Category Archives: activism

activism, Anarchist, Ben Turk, Earth & Animal Liberation, Eric McDavid, gender, General, June 11, Marius Mason, Michael Kimble, Missouri, Music, Prisons, Queer, Sean Swain

June 11th, inmate drugging at SECC Missouri & Sean Swain updates

june11.org
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This episode of The Final Straw is served in three portions, all concerning prisons and prisoners.

Before the segments begin, a couple of announcements concerning upcoming events in Asheville, North Carolina for the days surrounding June 11th and the International Day of Solidarity with Long Term Anarchist and Eco Prisoners. These events include a Books to Prisoners open house at Downtown Books & News on Thursday the 11th at 3:30, a showing of a documentary about Mumia Abu-Jamal at 7:30pm at Firestorm that night and a dance party and pie auction on the night of the 13th at the Odditorium. Facebook pages exist for these events, with details listed.

Also in there is mention of the call-out for Monday the 8th & every Friday to protest the Durham County Jail’s refusal to allow prisoners there the chance to get out of their cells for more than 2 hours a week. For more info on this struggle against the so-called Lockback, check out http://amplifyvoices.com

First among the segments, following commentary by Sean Swain, we’ll hear an up date on his situation from his friend and supporter, Ben Turk. Sean’s outgoing communication has been blocked, so his segment has had to go underground. This is in repsonse to Sean speaking up for another prisoner and using his outside support network to press the prisons after a racist attack by guards on a fellow prisoner at Lucasville. More at http://seanswain.org

Following that, we hear from Jenny of Sacramento Prisoner Support about the call-out for the upcoming June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Eric McDavid, Marius Mason & Long Term Anarchist and Eco Prisoners. Jenny tells us about the history of June 11th, talks about differences in the circumstance of June 11th for this year, and other aspects of prisoner support. More info on June 11th can be found at http://june11.org

Finally, we talk to Brianna Peril & Tommy Powell from the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee & the Missouri Innocence Project (respectively) about prisons in Missouri and what appears to be the psychiatrization and forced drugging of inmates at the SouthEast Correctional Center (SECC) outside of Charleston, Missouri, and this week’s call-in-campaign to pressure the jailers to stop the process and bring more transparency to the situation. More about the call-in can be found on the fakebook page for the event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/405416019661232/
Linked from there is the fakebook page for IWOC.
The page for Midwest Innocence Project, affiliated with the MO Innocence Project can be found here: http://themip.org/

The episode is capped by a sludge metal track by General Grievous. More info in the playlist.

5E3, activism, Anarchist, Anti-Civ, Earth & Animal Liberation, Earth First!, Environment, General, Hunger Strike, Indigenous, Mexico, Prisons, Quebec, repression

5e3 prisoners are released, Updates on Krow of Penokee Defenders, Hunger Strikes at OSP Youngstown and music

https://penokeedefenders.wordpress.com/
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This week’s show, we rebroadcast an interview from 2013 with Krow, aka Katie Kloth, followed by updates on the 2-week old hunger strike at OSP Youngstown, the release of the 5e3 prisoners in Mexico & recent metal, deathrock and punk from around the world.

Krow is an anarchist, environmental and indigenous rights activist. At the time of the original interview, Krow had been facing charges stemming from a protest where eco-activists found workers from Global Taconite, a mineral mining company attempting to extract iron ore from the hills of Iron County, Wisconsin, secretly test-drilling. Krow was charged with throwing a worker’s camera away and minor assault which was caught on a video. A link to the video will be included in this episode’s blog post.

Krow was sentenced to 9 months in jail this January, 2015. In addition, according to the Ashland Daily Press, Krow will have five years of probation with the felony charge and two years with the misdemeanor including a work release where they’ll be pressed to work a full-time job as a way of normalizing them and their activities. Otherwise known as domestication. Krow is now also facing charges from District Attorney Martin Lipske of bail jumping for allegedly participating in an anniversary protest in a “forbidden zone” in the Penokkee range controlled by Global Taconite along with 45 other people. Lipske appears to have it out for Krow, who had initially filed charges could have resulted in a 15 year sentence for Krow.

After the conversation with Krow, I’ll read their post-sentencing statement. For more on the case, check out http://penokeedefenders.wordpress.com & http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2015/01/22/wisconsin-eco-activist-krow-sentenced-to-9-months-for-2013-mining-disruption/

You can write to Krow at:
Katie Kloth
Iron County Jail
300 Taconite Street
Hurley, WI 54534

Also this hour we announce the recent news of the release of Amelie, Carlos & Fallon from prison in Mexico on March 13th. They were charged with a molotov attack January 5th of 2014 on a Nissan dealership and the neighboring government offices of the Mexican Department of Transportation and Communication and had faced serious charges relating to terrorism because people were in the government office at the time. The 3 collectively were known as the 5e3. Amelie and Fallon, both Quebecoise, were deported back to Canada. We’re happy that they’ve been able to rejoin their friends and loved ones and that Carlos Lopez Martin with his child.
To hear some words from Amelie & Fallon while they were imprisoned in Mexico, check out our website.
Translations of their letters can be found here: http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/?tag=5e3

Also of note in prison-related things:

From LucasvilleAmnesty.org

On Monday March 16th, over 30 supermax prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary went on hunger strike. Warden Jay Forshey and OSP staff are refusing to meet their demands or negotiate with them. Some of the hunger strikers have not even been met and consulted with regarding their demands. Eleven prisoners remain on hunger strike and are committed to staying through to the end, if necessary.

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activism, Capitalism, Eldorado Gold Corporation, Environment, General, Greece, Prisons, Sean Swain

Anti-Gold-Mining resistance at Skouries in Chalkidiki, Greece

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This week on The Final Straw, we feature an update from Sean Swain, who’s just been moved along with other people in his security level at Ohio State Prison in Youngstown to SOCF Lucasville. Information on his new call-in campaign can be found at: http://seanswain.org/support-sean-resisting-harassment-at-socf/
His new address is:

Sean Swain
243-205
P. O. Box 45699
1724 State Rt. 728
Lucasville, Ohio 45699

Also, a description of an ongoing uprising in Texas prisons can be found here: http://www.anarchistnews.org/content/2000-prisoners-riot-and-destroy-south-texas-immigration-prison

For the majority of the episode, a comrade in Greece has provided us with interviews concerning the resistance to the gold extraction and refining destroying Mt Skouries in Chalkidiki, Greece. The mining and refining are going to line the pockets of the Vancouver-headquartered company called Eldorado Gold Corporation. Resistance to this mining in Northeastern Greece has been in it’s current phase since 2006.

First, we’ll hear portions of our friend’s conversation with a young activist and her mother at a blockade on Skouries about some of the economic alternatives locals are trying to create to remove reliance on mining jobs that destroy their land, air and water. They also speak about the resistance as it’s developed over the years and some of the methods Eldorado Gold Corp has been trying to implement to drain the water-table in the mountain in order to aid the mining process.

Next, our friend speaks with Heli and a friend about more of the history of resistance to the mining there, changes in organizing that’ve occurred, waves of repression by the Greek State. They’ll also touch briefly on expectations (or the lack thereof) among the residents of that region of the current leftist Syriza regime’s political will to stop the destruction of the environment around Skoures. The Syriza Party’s Energy Minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, has pledged to do everything it can within the law to block the Skouries mining by Eldorado Gold Corp.

More on the struggle there can be found in English at http://antigoldgr.org/en/, http://soshalkidiki.wordpress.com/category/in-english and in greek at http://saveskouries.blogspot.com

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activism, Capitalism, General, Hunger Strike, Labor, Prison Strike, Prisons, Racism

Free Alabama + Mississippi Movements in prisons + updates on Sean Swain

freealabamamovement.com
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Prior to the main portion of this week’s episode, we hear a Sean Swain segment and also Ben Turk comes on to talk about difficulties Sean’s currently facing (for instance beginning a hunger strike on Monday due to shenanigans by officials at OSP, where Sean is being held, and possibly JPAY (the company that contracts communication with Ohio’s DRC) that have limited his communications again.

It is suggested that folks concerned called the boss of the ODRC Lead Council Trevor Clark’s boss (Stephen Grey 614 752 1765). More on this can be found here: http://seanswain.org/support-seans-hunger-strike-call-the-odrc-on-monday/

The majority of this week’s episode is a conversation with incarcerated members of the Free Alabama & Mississippi Movements. The FAMMC (now including inmates in California as well) is an inmate-drive non-violent, civil disobedience movement with the goal of bettering the situations of prisoners, challenging the profits of prison corporations and departments of correction, ending the impunity of wardens and guards and abolishing the “new slavery” of mass incarceration in the U.S.

Due to the poor connection with the guests, some of the audio is difficult to hear, so a transcript should be posted in a few days at ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw where this post can be found and later at thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org (oh yeah?  where is that, now?)

Melvin Ray (aka Bennu Hannibal Ra(y)-Sun) at St. Clair Correctional Facility/SCCF and R.EARL (aka Kinetic Justice Amun) at Holman/HCF near Atmore, AL, two founders of the Free Alabama Movement along with a member of the Free Mississippi Movement break down mass incarceration, the forms of struggle they’re taking, the economic underpinning to prison labor and prison privatization, issue of sanitation, diet, cost to inmates and family of incarceration, assault and rape in Women facilities, networking across state borders… M & Kinetic also talk about the recent lock-downs at their facilities.

A call-out for folks on the outside to pressure the administrations of these AL facilities to get rid of Warden Davenport (St. Clair, formerly Tutwiler) & Bobby Barrett can be found here: http://prisonbooks.info/2015/01/30/help-stop-the-reign-of-terror-by-alabama-prison-officials/

A post concerning the lockdowns from a few days ago but with information on the death row hunger strikes at Holman facility can be found here: https://denverabc.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/fam-press-release-protest-at-st-clair-prison-in-alabama/

An upcoming way for folks around the country to get involved in this movement is to share the information of the FAMMC with folks on the inside and try to help them to get involved in the movement. Keep up on the upcoming pushes to protest at and outside of prisons around Alabama, Mississippi and more by checking out their facebook and twitter pages. These groups are planning to focus demonstrations and campaigns against McDonalds Restaurants (which use prison labor to make it’s burger patties, uniforms and more) and other businesses that are all around us that contract prisoner labor to make a profit.

These folks run a weekly (often up to 3 times a week) podcast-radio show called The People’s Platform that can be listened to and called into when live or found as archives. More on this show can be found at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freealabamamovement

For more information generally about the FAMM, check out their main website at: http://freealabamamovement.com/

A recent report about the violence (sexual and otherwise) perpetrated by officials against the prisoners at the Juliet Tutwiler Women’s Facility in Alabama (at which the current warden of St. Clair, Curtis Davenport, who’s overseen this rise of violence was once an official), check out this US DOJ report from January of last year: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/tutwiler_findings_1-17-14.pdf

For the book that M. Ray has written about the goals and background of the Free Alabama Movement: http://freealabamamovement.com/FREE%20ALABAMA%20MOVEMENT.pdf

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activism, Anarchist, Author, communization, CounterInsurgency, General, Philosophy, Police, Security Culture, Tom Nomad

Tom Nomad on Insurgent Theory

http://isiw.noblogs.org
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This week, Bursts speaks with Tom Nomad. Tom is a midwest-based anarchist who authored The Master’s Tools: Warfare and Insurgent Possibility and a member of the Institute for the Study of Insurgent Warfare, which recently published the first issue of Insurgencies: A Journal on Insurgent Strategy. Tom talks about anarchist approaches towards ethics and strategic choices, the Insurrectionalist turn in North America and the growing focus among many of a study of Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency for the purpose of reframing our struggle against State, Capital and other enemies. There’s also brief discussions on Deep Green Resistance, ISIS, YPD, Policing, Summit hopping and more!

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activism, Author, Capitalism, Dean Spade, Feminism, gender, General, Music, Neoliberalism, Prisons, Queer, Racism, Rebroadcast

Dean Spade on “Normal Life” (rebroadcast) + metal + punk

http://www.deanspade.net/
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“This week features a conversation with attorney, educator and trans activist, Dean Spade about his new book, “Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the limits of law”, just out from South End Press. Normal Life is a finalist for the 2012 Lambda Literary Awards. Follow Mr. Spade’s writing at http://www.deanspade.net/”

In the conversation, we discuss “mainstreaming” efforts by liberal LGBTQI organizations towards pressing for same-sex marriage, removal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, hate crimes legislation and other reformist measures in the U.S. Dean contrasts these efforts and visions with abolitionism. We also discuss calls for justice in the wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin, attempts to reform aspects of the Prison Industrial Complex and discuss Foucaultian models of power in society.

Following the interview, we featured tracks from Skaphe, Youth Avoiders, Oblivionation and more for the last half of an hour.

activism, General, Music

Music for the week of 11/16/2014 plus upcoming events

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This week’s episode features some announcements of upcoming online and local to North Carolina events in the next week and UTTERLY forgets to mention the (Another) Carrboro Anarchist Bookfaire or ACAB), totally on accident. Check out info on the bookfaire next weekend at http://carrboroanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com/

The playlist is present, and includes new releases from Seeds in Barren Fields, Parusía, Bereft and much more!

For the fundraiser to help pay for heating and cooking fuel and warm clothing for the folks in need a Pine Ridge, South Dakota this winter, check out https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=hoffjames25%40yahoo.com&lc=US&item_name=The+American+Indians&currency_code=USD&bn=PP-DonationsBF%3Abtn_donateCC_LG.gif%3ANonHosted

At Warren Wilson College at 7pm on Monday the 17th at the Canon Lounge, Aragorn! of anarchistnews.org, Little Black Cart and a co-editor/contributor to Black Seed will be talking about that journal and his conceptions of green anarchism.

At 6pm on Tuesday the 18th at Downtown Books & News, Aragorn! will be present to speak on the same fore-mentioned topics.

In Raleigh on 11/19, there’ll be a day of events around the disappearance of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico. Starts at 10AM at the Mexican consulate.

On 11/20 at 5pm at the Vance Monument in AVL, there’ll be a demonstration in solidarity with striking people across Mexico around the case of Ayotzinapa.

At 7pm that same day, there’ll be a walk from the Civic Center to Vance in recognition of Trans Day of Remberence when we remember our siblings stolen by this cys-hetero-patriarchal society.

activism, Author, Capitalism, Da Bay, General, Gentrification, Neoliberalism

Dispatches Against Displacement in San Francisco: a convo with James Tracy

http://dispatchesagainstdisplacement.org/
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Do you feel insecure with your living situation? Rents always on the rise while wages stagnate? Getting priced out of your neighborhood? Want some ideas on how you might strike back and who against?

This week, Bursts spoke with James Tracy about gentrification and displacement in San Francisco and elsewhere. In his recent book, Dispatches Against Displacement maps some of James’ nearly 25 year struggles around housing rights in SF, mostly in The Mission District, as well as larger histories of the struggle to grow and sustain communities on commodified lands. James is a co-founder of the San Francisco Land Trust, former member of the Mission Anti-displacement Coalition and other groups. We discuss Dot-Com, Tech 2.0, Urban Renewal, Spatial Displacement and more.

More writings by James can be found here: http://dispatchesagainstdisplacement.org/

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activism, Anarchist, communization, Environment, France, gender, Testet, ZAD

ZAD du Testet: The struggle against a dam

www.collectif-testet.org
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This week’s episode features a conversation with Paul and Camille from the ZAD du Testet. ZAD du Testet, as they will explain, is a land occupation in the southwestern department of Tarn, France. Farmers, residents and activists are struggling to stop the building of a dam that would flood the lands of some farmers for the purpose of irrigating other farmer’s lands in order to facilitate the growing of large amounts of corn, probably for animal agriculture. The flooding would also destroy the wetlands of that area and destabilize the ecology further. Taking the model of the ZAD, or Zone a defendre against the building of an airport in Notre Dame de Landes in eastern france of which we’ve spoken a lot on this show, the people struggling against the dam in Testet have been occupying the lands slated for deforestation in relation to the dam building and have recently been evicted from their occupation.

Paul and Camille speak about the methods of struggle being employed, the folks involved in the struggle, the use of far-right thugs to intimidate and attack those holding the ZAD du testet and more. More info in french is available at http://tantquilyauradesbouilles.wordpress.com or at http://www.collectif-testet.org

http://tantquilyauradesbouilles.wordpress.com/
http://www.collectif-testet.org

Playlist: http://www.ashevillefm.org/node/10268

activism, Alexander Abbasi, Anarchist, Ben Turk, Ferguson, General, Palestine, Prisons, Racism

North American Anarchist Black Cross Conference; Alexander Abbasi on Ferguson & Decolonization of Palestine

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/ek5vc/ab/f3E260
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This episode features two conversations. The first is with Ben Turk, anarchist, playwrite and prison abolitionist. We chat briefly about the upcoming North American Anarchist Black Cross conference in Colorado, about what folks can expect if they go and how to support the event.

After that, a conversation with Alexander Abbasi. Alex is a Palestinian-American from Los Angeles, an activist in the BDS (that’s boycott, divest and sanctions movement against the Israeli occupation of Palestine) and a student at Harvard’s divinity school. We talk about decolonization, the uprisings in Ferguson, the struggle to liberate Palestine from the occupation by Israel and what solidarity and liberation might look like.

Initially, when I (Bursts) contacted Alex for this conversation I was attempting to suss out what anarchists in Palestine had to say about the siege of Gaza by Israel, the national question, what Anarchism looked like to them and what how that might differ from the U.S. context. That’s a conversation I’m still looking to have. Alex was kind enough to have a conversation but it went in a different, albeit worthwhile direction as is clear when one listens to the questions that I ask. We hope that you enjoy it. The second half of it will be featured in an upcoming episode and will be linked here soon.

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