This week, The Final Straw takes pleasure in re-presenting a conversation with Layla AbdelRahim about her book, “Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness”. She is an anarchaprimitivist who explores ideas of education, domestication and civilization in terms of childhood development and overall human health. In these excerpts from the conversation we define some terms and talk about instrumentalization of living things and symbolic thought and how they are used to shape the child’s mind into the civilized and non-empathic perspective. Info on the book can be found at http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca
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!
This week is a rebroadcast of William Goodenuff’s interview of last year with Paul. Z. Simons of Modern Slavery Magazine. The description will be found below. This week, Sean talks about Keith “Bomani Shakur” Lamar’s ongoing court appeal for his life. More updates on Lamar’s case can be found at http://www.lucasvilleamnesty.org , including audio from some of the court proceedings.
“This week William talks with Paul Z. Simons, a contributor to and editor of the journal Modern Slavery; A Libertarian Critique of Civilization available at http://modernslavery.calpress.org. Mr. Simons is also an essayist and former contributor/editor of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and Out of Anarchy among other projects. Modern Slavery delves into the conception of a modern slavery through an explicitly radical discussion of the history and present condition of wage economies and wage slavery. In addition, the journal showcases poetry, short stories, book reviews, and art. If you wish to become a contributor, you can do so through the journals website.
Among other topics, William and Paul discuss the inspiration for and inception of the journal, some forms a post collapse society could take, other forms of modern day slavery, and the socially chaotic potential of horror movies.”
On this week’s show, Disembodied Voice speaks with Andrew Zonneveld, managing editor at On Our Own Authority! Publishing, and editor of a recent collection of essays entitled “The Commune: Paris, 1872”. On Our Own Authority! is an Atlanta-based autonomous research press that has put out over a dozen titles since its founding only two short years ago. “The Commune: Paris, 1872” is a short collection of articles and essays in which various anarchist writers react to and reflect on this momentous event: a 71-day rebellion which, before it was crushed, saw the Parisian working class carry out some fairly inspirational experiments in radical democracy and worker self-management, all without anyone telling them how! The articles within the collection span a period beginning just after the Commune has fallen, through to the 1960s, providing a fascinating range of historical moments from which to view this important episode in radical action.
The presumed topic of the interview was the rich revolutionary history and legacy of the Paris Commune, but the ensuing conversation takes many an interesting and unexpected turn, with Zonneveld sharing his research and thoughts on an array of topics, from Voltairine de Cleyre’s involvement in the Mexican Revolution, to slave rebellions in Guyana, to the intersections between the anarchist and feminist movements in early 20th century Japan.
This week’s we’re presenting the second half of my conversation with Dilar Dirik, Kurdish feminist and anti-capitalist, about the Rojava Revolution. The Rojava Revolution, as we spoke of in the last episode, is the name for the Kurdish-initiated project to organize stateless communities in Northern Syria into 3 autonomous cantons in the wake of Syrian State withdrawal during the progress of the civil war in that country. Rojava is West in Kurdish and refers to the communities of Kurds living in that area as distinguished from Kurds living and struggling inside of the borders of Iraq, Iran & Turkey. Folks aligned with the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, in Rojava have been among the people fighting against incursion by Islamic State militants.
After hearing from Dilar, we’ll be hearing a segment shared by the folks from Anarchistisches Radio Berlin, which they worked together from audio recorded by Furia de Radio, an anarchist programme on 97 Irratia FM in Bilbao, Euskadi. It can be heard every Friday at 7pm in the Basque Country, or on http://www.mixcloud.com/FuriaDeRadio. The folks at Furia de Radio conducted an interview with Nicky Danesh, an Iranian anarchist living in exile in Australia this September. More content from Anarchistisches Radio Berlin can be found at http://aradio.blogsport.de in German, English, Spanish, French and more.
This week we’ll hear Dilar continue to speak about the Rojava Social Revolution, the Kurdish Women’s movements media representation of women in Rojava and in the YPJ Star militias fighting against ISIL, if there’s an overlap between anarchism and Democratic Confederalism and more. The first half of this conversation can be found here.
A quick reminder to those in the Asheville area this week: Leslie will be speaking at Warren Wilson College in Black Mountain this Monday, the 3rd at 7pm in the Canon Lounge about his life and continued activism despite constant sureveilance!. Leslie James Pickering – former head of the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office (NAELFPO), author, publisher, and co-founder of the Buffalo, NY bookstore, Burning Books – has endured heavy state repression for years. Leslie will discuss the current ongoing FBI investigation into his work and life as well as his extensive legal campaign to resist this surveillance. This is a free event. https://www.facebook.com/events/729763163770135/
Can’t make it out to Warren Wilson? On Tuesday, Leslie will be speaking at Downtown Books & News on Lexington Ave in Asheville at 6pm on Tuesday, November 4th. This is another free event. https://www.facebook.com/events/1419215874989621/
On Wednesday, there’ll be a benefit vegetarian dinner with music offered at the Wine Hause at 86 Patton Avenue. All proceeds will go to the Kurdish Red Crescent, offering free emergency health aid to the people of Rojava, in particular in the beseiged canton of Kobane. This event runs from 6:30 to 8:30pm. http://bit.ly/aid4rojava
Finally, on Wednesday night at the Odditorium, on Haywood Rd in West Asheville, at 10pm there will be the opening salvo of a hopefully ongoing queer dance party series and safer space entitled Cake. This night’ll feature a performance by Bootz Durango from Charlotte and it’s suggested that queers and allies come dressed as their favorite confections. https://www.facebook.com/events/1500284163556631/
This week’s episode features a Sean Swain segments (Reformism), an request from segregation by Michael Kimble for outreach to keep his brain sharp, and most of an hour of metal and punk a from around the world. Featured music includes: a track from thenew YOB album, “Clearing The Path to Ascend”; a song from Torch Runner’s upcoming release in October, Endless Nothing; a track from a metal comp to support international access to abortions by Schattenlicht and more!
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
This week we spoke with Jerry Koch, an anarchist who was coercively imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury in New York City, about Luke O’Donovan’s legal case.
From Luke’s support website:
“On New Year’s Eve of 2013, Luke O’Donovan attended a house party in Reynoldstown, a neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. Luke was seen dancing with and kissing other men at the party. Later in the night he was insulted with homophobic slurs, and attacked by several people at once. Luke unsuccessfully attempted to escape, at which point several witnesses reported watching between 5 and 12 men ganging-up on Luke and stomping on his head and body, evidently with the intent to kill him. Luke was called a faggot before and during the attack. Throughout the course of the attack, Luke and five others were stabbed. Luke was subsequently imprisoned and charged with five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as well as one count of attempted murder. He spent two and a half weeks in jail without bond before being released under bond conditions that drastically affected his life. None of the other individuals involved in the altercation were charged.”
On August 12th of this year, Luke O’Donovan took a plea deal, which reduced his sentence of up to 110 years in prison to 2 years in prison with 8 years of probation alongside criminal banishment. Luke’s supporters – as well as The Final Straw participants – believe that the choice to plead guilty was coercively enacted by the court systems and the state and Luke is thoroughly supported in having to have made that choice.
We speak with Jerry Koch about the particulars of this case, what anarchist interaction with the court system can look like, as well as of his own case and his thoughts thereupon. We also speak about supporting folks who are incarcerated and the various forms that support could take, as well as things that folks doing support might consider.
For more information about the status of Luke O’Donovan’s case, and for information on how to send him mail, you can visit: http://letlukego.wordpress.com
This week we get to speak with Amélie Trudeau and Fallon Rouiller. Amelie and Fallon, alongside Carlos Lopez Marin, make up the 5E3, who are being charged by the mexican state for an arson of a Nissan dealership and the neighboring ministry of communication and transportation in January of this year. We talk about prison, freedom, dignity, solidarity and more. For more info on the case of the 5E3, check out our episode of August 10th, 2014, where you can find links to sources of their writings and updates.
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.
