General

F.L.O.W.E.R. on Opposing “Rock Stone Mountain” 2019 + Black Flags Over Brooklyn with Kim Kelly

Download Episode Here

Firstly we’re presenting a conversation that William had with an organizer with F.L.O.W.E.R., which stands for Front Line Organization Working to End Racism, about opposition to a neo confederate rally scheduled to take place on February 2nd at Stone Mountain Park about half an hour’s drive outside of Atlanta, Georgia. We talk about the longstanding history of this rally, which originally was a KKK event, its resurgence alongside the rise of far right activity, and some of what’s been done to oppose it in recent years. We also talk about what to keep in mind when standing against this event and how to learn more and plug in, plus much more.

This group is @flowerunited on Twitter, and that’s a great way to get rapid updates as February 2nd draws nearer. Also a great way to keep updated and read more about the history of this event, plus to see a long list of endorsing groups, you can go to https://flowerunited.org/

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Next up, Bursts spoke with journalist, metalhead, anarchist, and antifascist Kim Kelly. Kim is an editor at Noisey, the VICE music site and has contributed radical content to Teen Vogue and many other platforms online and in print. For the rest of the hour we spoke about the upcoming “Black Flags Over Brooklyn” antifascist and antiracist heavy metal festival that Kim and others are organizing January 25 and 26 in New York City alongside a day-long anti-authoritarian leftist gathering. We also talk about the culture wars in metal, taking radical space in mainstream publications and more. You can find much of Kims work at noisey.vice.com, more about Black Flags Over Brooklyn and how to get merch or participate by just searching it on the web or finding its kickstarter or eventbrite. If you want to hear our interview with one of the headlining bands, Dawn Ray’d about politics and extreme music check the link in our shownotes.

Oh, and we mentioned Red + Anarchist Black Metal blog

Suggestions of good things by Kim ala metal with not terrible (even good) politics!

Labels: Alerta Antifascista, Halo of Flies, Sentient Ruin, Tankcrimes, Gilead Media, Tridroid Records, An Out Recordings, Eternal Warfare, Blackened Death Records, Get Better Records, Yehonala Tapes, 20 Buck Spin

Sites doing good work: Toilet Ov Hell, Astral Noize, Metalsucks, No Clean Singing, Invisible Oranges

Update from Unist’ot’en Camp

Here’s an official update from the Unist’ot’en Camp about the raid on the Gidimt’en Access Point we talked about on last week’s episode of The Final Straw.

Eric King Comms Blocks, Possible Hungerstrike

A post up at SupportEricKing.org that we read from in the episode starts with an announcement that Eric has been denied his monthly call with his wife who is recovering from surgery, was assaulted by staff at FCI Florence and transfered to FCI Leavenworth (though still under Florence’s jurisdiction) and away from his daughters and wife, is coming up on 5 months in solitary and may have begun a hunger strike.  There is a request for call-ins. Here is a sample script:

Hi I am calling about Eric King, #27090045 to demand that his phone restriction be lifted. It is unacceptable to take away a prisoner’s calls to his wife and family without any notice and without him being brought up on any charges.

Supporters are asked to call and email:

FCI Florence
Call: 719-784-9100
Ask for: The warden/assistant warden, the legal department, Counselor Quintana, Counselor Rivera. If denied demand the person answering the phone take down a message.

Email: FLF/ExecAssistant@bop.gov

BOP North Central Regional Office
Call: 913-621-3939
Ask for: Director Jeffrey Krueger. If denied ask to speak with his assistant. If denied again, demand the person answering the phone take down a message.

Email: NCRO/ExecAssistant@bop.gov

Yiddish Anarchism Conference

Also coming up in NYC, on Sunday January 20th there’ll be a free conference entitled “Yiddish Anarchism: New Scholarship On A Forgotten Tradition”. The conference will be conducted in English, will be free, run from 10am to 8pm at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research at 15 West 16th St. More info can be found at yivo.org/Anarchism

The latest Error451

This week we released a new Error451 episode into our podcast stream, this time an interview with Kali Kaneko about Leap Encryption Access Project, about VPNs and psuedonymity online. If you haven’t, visit our website and take a listen. Or, better yet, subscribe to our podcast by visiting “podcasting” link and following the instructions there!

Support Our Work

If you appreciate the work that we put into making this show happen, week after week, sometimes more than once a week and if you can afford to help us out, please consider donating to The Final Straw. If you visit our website, you can click the Donate/Merch button and there you’ll find a few options. We can take one-time donations via paypal or venmo, we can take ongoing donations via liberapay, you can buy t-shirts, stickers, buttons and more via our bigcartel store or become a sustainer via patreon and make monthly donations. The patreon option has a lot of options for thank you gifts including what’s already been mentioned, plus homemade mixtapes and an option to get a zine made of any interview we’ve conducted, getting those words into the hands of translators and folks who have hearing impairments!

If you can’t afford a monetary donation, no worries, tell your friends about the podcast, share an episode on social media, write us an email or a letter to suggest content. You could also contact your local community radio station and say that you want us on your airwaves. We have a weekly, 59 minute and FCC-friendly episode out every Sunday afternoon up for radio stations to download and use. More info on that can be found at our website by clicking the radio link at the top of the site.

As an aside, we’ve just started sharing Political Prisoner button mixpacks for Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross. The buttons feature the faces of 54 (and more to come) political prisoners held by the U.S. government. The sales go to benefit the activities of BRABC. Prisoner support sites and distributors should contact blueridgeabc@riseup.net for deals on the buttons. If you want to make your own and have a button maker, the pdf’s of the button images are up at https://brabc.blackblogs.org/pp-ppow-buttons/ for download for free.

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Playlist here.

Encryption, Error451, Surveillance, Technology

Error451 #14: Leap Encryption Access Project on VPNs and Psuedonymity

Leap Encryption Access Project

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This week, we’d like to share a conversation had a little bit ago with Kali Kaneko, from LEAP.  Leap Encryption Access Project, like pEp featured in our prior Error451 interview, is an open-source project meant to ease… access to encryption (and it’s a project).  At a point in the past, LEAP had an interest in shifting paradigm of email but is now focusing mainly on distribution, upkeep, and improvement of it’s VPN service, Bitmask.  Bitmask is partnering with Riseup Black and Calyx (and hopefully other trustworthy projects) to expand access to free, psuedonymized web traffic with ease.

Here’re a few links Kali sent my way for sharing and further investigation:

The song for this episode was “Crashing The System” by ¡Tchkung! from the album Post World Handbook.

 

British Columbia, Canada, Earth & Animal Liberation, Indigenous, Pipeline

Gitdimt’en threatened with RCMP invasion; sub.Media’s JR on Madness

This week we feature two segments, the first on anti-pipeline resistance at the Gidimt’en Camp in Canada and second with JR from sub.Media about Mental Wellness and the recent Trouble episode on the subject.

First Nations Pipeline Resistance in so-called BC

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First up, we’ll hear from Delee Nikal, a Wet’suwet’en community member from the Gidimt’en clan and the Cas Yikh House, a First Nation in so-called British Columbia, Canada. In 2009, Wet’suwet’en members of the Unist’ot’en clan (also of the Wet’suwet’en nation) began actively blocking pipeline workers and government officials from accessing their land without prior and fully informed consent of the nation on the land. Over the years, Unist’ot’en has become home to various structures to not only block the passage of the pipeline but also to create opportunities for indigenous folks to heal themselves and promote their culture.  On December 14th, the Canadian Supreme Court pushed through an injunction on behalf of Coastal GasLink (owned by TransCanada) threatening the Wet’suwet’en community defending its land at Unist’ot’en with police invasion. Following this, a public statement was made by the 5 hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en for all of the clans to block pipelines on their land.

The Wet’suwet’en people have no treaties with the Canadian or provincial government, their land is unceded and sovereign territory within the bounds of what’s claimed by Canada. According to United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 10: “Indigenous Peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories.” This includes RCMP, and/or military removal of Indigenous Peoples occupying their territory , say the land defenders. They also point out that the 1997 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Delgamuukw/Gisdaywa court case affirmed that Wet’suwet’en title, based on the traditional clan governance system, was never extinguished.

In the days since this interview was recorded, an update to the injunction by the Canadian Supreme Court was released that updated names and places to be targeted by police action and the chiefs were informed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, a Canadian Federal police force that their people and their spaces would likely be attacked by the RCMP in coming days to move forward on the building of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The Wet’suwet’en resistance to the pipeline is asking for native folks to come to help defend the land from further Canadian incursion, for allies and accomplices to engage in solidarity actions to pressure and embarrass the Canadian government and spread word of the resistance of Wet’suwet’en people on their sovereign lands in defense of the earth, air and water that all of us share on this planet.

You can inform yourself more by visiting wetsuweten.com and keep up on updates via their fedbook page named “Gidimt’en Checkpoint visit: Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidimt’en Territory”. Here’s a short video about the access point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3OjGB4sDCw as well as a link to their gofundme campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/gitdumt039en-access-point

A great article breaking down a bunch of the history can be found at the Earth First! Newswire’s site from which we’ve poached some of the links and which has some great ideas of how to signal boost the situation, fundraising ideas and other ways to give and more!

International Call to Action for Gidimt’en Access Checkpoint for Tuesday, January 8th, 2019

#notrespass #wedzinkwa #wetsuwetenstrong

JR of sub.Media on Mad Worlds and Trouble

And secondly, we are going to present an interview with JR, who is a member of the subMedia collective about their recent Trouble episode called Mad Worlds. Trouble is a monthly mini documentary series from this collective which highlights different aspects of life and struggle on the far left. It’s meant to be watched in groups to promote discussion and counter the increasing isolating aspects of modern day existence. The episode “Mad Worlds, Redefining Sanity Through Struggle” explores the concept of sanity and how this is intrinsically linked to the white hetero settler colonialist patriarchy, and also gets into the psychiatry industrial complex and what it could mean to be on either side of that structure. This is the first time that me and Bursts have interviewed someone together, so let us know what you think of that!

To see more from subMedia, including It’s The End Of The World And We Know It And I Feel Fine, also called The F*cking Show which features anarchist news analysis and reporting from the infamous character of the Stimulator, also they do a semi regular anarchist/antifascist hip hop workout show called Burning Cop Car (which we’ve drawn on multiple times for music to score The Final Straw), and of course Trouble, you can see all that at https://sub.media. They are in the middle of a fundraising push right now, and you can see info about that at sub.media/donate to liberate your dollars.

You can donate here

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playlist

#NoDAPL, Indigenous, North Dakota, Pipeline, Political Prisoner, Standing Rock

Support the NoDAPL Prisoners!: A chat with Jess and Olive

Support NoDAPL Prisoners

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This week, we’re excited to share the voices of Jess and Olive, who both did legal support, and do prisoner solidarity with the folks facing Federal prison time from the struggle at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This episode was heavily edited for radio, so I suggest you find our audio at our website or in itunes or soundcloud or youtube or ideally our podcast stream and listen to the podcast version, cuz it is crammed full of great information and perspectives we don’t have time to include in the radio version of the show this week.

Jess did legal work supporting the struggle in Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and into 2018 and continues to support political prisoners in the case. Olive lived in camp, engaging in nonviolent direct action and working security during the winter (late november-february), survivor of water crises in West Virginia and as a Sundancer. Olive stayed through the raid on Oceti near the end of February 2017 and became a paralegal afterward and doing legal support for their loved one, Rattler.

At the end of these notes I’ve included a few post-scripts from Olive about the folks who caught sentences, Akicita and prophecies of the “Black Snake”.

We speak about L’eau Est La Vie camp in so-called Louisiana is continuing the struggle against the southern endpoint of the Dakota Access Pipeline from Enbridge.  Visit the site to learn more and how you can get involved, they need help!

Support sites for the Federal Prisoners from Standing Rock

www.freerattlernodapl.com

www.standwithredfawn.org

www.freelittlefeather.com

www.facebook.com/Justiceforangrybird

www.facebook.com/justice4dion

www.facebook.com/freelittlefeather

www.facebook.com/freeredfawn

www.facebook.com/freerattler

www.waterprotectorlegal.org

Announcements

NYE Demo in AVL & beyond!

The day after this airs is New Years Eve and cities around the U.S. and abroad will be continuing the, I believe Greek anarchist, tradition of noise demonstrations outside of jails and prisons. Check out itsgoingdown.org for a list of places holding these where you can join in and be heard behind bars. In Asheville, folks’ll be meeting up on College St in front of the court house and jail at 7pm and will bring noise makers, warm clothes, banners and signs.

Upcoming BRABC events in Asheville

Also this week, Blue Ridge ABC will be showing the latest Frontline/PBS documentary called “Documenting Hate: America’s New Nazi’s” about the Atomwaffen Division at 6:30pm on Friday, January 4th at Firestorm Books. Also, on Sunday January 6th at Firestorm, BRABC will host it’s monthly letter writing event from 5pm to 7pm at Firestorm. No experience necessary.

Autonomy, Resilience, Freedom: #J20 Call to Action

Finally, The Final Straw Radio alongside It’sGoingDown, crimethInc and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief are calling for a week of action around the weekend of January 20, 2019. With the charges from January 20, 2017 dropped, we can focus on other forms of long-term solidarity and mutual aid, creating a fertile soil for future resistance and creativity. You can find the challenge and ways to plug in at cwc.im/survival

Episode Notes from Olive

As an aside, I want to share a little more information from Olive about Akicita:

“…Traditionally, Akicita would go to battle as a last resort and were always the last to leave, but they acted as protectors and to hold people accountable and dispense consequences when necessry, one example being on Buffalo hunts; people were not allowed to take more than they needed or to hunt by themselves because it hurt not only other tribal members but the Buffalo population. Akicita made sure the hunts happened with integrity. They also kept Nacas, elders, and the people informed. They were mediators of conflict. They were recognized for acts of bravery and selflessness. “

Also, Olive had these notes to share about the Federal Defendants who’ve been sentenced:

“Little Feather’s mother is part of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in California, so I forgot to mention he is also Morongo in addition to also Lakota and Chumash.

Rattler is a descendant of the war chief Red Cloud, who also signed the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868, one of the treaties we were defending with our occupation through camp.

Rattler’s Lakota name is Mato Tanka (Big Bear). Angry Bird’s Lakota name is Sunka Wakan Sica (Bad Horse).

Not everyone with federal charges are Akicita or Ikce Wicasa. Rattler, Little Feather, and Angry Bird are Akicita and Ikce Wicasa camp security. RedFawn and Dion had other responsibilities and ties to the camps. “

Olive also had this to add about their own participation at Standing Rock:

“If it’s relevant, I didn’t mention another responsiblity I had while being in camp. I formed with two other femme people Two Spirit and Women’s security branches so gender queer folks like myself and women/femme people could deal with our own safety/decolonizing issues within camp. This is how I began to work with Akicita security directly.

The role of Akicita, the several councils that made up camp for collective decision making, and the ceremonies we participated in were all ways we were actively decolonizing our daily lives and DEFYING state intervention in disputes among our community (concepts of transformative justice try to exert the same concept of “don’t call cops, be accountable” but don’t necessarily have the structures to do it like traditional indigenous societies have) “

Another addition to the audio that I’d like to include is a short write-up that you can find in our show notes about the concept and Lakota and Standing Rock prophecies of the “Black Snake” which has been applied to the Dakota Access Pipeline

“I didn’t feel we had the time, but I wanted to at least tell you about some Lakota prophecies related to the “black snake” and historical context of where camp was located. All of this information I have is from Standing Rock elders and Lakota that know their lands well, including Tim Mentz, a Lakota archaeologist from Standing Rock, as well as my own experience from living in camp.

Grandfathers, some in the early 1800s, had visions of a “black ribbon on top of the Earth to separate all people…the people wouldn’t gather anymore…when the black ribbon goes underneath the Earth there will be no more Lakota.” This “ribbon” is seen as pavement and fossil fuels. Prairie Nights Casino was built on top of a known site where ceremonial fasts were held. Cannonball River has buttes, all with names known to the Lakota one being Tipi Butte near the Backwater Bridge. Near Backwater Bridge (where cops kept up barricades after North Camp raid), there are remnants of old Sundance ceremony arbors. October 22nd arrests happened partly because we were protesting the 27 burials that were uprooted for DAPL’s access roads that were across from HW 1806. Cannonball Ranch, which was eventually bought by DAPL, had Bear effigies, burials in the four cardinal directions, with at least 82 other sacred sites and ancestral sites of the Lakota. Southwest of where Oceti camp is Horshoe Bend, along the Standing Rock border is Treaty ground where men gathered to discuss the 1851 Treaty (North Camp was actually 1851 Treaty Camp). Spotted Tail (Sicangu band) and Big Head adopted one another around the year 1851 in the same location of Oceti camp. “

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Playlist

Encryption, Error451

Error451: #13 (pEp with Hernani Marques)

Hernani Marques on Pretty Easy Privacy

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On this episode I’m joined by Hernani Marques, a hacker and member of the pEp Foundation, talking about Pretty Easy Privacy, a concerted attempt to make adoption of end-to-end email encryption easier and more ubiquitous through automation of key-making and management through partnering with programs like Outlook and Thunderbird. To learn more about pEp, check out the foundation’s website and follow or get in touch with Hernani via their website, vecirex.net.

– pEp.foundation (Core technology & community entity of pEp)

– pEp.software (All usable pEp software, commercial and not, and all Free Software)

– gnunet.org (P2P framework for secure decentralized applications, including – for pEp – messaging)

– sequoia-pgp.org (new OpenPGP library from former GnuPG devs)

Reach Out

If you have a topic or guest suggestion for Error451, find us via our contact page on our website and drop us a line. To hear past episodes of the podcast, click the link in these shownotes or find them up at our website or in our podcast feed. Subscribing to our show is free and easy.

Featured Track

Suspect Device by Stiff Little Fingers off of State of Emergency

Support

You can also support TFSR/Error451 monetarily.

 

A-Radio Berlin, A-Radio Network, B(A)D News, Chile, Črna Luknja, Dissident Island Radio, Germany, Radio Kurruf

December 2018 B(A)DNews: Angry Voices From Around The World

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This is episode number 18 (12/2018) of “B(A)D NEWS – Angry Voices From Around The World”, a news program from the international network of anarchist and anti-authoritarian radios, consisting of short news segments from different parts of the world.

This month, you’ll hear:

  • Črna Luknja (Slovenia), speaks with Rote Hilfe, a German anti-repression network (02:09);
  • Radio Kurruf shares news of Camilo Catrillanca, a Mapuche activist killed by a Chilean militarized police unit known as the Jungle Commandos and the public response (10:11);
  • Dissident Island Radio shares criticism about protests coordinated protests by Extinction Action in the U.K. and updates on far-right mobilizations concerning UKIP, shit-cake Tommy Robinson and antifascist protests to a pro-Brexit demo on December 9th (13:58);
  • A-Radio Berlin’s report on the December 7th protest of the FdA against the repressive rise to power of the reactionary leader Bolsonaro in Brazil with sounds and impressions from demo’s outside the Brazilian consulates in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, Germany. (19:54)

You can download the audio directly from Archive.Org here

Please send feedback and comments to: a-radio-network/at/riseup(.)net

And more content is available at https://www.a-radio-network.org

 

AK Press, Author, Cindy Milstein, Rojava

Cindy Milstein, pt2: Rojava, Autonomy, Religion, Anarchism and Care

Cindy Milstein, part two

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You’re listening to the second half of my inteview with anarchist, activist and author Cindy Milstein as they toured with the book Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief, published last year by AK Press. In this portion of the conversation, Cindy will share about community support infrastructures in sickness and in health, the importance of play, the Montreal Student Strikes, insights from Silvia Federici, care circles and religious institutions, anarchism and more. The first half of this chat can be found at our website really should be listened to first.

Cindy mentions a documentary about the co-president with Abdullah Öcalan of the PKK who was assassinated in 2013 in Paris. The film was called SARA – My Whole Life Was A Struggle and can be watched on youtube in full with English subtitles. The film covers the life and struggles of Sakine Cansiz who, alongside Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şöylemez were taken by an assassins bullets while struggling for Kurdish autonomy.

Cindy also refer to other interviews they’ve given on podcasts. Two of the more recent ones that happened before ours with Cindy were from The Solecast and This Is Hell.

The worst zine can be found here.

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Playlist

 

AK Press, Anarchist, Author, Cindy Milstein, community, Health

Cindy Milstein, pt1: Grief, Care, Anarchy and Vision

Cindy Milstein, part one

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Cindy Milstein is an anarchist, activist and author who was a touring few months back with Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief, published last year by AK Press. The book is compilation of essays by various authors about loss in it’s myriad forms experienced under cis-hetero-patriarchy, in a capitalist settler colonialism, anti-Black and otherwise racist, able-ist society. After Cindy came to speak at Firestorm Books in October 2018, we sat down for a LONG chat. In this FIRST hour, Cindy shares thoughts on the following topics and more: a prior book they put together, Taking Sides (AK Press, 2015); the process of making Rebellious Mourning and creating “brave spaces” for engaging with hard topics; prefiguration during the anarchist summer camp they help organize called the “Institute for Advanced Troublemaking”; and multi-generational care and care-taking in anarchist communities.

When I say the conversation was long, I mean that we recorded for about two and a half hours. We present the first hour here for radio audiences. We’re also going to do an out of the ordinary for us thing, which is that we’re going to release the second half along side it. You’ll find part two linked in this blog post soon, so you can listen to the both back to back if you choose. Next week, this second half will air for radio audiences but our podcast listeners will get a special treat because in place of a new Final Straw episode,, we’ll be sharing a new episode of our occasional tech security from an anarchist perspective podcast, Error451. So, stay tuned for the voice of someone engaged in spreading tools of encryption for free to help you to protect your right to whisper.

You can check out Cindy’s writings on their blog and you can find many of their books up at AKPress.org and anarchiststudies.org.

Announcements

New Broadcast, KFUG-LP!

First, we happy to announce that we’ll should be airing this Sunday at 12pm Pacific time for the first of many broadcasts on the airwaves of KFUG-LP, Crescent City in Del Norte County in California. KFUG broadcasts at 101.1fm and streams on the website kfugradio.org!

Unist’ot’en Camp Needs Help

The Canadian State has declared an injunction against the First Nations Unist’ot’en camp blocking Transcanada from building a pipeline through their unceded territory from the Alberta Tar Sands to the east.  They need folks to come and join the blockade, they have an updated asks list for donations and you can keep up by find them on social media or checking their website Unistoten.Camp

Jeremy Ricard, Prisoner Check In

Jeremy Ricard, a prisoner at David Wade Correctional in Homer, LA, has been facing repression from guards in the forms of getting maced, kept in solitary, beaten, had his personal and legal property taken and given only a paper smock for the 30 days at a time. A friend has asked folks to contact the prison and express concern about his situation and care.  Jeremy Ricard’s prison number is #511078 and the Warden at David Wade is Jerry Goodwin. Warden Goodwin can be reached at (318) 927-0400

Donations & Support

If you care to support The Final Straw Radio, please consider a one-time donation via our paypal or a recurring donation via our Patreon or librepay. We have items on the Patreon and our BigCartel webstore to thank supporters including stickers, buttons, t-shirts and zines, great for the socially required gift-giving holiday season. We never charge for our audio work, so if you feel like you can kick back some cash our way, we really appreciate it! Find more info at our website by clicking the Donate/Support Button.

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Playlist

Anarchist, Capitalism, Colonialism, Colonization, Drug War, Feminism, Immigration

Solidarity with the Migrant Caravan; 2 on the ground perspectives

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This week William had the opportunity to speak with two people who are doing active support work for the folks involved in what’s being called the “migrant caravan”, a group of 7,000 or so people primarily from Honduras fleeting violence of many kinds. Firstly we’ll hear from Chris, who is an organizer with Enclave Caracol, a social center which stands in solidarity with migrants in Tijuana. This center sprang from Tijuana Food Not Bombs, and you can learn more about them via their Facebook page or via their wordpress site.

To donate to them, you can visit the Al Otro Lado donate page and mark a donation for Enclave Caracol!

In this interview, we get into how it’s been for Enclave Caracol (The Snail Enclave in English) to do support in Tijuana, some of the history regarding this particular situation, how the various cop organizations in the area have been treating folks, responses by the public and the government alike, and basic ways of how to support. Let us know what you think or if you have a perspective on this issue by writing to us! You can also write us here.

The second interview is with Elana, who is an anarchist lawyer doing support for the people in the caravan. In this interview we talk about their experiences and some about the complex legal situation that a lot of asylum seekers are faced with, plus ways to re-contextualize this caravan in anti-imperialist terms.

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The audio quality cuts out in some portions of these interviews, so apologies in advance for that.

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To learn more about the history of what is going on right now, and
specifically the recent history of Honduras which gave rise to this
present day situation, we recommend the Alliance for Global Justice’s webinair on Honduras, which was passed to us by a comrade. It is a longer listen, and brings voices together who have been paying attention to this situation for many years, some of whom are directly impacted by it.

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Show playlist here.

Anti-Racist Action, Appalachia, Asheville, community

Rural Organizing In Appalachia

Rural Organizing And Resilience (ROAR)

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This week on The Final Straw Radio, we’re sharing an interview with two members of Rural Organizing And Resilience, or ROAR, an anti-racist and mutual aid organization that’s based in Madison County, North Carolina. Madison County is just north of Asheville and VERY Appalachian, with a small population that’s sparsely populated in remote hollers and small towns. For the hour, Matt & Janet talk about anti-racist organizing, community efforts, misconceptions about rural people and Appalachians in particular, radical history, harm reduction and material outreach efforts ongoing in Western North Carolina. You can find out more about their project and contact them via their website, https://ruralorganizing.wordpress.com

Announcements

Blue Ridge ABC

BRABC will have it’s monthly prisoner letter writing tonight, Sunday 12/2, at 5pm after the show. Come down to Firestorm to join in, materials and addresses provided.

Also, BRABC’s monthly showing of the Trouble mini-doc continues this Friday 12/7 with an episode on radical approaches to mental wellness. This’ll also happen at Firestorm books and Coffee, 610 Haywood Rd. You can check out all of the Troubles up at https://sub.media. This is the last episode of the season and they put out a special request for support, so check out the other stuff on their site while you’re there.

Asheville Service Workers Assembly Night Out

9pm, Monday, December 17 at the Crow and Quill bar, the Asheville Service Workers Assembly will host a Service Worker’s Night w/ The Carolina Catskins!
Come on out and meet your fellow service workers!

They’re hoping to create a space where folks can hangout and discuss shared struggle in a service work dependent economy, in a town that exploits us.

Charlottesville, VA: The Trial of James Alex Fields

James Alex Fields, the neo-nazi who drove into a crowd, injuring many and killing Heather Heyer on August 12th, 2017 in Charlottesville, VA, is currently facing trial.  If you’re in the area, show up and offer support to the survivors of his attack. Also, you can keep up on the trial by following @socialistdogmom on twitter or listen to their very compact podcast on the subject.

Jeremy Hammond Needs Support

Jeremy Hammond, anarchist hacker behind bars for the Stratfor Hack has been placed in solitary confinement and is facing transfer for a supposed altercation with a guard.  Now he’s missing his college classes inside, classes that would allow him to be housed at a lower security level, and is facing a possible punitive transfer which would further disconnect him from that college degree he’s working towards. His supporters are asking folks to write him letters and cards to check in with him, not to send in magazines or books and not to write to the Warden.

You can write Jeremy at

Jeremy Hammond, #18729-424
FCI Milan
P.O. Box 1000
Milan, MI 48160

Jason Renard Walker Beaten For His Writing

Jason Renard Walker, has continued to face harassment by prison guards at the Ellis Unit in response to an article he penned about harassment he was facing from guards at the Ellis Unit for the November issue of the SF Bay View Newspaper.  He was beaten by one guard as others stood by and watched. He’s been facing repression since at least 2016 when he voiced support for the Nationwide Prison Strike and has vocally resisted repressive measures by his captors in Texas. He’s seeking attention and legal support from the outside.  We’re linking to his writeup of his experience published on the SF Bay View website.

Direct attention to authorities at Ellis Unit:

Ellis Unit warden Kelly Strong:
936-295-5756 (**010) or kelly.strong@tdcj.texas.gov
Regional Director Wayne Brewer:
Ombudsman:

ombudsman@tdcj.texas.gov and 936-437-4927

A suggested script is posted in our notes:

“Hello,
I am contacting you as I have seen reports that inmate Jason Renard Walker, #1532092, has been attacked by staff at the Ellis Unit, and that he is now being threatened with a false disciplinary charge to try and distort the facts of the issue. I demand that there is a full independent review of all relevant surveillance footage, including any CCTV recordings from the cafeteria on the morning of November 23rd 2018 and the portable camera that was used to record Mr. Walker being escorted to his cell following the incident. Mr. Walker and all the members of staff involved, especially officers Pollock and Williford, should be given polygraph tests to determine whose version of events is more truthful, and all relevant witnesses should be interviewed. Mr. Walker reports that an inmate known as Fishtrap, along with another inmate who lives in B4, witnessed the entire scene.
Please be aware that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice may be held legally responsible for any harm that comes to Mr. Walker while he is in TDCJ’s custody.
Yours,”

 

Write to Jason at:

Jason Renard Walker
#1532092
Ellis Unit
1697 FM 980
Huntsville, TX, 77343

TFSR Webstore Open

Finally, we just wanted to mention that The Final Straw has opened a webstore for our merch. So, if you don’t feel like sustaining us on a regular via our patreon but want to grab up some of our stickers, buttons, tshirts and more from us, check out https://thefinalstrawradio.bigcartel.com

We are also in the midst of an effort to pick up more radio stations that’ll air us, slogging through contacts state by state and reaching out to as many community radios as we can to offer our show for free and reach more remote areas with the voices we share on these broadcasts. If you have a suggestion, reach out to us via social media or find our contact at our website. The best method is for community radio stations to hear from a community member that we are wanted on their airwaves, so consider reaching out to your local station and passing on our broadcasting link, with all of the pertinent information for how to get ahold of our weekly, anarchist radio show!

Actually Finally Finally

We’d like to point listeners to an awesome piece of swag.  With all of this craze around a certain NHL mascot and all of the deep critiques swirling upon their meaning and who owns them, some friends have designed a pretty sweet Gritty antifascist shirt.  We usually wouldn’t shill anarcho-consumerism so hard, but it really is the season, no?

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