This being the first episode of The Final Straw Radio to broadcast on WSFM-LP 103.3 in Asheville, North Carolina: here’s a little intro, plus new Swain segment on his silencing and then an hour of neo-goth rock, post punk, punk & metal from aaaaalllll over the world.
This week’s episode features a couple of announcements about the upcoming June 11th Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason, Eric McDavid and Longterm Anarchist and Eco Prisoners. For info on the cases of Eric & Marius and other folks needing support, along with ideas of what solidarity might look like, check out http://june11.org [Please note that Marius Mason’s deadname is used as this is before he publicly announced his transition]
Here in Asheville, there will be a 4pm picnic at Carrier Park where folks will talk about June 11th, Eric & Marius’s cases, solidarity and prison realities. Food will be present, but bring your own sides to share, especially if you have dietary restrictions.
At 9pm on June 11th, there’ll be a show at the Odditorium. The benefit requests a $5-20 donation. Bands include Aneides and Uninhabitable from Asheville, Burnt Books from South Carolina and Harsh Words from Georgia. Items’ll be raffled off and there’ll be plenty of info available and folks to chat with. On Fakebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1452424341665913/
For more events in your town, check out june11.org. Also announced was the online art exhibition curated by the Earth First! Prisoner Support Project and featuring the work of 23 different artists, many of whom are eco-prisoners. Check out http://neveraloneart.org for flyers and more info. It’ll be up and online from June 11th to June 30th.
Bursts read a statement by Sean on this episode concerning the U.S. economy and the role that counterfeiting money plays in it. Very informative, as always.
Following the announcements, we heard Cervidae, Ancient Oak, Deafest and more! Check out the playlist here
This week’s episode features a presentation by members of Tranzmission Prison Project, an Asheville-based group. TPP is described on their tumblr as “Prison abolitionists against Queer & Trans* incarceration “. This is a recording of group members presenting their LGBTQQIA Prisoner Realities workshop recently at Warren Wilson College.
Trigger warning: This episode discusses sexual assault, solitary confinement and other torturous punishments.
For more info on this project, check out:
http://www.tranzmissionprisonproject.org/
Anne Petermann, of the Global Justice Ecology Project, joins us this week to talk about the threats posed by Genetically Engineered Trees getting released into the U.S. as the USDA considers allowing Arborgen to found millions of acres of plantations across the southern U.S. These plantations, reaching from Texas to South Carolina, where the company is based, could destroy forest diversity, kill wildlife, exacerbate droughts, feed fire storms (not Firestorm), and spread quickly with the help of cold-resistant gene modification.
In the last week of May, Asheville will be hosting a Biotech Tree conference. Concurrently, Katuah Earth First! and GJEP (along with other projects) will be holding protests and workshops around the issues of GE Trees to educate the public and grow resistance.
http://www.treebiotech2013.org/
http://globaljusticeecology.org/stopgetrees.php
On Mapuche resistance in Chile, check out:
https://chileboliviawalmapu.wordpress.com/
http://wccctoronto.wordpress.com/
The tracklist can be found here
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
This week’s show will be a conversation with Saro Lynch-Tomason and Kila Donovan, members of the Asheville May Day Choir about music, resistance, history and the upcoming May Day celebrations in Asheville. Saro and Kila are also members of the band, Red Wind. The show features in-studio renditions of some beautiful resistance songs that we’ll be hearing this year. The two jamboree shows will be a benefit for Blair Pathways.
http://www.blairpathways.com/
http://redwindmusic.com/
from http://www.ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw/01/2012/needle-exchange-harm-reduction-and-disease-prevention-in-wnc :
This weeks show is an interview with Michael Harney, the coordinator of the NEPA (Needle Exchange Program of Asheville) and, in a different capacity, works with WNCAP (Western North Carolina Aids Project). He’s done this work and gained notoriety and helped many to help themselves since 1994. During the hour, Michael informs Bursts about the history of these two groups, where they stand today, harm reduction in general, and the attacks and withdrawals of government at it’s many levels in illegal-izing the exchange of dirty needles (for disposal) with clean ones as politicians change.
Michael Harney, Coordinator, Needle Exchange Program of Asheville (NEPA), 828-274-8397
also works with Western North Carolina AIDS Project (WNCAP) www.wncap.org 828-252-7489 ext. 311
1-800-CDC-INFO (800-232-4636) www.cdc.gov Centers for Disease Control and Prevention â info about HIV/AIDS services, testing, condoms, needle exchange programs, STDs, and Hepatitis
Bursts spent the hour speaking with Martin Ramsey, a wob who’s also a member of the Occupy Asheville Anti-Authoritarian Anti-Capitalist Caucus (Anti-Anti). We talk about some of the potentials of the Occupy movement and the place of anarchists, autonomists and other like-minded folks in the Asheville wing of it.
from AFM
Today’s show featured an interview with with Bender, a volunteer with Tranzmission Prison Project. From their facebook, “The Tranzmission Prison Project is an Asheville, NC based group which offers support for queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people who are incarcerated. This support comes in the form of providing people with books, zines, resource lists and penpals.” We talk about the group, Prison Abolition and how to get people involved. Contact them at tranzmissionprisonproject@gmail.com
But, first, we talk a bit about Occupy Asheville and the resumption of hunger strikes by prisoners in CA. Prisoners there are claiming that the state officials have not implemented any of the rights demanded by hunger strikers in July. AND the CDCR (California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation) has stated that it will be punishing hunger strikers as if they were rioters. Please support their cause, starting by visiting Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity to keep up on news.
(originally posted at
http://www.ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw/09/2011/occupy-wall-street-in-asheville)
200 to 300 bodies occupy the space and sleep on the street right next to Wall Street, financial hub of the east coast. To some, the place symbolizes the living and breathing Sacre Coeur of Capitalism, the highest stage of human global awareness and economy. A system offering to break down monolithic governments and swap them for more democratic ones and to scoop the ingenious and hard working out of poverty, it’s promoters often present it as a panacea. Capitalism’s detractors range from the belief that it’s a necessary evil to an alienator of communities and a destroyer of worlds.
This Friday will mark day 13 of the Occupy Wall Street protest. Those occupying the space of Liberty Plaza were definitely influenced by the occupation movements of the “Arab Spring” and the attempted anti-electoral occupations in Spain and have set off many related, if smaller, occupations around the United States (Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles…. in fact 64 listed in total so far in North American and 12 internationally found on occupytogether.org). This Friday, we’ll discuss the movement and the upcoming (Saturday, Oct 01) protest in solidarity with the occupy movement as well as other related initiatives coming out of Asheville.