, garden of endurance,
151. steadfast and determined, unyielding magnificence. We persist, sweet and sticky like dates and figs,
152. honey and pollen, nectar and necking. We are the spice, the seasons colonizing conditions.
153. we are a souk of soulfulness remember you're black remember you're black
154. call and respond some of us are culturally disabled that's okay that's all right
155. yeah we are the spice the season's colonizing conditions we are a souk of soulfulness a
156. towering tent of romance. We make love to our lands. Our lands make love to us. We are offspring
157. of seduction. Our sweet tears water the crops, make lakes in the desert. We leap into those waters
158. and come up defiant and dripping with songs. Our old ones still kiss their fruit. Our children know
159. joy. We hold hands in the streets. We are lovers forced to confront a death factory, and we do.
160. We surge like a swollen river, castrate the dreams of genociders. We won't leave. We won't stop
161. living. We, Sumudin, delirious with soul fire, with the ornate ovation of old times percolating
162. through our pain. We are onyx and obsidian, stark against alabaster agitation. Our ancestors were as
163. stubborn as Palestine's hillside boulders. They could not be moved.
164. They were allergic to displacement, returned home like golden flowers, treated weeds,
165. treated weeds and yet always blooming.
166. Fragrant roses, sturdy orchards rooted in our homeland,
167. desert soil clinging to our thirsty roots,
168. our divine dreams, our melancholy memories.
169. We are philistine, hope of the world, altar of life.
170. Hope of the world, altar of life, humanity's mirror, bedrock, compass, and fire.
171. Sumudin, a people who cause reckoning, celibate to surrender, fertile to freedom,
172. galloping holy horses aside the tide spray of a Palestinian sea.
173. we are a parade of clouds
174. a sky full of martyrs
175. Jericho's sons
176. Jordan water daughters
177. rose sweet rose water
178. persistent beauty
179. intimate with beauty
180. in bed with beauty
181. moaning under the cosmic quilt
182. of conception
183. we birth life
184. We Sumudin explode the ordinance of erasure We are a calligraphy of the most precious ink
185. Paragraphs of exodus, verses of village life, haiku of humility.
186. We show humanity its broken bones, its sold-out soul, and its fervent way home.
187. We are Levantine, lantern, lighthouse, luminosity in the mist.
188. Night dreams of daylight the way darkness dreams of phallistine.
189. We are morning dew, a returning water, a people as land savoring itself, salivating for its
190. own aroma and flavor, for its foods and oh, our foods, our shish barak, rice pudding with
191. mastic sap tears, rose water and orange blossom.
192. Mujadara, makluba, shakshuka, makdus.
193. Look close and see us in the bark and fruit and roots of the olive and the mastic trees.
194. We grow for centuries in a desert of oppression that every day tries to kill us.
195. We know every molecule and microbe of what it means to be alive.
196. Yes, we know death, and so we spark life.
197. We are rich black coffee humming with flavor, nectar of flowers sideways, soul songs, stealth
198. in the malicious machinery, olive oil lubricating our unrepentant joy.
199. We break open the ripe red watermelon flesh of our grief and eat the seeds of revolution.
200. Our people die into the birth of a million prophets.
201. We are exponential life forms multiplying into glory, unconquerable in the chaos,
202. sea boats heavy with fish catch, decadent stew, deliverance amidst the drought,
203. hallelujah waters flowing impossible and plentiful in the soul. Today we are all
204. phallistine, we docket dance, we bleed, we set our sorrow free, we flood the
205. courtyard with our tears, our soaked in holy rivers, our clarity in the dust
206. storms, wind chimes in the silence, harmonious wailing, grief bandits stealing
207. vitality from despair. We frustrate evil and we frustrate evil. Confound colonizers drive
208. hungry ghosts crazy until they eat their own children and cannibalize the world. We are
209. phallistine, a prophecy of freedom, the feast before, during, and after the Nakba of madness.
210. A thousand years from this day, we will still be dancing, rooting, remaining, romancing, holding our loved ones close, kissing each other's faces.
211. We remain. We remain. We remain.
212. We are slow tea and slow stories beneath the cypress trees, cardamom and cloves, cinnamon
213. and ginger, easy cafe conversations, suitcases left unpacked and unneeded, a staying.
214. We are a staying a staying punctuated with the pollen of peace and hummingbirds safe enough to suckle the succulents of grace
215. We are a heart conversation between the dearest friends, a soul weaving plunged into the honey and chocolate of truth.
216. We are a survivor's heart that finally breaks from its deepest pain into countless shards of suffering and is swept up into endless arms of consolation.
217. Our every breath is a rebellion, a revival of jubilation, of prayers cuddled in the hugs between those who love life.
218. All life, not segregated life, the sweeping life, mycelial and symbiotic and naked as a newborn with no borders between flesh and sky.
219. we are poetry and praise
220. song and sensuality
221. songbirds know our melodies
222. we are music
223. whirling dervishes of mystic
224. ecstasy today we
225. blush forth our aching art
226. drink our mint lemonade
227. and organize for liberation
228. aloft
229. aloft on laughter we
230. sweet gossip about our neighbors whose names and lineages we know by heart. The
231. Palestinian sea salts our skin and browns our bodies and roasts our almonds and
232. toasts our pistachios. We are painting, poetry, sculpture, stage and film, ceramics
233. and textile, mathematics and architecture, performance and prayer. We are rice and
234. yogurt dishes brimming with a universe of sensation. We are mineral of the mountains,
235. the soul of the soul of the world. We are dabke dancing today in the dirt of our dire existence,
236. feasting with passion, savoring the flavors of being alive. We are incense of a new world,
237. a world where the last empires have died. Castles are ruins and the soulless can no longer breathe.
238. for our sandalwood, musk, and amber have infiltrated the soup,
239. the marketplace of leather and falafel and knapha and passion
240. that makes babies and blessings in songs of the sunrises to come.
241. Our beloved, martyred, Palestinian poet, brother,
242. Refaat Alare, wrote,
243. if I must die, you must live.
244. And so today, beloved family,
245. we must burst open like the ripe red flesh
246. of our pomegranate souls,
247. and we must sing and dance and feast and cry
248. and laugh and remember and river and pray and dream,
249. and we must live.
250. Say it with me.
251. We must live.
252. We must live.
253. We must live.
254. We must live.
255. We must live.
256. We must live.
257. Shukran. Shukran.
258. Falestine.
259. All right wonderful As they get ready to set up for our first panel of the day which will focus on labor I like especially to look around this room and see the beautiful diversity that we have in this room
260. and that's what Palestine brings together.
261. Everybody.
262. I know we have Arabs. Are there any Arabs out there?
263. Yes?
264. Yeah, clap. This is not ice. Don't raise your hand. Just clap.
265. Arabs. Okay. Latinos. Wonderful.
266. All right. South Asian. India, Pakistan, Bengal. Okay. Good. Wonderful.
267. African and African American. Yes. Wonderful.
268. Asian. That's not South Asian. See? We got everything.
269. I think I see some white people.
270. Irish? I love that. I said white people, she said, no, I'm Irish. Very specific kind.
271. All right, wonderful. And so we are here today to celebrate all of that. And I heard Raida say,
272. Viva Cuba, Viva Venezuela, and Viva Iran.
273. So, I'd also like to welcome our uninvited guests from the FBI and CIA who are here with us tonight.
274. Yes, we are not ashamed to say anything that we say up here on this podium today.
275. so we have been listening to excerpts from our most recent kpfk fundraiser on saturday may 9th
276. called samud honoring both palestinian solidarity and our station's great anti-war origins what you
277. just heard is what coalition looks like and kpfk is where los angeles convenes it
278. We had over 600 people speaking different languages, practicing different faiths from different organizing traditions, all eating together, laughing with Amir, crying with Jaya.
279. And that just doesn't happen by accident.
280. It's what happens when an institution holds the ground for it.
281. And KPFK was that institution.
282. We produced this event from the ground up, and you, the listener, funded it.
283. This year for us marks 67 wonderful years of holding ground for Coalition Radio in Los Angeles
284. And we're looking forward to another 67
285. Thank you Ace, 818-985-5735
286. Today's show focused on Palestine and Nakba
287. So hey, you asked and you shall receive
288. We get calls all the time Ace that folks say you're not talking enough about Palestine
289. You're not putting it out there. Certain shows are not saying this and saying that.
290. So now we're focused on that, and we thank you for attending this event, 818-985-5735.
291. Ace, can you tell us what we have?
292. Yeah, you know, you're so right. That's why we felt it so necessary to hold this event here in L.A. right now.
293. Because it's the kind of programming KPFK has always platformed, and it couldn't be more relevant or more needed than it is right now.
294. And if you missed the event, we have a special package we're offering just for you.
295. It includes a signed copy of Dr. Ramzi Baroud's brand new book, Before the Flood, a Gaza family memoir from Seven Stories Press.
296. Ramzi gave the keynote at Samud, and the book is the story of his family, his village, Beit Daras, his city.
297. Sister Suma the Doctor killed in Qan Yunis just last October.
298. It's a harrowing story and an uplifting story of three generations of life in occupied Palestine.
299. The package also includes a beautiful handmade keffiyeh, which is the resistance scarf of Palestine,
300. woven by a Palestinian family of weavers, a factory that was in Palestine until the Nakba,
301. and then relocated to Damascus in Syria.
302. And of course, it also includes the full four-hour video of the entire Samut event
303. with the voices you just heard and many, many more.
304. So again, that number is 818-985-5735.
305. Gary, what's the number?
306. 818-985-5735, option 2.
307. That'll take you to the phone room, or you can pledge securely online at kpfk.org slash donate.
308. And we talk about Nakba, the annual commemoration of the 1948 forced displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians and the killing of thousands more during the creation of the Israeli state.
309. And Jewish voices are challenging the stories Israel tells about itself.
310. And I'm sure that at this event, there was a lot of folks chanting, free Palestine.
311. so we want you to go to your phone and pledge your support as ace said we have a wonderful offer
312. 818-985-5735 let them know the offer that we have again ace the offer is our smooth bundle a signed
313. copy of dr ramsey baroud's book before the flood a gaza family memoir it includes a handmade kafia
314. made by a family of palestinian weavers and it includes the full four hour recording of our
315. fundraiser event May 9th. Lots of voices, includes cultural performances, speeches, panels, nearly
316. four hours of voices, culture, celebrations, grief, testimony, the whole package, the book, the scarf,
317. and the talk. 818-985-5735 is the number to call to get that. 818-985-5735. If you were not able
318. to attend the event,
319. hey, we have it on video
320. with much, much more.
321. 818-985-5735.
322. If you missed anything here,
323. you can ask the phone room
324. and they'll explain it as well.
325. All right.
326. I'd like to welcome
327. our three panelists
328. that are going to,
329. I'll ask them to come
330. to the stage
331. when I'm all done
332. introducing them
333. and they can all come together.
334. But our three panelists today
335. doing this panel that is focused on labor.
336. The first is our moderator, Sonali Kolhatkar.
337. She is the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali,
338. building on her KPFK show, Uprising,
339. the station's longest-running drive-time show
340. hosted by a woman,
341. and she's been a multiple-time L.A. Press Club Award winner
342. and the author of Talking About Abolition.
343. The second panelist on this panel will be Nidal Rafidi.
344. He is the vice president...
345. Good?
346. That's family? Okay, he's the vice president of Teamsters Local 1932 and a director of respiratory care at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
347. And in October 2024, his local became one of the first U.S. Teamsters locals to call for a Gaza ceasefire.
348. And the third panelist today on the Labor panel is Mr. Chris Smalls.
349. Chris is the founder of the Amazon labor union the first successful Amazon warehouse union in US history In July 2025 Israeli forces boarded the Handala as part of the flotilla while he was sailing humanitarian aid to Gaza
350. beat him and held him in an Israeli prison.
351. He also, as some of you might know,
352. in his own way, attended the Met Gala a few days ago.
353. And he has been standing up for justice
354. everywhere that he can.
355. So please help me welcome to the stage,
356. Sonali, Nidal, and Chris.
357. Hi, everybody. It's so great to be here and to be in community with KPFK listeners.
358. It's been a really long time since I've done a KPFK event.
359. And I'm so excited to be joined by Chris Smalls, by Nadal Rafidi,
360. Chris going from the Met Gala to the First Congregational Church in L.A.
361. And we're here to talk about labor.
362. I want to spend the majority of this panel having my panelists speak.
363. They're the experts on this.
364. And I'll throw out the question to the two of you.
365. I do solutions journalism.
366. And so I'm always looking at where are people doing things that work and how can those be replicated?
367. And so we've seen in Europe, we've seen European unions bring their nations to a standstill.
368. We've seen that in countries like Italy and Spain.
369. Last year in particular, there were mass union movements that brought everybody out into the streets, brought their countries to a standstill, and spoke out.
370. And of course, we need that more here than in Europe, given the connection between the U.S. and Israel.
371. So what is it about European unions that you think has worked for them?
372. Why hasn't it worked here?
373. And what can be done to get American unions and organized labor to rise up in solidarity for Palestine?
374. Man, that's a great question.
375. Thank you all for being here.
376. It's an honor and pleasure to always come back to L.A., which is like my second home.
377. So thank you all. Appreciate it.
378. And that's a loaded question, but you know what?
379. I have the perfect answer because if you've been following the work I've been doing for the last nine months
380. since I've been released from prison and occupied Palestine,
381. the first thing I did was come to LA
382. and we did a protest downtown
383. if y'all remember that
384. and it was about disarming genocide
385. this campaign that I created
386. is continuing to help
387. support the dock workers in Italy
388. who've shown exactly
389. what we do when we withhold our labor
390. so
391. what you alluded to was
392. the fact that European unions
393. are not tied to a
394. two party duopoly like we are in America
395. they're actually communist unions and socialist unions and that is one reason why they're able
396. to be more militant because they still uphold those values unfortunately here our unions
397. vote blue no matter who or even worse so because they're tied to either party both parties
398. they're constrained to the type of politics that you know our politicians are alluding to
399. when it comes to Palestine.
400. So that's one way to look at it,
401. but another thing is that our union density here in the U.S.
402. is in the gutter.
403. Less than 6% in the private sector,
404. less than 9% in the public sector.
405. That number declines every single day
406. because all of the jobs that are being created
407. are artificial intelligence,
408. and they're trying to replace us.
409. Another thing is our unions are not organizing enough.
410. Unfortunately, they're just not doing enough
411. to reach everyday Americans and that on them They have to do more direct action maybe crash a Met Gala to spread awareness
412. I don't know, but once again,
413. I try to lead by example
414. as a labor leader.
415. Getting on a flotilla was one thing,
416. crashing the Met was another.
417. But also what I've been doing
418. is supporting the European unions.
419. Building that international solidarity
420. is something that we have to do.
421. so I'll just end off here real quick um the Italy workers myself included a few weeks ago
422. not a few weeks ago maybe about a month ago we shut down 21 ports in the Mediterranean Sea
423. we stopped all weapons going to Israel for one day for one day no weapons made to Israel
424. the problem is
425. the government of Italy
426. fined that union $75,000
427. and the workers
428. who go on strike they don't get paid as we know
429. so what I've been doing
430. is raising money for that union
431. so if you have the capacity
432. donate to the campaign
433. it's on shuff.org
434. backslash disarm genocide
435. we plan to go on general strike
436. again in the near future
437. so
438. let's do what we can because we all have a role to play
439. um thank you for having me and it's a honor to be with you all i'm gonna jump uh piggyback on a
440. little bit chris is saying uh the european style movement is because labor has uh been able to
441. have influence on those governments and being able to use the labor because employees take it upon
442. themselves to shut down those areas in those units. And so there's a historical background
443. that's a difference than here in the United States. Here we live in capitalism. Capitalism
444. is specific to big oligarchies, big type of businesses that care about profit.
445. And so their job in the United States is to destroy unions.
446. So the struggle in America is not only that the unions themselves
447. are trying to support the cause of Palestine from a humanitarian perspective,
448. but they are actually having to fight against the capitalist entity that's here, that's pushing against it.
449. But not hope is gone, and the last three, four years proves to all of us, we are here today, right now, in this event,
450. because of what labor has done in America
451. to support the Palestinians against the genocide.
452. That's why I'm here, right?
453. Why am I, a Palestinian American,
454. the vice president for Teamsters Local 1932,
455. representing 14,000 people?
456. why am I able to get a ceasefire and stop military aid statement out of that local
457. and it's because it comes down to humanitarianism what we saw in Gaza and still see today
458. is in-your-face genocide.
459. And shame on any union for not stepping up to defend that situation
460. You think about Martin Luther King and all of the civil rights movements,
461. labor was hand in hand in order to lift up the civil rights movement
462. and support it for freedom of speech.
463. I'm allowed to speak to you today because of that freedom of speech.
464. But we've got to use that voice now to support Palestine, to support the end of genocide in Gaza.
465. So how do we do that, Sonali, which is a great question?
466. Grassroots, people to people, working with the student movement, working with the boycott and divestment.
467. We need to shut it down, and we are, and we're going to continue that way.
468. Thank you, Nadal. Thank you, Chris.
469. So just picking up on what you were saying, Chris,
470. the union density is so low in the United States,
471. and it's falling still,
472. in spite of the fact that there is greater popularity.
473. Unions are more popular than ever.
474. Americans have very good opinions of unions.
475. More Americans want to join unions than can join unions.
476. So that's one issue.
477. The duopoly, as you were saying, is the other issue,
478. that this vote blew no matter who.
479. We have unions backing the Democratic Party, which has been in bed with Israel for so long.
480. And then we also have this, the fact, I want to bring in a third point, which is that there are
481. different kinds of unions in the United States, right? You have the organized labor that have
482. historically backed Democrats, but we have new upstart unions. And those are of a different
483. characteristic than some of the established unions. So one question to you is, is there this
484. disconnect between rank and file and union leadership and the disconnect between independent
485. newer unions and established older unions on the question of Palestine and Israel? And if so,
486. how is that, is that disconnect being overcome? Are you seeing that gap closing?
487. That's a great question. Again, yes and no. So yeah, rank and file members have been speaking
488. out against Palestine even before two and a half years ago. This has always been an issue,
489. a working class issue.
490. The problem is
491. there's great locals like my brother here
492. who have stood on the right side
493. but on an international
494. level when it comes to unions
495. history tells that
496. they haven't done absolutely nothing.
497. They passed zero resolutions
498. for the past
499. two years.
500. The only resolution that was passed on an
501. international level was from the UAW
502. but that's a ceasefire.
503. Here in the U.S., unfortunately, on an international level, the AFL-CIO that represents 12.5 million workers has passed zero resolutions.
504. Their leadership has been complicit.
505. And even worse, some of their leadership is Zionist.
506. Some of these union presidents are actual Zionists.
507. I'll give you one even more.
508. the president of the RWDSU
509. Stuart Applebaum
510. is also the president
511. of the Jewish Labor Committee
512. within the AFL-CIO
513. so there's actual lobbying within the
514. labor movement
515. and it's been that way, guess how long?
516. since 1958
517. they don't have a Palestinian Labor Committee
518. they don't have an African American
519. Labor Committee, but they have a Jewish
520. Labor Committee and the president of the
521. RWDSU is the president of the
522. Jewish Labor Committee. So we're actually fighting against our unions to hold them accountable.
523. as well is pushing them to listen to their rank and file members.
524. And there's only two maritime unions that are really the ones that are shipping weapons to Israel.
525. We know exactly who they are.
526. They're the Longshoremen Association on the East Coast and the IOWU on the West Coast.
527. With the exception of local 10 in the Bay Area, who's always stood on the right side
528. since the South African apartheid, their international is still complicit.
529. so we got to call all of these things out and if y'all once again been following my work
530. you know that I stormed the building of the AFL-CIO a few months ago and I delivered a petition
531. signed by 5,000 people you know we could pass resolutions and ceasefire deals but we all know
532. that there is no real ceasefire the only thing that's going to happen that can change and stop
533. or put an end to this genocide is if our unions withhold their labor.
534. You brought up a great question.
535. I'm going to tell you exactly the problem that I went through, right?
536. So I represent, like we said, 14,000 public employees.
537. When I first tried to push through the resolution,
538. I was told, let's not keep it on the local level.
539. Let's move it up to the joint council.
540. Went up to the joint council, waited a couple of more months and nothing.
541. Then they went up and told us, let's go to the national.
542. Nothing was there.
543. And guess what?
544. As a Palestinian who never gives up, we brought it back to the local.
545. I joined with the Hispanic caucus and the TMBC and the African American caucuses.
546. And I pushed through that statement and we were able to succeed.
547. So we still have disconnects between the national level that Chris was bringing up and all of that situation.
548. But you have a lot of the new locals and a lot of the locals, Gen Z, right, that are starting to say not in our name.
549. And there is change and you can see change.
550. One of the big slogans that we have at our local right now was worker power, you know, worker power.
551. and that is what it's going to take in today's failing economy, right, in the United States.
552. The only way we're going to make change is to hold our labor.
553. It's upon you now to support your local unions and support the rest of the unions and take action.
554. What happens when we say we go for one week without buying gas in America?
555. Do you know what you can do? Change.
556. Thank you.
557. I want to pivot a little bit to talk about young folks.
558. We have seen some of the greatest activism around Palestine on university campuses
559. with young people organizing encampments for Gaza.
560. We've also seen some of the greatest movement around independent union creation and organizing,
561. again led by young people. And this country has a growing demographic diversity in spite of the
562. efforts, the best efforts of white supremacists, the country is becoming less white and young
563. people are at the forefront of it. We have more young people of color than we did in previous
564. generations And I wondering if through that confluence of issues that you have young people who are struggling against white supremacy and are also incredibly militant who aren bound by the same rules around what you can and can say about Zionism in Palestine
565. what you can and can't do about unions and joining a union, and white supremacy.
566. Do you see some hope in young folks leading the charge on labor and Palestine
567. and doing that because there is these connections between them?
568. Yeah, 1,000%.
569. I mean, because of young people, I'm on Canary Mission right now.
570. Because I was with the students encampment at Columbia University day one.
571. And I wear that with a badge of honor.
572. You know, as a labor leader, once again, the connection that we have to grassroots organizing should be hand in hand.
573. There is a disconnect here in this country.
574. I wish international unions understood that that was such a pivotal moment in history.
575. It gave labor unions the opportunity to connect with the students that were starting encampments across our nation.
576. Thank you, Nidal Rafidi. Thank you, Chris Smalls.
577. Thank you all so much for coming, and that's it for our panel on Palestine and Labor.
578. Appreciate it.
579. Thank you very much.
580. We just heard a Labor and Palestine panel moderated by KPFK's own Sonali Kolhatkar,
581. featuring Nadal Rafidi of the Teamsters and Chris Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union.
582. KPFK is Samud, listener-supported, refusing to take corporate money and holding this ground for 67 years.
583. Gary, what Chris said about the difference between resolutions on paper and labor actually being withheld feels like the whole game.
584. That's what labor power really looks like.
585. And to me, that's the same power that built KPFK.
586. Workers and listeners together refusing to let this station die since 1959.
587. That's right. And we'll be taking a quiz after the show, so you better be taking notes.
588. And tell us what Samud is exactly.
589. Well, that's a great question, Gary. Samud is the Arabic word for steadfastness. It is the practice of always showing up, never giving up. And it's actually the DNA of KPFK. KPFK has, whether we've known it or not, been practicing Samud for 67 years now.
590. And that was part of why we decided to call this event Samud, was to highlight the threads of KPFK's resistance and the fight for liberation that we carry, and the fight for Palestinian liberation that's been going on for even longer.
591. So that's what Samud means, staying, refusing to be erased.
592. And on the 78th Nakba Day, KPFK stands strong with the Palestinian people, with the 750,000 expelled in 1948 and with the 2 million in Gaza today.
593. Thank you for that. 818-985-5735 is the number to call. We are in our spring fun drive.
594. And if you appreciate this audio that we are presenting, this event that we had, and if you weren't able to attend, we have it right here.
595. We're going to explain it one more time as a matter of fact ace can you tell us for a pledge of?
596. $150 which folks can become sustainers and pledge at $10 a month $20 a month and become sustainers with KPFK
597. What do they get 150 doesn just get you this broadcast It gets you the whole evening Four hours of what we broadcasting and every voice from Samud We have cultural and intellectual performances from Palestinians and from American solidarity activists
598. In addition, you also get a signed copy of Dr. Ramzi Baroud's brand new book,
599. Before the Flood, a Gaza family memoir from Seven Stories Press.
600. In it, Ramzi recounts the last three generations of life in occupied Palestine,
601. as told through his family's own words.
602. And lastly, you get a Palestinian keffiyeh, made by a family of Palestinian weavers.
603. The full four-hour event recording, as well as Dr. Ramzi Baroud's new book,
604. Before the Flood, a Gaza family memoir,
605. recounting three generations of life under Israeli occupation, as told through his own family.
606. And lastly, you get a beautiful handmade keffiyeh, the Palestinian scarf of resistance, made by a family of Palestinian weavers.
607. These three things, all yours for just $150 or a monthly pledge of $20.
608. All you have to do is call now, 818-985-5735.
609. Again, that's 818-985-KPFK, option 2, or pledge securely online at kpfk.org slash donate.
610. 818-985-5735 is the number to call to get this incredible package.
611. 818-985-5735 extension 2.
612. That'll go to the phone room.
613. And how important is this?
614. KPFK is a place where we could talk about this.
615. Other stations will not do this.
616. They can't do this.
617. Only KPFK 90.7.
618. So pledge your support that you hear these voices, the voices that are trying to be put down.
619. 818-985-5735.
620. This year marks 78 years of the Nakba or the Palestinians' experience of disposition and loss of their homeland.
621. 818-985-5735.
622. And if you have been following KPFK and Democracy Now! and other programs that we've had,
623. you know the devastation that has happened in Gaza pretty much wiped out.
624. You know, when we talk about trauma, nationalism have shaped Israel's society after October 7th.
625. and during the genocide in Gaza, arrives as old political certainties around Israel are fracturing increasingly among Jewish and Israeli intellectuals,
626. artists, rabbis, and historians themselves.
627. And those polls that you cite really just tell the tip of the iceberg, that we have seen such a rapid evolution,
628. people finding their moral clarity with record speed on this issue.
629. But KPFK has been platforming Palestinian voices since the 1950s.
630. We're not new to this fight.
631. We're not new to standing in our truth and fighting for justice.
632. For Palestinians, the Nakba is not a date in history.
633. It is a continuity.
634. There is a second Nakba unfolding in Gaza right now.
635. And that is why we felt it so necessary to have this event.
636. So if this kind of programming is important to you, if what you just listened to resonates with you, please call 818-985-5735 and let us feel it.
637. This is what we do, but we can only do it with your help.
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645. This is Jackson Brown.
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656. KPFK.
657. I came for inspiration.
658. I came looking for truth
659. Support comes from UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance,
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669. We will be taking a musical and spiritual journey into the world of Alice Coltrane and beyond.
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