Prison Bars Won't Stifle These Hearts This week, we’re presenting three segments, all related in some way to prison. We hear an essay by an anarchist prisoner in Chile about a prison massacre on it’s 10th anniversary, the voice of David Easley reporting from within a covid outbreak in an Ohio prison, and the voice of someone who’s protest against nuclear weapons was leading her to incarceration. And Sean Swain. If you want to cast a vote for one of his nicknames, you can send an email to us at TheFinalStrawRadio(at ) riseup( dot) net, with 'Nickname' in the subject header until January 10th. [00:05:05] David Easley on Outbreak at Toledo CI [00:11:03] First up, Comrade David Easley at Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio talks about the covid-19 outbreak there, which he is still recovering from, that has knocked out one in five guards and forced the state to bring in National Guard to act as screws at the prison. The administration hasn’t been proactively testing prisoners and so doesn’t have data on infections besides symptomatic cases. When prisoners have tested positive, the only treatments they get are non-asprin Tylenol and cough drops, unless their health degrades to the point of getting onto a ventilator. David also talks about his inside/outside abolitionist study group he’s been working with over instagram. Comrade Easley is seeking outside supporters to help run the Abolition Study Group instagram and also his personal social media so he can report to the outside world on the conditions in Toledo CI. He is also seeking lawyers in Ohio that can help sue the ODRC on behalf of prisoners for the negligence and harm that has led to so much sickness and death, inside and outside of the barbed wire. You can reach him via mail at: David Easley A306400 Toledo Correctional Institution 2001 East Central Avenue Toledo, OH 43608 and you can email him by creating an account on jpay.com and reaching out to him by his facility and number, David Easley A306400 at Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. Martha Hennessey of Kings Bay Plowshares 7 [00:30:46] Next up, Tali Moon from the occupied land in the PNW of the so-called US shares with us a conversation of Martha Hennessey of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, 7 white, Catholic anti-militarism activists who just went to prison for trespassing and symbolic damage to Trident nuclear missiles at a military base in Georgia. Hennessey, aged 62, is an anarchist and the grandaughter of the founder of the Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day. You can find out more about the Martha and others from her case at KingsBayPlowshares7.Org. You can write to Martha at: Martha Hennessy #22560-021 FCI Danbury Rt. 37 Danbury, CT 06811 Mónica Caballero on San Miguel Prison Massacre [00:56:11] Finally, you’ll hear a segment from the December episode of Bad News: Angry Voices from Around The World from the A-Radio Network, magnificently produced this month by Crna Luknja in Ljublana, Slovenia. The Anarchist Assembly of Valparaiso (so-called Chile) presents a text about the 10 year anniversary of the massacre of 81 prisoners at the San Miguel Prison in Santiago de Chile written by anarchist prisoner Mónica Caballero. This was but a small portion of the audio in this months’ episode. Announcements Land Project in Davao, Philippines Comrades from Feral Crust collective in the province of Davao in the Philippines (aka Maharlika) are requesting monetary support to purchase a minicab or small truck to help transport people and materials to their land project in the forests of Marilog in Davao where they are working on implementing ideas and practices related to permaculture, rewilding and nature restoration/conservation. The project has a fedbook page and you can hear an interview from July of 2015 that we conducted with folks from FC. Surgeries for Activist Returning from Syria There is also a fundraiser for surgeries for Autumn, a transgender comrade from the US who volunteered in Syria, and suffered injuries during the civil war while doing solidarity work there. They are trying to raise $10k.
Organizing in "No Chance Alamance" County This week on the show I’m speaking with three folks engaged in organizing in the rural Alamance County, North Carolina, and it’s capital of Graham. All three work with the 501c4 political non-profit, DownhomeNC which in Alamance has been working on a range of engagements including running local candidates for office, doing get-out-the-vote work, sparking conversations with rural residents of the county, running a bail fund and working on bail reform, rent relief and operating food distribution. Dreama Caldwell, one of our guests, ran on a platform of bail reform to be the first Black woman elected to the County Commission, though she was not elected, is a mother, and as an Abolitionist has been working to abolish cash bail and change the condition for people of Color and poor folks as relates to the Alamance courts and jail. Sugalema is an organizer, a mom, and the daughter of undocumented parents from Mexico who’s been living in Alamance for the last decade. Gwen is a mother from a white, working class background who has also worked to support Alamance organizers through Downhome on a number of campaigns. You can learn more about the organization at DownhomeNC.org and their various social media pages. As a side note, the folks who produce The Final Straw do not endorse electoralism as a strategy for lasting change or community power. We are anarchists. There are plenty of places you can go to find anarchist critiques of engaging in electoral politics, sometimes with anarchists or anti-authoritarians advocating limited engagement in elections but usually calling for abstention. Even though DownhomeNC is not an anarchist organization, we do feel like the experiences of Sugalema, Dreama and Gwen are important to share because they talk about the work of changing minds and building relationships in the rural south where an autonomous left or anarchist movement doesn’t exist… like most of the world. They are intelligent and impassioned women doing hard work to grow community resistance and engagement. Abolition also includes the complicated work of decreasing the harm caused by systems of oppression like the police, courts, borders, white supremacy and capitalism while simultaneously building discourse against those institutions that impose harm. We really hope that listeners will get a lot from this conversation. Announcements Eric King updates Anarchist and antifascist prisoner Eric King caught covid at FCI Englewood, alongside over a hundred other prisoners, thanks to the ineptitude of his captors at the BOP who have been moving staff between Englewood and FCI Florence where an outbreak had been ongoing. His trial for defending himself from an attack by a prison officer has been pushed back to April of 2021. In good news, his mail ban appears temprorarily lifted and his website hosts his book list again. He’s been able to receive letters, magazines and books for the first time in years. Check out the update at SupportEricKing.org and send Eric some love. To hear our interview with Eric from last year, visit our website. Xinachtli Parole Support "Xinachtli," as. many of you know, means literally in English, "Seed," or, as Comrade "X" likes to phrase, it from a prisoner's perspective, "Germinating Seed" and s/n Alvaro Luna Hernandez, is a Chicano/Mexicano-Anarchist Communist and Anti-Imperialist Internationally-recognized Political Prisoner, has suffered long enough from a (50-year) bogus Aggravated Assault conviction rife with racist civil rights abuse and judicial misconduct. The contrived & trumped-up Aggravated Robbery charge brought by Sheriff McDaniel without the authority of a warrant, was thrown out later at trial, but through prosecutorial chicanery, allowed the assault charge to stick being a paroled felon. The so-called Aggravated-Assault charge, which should've amounted to a 'misdemeanor,' occurred with his near-term pregnant wife nearby in their own front yard, as he, showing no demonstrative violent aggressive behavior, correctly disarmed the Sheriff as he drew his service revolver in anger as "Xinachtli" challenged his authority to attempt an arrest in a situation that could've proved lethal for all three, mother, baby, and most surely "Xinachtli" himself. The local authorities hated him and his family and his labor organizing in Brewster County, Alpine, Texas. Many of you already are familiar with this abuse of authority yarn, but, does bear repeating, as he is still held captive for this injustice in 'STG' (Security Threat Group) status, studying law and assisting other prisoners with their appeals, while continuously sharing, and germinating his revolutionary thoughts and ideals in cocoon-like solitary confinement, at the repressive TDCJ-CID James V. Allred Unit, 'Supermax' Gulag, in Iowa Park, Texas, marooned in the North Texas' Red River Valley. Texas prisons are now one of the nation's COVID-19 virus' 'hotspots,' and the courts are refusing to intervene, WHILE PRISONER DEAD BODIES PILE UP IN LOCAL MORGUES. "XINACHTLI" is an elderly person, with his life in danger. Presently, "Xinachtli" is preparing for his (1st) upcoming 'Parole Review Hearing,' on July 18, 2021. We are in need of help with a groundswell of support from the Prison Abolitionists, Human Rights, Indigenous, and Prison Activist Movement communities. TBPP suggests that FEW, clear & concise letters are preferred, to place in his case-file for review; lazy eyes is a disguise with TBPP Parole Panels. So, let's blast 'em with a barrage of letters to help us ensure that his 'Review' is an impartially-heard (Hearing?) by traditionally 'parole-stingy' Texas Board of Pardons & Parole Commissioners; and is a successful one. Try to include in the letter, that"Xinachtli," though, he has tested 'COVID-19 - negative,' and in recent months received a 'flu shot,' he has hypertension that's medicated, and is ostensibly cured of Hep-C, he nonetheless will be 69 years old next May 12th, 2021; so the Corona Virus danger rages on! Also include, a solid confirmation that there's a solid support system waiting, available opportunities of employment, residence, and transportation, as well as psychological/coping support and a period of adjustment, are all important - he's been in a solitary 'time-capsule, the worldwide 'spider' web has exploded on the social scene since his conviction in June of 1997. Please address all your Letters of Support for "Xinachtli" with his registered name, ALVARO LUNA HERNANDEZ, and prison number, TDCJ-CID#00255735 You can mail the letters to his lawyer: Allen D. Place Attorneys at Law 109 S. 7th Street Gatesville, TX, 76528 To hear Xinachtli telling his story in his own voice, check out our website.
This week, you’ll hear Kiran and Marco of the Angry Workers, a collective of anti-authoritarian communists struggling to think through and build workers autonomy from the UK. For the hour, they talk about their organizing and the book they just published, “Class Power On Zero-Hours” (available from PM Press in the US & UK, currently at a 50% discount if purchased from the publisher using the discount code 'GIFT'). Over 6 years, the Angry Workers got jobs in West London in factories, warehouses and logistics, building relationships with coworkers and neighbors from origins worldwide, and getting their hands dirty building working class power alongside other precarious and gig workers. The book documents attempts at building a solidarity network, their newspaper to open dialogue (called Workers Wild West) and engagements in workplace action and organizing. They worked inside and outside of trade unions and the IWW, assessing victories, defeats and lessons to move forward with and sharing glimpses into the struggles and ideas of the people they worked and lived with. This book is an amazingly detailed exploration of building solidarity, learning from mistakes and working towards a collective vision for liberation amongst the labouring classes at the points of production and reproduction. Announcement Jason Renard Walker Parole Incarcerated journalist and author Jason Renard Walker, minister of Labor for the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (Prison Chapter) will have a parole hearing coming up soon in Texas. Jason has faced serious backlash from white supremacist gangs and guards due to his activism and reporting while held by the TCDJ, so much so that he was recently transferred to a new prison, apparently because of the threats he was facing at Clements Unit. Jason’s book,about which we got to interview him earlier this year, “Reports from Within The Belly Of The Beast: Torture and Injustice Inside Texas Department of Criminal Justice”, is now available in paperback as well as digital via Amazon, and his writings have regularly been published by the SF Bay View National Black Newspaper. Letters of support for his parole will go a long way toward getting the parole board to release Jason so that he can finish his Federal stint and get back to the outside. Check our show notes for details on where to write and suggestions on content. Here’s some information about supporting Jason in this effort: Dear Supporters of Jason Renard Walker, Jason's parole hearing is coming up and we urgently need your help with writing letters. Here is a guide on how to write a persuasive parole letter if you need it: https://pigeonly.com/pigeonly-blog/how-to-write-a-parole-support-letter/ Letters should be sent right away to: Board of Pardons and Paroles 8610 Shoal Creek Blvd. Austin, TX 78757 Things to mention (per Jason): * Your relationship to Jason, * Any credentials you have, * Positive things you know about Jason, When Jason is paroled from Texas he will immediately begin a minimum six-year federal prison sentence. Jason said that the most common reason for denial of parole is that the prisoner is a threat to the community, and that his continued incarceration will prevent him from any contact with the general community. He is also worried because TDCJ has poor covid prevention measures. As many of you know, Jason was facing problems with a white supremacist gang recently and in response, he has been moved to another prison. Jason's current address is: Jason Renard Walker #1532092 Michael Unit 2664 FM 2054 Tennessee Colony, TX 75886 . ... . .. Featured music: 'Anotha One' by Apollo Brown from Trophies (instrumentals) 'Class War' by The Dils
This week, you’ll hear a full show, including a segment by Sean Swain [00:01:38 - 00:07:54] Defend DC, 12/11-12/12 [00:07:52 - 00:51:28] Our main content is a conversation with antifascist organizer Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the One People’s Project and IdaVox to talk about his views of the state of the far right at this time in the US, their Stop The Steal rallies and the November 14th Million for MAGA March in DC at which three BLM and anti-racists activists were stabbed, what the shift in regimes will mean for anti-racists and the importance of our participation in December 11th and 12th to counter a rally called for by the Proud Boys. You can find Daryle’s work up at OnePeoplesProject.com and at IdaVox.com and more about the December 12th counter demo at DefendDC.Org B(A)DNews November 2020 [00:51:28 - 01:07:01] Then, you’ll hear some audios from the latest episode of BAD News, the montly, English-language podcast from the A-Radio Network, of which The Final Straw Radio is a member. In that block, the first audio is an update from Greece by Radio Fragmata, a longstanding pirate station based in Athens. Then, Črna Luknja shares updates from Slovenia, including notes on the repression of the autonomous squatted factory, Rog, in the center of Ljubljana. You can hear the whole episode, plus any past ones, up at A-Radio-Network.Org and finding the BAD News link. A few links to subjects mentioned: Antifascist Unity Coalition’s Days of Unity site where they talk about their January 2nd mobilization to bring in donations to foodbanks nationwide POPMOB, a Portland-based group building a mass movement against Fascism The documentary “Alt-Right: Age of Rage” which features Daryle Lamont Jenkins can be watched on Netflix or Amazon and likely elsewhere. The feature film “Skin” in which Jenkins is depicted while attempting to help a former white supremacist move out of that milieu is available on youtube for rental. There is also a short film by the name of “Skin” by the same director from the same year that features Daryle which can be viewed on YouTube for free. . ... . .. Tracks featured during this episode: "Kick Push (instrumental)" by Lupe Fiasco "It's Gonna Be Me (instrumental)" by N'Sync
This week, I spoke with Dónal O'Driscoll, an animal rights activist and anarchist from the UK talking about the work of the Undercover Research Group to investigate possible SpyCops in the UK, share resources by those harmed by the lies of long term undercovers in activist communities and the current Inquiry that activists are using to unearth the legacy of police infiltration since the 1960’s. Helpful sites: http://undercoverresearch.net/ “Was My Friend A SpyCop?” guide to engaging investigation published by and free from the Undercover Research Group: http://undercoverresearch.net/2017/07/06/friend-spycop-publication-now/ The wiki URG has been compiliing with data about known undercovers and infiltrations: https://powerbase.info/index.php/UndercoverResearch_Portal A project digesting the SpyCops scandals: https://www.spycops.info/ A site related to the campaign for justice by activist women with whom undercovers had relationships under false pretenses: https://policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/ An alliance of people spied on by Britain's political secret police: http://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/ A support group for those blacklisted in the UK construction industries from info provided by secret political police: https://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/ The Monitoring Group has been working for nearly 3 decades in Southall in West London to challenge racism through family led empowerment and justice campaigns: http://www.tmg-uk.org/ A support group for individuals targetted by political police spies in the UK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spycops/ . ... . .. Track Heard In This Episode: SpyCops by Armoured Flu Unit from Crusading Nations
Belarus is continuing to experience a revolt against the 26 year dictatorship of the post-Soviet dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. The situation came to a boil, fueled by yet another election rife with administration corruption, the creation of mutual aid infrastructure in the face of a government that abandoned public health measures in the face of the corona virus pandemic, decreased economic quality of life… people found each other and the state turned on them. In response to the police violence, regular folks came out into the streets to oppose the dictatorship and the system threatened collapse. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? For the hour, we speak with Ivan, a Belarusian anarchist living in Germany, about the uprising, doxing cops, the part that anarchists have played, the distinctions between pro-Democracy and anti-dictatorship activity, the upcoming week of solidarity with anarchist and anti-fascists of Belarus from November 23-30th, 2020 and how comrades from abroad can support not only those repressed but the activist efforts to sustain the resistance to the Belarusian dictatorship. You can learn more about the week of solidarity, including where to send solidarity funds and communiques at ABC-Belarus.Org. You can support wider protest infrastructure by donating at FireFund.Net/Belarus. A great news source that Ivan mentions to keep up on anarchist perspectives from Belarus (sometimes in English) is: Pramen.io/EN/Main/ Ivan also mentions, when talking about international solidarity, US corporations that are supporting the Belarusian dictatorship during this repression. They include: Apple has attempted to pressure Telegram to close the channels where protesters in Belarus have been sharing details on the police Sandvine (founded in Canada, funded in part from the US) was providing equipment that Belarus used to block access to Twitter, Facebook and international news sites. The country has a pretty bad history ala likely use by the governments of Egypt, Turkey and Syria to repress the populations of those countries, but in this instance (and pressure from the US Gov and Human Rights Watch) they appear to have canceled their contract with Belarus in September. Skype (owned by Microsoft) has been providing court infrastructure, as the trials of those arrested during the uprising is taking place over the video conferencing platform. Announcements Russell “Maroon” Shoatz Black liberation fighter Russell “Maroon” Shoatz has tested positive for COVID-19. Maroon, a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, is a political prisoner/prisoner of war held by the state of Pennsylvania. Maroon has been imprisoned since 1972, when he was given a life sentence for an attack on a police station, He was held in solitary confinement from 1991 to 2014, when he was allowed to return to the general population. Maroon is already being treated for stage-four cancer and is forced to live in inhumane prison conditions. Given his positive COVID-19 diagnosis and his already compromised health, we demand his immediate release and the release of all elderly prisoners. From a Facebook post on the page of Russell Shoatz III: Maroon “is a political prisoner enslaved for his efforts to liberate our people. He is the father of my dear friend, Russell Shoatz III. In addition to Covid-19, Maroon is also suffering from stage 4 colon cancer. He is living in tremendous pain, in unhygienic conditions where 30 inmates are being held in one room sharing one toilet. It is a violation of their human rights and Maroon’s agreement with the state. Maroon is asking that all supporters call the office of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and demand his immediate, unconditional release, as well as that of ALL elderly prisoners infected with COVID-19. Please call (717) 787-2500 beginning the morning of Monday, November 16, and keep the pressure on!” Free Russell “Maroon” Shoatz and all political prisoners!” More, including a call script, at https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/urgent-take-action-for-russell-maroon-shoatz/ Jeremy Hammond Anarchist and Anonymous hacker, Jeremy Hammond has been released to a half-way house in his hometown of Chicago after over 10 years in prison, resisting a grand jury alongside Chelsae Manning and two bouts with Covid-19. Welcome home, Jeremy! Not sure when their next episode is due out, but Jeremy and his brother Jason both produce a podcast called “Twin Trouble”, a member of the Channel Zero Network and you can hear an interview that we did with Jeremy for June 11th this year. . … . .. Featured tracks: Gun (Instrumental Slow) by Chuck Berry from Have Mercy: His Complete Chess Recordings 1969 To 1974 Наш выбор – свобода! (“Freedom Is Our Choice”) by ЭлектропартиZаны (ElectropartyZans) Стены (“The Walls”) by Группа Аркадий Коц (Arkadiy Kots band) [rec 2012 original version L'Estaca, by Luis Llach (1968), translated into Russian by Kirill Medvedev, arranged by Arkady Kots band]
This week I got the chance to sit down with Olive and Yousef of the Durham NC based eviction defense group HEDS-Up! HEDS-Up! stands for Housing Eviction Defense Solidarity and is a group which formed in Durham North Carolina when COVID was first hitting the area and folks’ housing was becoming more and more unstable. We get to talk about a lot of topics in this episode, among which are gentrification in Durham, what the NC eviction process might look like, and about the group’s handbook the Eviction Defense Handbook, vol. 1312, as well as their all points call for autonomous, abolitionist jail support, on their website https://cantpaywontpaydurm.org/. The Eviction Defense Handbook is extensively written and researched, and was put together by HEDS-Up! for educational and empowerment purposes. It covers topics from abolition, to how one might structure an eviction defense team, pertinent information regarding COVID and evictions, how to look up information on a specific property, a step by step of what to expect in eviction court, and many more topics. Eviction Defense, Community Resiliency, and Getting Free This week I got the chance to sit down with Olive and Yousef of the Durham NC based eviction defense group HEDS-Up! HEDS-Up! stands for Housing Eviction Defense Solidarity and is a group which formed in Durham North Carolina when COVID was first hitting the area and folks’ housing was becoming more and more unstable. We get to talk about a lot of topics in this episode, among which are gentrification in Durham, what the NC eviction process might look like, and about the group’s handbook the Eviction Defense Handbook, vol. 1312, as well as their all points call for autonomous, abolitionist jail support, on their website https://cantpaywontpaydurm.org/. The Eviction Defense Handbook is extensively written and researched, and was put together by HEDS-Up! for educational and empowerment purposes. It covers topics from abolition, to how one might structure an eviction defense team, pertinent information regarding COVID and evictions, how to look up information on a specific property, a step by step of what to expect in eviction court, and many more topics. You can email HEDS Up! at hedsup@protonmail.com Announcements Wabanaki Community Herbal Apothecary Support The Wabanaki Community Herbal Apothecary in so-called Maine is working to support their tribal communities during these Covid-19 outbreaks. They are asking for herbal medicines and medicine making supplies or monetary donations to support these efforts. The supplies list can be found on their fedbook page, linked in our shownotes, and monetary donations can go to their fiscal sponsor WhyHunger, via https://whyhunger.org/ewrematriation/. You can contact livmoore16@gmail.com for coordination or more details. Loren Reed Loren Reed, a 26 year old Diné (Navajo) man residing in the small town of Page, AZ, is facing ten years for comments left on facebook during the nationwide protests because some dumb ass white with no scruples or sense of humor reported him to the cops. There is a breakdown of the case available at ForgiveEveryone.Com/blog . At the end of that, you can find Loren’s address and tips for writing him, as well as how to put money on his commissary, how to make donations to Tucson Anti-Repression Crew via cashapp ($TusconARC) or paypal (PayPal.Me/prisonersupport), noting “For Loren Reed” in the comments. Santos Torres From PhillyAntiRepression on Twitter via the website, PHLAntiCap.Noblogs.Org: “As of last week, Santos Torres-Olan (#ML7947), a comrade of Dwayne Staats of the #Vaughn17, is on hunger strike at SCI Albion. He’s protesting the physical, psychological, and emotional abuses at Albion — the prison administration uses meals, showers, rec and mail as a form of punishment, retaliation, and psychological torture. His protest is against the prison system as a whole. Santos has also been charged with assaulting a guard, and the courts, public defender and prosecutors are trying to railroad him. He ended up having to go pro se in order to fight his case. Help out Santos’s struggle against the prison system by calling SCI Albion at (814) 756-5778. Ask to speak to the superintendent and make sure they know people on the outside are paying attention to their torture and abuse of prisoners. Our incarcerated comrades are struggling against prisons on a whole different level — we MUST support them from the outside when they ask us for help!” Jay Chase Jay Chase, the last of the defendants of the 2012 NATO3 conspiracy case, is free! Support his post-release fund to get him on his feet: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jay-chase-of-the-nato3-is-free Jorge Cornell and Covid-19 at FCI Fort Dix Since late October, there appears to be a spike of Covid-19 at the Federal BOP's prison at Fort Dix, jumping from prior reported numbers of 57 infections to at least 127 cases. The BOP is exacerbating the problem by moving all of the folks with infections onto a single floor and the back to their former dormatories, increasing spread. FCI Fort Dix is also denying PPE, medical care and compassionate releases from the prison population. Jorge Cornell, 44, has two daughters, and recently moved to Fort Dix. Jorge has high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and is obese and borderline diabetic. This, along with a previous heart attack, make him high risk. He is being held on the third floor of Building 58-51. Jorge is a friend of many in central NC organizing communities. As an outspoken community activist, candidate for city council, and police critic, Jorge was frequently targeted by law enforcement. Despite beating dozens of bogus charges prior to his current incarceration, Jorge is currently being wrongfully held thanks to overly broad RICO laws and targeting by the FBI, leading to a trial and conviction in 2012. He maintains his innocence, but still has 15 years left on his unjust 28 year sentence. You can hear two interviews about the case from 2013 at our website by searching ALKQN. To press FCI Dix administration to give PPE, free medical care, stop spreading the virus in the prison by shuffling people around and to give compassionate release to people like Jorge with compromised immune systems, you can contact: FCI Fort Dix, calling 609 723 1100 ext 0 between 8am and 4pm ET, asking to speak with Warden David E Ortiz or request that the operator pass on these concerns. You can email FTD-ExecAssistant@bop.gov and dortiz@bop.gov . Federal BOP Health Services Division: 202 307 3198, press 4 for "other" and then 6 for "general medical inquiries" and select any of the four available recipients, leaving a voicemail with your demands. Email BOP-IPP@bop.gov or PublicAffairs@bop.gov . BOP Northeast Regional Office can be called at 215 521 7301 where you can reach Regional Director Nicole C. English or request that the operator pass on your demands. You can email NERO-ExecAssistant@bop.gov and ncenglish@bop.gov . Senator Cory Booker in Newark (973 639 8700) ,Camden (856 338 8922) and/or DC (202 224 3224) and ask to leave a message. You can submit an email using the form at https://www.booker.senate.gov/contact/write-to-cory Brian Caswell McCarvill Regular listener, Jay in Aotearoa brought to our attention this week the passing of anarchist prisoner, Brian Caswell McCarvill in the so-called state of Oregon. Brian McCarvill was a radical social prisoner who in the early 2000’s was involved in taking the Oregon Department of Corrections to court challenging their censorship and rejection of anarchist publications for prisoners with his cell mate Rob Thaxton. The ODOC was attempting to declare anarchists to be members of a Security Threat Group, sort of like a gang, based on their shared political tendency and use of language and symbols, their stances to protest unfair circumstances. By winning the court case he forced the Oregon prison system to allow anarchist materials into its prisons. Brian had terrible problems with his health and following his victory in the court case, he was being punished by the authorities for taking a stand. He passed on his 68th birthday, September 27th 2020, causes unknown to us. Rise In Power, Brian! . … . .. Public domain music for this show: 90's BOOMBAP - RAP INSTRUMENTAL / Old SChool 2017 FREE USE
This week on the The Final Straw you’ll hear me speaking with Cora Borradaile, who sits on the advisory board of the Civil Liberties Defense Center and works around issues of tech security in movements and is an associate professor at OSU. We discuss the use of phone cloning by US Marshall's and other law enforcement while engaging protestors in Portland, OR. We talk about UpTurn's recent report concerning widespread use of cellphone extraction tools to copy and search the contents of cell phones captured during interactions with cops. Finally, we talk about Keyword Searches, where (often without warrants) google hands over information from peoples google searches to law enforcement. Transcription Hellbender Zine (begins p7) PDF (Unimposed) Zine (standalone PDF) Sean Swain Update We'll also be presenting a segment by Sean's fiance, Lauren, about his current silencing and the injustice of his case. More on president-in-exile Sean Swain can be found at Swain2020.Org and SeanSwain.Org.
Certain Days: Freedom For Political Prisoners Calendar 2021 For the release of the 2021 Certain Days: Freedom For Political Prisoners Calendars we caught up with Josh, Sara and Daniel, three outside collective members. There’s no point in me explaining about the project when they do such a good job in the next 40 minutes! Calendars are now available via BurningBooks.com in the so-called US, LeftWingBooks.Net in so-called Canada, and via Active Distribution (soon?) in Europe. Check out an interview we mention with Xanachtli and David Gilbert on Treyf Podcast. We also talk about Jalil Muntaqim’s release from prison after almost 50 years. Well, he’s been re-arrested by a politically motivated warrant from Monroe County DA Sandra Doorley’s office for allegedly attempting to register to vote and is being accused of voter fraud! There is an article and a petition and more information available on the SFBayView National Black Newspaper’s website. More information on the case and support for Eric King can be found at SupportEricKing.Org. To hear our chat with Eric from last year, take a listen to this interview. Also, the recent interview by the Solecast of Robcat of Fire Ant Journal (to which Eric contributes) was quite lovely. We’ll close out now with a track entitled “Back To You” and performed by The Hills The Rivers. You can find it and more on the album Burning Down: The Songs of Anarchist Prisoner Sean Swain.
Resisting State Repression Panel The following is a conversation between folks involved in anti-repression work in 5 parts of the so-called US. The goal was to present a zoomed out vision of scope and patterns of repression since the Floyd Uprising of this summer, particularly as the US sits in a period of heightened tensions around the elections and continued killings by police. Please consider sharing this chat around. We need to be ready to push back against repression and support the mostly BIPOC folks facing heavy charges for hitting the streets against white supremacy. You'll hear from: Earthworm with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund and the Jail Support Team; Susan Samples from Grand Rapids with the Michigan Anti-Repression Committee (which works with the Michigan Bail Fund); Liam aka "Lil Guillotine" of the Free The 350, Madison General Defense Committee in Wisconsin; Mala from the Salt Lake General Defense Committee (works with the Salt Lake Community Bail Fund) in Utah; and Charlie from Puget Sound Prisoner Support (and works with the Northwest Community Bail Fund ) in Seattle. Stolen Lives In the conversation, we hear about a few cases of folks attacked and/or killed by police in the communities our guests come from and whose memories contributed to the Uprising where they were. These include: Rodney J. Freeman (killed by Dane County Police in Wisconsin); Elliot T. Johnson (killed by Monona Police in Wisconsin); Jacob Blake (brazenly injured by Kenosha Police); John T Williams (killed by Seattle Police); Charleena Lyles (killed by Seattle Police); Kevin Peterson, Jr. (killed by Clark County Sheriff deputies in Washington State); Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal (killed by Salt Lake City Police); Atlanta: Rayshard Brooks (killed by Atlanta Police);
This week on The Final Straw Radio, we spoke with Dylan and Enzo of Unity & Struggle. Unity & Struggle, or U&S, is an anti-state communist collective spread across the so-called US. Their members publish essays and engage in local organizing activities. Enzo recently authored a short essay entitled “How Do We Stop A Coup” which had editorial contribution by the wider U&S collective. For the hour, we talk about the threat of a “Constitutional Coup”, the importance of street action and organizing among the working classes to resist authoritarianism and ideas about fighting recuperation by Liberal power structures like the Democrat party. More by U&S, including this essay, can be found at UnityAndStruggle.Org. You can find a mini series of podcasts with Unity & Struggle talking about their study group on Race over 5 parts starting in November of 2019 on RevLeft Radio. You can also find a recent interview with members of U&S entitled “Organizing In The Face of Crisis and Far-Right Terror” on the same topic as our discussion on ItsGoingDown’s IGDcast. . … . .. This Monday, October 26th there will be a march in Lincoln, Nebraska at the State Capitol at 14th & K from 11:30 am– 3:30 pm in support of the review of the wrongful conviction, and eventual release of, Ed Poindexter. Mr. Poindexter is the surviving member of the Omaha 2 who, along with Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa (whose state name was David Rice), were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1971 murder of Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard on August 17th, 1971. The two were suspects before there was any evidence in the case because they were leaders of the National Committee to Combat Fascism, a splinter from the Black Panther Party. Despite shoddy investigation and signs of evidence tampering by authorities, an appeal to the conviction based on new evidence that surfaced in the case of the Omaha 2 was denied in 2010 by the Nebraska Supreme Court due to limitations imposed by Clinton’s 1996 Effective Death Penalty and Anti-Terrorism Act, a law mentioned by Cinque Magee in our last episode. The Nebraska Board of Pardons will be meeting Monday afternoon and supporters are invited to participate in a public comment period at the end from 4-5pm (depending on the length of the hearings). Mondo died in prison of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on March 11, 2016, after being incarcerated from age 23 to 69. Ed has diabetes and had triple bipass heart surgery in 2016. He is confined to a wheelchair and cataracts that limit his ability to read. He did not deserve this treatment and needs to be released after 49 years on a wrongful conviction. If Ed Poindexter is not pardoned, we hope to speak soon with supporters of him about his case. Meanwhile you can get involved and support him by visiting the fedbook page entitled Freedom4Ed (with the number 4). You can also contact them at freedom4ed@gmail.com You can write to Ed, whose 76th birthday is coming up on November 1st, at: Edward Poindexter #27767 Nebraska State Penitentiary P.O. Box 22500 Lincoln, NE 68542 United States Please be aware that because of his cataracts, text on letters should be no smaller than 18 point. More information can also be found at PrisonerSolidarity.Com . … . .. featured tracks: “Don’t Make Us Ask” by Lee Reed from Murder Hornet Landlord “Fiyah to the Fascists” by Multiply (Tef Poe x Rebel Diaz) from Vol. 2
This week, you'll hear Ruchell Magee speak about his struggle over 57 years to be heard in the California court system and appeals to US Federal courts. Ruchell is the lone, surviving prisoner-participant of the August 7th, 1970 Marin County Courthouse Rebellion, lead by Jonathan Jackson and including prisoner rebels William Christmas and James McClain. Ruchell took the name of Cinque (aka Sengbe Pieh), the Mende man who justified for his right to resist unjust enslavement aboard the slave ship Amistad in 1839. Over the years Ruchell has become an accomplished jailhouse lawyer, helping many other prisoners and yet still languishing in prison. For the hour, Ruchell talks about his case and strategy, the George Floyd Uprisings, corruption of the racist US legal system. We’ll also hear from Claude Marks, former political prisoner from the Puerto Rican independence movement and co-founder / director of the Freedom Archives in San Francisco, which in August 2020 memorialized the 50th anniversary of the Marin County Courthouse Rebellion. More info on Ruchelle at https://prisonersolidarity.com Ruchell’s name appears on the California Courts Vexatious Litigants LIst, which bars filing in the CA system without permission from a presiding judge. Court Documents: Here is Ruchell’s August 6, 2020 Pauperis petition to the US Supreme Court concerning the requirement of $500 to file his Habeas Petition; Here is Ruchell’s August 10th, 2020 Habeas Corpus Petition to the US Supreme Court, including case law and documents such as former jurors statements on Ruchell’s behalf.
This week on the podcast, we’re sharing an interview that I did with Hannah Dobbz, author of “Nine-Tenths of the Law: Property and Resistance in the United States”, published by AK Press. This interview originally aired on March 31st, 2013. From the original post: “Hannah was also the creator of the documentary “Shelter: A Squatumentary”. We talk about squatting in the U.S., homesteading, market values, views on squat resistance in other countries from the U.S. and more. The latter half of the show features a musical selection from the metal and gothy end of the spectrum.” More info on the book can be found at PropertyAndResistance.wordpress.com.
This week, we’re airing a presentation by Mark Cook from Burning Books bookstore in Buffalo, NY. This was recorded on February 18th, 2016. From the announcement on Kersplebedeb.com for the event: “Mark Cook is a former Black Panther, member of the George Jackson Brigade, and political prisoner. Twenty four years in prison could not break his spirit or commitment to Black liberation and Mark Cook is as active an organizer now as ever. These events will be worth traveling for, as Cook will only be speaking on these two dates while on the east coast, before heading back to the Pacific Northwest” As usual, we invite listeners to check out the slightly longer podcast version online for free. To hear the questions and answers from the end of the presentation, you can check out the podcast. You can find more presentations from Burning Books plus audio from Mark presenting at the 2015 North American Anarchist Black Cross Conference in Denver, CO (pt 1, pt 2) at our website and find more and longer videos of the presentations on youtube. You can learn more about the bookstore venue, including books about the George Jackson Bridge at BurningBooksBuffalo.com. . ... . .. Jalil Muntaqim It’s notable that at the start of this Jalil Muntaqim is mentioned being visited in prison. Last week, he was announced that Jalil will be released on parole after 50 years! Congrats to him! Free Them All!
This week on The Final Straw, we present a conversation that I had with Lorax B. Horne, a non-binary writer and journalist from Canada, Ecuador and the United Kingdom who is currently the Editor-In-Chief of the data transparency collective, Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDOSecrets. In June of this year, the collective released roughly 269 gigabytes of hacked information from 251 law enforcement agencies, dubbed BlueLeaks. The data comes from the shadowy hacker group, Anonymous, and was retrieved from Federal Fusion centers which facilitate information gathering and dissemination between high level agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and the FBI with state and local law enforcement and are situated around the so-called United States. For the hour, Lorax talks about the development of fusion centers, the contents of the #BlueLeaks trove, insights drawn by journalists who have used the data to cover things like far-right conspiracy theories entering law enforcement bulletins, their editing process, social media and governmental attempts to cover up the contents and the persecution of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange. To check out a collection of the articles written about the BlueLeaks collected by Lorax, check out the article up on medium.com entitled “What is BlueLeaks”. For some useful links to their work, you can check out our show notes at thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org. To dig into the data itself and see other collections released by Distributed Denial of Secrets and other groups like Unicorn Riot, you can visit ddosecrets.com, see the #AssangeLeaks at AssangeLeaks.org, their Project Whispers is a searchable database of fascist discord logs at Whispers.DDOSecrets.com, and you can support DDOS with recurring payments at their OpenCollective.com page. You can also keep up on their work by following them on Mastadon, fedbook, Telegram, InstaGram and SubStack NewsLetter, many of which links and more show up on their Linktr.ee. You can find Lorax’s writing on MuckRack and follow them on twitter at @BBHorne. Sean Swain As a quick update on Sean Swain’s situation, he’s still stuck without phone or email access, but he appears to be getting his mail. This is a hard situation for a presidential candidate and surely some listeners have pull with the Federal Elections Commission to correct this injustice. A couple of ways to help out Sean from where you’re at include contributing to the fundraiser set up to help raise legal funds for him or you can contact the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections director Annette Chambers-Smith by calling: 614-387-0588 or writing to: 4545 Fisher Road, Suite D, Columbus, OH 43228 Sean’d probably appreciate you asking why Sean Swain (Ohio number A243205) is being denied access to jpay services, what happened to his hundreds of dollars of music and other items that didn’t transfer over to him in Virginia and why his phone services are currently shut down. New Episodes of "Live Like The World Is Dying" The Final Straw is a proud member of the Channel Zero Network of anarchist podcasts. And here’s a jingle from another member of CZN, Margaret Killjoy. We suggest listeners check out the recent practical episodes of ‘Live Like The World is Dying’, covering topics of how to treat gunshot wounds, good approaches to masking up against chemical agents, body armor, open source medical chemistry and a more... . ... . .. Public Domain music for this episode: Explosion - Vodovoz Music Productions Downtown - Vodovoz Music Productions
This week we had the opportunity to connect with Delee Nikal, who is a Wet’su’weten community member, about updates from the Gidimt’en Camp that was created to block the TransCanada Coastal GasLink pipeline (or CGL) that Canada is trying to push through their un-ceded territory. In this interview Bursts and Delee speak about ways folks can get involved, both in so called BC and elsewhere, how the covid pandemic is affecting their work, and many other topics. Click here to hear a past interview with Delee! Follow @gidimten_checkpoint on Instagram and Gidimt’en Yintah Access on the internet for further ways to send solidarity, including a fundraising and wishlist link. Links and projects mentioned by our guest: defund.ca defundthepolice.org BIPOC Liberation Collective Defenders Against the Wall Help Get a New Lawyer for Sean Swain! Before the segment from Sean Swain, we would like to draw attention to a fundraiser in order to get Sean proper legal representation. As we all may know by now, there is nothing restorative about the prison system, its only reason for being is punitive and capitalist. Sean Swain has been in prison for the past 25 years, for a so called “crime” of self defense and radicalized to being an anarchist behind bars. He has been targeted by numerous prison officials for his political beliefs, so much so that years were added to his sentence. If you would like to support this fundraiser, you can either visit our show notes or go to gofundme.com and search Restorative Justice for Sean Swain. - --- - – - --- - – - --- - – - --- - -- You can write to Sean Swain at his latest address: Sean Swain #2015638 Buckingham Correctional PO Box 430 Dillwyn, VA 23936 You can find his writings, past recordings of his audio segments, and updates on his case at seanswain.org, and follow him on Twitter @swainrocks. - --- - – - --- - – - --- - – - --- - -- In Solidarity with Italian Anarchists Facing Repression We send you our solidarity call with anarchist in Italy and some introductory words, asking you to spread it in the way you prefer. Thanks! “From 2019 to today the Italian State has carried out many repressive operations and inflicted a series of restrictive measures on anarchist comrades, limiting their freedom of movement and forcing them to remain within the limits of their city or to move away from the city or region where they reside. As recipients of these kind of minor measures, together we want to relaunch our solidarity with the more than 200 comrades involved in the various trials in Italy that are starting this September and that shall continue throughout the autumn. In particular, the appeal trial of the Scripta Manent Operation will resume at the beginning of September: this trial involves 5 comrades who have been in prison for 4 years (two of them for 8 years) and which has resulted in 20+ years of sentence in the first grade. During this trial the prosecutor Sparagna gibbered of an “acceptable” anarchism and of a “criminal” one, statements that contain the punitive strategy that the State wants to carry out, based on dividing the “good” from the “bad” within the anarchist movement and the ruling of exemplary sentences.” --------- WHO ASPIRES TO FREEDOM CANNOT BE “MEASURED” We are anarchists subject to restrictive measures following a series of investigations that have crossed the Italian peninsula in the last year and a half. They would like to isolate us, but they cannot. They would like to prevent us from supporting our comrades in prison, but their repression can only strengthen our solidarity. With these various investigations, measures and prison detentions they want to wear us out and divide us, but we remain firm in our ideas and our relations, also thanks to the strong and sincere solidarity that has never failed us and that is increasingly under attack in the courtrooms. They want to divide us between “good” and “bad”, between an anarchism they call "acceptable" and one they call "criminal". We are aware that it is our ideas that have been put on the stand in the latest inquiries, all the more so when these ideas find the way of being translated into action, because as we’ve always believed, thought and action find their meaning only when tied together. And it’s not surprising that a hierarchical system of power such as the State is trying to knock out its enemies by playing dirty and reviewing history, precisely when social anger is growing everywhere. We don’t intend to bow down to their repressive strategies and we reaffirm our full solidarity and complicity with all the anarchists who will be on trial from September: we stand side by side with the comrades under investigation for the Scripta Manent, Panico, Prometeo, Bialystok and Lince Operations, with the anarchist comrades Juan and Davide and with those who will be tried for the Brennero demonstration; we assert our solidarity with Carla, an anarchist comrade arrested in August after living more than a year as a fugitive, following the Scintilla Operation. We know very well who are the enemies that imprison our comrades and against whom we are fighting and every anarchist knows in his/her heart how and where to act to demonstrate what solidarity is. Even if not all of us can be present in the courtrooms alongside our comrades on trial or where solidarity will be manifested, we want to express all our affinity, our love and our anger to them and to all anarchists in prison. Let’s continue to attack this world of cages. Solidarity is a weapon, and an opportunity. -Anarchists “with measures”, exiled and confined - --- - – - --- - – - --- - – - --- - -- Public Domain music for this episode: Hustler – Retro Beatz (loop by William) BOSS – Hip Hop Rap Instrumental 2016 (loop by William)
This week we are pleased to present a guest interview with author Kristian Williams about his new book Resist Everything Except Temptation: The Anarchist Philosophy of Oscar Wilde which was released in June 2020 from AK Press. I found this interview extremely illuminating, perhaps like many other people who might not have strong ties to either academia or popular education models of learning, I had sort of written Oscar Wilde off as this kind of white dead rich guy who carried little to no relevance apart from a model of queerness that we could look back on. This interview very much proved that this isn’t the case, and that he and the circumstances around him very much influence how we as queers and as anarchists can sense historical threads that pull on our lives very tangibly today. Thanks a million to Scott for researching and conducting this interview! You can learn more about the author, Kristian Williams, who is most known for his book Our Enemies in Blue, which is a critical history of American policing and police, at his website kristianwilliams.com. Transcription (thanks to MKE Lit Supply!) PDF (unimposed) Zine (imposed PDF) Help Charlotte Jail Support Rebuild! One announcement before we begin from our comrades at the Charlotte Uprising, Charlotte Jail Support has been getting extremely targeted harassment for some months from CMPD and the sheriff's department. In times of rebellion or revolt, it is the support infrastructures that are often the most vulnerable to repression and violence. All of their supplies have either been seized or destroyed by the police, if you would like to support them re upping their much needed materials, you can Venmoing them @Ashwilliamsclt or Cash App $houseofkanautica. . ... . .. Music for this episode: Hustler – Retro Beatz (loop by William)
Prison By Any Other Name: Vikki Law on Toxic Reforms This week we speak with author and activist, Vikki Law about the book Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms, just out from The New Press and co-authored by Maya Schenwar. We speak about how reform and so-called 'more humane' 'alternatives' to incarceration such as electronic monitoring, drug courts and probation in fact extend the carceral net. We also talk about alternatives to the 'Punishment Paradigm' in responding to harm, police and prison abolitionism and resisting recuperation in our struggles to imagine and birth a new world. More of Vikki's writings can be found at https://victorialaw.net You can find all of our interviews with Vikki at our website. Sean Swain Silenced We got word that Sean Swain has had his email, phone and mail blocked, likely in response to his "An Open Letter to Annette Chambers-Smith," available via DetroitABC, as well as his soon-to-be-published book, "Ohio" (parts 1-3 of the first half available here in zine form, soon via LBC). Pass it on...
This week we are airing a conversation that Bursts had a few weeks ago with Aric McBay, who is an organizer, farmer, and author about his most recent book called Full Spectrum Resistance published by Seven Stories Press in May 2019.. This book is divided into 2 volumes, and from the books website [fullspectrumresistance.org]: “Volume 1: Building movements and fighting to win, explores how movements approach political struggle, recruit members, and structure themselves to get things done and be safe. Volume 2: Actions and strategies for change, lays out how movements develop critical capacities (from intelligence to logistics), and how they plan and carry out successful actions and campaigns.” This interview covers a lot of ground, with topics that could be of use to folks newer to movement and ones who have been struggling and building for a while. McBay also talks at length about the somewhat infamous formation Deep Green Resistance, some of its history, and tendencies within that group that led him to break with them. If you are listening to the extended version and would like a radio ready edition of 57:59 in length for broadcast on your local radio station, you can head over to our collection on archive.org! Links to Indigenous and Migrant led projects for sovereignty and climate justice, and some for further research: Wet’suwet’en Strong [groundworkforchange.org/wetsuweten-strong.html], which includes extensive educational material on allyship, racism, settler colonialism, and decolonization. Interview on TFS with Smogelgem, a Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief of the Likhts’amisyu clan, on ongoing struggles against pipelines and moves to create a Wet’suwet’en lead climate change research facility on their lands at Parrot Lake. Indigenous Environmental Network [ienearth.org] Migrant Rights Network [migrantrights.ca/about] Igniting a Revolution, Voices in Defense of the Earth [akpress.org/ignitingarevolutionak.html] eds. Steven Best & Anthony J. Nocella, II Judi Bari, Revolutionary Ecology [judibari.org/revolutionary-ecology.html] Links for more reading from Aric McBay: fullspectrumresistance.org aricmcbay.org Aric McBay on Facebook (search “Aric McBay Author”) Music for this episode in order of appearance: kidsnextdoor – Carmack Stackin That Brass (Creative Commons) Fennec Beats – I just feel sometimes (Creative Commons) (eidts by William) - --- - -- You can write to Sean Swain at his latest address: Sean Swain #2015638 Buckingham Correctional PO Box 430 Dillwyn, VA 23936 You can find his writings, past recordings of his audio segments, and updates on his case at seanswain.org, and follow him on Twitter @swainrocks. - --- - --
Its not uncommon to hear pundits and regular folks making comparisons between the crises we are now facing and other historical moments, such as the 1920s in Germany or the global rebellions of the 1960s. But is this an effective approach for gauging the potential of now? For the hour, anarchist author and activist Peter Gelderloos shares some of his thoughts on those comparisons, on the revolutionary potential of this moment were living in and some lessons from past movements that we might keep in mind now to make the most out of these dire times. You can find many of Peters writings on TheAnarchistLibrary.Org, available through AK Press and independent bookstores. You can hear our past interviews with Peter by visiting our website.
We Need To Spread This Freely: JN On HK Under National Security Law This week, I speak with JN, an anarchist who works with the decolonial, leftist HongKonger platform, Lausan, talks about where the uprising against Chinese integration in Hong Kong stands, the National Security Law, tankie and rightwing narratives and international anti-authoritarian solidarity and resistance. The interview about Belarus that I mentioned before was from a recent episode of Elephant In The Room, from Dresden, Germany, which is a member of the Channel Zero Network of Anarchist Podcasts. A few of the media links mentioned by JN are: LausanHK on Twitter, FB & Instagram HongKongHermit on Twitter The Stand News (Chinese language news from HK) Announcements Charlotte RNC 2020 I’d like to remind folks that the 2020 Republican National Convention is going to partially be held in Charlotte from August 20-24. One group that is doing anti-repression work in the area is CharlotteUprising, which can be found on twitter at @CLTUprising, where you can find info about the protests at the event as well as their jail support, including how to make donations. You can learn more by following the hashtags #CharlotteUprising and #ResistRNC2020 JLS Call For Solidarity Aug 19 - Sept 9 You can read the whole release here: To all in solidarity with the Prisoners Human Rights Movement: We are reaching out to those that have been amplifying our voices in these state, federal, or immigration jails and prisons, and to allies that uplifted the national prison strike demands in 2018. We call on you again to organize the communities from August 21st – September 9th, 2020, by hosting actions, events, and demonstrations that call for prisoner human rights and the end to prison slavery... On August 21 – September 9, we call on everyone in solidarity with the prison class struggle to organize an action, a panel discussion, a rally, an art event, a film screening, or another kind of demonstration to promote prisoners’ human rights. Whatever is within your ability, we ask that you shake the nation out of any fog they may be in about prisoners’ human rights and the criminal legal system (legalized enslavement). During these solidarity events, we request that organizers amplify immediate issues prisoners in your state face, the demands from the National Prison Strike of 2018, and uplift Jailhouse Lawyers Speak new International Law Project... The prison strike demands were drafted as a path to alleviate the dehumanizing process and conditions people are subjected to while going through this nation’s judicial system. Following up on these demands communicates to the world that prisoners are heard and that prisoners’ human rights are a priority. In the spirit of Attica, will you be in the fight to dismantle the prison industrial slave complex by pushing agendas that will shut down jails and prisons like Rikers Island or Attica? Read the Attica Rebellion demands and read the National Prison Strike 2018 demands. Ask yourself what can you do to see the 2018 National Prison Strike demands through. SHARE THIS RELEASE FAR AND WIDE WITH ALL YOUR CONTACTS! We rage with George Jackson’s “Blood in my eyes” and move in the spirit of the Attica Rebellion! image by StudioIncendo on Flickr . ... . .. featured track: I Can't Relate - Beatnuts - Hydrabeats Vol 5 (instrumentals)
Omaha In The Uprising with Mel This week, we’re going to hear two specials in two separate episodes, basically exploding radio edition into it’s components. In this one you’ve clicked on, you’ll hear Mel B from Omaha, Nebraska talk about the city, the protests there including the killing of James Scurlock on May 30th, the mass arrest of 120 people on July 25th and leftist and Black organizing there. Mel’s projects: Mel’s Twitter : https://twitter.com/coldbrewedtool Mel’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/melanie_buer Protean Magazine, where Mel is Associate Editor Co-host of Protean’s official podcast, Protean Pirate Radio IWW Freelance Journalists Union, The Industrial Worker publishing platform Some projects around Omaha worth mentioning: Omaha Tenants United: https://omahatenantsunited.org/ Nebraska Left Coalition: https://www.neleftcoalition.com/ ProBlac: https://problac.com/ Culxr House: https://www.noiseomaha.com/culxr-house Union for Contemporary Art: https://www.u-ca.org/ If you want to hear the other half of this dis-enjoined pair, you can look for the episode called ‘RVA in the Uprising with L and Buzz,’ where you’ll hear those two talk about mutual aid and the Richmond Community Bail Fund, struggles to remove confederate monuments around that former capitol of the CSA and other topics. Image from Mel B's Twitter
RVA In The Uprising with L and Buzz This week, we’re going to hear two specials in two separate episodes, basically exploding radio edition into it’s components. In this one you’ve clicked on, you’ll hear L, who works with the Richmond Community Bail Fund, and Buzz talk about their experiences in the streets and doing anti-repression work in Richmond, Virginia, throughout the uprising against police killings sparked by the murder of George Floyd in so-called Minneapolis. They also talk about the decades-long struggle to take down public monuments to the Confederacy, including the reclaiming of the former home of the statue of General R.E. Lee as Marcus David Peters Circle, named for a black man murdered by the Richmond police in 2018 while having a mental health crisis. Amazing projects the guests suggest you check out: Race Capitol podcast Virginia Student Power Network (VSPN) Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR) Richmond Leaders Of The New South Richmond Tenants Union Richmond Strike on Instagram ASH, Antifa of Seven Hills River City Medic Collective Commonwealth Times Justice & Reformation Project Scuffletown Anti Repression Committee Richmond Is Burning, Instagram & Twitter Richmond Rebellion (Telegram Channel) If you want to hear the other half of this dis-enjoined pair, you can look for the episode called ‘Omaha in the Uprising with Mel B’, where anarchist journalist Mel B talks about the city, the marches, the killing of James Scurlock on May 30th and the mass arrest of 120 people on July 25th. image by JosephA
This week we got to sit down with two members of the Portland General Defense Committee, AC (they them) and Raoul (they he), about the ongoing Uprising in Portland OR in the months since the murder of George Floyd. We get to touch on a lot of topics in this interview; the neo-liberal whitewashing of the image of the city of Portland which masks a lot of ultra racist and colonial tendencies, personal timelines of engagement in the Uprising, and a lot of tips and tricks for newer and older anarchists and radicals for dealing with and anticipating state repression and violence. Here are some notes and links to the topics that our guests spoke on: -One note on the group Riot Ribs that AC mentions, I think that the group has disbanded for now but have seemingly regrouped as Revolution Ribs, you can find them @RevRibs on Twitter and their Cashapp is $RevolutionRibs. This group does not have a verified Instagram presence as far as I know. -Walidah Imarisha on Oregon’s racist, anti-Black history: Walidah Imarisha - Why Aren't There More Black People in Oregon? (YouTube link) approx 1.5 hours long -You can learn more about the Portland General Defense Committee and donate to their efforts at https://pdxgdc.com/ -Rosehip Medics in Portland : All Fundraising Platforms (rosehipmedics.org) -Indigenous Mutual Aid is a platform that started up at the start of pandemic and has a very thorough list of Indigenous led and centered projects in their directory (indigenousmutualaid.org) -Portland Freedom Fund which is a general fund that bails out BIPOC (portlandfreedomfund.org) -Twitter folks to follow for otg news on the PDX Uprising: Economy Breakfast Sergio Olmos Robert Evans -Anti-Repression Resources: Sprout Distro on Instagram National Lawyers Guild on Insta Civil Liberties Defense Center also in Insta -And finally, there are too many autonomous local bail funds around the country to all name here, but if you do a search for “mutual aid bail fund in [name of town/city]” then that should give you a pretty solid clue about how to support places that haven’t made it into the news as much. You can also do searches for Black Mamas Bail Out in your area to help fund efforts to bail out Black mothers and caregivers. . ... . .. Music for this episode: Run DMC - Peter Piper (instrumental) RANGEEN - BeatByShaheed
Pipeline Updates from Yellow Finch Tree Sit 690 days. That is how long the tree sit on Yellow Finch lane has been standing to block the progress of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s proposed 301 mile corridor of pressurized, fracked liquified natural gas. This week, we speak with Dustie Pinesap and Woodchipper who are at the Yellow Finch Tree Sit in so-called Montgomery County, Virginia, who talk about the MVP, the recently-cancelled Atlantic Coast Pipeline, resistance during the pandemic, solidarity with the uprising against capitalism and white supremacist policing and a whole lot more. Appalachians Against Pipelines: Fundraising: https://bit.ly/SupportMVPResistance Email: appalachiansagainstpipelines@protonmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AppalachiansAgainstPipelines Twitter: https://twitter.com/StopTheMVP Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/appalachiansagainstpipelines Announcements #DefundAVLPD protest Tuesday If you’re in the Asheville area this week, city council will be conducting a hotly contested vote on the police and other budgets Tuesday, July 28th. According to the instagram account, @DefundAVLPD, there will be a rally that could turn protest starting at 5pm in front of Asheville city hall at 70 Court Plaza in downtown. Phone Zap for Hunger Striking AL Prisoners Anarchist prisoner Michael Kimble and fellow prisoner Brandon Oden began a hungry strike from all food other than water to protest the following: the inept mishandling of the covid-19 crisis at Easterling Correction Facility a lack of outside exercise time a lack of access to law library a lack of access to immune building foods and fruits a lack of clean and fresh water a refusal by administration to release all vulnerable prisoners being held at Easterling a lack of proper testing and quarantining Kimble and Oden are asking that everyone call and fax the Governor and Commissioner to demand that they seriously address and correct these problems. GOV KAY IVEY (334) 242-7100 fax (334) 353-0004 Commissioner Jeff Dun (334) 353-3883 Fax 3343533967
Anarchist Prisoners and Updates from the A-Radio Network This week, we're continuing our pandemic vacation. First up is some new words on surveillance and resistance by Sean Swain.[00:02:51-00:09:25] Then you'll hear audio from the most recent episode of our cousin project, Dissident Island Radio, where they spoke with a fan of London Anarchist Black Cross about the upcoming July 23-30th Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners. Dissident Island Radio is also a member of the Channel Zero Network and the A-Radio Network, and you can find more of their work, including their shows dating back almost 13 years to the day, at DissidentIsland.Org. The show notes include a lot of notes and links for solidarity. [00:09:25-00:22:31] Comrade Malik shares his birthday greetings and informs us about the current struggles of anarchist and anti-fascist prisoner, Eric KIng. [00:22:31-00:26:38] Note that on Sunday, July 19th 2020 at 8pm EST there is a benefit trivia game for Malik's release and the SF Bay View over Zoom. More info on fedbook, and you can RSVP before the event by emailing blueridgeabc(at )riseup( dot)net! We'll also be featuring audio from this months Bad News: Angry Voices From Around The World. Bad News is a monthly, English-language podcast with updates from various participants in the A-Radio Network of anarchist and anti-authoritarian radio and audio projects. If you like what you hear, we invite you to check out other projects in the network, learn more about our work, how get your project involved and to listen to other episodes Bad News by visiting A-Radio-Network.Org and you can keep an eye on our twitter feed for regular retweets of episodes, coming out at roughly the 15th of each month. [00:26:38-forever] Contents from BADNews (produced by 1431AM): 1) Radio-zones of Subversive Expression (Athens) about: media foundation by the Greek goverment during the quarntine, the police violence in Exarchia some days after a squat eviction, the violence and eviction of Victoria square 2) Črna Luknja is contributing an antireport from Slovenian unrests, that in the middle of march, because of the virus started with drumming on balconies, went on the bicycles and ended up on foot, against the right-wing government with authoritarian, neoliberalistic and nationalistic intentions. 3) Free Social Radio 1431AM (Thessaloniki) about: the arrest of two anarchist comrades in Thessaloniki, the latest developments on the shutdown and reconnection of espiv.net’s server, the violence and eviction of Victoria square 4) A-radio Berlin: Stop the eviction of the collective bar Syndikat “In the context of a possible summer of evictions of collective bars, house projects and youth centers in Berlin, the Anarchist Radio Berlin wants to help make it instead a summer of resistance.” 5) Radiofragmata (Athens) with news from Greece. 6) FrequenzA with an interview with somebody from solikomitee 1007 about the street festival “resist-2” about the festival, the resistance against the deportation in the past and the trial against two persons who where part of it. 7) Dissident Island Radio: a round-up of UK-related ‘B(A)D News’
Rik Scarce is the author of the 1990 exploration of earth liberation and defense and the folks involved, entitled “Eco-Warriors: Understanding The Radical Environmental Movement”, which is still considered required reading in understanding radical eco-defense. At one point, he served 159 days in the Spokane jail for refusing to testify about his sources in his research on the Animal Liberation movement. Leslie James Pickering, co-owner of Burning Books in Buffalo, NY, is an author, activist and is a former spokesperson for the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office. The following is a recording from November of 2017 at Burning Books of a conversation between Scarce and Pickering about property destruction, terrorism labels and the radical ecological movement. Rik and Leslie speak about definitions of violence, concerns around alienating the wider community and repercussions of militancy. This conversation feels important to air as we stand at a crossroads here in the U.S. between the pandemic, an uprising to challenge police killings (primarily of Black and Brown bodies) and what role if any police should fill in our society, the collapse of the economy, the continued rise of political fascism, the de-platforming of racist statues, further internalization of the border and it’s logic, and global climate chaos that will likely make human life at this scale impossible. This power structure is amplifying difference and applying privileges and oppressions across that constructed spectrum as it always has, but it is in death throes and thus is made visible in all of it’s ugliness. For that reason, conversations about the serious needs to challenge basic assumptions and work through hard ideas feels important to me. As usual, we invite listeners to check out the slightly longer podcast version online for free. To hear the questions and answers from the end of the presentation, you can check out the podcast. You can find more presentations from Burning Books plus an interview we did with Leslie a few years back about how they uncovered government surveillance at our website. You can learn more about their bookstore, including books by Pickering and Scarce at BurningBooks.com.
On Blackness and Anarchy This week on the Final Straw, we are taking a break from consistently bringing fresh content over the last few months (frequently twice a week, instead of just the usual Sunday episodes) and re-airing this segment form a prior episode 2 years ago. Here we re-present a speech by William C. Anderson, keynote of the 2018 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville, NC. William is the co-author with Zoe Samudzi of the book “As Black As Resistance: Finding The Conditions For Liberation” (AK Press, 2017). From the original post: The talk he is giving here is based heavily on the first chapter of the book called Black in Anarchy, and in addition to laying the groundwork of how he and Samudzi wrote the book, he speaks about the truly conditional nature of so called “citizenship” that many people living in the US face, the continuing evolution of race and the reliance of white supremacy to Black subjugation, and he places Blackness in proximity to Anarchy, and much more. From the back cover: “As Black As Resistance makes the case for a new program of self-defense and transformative politics for Black Americans, one rooted in an anarchistic framework that the authors liken to the Black experience itself. This is not a book of compromise, nor does it negotiate with intolerance. It is a manifesto for everyone who is ready to continue progressing towards liberation for all people.” We hope you will enjoy this talk, and if you are curious about the book As Black As Resistance by Zoe Samudzi and William C. Anderson, you can head over to AK Press to learn more! We’ll be back with new content soon, once we’ve re-energized. If you are in the radio listening audience and are fiending for more voices from the streets, radical authors and more, consider checking our website for a backlog of episodes going back to 2010. You can play on our website, or subscribe to our podcast stream with your smart phone, tablet or computer, and you can also find all of our content for free on those nasty, streaming platforms like spotify, youtube, google podcasts, itunes ad nauseum. Announcements Anarchist Media Comrades at Sub.Media have had some really exciting projects hit the web in the last week or so. First up, after ending their monthly Trouble series, they have inaugurated a new series entitled “System Fail”, this first episode is entitled ‘Riots Across America’, is hosted by a Dee Dos and features an interview with Oluchi Omeoga of Black Visions Collective and Reclaim The Block in so-called Minneapolis. While it’s currently unavailable on youtube, it can be watched via Archive.org and their website, Sub.Media. Sub.Media has also announced, in collaboration with AntiMidia in Brazil, is launching ‘Kolektiva’, an anarchist and anti-colonial video platform based on peer-tube. This project already features videos in French, German, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Arabic and they are looking for more rad video collectives to participate and more folks to help with translation. You can check it out and learn more at Kolektiva.Media Fundraisers There are a number of ongoing fundraisers for folks arrested during the Uprising for Black Lives aka ACAB Spring, many of which can be found at ItsGoingDown.org among other places. One group that could use the funds is the Free Deyanna Davis legal defense fund in Buffalo, NY. You can learn more by visiting gofundme.com/f/free-deyanna-davis-legal-defense-fund Also, from Black Hills Bail and Legal Defense Fund: “On July 3rd, 2020, Indigenous People and our allies were arrested in the process of defending our sacred lands in the Black Hills. Acts of courage and civil disobedience resulted in arrests and criminal charges. We were protesting the desecration of sacred lands that were stolen by our people.” To support the 15 arrestees from July 3rd, consider visiting BHLegalFund.org. The SF Bay View National Black Newspaper has been producing a print newspaper since 1976 featuring voices from the Bay Area in California, voices from imprisoned people, stories about struggles for ecological justice in working class communities of color and views and news online and in print up til today for Black Liberation. The paper is sent to prisoners and thus acts as a powerful conduit for ideas and action behind bars and with the outside. I had a chance to speak with the editor, Mary Ratcliff a few years back about the paper. Mary, who is in her 80’s, has been diagnosed with breast cancer and her husband and the publisher, Willie Ratcliff, has his own serious health issues and she is his care giver. They are fundraising with a GoFundMe at the moment to help bring on board the soon to be released, but currently incarcerated, Comrade Malik to become editor. Malik has been acting as assistant editor of the Behind Enemy Lines column and is set to be released from Federal custody in September and is excited to take on this responsibility. If you are excited and want to learn more about how to help, you can visit GoFundMe.com/f/fund-liberation for more information and how to help sustain the SFBayView in this exciting transition. And you can check out the paper at SFBayVIew.com Prison Related Prisoners at Coffee Correctional in Georgia are facing a major spike in the pandemic and are requesting a phone zap beginning Monday, July 6th in response to this crisis. You can learn more at the Atlanta IWOC facebook, instagram or twitter accounts. And you can hear the audio again with call-in information via the audiogram. To hear more recent updates about political prisoners and their struggles in the so-called U.S. including some context about the recent uprisings and arrests, check out the latest addition to the ‘Prison Break’ column at ItsGoingDown.Org. For a wider view of the impacts of the pandemic and resistance to it behind bars, IGD also just published a new installment of their ‘Break Out’ column featuring views from members of the Philadelphia chapter of the Revolutionary Abolition Movement and Oakland Abolition and Solidarity (formerly Oakland IWOC). Both are linked in our show notes. There is an invitation for folks to organize events in their cities and to share the call for an international action week in solidarity with anarchist prisoners August 23-30th. You will find the call at www.solidarity.international (available in 5 languages), on Twitter (@solidarity_week), Facebook (@WeekOfSolidarity), Mastadon (@tillallarefree) and you can share your actions by writing to tillallarefree@riseup.net . Their pgp key is up on the contact page of their website. . ... . .. The featured track in this episode was: Unbound Allstars - Mumia 911 (Rocks Tha World Full Length Mix Instrumental) - Mumia 911
Justice4Jerry2020, Confederate Monuments + Repression During The Movement for Black Lives photo by Ben Harper This episode has three portions following a segment by anarchist prisoner, Sean Swain, about confederate monuments. [00:02:31 - 00:09:32] This episode warrants a general content warning for the mentioning of the murder by shooting of a Black man at the hands of the police. Justice4Jerry 2020 [00:09:32 - 00:29:36] First up we got the chance to sit down with Najiyyah Avery Williams, who is a community member, organizer, and mother of Jai Lateef Solveig Williams, also known as Lil Jerry. Jerry, who was a children’s book author, artist, musician, and a 35 year old father was brutally killed by the Asheville Police Department on July 2nd 2016 by Sgt Tyler Radford. This interview happened outdoors in front of the courthouse and police station in downtown Asheville, where the city was powerwashing a DEFUND THE POLICE street mural which was done autonomously the previous day to honor the life of Jerry Williams, and to call attention to the culture of violence and silence that the police hide behind when they murder Black people. Visit our social media for pictures of this mural before it was taken down! In this segment we talk about Lil Jerry’s life, his work, the circumstances surrounding his passing, racist violence and harrassment his family has received in the aftermath, and projects his mother is working on and would like to see for the future. An article by Socialist Worker detailing the initial murder and how contradictions were evidenced at the get go. To help support Justice for Jerry, which is trying to get his unfinished books published and will go to supporting his family, you can venmo to the handle @J4J2020, or follow them on social media platforms by searching Justice 4 Jerry 2020. Rural Protest Against Racist Legacy [00:29:36 - 00:39:10] After Najiah, we’re happy to share a voice message we received from Gabriel from Tyrrell County, North Carolina, about a protest that happened on the 26th in Columbia, the county seat. Gabriel shares his experience of the protest in this tiny town, giving an insight into some rural experience of confronting confederate monuments and their legacy. Michael Loadenthal on Repression During 2020 Uprising [00:39:11 - 02:10:16] In the third portion of this episode, you’ll hear Michael Loadenthal of The Prosecution Project, which maps how politics impacts the weight of criminal charges attached in the U.S. Michael talks about the scale of repression brought by local, state and federal law enforcement and ideas of resisting it during the uprising against police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, the destruction of racist statues known variously as the rebirth of the Movement for Black Lives, or the #ACABSpring. For a great article on the subject, check out Mapping the State’s Strategy of Repression Against the Rebellion on IGD. Michael talks about the construction of federal felony charges for what would normally be smaller local charges, the use of grand juries to map social networks. He also shares thoughts about safer practices with social media, shifting dialogue around the role of police in society, the role of open source intelligence as well as surveillance technologies like drones and facial recognition. Some points to follow up on from Michael's chat: Michael Loadenthal’s Academia.Edu page: gmu.Academia.edu/MichaelLoadenthal Michael's twitter account is @mloadenthal TPP: https://theprosecutionproject.org Buzzfeed article on police departments ability to digitally surveil individuals in crowds: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/police-software-briefcam This World Of Ours, James Mickens, 2014 https://ssd.eff.org The Final Straw episodes touching on Grand Jury Resistance: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/category/grand-jury/ The Tuscon 12 arrested after a protest at a jail, followed from protest by drone The evidence trail cited by prosecutors to Lore-Elizabeth Blumenthal The Tilted Scales Collective: https://tiltedscalescollective.org/ National Lawyers Guild: https://www.nlg.org/our-work/ Protest Law Tracker: https://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/ A great presentation by a lawyer, James Duane, on why not to talk to police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
Pan-African Social Ecology: A conversation with Dr Modibo Kadalie This week, we’re happy to air a conversation I had with the author and activist, Modibo Kadalie, author of Pan-African Social Ecology as well as Internationalism, Pan-Africanism and the Struggle of Social Classes. A version of Dr. Kadalie’s conversation with Andrew Zonneveld of OOA! Publishing, entitled Pan-Africanism, Social Ecology and Intimate Direct Action appeared up in the recently released collection Deciding For Ourselves, edited by Cindy Milstein out from AK Press. Dr. Kadalie has also been involved in political organizing including resisting the draft of the Vietnam War, labor organizing in Detroit and Memphis, ecological protest, community self defense in Atlanta and currently is working on writings about ecology and living in the territories of southeastern Turtle Island, including those of the Creek and Seminole peoples, and working at the Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology in Midway, Georgia. In this hour, Modibo talks about autonomous community organizing, the contradictions between the survival of the species and capitalism, CLR James, his read on Pan-Africanism and Social Ecology, the pandemic, and direct democracy. We also talk about Geechee history in south so-called Georgia, the weaknesses of nationalism, hierarchy and revering individual historical figures and the strength of spontaneity and community action. This conversation was recorded before the killing of George Floyd and but after the increased awareness of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery nearby to Dr. Kadalie in Glynn County, GA, which reflects in the discussion. Modibo shares some criticisms of official Black Lives Matter, liberal cooptation and the veneration of representative leadership. . ... . .. Songs used in this episode: Marvin Gaye - Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) - What's Going On Quincy Jones - Everything Must Change - Body Heat Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come - Ain't That Good News
In the past few weeks since the uprising in response to police killings of Black and Brown folks around Turtle Island, amazing chances have presented themselves and folks have seized opportunities. One great and unfolding circumstance is known as the CHAZ or CHOP, an autonomous zone and occupational protest surrounding a police precinct in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The area was opened to community redesign after nights of intense battles with the police leading to the department evacuating the East Precinct to crowds of people chanting “Every Day”, meaning they would continue surrounding the police building. In many ways, the ability of the community, including anarchists and other radicals, to be able to respond to the situation was possible because of the mutual aid work that had been being developed during the covid-19 pandemic and years of building relationships. In this podcast special, you’ll hear a fresh conversation with D. D is a Black Anarchist who grew up in and around Capitol Hill district in Seattle. He talks for this chat about that neighborhood and adjacent Central District’s rebelliousness and conflictual history with the Eastern Precinct that the Seattle Police abandoned, about his knowledge of the protests of past weeks and the retreat of cops from their pen. D talks about the foundation of what has been called the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, aka CHAZ, aka Capitol Hill Occupation Protest (or CHOP), or as D calls it the Chopped City CHAZ. You’ll also hear a tiny bit about the history of occupations during protests in the city, engagement with the zone and indigenous communities in the area, the idea of monolithic Black Leadership, self-defense against the far right, the reproduce-ability of the autonomous zone model and other topics. We’re going to try to bring you more stories from this place soon and are super thankful to D for sharing his perspectives. Transcription PDF (Unimposed) Zine (Imposed PDF) note: I was informed by my cohost William that in fact the retaining wall in front of the fourth precinct in Minneapolis that I was referring to was actually constructed by the Minneapolis PD, hence why it looks janky as shit. A few of the resources that D suggests folks pay attention to include Converge Media, Some of the occupations that D mentions include: Northwest African American Museum Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Centre El Centro De La Raza The website for the Duwamish nation is DuwamishTribe.org And for the Suquamish nation’s website can be found at Suquamish.nsn.us Political Prisoner Oso Blanco’s statement on the CHAZ can be found at FreeOsoBlanco.Blogspot.Com. . ... . .. Music from this podcast: Liquid Liquid - Cavern - Discography (1981-1984)
This week we are pleased to present an interview William conducted with Gabriel Kuhn and Maxida Märak on the 2019 PM Press release Liberating Sápmi: Indigenous Resistance in Europe’s Far North. This book, of which Kuhn is the author and editor and Märak is an contributor, details a political history of the Sámi people whose traditional lands extend along the north most regions of so called Sweden, Norway, Finland, and parts of Russia, as well as interviews conducted with over a dozen Sámi artists and activists. Maxida Märak is a Sámi activist, actor, and hip hop artist who has done extensive work for Indigenous people’s justice. All of the music in this episode is by Märak and used with her permission, one of which comes off of her 2019 full length release Utopi. In this episode we speak about the particular struggles of Sámi folks, ties between Indigenous people all around the world, and many more topics! Transcript PDF (Unimposed) – pending ZIne (Imposed PDF) – pending Links for further solidarity and support from our guests: Pile o´Sápmi: http://www.pileosapmi.com/ WeWhoSupportJovssetAnte: https://wewhosupportjovssetante.org/ Gállok Iron Mine: http://www.whatlocalpeople.se/about/ Ellos Deatnu!: https://ellosdeatnu.wordpress.com/ Moratorium Office: https://moratoriadoaimmahat.org Arctic Railway: https://www.ejatlas.org/conflict/the-arctic-railway-project-through-sami-territory-from-finland-to-norway . ... . .. Music for this episode in order of appearance: Maxida Märak - Järnrör Maxida Märak - Kommer aldrig lämna dig - Utopi - 2019 Maxida Märak cov. Buffy Sainte-Marie - Soldier Blue
June 11th 2020: Marius Mason support and words from Jeremy Hammond In this June 11th podcast special, we’re happy to feature two interviews. The first is with Letha, a supporter of anarchist prisoner Marius Mason who is 7 years from release for animal and earth liberation front actions in the late 1990’s. Marius, who tested positive for covid-19 recently at FCI Danbury, continues his activism including on behalf of other trans folks behind bars as well as to write and create. More on his case and how to support him is up at SupportMariusMason.org. Then I spoke with Jeremy Hammond who is an anarchist prisoner supported by June11th for hactivist activities in the early 2010’s as a member of Anonymous and other crews that released information to WikiLeaks to expose corporate and police spying and abuse and war crimes, as well as supporting whistleblowers in the Global War on Terror like Chelsea Manning. Jeremy also recently resisted a Federal Grand Jury around WikiLeaks with Chelsea Manning, he contracted covid-19 recently, and currently produces a podcast with his brother, Jason, called Twin Trouble which is in the Channel Zero Network. More on Jeremy’s case at FreeJeremy.Net By way of introduction, June 11th is an important day for Anarchists. It began as a day of solidarity with Jeff “Free” Luers, an eco-anarchist who received a sentence of 22 years and 8 months in 2004 for burning 3 SUIVs on a car lot in Eugene, Oregon. Leurs was eventually released in 2009. In 2010, after the waves of the Green Scare subsided, the day was shifted to support Marius Mason and Eric McDavid. There is a history of June 11th written up at june11.org by Crimethinc from a few years back that is very thorough if you want more details. Suffice to say, Eric was released, Marius continues to sit behind bars. Since then, the list of long term anarchist prisoners has expanded as our numbers keep growing on the outside. The efforts to support those inside and to expand the struggles of those comrades behind bars also builds. As we recognize and are inspired by those who have stood up to inhuman power structures and suffered huge consequences, remember that not everyone has been caught, that being caught isn’t always the end, and that we still have fight in us. I’d like to invite people to check out June11.org to check out the call for this year’s June11th by the committee, listen the 2020 mixtape of songs curated by current anarchist prisoners J11 supports, find out more about the prisoners and check out where you can donate to them and read or hear statements by the prisoners as to what they want to see around this year’s celebration and rememberance. If you visit the resources page, you can see posters, reportbacks, zines, hear voices of formerly incarcerated anarchists and their supporters from an interview series, read past years prisoner statements and a whole lot more. We also hear that our comrades at the Crimethinc Ex-Worker podcast will be releasing an episode on J11 in coming days which is bound to be worth a listen. Finally, if you’d like to hear past interviews about June 11 and with anarchist prisoners that we’ve done since 2013, including with anarchist prisoners like Michael Kimble, Sean Swain and Eric King, their supporters, folks from the J11 crew, authors like Will Potter and formerly incarcerated anarchist, Eric McDavid, check out our June11 shows. Just an FYI, it is possible that Marius is dead-named and mis-gendered in some of the past shows as he came out as a man in 2015. . ... . .. Track featured on this episode: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird's Fallen - Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward
Hotel Sanctuary in MPLS This week we got to connect with Rosemary, who is an organizer in Minneapolis, about the liberation of a former Sheraton Hotel in that city and its slow but steady transformation into something that is becoming so much more than a housing cooperative. They speak about how this resocialization came to happen, some of the circumstances involved, about how this is a very deep collaboration between un-housed folks in Minneapolis and people involved in doing care work, the power of George Floyd who was profoundly involved in doing that same kind of care work with un-housed people, and many many more topics. Check out their new website up at SanctuaryHotel.org and their fundraiser at GoFundMe.com/f/SanctuaryHotel . ... . .. In this episode, you'll also hear a statement by anarchist prisoners, Comrade Malik and Sean Swain. We invite you to stay tuned for mid-week as we release a podcast special for the June 11th day of solidarity with Marius Mason and longterm anarchist prisoners. We hope to feature the voice of a longtime supporter of Marius with updates on his case, and that of anarchist prisoner, anon hacker and Federal Grand Jury resistor, Jeremy Hammond. More about June 11th on June11.org. Transcription: Comrade Malik Transcription: Rosemary PDF (unimposed) Zine (imposed PDF) . ... . .. Further resources from Rosemary: Sharing from the Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel FedBook page, hoping a website and crowdfunding link will be up soon so stay tuned! Greetings community. We hope this long post finds you as safe and well as is possible during a righteous uprising. We wanted to provide you some updates and opportunities to plug in. The Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel is a community-led sanctuary space for over 200 displaced and homeless people who needed safety from the military occupation that occurred following the murder of George Floyd. We center values of autonomy, harm reduction, community care, mutual aid, and abolition. 1. First! This page, started as a space to boost all kinds of different work related to COVID, homelessness, and community care, is transitioning to become the Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel Facebook page. Look for changing name and photos shortly! 2. We are overwhelmed with support. This is a good problem to have but we've had to rapidly scale up our infrastructure to meet the needs. Here are some ways to plug in: > If you are media with interview or press release requests, please email: sanctuaryhotelmedia@gmail.com > If you are a restaurant, catering company, or are interested in providing hot meals, please contact Kimberly at 612-203-2779 > If you are a new volunteer looking to get connected or are a previous volunteer with a special skill set we don't know about, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScy9VNQ1Xnamf6pUC-kphgXrnI3OwakUucW4YAfYNVz7o5cBg/viewform 3. A few boundaries to set for resident safety, capacity, and COVID reasons: > Please DO NOT show up at the sanctuary hotel if you are not signed up to work a shift. > Please NO MORE *non-perishable food* donations. > Please DO wear a mask when on-site Please continue to watch this space for more updates as we continue to learn and grow in the work of building a sanctuary. . ... . .. Call for vigils on 6/7/2020 for fallen comrades From anarchist BIPOC & accomplices: Since the George Floyd rebellions began on May 26 2020, following his horrific murder by police, at least a dozen more lives have been taken by state and vigilante violence in the struggle for Black freedom. We wish to honor them by making space to say their names, commemorate their lives, and celebrate our own resistance. By acknowledging the risk we all take when we move into the streets, we remember the martyred and continue to fight for the living. Calling for vigils everywhere, Sunday 6/7 at sundown. . ... . .. Music for this episode by: Ratatat - Loud Pipes
Two Voices From MPLS: Medic and Abolitionist On this episode, we’re featuring two voices from Minneapolis, the epicenter of mass demonstrations and uprising following the police murder of #GeorgeFloyd. First up, you’ll hear from Jacquie, a professional medic living in Minneapolis. Jacquie talks about the impacts of corona virus on Black and Brown communities around the city, some of what she saw in the early days of the protests and the feelings expressed to her about the killing of George Floyd and the problem of police in our racist society. You can find a project of theirs on instagram by seeking @femmeempowermentproject. Then, Tonja Honsey, executive director of the Minnsesota Freedom Fund, talks about bail and prison abolition, infrastructure to get folks out of jail and supporting the people in the streets. They’re online at MinneapolisFreedomFund.Org Both interviewees shout out Black Visions Collective and Reclaim The Block, two police abolition projects in Minneapolis, and the Northstar Health Collective. Check our show notes for links to those projects, as well as bail funds for cities where solidarity protests have been met with police repression. Announcements Jalil Muntaqim There is an effort right now to get compassionate release for Jalil Muntaqim, former Black Panther and member of the Black Liberation Army. Jalil has been held by New York state since 1971 and he recently has tested positive for the Corona Virus. His attempts at parole over the years have been stymied by police and racists pressuring and stacking the parole board for Jalil’s involvement in the death of two cops 5 decades ago. This has happened 12 times since 2002 when he became eligible. More info about his case at his support site, freejalil.com and check out this SFBayView article for how you can help push for his release. Breaking the 4th Wall Hey, y’all. First off, I just want to say how impressed I am at the power that people are drawing up from within in order to battle the police all over the country. Seeing videos and hearing stories from Minneapolis, Atlanta, Oakland, New York City, Omaha, Denver, St. Louis, Tucson, Los Angeles and elsewhere, plus the solidarity rallies and support coming out here and abroad is so heartwarming. This week, you’ll know, police in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd, an African American man and people were there to video tape it. Since then, people took the streets, were met with tear gas and rubber bullets, some held vigils while others held the streets and set fire to a corner of that world that holds them hostage, including a police precinct. The cops present at Floyd’s murder were fired, and finally the officer who murdered has been arrested. Mr. Last week, police murdered a Black Trans Man named Tony McDade in Tallahassee. Over the prior month and a half, that same force murdered two other African American men, Wilbon Woodard and Zackri Jones. On March 13th, Louisville police murdered Breonna Taylor, a medical First Responder, during a home raid. At a protest on May 28th for Breonna’s legacy, 7 people were shot by unknown parties. Video of the murder by a white, retired cop and his son in Glynn County, Georgia, of yet another African American man, Ahmaud Arbery, was released a few weeks back sparking protests and the eventual arrest of the killers. The police sat on that video since Mr. Arbery’s killing in February, allowing the killers to walk free. Please stay safe out there, y’all. Already, some folks have died at these protests, riots and uprisings against the status quo. Wear masks to protect from covid but also to obscure your identity. Drink lots of water, get good sleep if you can, take care of each other and support each other in these hard times. You can keep up on ongoing struggle via ItsGoingDown.org’s site and social media presence, and you can watch amazing videos from Minneapolis via Unicorn Riot. Housing Liberation in Minneapolis "At 8:00pm on Friday, blocks from the epicenter of the uprising, we watched from a tent as armored vehicles and hundreds of national guard advanced on Hiawatha. The curfew was in effect and the state offered no options for a couple camped outside. The hotels promised to the large encampment across the highway left them and many other behind. The shelters were full. This couple finally found refuge in a largely vacant hotel a mile away. The next morning, they awoke to the burned remains of Chicago and Lake and learned that the hotel owners planned to evacuate. With nowhere else to go but with a community showing up to support, the couple declined to evacuate. Together we invited displaced and unsheltered neighbors to join us. Overnight people came in with harrowing stories of terror from police and other white supremacists. National guard shot rubber bullets at us while we stood guard against that violence. At the time of this writing nearly 200 people have created sanctuary in the memory of former shelter worker George Floyd. We avenge Floyd's death in the flames of the third precinct and honor his life in the reclamation of hoarded property. We have protected this building by occupying it. There is no going back to how things were - this isn't a Sheraton anymore, it is a sanctuary." . ... . .. playlist pending . ... . .. Bail & Anti-Repression Funds Across The U.S. (taken from Evan Greer's tweeted link, accessed at 4pm eastern, May 31. Likely updated, and includes lawyer info) National Bail Networks http://nationalbailout.org/ https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory https://bailproject.org/ By City / State: Atlanta - https://actionnetwork.org/groups/atlanta-solidarity-fund http://atlsolidarity.org/ Austin - https://reparation.atlas.thrinacia.com/campaign/24/400-1-bail-fund Baltimore https://www.baltimoreactionlegal.org/community-bail-fund Bay Area (San Fran, Oakland, San Jose, Vallejo, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz) https://rally.org/ARCbailfund Brooklyn - https://brooklynbailfund.org/donation-form Boston - https://www.massbailfund.org/ Buffalo NY https://fundrazr.com/11fcAd Charleston South Carolina https://www.gofundme.com/f/charleston-sc-protestor-bail-fund Charlotte - Cash App: $WereStillHere Venmo: ResistanceisBeautiful Call: (980) 224-2097 bail support PAYPAL = NCFreedomfund@gmail.com CashApp = NcFreedomfund Chattanooga http://www.calebcha.org/donate.html Chicago - https://chicagobond.org/donate/ Cincinnati Ohio https://www.givelify.com/givenow/1.0/NTU5MjE=/selection Cleveland - BLM Cleveland https://www.paypal.me/blmcle Colorado - https://fundly.com/coloradofreedom Columbia, South Carolina: Cashapp/Venmo: sodacitybail | 803-602-4589 Columbus - https://www.paypal.me/columbusfreedomfund Connecticut http://www.ctbailfund.org/donate Dallas- https://faithintx.org/bailfund/ https://svpdallas.z2systems.com/np/clients/svpdallas/donation.jsp Denver - https://fundly.com/coloradofreedom Detroit - https://www.detroitjustice.org/the-bail-project Fargo & Morehead North Dakota https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8oLGbaaeqf Florida: https://www.floridajc.org/bail https://www.lgbtqfund.org/donate-1 ← focus on LGBTQ individuals https://hrcalachua.com/bail-fund-program/ Grand Rapids / Western Michigan https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kentcountyibond Harrisburg, PA https://dauphincountybailfund.org/donate Houston - https://www.paypal.me/blmhou https://www.restoringjustice.org/bail Indianapolis - https://bailproject.org/ Kansas City - https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/it-aint-over-legal-fund Las Vegas - https://secure.actblue.com/donate/vegasfreedomfund Los Angeles (inc. Oxnard, San Clemente, Santa Ana, Long Beach): https://www.gofundme.com/f/peoples-city-council-ticket-fund ← bail, supplies, transport overall fund Louisville - https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/louisville-community-bail-fund/ Madison, WI https://freethe350bailfund.wordpress.com/ Venmo: @Liam-Manjon | Cashapp: $FreeThe350BailFund | Paypal: FreeThe350BailFund@gmail.com Mass - https://www.massbailfund.org/ https://www.gofundme.com/f/fangbailfund Memphis - https://justcity.org/what-we-do/mcbfund/ https://midsouthpeace.org/get-involved/donate-to-support-the-black-lives-matter-community-bail-fund/ Miami - https://www.paypal.me/freethemall Michigan https://michigansolidaritybailfund.com Milwaukee - https://fundrazr.com/mkefreedomfund Minneapolis https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/ ← asking for help in other areas. Click thru for links/direction Minnesota - https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/ Nashville - call 615-455-1875 https://nashvillebailfund.org/ Nebraska - https://www.paypal.me/neleftcoalition New Orleans - https://donorbox.org/safety-freedom-fund New York- https://www.libertyfund.nyc/ https://emergencyreleasefund.com/ ← focused on trans humans North Carolina PAYPAL = NCFreedomfund@gmail.com CashApp = $NcFreedomfund Oakland https://rally.org/ARCbailfund http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/donate Ohio - Canton/Akron https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8pz5hovrmY Orlando Florida https://communitybailfund.org/ Philly - https://www.phillybailout.com/donate.html Phoenix https://secure.everyaction.com/lFZFGA1BpUa9kyYYgSxSKw2 https://secure.actblue.com/donate/tsccbf Pittsburgh - https://www.gofundme.com/f/aftercare-for https://www.bukitbailfund.org/donate Portland - https://www.gofundme.com/f/pdx-protest-bail-fund Raleigh/ Chapel Hill - https://www.takeactionch.com/donations PAYPAL = NCFreedomfund@gmail.com CashApp = $NcFreedomfund Richmond - https://rvabailfund.org/donate Rhode Island https://www.gofundme.com/f/fangbailfund Roanoke -https://chuffed.org/project/rjs-bail-fund Rockford IL (and Winnebago County) https://www.wincoilbondproject.org/donate Salt Lake City, Utah https://www.gofundme.com/f/c2mvvn-support-protesters-arrested-by-slcpd San Diego (inc La Mesa) https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-raise-funds-to-support-our-community San Jose https://siliconvalleydsa.org/donations/ https://rally.org/ARCbailfund Seattle - https://donorbox.org/ncbf Silicon Valley/San Jose: https://siliconvalleydsa.org/donations/ Toronto - https://www.gofundme.com/f/toronto-protestor-bail-fund Tucson https://secure.actblue.com/donate/tsccbf Tulsa https://www.paypal.me/BLMOKC Washington State https://www.nwcombailfund.org/ Wilmington, DE https://www.gofundme.com/f/fnbbailfundwilm
This is a presentation of some of the Q and A session which took place after the IDOC Watch panel in Chicago last year. If you are hearing this and don’t know what I’m talking about, head on over to the previous episode to catch up! In this segment, we’ll hear Kwame Shakur, Lorenzo Stone-Bey, Sheila, and Zolo Azania speak on supporting incarcerated people, the tactic of the prison strike, and ways that attitudes in society about and toward prison and incarceration have changed over time. Before we get into it tho I would like to say a big hearty FUCK THE POLICE to the murdering cowards we call cops everywhere and especially Minneapolis. I would also like to say big ups and strength to those who are fighting this white supremacist enemy in the streets this week. I hope y’all are staying safe from tear gas, having each other’s backs in whatever ways make sense, and enjoying all that liberated shit. We’re thinking of y’all and sending love! Relatedly, our friends at the United Panther Movement are seeking funds to send some delegates up there to help in the fight. From their fundraising ask: “They want us divided, fighting each other, so they can continue terrorizing our communities ! The United Panther Movement and the New Afrikan Black Panther Party will be there boots on the ground for the people whenever and wherever we can ! And now the people our crying out for justice in the wake of George Floyd's public lynching. We want to get out there yesterday ! We are asking the people to support our travels and lodging. If you can, please donate to cashapp:$unitedpanthers or paypal.me/upm2019.” . … . .. Here is an announcement from Oso Blanco’s support website: “Indigenous prisoners at USP Victorville are being denied access to essential supplies for their sweat ceremonies. This has been a routine occurrence even before COVID-19 response protocols were in place. Most recently, after further attempts to raise their legitimate grievances, newly arrived chaplain Sadiq ordered corrections officers to take the sacred pipe from its elected pipe carrier, Oso Blanco/Yona Unega (also known as Byron Shane Chubbuck). Oso Blanco is urgently requesting letters and emails to bring attention to these grievances and demand action. NOTE: Oso wants the tone to stay polite and non-confrontational for the time being. Send both letters and emails to the addresses below: Assistant Warden Martinez USP Victorville P.O. Box 5400 Adelanto, CA 92301 fmartinez@bop.gov VIM/ExecAssistant@bop.gov Chaplain Michael Northway USP Victorville P.O. Box 5400 Adelanto, CA 92301 mnorthway@bop.gov VIM/ExecAssistant@bop.gov” If you do send anything, please do not mention Oso Blanco by name as he is already receiving a lot of shit from the administration. Further reading recommended by Kwame Shakur: Freidrich Engels – The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State PDF version New Jim Crow; Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness . … . .. Music for this episode: Fuck the Police (instrumental) - IduBeats
This week we are presenting audio from a panel conducted last year in Indiana with members of IDOC Watch, which is the Indiana Department of Correction watch. From their website: “The Indiana Department of Correction Watch (IDOC Watch) exists to be in solidarity with prisoners. This means we correspond with and and foster camaraderie with people who are incarcerated in Indiana, expose abusive conditions and treatment, and fight policies and initiatives that further isolate, marginalize, and harm prisoners. We seek to uplift prisoners’ voices and struggles (check out our blog!), and educate the masses about prisons, generally, as well as specific issues we are fighting.” This panel features (in order of appearance): Kwame Shakur of the Stolen Lives Movement, Sheila, who is a mother, grandmother, and advocate of incarcerated people, Lorenzo Stone-Bey of IDOC Watch, and Zolo Agona Azania who is formerly of the Black Liberation Army, and is a three time survivor of death row. He is currently a prolific writer, artist, and advocate for incarcerated people. To hear our past interview with Zolo about his life, check this out! While editing this panel, which took place well before the current pandemic, I was very struck by the panelists words and how applicable they are to today’s situation. Many thanks to all the buddies who got this audio out, with a special shout out to Casey! *** As a general content warning for this episode, since folks are talking from their direct experiences of the violences of racism and incarceration, this show makes mention of police and prison guard brutality, extreme isolation, and suicide. Stay tuned mid week to our podcast feed for the extended Q&A session which occurred after this panel! It will also be up at our website https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org We are excited to announce that The Final Straw will be airing at 4pm every Sunday on KMSW, the Martinez Street Women’s Center at 101.5FM in San Antonio, TX! You can check them out online at http://mswomenscenter.org/ If you have a local radio station that you wanna hear us playing on, get in touch with us or follow the radio broadcasting link on our website for ideas on how to propose us :) Music for this episode: De La Soul ft. Redman – Oooh. (instrumental) off of the 2000 self titled release Oooh.
We’re happy to share the second half of this conversation with Graham Clumpner, anarchist, U.S. military veteran and eco-defender. If you missed the first half of this chat, check out our May 17th episode up at our website. For this hour Graham talks about the responsibility of U.S. society as a whole for the devastation of the Global War On Terror and to the victims in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. He also talks about the need for a movement against militarism and war, the need for active inclusion of veterans into our movements and intersection of militarism and ecological devastation and climate catastrophe. You can find Graham on twitter by the handle @turncoatveteran The anti-militarist organizations he mentions include: Courage To Resist About Face GI Rights Hotline Graham's involved in on-water direct action against extractive industry with Mosquito Fleet. . ... . .. featured tracks: A Tribe Called Quest - Clock The Rhime - The Low End Theory DJ Shadow - March of Death (featuring Zack de la Rocha) - Rise Against - Hero of War - Appeal To Reason Sole & DJ Pain 1 - National Bird - Nihilismo
This week we’re sharing a chat with Graham Clumpner, an anarchist veteran of the U.S. military from the early days of the so-called Global War on Terror. During his time in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Graham worked his way up to being an Army Ranger and left the military in 2007. After struggling with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Graham resisted being recalled into the military, for a short time going underground before finding a path with the help of Common Courage and the G.I. Rights Hotline. Graham became involved in anti-war organizing with Iraq Veterans Against The War (IVAW), which later developed into the group, About Face. Currently Graham organizes on-water direct action against fossil fueled climate change in the Salish Sea with the Mosquito Fleet as a part of the Environmental movement against climate change and is also on the advisory board of the CLDC. For the hour Graham will share about his time before, during and immediately after, his resistance to redeployment, ideas on de-enlistment and his politicization as an anarchist a little on the inspiration of the revolution in Rojava. You can find Graham on Twitter by the handle @turncoatveteran Stay tuned for the second half of this conversation, out May 20th at our website, in our podcast stream, blah blah blah. You’ll hear Graham talking about the responsibility of veterans and members of imperialist societies for the harms done in their name and with their money abroad, what it might mean to build a movement with teeth, pushing back on environmental devastation by militarism and capitalism and some tips on integrating veterans into our movements. Announcements Indigenous Mutual Aid So far, the coronavirus pandemic is making more apparent all the violences that the so called US is predicated upon: capitalism, xenophobia, racism, prison/slavery, genocide, and disposability, all of which - when they collide – create situations that are escalating degrees of deadly for the people and communities who are most affected by systemic violence. We here have seen staggering statistics in so called US, which already account for almost a third of all covid deaths worldwide. The widest spread rates of infection and death are coming out of communities which are the hardest impacted by racism, poverty, and genocide. To that end we would like to uplift the platform Indigenous Mutual Aid! From their website: “Indigenous Mutual Aid is an information and support network with an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist framework. We exist to inspire and empower autonomous Indigenous relief organizing in response to COVID-19. We seek to grow the organizing of this effort into a collective hub of organizers from throughout what we recognize as Turtle Island. As our communities have a deep history with organizing to support each other in times of crisis, we already have many existing Mutual Aid models to draw from. This looks like a small crew coordinating their relatives or friends to chop wood and distribute to elders. It looks like traditional medicine herbal clinics or sexual health supply distribution. It looks like community water hauling efforts or large scale supply runs to ensure elders have enough to make it through harsh winters. Basically any time individuals and groups in our communities have taken direct action (not through politicians or indirect means) and supported others, not for their own self-interests but out of love for their people, this is what we call ‘mutual aid.’” To see their website, along with further reading and ways to donate, you can go to https://www.indigenousmutualaid.org/ Other Indigenous mutual aid funds (from IMA website): Seeding Sovereignty Rapid Response FundNDN “Collective” COVID-19 Response Fund Indigenous Environmental Network COVID-19 Mutual Aid Fund7th Generation Fund – Flicker Fun for COVID-19 ResponseFirst Nations Development Institute COVID-19 Response FundNative Voices Rising COVID-19 Fund If you have suggestions for further mutual aid networks we can help uplift and amplify, or if you yourself would like to be interviewed or know someone who might, you can always email us at thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net with the subject line “Mutual Aid Info”! Prison-Related Prisoners across the country and around the world are resisting their captivity and the dangers of the pandemic in a constellation of ways, from sharing rations to caring for the sick, from filing grievances and getting word out about conditions to daring escapes, uprisings and hunger strikes. A few great places to find news are the Perilous Chronicle site and the Breakout columns on itsgoingdown.org and to hear prisoners struggles in their own voices, check out our fellow CZN podcast, KiteLine. Leonard Peltier Leonard Peltier is an elder indigenous rights activist, member of the American Indian Movement (or AIM) and prisoner held since the 70’s for the killing of a federal agent during the Wounded Knee standoff when the U.S. government besieged native people at Pine Ridge reservation. This week two congress people, citing the release from prison of convicted fraudster and ally of Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, due to fears of covid-19 and his age and health problems. Published a letter to the president requesting similar release for Mr. Peltier. His main support website, WhoIsLeonardPeltier.Info, has more info on his case. At our website you can hear a conversation we had with his supporter Paulette D’Auteuil. Imam Jamil Al-Amin Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H Rap Brown, is a civil rights leader and elder in prison accused of shooting two sheriff’s deputies in Georgia in the year 2000. He is currently fighting for a retrial of his case and there is a petition on change.org where you can see a video of the Imam’s son and attorney, Kairi Al-Amin talk about the possibility and learn more about the case and see an adjoined video of the man who has confessed to the shooting of the deputies. Marius Mason Marius Mason is an imprisoned Earth Liberation Front activist who is 10 years into an almost 22 year sentence for acts of sabotage against ecocide and capitalism. He has tested positive for covid-19 while being held at Danbury Correctional in Connecticut and is being held in quarantine with other corona-positive inmates. His support folks are posting updates on the blog at SupportMariusMason.org and they are asking folks to send him letters. Note that he is limited in who he can write back to, so you may not get a response, but he could sure use some inspiring words right now. Check out a conversation with Marius’ daughter we published a few years back. Jennifer Rose Just a bump that Jennifer Rose, whose words we featured on the show a few weeks back, is still in need of support letters for an upcoming parole hearing she has. You can check out her support site at https://babygirlgann.noblogs.org . ... . .. Playlist
Wayne Price on Anarchism and Marxist Economics Wayne Price is longtime anarchist, author and currently a member of Bronx Climate Justice North and the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council, or MACC, in New York City. After reading his book, The Value Of Radical Theory: An Anarchist Introduction to Marx’s Critique of Political Economy (AK Press, 2013), I got excited to speak to him about his views on anarchists engaging Marxist economic concepts and some of the historical conflicts and engagements between Marxism and Anarchism. We talk about his political trajectory from a pacifist Anarchist in high school, through Trotskyism and back to anarchy. Wayne talks about common visions of what an anarchist economy might look like, how we might get there, class and intersection of other oppressions, critique of State Capitalism. Wayne sees the oppressed of the world having a chance during this economic freeze to fight against re-imposition of wide-scale capitalist ecocide by building libertarian, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and heterogenous future societies in the shell of the old. You can find his books Anarchism & Socialism: Reformism or Revolution? available from at AKPress.Org and The Abolition Of The State: Anarchist & Marxist Perspectives (AuthorHouse, 2007) or through a fine, independent radical bookstore in your area that could use support. A reminder that AKPress published books, such as "The Value..." can be purchased in e-book format for free from AKPress.org. You can find some of Wayne’s writing at this mirror of AnarchistLibrary, as well as at the site for the Platformist Anarkismo Network, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, and The Utopian Journal (seemingly out of print). . ... . .. featured tracks: Rudy Ray Moore - Put Your Weight On It - The Turning Point Todrick Hall - Rent - Quarantine Queen Little Richard - Mississippi (instrumental) - King Of Rock And Roll (The Complete Reprise Recordings)
Digital Security Tools for Organizing We’re happy to share the rest of our conversation with Michele Gretes, director of the Digital Security project at the Civil Liberties Defense Center, and Cora Borradaile, who is on the board of the CLDC. For this podcast special, you’ll hear the two discuss different tools for more secure, encrypted communication that is available on various platforms to folks organizing. They publish guides on CLDC.org/Security. We discuss the encrypted and open-source alternative to Slack (Keybase), pgp email encryption (particularly the enigmail tool), Signal Messenger, problems with Whatsapp, Cryptpad, Jitsi, Wire, VPNs and The Onion Router,the TorBrowser, OnionShare, Zoom, Protonmail and some of the challenges of running longstanding movement infrastructure such as the RiseUp collective does (plus their file sharing and pad services). Check our show notes for links to some of these projects. (image lifted from the amazing Beehive Collective) . ... . .. featured tracks: Bojkez - Snap Your Fingers - Instrumental EP vol. 1 Glutton For Insurrection - V!RU$ 5TR!K3
This week, we feature two conversations. Cora Borradaile and Michele Gretes, folks involved in the Digital Security Project of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, speak about contact tracing apps and surveillance. Then, Se speaks about Tucson Food Share’s grocery distribution program. Contact Tracing Apps First up, we hear Michele Gretes and Cora Borradaile. Michele is the Digital Security Coordinator of the Civil Liberties Defense Center and also does digital security for an environmental non-profit. Cora is a co-founder of the CLDC Digital Security Program and is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Oregon State University with a focus on the security state and the adoption of more-secure apps. They talk about surveillance and the use of apps for tracing folks contact with people infected with covid-19 to slow the pandemic spread. This is a segment of a larger conversation we’ll be releasing in the middle of this week as a podcast in which Cora and Michele talk about and compare tools for online organizing that engage encryption and offer alternatives to the google and other “free” products that often surveil their users. We speak about Jitsi, Wire, Zoom, RiseUp, Signal, vpns, The Onion Router, TAILS, KeyBase, Riot.IM, pgp and other mentionables. More at CLDC.org/Digital-Security/ Apple & Google announced this approach toward contact tracing we didn't really cover in detail / by name in this conversation. Here's an article from Wired about it. The White Paper referenced by Cora references from the EU with cryptographers is here. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) laws, European restrictions on the collection and longtime storage of data on private individuals has been in place since 2016. An article from VOX speaking about ICE using private phone data to seek out and arrest undocumented people in the US. Another talking about current tracking by phone companies of our movements. Tucson Food Share After that, we’ll hear from Se of Tucson Food Share, based in Arizona. We talk about their project, how it scaled up from Tucson Food Not Bombs to deliver groceries and hand out burritos publicly, multi-lingual engagement, resisting burnout and finding joy in feeding people. More at TucsonFoodShare.Org . You should get in touch if you’re thinking of setting up a food distribution project and have any questions. Announcements New Station: KODX Seattle We’d like to mention that we’re now airing on Monday mornings at 2am on KODX in Seattle. You can check out that station’s schedule up at kodxseattle.org or hear them in north eastern Seattle on 96.9 on the FM dial. Recent Release: Bomani Shakur and Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin Just a headsup, if you’re looking for more content for your ears, we released a small segment of Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin talking about prisoner organizing in the 1970’s and today. This was paired with a longer chat with Lucasville Uprising survivor and death row prisoner Bomani Shakur aka Keith Lamar. For a little over an hour, Bomani talks about his youth, the uprising in 1993, his case and being railroaded. He has an execution date set by the state of Ohio for November 16, 2023. . ... . .. Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray (instrumental) - Hip Hop Hooray Leslie Fish - Bella Ciao - Smoked Fish and Friends
Lorenzo Komb'oa Ervin and Bomani Shakur / Keith Lamar This midweek, we’re sharing two segments. First up, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin talks about attempts in the 1960’s and 70’s at building a prisoners union in the United States and parallels with inside / outside organizing in the USA today. Then we hear from Ohio death row prisoner from the Lucasville Uprising case, Bomani Shakur (aka Keith Lamar) about his struggle to stay alive and call out the injustice in his and so many cases. Lorenzo Transcript Bomani Transcript PDF (Unimposed) Zine (Imposed PDF) Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin is an author, black anarchist, organizer, former Black Panther and former political prisoner based in Kansas City, Missouri. In this segment, Lorenzo talks about prisoners organizing unions and other associations in the past, the thoughts of George Jackson and Martin Sostre and more. JoNina Ervin, an autonomous organizer and also a former Black Panther, who is married to Lorenzo has put out a specific request for solidarity to help these elders weather the pandemic and lighten the load of mutual aid in their community which we’ll share in our show notes. Suffice to say, donations to help them get safer access to laundry can be made by sending a donation via Paypal account at: organize.the.hood@gmail.com / cash app: $CaseyGoon / venmo: @casey-R-goonan. I’ll read JoNina’s appeal after Lorenzo’s interview. Free Keith Lamar / Bomani Shakur Bomani Shakur speaks to us from death row at OSP Youngstown in Ohio. Bomani is accused of crimes related to the 1993 Lucasville Uprising he claims innocence of and has an execution date set for November 16, 2023. For a little over an hour we speak about his upbringing, his case, injustice in white supremacist and capitalist America, Bomani’s politicization and struggle to find himself, defend his dignity and his life. This interview was recorded on April 29th, a little over a day before the end of the month of solidarity with and direct action for Bomani Shakur. Thanks to Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement - NYC for hooking us up with the chat and helping coordinate the Month Of Solidarity. More on his case can be found at KeithLamar.Org, on the facebook page “Justice For Keith Lamar” and at the twitter account, FREEKeithLamar. On his website you can find a link to his book, Condemned, ways to donate to his phone fund, and a link to the excellent, 30 minute documentary on youtube about his case also named Condemned. If you’re on twitter, there is a twitter storm planned for April 30, 2020. Find our twitter or @FreeKeithLamar to join in. You can email them for more info as well. Announcements Phone Zap about Covid-19 and North Carolina Prisons Over the past month, covid19 has blazed through NC prisons like wildfire. Across DPS facilities, over 600 people have tested positive -- roughly the same number of cases in all of Wayne County, which has a population that is 3x larger. One person (at Pender C.I) has already died of complications, and a single facility (Neuse C.I.) has a mind-boggling 466 positive cases. The reason Neuse has so many confirmed cases is that DPS decided to test everyone there--and they should do the same at all facilities with significant numbers of positive cases, such as NCCI Women, where 81 people have tested positive so far. This is the only way to know the full scale of the outbreak and to be able to take appropriate measures to mitigate further spread. Please call Commissioner of Prisons Todd Ishee on Thursday, April 30 to demand universal testing at four hard-hit prisons! Todd Ishee, Commissioner of Prisons: Phone: 919-838-4000 House Phone: (330)544-4425 Email: todd.ishee@ncdps.gov You can find a call in script at the Blue Ridge ABC website. Pendleton CI in Indiana Word is now coming out that today, April 30th 2020 there is a demonstration growing at Pendleton CI in Indiana by folks incarcerated there. A number of prisoners will refuse meals today due to neglect, poor treatment and prison officials’ complete lack of care and concern in regard to crisis management or emergency response during this global pandemic. Prisoners have reported receiving sparse and poorly put-together sack lunch and one small bag of cereal a day. They are demanding proper nutrition during this time that will serve to sustain and to fortify themselves against sickness as well as proper Personal Protective Equipment and cleaning supplies in order to clean and sanitize their cells and such. Word comes out from inside Pendleton despite the apparent manipulation of prisoners jpay tablets that are used for communication. It’s presumed that the disconnections are done in order to slow/stop communications with the outside world. The tablets were disconnected completely for several days about a week ago leaving prisoners with absolutely no way to contact anyone on the outside after a physical altercation occurred between pigs and prisoners when the pigs attempted to house prisoners confirmed to be covid-19 positive with those that had not been confirmed to have it. An article discussing this topic should be forthcoming by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, who is incarcerated at Pendleton, some time today. You can call Pendleton CI in Indiana to lodge a complaint for this treatment, support for the hunger-strikers and express a concern by calling 1(765)778-2107 Josh Williams Parole Hearing in June One last announcement before we get started with the interviews. Josh Williams, who's serving an eight-year sentence connected to his participation in the Ferguson uprising, is up for parole in June 2020 and there's a call for people to write support letters. The letters themselves should be addressed to the parole board but sent to Josh's prison address. You can find a sample letter people can see here: https://www.freejoshwilliams.com/freejosh If people would like to send a printed letter but don't currently have access to printing, you can contact the co-ordinator at freejoshwilliams@gmail.com and hopefully sort something out that way. Please feel free to pass this information on to your contacts and generally share in whatever way you see fit. . ... . .. Tracks sampled in this episode: Souls Of Mischeif and Adrian Younge - Stopped (instrumental) - There Is Only Now (Deluxe Edition) Soul Chef - Back In The Day (instrumental) - The Kool Truth Instrumentals
Barry Pateman on Anarchist History and Challenges I’m really happy to share a chat with anarchist and historian, Barry Pateman. Barry, born in the early 1950’s, grew up in a working class coal mining town of Doncaster in the UK and became an anarchist in the 1960’s in London. He is a longstanding member of the Kate Sharpley Library which covers histories of little-known anarchists and events in history. Barry has also contributed to and edited numerous books including “Chomsky on Anarchism”, a two book document collection with Candace Falk and many more titles, many on AK Press. We talk about anarchist history, community, repression, defeat, insularity, popular front with authoritarian Marxists, class analysis and how to beat back capitalism. Find Kate Sharpley Library at KateSharpleyLibrary.Net Announcements General Strike Call I’d like to recommend listeners check out a recent call to General Strike by People’s Strike, which includes Cooperation Jackson. The beginning of their call, which can be found linked to in our show notes, is: The CODVID-19 pandemic has starkly revealed the inequalities and injustices that daily plague the world. The triple crisis of viral plague, systemic economic breakdown, and the failure and/or unwillingness of Governments to provide necessary protections, especially for the poor and people subjected to white supremacy, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and misogyny has thrown us into a fight for our lives. The “Free Markets” that right-wing political figures like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro and others are seeking to protect and rely upon to address the COVID-10 pandemic will continue to produce chaos and needless suffering for millions of people. The economic nationalism and imperial rivalry we see on full display in the midst of this pandemic magnify the threat of war. In the U.S. we are fed a steady stream of lies and authoritarian posturing. From Palestine to South Africa to Brazil to the U.S. and beyond, oppressive regimes are actively sacrificing vulnerable peoples and communities and treating frontline workers as uttlerly disposable. We say ENOUGH! It is time to stand up! It’s Time To Strike Back - For Our Lives and Our Futures! Anarchist Views on Pandemic You’ll notice that in this chat we’re mostly taking a slight break from the 24-7 covid-show for our broadcast, though the topic is touched on briefly. If you’re looking to hear anarchist-relevant perspectives concerning the pandemic and organizing, we do suggest people check out Episode #33 of A-Radio Networks “Bad News: Angry Voices From Around The World” which is up at our website and also available at A-Radio-Network.Org. I would also suggest checking out some of the awesome shows in the Channel Zero Network, of which we are a member. For instance, Kite Line Radio produces a weekly show featuring the voices of prisoners and the formerly incarcerated on all sorts of topics. . ... . .. Featured tracks this episode: Apollo Brown - The Pursuit - Trophies Instrumentals - Mello Music Group Chumbawamba - I Never Gave Up - Showbusiness! - One Little Indian
Anarchist Resistance In Prison: Jennifer A. Rose and Comrade Z On this podcast minisode, we feature the voices of two incarcerated comrades: Jennifer Amelie Rose and Comrade Z. Both chats were conducted through the mail and are voiced by comrades in the Channel Zero Network. Jennifer Rose [04:07-12:12] First you’ll hear Jennifer Rose. Jennifer, formerly known as Jennifer Gann, is a member of the Fire Ant Collective which just released it’s 6th issue and is due to put out another very soon. She is a trans woman who came up in the southern California punk scene, became politicized and began organizing inside of prison since the late 1990’s. Jennifer Rose has a parole hearing that she could use support letters for coming up on July 28th, 2020 and also more letters in support of her commutation application. Read the transcription below. You can learn more about Jennifer Rose’s case by visiting BabyGirlGann.noblogs.org where you can find out how to donate to her legal fund. You can read issues #1-5 of Fire Ant Journal up at Bloomington ABC's website & #6 at Blue Ridge ABC's website. And you can write to Jennifer at: Jennifer Rose E – 23852 Salinas Valley State Prison D3-1250 P.O. Box 1050 Soledad, CA 93960 You can find out how to format support letters, you can email her lawyer, Richard Rutledge at RLaw@RutledgeAttorneys.com or write to Mr Rutledge at: Richard Rutledge, Attorney At Law 7960 B Soquel Drive #354 Aptos, CA 95003 You can write letters of support to the Board of Parole Hearings on behalf of Jennifer by addressing them to the following address: Board of Parole Hearings Post Office Box 4036 Sacramento, CA 95812-4036 And you can write to the CA governor, Gavin Newsom on Jennifer’s behalf by addressing them to: Governor Gavin Newsom1303 10th Street, Suite 1173 Sacramento, CA 95814 Comrade Z [13:17-33:49] Since this was conducted in writing, Jennifer’s words are being voiced by Margaret Killjoy, the host of the podcasts ‘Live Like The World is Dying’ and ‘We Will Remember Freedom’, both members of the Channel Zero Network. Then, we’ll hear from Comrade Z, aka Julio Alex Zuniga, an anarchist prisoner in Texas, about the situation at the Darrington Unit. Comrade Z was mentioned by Jason Renard Walker at the end of our interview that we aired on April 19, 2020. Although all three conversations cover some hard to listen to subject matter, we want to give a special warning to Comrade Z’s portion, which talks in detail about terrible conditions at Darrington and discusses suicide and death of prisoners. You can read another interview with Comrade Z that appeared recently on ItsGoingDown.org and you can check out and/or purchase his artwork on instagram by viewing @julioazunigaart. Thanks to Matt Brodnax for helping us set this interview up and his support for Comrade Z. Transcription: Comrade Z PDF (unimposed) Zine (imposed PDF) You can write to Comrade Z at: Julio A. Zuniga #1961551 Darrington Unit 59 Darrington Rd. Rosharon, TX 77583 Jason Goudlock As a closing note, I had hoped to share recent words from Jason Goudlock, currently incarcerated at Toledo CI in Ohio, give a brief update on his situation and how the ODRC is not handling covid-19 however technical difficulties got in the way. Suffice to say, prisoners were still being transferred into Toledo CI shortly before April 15th, prisoners were not given any significant protective gear nor cleaning supplies and folks were starting to get sick. Learn about Jason’s case, watch the documentary about him and find out how to support him at FreeJasonGoudlock.org. You can reach Jason via jpay email or write him at Jason William Goudlock, #284-561 PO Box 80033 Toledo, OH 43608 . ... . .. Transcription of Jennifer Rose interview TFSR: Could you please introduce yourself for the audience? Who are you and where are you? Jennifer Rose: I’m glad to hear from you and happy to have this opportunity to participate in The Final Straw Radio. So, to introduce myself, my name is Jennifer Rose. I’m a a trans woman incarcerated in California and currently held at Salinas Valley State Prison, a men’s facility. TFSR: Can you tell us a bit about where you came from and how you came to be incarcerated? Jennifer Rose:I’m from Southern California, born and raised in Riverside, and spent my teenage years living in Huntington Beach (Orange County). I was in the 1980’s punk rock scene around the L.A. area doing a lot of drinking and drugs which led to my involvement in an attempted robbery and another armed robbery for which I was jailed, convicted and sent to prison for seven years. TFSR: How did you become politicized? Jennifer Rose: While I was serving my time at Folsom Prison, I became involved in prison protests and abolitionist struggle, for which I was targeted, placed in solitary confinement and beaten by guards. This is how I became politicized as a prison rebel, resisting brutality and torture, sabotaging and breaking a dozen prison cell windows in the inhumane ‘Ad-Seg’ unit. I was involved in the gladiator fights where guards encouraged racial violence and then shot at us with 9mm assault rifles using live ammo. There were additional charges brought against me for attacking a pig officer, for weapon possession, and for two assaults on a state prosecutor and associate warden. For these I was given a 25 years-to-life sentence under the ‘three strikes’ law. This was around 1995 and 1996. TFSR: Can you talk about the struggle of being a woman in a male-assigned prison? What sort of support have you received and what sorts of hurdles? Jennifer Rose: To answer your question about being a transwoman in a men’s facility, we have faced the most adverse circumstances imaginable. From the discriminatory harassment and brutality of the pigs, to the hatred and violence of other prisoners, and even rapes and murder! This has began to change more recently, at last in California with many legal reforms and court victories. I have been able to find widespread support from outside groupls like Black & Pink and TGI Justice project, among others. Also, lots of support among abolitionist and anarchist collectives, and the extended family of LGBTQ prisoners. The main hurdles we face continue to be our unsafe housing conditions, exposure to homophobic and transmisogynist violence from gangs, domestic and sexual violence. We are in a very disadvantageous situation facing the various types of gender violence on a daily! TFSR: Is there anything else you’d like to say about how you discovered anarchism and what inspires you about anarchy? Jennifer Rose: I became politicized during the 1991 Folsom Prison Food Strike, which was a protest against proposed visiting restrictions that cut our visiting days from four times a week to twice (weekends and holidays). Just prior to this, I was given a copy of the anarchist zine Love & Rage by another prisoner and had also been influenced by Jailhouse Lawyers to educate myself about so-called legal rights and remedies for which I became a strong advocate. Eventually I would learn the hard way that the pigs don’t give a fuck about the law, or peoples rights. It’s only used at their convenience as a tool of social control and criminalization of marginalized people and communities. The people thing that inspires me about Anarchy is the simplicity of the idea, of abolishing the State and it’s illegitimate Power. They claim their Authority from God and Natural Law… and originally as white male property owners under colonial government. That’s crap! I love the basic concept of Anarchy, which is Freedom! It’s basic principles of voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, non-hierarchy and autonomous collectives, internationalism and solidarity, etc. TFSR: Have you been able to do much organizing within prison? If so, around what sorts of issues and how did it go? Jennifer Rose: I’ve done a lot of organizing within prisons, including legal advocacy and ‘jailhouse lawyer’ work, as former leadership in Black & Pink and working with TGI Justice Project to change discriminatory policies and improve living conditions for trans women in the men’s prisons. We’ve had a lot of success and made progress over the past 12 years or so, including betteer access to basic trans health care (e.g. hormones, surgery, etc), access to and inclusion in prison programs and job assignments, accommodation of women’s clothing and cosmetics and more awareness of and prevention of sexual abuse among other things. I am currently awaiting an approved gender affirming surgery and transfer to a women’s facility sometime this year! TFSR: You mentioned in a letter with me that you organized briefly with Maoists. Are you now or have you ever been a Maoist (that’s a Senator McCarthy joke)? But, really, how did that happen? What was that like? Jennifer Rose: As for Maoists, yes, I did work with MIM-Prisons for a while which offered study group sand worked directly with prisoners on many projects. I carried on a dialogue with them via correspondence, often debating with them over my anarchist sympathies and their political line on gender and State power (their ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’). I did think I could work within that Maoist framework at one point, but eventually had to reject the ideological bickering sectarianism of Maoists. I’ve always been an anarchist at heart, even when I went through this stage in my personal development. Eventually I came in contact with insurrectionary anarchist writings from Greek comrades in the FAI-IRF and CCF, which I was strongly influenced by, and developed friendships with like-minded comrades. TFSR: You’re a collective member of Fire Ant. Can you talk about the project and what part you play in it? Jennifer Rose: I’m extremely proud of my involvement as a member of the Fire Ant collective. The project started as a concept I was discussing with several different comrades via regular correspondence, including Robcat, Michael Kimble, Sean Swain and Bloomington ABC. We all had similar ideas of trying to organize and faciliate a national or international anarchist prisoner conference where we could bring together the collective voice of imprisoned anarchist rebels, perhaps publish a paper, start a support fund to raise funds and material aid, and generally build anarchist prisoner solidarity in a way we haven’t yet seen! We’ve always had ABC and National Jericho Movement mainly focus on leftist ‘political prisoners.’ Many imprisoned anarchists are not recognized as ‘political.’ In point of fact, we are anti-political! However, we believe that ALL prisons are political. Anyways, the part I played is pulling all these comrades’ ideas together, and putting them in direct contact about this exciting project. Once Robcat offered to facilitate a zine, Bloomington ABC offered to provide printing and distribution free! And they also halready had a support fund set up. So we all pulled together and formed the Fire Ant collective. Robcat came up with the name and we all contributed to the zine connecting our individual and collective struggles from prisons across the U.S. and internationally! I’m proud to be an accomplice in this seditious conspiracy toward worldwide anarchist insurgency. TFSR: There have been some victories of recent in your sentence. Can you talk about what happened? Jennifer Rose: As far as my recent sentence reduction on October 28, 2019, this only affected one of my sentences for assault and battery on the prosecutor, a ‘non-serious’ felony, which was knocked down from 25-years-to-life to 8 years. Yay! TFSR: Similarly, you were telling me of improvements in the conditions of your confinement as relates to gender, right? And what are next steps for you and what can listeners do to support you and try to hasten your release? Jennifer Rose: My next steps are getting my surgery, transferring to a women’s facility, and a parole suitability hearing on July 28, 2020 with the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH). The greatest support comes in the form of letters to the Board and/or the Governor advocating for my release, and any amount of commissary funds which I can receive via jpay.com. TFSR: I’m not sure if you’re much of a reader, but do you have any book suggestions for the audience? Jennifer Rose: As for recommended reading, I would strongly suggest the Emma Goldman autobiography and Assata Shakur autobiography, Michelle Alexander’s ‘The New Jim Crow’, and anything by Butch Lee, Sean Swain or Greek insurrectionary anarchists of CCF! TFSR: Any comrades you want to shout out on the show? Jennifer Rose: Shoutouts to Robcat, Breezy, Michael Kibmle, Sean Swain, Eric King, Marius Mason, Jeremy Hammond, Sacramento Prisoner Support, Nashville ABC, Nadja in Bloomington and Chelsea Manning! And in case I missed someone, solidarity to all anarchists and antifascists! Thank you for your efforts in the struggle. To The streets!!! Thank you! . ... . .. Transcription of Comrade Z interview TFSR: Would you please introduce yourself for the audience? Who you are, where you are, how you got there? Comrade Z: Hello Everyone, Thank you for having me on The Final Straw. It's an honor. My name is Julio A. Zuniga. Alex is what everyone calls me, or Comrade Z for those who are standing with me 10 toes down in solidarity. I am a survivor of B-Line solitary confinement at Dirty Darrington Unit and currently trying to reach out to activists and anarchists in the area who can help me organize a statewide work stoppage. Enemy of the State and of the Dirty Darrington administration, my whole heart and soul is hellbent on bringing the attention of the entire nation to the administration and it's human rights violations, cruel and unusual punishment, physical assaults by staff, mailroom policy changes, inadequate law library, commissary price gouging, infestation of roaches, mice and spiders, sewage leaks in the cells, constant power outages, the list goes on and on. The torture tactics are of primary concern because it's driving people to die by suicide. So far it's been 1 suicide per year since I've been here. How I got here was because abolitionists in East Texas rose up against Telford Unit, for Housing Administrative Segregation inmates at that facility without telling the surrounding community about it. They were against it. People of New Boston, TX and Texarkana found out about TDCJ housing G4 and G5 offenders because an Officer Davison was murdered by a solitary confinement offender who was being tortured by Telford Unit by withholding his mail and refusing him basics he needed, like food. This caused the entire town to begin the takedown of wardens and the torture of all inmates by using lockdowns for 90 days or more, then by stopping all hot meals for an entire year in 2017. So, since that officer died in 2015, it was the people who brought forth change to that unit. It is now a pre-release unit, no administrative segregation offenders and no solitary confinement. I was not blessed with any kind of support, so I intentionally got into trouble just so they could ship me off. Best move I ever made, so I thought. However, that is how I ended up here. TFSR: What can you tell the listeners about Darrington Unit and your experience being held by the TDCJ? CZ: The Dirty Darrington Unit is a hub unit. Thousands of inmates pass through here weekly, transferring to other units, coming off of UTMB Medical Branch at Galveston, or Psyche Unit Jester 4. Some of them are bleeding, soiled in feces and urine. All mentally ill persons coming off Jester 4 have had no kind of hygiene for over 3 days. All these lay over cells are so unsanitary it takes a healthy person 24 hours to get sick by sleeping in one of these cells. There is nothing humane about that. They usually house people with wrong custody levels, endangering lives at will, resulting in physical and sexual assaults. It's Dirty Darrington's specialty. I encourage you to ask administration how many lives Dirty Darrington has claimed because they refused to help suicidal inmates. Also, how administration uses offenders to snitch on others with a false hope of beating a disciplinary case, then throw them back into population, leaving them to kill themselves behind the dishonor. On the 2nd week of November 2019, a guy killed himself after spilling the beans on others. When he asked them to help him because he felt suicidal, they ignored him. This is the suicide I witnessed that really proved verbatim the words Sean Swain voices in Last Act of the Circus Animals. When Rico killed himself, the show was like Cirque de Soleil. You had every basic need availed to you – blankets, mattresses, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, cleaning materials, officers serving trays like they do in population with full portions. They even gave us light bulbs. It was disgusting to see it. You saw paint crews, utility crews, the works. For a week the unit experienced humanity, but once the coast was clear and the administration got away with murder, it was back to torture tactics, a pattern I have seen one too many times on Dirty Darrington. Overall my experience has been depressing, lonely, stressful, painful. I've seen this administration use psychological torture for 23 months straight, for this is how long I've been held in solitary confinement. Only recently was I magically released and placed in E-Line (G5) administrative segregation - the filthy administrative segregation area that is notorious for roach infestations, no lighting in showers, no restrooms on the rec yard so if you have to urinate or have a bowel movement you are going to on the same area men play basketball. Fecal matter is all over the floor and people wonder how they got sick. Easy – as soon as you come in from outside rec, they serve chow. If you have been playing basketball then munch on your baked chicken, then suck the grease off your fingers. You just sucked on chicken flavored fecal matter and urine. Dirty Darrington knows exactly what it's doing. Environmental disaster, B-Line, E-Line, G-Line, A-Line, C-Line, D-Line are all torture areas. In the winter it's cold showers. In the summer they heat your water for you. No coincidence. There is so much more. There are over 200 men in administrative segregation and solitary confinement on Dirty Darrington. Some men are going through it worse because they believe this is normal prison policy. It's not. I'm here to expose this unit and it's human rights violations. I appreciate you hearing me out. TFSR: It's hard to imagine that the staff and administration aren't aware of the conditions there. Are they showing any signs of working to fix the situation? CZ: I knew something was terribly wrong with this unit when it runs through 4 wardens in less than 2 years. They are aware of every single atrocity. They personally handle all grievances and it's rare an inmate ever wins on Step 1. They have to go all the way to Huntsville with their grievance to get fair treatment. By that time it's been 60 days solid since the claim was made. It's designed this way to ensure we never win any kind of grievance claim. Another way, as it is now, that they refuse us grievances all together on Dirty Darrington because they also are aware that if they hand them out they will be reading grievances for years. They know this place is crumbling to pieces. If it rains outside it rains inside too. The guards look like underwater welders when it rains. They wear rain coats indoors to stay dry. Nothing is being done except punishment and enslavement. I am on a mission to learn from outside sources how to organize, to create a psychological warfare on this administration in the name of all the dead that could not deal with their torture chambers and for the mentally ill who cannot speak out against them who are, as we speak, living in horrible conditions on Major Pharr's solitary confinement. It's only a matter of time before another death by suicide. We can thank Dirty Darrington's Administrative Segregation ringmasters for imposing torture on the already weak men by starving them, by withholding their mail, by refusing mailroom to give them pictures of loved ones or birthday cards, or by sending their shakedown team to physically abuse them and confiscate their property. It's all designed to break you. It's happening every day. TFSR: How do the conditions you've described above affect the health of prisoners? What's the condition of physical and mental healthcare available at Darrington Unit? CZ: Personally I don't get sick easy, but since being on Dirty Darrington I've had a serious sinus infection, primarily from the mold in the showers and the dust that carries all kinds of germs. As far as psyche at Dirty Darrington goes, it's got potential. As far as physical, you've got the infamous Nazi doctor Speer, extorting everyone, but not giving adequate care to anyone. If you get sick they still allow this idiot to practice. Nothing gets done about his childish outbursts. He once tried to do a rectal exam on me, He said it was my yearly check-up. This was the first time I met him. As he stood up and slapped on a latex glove my spidey-sense told me to ask a simple question, “What's the name on the computer, sir?” He said “You're Contreras #... blah blah blah” I was like “I'm out!” I've had problems with this doctor ever since, namely because retaliation is a trend on Dirty Darrington when you file a grievance. I tried to explain to everyone what this man tried to do. No one tried to help. He's still here. All my medical treatment was taken away by this man for no reason other than I am or was chronic care hypoglycemic. If you have heat restrictions, work restrictions, anything that will make your ailment easier to handle Dr. Speer will terminate it and then send you into a Twilight Zone of sick calls, just so he can charge the co-pay. Others – he refuses to treat simply because it's not life or death. TFR: Can you talk about the suicides that you've been aware of during your time and are there any in particular you'd like to reflect on? Are there any strings that tie the circumstances together? CZ: Well, I've been on Dirty Darrington for two years, going on three. I got screwed out of my legal work, got all my medical restrictions taken away, basically because I am indigent and I have no one on the outside to call here and raise a fuss, which is the only time you see inmates get what they need. So, B-Line 3rd row, 15th cell, 2018 – A young man hung himself. The image of a nurse chest compressing this man never left me. It really caused me a lot of anger. It was senseless. It taught me just how they break men's minds. It would disgust you. I remember this older man who would wake up screaming and just slowly, losing all reality, these torturers left him in that cell with a stack of trays, full of food with dead mice and roaches that he would just stack up toward the end of his sanity. Inmates could smell death. They tried to talk to him but couldn't stand the stench of death. So, they brought Captain Lance the kitchen boss to remove the trays, stacked 20 high. But, you cannot talk to a broken man. He was a vessel, nothing more. After 2 canisters of pepper spray, still nothing until finally Captain Lance had the courage to tell administrators that he was no longer right. It was his voice that forced them to send him off that night, never to be seen again. For months they left that man in this condition. It's happening now. This is normal? I'm not trying to hear that. For these men, I ask to be armed with support, to feed the torturers a taste of their own medicine. I opened my eyes all the way at this past suicide in November 2019. I'm done talking. We need a bombardment of activism, protest, support. We need an uprising so this administration will be forced to take responsibility for all their fuckery. One thing I know is we have nothing to gain for staying in good standing. “Good time credit” is not counting toward parole. “Work time credit” is another tool they have to control prisoners. Only the prisoners that still believe in the tooth fairy are too scared to accept this fact. People have tried for years to have these laws passed. Republicans are not interested in helping us. With a statewide work stoppage we will bring all these men's dreams to fruition. We need to spread these facts to the entire state and shut it down. Stop slaving for your ringmasters. You want a real change, stop doing your slave jobs. Stop putting money in politicians pockets and ask them to put it your account to pay for the work you do. Slave days ended over 150 years ago – Why do you volunteer to work for the oppressor? Those of you who have no one, wouldn't you like to support yourself in prison instead of risking solitary confinement for stealing food to sell in your living areas for hygiene. I can go on and on. TFSR: What are working conditions like the prisoners incarcerated by the TDCJ as you've experienced? What sort of privileges come along with work, what sort of pay (if any), and sort of work is it? CZ: They work these guys to exhaustion. They do not pay. The work is back breaking. No one will receive as much as an extra portion of food. These units are still slave plantations, only the name has changed. Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Research “The Sugarland 95” – You'll see what I'm talking about. It's time to bring this slavery to a screeching halt. TFSR: How have you experienced support while you've been on the inside? What would you like from folks on the outside? CZ: I had to go to extremes again to have the support I have today. I never conformed to prison culture. I love tattoos, motorcycles, art, hunting, fishing, boats and the only way I was ever going to see or hear about that is by reaching out. As a result of picking up a contraband cell phone I met “Mongoose Matt” by calling a random tattoo shop. Haha! It was awesome. Fineline Tattoo NYC is Matt's workplace and it took all but 60 seconds to make one of the best friends I've ever had. It makes me so proud to say that. Shortly after getting pinched for contraband Matt has been there through all my solitary confinement, sending in anarchist literature, commissary bread for hygiene and art supplies, and in 7 years now on a 15 year sentence for a so called “murder” it's his solidarity and support that saved my life and sanity. Dirty Darrington had officers from the McConnell unit come hit us for shakedown and those creeps took all my property and left me with nothing. This was my breaking point. I just felt like giving up, but Mongoose comes flying in with letters and powerful words of encouragement and because of him I am fighting today. They tried to break me intentionally. I know this for a fact. Only problem is I survived. TDCJs “Cease to speak or cease to breathe” motto doesn't scare me. I have nothing to lose. Now, I'm asking for you to stand with me until we punch a hole in this darkness and make it bleed light. Sean Swain is the other reason I fight. How you doin Sean? Here's the deal – folks out there, my only weapon at the moment is this here pen. I want surrounding activists to contact me so we can get started. This is still far from over and I believe that it's only through the voice of the people that we can bring this down on a statewide level. I could use all the support available in my fight against the state. Things are slowly changing for me, so I will be allowed more visitors on Dirty Darrington Unit. Soon I will be allowed to call out. In the meantime, anyone can write me. There is so much to learn and prepare. No doubt that without your direct support places like Dirty Darrington and surrounding plantations will continue to thrive, rubbing it in the community's face. The Texecution state is also a slavery state. Shut em down. Nobody is gaining a thing. It's a slap in the face when the officials of the state come here to lie to everyone that they are doing everything they can to change these laws so that we actually become productive. The only laws passed are laws to make it harder on us to get home to our families. For the oppressed indigent offenders who cannot afford hygiene products, organizing a hygiene run to bring forth relief, peace of mind, and a sense of compassionate care. I've seen exactly how good this place could be, but as long as we have ringmasters like these hypocrite wardens, coward-ass majors and captains, vindictive supervisors who love to use cowardly acts and body slam people while in restraints such as Sergeant Akinsonu, Sergeant Williams, Sergeant Estrada, Sergeant Baker, who writes her own rules when it comes to keeping people down. All these cowards and a few more on my shit list need to be burned at the stake for their inhumane treatment of human beings. We need to give them a little perspective. We need to all come at them via phone calls, media, advocacy centers, anyone that can hit them where it hurts, to show them that we are not alone. We are not going to accept this kind of abuse and pretend it's normal. It's policy. Policy is made up as they walk to the pisser. It's a shame the population is in love with their ringmaster. As a survivor of these gulags, food is still the #1 tool used to break solitary confinement offenders. Many months I went hungry and many months I eat the unwanted veggies inmates discarded just to survive. Sometimes portions were almost a smear of meat on tray. We need to end this today. TFSR: What inspires you these days? What brings you joy? CZ: Oh that's easy – Defiance from Detritus Books is my inspiration. I've gotten very close to Comrade Mongoose and against the peace and dignity of the Texecution State I'm in constant contact with Comrade King and Comrade Swain. I wish them the best in the struggle and hope to see them soon, for I am coming up for parole soon. It's a crap shoot, but optimism is helpful in situations such as this. I get my jollies by sending Matt handcrafted portraits of all kinds of cool, weird characters. Y'all are actually owners of one of my pieces. Thank you. TFSR: Is there anything I failed to ask you about that you want to talk about? CZ: You all can check out my Instagram @julioazunigaart or contact Matt to place an order for a handmade portrait. I only have No.2 pencils to work with because this unit will not allow my supporters to send me art supplies. Anything that makes people happy like greeting cards and pictures are slowly being taken from us as well. Go figure. This is Bible seminary college too. This is the unit that pumps out “field ministers”. Unbelievable, huh? Bass-akwards, I tell ya! I gotta let ya go for now. It's been an amazing and liberating experience. You all are amazing. Please allow me to send hugs to Sean Swain, Eric King and to all the comrades who are in the trenches fighting their ringmaster. Thank you for setting the example. I hope to be in that position soon. Thanks y'all. Hope to hear from you soon. I would like to close with a quote from Benjamin Tucker: “Power feeds on its spoils and dies when its victims refuse to be despoiled. They can't persuade it to death; they can't vote it to death; they can't shoot it to death; but they can always starve it to death.” . ... . .. Tracks heard in this podast: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - You've Really Got A Hold On Me (instrumental) RZA - The North Sea (instrumental)
Harm Reduction in Pandemic and Jason Renard Walker This week we feature two segments, first up we got to chat with Hill Brown about Asheville’s response to the pandemic in terms of public health, drug use and the houseless communities. Then, Jason Renard Walker talks about his journalism, activism and troubles in the Texas prison system. Harm Reduction in Asheville during Pandemic First we got to sit down with Hill Brown who works with Asheville’s Steady Collective doing harm reduction outreach to people experiencing homelessness and addiction. We talk about a lot of topics, including how the current health crisis has affected Steady’s operation, how the city of Asheville is mishandling its resources right now, and how folks can plug in and have solidarity with this work. If you are concerned about hotel access for oppressed populations, you can call: The Tourism Development Authority (TDA) at 828-258-6111, The County Commissioners at 828-250-4066 and leave a message, and the City of Asheville, who funds the TDA, at 828-251-1122 You can also find ways to support the Steady Collective by visiting their website TheSteadyCollective.org. Visit our blog or show notes to see an interview Bursts did with Hill back in 2018 which was done at a time when the city was threatening to close Steady’s operations. Incarcerated Journalist and Organizer, Jason Renard Walker Transcription PDF (Unimposed) ZIne (Imposed PDF) Then we’ll be hearing from Jason Renard Walker, an incarcerated journalist and activist at the Clemens Unit near Amarillo, Texas. Jason is the Minister of Labor for the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (Prison Chapter) and his writing is frequently featured in the SF Bay View National Black Newspaper. Mr. Walker’s answers will be read by his girlfriend, Noelle. You can find more of Jasons writings at his blog, JasonsPrisonJournal.com, including a link to his recently published e-book “Reports from Within The Belly Of The Beast: Torture and Injustice Inside Texas Department of Criminal Justice” available from Amazon.com and hopefully soon in paperback. He also just published this piece on his blog about the coverup around covid-19. This interview is transcribed below. Jason Renard Walker #1532092 Clements Unit 9601 Spur 591 Amarillo, TX 79107 You can hear our chat from 2018 with Kevin Rashid Johnson (co-founder of the NABPP and Minister of Defense for the Prison Chapter) which is also transcribed in that post, or printable as a zine here. Jason Renard Walker also mentions Julio Alex Zunigo, aka Comrade Z, who is rustling up resistance in Darington Unit. Comrade Z was interviewed by ItsGoingDown and we will be airing a recording of an interview with him coming up this week. Comrade Malik’s Covid-19 Update Update The elder, politicized prisoner that Comrade Malik references in Texas as Alvaro Luna Hernandez also goes by the name Xinachtli, which you can use in personal communication. You can hear a recording of Xinachtli telling his story in his own words here. For the envelope or dealing with administration you can write to him at: Alvaro Luna Hernández #255735 James V Allred Unit 2101 FM 369 NorthIowa Park, TX 76367 USA . … . .. Tracks heard in this episode: AwareNess (from calm.) – No Regrets Wu-Tang Clan – It’s Yourz (instrumental)
Kazi Toure (Burning Books Lecture Series) Here's our second lecture we're excited to share in the Burning Books Lecture Series. We're slowly continuing to release audios recorded at Burning Books in Buffalo, NY, to share inspiring ideas and experiences this bookstore has hosted over the last 7 or so years. This pandemic period should be one where we take account of the situation we find ourselves, hone our skills, learn from our elders and consider how to engage as the disease ravages our communities and the forces of capital and repression make their moves. Kazi Toure spoke on March 25, 2015 on his political development, activity, engagement as a Marxist guerrilla in the USA, his time as a political prisoner, his ideas and organizing. From his bio: Former political prisoner and United Freedom Front member Kazi Toure was imprisoned for his role in twenty bombings combating Apartheid in South Africa & US Imperialism in Central America. The United Freedom Front has been considered "undoubtedly the most successful of the leftist [guerrilla groups] of the 1970s & 80s," & struck powerful blows to South African Airways, Mobile, IBM, Union Carbide, & various courthouses & US military targets. If you enjoyed this lecture, keep an ear out for more. And check out our first release of this series, Dr Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz speaking on "An Indigenous Peoples History Of The United States". And remember, community spaces are so important, places we can engage new ideas, speakers with this wisdom, future and current comrades and co-conspirators. One way to do this, if you have the dough, is to buy books from spaces like Burning Books or Firestorm Books Coop. If you are looking to read statements by Kazi and his comrades, Leslie from Burning Books suggests checking out Hauling Up The Morning: Writings and Art by Political Prisoners of War in the U.S. which you can find at burningbooks.com . Another title mentioned, available via Burning Books or Firestorm at firestorm.coop is Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners. A couple of notes about some of the prisoners and projects that Kazi mentions in this 2015 presentation. Oscar López Rivera was googlereleased in 2017 by Obama. The surviving members of the MOVE 9 were released in the last 2 years. On A Move! Herman Bell was released in 2018 and lives in New York state. 4StruggleMag is no longer producing print editions. The latest post on it's site announces the death from incarceration of Tom Manning, one of Kazi's comrades from the UFF. Posted messages come from the Certain Days Collective, political prisoners Kojo Bomani Sababu, Bill Dunne, Oso Blanco, incarcerated comrade from the UFF Jaan Laaman and former political prisoner from the UFF Ray Luc Levasseur. Jaan Laaman continues to be incarcerated as does BLA prisoner Jalil Muntaqim. More info on these political prisoners at The National Jericho Movement and NYCABC's websites. Stay healthy, y'all! . ... . .. Featured track on this is Kimochi by Fred Houn and the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble
Release Ramsey Orta! / Housing Struggle in Asheville Sean Swain's segment on Bernie Sanders withdrawal the Democrat candidacy. [00:03:20-00:12:27] Release Ramsey Orta! [00:12:27-00:38:00] This week, we hear from Deja, the fiance of incarcerated cop watcher Ramsey Orta. Ramsey has been in prison since 2016 and during his short time inside has he’s been transferred around a lot and spent over a year in isolation. Ramsey’s name may be familiar as the police accountability activist who recorded the killing by police of the unarmed community member and grandfather, Eric Garner, in New York in 2014. Ramsey Orta’s video went viral and drew NYPD harassment and attention to him and his family and since his incarceration led to many threats by cop-sympathizing CO’s. Orta is currently about 90 days from his release date for his non-violent conviction and falls within the categories of prisoners that NY is considering releasing before the pandemic is in full swing. If you can help lean on the powerful in NY to get Ramsey Orta released, you can email officialramseyorta@gmail.com or wecopwatch@gmail.com. You can learn more about Ramsey’s case at RamseyOrta.com, or the SupportRamseyOrta fedbook page, as well as WeCopWatch.org or that groups fedbook page. News just came out that Midstate Correctional, where Ramsey is currently being held, has shown its first infections of covid-19, so this issue of securing Ramsey Orta’s release is dire. He is being denied showers, soap, tissue, enough food. Ramsey is also not being giving cleaning supplies for his cell. A source of his mistreatment is Sgt Mayo at Midstate. Supporters suggest phones contact the following officials and share freedom for Ramsey. Ramsey's prison number is 16A4200. Office of Special Investigations (OSI) - DOCCS OSIComplaint@doccs.ny.gov 844 674 4697 William Burns / Deputy Superintendent for Security 315-768-8581 ext 5000 William.burns@doccs.ny.gov William D. Fennessy / Superintendent 315 768 8581 ext 2000 william.Fennessy@doccs.ny.gov Housing Struggle in Asheville [00:40:14-01:28:52] Then we hear from two activists from Unemployed Humans Organzing Help, or UHOH Asheville, talking about tenant organizing for a rent freeze and pushing the government and hoteliers to open up those empty rooms to houseless folks in Asheville. More at their fedbook page, or by emailing uhohavl@riseup.net. Apologies for the sound in this second portion. . ... . .. Featured tracks: Pete Rock - Return Of The Mecca (instrumental) Lee Reed - The Sixth Massive
Being Better To One Another: Comrade Malik from USP Pollock / Peter Gelderloos from Spain On this podcast special, we’re sharing two segments. First, Comrade Malik (s/n Keith Washington) of the IWW and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee speaks about his experience at the Federal prison USP Pollock in Grant Parish, Louisiana, changes in policies in relation to the pandemic and the dangers posed by guards going in and out of the facility. Comrade Malik was paroled from the Texas prison system some months ago and is now serving the remains of a nine month Federal sentence before release to CA where he plans to work on the SF Bay View National Black Newspaper. More of Malik’s wriitngs can be found at ComradeMalik.Com. [00:05:40-00:10:23] He also requests listeners to press the Bureau of Prisons release Malik to the address in San Francisco that he has now on file with the BOP. Comrade Malik is in his 51 years old and has a history of medical issues, thanks to maltreatment in the Texas prison system. You can contact the USP Pollock via email at POL/ExecAssistant@bop.gov or by phone at +13185615300. You can also call the head office of the BOP at +12023073198 to register a similar request Then, we hear from author and anarchist, Peter Gelderloos about responses by the Spanish government and in civil society to the pandemic, challenges to internationalize rent refusal and to treat people better in our communities. More of his writings can be found at TheAnarchistLibrary.Org. [00:14:30-01:08:34] Stay tuned for Sunday’s release with housing organizers in Asheville from UHOH about the work they’re doing here and suggestions about organizing as well as a chat with a volunteer doing harm reduction on the actions of local police and politicians against houseless folks and drug users and the shut down of life saving programs during the pandemic. . ... . .. Just a quick announcement of some phone zaps beginning today about prisoners and the covid-19 virus, Find the numbers and demands compiled from prisoners in our show notes.: Prison Phone Zaps Two deaths of prisoners at Lee State Prison in Georgia There is a phone zap starting April 9th for Lee State Prison in GA where two deaths have occurred from covid-19. Atlanta IWOC suggests dialing *67 to block your number before making calls and a few other ways to keep yourself safer while dialing into prisons. North Carolina Prison Outbreaks of Corona Federal Correctional Complex at Butner, operated by the BOP, was reported to have 59 cases of covid-19 a few days ago. Outbreaks have been reported at Caledonia CI, Greene CI and Johnston CI, operated by North Carolina Department of Public Safety. There is an ongoing phone zap up at BRABC.Blackblogs.Org North Lake Immigrant Detention Hunger Strike About ten inmates at the North Lake Correctional Facility, a federal immigrant prison in Baldwin, MI, are moving into day five of a hunger strike, demanding adequate nutrition and basic healthcare services currently being denied, as well as religious freedom for followers of the Hebrew Israelite faith. A call script and the numbers are up at itsgoingdown.org Frederick, MD Activists Demand Release of ICE Detainees and Prisoners Spire City Medics is blasting a zap to press Sheriff Chuck Jenkins in Frederick County, MD to release prisoners and ICE detainees in light of the pandemic and lack of preparation for the safety of those housed in the jail there. More info at SpireCityMedics.Org . ... . .. image by Robert Ramos Featured tracks: Jeru The Damaja - "Me Or The Papes (instrumental)" - s/t single Time - "I Wrote This To Start A Fire" - These Songs Kill Fascists
Seeing the World Elsewhere: Rural Mutual Aid in Appalachia and David Forbes on Journalism, Asheville and Anarchism (image by Nicole Marie Burton, used with permission) This week you’ll hear two conversations after we hear from Sean Swain on making it through isolation. The text can be found below. [00:02:42-00:11:05] First, Matt from Rural Organizing And Resilience, or ROAR, in Madison County talks about efforts in the country to shift mutual aid efforts to address difficulties associated with the covid-19 pandemic. More on their project at ruralorganizing.wordpress.com. [00:11:05-00:35:47] And we also got to sit down with David Forbes, who is an independent journalist here in Asheville, about her work, some updates from here in the mountains, ways to think about journalism, and the online platform The Asheville Blade which she founded and helps maintain. To see more you can visit ashevilleblade.com, follow her on twitter @davidforbes, and donate to the Blade at patreon.com/avlblade! [00:35:59-01:20:41] Announcements Sean Swain is Ill Sean is currently suffering from a bacterial lung infection and not being offered adequate healthcare (nothing new for prison). If you are concerned for his health as the novel corona virus swells, consider visiting his support site to read more. Anyone reading this should feel free to contact Buckingham at (434) 983-4400 . Either Warden John Woodson or Assistant Warden Jeffrey Snoddy are there each day during normal business hours. Ask for one, and he’s not there, ask for the other. Feel free to fax this update to them, (434) 983-4017. Final Straw 10th Anniversary Still coming up, plague bedamned. We've been running the show for coming on 10 years and would love to hear your thoughts, memories, suggestions. This is an opportunity to share with us and share your ideas directly with other audience members. You can leave us or a signal voice-memo or a voicemail at +18285710161, or email a link to mp3 audio via wetransfer.com or another service, or you can share it with the googledrive for thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net or thefinalstrawradio@protonmail.com! . ... . .. playlist . ... . .. also available at SeanSwain.org Sean On Strategies in Isolation The latest concern that folks are expressing during this zombie apocalypse is their inability to cope with isolation and quarantine. We’re just a few weeks into this thing and already folks are going a little bonkers. This is strange to me, given that I’ve spent years at a time in total and complete isolation. It’s almost hard for me to fathom that someone wouldn’t know how to cope in such an environment. So, this week is going to be something of an instructional video – only, without the video, and maybe not very instructive. OK, first things first. You gotta stay mentally organized, and staying mentally organized means living in a way that’s organized. You need a routine. Routine is key to longterm segregation. You want to get up in the morning at the same time. Set an alarm. Get up, get out of bed, make the bed. It doesn’t matter that you have nowhere to go. It doesn’t matter that you’re not leaving that living space. You get up at the same time and you make the bed, because the sleeping period is over. Create for yourself set times for eating your meals, or a small range of times for those meals to happen in. Set a time for showering or bathing and personal grooming. It doesn’t matter that you’re not going anywhere. Laying in bed all day in the same sweater and underwear from last Tuesday is not mental organization. It’s surrender. Yes, I’m talking to you. No, you, there. Yes, the one in the sweater and the underwear. Right. Break up your day into chunks. Fill those chunks with activity. Maybe you like to read. Designate a period of your day for reading. Designate another part of your day for writing, another part for skyping and twitter and social interaction. Doing this gives you routine, but it also gives you benchmarks as you travel through your day. You can say to yourself “I’ve gotten this done, at such-and-such a time, it’s time to do X.” You are now doing your time, your time is not doing you. Your time will move faster, you’ll get more accomplished. Which brings me to my next point: accomplishing. Each day will bring you multiple opportunities to fulfill goals. Get something written. Get something read. Go a certain time on your stationary bike. Dispose of the body of that annoying next-door neighbor… former neighbor. Just kidding. Don’t kill your neighbor. There are security cameras everywhere. I digress. The thing is: each day you meet some small goal, then another, then another. You take in calories, you move from activity to activity. Most importantly: you survive. Each day you end still breathing is a mission accomplished. You’re not just writing emails or riding your stationary bike, you’re fighting for your very survival, albeit in a mundane kind of way. Physical exercise. The human body is a machine made for motion. So move. My captivity workout, I do sets of push-ups, crunches and squats, one set after another. It works major muscle groups, gets my heart pumping, gets me sucking oxygen, and helps me to think more clearly. It allows me to release tension. Now more than ever, that’s important, not just for your survival, but for the survival of your annoying neighbor. So get exercise and whenever possible, in a way that’s safe, try to get an hour of direct sunlight outdoors. Go outside and breathe deeply and feel sunlight on your face. It matters. Now, if you’re all alone, you can organize your day any way that you want. You can modify your routine at will until it works for you. But if you’re not alone, you have to synthesize your routine with the lives of those around you. Urge them to adopt a routine. Socially, it helps keep the peace. You know what other people are doing at given chunks of the day, and they know what you’re doing. You want periods of solitude and periods of social interaction, time set aside for your own projects and time for collective and communal activities. Through the course of this, you’re going to experience heightened anxiety. It’s easy to dwell on your own situation and let the worry spiral out of control. It’s easy. We all do it. So what you do, to get out of that spiral, you focus on the struggle of someone else. Get out of your own head. Contribute to someone else’s plight. This isn’t just some Mother Theresa kumbaya crap. It’s not just some virtuous selflessness. It’s a selfish act. It’s motivated by your desire to further your own survival. If you get out of your own head and help someone, you’re exiting that spiral of anxiety. Some other tips: While it’s good to do some planning for the future, force yourself to stay grounded in the now. Daydreaming about when this is over just makes the now suck worse. A little of that can go a long way. Also, be realistic about how long this is. Don’t wake up every day thinking that we’re all going to pour out into the streets like some flashmob dance routine. It ain’t happening, probably for months. So get yourself into a comfortable routine, for months. This is your reality. It is what it is. Also, when that reality feels overwhelming, remind yourself that this is just temporary. It will pass. Even if it takes months, it doesn’t take forever. Nothing is forever. Don’t forget, however bad you’ve got it, others less capable than you have gotten through longer chunks of time in far worse conditions. I did a year with virtually nothing, on starvation rations, with very little soap, locked in a space the size of a bathroom with another poor bastard. We were both idiots, and yet we both survived. You will too. Resolve to survive this. Walk around your living space. Tell the walls: “You won’t defeat me.” Tell your couch: “You won’t defeat me.” Tell all your furnishings: “You won’t defeat me.” Then look in the mirror and tell yourself: “This won’t defeat me.” And mean it. You have two choices, flat-out. You can survive this, or you can sit down on the curb, and sooner or later the dogs and the birds will eat you. It’s your choice. I’ve made my choice. Hope I see you on the other side of this shit. This is anarchist prisoner Sean Swain in exile from Ohio at Buckingham Correctional in Dillwyn, Virginia. If you’re surviving, you are the resistance.
Kijana Tashiri Askari In this podcast special, a comrade spoke with Kijana Tashiri Askari, an imprisoned community organizer, prison abolitionist, and New Afrikan Black Revolutionary who helped to found the W.L. Nolen Mentorship Program. At one point in time the mentorship program had about 50 prisoners nationwide on its mailing list. The W.L. Nolen Mentorship Program, named after a central leader in the formation of the California Prisoner Liberation Movement, alongside George Jackson, during the 1960s and 70s. Kijana Tashiri spent over two decades in the Pelican Bay SHU and was instrumental in the development of the networks that sprung forth the first waves of California Prisoner Hunger Strikes. You can reach WLNMP at w.l.nolen13@gmail.com or by mail through True Leap Press at True Leap Press PO Box 408197 Chicago IL, 60640 You can also write to Kijana at: Kijana Tashiri Askari s/n Marcus Harrison #H-54077CMF Vacaville – Wing #342P.O. Box 2000, Vacaville, CA 95696 You can read writings by Kijana at his blog, KijanaTashiriAskari.Wordpress.Com Currently Kijana is facing dire conditions at Vacaville Medical Facility, a smaller prison across the road from CSP-Solano. Two weeks ago he was diagnosed with a heart blockage that requires immediate surgery, however because of the COVID-19 crisis, he was turned away from the hospital and sent back to the prison, where he remains. At the facility where he is imprisoned, there is relatively zero movement of prisoners happening, as everyone is being held in isolation. However, prisoners are not being allowed access to cleaning supplies, and it is a mixed bag in terms of guards taking the crisis serious, and those who are not. He, along with countless people locked up at this facility, are at severe risk if the virus spreads through the prison. Freeworld and incarcerated supporters of Kijana’s have organized a phone zap, demanding the following things: That the surgery be performed and necessary medical protocols are followed. Kijana needs a splint in his heart. This is a serious condition. That the proper precautions for his physical safety are made during Kijana’s procedure. We demand that surgery is done in a sanitized and controlled area, to prevent contamination of this coronavirus. That Kijana be given adequate medication in light of this blockage revelation, he is currently only taking Tylenol. We demand his immediate release as his time locked up has been served 3-fold! (This is key to his survival and a realistic demand, given that he is up for parole this year) If you choose to call, email (1, 2), or write the governor’s office, we urge you to connect this to the broader struggle of releasing elders, immune-compromised, and those most vulnerable to the virus inside; thus: That the governor of California grant mass clemency and systematic release of all elders, immune-compromised, and those most vulnerable to COVID-19. Keep an eye out for posts with scripts and images for a phone zap for Kijana on our Twitter and Instagram, but even more so on the Twitter and Facebook for True Leap Press. . ... . .. Tracks in this podcast: J Dilla - Fuck The Police (instrumental) Looptrack - Crate Diggin
This week I am very excited to present an interview done with Aishah Shahidah Simmons, who is a writer, community organizer, prison abolitionist, and cultural worker who has done just an immense amount of work over the years to help disrupt and end the patterns of sexual abuse and assault within marginalized communities. In this interview we talk about a lot of things, her background and how she came to be doing the work she’s doing right now, how better to think about concepts like ‘accountability’, what doing this work has been like for her as an out lesbian woman, and about her book “Love WITH Accountability, Digging Up the Roots of Childhood Sexual Abuse” which was published in 2019 from AK Press. This interview feels very important for me right now, because we are in a time of overturn, tumult, stress, and uncertainty, and I think that in order for us to really be able to knuckle down and go in this for the long haul it’ll be imperative for our radical communities to take solid care of ourselves and of each other. I hope you get as much out of hearing Aishah’s words as I did conducting and editing this interview. Before we get started, as a content notice: we will be talking about some difficult topics in this interview. I will do my best to repeat this notice at regular intervals, but please do take care and treat yourself kindly, however that looks for you. If you are interested in seeing more work from Aishah, visit our blogpost or scroll down to the show notes! We will post all the links in those places. If you are interested in reading her book, Love WITH Accountability, AK Press is doing a limited time sale on all their books on their website. Visit akpress.org for more info. To help support community bookstores at this time of greater economic precarity for such places, consider visiting our affiliates Firestorm Books, who are currently doing online sales from their brick and mortar location. More about how to order at firestorm.coop! To keep up with Aishah, for updates on future projects and more: @lovewithaccountability Instagram @afrolez on Twitter Love WITH Accountability FaceBook page Aishah Shahidah Simmons Cultural Worker FaceBook page To support our guest, in a time where much if not all of her income is in peril: PayPal: Afro Lez Productions Venmo: @afrolez Some more ways you can see our guest’s past work: NO! The Rape Documentary, streaming for $1 on her website Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from within the Anti-Violence Movement book that she is in. No Name Book Club where Love WITH Accountability was picked as one of the books for March. https://lovewithaccountability.com And so many more links on her website! . … . .. Music for this show by: Philip Glass – Metamorphosis 1 (mixing by William) Clutchy Hopkins – LAUGHING JOCKEY – Story Teller 2012
Being Out Here For The Prisoners in NC / Mesh Networks This week we feature two portions to this podcast bonus, two abolitionists in North Carolina talk about detention issues during and after Covid-19. Then Grant Gallo of Sudo Mesh talks about community mesh data networks and alternative infrastructure for autonomy. For a radio edition of this for broadcast, reach out to us at our email. Our main broadcasting segment for this week is an interview William did with Aishah Shahidah Simmons, the editor of love WITH accountability: Digging up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (AK Press, 2019) which will be available soon for download by participating stations and in our podcast stream. Incarceration in NC First we’ll hear from two prison activists based in the Durham and Asheville, North Carolina about critical situations around incarceration in this state including but not limited to the Covid-19 outbreak. Jules is a member of Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross, a local abolitionist group that works around popular education around incarceration and anti-repression for movement work. Katie is an anarchist legal and anti-prison activist. NLG Guide To Your Rights During Covid-19 Pandemic. Covid-19 Prison zine by BRABC Regional groups working on this to keep an eye on include: Empty Cages Collective NC Resists NC Women's Prison Books Project Siembra NC Southerners On New Ground Project South Blue Ridge ABC Instagram / Facebook WNC Anarchist Twitter Peer-To-Peer Digital Infrastructure After that, you’ll hear Grant Gallow from Sudo Mesh talk about Peoples Open Network and Disaster Radio. We’ll hear about collaborative, community mesh network projects as peer-to-peer internet in general and about the idea behind Disaster Radio, a minimalist digital messaging system in case the cellphone, landline or power grid goes down in a dire circumstances. You can find out more at the website, disaster.radio NC Prison Phone Zaps Statewide: https://brabc.blackblogs.org/2020/03/22/phone-zap-for-north-carolina-prisoners/ Durham County Jail: https://twitter.com/NCResists/status/1242938703871442947?s=20 Various Other Prison Phone Zaps By Region of Turtle Island The following is an incomplete list. Stay tuned to ItsGoingDown.org for a more up-to-date and comprehensive listing of ongoing phone zaps and campaigns Pacific Northwest WA https://twitter.com/COVID_MutualAid/status/1242521808940777475 https://twitter.com/PugetSupport/status/1242492820868358144 Portland, OR https://twitter.com/carenotcops/status/1242558135480365058 Central Colorado https://brabc.blackblogs.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/338/2020/03/Colorado-Prison-Report-03_26_2020.pdf Midwest Chicago, IL https://twitter.com/AssataDaughters/status/1242474665358110720 Wisconsin https://twitter.com/notcolloquial/status/1242871504871854082 Michigan https://twitter.com/MI_Abolition/status/1242471208270036992 https://huronvalleycovid19.wixsite.com/demands/action https://fight-toxic-prisons.org/2020/03/12/macomb-ci-coronavirus-phone-zap/ (Macombe CI) Northeast New York https://twitter.com/FreeThemAll2020/status/1242827148588613638 (NYC) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l5n3CxSjPUuINOsPi51rks8g-Os-WUVmLOfa8s5AaHg/ (NYC) https://twitter.com/FreeThemAll2020/status/1243576540056768516?s=20 (NYC) https://twitter.com/SurlyNotAWalrus/status/1242492126950313984 (NYC) New Jersey https://twitter.com/NiMaitresses/status/1242716926964649984 PA https://twitter.com/ariteer/status/1242849157167173634 (you gotta look at the link in the twitter for this one) South GA, NC, SC ICE call-in https://twitter.com/ashahshahani/status/1243215788191997960?s=20 Alabama https://fight-toxic-prisons.org/2020/03/26/alabama-department-of-corrections-covid19-phone-zap/ protest/suicide threat: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/ice-detainees-threaten-suicide-stage-protests-over-coronavirus-fears/2020/03/25/8232738e-0b1e-4fdb-8538-456e269a8eb7_video.html Georgia https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/27/headlines (headline about hunger strikes, not a call-in link) Virginia https://home.baltimoreiww.org/news/tell-governor-northam-and-the-virginia-department-of-health-that-release-is-the-only-way-forward https://www.facebook.com/events/1910024005789095/ Louisiana https://www.latinorebels.com/2020/03/26/icedetaineeshungerstrike/ Florida https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-ice-detainees-on-hunger-strike-amid-coronavirus-11607507 (article about hunger strikes in ICE custody, not a call-in link) https://twitter.com/iwoc_gnv/status/1242875691315671049 NC https://brabc.blackblogs.org/2020/03/22/phone-zap-for-north-carolina-prisoners/ https://twitter.com/NCResists/status/1242938703871442947?s=20 (Durham County Jail) so-called Canada Quebec https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/939v7v/laval-quebec-immigration-detainees-are-on-a-hunger-strike-over-coronavirus-fears (article only) Announcements BRABC Remote Film Night From the facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/503825183570471/ Join us for a film screening and discussion of the short documentary film “Condemned,” which tells the story of Bomani Shakur (or Keith Lamar) who is on death row for five murders he did not commit or play any part in during the 1993 Lucasville Prison uprising. Bomani was recently scheduled for execution in November, 2023. His many advocates and loved ones called for a month of action in April to publicize the biased legal process that led to Bomani’s conviction, involving gross prosecutorial misconduct including failure to provide exculpatory evidence during discovery as required by law. ** A link will be posted in the facebook event on the day of the screening that people can click to join at the event start time! ** After the film we’ll hold a discussion including how people can support Bomani in continuing to fight for his life. For more information about Bomani and his case: – https://www.keithlamar.org/condemned – https://www.revolutionaryabolition.org/news/month-of-action-for-bomani/ . ... . .. playlist
Doing For Selves: Open Source Supplies and Tenant Organizing Welcome to a podcast special from The Final Straw. While William is was busy producing an episode featuring voices of medical professionals and activists inside and out of prison to talk about the impacts of covid-19 on incarcerated people for broadcast, I had a couple of conversations about work folks are doing on the outside that I’d like to share. Hacking To Fight Covid-19 First, I spoke with Bill Slavin of Indie Lab, space in Virginia that is in the process of shifting it’s purpose since the epidemic became apparent from an broader scientific and educational maker space to work on the manufacturing and distribution of covid-19 related items in need such as testing kits, medical grade oxygen, ventilators and 3d printed n95 quality masks for medical professionals to fill public health needs. Bill talks generally about the ways that community and scientists can come together through mutual aid to deal with this crisis left by the inaction of the government on so many levels. They are also crowd-sourcing fundraising for scaling up their production and facilities and there’s a link in our show notes on that. The platform that Bill talks about in the chat is known as Just One Giant Lab, or JOGL. Consider this an invitation for makers to get involved. Organizing With Your Neighbors For Homes and Dignity Then, I talked to Julian of Tenants United of Hyde Park and Woodlawn in Chicago. What with all of the talk about rent strikes in the face of such huge leaps in unemployment during the spread of covid-19 and accompanying economic collapse, I thought it’d be helpful to have this chat to help spur on these conversations of how we seize power back into our hands while we’re being strangled by quarantine and hopefully afterwards. You can learn more about the group Julian works with at TenantsUnitedHPWL.Org. Philadelphia Tenants Union and Los Angeles Tenants Union were both mentioned and will be linked in the show notes, alongside a reminder that the national Autonomous Tenants Union Network (ATUN) is being organized and folks can reach out to Philly TU or LA TU via email to get onto their organizing zoom calls. Finally, if you’re in the Chicago area and need a lawyer for housing, check out Lawyers Committee For Better Housing online at lcbh.org. Julian also mentioned squatting of homes in southern CA owned by the state, here’s a link to an article. Announcements WNC Mutual Aid Projects Linked in our show notes is also a googledoc that Cindy Milstein and others are helping to keep updated that lists many mutual aid projects that have sprung up all over concerning the exacerbation of capitalism by the covid-19 crisis, as well as a similar page up from ItsGoingDown.Org . If you’re in so-called Western NC and want to get involved, the project Asheville Survival Project has a presence on fedbook and is soliciting donations of food and sanitary goods for distribution to indigent, bipoc, elder and immune compromised folks in the community. We’ll link some social media posts on the subject that list our donation sites around Asheville in the show notes and you can venmo donations to @AVLsurvival. If you care to contribute to efforts in Boone, NC, you can follow the instagram presence for @boonecommunityrelief or join the fedbook group by the same name, reach them via email at boonecommunityrelief@protonmail.com find donation sites and venmo donations can happen up at via venmo at @Bkeeves. NC Prisons Covid-19 Phone Zap And check our show notes for an invitation to call the NC Department of Public Safety and Governor’s offices to demand the release of NC prisoners susceptible to infection and possible death of Corona Virus in the NC system due to improper care. Wherever you are listening, consider getting together with others and calling jails, prison agencies and the executive branches to demand similarly the release of AT THE VERY LEAST the aged, infirm, folks in pre-trial detention, upcoming release or who are held because they can’t pay bail. North Carolina Corrections Department-Prison Division (919) 838-4000 North Carolina Governors Office 919-814-2000 https://governor.nc.gov/contact/contact-governor-cooper sample script: My name is ________, and I am a North Carolina resident deeply concerned about the safety of the states’s incarcerated people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Incarcerated people have a unique vulnerability to disease due to their crowded, unsanitary living conditions and lack of access to adequate medical care. For humanitarian reasons as well as reasons of public health, we call for the immediate release of all people in the North Carolina prison system. We also urge that you stop the intake of new prisoners during the pandemic. The cost of failing to take these steps will be paid for in human lives, and we refuse to abandon our neighbors and loved ones to die in lockup. CALL AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN stay tuned to the twitter accounts for @NCResists and @EmptyCagesColl for updates 10th Anniversary Even while the world burns, our 10th anniversary still approaches and we’re still soliciting messages from you, our listenership. Not sure what to say, likely you have a LOT of time on your hands, so go back through our archives and dive in. If you want a deep dive, visit our website where you can find hundreds of hours of interviews and music. If you want to drop us a line, check out the link in the show notes, or you can leave a voicemail or signal voice memo at +18285710161, you can share an audio file with the google drive associated with the email thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net or send a link to a cloud stored audio filed to that email address. Tell us and listeners what you’ve appreciated and or where you’d like us to go with this project. Spreading TFS If you appreciate the work that we do here at TFS, you can also help us out by making a donation if you have extra cash rustling around. The link on our site called Donate/Merch will show you tons of ways. If, like most of us, money is super tight at the moment, no prob, we struggle together. You can share our show with other folks to get these voices out there and more folks in the conversation. And if you REALLY like us and have a community radio station nearby who you’d be excited to have us air on for free, get in touch with us and we’ll help. The page on our site entitled Radio Broadcasting has lots of info for radio stations and how to let them know you want us on the airwaves. Thanks! . … . ... Featured music: From Monument To Masses - Sharpshooter - The Impossible Leap In One Hundred Simple Steps Filastine - Quémalo Ya (instrumental) - Quémalo Ya Etta James - I Don't Stand A Ghost of a Chance (With You) - Mystery Lady: The Songs of Billie Holiday
Today we have a show about COVID-19, specifically how the pandemic is being handled in prisons and detention. This show includes a lot of voices, and we structured it that way in order to both include as many perspectives as we could and also to take some of the expectation that interviewees speak to us for an extended period; everyone who is working on this is very busy and we wanted to respect that. In this show you’ll hear from: – Rebekah Entralgo who works with the non profit Freedom for Immigrants, – Finn, a healthcare worker and member of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR) working in an outbreak epicenter here in North Carolina, – Elijah Prioleau who is incarcerated at Waupun Correctional in Wisconsin, where there is a COVID-19 outbreak and they are currently on lockdown, – and JM and Nikkita of (among other groups) COVID-19 Mutual Aid in Seattle, which is at the outbreak epicenter in the Pacific Northwest. Because I couldn’t include everything that each person said in full, and frankly that was the hardest part about editing, I’m making a page on our collection at archive.org which will include each interview in full. Just give me until tomorrow to get that up, cause my eyes are starting to cross from all the radio related screen time! Many thanks go out to everyone who was interviewed, and a special thanks to Ben Turk and the folks at Forum for Understanding Prisons who passed along his phone call with Elijah. More about them, their updates, and lists of demands can be seen at prisonforum.org . … . .. To write to Elijah at Waupun Correctional, address letters to: Leon Elijah Prioleau 420053 Waupun Correctional Institution PO Box 531 Waupun, WI 53963-0351 To get plugged into mutual aid efforts in Asheville, you can follow the Asheville Survival Project on Facebook, and if you are interested in donating to these efforts in our town the venmo is @AVLsurvival. List of people and projects that I’m aware of who are boosting prisoner’s voices right now: Kite Line Radio, which has a Coronavirus call in line for people who are both impacted by incarceration and by Coronavirus, that is 765-343-6236 Rustbelt Abolition Radio, which is amplifying the voices of incarcerated people always. Forum for Understanding Prisons where you can go to prisonforum.org for up to date information and their list of demands. Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP) IWOC (Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee), literally all chapters FTP and IWOC are making a Prison Support Hotline for COVID-19, to donate go here!! List of people and projects that I’m aware of calling for immediate end to ICE detention: Freedom For Immigrants The TransLatin@ Coalition Plus many others! Links from our guests: Freedom For Immigrants: https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/ For accurate health related news: Center for Disease Control and Prevention World Health Organization To support Elijah in Waupum Correctional: look for updates on http://www.prisonforum.org/ Seattle: @covid19mutualaid ON INSTAGRAM COVID-19 Mutual Aid on Facebook Fundraiser for people who cannot access state resources in Seattle PARISOL . … . .. Music for this episode in order of appearance: Y’all Ain’t Ready – J Dilla – 2005 Welcome 2 Detroit Instrumental Lataa – Kid Jha – Kalevala Welcome 2 Detroit – J Dilla – 2005 Welcome 2 Detroit Instrumental
As corona virus spreads, the failures of capitalist states becomes even clearer and many people are forced to take some breaks from participating in the economy in the way they did before, we’d like to offer some audio we’ve been sitting on. The good folks at the radical bookstore and community space, Burning Books in Buffalo, New York, has given us a small trove of audios from presentations by authors, activists, visionaries and revolutionaries they’ve hosted over the last 7 years or so. We hope that you’ll take away some good perspectives from these luminaries, on struggle, on change, on shifting terrain and on the revolutionary solidarity impulse that they communicate. These are scary times we are living in, but we want to remind you that sometimes in scary times people bring out their best to the fore because we are stronger together. Get involved in local efforts to organize in your area by visiting this IGD post and searching down the page for the regional mutual aid groups you can plug into. In this podcast special, we’re sharing a presentation by the author, historian and activist, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on September 17th, 2015, speaking about her book ‘An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States'. From the website, reddirtsite.com: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a tenant farmer and part-Indian mother. She has been active in the international indigenous movement for more than four decades, and she is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. After receiving her Ph.D. in history at the University of California at Los Angeles, she taught in the newly established Native American Studies Program at California State University, Hayward, and helped found the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies. The audio cuts off after just about an hour due to recording device, sadly, so we lose Dr. Dunbar-Ortiz part way through a sentence. But we highly recommend you check out her books. If you are thinking of purchasing any of her titles, we suggest that you check out getting them from a local bookstore rather than Amazon. And while quarantine is ongoing, if you prefer to order online from Burning Books, they are offering free shipping in the US on orders more than $25 (as of this recording on March 18th, 2020) from their website, BurningBooks.com. Feel free, also, to support our local venue and regular supporter of our site, as well, Firestorm.Coop, which sells titles online as well and is also offering a deal on shipping.
No Evil Foods Union and PLAN Line 3 This week on The Final Straw, we’re presenting two conversation, plus announcements [02:02-05:47] and Sean Swain's segment [05:47-11:49]. Union Busting at No Evil Foods [11:49-29:44] The first was a chat with workers from the local, plant-based protein company ‘No Evil Foods’. The company has been getting flack for using social justice imagery while working to undermine unionization efforts at it’s factory here in Asheville, NC. The workers talk about strategies they took in organizing attempts and experiences they had with disinformation about collective bargaining from the management and the union-busting consultants in their employ. In order to protect the anonymity of the workers, we’ve replaced their voices with our own. See our show notes for a script of the chat. Although not affiliated with the unionizing effort, the fedbook page for Asheville Solidarity Network hosts some of the flyers in support of workers unionizing No Evil Foods and Mission Hospital. It’s also acting as a hub for posts about mutual aid responses to the Covid-19 and the Corona virus crises in the Asheville Area. For more resources in different places around solidarity and mutual aid in this intense time, visit ItsGoingDown.org. To see a few pictures of the propaganda distributed to No Evil Foods workers, check our show notes. Here are also a couple of links to flyers against the union busting found on social media (1, 2) as well as a post about a Zapatista school complaining of misrepresentation by No Evil Foods in their marketing and a collection of links including audio recorded from one of the forced anti-union meetings. PLANning for Anti-Pipeline Action [34:30-58:52] After that, you’ll hear a conversation with Garrett, an anarchist involved in Pipeline Legal Action Network, based in so-called Minnesota. PLAN has recently published a legal workbook for people planning around resisting pipeline infrastructure expansion, in particular with the Line 3 pipeline. The guide also brings together a lot of other useful resources for any crew or affinity group and is available for free at PlanLine3.com alongside a lot of other material. Announcements Share Your Words For Our 10 Year Anniversary Show Basically, we're opening up the lines to hear what you have to say to us. Send us a message about the show, any memories you have, what you'd like to see or how it has affected you. Instructions for signal voice messages, voicemails or sending us mp3's can be found here. New Free Community Meals in Asheville On Sundays at 4pm near 644 Haywood, just around the corner from Firestorm Books, a project calling itself Hot Potatoes is offering free, hot meals from reclaimed and donated ingredients to the community as well as free produce when available. Grand Jury Resistance Grand Jury resistors Chelsea Manning and Jeremy Hammond have been ordered released from the Arlington, VA jail where they’ve been held while refusing to participate in Federal Grand Juries concerning Wikileaks and the attempted extradition of Julian Assange. This came days after Chelsea attempted self-harm or suicide in her cell under the stress of nearly a year in prison and after only about a year after being released from an military prison. Amazingly, although the government was imposing a fine of a thousand dollars for each day of her incarceration for refusal, within a few days of her release the fines a crowd source fundraiser paid off the remaining $267,000 in fees she was facing upon release. Jeremy Hammond, meanwhile, is being transferred back to Federal prison where he will resume the last few months of his incarceration. His time was put on hold during his resistance of the grand jury. More on his Jeremy’s case and how to write him a letter of support can be found at FreeJeremy.net and more about Chelsea is up at ReleaseChelsea.com. Prisoner Corona Virus Hotline Starting Monday, IWOC and Fight Toxic Prisons chapters will be opening a hotline that prisoners in the so-called US can call into to report outbreaks, denial of adequate medical care and other circumstances related to Corona Virus. To allow for the calls to be free for prisoners, fundraising is happening now. You can learn more at bit.ly/covid19prison Update on Eric King Anarchist and antifascist prisoner Eric King is fighting a possible 20 year charge added to his remaining time. In recent disclosures he talks about his targeting by prison staff at FCI Englewood, who threatened him and his family during visiting time, including consciously sitting his partner and their two kids near to the sex offenders during visitation, rather than in the separate family section. In his statement to the court, Eric says that when he attempted to use the prisons own complaint mechanisms he was further targeted for assault and harassment by staff, including continued harassment about his family, threats that fall under the protections afforded by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003, interferences with his ability to communicate with his family and his lawyers, removal of his personal and legal items and more. You can read the whole thing up at SupportEricKing.org, where you can also find the fundraiser for his legal defense to fight this 20 year hit he might face. The fundraiser is also up at fundrazr.com/e1cKo1. You can also find our interview from last year with Eric at our website. Month In Solidarity with Bomani Shakur Finally, for the month of April, 2020, the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement and others will be trying to focus attention on the Lucasville Uprising death row case of Bomani Shakur, aka Keith Lamar. He’s been held for almost 18 years for charges related to the uprising and has been denied the ability to effectively challenge his death sentence even though the state recognizes that it withheld potentially exculpatory evidence in his initial conviction. You can learn more about his case and how to get involved in the month of action for Bomani at revolutionaryabolition.org , more about his case at KeithLamar.org and our past interview with Bomani at our website. . ... . .. playlist
20 Years of South Chicago ABC Zine Distro with Tony & Mike This week on The Final Straw, we'll hear a conversation from a few month back with Anthony Rayson and Mike Plosky, who have run the South Chicago Anarchist Black Cross Zine Distro since 1998. They send zines to prisoners, publish the writings and art of politicized prisoners as a project of public education, and help advocate and support prisoners organizing for their own education and liberation. You can find a full catalogue of zines at DePaul University library's zine special collection. Donations can be made to their GoFundMe, and you can request catalogues and titles or just contact them at: South Chicago ABC Zine Distro PO Box 721 Homewood, IL 60430 We'll also hear Sean Swain, who in many ways was brought to anarchism and had his books, cartoons and zines published by South Chicago ABC Zine Distro chat with Tony and Mike. More of Sean's work, as always, at https://seanswain.org. We're also joined in the conversation by Casey Goonan, an editor of True Leap Press which also does similar work to SC ABC Zine Distro. More of True Leap's work, including their catalogue at https://trueleappress.com. If you're listening to the podcast and want a more concise edition of an hour, check out our archive.org post linked in the show notes. Some of the prisoners and activists mentioned in the interview include: Sean Swain Coyote Acabo Talib Rashid Leigh Savage Anastasia Smith Kevin Rashid Johnson Todd Hyung Rae Tarselli Russell Maroon Shoatz Tony Hunnicutt . ... . .. Playlist Pending
This week William got to sit down with Sarah Lyons, who is an author, activist, and a practicing witch about her new book Revolutionary Witchcraft: A Guide to Magical Activism which came out in 2019 from Running Press. This was a great interview to have for TFS, because this is a topic we haven’t yet presented on this show and we cover a wide range of topics; our guest’s personal history with witchcraft, what is meant by magic, witchcraft, and animism, how anti-racists and anti-imperialists could approach having a magical practice that doesn’t fall into appropriation, and many many more topics! We also discuss her new book at length, what led her to write this book, and what she hopes readers might get from it. . … . .. You can go to sarahlyons.org to see more information by and about our guest, plus upcoming projects. You can also follow her on Instagram @citymystic and on Twitter @_sarah_lyons_. You can read further articles by our guest at her website or at her Medium page! Support the Maroon Movement and the Baltimore Free Store! @MaroonMovement and a coalition of anticapitalist organizers are looking for individuals and organizations that want to assist with a regular Baltimore Free Store that will offer no cost food, gently used clothing, toiletries, books, housing items, & services such as sewing, haircuts, classes, etc. The are actively fundraising to purchase food, toiletries, rental space, transportation, serving items, storage and other fees needed to launch and make Baltimore Free Store happen. They would appreciate the solidarity. Any amount - $1, $5, $10 etc. - helps to alleviate the real life effects of anti working class budget cuts and poverty that impacts our community! Together the village will win. All Power To The People! PayPal: https://paypal.me/simarbg (or fcrcollective@gmail.com) Cashapp: https://cash.app/$Simaleerbg Venmo: @Simaleerbg simalee.bandcamp.com To donate items, volunteer, or for more info email thebaltimorefreestore@gmail.com To hear our interview with Sima Lee, one of the founders of the Maroon Movement, you can follow this link! . … . .. Music for this episode by: Feminazgul – The Rot in the Field is Holy off of their as yet unreleased album No Dawn for Men, scheduled for release in June 2020. More from Feminazgul, and related projects, at their bandcamp! TIMESTAMPS (for podcast version): 00:00:17 Introduction to the show’s main content, Sarah Lyons on Magic, activism, and her new book Revolutionary Witchcraft 00:01:11 Announcement to support the Maroon Movement's Baltimore Free Store! 00:02:31 Words from anarchist prisoner Sean Swain, Sean speaks about his experiences with the Parole Board 00:10:05 “speak about your book and what led you to write it?” 00:15:38 “what would you say to skeptical listeners to hold their attention?” 00:19:59 “describe what you mean by magic and witchcraft” 00:23:21 “could you go into animism a little more?” 00:31:22 “we are taught that the witch trials = six crazy days in Salem that one time. Could you go into the actual scope and some of the context?” 00:40:06 – 00:45:31 Musical Break with Feminazgul’s The Rot in the Field is Holy off of their as yet unreleased album “No Dawn for Men” 00:45:31 “talk about the tension between inspiration and appropriation in a magical practice?” 00:58:40 “how is capitalism trying to incorporate witchcraft and how can people push back against it?” 01:03:50 “is there a spell or practice that you would suggest to listeners, especially those who are interested in incorporating magic into their activism?” 01:07:34 “how can people learn more about you and get in touch?” 01:09:23 closing sentiments.
Social justice and Struggle in Lebanon and Syria: Joey Ayoub and Leila Al-Shami Photo taken from Al Jumhuriya This week on The Final Straw we’re featuring a chat with Joey Ayoub and Leila Al-Shami. In this conversation, Joey tells us of some of the history of Lebanon, since the civil war that ended in 1990 and up to the current demonstrations against the clientelist warlords in power in that country. Intertwined with this, Leila speaks about the sparking of the resistance to Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, the tumult of the civil war, and the state of anti-authoritarian and social justice organizing and media work in that country. Then the two talk about the experience of countering disinformation, conspiracy thinking and poor solidarity in the so-called Left in the West and ways to combat ignorance. This is another long conversation, covering a lot of the last 30 years in these two neighboring nations. The guests proposed speaking about the interrelations across that border because of the similarities, differences, and shared experiences between the two places. Lebanon has Syrian refugees, it was occupied by Syria until 2005. Both spaces share Palestinian refugees, experienced war with Israel, are politically influenced from Hezbollah, mostly speak Arabic and even the flames of the recent wildfires that ignited anti-regime sentiment in Lebanon last fall crossed the border between Lebanon and Syria. We hope to have future chats that play with borders in this way to explore ways we can bridge these borders in our understanding in hopes of increased solidarity. Joey Ayoub is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor and researcher. He publishes frequently on https://joeyayoub.com/ as well as on the blog https://hummusforthought.com/ and the related podcast by the same title. Leila Al-Shami is a British-Syrian activist and co-author of ‘Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War', a founder of the international solidarity site, TahrirICN and writes on http://leilashami.wordpress.com/ . Below are links to some resources that Joey and Leila suggest interested listeners check out to for perspectives by folks on the ground in the region: Lebanon links: An updated list of twitter accounts reporting well on Lebanon: https://twitter.com/joeyayoub/lists/lebanon-2019 a great critique from crimethInc: https://crimethinc.com/2019/11/13/lebanon-a-revolution-against-sectarianism-chronicling-the-first-month-of-the-uprising The Lebanese Politics Podcast https://soundcloud.com/lebpoliticspodcast The Public Source https://thepublicsource.org/ Megaphone News https://megaphone.news/ Beirut Today https://beirut-today.com/ Syria Links: Syrian org working on the ground in Idlib that mentioned: https://molhamteam.com/en/campaigns/177 and another in Idlib: https://violetsyria.org/en/ The women-led campaign for prisoners: https://syrianfamilies.org/en/ The Enab Baladi book free PDF: https://hummusforthought.com/2019/05/06/enab-baladi-citizen-chronicles-of-the-syrian-uprising-free-pdf/ Enab Baladi news: https://english.enabbaladi.net/ Al Jumhuriya: https://www.aljumhuriya.net/en Timestamps: Sean Swain [00:02:32 - 00:09:34] Intro to Lebanon & Syria [00:09:34 - 00:21:35] Lebanese Protests of 2015 & 2019 [00:21:35 - 00:31:40] Syrian Revolution to Civil War [00:31:40 - 00:41:34] Current Social Justice Struggle in Syria [00:41:46 - 00:45:56] Daesh / ISIS and Syrian Civil War [00:45:56 - 00:49:56] Solidarity with Syrians in Lebanese Protests [00:49:56 - 01:05:38] Leila on Tahrir-ICN [01:05:50 - 01:09:18] Educating Ourselves on Syria and Lebanon [01:09:18 - 01:23:07] White Helmets and other Conspiracy Theories [01:23:07 - 01:32:59] Syrian Diaspora and Western Left [01:32:59 - 01:37:19] Rojava and the Syrian Revolution [01:37:19 - 01:41:56] Better Practice in Solidarity with people in Syria and Lebanon [01:41:56 - 01:53:38] Announcements Michael Kimble Benefit Last week we announced a fundraiser for Michael Kimble. Because of issues with the platforms, the fundraiser for Michael Kimble's legal benefit to help raise money for his fight to get him released from prison has been moved. Now you can find it at ActionNetwork.org/Fundraising/Support-Michael-Kimble . Because the fundraiser had to be moved a couple of times, some of the initial push to get word out and initial donations may be irreplaceable. So, folks are asking for an extra push to help rasie this money to get our comrade out and organizing on the outside after 33 years behind bars. BADNews February 2020 (#31) This month, the A-Radio Network released it's monthly, international English-language podcast featuring voices from anarchist and anti-authoritarian radio shows, pirate stations and podcasts from around the world. The episode is up at A-Radio-Network.org by clicking the B(A)DNews. If you're interested in joining the network or learning more, info's up on that site. . ... . .. playlist pending
This week we got the chance to sit down and catch up with Ben Turk, who is an anarchist and prison abolitionist living in Milwaukee WI, about some recent efforts that he has been involved in and some ways that listeners can plug in and do solidarity work from afar. We speak about the lockdowns that have been occuring in Columbia CI, continued efforts to raise awareness about solitary confinement and bringing mental healthcare services to people undergoing incarceration, efforts to change legislation regarding old law prisoners, efforts to free Chrystul Kizer, and how the face of anarchist abolitionist organizing is shifting. If you’re interested in getting networked with Ben and the work of Forum for Understanding Prisons, to help with compiling information from the WI DOC shift logs, to help support people being tortured via solitary confinement, to donate to efforts to free Chrystul Kizer, and many more you can email him at insurgent.ben@gmail.com or follow the websites prisonforum.org, freechrystul.wordpress.com, and fireinside.noblogs.org if you’d like to read more about prison abolition. Link to the Washington Post article about the case of Chrystul Kizer Detailed notes from our guest concerning the topics we covered in the show: Resisting lockdowns at Columbia CI and elsewhere. We leaped to action against the prolonged and excruciating lock-down at Columbia Correctional Institution, which started on November 8, and wasn’t completely lifted until December 22. Midway through the lockdown Muhammad (Larry) Bracey was killed by guards through medical neglect. We posted 13 reports, letters or updates about the lockdown on our website. We also staged a New Year’s Eeve noise demo outside Columbia and two rallies at the Wisconsin DOC building. We mirrored the demands of incarcerated people, including hunger strikers, who called for Warden Susan Novak to be fired. Our efforts got us a meeting with Secretary Carr and other top DOC officials, who haven’t yet met our demands, but have fired some racist and sadistic guards, including multiple involved in Muhammad Bracey’s death. Unfortunately, conditions remain unsafe at CCI following the lockdown, two more mendied preventable deaths on the week of January 13. We are still getting responses to our open records requests, and will put out more reports shining a continuous light on the horrors that creep in the corners of this institution. We will continue to fight for our demands until they are satisfied, including the firing of Susan Novak. How you can help this campaign: Show up. We plan to be wherever Secretary Carr is and to repeat our demands there. He will be appearing at a Supporters of Incarcerated People (SIP) meeting at Grace Episcopal Church on February 12. Join us there. Shine a light. Much of this work involves research, going through released records and correspondence with incarcerated people to generate reports and expose the hardships. Contact insurgent.ben@gmail.com if you would like to help with that work. Remain vigilant. Shortly after the CCI lockdown, there was a 10 day lockdown at WaupunCorrectional. People held there say it was the worst they’dexperienced. We need to be ready to mobilize and maintain pressure to keep the DOC from dragging out more of these unlawful lockdowns and humanitarian violations. Abolishing solitary confinement and advocating for mental health treatment. Ending the torture of long term solitary confinement has been the driving goal of FFUP’s work for more than 15 years. We are continuously dismayed to see this practice and attending tortures expanding in Wisconsin, despite inspiring reform efforts happening elsewhere. In February, we will release a comprehensive report by FFUP founder Peg Swan, describing the history of solitary in Wisconsin and its many impacts, large and small. Joining testimonies from survivors, historical events and legal analysis, the report advocates for strong and decisive action toward restricting and eliminating Wisconsin’s use solitary confinement and replacing it with mental health treatment. Governor Evers and Secretary Carr have talked about reforming solitary confinement, but cautioned us that the changes will be gradual. David Crowley and other law-makers have introduced a bill calling for psychological reviews of people in solitary confinement. The trouble is, DOC doctors are already routinely altering mental health diagnoses to enable the use of restraint chairs and other forms of torture that aren’t officially sanctioned for use on people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. We expect that if the proposed law or similar restrictions come to pass, DOC staff will dodge their effect by continuing their practice of altering diagnoses to put whoever they want into solitary. Instead, Wisconsin needs the follow the success story in Colorado. When Rick Raemisch took over the DOC there, he made a dramatic commitment to replace solitary confinement with mindfulness practice and treatment. Within his first year, changes were happening, and now Colorado restricts solitary confinement to a maximum of 15 days. How you can help this campaign: Reduce the harm of isolation. Peg Swan has begun an email newsletter and penpal program to provide people held in long term solitary confinement with what they need most: human connection. If you would like to receive the newsletter or can write to someone in solitary, you may help save lives. Contact Peg at pgswan3@aol.com. Contact Governor Evers. Tell him you support the abolition of long term solitary confinement. Half measures and gradual steps are not enough when lives hang in the balance. Call (608) 266-1212, email GovPress@wisconsin.gov, file public comment here. Fighting for old law prisoners. Volunteers with FFUP have been attending recent parole board meetings to track progress toward reforms and increased releases by the new administration. There are about 3000 people held in Wisconsin prisons under the old law, most of them would be released by the standard expectations of their sentencing judges by now if not for very regressive policies of the DOC and parole commission. Peg and other FFUP contacts maintain regular correspondence with many old law prisoners. Releasing these people will not only reunite them with their families, it will have a significant impact on the overcrowding that makes everyone’s life harder in prison- both captives and staff. Last spring Governor Evers appointed John Tate II to be the Chair of the Parole Commission, promising increased releases and long overdue justice for people sentenced before Dec 31, 1999. Unfortunately, from what we’ve observed in meetings transition to that agenda has been very difficult. On January 8, we witnessed an alarming level of obstruction, disrespect and apparent sabotage of reform efforts by parole commissioners. This behavior, combined with obstructive practices by DOC staff in classification, programming and community corrections are drastically curtailing the possibility for release of people incarcerated under the old law. We have decided that a stronger public voice in support of reform and releases is necessary, so we’re encouraging people to attend parole commission meetings and will follow the next meeting (Feb 5) with a rally. We also released Ben's notes from January publicly and sent them to hundreds of people incarcerated under the old law. Last summer we delivered a rules change petition to Governor Evers and Chairman Tate. At the monthly meetings we will be delivering the petitions again, showing increasing public support for the release of old law prisoners. How you can help this campaign: Support Tate's confirmation. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has delayed Tate's confirmation for seven months. Contact him to demand that he allow a confirmation vote for Chairman Tate. (608) 266-5660 or Sen.Fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov Voice support. Sign the petition calling for parole reform and expanded releases. Bear witness. Attend or invite people to the February 5 meeting at 9:30 and / or the rally at noon. Both at the DOC building 3099 E Washington. Defending sex trafficking survivor Chrystul Kizer. On June 20, 2018 a 17 year old Black girl named Chrystul Kizer from Milwaukee defended herself against a 34 year old child pornographer and sex trafficker named Randal Volar, ending his life. Volar had been investigated by Kenosha police since at least February when he was arrested, but released despite possession of child pornography and other clear evidence. Kenosha DA Michael Graveley failed to charge Volar, but is now pursuing first degree murder charges against Chrystul. FFUP volunteers are working closely with Chrystul and her family to raise awareness of her case and to demand that charges be dropped. We’ve helped pack the court for each of her preliminary hearings and taken control of the narrative around her case. We are also helping organize a rally at 5:30 pm on February 5 at UW Parkside, where Graveley teaches Criminal Law. On Thursday February 6, 8:45 am Chrystul has another hearing at Kenosha County Courthouse. She is requesting a bond reduction to one we can fundraise enough for, so she can come home while awaiting trial. How you can help this campaign: 1. Follow #FreeChrystul on social media and share the campaigns stories and updates. 2. Donate to Chrystul’s family, sign the petition, write to Chrystul and ask organizations you’re involved in to contact DA Graveley. -- Phone: (614) 704-4699 Forum For Understanding Prisons- prisonforum.org Further interviews with Ben on The Final Straw: August 19th Solidarity with Prisoners: Ben Turk of IWOC (originally aired 06/25/2017) The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons (or FTP) and Ben Turk on the recent prisoner strikes (originally aired 05/17/2016) Ben Turk on the silencing of Sean Swain, anarchist prisoner in Ohio (originally aired 04/21/2013) Ben Turk on Insurgent Theatre + Prison Abolition (October 27, 2013) (originally aired 11/04/2013) Waupun CI prisoners on Hunger Strikes (originally aired 07/19/2016) Announcements Appalachian Climate Action Camp From a call to participate in an Appalachian Climate Action Camp: People all over the world are mobilizing to combat the climate crisis. It’s time to build skills and take action! Join us for 10 days of learning, training, and taking direct action to disrupt the systems that are destroying our climate. We will come together to build on Appalachia’s rich history of direct action against extractive industries, which has included tree sits, blockades, and walk-ons to resist mountaintop removal, fracking, and fossil fuel pipelines. After fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline for over two years, we aim to grow the resistance to fossil fuel exploitation and take power out of the hands of corporations and politicians that are threatening our collective future. We are inviting community members, activists, students, and families to learn the skills needed to execute a variety of actions that disrupt the power structures wrecking the environment we depend upon and contributing to climate change. We will be hosting people in the southwestern Virginia/ southern West Virginia along the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, providing food and trainings to participants for 10 days. We will have more information in the coming weeks. If you are interested in coming to camp and joining the resistance please email appclimateactioncamp@protonmail.com. Location and more event details to follow upon registration! Floods in Eastern Kentucky and South West Virginia There’s a request for funds for relief from recent floods in Appalachia in coal-country. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, in partnership with local activists who helped support Black Jewel Miners Blockade are requesting funds and goods to Harlan County and surrounding areas. You can learn more on instagram at @weloveminersblockades, you can donate on venmo at mutualaidky, cashapp at $ekyswvafloods, paypal via floodreliefkyswva@gmail.com and you can email them there as well. Anti-ICE protestors harassed in Florida A group of activists known as the GEO9 who were arrested while protesting on December 3rd, 2019, outside the Boca Raton office of GEO Group, which contracts immigration prison services for ICE, have experienced ramped up harassment. They received misdemeanor charges for trespassing and the use of a megaphone and were released on their own recognizance after their initial arrests. But now apparently are facing felonies and one activist of the 9, Alexis Butler, was even rearrested under fishy circumstances at her house by Broward County Sheriff on February 7th. More info is available in the write-up at itsgoingdown.org linked in the show notes and a fundraiser for the activists legal defense via EverRibbon.com can be found in our notes as well. Chuck Africa is Free We are happy to announce that Chuck Sims Africa, the remaining member of the MOVE 9 left behind bars was released from prison after 42 years on February 7th, 2019. There is a fundraiser for his post-release situation up at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-chuck-africa-rebuild to help Chuck get rolling on the outside. Free Them All! Michael Kimble Legal Defense His support crew needs funds to challenge his initial conviction. Here’s the text from that site: Michael Kimble is a passionate freedom fighter who has been held captive by the Alabama Department of Corrections for nearly 33 years. After defending himself during a homophobic attack by a known white supremacist in 1987, Michael was arrested, charged with murder, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. His trial was typical of what could be expected from a racist criminal justice system in Jefferson County, Alabama. Since his conviction, Michael has been fervently involved in efforts to free himself and others, assisting in legal defense for fellow inmates, organizing reading groups and Black History events, speaking up for queer folks behind bars, and helping to organize and agitate alongside the Free Alabama Movement for the historic national prison strike of September 2016. The Alabama prison system has recently come under fire from the federal government for its abhorrent conditions, and Holman Prison, where Michael is incarcerated, is being decommissioned and largely shut down. In this context, many Alabama prisoners have been successfully challenging the length of their original sentences. A group of Michael’s supporters on the outside have recently joined forces to hire a new legal team to help him push for a sentence reduction. Given the amount of time already served, we are hoping this could result in his release. All the money raised will go directly towards filing motions for sentence reduction, and anything left over will be used to support Michael’s day to day life inside with things like stamps, books, and commissary funds. Fingers crossed, we’ll also be raising money to support Michael once he joins on the outside. For more information, check out this awesome interview with Michael from a few years back, as well as his blog. Until Every Cage is Empty, –Michael Kimble Support Crew The fundraiser is up at gofundme.com/f/free-michael-kimble. To hear our past interviews with Michael Kimble, check out our website. Channel Zero Network news Mid week, we’ll be releasing an episode of Coffee With Comrades, where Pearson talks to Amy & Liz from Rebel Steps and Mitch from Red Strings & Maroons, all fellow members of CZN. The conversation engages the participants podcasts, CZN and radical media. This conversation happened in the context of CZN’s continued fundraiser, which we’ll have linked in our show notes. Also, if you do the reddit thing, check out the brand new Channel Zero Network subreddit! . … . .. Intro music by: Mad Skillz – Tip of the Tongue (instrumental)
Josh Harper of SHAC7 and Voices from Gidimt'en Access Point This week, we feature two portions of the show. Josh Harper on 'Animal People' film [00:06:27] First up, we’ll hear Josh Harper, a co-defendant from the SHAC7 case and former political prisoner talking the struggle to shut down the company, Huntington Life Sciences, a contract animal testing laboratory, in the early 2000’s in the so-called US. Josh talks about the case, his post-release experience, archiving the history of earth and animal liberation with The Talon Conspiracy (currently on hiatus) and some views of moving forward. Josh and the other co-defendants are the focus of a recent documentary film called ‘The Animal People’, which is available on all of the paid streaming sources, which speaks with participants in the case and their prosecutors, plus journalists like Will Potter who documented the Green Scare. Gut wrenching is a great descriptor for the film. Check out our early interview with Will Potter on 'Green Is The New Red' and consider listening to the recent episode of the IGD podcast with Josh Harper and Andy Stepanian for a larger assessment of the Animal Liberation movement and more. Voices from the Gidimt'en Access Point [0:31:51] Then, you’ll hear the voices of three warriors who were on the barricade on the road to Unist’ot’en Camp at the Gidimt’en Access Point. Eve Saint (Wet’suwet’en land defender), Anne Spice (Tlinket land defender) and Shilo Hill (from Onandaga nation, Haudenosaunee, Six Nations) were there to defend unceded Wet’suwet’en land from the Canadian state’s violent imposition of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. They talk about what brought them to the Gidimt'en Access near so-called Houston, BC, the buildup to the impending raid by RCMP troops, indigenous sovereignty, land and water defense, the long road to decolonization and the importance of outside support and solidarity from indigenous and First Nations peoples and their allies and accomplices. On Thursday morning, the day after this recording, at about 5am Pacific, the RCMP began their raids and arrests in an attempt to impose the injunction and clear the land and water defenders from the Wet’suwet’en lands. Media have been detained and released and at the time of this publication, 6 land defenders have been arrested and refuse to sign and conditions imposed by the Canadian state and so are still in state detention. Members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation are asking for people to take solidarity action in support of their autonomy. Solidarity actions have looked a lot of different ways in the last few months across Turtle Island, so-called USA and Canada. You can keep up with news at the Unis'tot'en Camp website (Unistoten.Camp) or on fedbook, YouTube and twitter, Wetsuweten Access Point at Gidimt'en fedbook and instagram or at the sites Yintahaccess.com and Likhtsamisyu.com, all of which will be present in our show notes. You can also keep up on solidarity actions posted on the Montreal Counter-Info site (MTLCounterInfo.org), North Shore Counter-Info site (North-Shore.Info) and ItsGoingDown.org To hear a few audios we’ve released, including with Delee Nikal and Mel Bazil of the Wet'suwet'en community, Chief Smogelgem and two other members of the Likhts’amisyu clan you can visit our site. Sean Swain segment [01:07:11] . ... . .. playlist: https://spinitron.com/m/playlist/view/10306697
Voices from the Gitdimt'en Access Point This is a podcast special featuring the voices of three warriors who were on the barricade on the road to Unist’ot’en Camp at the Gitdimt'en Access Point. Eve Saint (Wet’suwet’en land defender), Anne Spice (Tlinket land defender) & Shilo Hill (from Onandaga nation, Haudenosaunee, Six Nations) were there to defend unceded Wet’suwet’en land from the Canadian state’s violent imposition of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. They talk about what brought them to the Gidimt'en Access near so-called Houston, BC, the buildup to the impending raid by RCMP troops, indigenous sovereignty, land and water defense, the long road to decolonization and the importance of outside support and solidarity from indigenous and First Nations peoples and their allies and accomplices. This morning (Feb 6, 2020) at about 5am Pacific, the RCMP began their raids and arrests in an attempt to impose the injunction and clear the land and water defenders from the Wet’suwet’en lands. Media have been detained and released and at the time of this publication, 6 land defenders have been arrested and refuse to sign and conditions imposed by the Canadian state and so are still in state detention. Members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation are asking for people to take solidarity action in support of their autonomy. Solidarity actions have looked a lot of different ways in the last few months across Turtle Island, so-called USA & Canada. Take a moment and listen to your heart, find your friends and do what you think needs to be done to get the ball rolling. You can keep up with news at the Unis'tot'en Camp website (Unistoten.Camp) or on fedbook, YouTube and twitter, Wet'suwet'en Access Point at Gitdimten fedbook and Instagram or at the sites Yintahaccess.com and Likhtsamisyu.com, all of which will be present in our show notes. You can also keep up on solidarity actions posted on the Montreal Counter-Info site (MTLCounterInfo.org), North Shore Counter-Info site (North-Shore.Info) and ItsGoingDown.org To hear a few audios we’ve released, including with Delee Nikal and Chief Smogelgem of the Likhts’amisyu clan in the last year or so, or other words on land defense in so-called Canada, visit our website, TheFinalStrawRadio.noblogs.org.
This week on The Final Straw, an anarchist living in Mexico talks about the reign of the MORENA party of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (aka AMLO), the new face of capitalism it presents, it’s relation to social movements and indigenous sovereignty and the anarchist and indigenous resistance to the regime. We cover mega-projects being pushed through around the country, the repression of activists and more in this whopper of an episode. Here’s a great English-language blog based mostly out of Oaxaca that covers struggle in Mexico and across the northern border: https://elenemigocomun.net/ To learn more about the Anarchist Days that our guest spoke on, you can email janarquistas2020@protonmail.com! Channel Zero Fundraiser The gofundme can be found at https://gofundme.com/Channel-zero-network-2020-fundraiser/ .To check out the video to match the audio you just heard so you can enjoy and spread it around, check out our show notes or at https://sub.media ! Final Straw Notes from the guest: AMLO & Mexican social movements Partido Revolucionaro Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party) 71 years in power 1929-2000 PRI lost in 2000 to Vicente Fox (PAN) 2006 Felipe Calderon PAN 2012 Enrique Peña Nieto 2018 AMLO (MORENA) AMLO's History (Career Politician) 1977 Director of National Indigenous Institute of Tabasco Late 1980’s joined the PRD Party AMLO is elected mayor of Mexico City in 2000 with the PRD Party 2006 ran for president with the PRD Party 2012 ran for president with the PRD Party, afterwards leaving the PRD to form MORENA in 2014 2018 won the presidency with 53% of the vote AMLO’s politics, modernization & neoliberal efforts. Fourth transformation? Discourse of "Anti-corruption, address poverty, security, businessmen as mafia of power" Capitalism with a new face “Post-neoliberalism?” Populism- Appeals to national sovereignty, nationalism, domestic self-sufficiency "Popular consultations" to justify and impose megaprojects “mandar obedeciendo” Abrazos no balazos (hugs not bullets) “we don’t repress anyone” "Pacifist Government" Modernization, development, overcoming of marginalization, bringing Indigenous communities into the national economy Problematic support of AMLO from leftists in the global north If you want to understand the politics of Mexico, listen to the voices of Indigenous peoples and communities, women in struggle, campesinos Indigenous populations and megaprojects Airport Lake Texcoco New International Airport of Mexico City proposed in 2001 by Vicente Fox, but cancelled shortly after due to organized resistance AMLO cancelled project after carrying out a "popular consultation" Cancel one mega-project to impose three more Expansion of Santa Lucia and Toluca airports Naucalpan- Toluca highway Interurban train - Tren Maya (Mayan Train) 950-mile train connecting principal tourist destinations in the states of Chiapas, Campeche, Tabasco, Yucatan and Quintana Roo 17 stations including Playa del carmen, Tulum, Palenque, Merida, Cancun Infrastructure projects to be built around train stations For tourists and cargo - “Corredor Transistmico” Interoceanic corridor Industrial corridor connecting the ports of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, on the pacific coast, and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, in the gulf of Mexico. The project is meant to compete with the Panama Canal, as a route of land transportation connecting the Pacific with the gulf of Mexico. United States has been trying to get this project going since the 19th century Train routes and a super highway, modernization of ports, and various older train routes - Proyeto integral de morelos (PIM) (Integral Project of Morelos) Project that began in 2012 and has faced stiff resistance from the Frente de pueblos en defensa de tierra y agua Morelos-puebla-tlaxcala (People’s Front in Defense of Land and Water Morelos-Puebla-Tlaxcala) The PIM roject includes: Thermoelectric plant in Huexca, Morelos A natural gas pipeline to supply gas to the plant which passes through 60 Indigenous and campesino communities in Tlaxcala, Puebla and Morelos An aqueduct that seeks to move 50 million liters of water daily to the thermoelectric plant from the Rio Cuautla Italian and Spanish transnationals Zapatismo: Armed Indigenous rebellion in Chiapas in 1994. After failed talks with the government, they took the path of autonomy 2003-formation of five caracoles (zones of autonomous self-government) The caracoles are regional administrative units where autonomous authorities come together and from which clinics, cooperatives, schools, transportation and other services are administered. The Zapatista communities are managed by the Juntos de buen gobierno (Good Government Councils), which are made up of representatives of the autonomous councils of the rebel municipalities. Expansion of autonomous territory: In august of 2019 the Zapatistas announced 7 new New Centers of Autonomous Zapatista Rebellion and Resistance (CRAREZ) and 4 new rebel Zapatista autonomous municipalities. Added to the 5 original Caracoles for a total of 16. In addition to the 27 original autonomous municipalities, giving us a total of 43 (CRAREZ). Made up of different assemblies, autonomous municipalities, etc. Zapatista communities made up of Insignous tzotziles, tzeltales, mames, choles, tojolabales y zoques Zapatista activities in December of 2019: Celebration of Life: A December of Resistance and Rebellion Film Festival 7-14 of December 2019 Dance Festival December 15-20 Forum in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth December 21-22 Second Gathering of Women who Struggle December 26-29 3,259 women 95 little girls 26 men From 49 countries Celebration of the 26 Anniversary of the Beginning of the War Against Oblivion December 31 and January 1 EZLN declaration to continue struggle. Autonomous struggles in Indigenous and campesino communities. Processes of self-organization Community assemblies Community and free media Self-defense and community police forces State repression of social movements and migrants Repression and suppression through consultations, social programs 2019: 31 defenders killed 11 communicators Militarization (national guard) (Discipline, hierarchy) The Secretariat of Security and Citizen protection, Alfonso Durazo Montaño, announced at the beginning of 2020 the deployment of 21,170 new elements of national guard in 50 new regions to reach a total of 200 regions. More and more Police in streets of Mexico city National Guard deployed to Guatemala border to suppress immigrants trying to reach the U.S. Samir Flores, Indigenous community radio worker and organizer from Amilcingo, Morelos, killed February 20, 2019 CODEDI (Comité de Defensa de los Pueblos Indígenas) Took over an abandoned coffee plantation in 2013 Centro de capacitación, training center CODEDI assasinations: On February 12, 2018- Ignacio Ventura, Luis Angel Martínez and Alejandro Diaz Cruz. On July 17, 2018- Abraham Hernandez Gonzales On October 25, 2018- Noel Castillo Aguilar COPIG-EZ assasinations: Concejo Indígena y Popular de Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata CIPOG-EZ (Indigenous and popular council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata) May 2019- José Lucio Bartolo Faustino, Modesto Verales Sebastián, Bartolo Hilario Morales, and Isaías Xanteco Ahuejote of the Nahua people organized as the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero – Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG – EZ). Other assasinations Samir Flores Soberanes of the Nahua people of Amilcingo, Morelos. Julián Cortés Flores, of the Mephaa people of the Casa de Justicia in San Luis Acatlán, Guerrero. Ignacio Pérez Girón, of the Tzotzil people of the municipality of Aldama, Chiapas. Juan Monroy and José Luis Rosales, of the Nahua people Ayotitlán, Jalisco. Feliciano Corona Cirino, of the Nahua people of Santa María Ostula, Michoacán. Josué Bernardo Marcial Campo, also known as TíoBad, of the Populuca people of Veracruz. Political prisoners Miguel López Vega Fredy García Ramírez (detained November 6, 2019) Fidencio Aldama Pérez (detained October 27, 2016) Loma de Bacuum Prison organizing in Chiapas- Hunger strike of over 130 days in 2019 State of the anarchist movement in Mexico - Primary organizational efforts - Anarcha-feminism, women's movement - Relation with Indigenous and campesino struggles Building international networks of solidarity, both anarchist and otherwise, with Mexico Anarchist Days- July 13-19, 2020 in DF Email: janarquistas2020@protonmail.com Las jornadas en defensa del territorio y la madre tierra "Samir Somos Todas y Todos" February 20-22, 2020 . … . .. Music for this episode by: U.N.E. - Explosion Humana
This week, we have two portions to the show. First, we catch up with Mitch from Red Strings and Maroons podcast about some of what they saw at the A2 rally in Richmond on January 20th, about antifascist intervention and the effectiveness of intervening to call out white nationalists in gun advocacy spaces. More of their work available at RedStringsAndMaroons.com. If you are interested in hearing from Mitch, and also in hearing this week's Sean Swain segment, head on over to our podcast at https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org! Then, we spend the remainder of the show speaking with Alexander Reid Ross. Alexander is a PhD candidate in Portland State University’s Earth, Environment, Society Program, a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, and the author of “Against The Fascist Creep”, which you can get from AK Press or our affiliate Firestorm Books! For the remainder of the episode we speak about conspiracy theories, how they wind their way into some leftist approaches to critique, bleed-over between left and right anti-establishment critiques and media that hold a pro-Kremlin position, the ideas of Alexander Dugin, ways of combating disinformation and some of it’s sources. More of his writings and interviews can be found at AlexanderReidRoss.net and this article that we reference a bit is called “Fooling The Nation: Extremism and the Pro-Russia Disinformation Ecosystem”. . ... . .. playlist pending
This week we have two segments, an interview with an Anarcha-Feminist organizer in San Salvador, El Salvador on the situation there, followed by Mitch of Red Strings And Maroons podcast on the upcoming Militia demonstration on MLK Jr. Day, January 20th, 2020 in Richmond, VA. Elisa on GANA Govt in El Salvador [starts at 00:04:54] First, you’ll hear my conversation with Elisa, an anarchafeminist in San Salvador, El Salvador, talking about the new neo-liberal government of Nayib Bukele’s GANA party, repression, immigration, relation to the US and anarchist organizing there. More on her work at ConcienciaAnarquista.NoBlogs.Org and a Spanish version of this audio and transcription are available at our website. English Transcription English PDF (Unimposed) English Zine (imposed for printing) A2 Gun Demo in Richmond [starts at 00:27:19] Then, I spoke with Mitch, host of Red Strings And Maroons podcast on the Channel Zero Network about the upcoming far right militia and gun rights rally on Monday, January 20th 2020 in Richmond, Virginia. More on Mitch’s work at RedStringsAndMaroons.com and organizing info by AntifaSevenHills from Richmond can be followed on twitter at @ash_antifa, their response to the Vice article can be found here (https://antifa7hills.blackblogs.org/2020/01/18/in-response-to-vice-news-why-this-antifa-group-is-siding-with-thousands-of-pro-gun-conservatives-in-virginia/) and above that post is a local rogues gallery of known fash in RVA to be aware of. Announcements [Starts at 00:01:20] Jason Renard Walker First up, some prison rebel Jason Renard Walker. Jason had his contacts book stolen by prison staff and has been moved. He’s asking folks who have been in contact with him (or any other comrade) to reach back out to him with a letter as he’s getting situated in his new spot. You can read Jason’s writings up at SFBayView.com by searching his name. You can write him at: Jason Renard Walker #1532092 McConnell Unit 3001 S. Emily Dr. Beeville, TX 78102 Delbert Africa Just got the news that MOVE 9 prisoner Delbert Africa has been released! Now it’s time to get the remaining co-defendant, Chuck Africa and their supporter Mumia Abu-Jamal out as well. #FreeThemAll! Marius Mason Marius Mason, an anarchist, labor organizer and trans prisoner who was sentenced to 22 years for ELF activities that led to no harm of humans or other animals has an upcoming birthday on January 26th. You can learn about how to write him or see his book wish list up at SupportMariusMason.org Phone Zap for Hunger Striking Prisoners at Central Prison, NC From Atlanta IWOC: Description: Sixteen folks incarcerated at Central Prison in Raleigh, NC are going on a hunger strike starting Monday January 20, 2020 as an act of comradery to the 200 prisoners being tortured in Unit One (a mental health unit). They need your help to make the calls on Monday, January 20th. And if you have the time thereafter, call any other day you can until their demands are met and those sixteen hunger strikers can eat again. Background: In Unit One at Central Prison, guards are daily using chemical mace against both (level 2) mental health prisoners who receive psychiatric help and (level 3) mental health prisoners who take psychotropic medications. Guards are trigger happy and deploy an excessive amount into the prisoner’s small cell at the slightest disagreement. Pursuant to Chapter F Section 1504 Procedure (d): “An officer is prohibited from using force solely as a result of verbal provocation. An officer shall not use force against an offender who has abandoned his/her resistance or who is effectively restrained. The use of force as punishment is strictly prohibited.” Furthermore, these prisoners attend a group therapy session every Monday but while these prisoners are in group, Unit One’s guards destroy the cells of these prisoners by searching their cells and throwing their personal belonging all around the cell. This is done to deter the prisoners from attending group, discouraging them from receiving treatment. Medical staff continue to show deliberate indifference to the needs of the prisoners housed on Unit One. Several prisoners are not receiving their self-meds (medications given out monthly that prisoners keep in their cells, these meds are but are not limited to blood pressure meds and high cholesterol meds, etc.). To receive these meds, the prisoner submits a medication refill request. The medical staff has neglected to submit the requests therefore leaving several prisoners without their meds. It takes months to be even seen by medical staff when a sick call is submitted. Prisoners are not receiving adequate healthcare. Prisoners are compelled to endure illnesses for months before being seen by medical staff. This medical neglect and excessive use of force towards the most vulnerable population in Central Prison is cruel and unusual torture and a human rights violation. These sixteen brave and selfless activists imprisoned in Central Prison are taking a stand for those in Unit One who are mentally incapable of making these demands, by way of a hunger strike. This is a humanitarian display of unity for those inside who face injustice by the very same who face injustices enslaved right there with them. This solidarity is inspiring. Please help them to expose these human rights violations and meet their basic, humanitarian demands by joining the phone zap and calling in to amplify their voices! Suggested script and demands: I am aware that Central Prison’s guards and medical staff are directly torturing the prisoners and there are 16 hunger strikers exposing these human rights violations that will not eat until the following issues are addressed: The excessive use of chemical mace on prisoners who have not been a threat to staff or others. Stop the targeted searches of mental health prisoners who attend weekly group on Unit One. We know that this is an attempt to discourage from attending group to receive treatment. Address the deliberate indifference shown by medical staff not refilling prisoners’ self-meds and neglecting to answer sick calls within a timely manner Who to call: (919) 733-0800 Central Prison, Request to speak with Deputy Warden Steven Waddel, Unit One Manager Tenbrook, and/or medical personnel. (919) 838-4000 DPS Office; Request to speak with Commissioner Todd Ishee and/or Dr. Gary Junker Hot tips: You don’t have to give your name or any other information if you don’t want to. Entering *67 before any number may block your caller ID. Don’t worry about anyone giving you the runaround, not getting through or having to leave a message. Just pursue it to the point that you can. We are calling to apply pressure and every call counts. Please report back on calls made in the comment section below or email atlantaiwoc@protonmail.com B(A)DNews Jan 2020 TFSR is also excited to be a member of the A-Radio Network of anarchist and anti-authoritarian radios. Check out our website or social media streams for the latest episode of our monthly, English-language news roundup from anarchists around the world, BADNews. This month with anti-repression updates about the Park Bench 3 case from Hamburg, steampunk anti-eviction activism from Berlin, support for Chilean uprising prisoners, updates from the not-so-united United Kingdom and anti-repression, prisoner solidarity, labor organizing and squat struggles from Greece’s two largest cities. https://www.a-radio-network.org/bad-news-angry-voices-from-around-the-world/episode-30-01-2020/ . … . .. A playlist will be available soon (Sunday), on the post on our website when we distribute the radio-friendly version of this chat, but here’s a breakdown of tracks: Manu Dibango – Soul Makossa Declive Repunknante – Capitalista Canibalista [starts at 00:25:27] Las Musas – Las 17 [starts at 00:57:52] Los Insurrectos - ‘32 [starts at 01:21:33] The Ramsey Lewis Trio – The In Crowd
Perspectives from Iranian Anarchists This week on The Final Straw we feature a chat with a translator of the Anarchist Union of Afghanistan and Iran to share perspectives from membership in Iran and abroad about resistance to the regime from within, solidarity from abroad, the impact of US Sabre-rattling. A transcription of this interview can be found here. A zine formatted version will be available soon. [00:03:58 - 00:59:39] An inspirational movement arose out of the Cold War period among anarchists who found themselves on either side of the international chess-board. In the US this was called Neither East Nor West. The movement published a journal called On Gogol Boulevard, which after 1990, lived as a column in Profane Existence (an anarcho-punk journal), Fifth Estate and other journals. This project seems to have existed for about 15 years, from 1980 to 1994. The Final Straw lost the opportunity a few years ago to interview a New Yorker deeply engaged throughout this project, Bob McGlynn, when he passed away. He was obviously not the only person involved, but sharing his experience and story is a missed opportunity on our part. A link to an article that McGlynn penned about the project will be linked in our show notes. Today, we find ourselves as anarchists in the USA, 20 years into the so-called War On Terror. This war of destabilization has targeted criminalized populations in within the U.S. borders and has had massively violent and deadly consequences across the globe. What we call a War, for lack of a better word, serves to destroy, enslave, maim and kill animals, human and non-human, around the world. And throughout the whole of this 20 year period a constant boogey-man has been that of the Iranian state, whose people have lived under the varying pressure of US-led sanctions. The US war machine hovers close to shifting from it’s regional proxy wars and an active war with Iran as the Trump regime’s rhetoric and economic policy close around the throats of the Iranian people. In the interest of international solidarity and understanding and the spirit of the Neither East Nor West, we are quite pleased to be having a conversation with people from the Anarchist Union of Afghanistan and Iran. In this conversation we’ll be learning about Iranian struggles and what solidarity from the West might look like. We hope that in the future we can talk more about the impact of the 20 years of war on the peoples of Afghanistan perpetrated by the US government and it’s allies and the work of anti-authoritarians on the ground. More information from the Union can be found at https://asranarshism.com/ (posts are mostly in Persian), they can be followed on twitter at @asranarshism, @asranarshism on instagram, on Telegram (also mostly in Persian) and fedbook. . ... . .. Sean Swain's segment is from 00:59:39 - 1:07:29 Announcements [00:00:51 - 00:3:58] Tattoo Benefits for Chilean Arrestees More than 2000 people have been arrested on charges related to the Chilean uprising. To raise funds for arrestees mounting legal fees, comrades in Santiago had the idea to organize an international tattoo party fundraiser to raise money for legal funds and increase the coordination across territories. The date will be February 15th. Currently, events in Santiago and Atlanta GA have signed on and we are waiting for confirmation from Valdivia and Punto Varas. A flyer announcing the international tattoo party is forthcoming with more details on how we can link up the different events. The idea is to cross promote the different events to build a broader network, showcase different tattoo artists, and take advantage of our our shared capacity across territories. Deadline to sign on is February 1st, email tatuajessinfronteras@protonmail.com to get involved Solidarity w Greek Antifascists Comrades abroad are doing a campaign for the persecuted antifascists that are charged for the attacks of the offices of the greek fascist party, they will have to gather 30000 until 17/1. Show solidarity support/spread it! https://www.firefund.net/persecutedantifa Freedom for Chip Fitzgerald Check out the support site for Chip Fitzgerald, Black Panther activist in the California prison system for 50 years now. Chip is an elder who has suffered a stroke inside prison and is sometimes confined to a wheelchair, often uses a cane and is the longest held Black Panther prisoner. He has served 3 times the usual sentence served for folks convicted of similar crimes and has been denied parole over a dozen times since he became eligible in 1976. More on his case and how you can help to bring this aging revolutionary home is up at https://www.freedom4chip.org/ . ... . .. playlist pending both tracks are from Salome MC
This week we have two segments. Jason Goudlock and the Old Law in OH First, we'll hear from Jason Goudlock, a prisoner under the so-called “Old Law” in Ohio serving his 26th year of a 6-25 year sentence. Jason talks about the situation in Ohio between the “Old Law” and the “New Law”, for instance if he had been convicted of the same robbery and battery crimes three years later he might have served half of the time. Jason also speaks about the whims of the the Ohio Parole Board, some corroborated in public statements by former OPB member, Shirley Smith (linked in the show notes, and mentioning the situation of Marc Houc for instance). Jason is the subject of a documentary, “Invisible Chess: The Jason Goudlock Story”, which can be found for free at FreeJasonGoudlock.org. Education packs for teachers can be found on the site for the film, InvisibleChess.com. The film will be shown on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020 from 1:30-3pm alongside a discussion at Bard College led by the filmmaker, Samuel Crow, along with prison reformer Bill Nichols. It can be viewed it at the Bertelsmann Weis Cinema on the Bard College campus. You can find Jason’s website and blog up at his website. There is a gofundme run to raise funds for Jason’s legal defense and raising awareness of his case and those of other Old Law prisoners. Jason also suggests FairTreatmentReformAndReentry.org to learn more about the struggle and check out recent legislation put forth in Ohio to affect the Old Law/New Law sentencing disparities (and in particular, Beverley A. Seymore, author of the Parole Reform Bill). Near the end I ask Jason about recent hunger strikes by Mark Hinkston and David Easley, two other Ohio prisoners held for a bit at Toledo CI, who we’ve interviewed before on the show. The hunger strike was a protest against the use of solitary confinement specifically to torture prisoners suffering from mental health crises. More on that below. Jason also mentions the recent sexual abuse of prisoners at Toledo CI by mental health staff member Maggie Jedlinsky. Finally, Jason shouts out the cases of the Lucasville Uprising. Check our show notes for links to our interviews with Hasan over the years and with Bomani Shakur, aka Keith Lamar, on his book Condemned and Greg Curry from the case. We also spoke with an attorney (Niki Schwartz) and another prisoner present on the 25th anniversary of the uprising. Comrade Easley Faces Inter-State Transfer We’ll be hearing briefly from David Easley about some updates in his situation, including the hunger strike that he and Mark “Mustafa” Hinkston just got off of in protest of the torture of prisoners suffering mental health distress by stuffing them in segregation at Toledo CI and the legal shenanigans by administration at Toledo CI in an attempt to get them on an out-of-state transfer. You can keep up on Mark and David’s activity on their supporters twitters. There is a request that folks email and call the Ohio Interstate Compact Administrators to demand David and Mark not get transferred far from their family, loved ones and supporters and to emphasize that they are being threatened with transfer for legitimate free speech. You can contact: Suzanne Brooks (Deputy Compact Administrator): ohio.compact@odrc.state.oh.us or suzanne.brooks@odrc.state.oh.us or call at +1614 752 0829 or fax at +1614 752 1822 Sara Andrews (Director & Commissioner/Compact Administrator): ohio.compact@odrc.state.oh.us or sara.andrews@sc.ohio.govor call at +16145121794 Announcements Prison Violence at Parchman, Mississippi From Oakland IWOC, comes a call for a phone Zap starting on Monday, January 6th on behalf of prisoners at Parchman. Articles on the violence are linked at the Oakland IWOC page (see above): Call and email these targets Monday Governor-elect Tate Reeves (601)359-3200 Ltgov@senate.ms.gov MDOC Director Pelicia Hall (601) 359-5900 Peliciahall@mdoc.state.ms.us Sample script: “Hello. I am calling as a concerned citizen about the ongoing crisis at Parchman. The Board of Directors must ensure that the superintendent find an amicable and peaceful solution, as well as, address the prisoners needs. They need to ensure that the prisoners have sanitary and safe housing conditions. We, as a community, along with the prisoners have these demands: 1. Immediate separation of all rival groups to halt the violence. 2. Restore full food service and immediate emergency medical care. 3. Removal of the corrupt guards who instigated violence. Remember, the world is watching. Thank you.” Health Update on Dr. Shakur Dr Mutulu Shakur, a Black Liberation activist and Accupuncturist has been imprisoned for 33 years and this year was found to have bone marrow cancer. There is an article up on SFBayView.com linked in the show notes. Supporters are requesting letters of support and love to Dr Mutulu at: Dr. Mutulu Shakur 83205-012 USP Victorville, P.O. Box 3900, Adelanto, CA 92301 They are also asking for donations for his medical, legal, commissary and more with details in the article and up at mutulushakur.com and the associated donate button. At Dr. Shakur’s request there is, at this time, no public campaign for his release. Twin Trouble Interview Incarcerated hactivist and anarchist, Jeremy Hammond and his twin brother, Jason (who served some time for participating in the anti-fascist action at Tinley Park, IL in May of 2012) have started releasing a new media project. The show self-describes as: “Twin Trouble – the podcast about fighting the system and staying rebellious while being incarcerated. The show takes the form of a recorded phone call between Jason in Chicago, and his twin brother Jeremy, locked up in Alexandria, VA, just outside D.C. “ More on the podcast can be found up at twintrouble.home.blog and you can also hear it on soundcloud. Eric King Updates There is an update on Eric King’s support page, supportericking.org, giving details on materials he can receive and what he cannot. Eric could use some love. And please be aware also that each letter he receives is read by a guard. Prison Break Yah, if only. But there's this awesome source for updates on political prisoners across the so-called US authored by the lovely folks at Certain Days that is a regular column on IGD. Prison Break gives case updates, health situations, releases, passings and calls for support we can participate in, helping to keep this movement multi-generational and spread support for our comrades taken captive by the state while in struggle. We need to be in for the long haul if our movement will have teeth. . ... . .. Playlist
