Category Archives: activism

activism, Anarchist, Cleveland 4, May Day, Police, Prisons, repression, Security Culture

Gail Stevens, mother of Connor, Cleveland 4 defendant

2012/09/30 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s show features a conversation with Gail Stevens. Gail is the mother of imprisoned activist and anarchist, Connor Stevens, who is one of the four anarchists that the FBI is accusing of attempting to blow up a bridge outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Connor and two other defendants, Brandon Baxter and Doug Wright, have taken a non-cooperating plea deal in the case and face their sentencing hearing on November 5th & 6th of 2012. Joshua Stafford is currently undergoing psychiatric testing to see if he can stand trial. Anthony Hayne took a cooperating plea.

During the interview Gail talks about her son, Connor, and offers a different story than what the FBI and even Rolling Stone Magazine have proposed as to what happened leading up to the arrest of the 5 on April 30th of this year. Gail also rips into the poor journalism involved in “The Plot Against Occupy” and tells us what Sabrina R. Erdely got wrong.

For more info on the case, check out http://cleveland4solidarity.org

For a news excerpt with video of Connor at Occupy, check out:
http://youtu.be/DEpQwuTMALA

activism, ALKQN, Anarchist, Author, communization, conspiracy, CounterInsurgency, Earth & Animal Liberation, General, Grand Jury, History, Immigration, Occupy, PNW, Police, Prisons, repression, Security Culture

Life During Wartime: Counterinsurgency in the U.S.

2012/08/19 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s show features a conversation with William Munger, co-editor and contributor to the upcoming AK Press book, Life During Wartime (2013). We talk about the application of Counterinsurgency praxis by law enforcement domestically in the U.S. and what that looks like in it’s varying forms.

What is COIN (Counterinsurgency)? How is it being applied to movements and communities in the United States? How do we resist it? These are among the topics covered during the conversation.

Among other things, Will’s research has focused on the case study of the relationship and dialogue developed between law enforcement in Salinas, California and the Monterey, California-based Naval Postgraduate School. This relationship has allowed NPS to conduct the beginnings of a proxy-war on the local Latino populations with a focus on eradicating gang networks. Will’s essay, “Social War in the Salad Bowl” won a grant from the Institute for Anarchist Studies this last year.

U.S. Army Field Manual 3-24: Counterinsurgency Warfare
NPS: Gangs and Guerrillas

The playlist for this show can be found at AshevilleFM

activism, Anarchist, communization, General, Police, Prisons, Quebec, repression, Student

STUDENT STRIKE! POPULAR STRUGGLE! / GRÃVE ÃTUDIANTE! LUTTE POPULAIRE!

2012/07/29 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s show features a conversation with Maria, an American-born anarchist and former University student living in Montreal, Quebec. Maria shares with us the context of the student and social strikes of earlier this year in this conversation.

Some more resources on the subject include:
Greve Montreal
Montreal Counter-Info
Bloquons la Hausse
Call Out to block the next semester
a good piece on the student movement
The blog of one of the neighborhood assemblies
Sketchy Thoughts

activism, Anarchist, General, North Carolina, Prisons, Racism, repression

North Carolina Prisoners Initiate Hunger Strikes

2012/07/22 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s show features a conversation with Francis Delaney about the Prison Hunger Strikes that were initiated on Monday, July 16 at three facilities in North Carolina. This action seems to have the potential to spread to other facilities because of the apparent universality of the demands (better/more food, access to legal literature, human contact, an end to torture, an end to mail tampering, medical care). We discuss some context for the strikes and how folks on the outside can get involved and show solidarity.

Chapel Hill Prison Books
Triangle Anarchist Blog
Down: Reflections on Prison Resistance in Indiana

activism, Anarchist, Cleveland 4, conspiracy, General, May Day, Occupy, Prisons, repression, Security Culture

The Case of the Cleveland 4: The FBI, Entrapment & the construction of Terrorists

2012/07/15 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s conversation features a discussion of the case of the Cleveland 4, anarchists arrested in Ohio on April 30th for allegedly attempting to blow up a bridge. But the case isn’t so simple as idealists independently taking direct and spectacular action against infrastructure. As members of Cleveland 4 Justice (the support group for the defendants) share with us information about the accused, what is known about the alleged infiltrator sent by the FBI to facilitate a terror case (Shaquille Azir), and the significance of the timing of the arrests to coincide with May Day celebrations worldwide and the reawakening of the Occupy Movement in the U.S., we see a widened scope of intrigue and entrapment that fits into a bigger picture of corrupt government and self-serving security services.

activism, Anarchist, Antifa, General, Klan, Nazis, Prisons, Racism, repression, TinleyPark5

The Tinley Park Five and Anti-Racist Action (July 1, 2012)

2012/07/01 The Final Straw Radio

The first half of this week’s show features a conversation with Telly of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, an Indiana Anti-Fascist grouping. We’ll talk about the Tinley Park 5, five young men arrested in a suburb south of Chicago and accused of disrupting a white supremacist gathering in early May.

July 21st is the next bail hearing for the Tinley Park 5. July 31st is International Day of Action against Fascism.
The second half of the episode is atmospheric black metal and sludge metal.
https://tinleyparkfive.wordpress.com/
http://antiracistaction.org/

activism, Anarchist, Asheville, gender, General, History, Immigration, Music, Police, Prisons, Queer, repression

What if we could swish AND fight? (2012 Redux of Stonewall show)

2012/06/24 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s show is a conversation with Parks (a member of Tranzmission Prison Project) about Stonewall, the cooptation of it’s rememberance in the form of Pride marches, the split of the liberation movement into the pride movement and continued radical struggles.

The playlist for the show can be found here

activism, Anarchist, Author, gender, General, NATO 5, Police, Prisons, Queer, Racism, repression

Dean Spade on Critical Trans Politics; Freedom For Chris French

2012/05/27 The Final Straw Radio

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/

Before hearing from Dean Spade, though, we hear from Bailey, who’s doing support for Christopher French, an Atlanta Anarchist who’s facing multiple felony charges and has to raise $25,000 to be bonded out in relation to the recent anti-NATO demonstrations in Chicago. More information about Christopher’s case can be found at:
http://freedomforchris.wordpress.com

activism, Anarchist, General, History, Israel, Palestine, repression

Anarchists Against The Wall: Resistance and Solidarity in Palestine (May 20, 2012)

2012/05/20 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s show features an interview with Abrasha Blum and Ruth, who work with Anarchists Against The Wall. AATW is a coalition of Israeli Anarchists doing solidarity work alongside Palestinians struggling against the aparthied wall and system in and around the West Bank. As the 45th anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War approaches (June 5th-10th), we talk about Zionism, the Settlers, solidarity and how folks can support the popular struggles for Palestinian autonomy and dignity. If you have the ability to help them cover legal fees, check out awalls.org and donate.

Main Episode:

Birthright Program Segment

An archive of this show, as well as an extra segment on the Birthright Program and the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement can soon be found on www.archive.org by searching the show title.

Cleveland Anarchists, Pax and Support for Long Term Anarchist Prisoners: Conversations with Will Potter & Ian Coldwater

2012/05/13 The Final Straw Radio

This week’s show features two conversations around the fbi, prisons and Anarchists.

The first is with Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red and blogger at greenisthenewred.com . Will is an award winning, independent journalist based out of Washington, D.C. Our conversation revolves mostly around the recent case of Anarchists in Cleveland entrapped into plotting destruction of infrastructure by the FBI and an informant.

The second conversation is with Ian This show is also in preparation for the upcoming June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. Ian updates us on Marius Mason and Eric McDavid, two of the main focuses of his recent tour of the U.S. called Never Alone, in run-up for June 11th. Ian also speaks about security culture, revolutionary solidarity and growing cultures of resistance, as well as updates us on the cases of Pax in Portland (accused of property destruction) and the Grand Jury in the S.F. Bay Area.

http://www.june11.org
http://www.greenisthenewred.com
http://www.supportmariusmason.org/
http://www.supporteric.org/
http://freepax.org/
http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/

The Final Straw Radio Podcast