Category Archives: Anarchist

Peter Gelderloos on the Failure of Nonviolence

The Failure of Nonviolence
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This week’s episode features an interview with Peter Gelderloos. Peter is the author of “How Nonviolence Protects the State”, “Anarchy Works” and most recently of “The Failure of Nonviolence: From the Arab Spring to Occupy.”

In this hour Peter discusses the arguments in “The Failure…”, surmises the efficacy of nonviolent civil disobedience mass movements since the end of the Cold War, looks at some of the main and most visible supporters of the NVCD and what a more verdant struggle might look like.

Check out the book on the left banks website

For more of Peter’s writings, check out The Anarchist Library

Nihilist Anarchism (July 21, 2013)

Attentat
Cover of a new Nihilist Anarchist journal
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This week’s show features a conversation with one of the editors of the recently released journal of Nihilist Anarchism called Attentat, available from Little Black Cart.

We explore some of the history of the term nihilism and some of the philosophical underpinnings to it, as well as what intellectual nihilism today and active nihilism today look like around the world and in the U.S. in particular. The editor speaks about what they think nihilism can bring to anarchism and vice-versa.

More info on the journal can be found at http://pistolsdrawn.org .

Playlist

When THE MAN knocks, health in the coal fields of West Virginia and METAL/PUNK!

FBI cartoon
freeze…
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This week’s show features two interviews. The first is a conversation is with Mark of Croatan Earth First! about the recent visits by JTTF/FBI to anti-fracking activists on the East Coast, climate-change activists on the West Coast and and GJ-targetted Anarchist communities in NYC.

The second conversation takes place between our friend, Wren Awry (AFM news hour) and Dustin Steele about Dustin’s work with the Beards Fork Health Survey to gather information on the health effects of surface mining in West Virginia with an eye toward mutual aid.

The last half of the show features new songs from Bellicose Minds (PDX), Anniversary (D.C.), Wiccans, and Criminal Damage. And more!

http://www.croatanearthfirst.com
http://www.jerryresists.net
http://ccrjustice.org/if-agent-knocks-%28-booklet%29
https://www.nlg.org
https://nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com/
http://www.sals.info/

Playlist

ALKQN + Richmond CopWatch: Gang-jacketing of radical doing anti-cop organizing (10/14/2012)

All cops are, in fact....
All cops are, in fact….
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This weeks show features 2 interviews. The first is with Savannah, an anarchist working on solidarity with members of the North Carolina tribe of the Almighty Latin Kings & Queens Nation. ALKQN members are facing RICO charges in Federal Court. The trial begins October 22nd, 2012. More info can be found at alkqnsolidarity.com

The second part of the show, we speak with Jeremy, an Anarchist who was invovled in copwatch in the South Barton Heights neighborhood in the north of Richmond, Virginia. Jeremy asserts that he faced increasing harassment and eventually imprisonment for being a vocal and visible proponent of holding cops accountable and spreading the practice of copwatching. For more about Richmond CopWatch, check out wingnutrva.org

The third part of the conversation will concern efforts by law enforcement at many levels to label political organizers as gang members, including those recently arrested in the San Francisco protest against Christopher Columbus Day, Jeremy and those doing support work with ALKQN.

Eddie Falcon: Vet, Rapper, Organizer, Anarchist (August 18, 2013)

Eddie Falcon
Eddie Falcon
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This week’s show features a conversation Eddie Falcon. Eddie is a
Chicano veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan wars who organizes with Iraq Veterans Against The War performs revolutionary hip hop as Forty Thieves and is an anarchist.

Over the hour, Eddie lays down his experiences and views of class, race, patriarchy and militarism.

https://myspace.com/fortythievessf
http://www.ivaw.org

Crime Thought: A conversation with Alden Wood

Crime Thought by Alden Wood
Crime Thought by Alden Wood
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This week on the show we interview Bay Area author Alden Wood about his book “Crime Thought; Theorizing CrimethInc.” published in 2012 by Little Black Cart.

In this interview we discuss the anarchist publishing project CrimethInc., which has been active and extremely prolific since the early 1990’s. It serves as an entry point for many people who are just becoming acquainted with anarchism as a political ideology. We discuss CrimethInc.’s successes and shortcomings as a unified front of political analysis, as well as possible jumping off points for people interested in exploring anarchism further.

Check out the LBC page for the Alden Wood book at Little Black Cart

Also, take a look at Crimethinc‘s website where you can find articles, propaganda and their podcast.

Market Anti-Capitalism: A conversation with Charles W. Johnson

Markets Not Capitalism, edited by G. Chartier & C. Johnson
Markets Not Capitalism, edited by G. Chartier + C. Johnson
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This week’s show features an interview with Charles W. Johnson, an editor and contributor to the new edition “Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty”, just out from Autonomedia Press.

Charles is a market anarchist writer from Auburn, Alabama. He is a member of Occupy Auburn, a Research Associate at the Molinari Institute and an alumnus of Auburn University. He has published the Rad Geek People’s Daily weblog at radgeek.com since 2001, and is a frequent speaker and columnist on radical responses to the economic crises, stateless social activism and the philosophy of anarchism.

We discuss definitions of Capitalism, critiques from Left Libertarians and possible market alternatives. We also touch on racism, regulation, and class struggle.

Charles will be speaking about this new compilation at Firestorm Books and Cafe, 48 Commerce St in Asheville at 6pm on Thursday, March 15 (Tyrannicide Day).

http://radgeek.com/gt/2011/10/14/markets-not-capitalism-1st-ed/
http://charleswjohnson.name/

A (proxy) conversation with a Turkish Anarchist & Metal

March in Istanbul on May Day 2013
March in Istanbul on May Day 2013
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This week’s episode of the final straw features our light-handed curation of another project’s work. We bring y’all an english language interview with a member of a Karakeok Autonome (http://www.karakok.org/), a Swiss-Turkish anarchist grouping related to the International of Anarchist Federations. The interview was conducted, translated and rerecorded by our comrades at Anarchistisches Radio Berlin. Their work can be found in multiple european languages at http://aradio.blogsport.de . Check them out.

The latter half of the show is metal and crust. This episode features a track from the new Damascus, Syria-based thrash project called Anarchadia, as well as new tracks from SF’s Deafheaven, LA’s Solus and Aberdeen’s Fifteen Dead.

Cheers!

Playlist is available here.

West Coast prisoner strikes of July 8 and eco-resistance in northern Wisconsin (July 7, 2013)

Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Solidarity
Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Solidarity
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This weeks episode features 2 conversations. The first is an interview with Ed Mead, editor of CA Prison Focus newsletter, an ex-con and a media outreach person as re the CA prisoner hunger and work strikes beginning tomorrow, July 8, 2013. If you’ll recall, there were hunger strikes that spread throughout dozens of prisons around the western portions of the United States. The main demands of many of the prisoners included more an end to collective punishment, ending the debriefing/snitching system, ending long-term solitary confinement, provide adequate and nutritive food and other things. William of the Final Straw discusses the demands and plans of the current campaign and solidarity actions that are planned to coincide with Mr. Mead.
https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

The second half of the episode is a conversation with Krow of Penokee Defense. Krow talks about the area she lives in in Northern Wisconsin, the Penokee Hills, and the danger being posed by a potential iron-ore/taconite pit mine as well as the spectrum of resistance that project has faced and how folks across the country can contribute to pressuring the company to give up the project and save this beautiful and important place.
https://penokeedefenders.wordpress.com/
http://www.alecwc.org/

NSA leaks and computer security

nsa_leak
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This week’s episode features two conversations. The first is with Micah Lee of the Electronic Frontier Foundation about the NSA leaks and what information that came out of it (at the time of this show’s airing) was actually new and a general overview of what government surveillance in the U.S. looks like over computers.

The second conversation is with the Bay Area-based hacker, Bill Silverfox. Bill works with Hackmeet.org. We spend most of the hour discussing different communication technologies that most of us take for granted and talk about what can be done to use those mediums more safely.

Here’s a short list of projects worth checking out:

https://ssd.eff.org : The Surviellance Self-Defense project by the EFF has tons of information about technology and what’s known about tracking over those mediums. Also, check out https://www.eff.org for more general information, links to the https everywhere add-on for Mozilla Firefox.

https://optin.stopwatching.us/?r=eff : a petition site set up in response to the NSA spying revelations.

https://torproject.org : Information and tools developed for freer and more secure use of the web. This project helps provide and protect anonymity of activists, journalists and other folks around the world, including in countries with strict internet censorship. You can download a more secure web-browser from them, too! It’s pretty rad. But, as their website points out, it’s not just your browser but how you traverse the web that can be a dealbreaker. This project has helped to secure communications among activists struggle against the state worldwide.

https://www.riseup.net : An amazing resource for anti-state, anti-capitalist, anti-oppression activists. They provide social-networking (via crabgrass), email, lists, information on web security, document sharing (via etherpad), news, chat, vpn and MORE! This project is pretty darn internally secure AND has refused to hand over information before. Plus, these little birds need some funds.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/the-nsa-files : Check out the ever-growing and increasingly embarassing (for the U.S. security apparatus, that is) scandal from the paper that’s releasing Snowden’s reports.

http://hackmeet.org/ : A project created to facilitate the spreading of hacker awareness and skills on the (post)left coast.

http://zinelibrary.info/files/savethecellphonesforthesnitches.pdf : “London Calling: a cellphone and internet security primer for the criminally-minded anarchist” is quite a good read, explaining some of the case histories that are the bases for our knowledge of surveillance and safer operations.

http://www.enigmail.net/ : is one of the better and more accessible pgp (pretty good protection) email interfaces. Works great with Mozilla Thunderbird email.

https://www.noblogs.org This italian-based blog-hoster for political websites. They host OUR archives @ https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org