This episode features two interviews with organizers of New Years Eve noise demonstrations in Hamilton and in Montreal. We talk about the rage and sadness we feel about the existence of prisons, noise demonstrations, building traditions and rituals, and our favourite New Years Eve stories. Links: Seven Years Against Prison (2015) Montreal Against Prisons International Call For New Year's Even Noise Demonstrations (English, 2018)
An interview with Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan, co-authors of Policing Indigenous Movements: Dissent and the Security State, available from Fernwood Publishing. The book is based on a series of government records obtained through Access to Information requests. The authors use these records to reveal how policing and other security agencies in Canada have been monitoring, cataloguing and working to silence indigenous land defenders and other opponents to extractive capitalism. We discussed the revelations found in the book, the tricky politics of police accountability, some developments in the Canadian security apparatus in recent years, and some ideas about how movements can stay resilient despite state repression. Music by Police Funeral
IWW organizers in Hamilton and Kingston discuss organizing solidarity pickets at mail processing facilities in Ontario and share different perspectives on supporting postal workers on strike who were recently legislated back to work. Music in this episode: Spanner - Work Lee Reed - Get Mad
From Embers presents a two-part feature on the Locke Street Affair in Hamilton, Ontario. We sat down and interviewed a defendant in the case who will be in jail when this episode is released. In March 2018, on the weekend of the Steel City Anarchist Bookfair, about 30 people marched through the Kirkendale neighbourhood of Hamilton. Some in the group lit fireworks, attacked luxury cars and smashed out the windows of gentrifying businesses on Locke Street, doing an estimated $100,000 in damage. In the days, weeks and months that followed there was a massive backlash against anarchists in Hamilton, much of it against The Tower, an anarchist social space in Hamilton. 8 people were arrested and charged with a variety of offences including conspiracy, mischief, and "Unlawful Assembly While Masked". Last week, a non-cooperating plea deal was struck that will see two people spend some months in jail, one person on house arrest, and a mix of probation and stayed charges for the rest. In Part One, we discussed the context of gentrification in Hamilton, the Locke Street demonstration, and the initial backlash. In Part Two, we explore the strategies of repression used against Hamilton anarchists, questions about navigating the court system, and the idea that resignation is worse than defeat. Links: Hamilton Anarchist Support Anarchist Texts on Gentrification in Hamilton Anarchist Texts on the Locke Street Affair Music: Lee Reed - Kontrol
From Embers presents a two-part feature on the Locke Street Affair in Hamilton, Ontario. We sat down and interviewed a defendant in the case who will be in jail when this episode is released. In March 2018, on the weekend of the Steel City Anarchist Bookfair, about 30 people marched through the Kirkendale neighbourhood of Hamilton. Some in the group lit fireworks, attacked luxury cars and smashed out the windows of gentrifying businesses on Locke Street, doing an estimated $100,000 in damage. In the days, weeks and months that followed there was a massive backlash against anarchists in Hamilton, much of it against The Tower, an anarchist social space in Hamilton. 8 people were arrested and charged with a variety of offences including conspiracy, mischief, and "Unlawful Assembly While Masked". Last week, a non-cooperating plea deal was struck that will see two people spend some months in jail, one person on house arrest, and a mix of probation and stayed charges for the rest. In Part One, we discuss the context of gentrification in Hamilton, the Locke Street demonstration, and the initial backlash. In Part Two, we explore the strategies of repression used against Hamilton anarchists, questions about navigating the court system, and the idea that resignation is worse than defeat. Links: Hamilton Anarchist Support Anarchist Texts on Gentrification in Hamilton Anarchist Texts on the Locke Street Affair Music: Keny Arkana - Capitale de la Rupture
An interview with a member of the collective of prisoners and non-prisoners that produces the Certain Days: Freedom For Political Prisoners calendar. We talk about sharing projects with our imprisoned comrades, the importance of long-term projects and how our movements are doing when it comes to political prisoner support. https://www.certaindays.org/
This episode features a talk entitled Autonomously and With Conviction: A Métis Refusal of State-Led Reconciliation given on October 12, 2018 at the 13th annual Decolonizing Thanksgiving Dinner in Guelph, Ontario on traditional Neutral/Chonnonton, Anishinabec, and Haudenosaunee territory. It also includes a short interview with the presenter, where we discuss questions about Canada’s project of reconciliation, the state, nations and nationalism, and anarchist possibilities for the future. Read a transcript of the talk or download a printable version here. Music in this episode: Burn Your Village to the Ground by A Tribe Called Red NASA x John Mohawk – “War, Peace, Natives” x 2oolman – “Lost in America” (featured on the Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape)
An interview with the Punch Up Collective, a small collective of anarchist organizers based in Ottawa, Ontario. We talk about living in the capital of Canada, forming collectives, formality and process, and strategies for sustaining movements in the long term. We also discuss their recent workshop about organizing collectives. Links: Full curriculum for the collectives workshop(the link will download a pdf) A Briarpatch article about the collective Radical events in Ottawa
Organizers with Alliance Against Displacement share stories about the Schoolhouse Squat as well as DisconTent City and a few other tent cities on unceded Coast Salish territories. We talk about the context of the housing crisis, how homeless indigenous and working class people are organizing to meet their immediate needs for shelter, safety, and community, building a revolutionary political force in the streets, legal and political strategies, resisting isolation and exclusion at the hands of cops and supportive housing organizations, urban indigenous political identity, ongoing state repression from city and provincial governments, community self-defence and care....and more. Donate to support organizers targeted by misogynist harrassment and replace belongings seized by the RCMP. If you're on the facebook, check out: DisconTent City Nanaimo DisconTent city is camp set up to protest the injustices forced upon people experiencing homelessness, and demand affordable housing not shelters! Namegans Nation Saanich Tent City (known as Camp Namegans - we are all one) started in May 2018. On Sept 15, it became Namegans Nation, the first urban reserve in Canada. Anita Place Tent City Maple Ridge (closed group for supporters) Anita Place tent city started May 2nd, 2017 to give homeless people in Maple Ridge a place to stay, a place to be, and a place to be safe… and a place to advocate for the social housing we so desperately need. Music in this episode is Down to Ride by Rapsure Risin, and the artwork is fan art created for the Schoolhouse Squat by Catherine Hart
A conversation with podcaster and anarchist organizer Aaron Lakoff about his new podcast Changing On The Fly. We talk about sports and anarchy, the intersections between hockey and radical politics, and what to do about Canadian nationalism.
A few weeks ago the From Embers crew took a road trip out east for the Halifax Anarchist Bookfair and to visit friends and family. We had the opportunity to visit the Treaty Camp established by Mi'kmaq people to protect the Shubenacadie River from an Alton Gas Natural Gas Project. I sat down with Dale Poulette who is one of the people holding down the camp on a daily basis. He cut his teeth at the anti-fracking reclamation camp in Elsipogtog (Rexton). Dale describes daily life at the camp, tells some funny stories, and opens up about the importance of ceremony, where he gets his strength and his take on the future of this world. The song at the end is "We Shall Remain (It Wasn't Taken Away)" by Kalolin Johnson from Eskasoni, Cape Breton.
Conversation with a former political prisoner in canada about her experiences in the federal system and her recently published prison memoir. We discuss changing prison conditions in the now-closed Prison for Women (P4W) in Kingston and Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, the importance of relationships with other women in prison, legal and political strategy following her arrest, the difficulties of telling stories about one's life and other people in it, and more. Her memoir is available from Between the Lines Books at btlbooks.com
An interview with a member of a Montreal-based collective that is researching and raising awareness about police crackdowns in gay cruising areas. Links: Cruise Control collective page (facebook link) Ultra Red audio activists, Los Angeles, USA
We return to the rising wave of renters struggles across the province of Ontario. On May 1st, tenants in the Stoney Creek Towers in Hamilton declared a rent strike, demanding that their corporate landlord drop an above-guideline rent increase of almost 10% over three years, and that the property managers perform numerous needed overdue repairs to their units. I first interviewed Jason of the Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network back in May. The HTSN helped initiate the rent strike and works to support tenant self-organization and struggle across the city of Hamilton, and increasingly in coordination with like-minded groups across Ontario. In this follow-up interview we discuss the East Hamilton Rent Strike as it enters its fifth month. The second interview in this episode is with a tenant organizer in the neighbourhood of Herongate in Ottawa, where another massive real estate company is attempting to conduct the largest urban eviction campaign in Canada, after having bought up a literal quarter of the neighbourhood. But the residents of Herongate aren't going to leave without a fight. All the music tonight is by Lee Reed, who actually just released an EP to fundraise for the rent strike - check it out! The audio clip at the end is Ikram Dahir, a resident of Herongate. It is part of a series of resident statements collected by Neal Rockwell.
This episode first aired in May 2018 and featured two interviews with tenant organizers in Ontario. The first interview is with Jason from the Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network about the East Hamilton Rent Strike launched on May 1st. The second interview is with Adam from the Limestone Solidarity Network in Kingston.
Conversations about prison organizing in Canada - interview with a Halifax organizer about the Burnside Jail protest and conversation about Prisoner Justice Day organizing in Nova Scotia and Ontario Burnside prisoners' statement: https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/province-house/the-prisoners-at-the-burnside-jail-are-engaged-in-a-non-violent-protest-here-is-their-statement/ Info on the US prison strike: https://itsgoingdown.org/prisonstrike/ https://incarceratedworkers.org/campaigns/prison-strike-2018 Conversation about PJD organizing included thanks to CKUT Prison Radio - Prison Radio airs the second Thurday of every month from 5-6 pm Eastern and the third Friday of every month from 11 am-12 pm Eastern. Montreal listeners can tune in to 90.3 fm or listen online at ckut.ca. Check out their website at prisonradioshow.wordpress.com Black Power Hour is a weekly show airing Wednesdays 9-10 pm Atlantic on CKDU 88.1 fm in Halifax. The show "blends conscious hip hop with discussions of political, cultural, and social issues relevant to Black people" and maintains lines of communication with prisoners inside Nova Scotia prisons and jails. Listen online at ckdu.ca
85 years ago this week, in the midst of another long hot summer, a series of anti-semitic and xenophobic provocations in Toronto escalated into a full blown riot at Christie Pits. Tonight we bring you two interviews to mark the 85th anniversary of the Christie Pits Riot in Toronto. The first is with Cyril Levitt, co-author of the book The Riot at Christie Pits. The 2nd edition is being released this week through New Jewish Press with a new foreword and postscript. The second interview is with Isaac, a member of the Toronto General Defense Committee, a local of the Industrial Workers of the World. Isaac is organizing a Commemorative BBQ at Christie Pits this Sunday, August 19th in the spirit of anti-fascism. From Embers is also proud to announce that we are now a part of the Channel Zero Anarchist Podcast Network, which links anarchist podcast projects across the world. In the coming weeks we will be fully integrating into the network, while still broadcasting every Wednesday night at 8pm on CFRC 101.9FM in Kingston. With music by Geoff Berner, Leonard Cohen, and Lloyd McNeill.
An interview with a comrade who recently published a critique of Max Stirner's The Ego And Its Own. We discuss anarchist morality and ethics, why we hate the state, whether anarchism means building a world with no masters or slaves, egoism, individualism, killing the cop inside your head, and whether dead philosophers matter.
An interview with an anti-fascist based in Montreal. We discuss the history of the Quebec far right dating back to the 1930s, anti-fascist resistance in 1990s Montreal, and the contemporary context, including an important victory against La Meute on July 1, 2018. Links: Montreal Antifasciste Montreal Counter-Information
I talk to Rosa, a friend and anarchist person of colour living in Montreal, about racism, identity politics, identity-based organizing and projects she's involved with. Thanks to Rosa for the music selections!
An hour-long investigation into efforts in recent years to resist the Trans Mountain Pipeline and its world. Our first interview is with an anarchist who participated in an anti-pipeline camp on Burnaby Mountain in 2014. Our second interview is with Kanahus Manuel, a Secwepemc woman currently involved in the struggle against the pipeline which runs through her territory. Links: Wreck: A Vancouver Anarchist Publication Defend the Territory by Warrior Publications Secwepemcul'ecw Assembly Tiny House Warriors Facebook Page Tiny House Warriors GoFundMe Unsettling Canada by Arthur Manuel
An interview with anarchist and surrealist author Ron Sakolsky. We discuss his life, free jazz, academia, the intersections of surrealism and anarchy, mutual acquiescence, maroon communities, and his day to day life on Denman Island, BC. Ron's latest book "In Search of the Masterless Men of Newfoundland" is available from Little Black Cart. This interview was recorded at the 2018 Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. The music is by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.
