This week, you’ll hear my conversation with Mutt, editor of a new and incomplete Black Autonomy Reader, contributor to Muntjac Magazine, Organise! Magazine and Seditionist Distro. We speak about Black Anarchism, intellectual property, community self-defense in response to the racist riots that spread around the UK in August of 2024 as well as other topics. And keep an ear out for an interview on the ItsGoingDown podcast with Mutt as well.
This week, I spoke with two members of No More Deaths, a 20 year old humanitarian organization operating in the borderlands between Mexico and the USA. We talked about the organization, the work it does, how the border has changed, the political legacy of the Republicans and Democrats in the current situation for immigrants, deaths at the border and ways to get involved in supporting people on the move. Here’s a chat from 2017 we did with NMD as well.
This week, we’re sharing a recent interview with Chloe Moore, a steward, farmer and educator at the Southside Community Farm, in the historically Black neighborhood of Southside in Asheville, NC. The farm has been serving the neighborhood and the region with free and inexpensive, fresh produce for a decade, providing educational opportunities, grocery deliveries, an herb garden and a BIPOC farmers market. The farm sits on land owned by the public Housing Authority of the City of Asheville (HACA) and there is currently a threat that HACA will destroy the farm. For the hour we talk about the work of the farm, the legacy of a community farm in the wake of government policies that destroy Black communities, and ways that community members can support the SCF and help it thrive.
First up, an interview submitted by audio comrades in Italy about the struggle against the cementization of the city of Bologna and the defense of Don Bosco park from the expansion of a university, highways… the whole urban landscape without the input of the residents so the city can move a school rather than renovate it. This struggle, including the occupation and defense of the park, represents an innovation in urban struggles in Italy which consciously takes inspiration from the struggle to Stop Cop City in so-called Atlanta and the activities of the park defenders has forced the left-leaning municipal government and mayor to temporarily suspend the cutting of trees. [00:02:04 – 00:27:10]
Bernard Jemison on Conditions and Resistance in AL Prisons
Then, you’ll hear Bernard Jemison, an incarcerated activist held in Holman prison in Alabama talking about conditions inside the ADOC recent calls for prisoner strikes in the state by the Free Alabama Movement and their outside supporters, as well as his views on the demands being made. [00:27:57 – 01:05:10]
This week, you’ll hear our chat with Simón Sedillo, author of Weapons, Drugs & Money: Crime, Corruption, and Community Based Liberation in the U.S./Mexico Neoliberal Military Political Economy. Simón talks a little about his early days in media near the start of the Indymedia world, his documentary that became the news website El Enemigo Común (which translates to “the common enemy”) which covered grassroots, indigenous led movements in southern so-called Mexico, and about his book with a focus on intervention and integration from capitalist and military powers in the US, multinational banking and big pharma and the violence against and resilience of indigenous communities under that nation-state.
Check out the website https://www.weaponsdrugsandmoney.org/ for more info on how to order a copy, and the chapters are being posted and translated into castellano at https://elenemigocomun.net/ , where you can find two decades + of really interesting content. Simón suggests people follow Avispa Mídia https://avispa.org/ as a project following in the legacy of El Enemigo Común.
A big thanks to Mitchell Verter for the suggestion.
. … . ..
Featured Track:
Get It Together (Buck Wild Instrumental) by Beastie Boys from Get It Together
We’re sharing a recent chat with Andrew Lee (instagram / tiktok), author of the book Defying Displacement: Urban Recomposition and Social War, released by AK Press on February 6th 2024. Andrew and I talk about gentrification, speculation and financialization of houses, the destruction of communities by racial capitalism and the state, and some methods used to fight back and stay put. Andrew shouts out Decolonize Philly as a project to pay attention to.
Weekly, we work to bring you and our wider audience, including over the radio waves, conversations that you won’t hear many other places. And we operate at a minimal cost, paying for transcription, printing, mailing, web hosting to make sure that information is easier translatable and accessible, including to our comrades behind bars. The most regular way that we fund that is from the patreon.
Our patreon is currently below supporting our monthly operating costs of around $500, so we’re asking folks on the fence of supporting this project who have a patreon account to kick in and help at $3 or more a month. If you don’t have a patreon, we do have a liberapay you can psuedonymously kick us money from or set up a recurring payment from paypal and we also can take money via venmo or stripe.
If you haven’t supported us before or haven’t for a while now and can afford to, we’d really appreciate the help. And if you’re already supporting us or have in the past in various ways, thank you.
The following is an interview we conducted with Katka and Hazel, who both live in the UK and were recently back from Bakur, the portion of Kurdistan within the borders of Turkey. For 2 hours the guests speak about the political violence from Erdogan’s ruling AKP, suppression of the Kurdish movement, electoral strategies, democratic confederalism, political prisoners and the F-Type prisons in Turkey, the earthquakes from earlier in the year, widespread corruption and other topics. We hope you enjoy this conversation,. A transcript of this interview will be available in the near future. You can reach the guests at BakurDelegationUK at riseup dot net
This week, we’re sharing a recent chat with Devi Machete, an anarchist involved in the Tijuana mutual aid project known as Contra Viento y Marea Comedor Comunitario which distributes clothing, medical supplies, meals and boxes of stable food throughout the week at the border with the USA. The project, known for short as El Comedor Comunitario is launching a free school and art laboratory on June 17th. For the hour, we talk about the migrant caravan in 2018 that gave rise to El Comedor Comunitario, the self-organized work around the project and resisting the dehumanization of the border through solidarity and community.
Since the US allowed the Trump-Era Title 42 Covid-based restriction on immigrants entering the country to expire and has moved back to Title 8, so in a post-script Devi talks about concerns of a surge at the border and the further difficulties this change creates for migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the north.
You can also check out our prior interview with Elements of Mutual Aid directors Leah & Payton to get some visuals of El Comedor Comunitario, which is a featured project in that docu-series.
Announcement
Phone Zap for Shine White
All power to the people,
As I’ve pointed out in my previous writings, Hepatitis C kills more Amerikans each day than HIV and sixty other infectious diseases combined, making it the deadliest infectious disease in the United States. It is a viral infection, caused by the Hepatitis C virus (“HCV”) that affects the liver and can result in serious, life-threatening complications.
On February 15 of this year blood tests revealed that I had Hepatitis C. In contrast to NCDAC’s Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the treatment of Hepatitis C, I was sent back to my cell, instead of having further blood testing done to determine my fibro-scores.
I was provided no further information, other than that I had Hepatitis C and that I would be seen by the facility’s healthcare provider at a later date. The following days were mentally exhausting.
Only after consulting with a prisoner who was receiving treatment for HCV at the time, did I become aware of the procedures that are in place for evaluating and treating prisoners who have the Hep-C virus. Before treatment can be started, additional blood testing is required to determine one’s level of fibrosis.
After becoming aware of the aforementioned, I immediately began to submit sick calls requesting the required blood testing be done to determine my Fib-4 index score. My sick calls went unanswered, only after those of you on the outside made calls to the prison on my behalf was I taken to medical to have the Fib-4 test done. The test results revealed that my Fib-4 score was 5.7, which indicates that I am at risk of cirrhosis, liver disease and/or liver cancer. However, the health care provider has yet to begin my treatment.
These scores were revealed to me on March 3, subsequently I’ve not been assessed by medical personnel since, despite submitting multiple sick-calls due to the complications I am experiencing caused by the hepatitis-c virus.
Since early March I have lost approximately 30 pounds, I have various pock-like scores on my lower legs, rashes cover my elbows and knees, and the sharp pains in my lower back and side make it difficult to sleep at night. When I inquire about my treatment, the response I receive is that it is out of their hands.
I am firmly convinced that they have no intentions of treating me. Combined with the recent continuation of my term on supermax, it’s evident that their intentions are to hold me incommunicado and hope that the hepatitis-c will do what they have been unable to do – silence me!
Having to openly admit that I am at the mercy of my overseers infuriates me. I feel helpless and I am scared. I’m witnessing what is being done to Komrade Rashid, I witnessed the late elder Maroon Shoatz languish with cancer for years, Mumia Abu-Jamal continues to suffer from complications caused by hepatitis-c, the names go on and on. I feel as if my twenty-year prison sentence has become a death sentence.
I entreat that calls be made and emails be sent on my behalf, demanding that I be treated immediately. Only if pressured by those of you on the outside will these miscreants act with professionalism.
I am deeply grateful for the support. I conclude this as I began,
Daring to struggle, daring to win
All power to the people,
Joseph “Shine White” Stewart
Below is the contact information for those who should be contacted:
NCDAC’s Deputy Secretary – Comprehensive Health Services
Gary Junker
919-838-4000
gary.junker@dac.nc.gov
We’ll be stating this a few times during this episode, but Mixael Laufer is not licensed to offer medical advice and his opinions are his own. Also, be aware (if you want to be) that laws in different jurisdictions may differ. For instance, pressing your own pills has recently been criminalized in WA state in the so-called USA.
We hope you enjoy this interview and you can check out the project at FourThievesVinegar.org, where you can find a growing collection of introductory videos about their work starting Monday, March 13th, 2023 around noon.
This week we’re sharing an interview that we conducted with anarchists and abolitionists mostly in and around Manila, the capital of the Philippines. You’ll hear from K, Honey, Adrienne, Castle, Magsalin and R. During the chat they share about their projects, discussions of abolitionism in the Philippines, decolonization discourse, informal organizing, accountability and challenging patriarchal dynamics in the traditional left and more.
Anti-Feminist Feminist Club (Indonesia) on twitter as @AnFemClub
References relevant to what was discussed in the podcast
On linking policing in the Philippines to the USA: McCoy, A. W. (2009). Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State. Univ of Wisconsin Press.
On linking policing in the Philippines to the USA: Vitale, A. S. (2021). The End of Policing. Verso Books.
On Joyful Militancy and Rigid Radicalism: Bergman, C., & Montgomery, N. (2017). Joyful militancy: Building thriving resistance in toxic times. AK Press.
You’ll hear Kevin Rashid Johnson of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party talk about the continued denial of medical treatment at Nottoway CI in Virginia and thanking supporters who have been calling in. You can find details on how to continue the call-in campaign in the July 17th episode.
Sean Swain on Mass Shootings
[00:01:14 – 00:09:34]
Sean talks about the uselessness of police in mass shootings, basically.
