Category Archives: activism

activism, Anarchist, Autonomy, California, Drug War, Environment, Immigration, June 11, Mexico, Political Prisoner, Prisons, repression, Transcribed, United States

Bridging The Rift Through Kumeyaay Territory + 2026 June 11th Call

photo of three children in dresses walking along the Tijuana side of the beach border wall next to graffiti and wheat pasted posters, plus "TFSR 6-7-26 | Bridging The Rift Through Kumeyaay Territory (Tijuana & San Diego)"
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This week, you’ll hear two segments

First up, a long sharing of perspectives from occupied Kumeyaay [Kum-ee-aih] land, the Mexico-US border. Devi Machete from Contra Viento Y Marea in Tijuana in the Mexican state of Baja California about the history and activity of that project and journalist and activist James Stout speaks from San Diego in the US state of California about desert conditions north of the border wall. For this chat, you’ll hear third-hand accounts of border crossings, imprisonment, and deaths in border regions but also about solidarity, organizing, and resistance among those on the move as well as the communities they encounter.

  • Transcript
  • PDF (Unimposed) – pending
  • Zine (Imposed PDF) – pending

After that, at roughly one hour and forty six minutes in, you’ll hear this year’s statement for the June 11th  Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and long term anarchist prisoners which will include perspectives of organizers, updates in folks struggles and conditions of confinement and reflections on solidarity and insurrection. Check the show notes for a few links and the time stamps of where this section begins. [ 1:46:45 ]

Past Interviews

Contra Viento Y Marea Links

Other Links

Announcements

Shine White Hunger Strike Continues

Many of you have been asking for an update, so here’s where things stand.

While at Scotland Correctional Institution, Shine was helping organize political education among prisoners and speaking out about conditions and serious medical concerns inside the facility. As many already know, he had a contraband cell phone. According to Shine, that phone contained recordings and information documenting conditions inside Scotland, including prisoners begging for medical attention. Not long after, Shine and others around him were transferred and separated across different facilities.

In mid-April, Shine was transferred overnight from Scotland to Granville Correctional Institution in what he described as one of the fastest transfers he had seen in 17 years of incarceration. Upon arrival, he was immediately placed on HCON (High Security Maximum Control). Shine maintains the placement was arbitrary, requested a grievance regarding that placement, and to our knowledge has yet to receive a meaningful opportunity to challenge it. He has been on hunger strike ever since.

Over the past few weeks, many of you participated in Calls to Action, making phone calls and sending emails seeking answers about his health, communication, property, grievances, and HCON status. Those efforts led to direct conversations with Assistant Regional Director Timothy Jones, who assured us that concerns were being reviewed and investigated.

Here’s the problem.

We have now confirmed through official records that Shine was already housed at Central Prison on the same date we were being given information that appeared to place him at Granville. We still don’t know whether that means the Regional Office had outdated information, didn’t know where he was, or something else entirely. What we do know is that the answers we were given don’t line up with the timeline we can now verify.

At this point, we have no direct communication with Shine. Updates are coming through fellow comrades who have been able to get word out through prison channels.

What we know right now:

  • Shine remains on HCON.
  • Shine remains on hunger strike.
  • Shine is housed in Central Prison’s medical unit.
  • Communication remains extremely limited.
  • Questions about his mail, property, grievances, and classification remain unanswered.

The transfer changed the address. It did not answer the questions.

This week we are launching another Call to Action. Supporters will once again be contacting Central Prison, the Regional Office, and NC DAC leadership seeking answers and accountability.

If Shine’s status remains unchanged and these concerns continue to be ignored, we are preparing for an in-person demonstration later this week.

If the goal was to make people stop paying attention, it didn’t work.

For updates and ways to get involved, follow the Instagram or other links at https://linktr.ee/shinewhitesupport

You can hear a prior interview we did with Shine White here: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2021/01/17/shinewhite-on-turning-razor-wire-plantations-into-schools-of-liberation/

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activism, Asheville, G20, Gentrification, Homelessness, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Police, Protest, repression, Sports, United States

National Special Security Events, Homeless Sweeps and Police Militarization

photo of police leading a baton charge with the words "TFSR 5-24-26 | National Special Security Events, Homeless Sweeps and Police Militarization"
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This year has felt like there’ve been a series of large sports mega events and summits planned and taking place in cities across the USA. For instance, starting in June the FIFA World Cup will be hosted in cities across the country (as well as a few in Mexico and Canada). Also a few cities are hosting meetings and an eventual summit related to the G20, or group of 20 economies, a gathering between large capitalist industries, banks, para-grovernmental neoliberal international institutions, government ministries and heads of state that share policy decisions effecting immigration, wars, trade policy and the climate. In 2028 Los Angeles will host the Olympics.

This episode will feature two discussions about some of the security impacts of hosting large sports or political events and the ways that the state and capital work to change the landscape and norms of the locations they take place. First up, Kristian Williams speaks about National Special Security Events like the G20 or World Cup, how they change local police and surveillance landscapes and work to turbocharge gentrification and displace working and poor people, making our cities more hostile to anything but commerce and control. Then, you’ll hear from Sam Schmidt at Our Streets Collective to speak about homeless sweeps in Pittsburgh, PA in the run-up to and aftermath of the 2026 NFL Draft taking place in that city.

Announcement

Marius Mason

Longtime listeners to The Final Straw Radio will be familiar with the yearly June 11th Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and other Longterm Anarchist Prisoners. Well, stay tuned for an announcement from the June 11 crew in coming weeks with a recording of this year’s call. We are happy to announce here that Marius Mason, a long standing ecological, animal rights and trans prisoner rights activist will is on his way out of prison, currently in a halfway house having served out his sentence,

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activism, Anarchist, Autonomy, Communism, Egypt, France, General, Haymarket Books, Immigration, Politics, Protest, repression, Syria, United States, war

Revolutionary Lessons and Internationalism from Below (with The Peoples Want)

book cover of “Revolutions of our Times: An Internationalist Manifesto from The Peoples Want” plus “TFSR 5-17-26 | Revolutionary Lessons and Internationalism from Below (with The Peoples Want)”
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Here’s our recent chat with two members of The Peoples Want Network, an attempt to build an Internationalist movement from below and to the left. For this chat, Rindala and Doxie speak about sharing lessons from movements and uprisings of the recent past from around the world among participants and those hoping to create movements in their own lives, organizing in exile, the enriching practice of building solidarity and the recently published English booklet of The Peoples Want manifesto, Revolutions Of Our Times (Haymarket 2026). At the end of the chat, Rindala announces the upcoming, June 2026 project Mujawara for networking local movement sites with those around the world to further increase intercommunication and solidarity and support such spaces in conflict sites in the SWANA.

We’ve covered a number of the uprisings, migrant struggles, and internationalist organizing topics and movements discussed in the episode since we started in 2010, so feel free to pick through our website if you want to dig a little deeper and hear some views from the times.

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activism, Anarchist, Antifa, Antifa Ost, fascism, Germany, Law, Police, repression, Transcribed, United States, zine

ABC Dresden on deBanking and US Anti-Antifascist Pressure

pic of a giant worker swinging a hammer down prison guard tower, smashing it with the words "Til All Are Free", then below the words "ABC Dresden on deBanking, US Declaration of 'Antifa Ost' as FTO, and Far Right Swing in Germany”
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This week, we’re sharing a conversation with Nina at Anarchist Black Cross Dresden to speak about the political landscape in Germany, the Antifa Ost and Budapest Komplex cases and the impacts on anti-repression work in Germany since the Trump administration’s declaration that a group they’re calling Antifa Ost be added to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations that is kept by the US State Department.

This sits alongside the US government prosecuting the Prairieland case in Texas that was the subject of our prior episode, and could be one step further toward an official declaration of war on Antifa in the US, whatever that means exactly. We really feel that these cases are important to keep up on as the administration telegraphs it’s bizarre but frightening counterinsurgency strategies.

Some German Context:

US Implications:

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activism, Anarchist, Antifa, conspiracy, General, Law, Political Prisoner, Politics, Prairieland Case, Protest, repression, Texas, Transcribed, United States

Out Here For Them: Updates As Prairieland Federal Trial Ends

image with featuring broken chain links, crescent moons, kale, flowers, raccoons, other animals and the words " Support The Prairieland Defendants" plus "TFSR 3-29-26 | Out Here For Them: Updates As The Prairieland Federal Trial Ends"This week we spoke with AC and E, two members of the DFW Support Committee about the recently finished federal trial for 9 defendants in the terrorism case around the Prairieland Detention Center noise demo in July of 2025.

To recap the case, in the midst of increased racist and nativist rhetoric, ICE and CBP snatch squad deployments ripping apart communities across the US in the first year of Trump 2.0, and the buildup of immigrant rendition and imprisonment in the southwest there was a July 4th noise demonstration called for to happen outside the infamous Prairieland Detention Center outside Alvarado, Texas. During the protest, meant to be loud enough for people held there to hear that they were not forgotten, participants used bullhorns, shouted, shot off fireworks and painted slogans. In response the staff called the Alvarado police and upon arrival the cop drew his weapon and aimed at dispersing protestors. At this point the state narrative and that of the defendants diverge: on the one hand the state argues that this whole event was a planned ambush for law enforcement by a north Texas Antifa terrorist cell in black bloc meant to draw police into a fight and then liberate the prison; on the other side the defendants claim the event was escalated to targeted gunfire by defendant Song meant to deter deadly violence by the cop and allow the crowd to disperse without bloodshed.

For the hour, you’ll hear folks from DFW Defense Committee talking about what evidence and arguments were presented in court, what evidence and arguments were suppressed, the strange decisions of the judge in jury selection, venue and other elements effecting the ability of those facing decades in prison to mount and defense and where we’re at now with the case. This case cannot be disconnected from the Trump administration’s call to name Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, to tie in projects and movements they consider to be enemies (ranging from Democrats to civil liberties groups, queer folk and immigrants rights advocates to anti-fascists, communists and anarchists and everyone in between) with the goal, some speculate, of more fully capturing the federal government under a white, christian nationalist and fascist regime. More on the case at PrairielandDefendants.Com

A couple of useful links for the case:

Next week, keep an ear out for a chat we plan to release with Nina of Anarchist Black Cross Dresden about the impacts of naming German antifascists as terrorists by the Trump Regime on the ability of various leftist, anti-repression groups there to do their work, to hold bank accounts for sending money to prisoners or pay for lawyers and about the shift towards the right electorally and politically that is being experienced in that country. You may be surprised about the parallels with the situation in the US.

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activism, California, Film, General, Homelessness, Oakland, Transcribed, zine

Homeless Organizing in Oakland and the Wood Street Movie

A still from the film showing two figures from behind, leaning up against and peering through a fence at an empty lo next to highway interchanges under a purplish sky, plus "TFSR 3-22-26 | Homeless Organizing in Oakland and the Wood Street Movie"
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This week on The Final Straw Radio, we’re featuring an interview with three participants in the feature length documentary Wood Street, about the community that formed in a parking lot at 1707 Wood Street in Oakland. The location was a destination for people evicted from encampments around the city, who either refused or were denied the low number of shelter beds available, or didn’t fit into the city lots for camping or recreational vehicles aka RVs. Over the course of 10 years at a few spots on the street, as guest John Janosko explains, residents got to know each other and build bonds to the place and each other as neighbors. The north portion of what became known as the Wood Street Commons was evicted by the city to build transitional tiny homes managed by a services organization called BOSS and residents at the south side of the Commons ramped up organizing with outside supporters to stop the city’s eviction plan in 2023 through lobbying politicians and proposing alternative plans. The film shows this work, snippets of the lives of residents and the eventual eviction of the Wood Street Commons in 2023, with over 300 people losing their homes in the end.

Since the eviction, the tiny home camp funding ended and it was vacated, the mayor Sheng Thao was recalled and indicted for corruption and the site became a parking lot for a minor league baseball park next door, but people have taken their energy and experience to keep advocating for themselves and other Oaklanders around issues of houselessness. For the hour we speak with John Janosko, a featured face in the film, as well as our past guest Freeway and the film’s director Caron Creighton. The Wood Street Movie is touring a number of film festivals and looking to feature elsewhere, in hopes that the film can act as a support and inspiration for other homeless organizing in communities across the country.

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abolition, activism, Asheville, Bail Funds, Law, North Carolina, Police, Prisons, Racism, Transcribed, United States, zine

Why Is Asheville’s Buncombe County Jail Full of People?

"TFSR 3-8-26 | Why Is Asheville's Buncombe County Jail Full of People?" featuring a photo from the New Years Eve 2021 Noise Demonstration at the jail with the words "Empty The Cages Free The People" projected on the outer walls of one wing
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This week, we’re sharing an interview with Julie and Jeremy, two anarchists and participants in the Asheville Community Bail Fund. We speak about the US system of pre-trial incarceration aka bail and bond, the work of the bail fund locally, the overcrowding of the Buncombe County Jail here in Asheville, the ICE holds happening in the local jail, and how local policy choices regarding criminalization are being compounded by recent and new North Carolina legislation. Even if you aren’t in Asheville or North Carolina, it’s likely that much of this conversation will be pertinent to goings-ons in your neck of the woods (though hopefully not).

If you’re a regular listener to The Final Straw Radio, have a passion for enriching the anarchist media environment, feel like your values align with what you’ve heard on the show and want a chance to help out and hone your skills, we’re always looking for help. If you’ve thought of getting a podcast or other media project going but aren’t sure how to start, we can be a good jumping off point. Feel free to reach out via our emails

Links

North Carolina Laws discussed

Iryna’s Law (HB-307)

Related Past interviews

Asheville politics and police repression

Public surveillance by ALPR systems like Flock

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activism, Anarchist, General, Iran, Nonviolence, Police, Protest, Religion, repression, Transcribed, zine

Death To The Dictator: Uprising and Repression in Iran (with Anarchism Perspective)

"Death To The Dictator: Uprising & Repression in Iran (with Anarchism Perspective" and a photo of masked people posing with a torn-down poster of Khamenei
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This week, an interview with Aryanum, a member of the Persian-language anarchist group Anarchism Perspective, based in Iran and Afghanistan. Anarchism Perspective is a synthesist anarchist group based mostly in the region that organizes solidarity and resistance as well as publishing writings at Anarshism.com . For this episode, we speak about the recent uprising in Iran that was met with bloody repression by the regime, with internet blackouts and low-ball estimates of 30,000 dead at government hands from January 8th and 9th 2026 alone. Aryanum speaks about the posturing by monarchists supporting the return and enthroning of Reza Pahlavi II, the son of the last Shah, and the weaponization of Islam by the Mullahs of the regime and other topics.

Anarchism Perspective links

Other Links

Another Farsi Group, Anarchist Front:

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activism, community, Immigration, Minneapolis, Police, Protest, repression, Transcribed, United States, zine

Being The Right Best Person: A Conversation with Donna Mae in Minneapolis

crowd photo from above of the January 2026 Minneapolis General Strike by Lorie Shaull with "TFSR 2-1-26 | Being The Right Best Person: A Conversation with Donna Mae in Minneapolis"Photo: Lorie Shaull/CC
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This week, we spoke with Donna Mae, a longtime resident of Minneapolis and registered nurse working mostly with people who are unsheltered and use injection drugs. Donna lives in a neighborhood of the city that has had very heavy ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) activity and speaks for the hour about the last two months of invasion, organizing with neighbors, the legacy of the George Floyd Uprising and the aftermath of the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, the recent General Strike and lessons for preparing in the next incursion, wherever that may be.

Some links for support

Additional Links

Facial Recognition Tech Used in Minneapolis to Target Protestors:

Rojava Updates Podcast Release

Recently, armed conflict has flared between the Syrian Democratic Forces and both the Turkish-backed, so-called Syrian National Army militia and the forces aligned with the Syrian transitional government. In coming days we’ll be sharing a timely podcast featuring an interview with a member of Tekoşîna Anarşîst and another with a western activist on the ground in Qamişlo to share their perspectives on the situation and updates on the changing terrain. We talk about the danger of a resurgence of ISIS, the humanitarian crisis growing due to the seige in Kobane and the fears of a renewed patriarchal governance, but also about organizing and international solidarity.

This is a good time to get together with community in your area to figure out how you can support the revolution in Rojava. If you don’t have a Rojava solidarity group in your area (start one), keep an ear out for calls to action via the Emergency Committee for Rojava: https://www.defendrojava.org/

In the meantime, check out this first podcast by the Youth Media project, Ronahi: https://www.ronahi.eu/2026/ronahi-podcast-episode-1/

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activism, Anarchist, Environment, General, Indigenous, Mexico, repression, Transcribed, zine

The Political Repression and Resistance of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca

a photo of seven people standing in a field with masks over their faces, fists raised and a banner with a picture of Ricardo Flores Magon reading "Freedom For The Prisoners of Eloxochitlan de Flores Magon", standing before a bonfire with a forest behind them, plus "TFSR 1-4-26 | The Political Repression and Resistance of Eloxochitlan de Flores Magon"
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This week, an interview we just conducted with Madeleine Wattenbarger and Axel Hernández of the Cooperativa de Periodismo in Mexico and Ambar Ruiz of Radio Zapote about the case of autonomous resistance and repression in the Mazateca community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón in Oaxaca, Mexico, so named for being the birthplace of the Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón, revolutionary Mexican anarchist who was murdered by medical neglect by the US prison system in 1922 (check out our 2022 episode on the history).

We talk about the rise to economic and political power of the family of Manuel Zepeda and his daughter Elena, their weaponization of the judiciary against community defenders resisting a hijacking in 2014 of the traditional community assembly and the years of organizing by Mazateca women whose loved ones face long prison sentences. We also speak about the case of Miguel Peralta, a Mazateca anarchist challenging his 5 decade sentence related to this case, as well as the recent murder by medical neglect while in prison of militant anarcho-punk Yorch Esquivel at the hands of the Mexican state at the behest of UNAM.

Media mentioned:

Groups to follow:

  • Mazatecas Por Libertad (facebook)
  • Presos Politicos de Eloxochitlan de Flores Magon (facebook)

Further reading:

Announcements

Xinachtli Phone Zap Continues

First up, Chicano anarchist prisoner Xinachtli (state name Alvaro Luna Hernandez) was transferred on December 23rd from a hospital in Galveston back into solitary at McConnell Unit in Texas as punishment for the call-in campaign. He’s still lacking access to an ADA-accessible bathroom and shower unit and has not had his property or commissary card returned. According to his supporters, Xinachtli is still experiencing weakness in his legs and has now been forced back into a completely inaccessible space, where he faces a serious risk of another life-threatening fall or injury.

Xinachtli’s supporters demand remains: Xinachtli must be moved out of McConnell into an ADA-accessible facility that can address his medical needs. McConnell has already proven it can’t and won’t provide adequate resources to care for Xinachtli in his current state. They are putting his life in danger.

To learn more about his case, check out our interview with Xinachtli from late 2024, or the earlier recording of him telling the story of his case.

Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike Continues

Four members of the Prisoners for Palestine collective, which we covered in our November 30th 2025 episode, continue their hunger strike with 3 of them at around or beyond 60 days without food as of this recording. As the situation is shifting daily, we suggest you get updates for ways to provide solidarity and the current demands of the hunger strikers at PrisonersForPalestine.org

Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Presente!

Revolutionary Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, returned to the ancestors on November 23, 2025 after 25 years in federal prison. The Imam was convicted in 2002 for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy and Al-Amin continued to be incarcerated despite the video-taped confession of another man with the means and the motivation for the killing. You can find a brief writeup and further readings, right before notes about the state murder by medical neglect of Yorch in the December 10th issue of In Contempt

Stop Cop City RICO Dismissed

Judge Farmer finally decided to dismiss the RICO charges against the 61 defendants in the Stop Cop City case on the grounds that they were filed improperly. This doesn’t remove the domestic terrorism or arson charges against some remaining defendants, and the state says it will refile the RICO charges but for now that’s a little off our comrades’ plates. To learn more, check out our latest episode on the subject from October.

Jessica Reznicek In Transitional Housing

Catholic Worker and pipeline saboteur Jessica Reznicek has entered transitional housing and left prison, proper. You can read her address to the public at the ABCF website. To hear an interview on her case, check out the one linked in our shownotes.

You can write directly to Jess at:

Fresh Start Women’s Center (Women’s Residential Correctional Facility)

1917 Hickman Rd,

Des Moines, IA 50314

Northumberland 2 Has Some Charges Dismissed

Judge Rosini dismissed 11 charges total between defendants Cara and Celeste—including one count of ecoterrorism and several misdemeanors. The two friends from Massachusetts were accused of liberating hundreds of minks from a fur farm in PA that kills thousands of minks every season.

As Phily Anarchist Black Cross says:

There is a pretrial conference in February. After that will come trial.

While this is big and exciting news, the case isn’t over yet. Cara and Celeste still have many charges to fight. Trial will come with extra costs on top of the other legal fees.

You can donate and learn more at phillyabc.org/nu2

Prairieland Defendants Trails Scheduled

Finally from DFW Support Committee:

A date has been set for the start of the Prairieland Defendants’ federal jury trial: February 17th! We have been told by multiple lawyers this date is very unlikely to change. The North Texas federal court circuit in Fort Worth is well know for being fast and firm with trial dates. Also, Dario Sanchez’s state trial is set for 1/12 in Johnson County. This is not a lot of time! We’re calling on supporters everywhere to do everything you can to help the defendants get the best defense possible. That means continued fundraising for expert witnesses and other trial expenses, writing letters to keep their spirits up, and raising awareness to highlight the importance of this case. If you’re able to come to DFW for the trial please do! We will have other concrete asks soon, so please stay tuned!

Letter writing info is available at: https://dfwdefendants.noblogs.org/getinvolved/

Fundraiser links:

  • https://www.givesendgo.com/supportDFWprotestors

  • https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-artist-des-revol-an-immigration-attorney

  • https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-maricelas-family-while-she-fights-for-justice

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Featured track:

  • De Cara A La Pared by Lhasa from La Llorona

Continue reading The Political Repression and Resistance of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca →