Declarations: The Human Rights Podcast

The prison-industrial complex. What does it mean? Who does it benefit? Who suffers? This week, we discuss how systemic racism manifests in the United States in the form of the prison-industrial complex. From its historical origins in slave patrols to the war on drugs, the criminal justice system has systematically entrapped Black bodies and monetized their labour to serve corporate interests. This is only the beginning: we encourage you to take a look at the resources on our website to learn more.

In this episode, we are giving you a quick crash-course in how to protest safely and effectively, in the UK and in the US. We will cover your legal right to protest in the US and UK, give you tips on how to protest safely considering the current coronavirus pandemic, and discuss protesting as a non-Black person and how to leverage your privilege to help and protect Black protestors.

We need to talk about race.

Since its inception, Declarations has sought to shed light on some of the worst human rights violations across the globe. However right now, there is a specific violation that deserves all of our time, attention and effort - racism. Here at Declarations we are now solely committing ourselves to becoming a resource for anti-racist mobilisation, as we launch our new series - It's Time to Talk About Race. We’re here to talk, discuss, share and inform, and to have those uncomfortable conversations that we have needed to have as human beings for so long.

In this introductory episode, we discuss what it truly means to be an anti-racist ally, addressing all the main themes, trends and buzzwords that we are seeing all over our social media feeds. We unpack the meaning of key concepts such as white privilege, racial capitalism, virtue signalling, emotional labour and white fragility, providing an intellectual base from which listeners can further commit to anti-racist mobilisation.

Time stamps:

00.50 Introduction to the new series

08.19 Introduction to the panelists

17.16 'All lives matter'

21.00 White supremacy as the foundations of our society

24.49 Systemic and institutional racism

28.42 Racial capitalism and corporate social responsibility

33.08 Productive and active allyship - tackling virtue signalling and white fragility

In this episode we discuss the Unist’ot’en campaign to protect their land and preserve it for future generations. In 2010, the Unist’ot’en began constructing a cabin in the exact place where three companies, TC Energy, Enbridge, and Pacific Trails, intended to build pipelines. Their campaign has faced hostility and violence, including from the government of Canada, and its national police force, the RCMP. To the dismay of Coastal GasLink and Canada’s colonial government, the camp has received immense support both locally and internationally, with solidarity blockades of Canada’s railroad threatening to shut Canada down. We are joined by Dr Karla Tait, Director of Clinical Programming at the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre, who speaks to her first hand experience and strategies of reoccupying and reconnecting people with the land.

Join us as we discuss what the viral story of a Christmas card plea from a prisoner inside Shanghai Qingpu Prison tells us about our participation as consumers in regimes of forced labour, as well as the role and responsibility of corporate social responsibility for preventing these human rights violations. We are joined by Peter Humphrey, who speaks first hand about his own experience within this very same prison, where he was incarcerated on false charges for 23 months.