This week you’ll hear an interview we conducted with Cricket, a tree sitter in a tree called Goldie in southern so-called Oregon as well as D of Siskiyou Rising Tide. The two talk about the experience and efficacy of tree sits, about the land threatened by the Bureau of Land Managements plan to have Boise Cascade and other timber companies log this area they’re calling Rogue Gold, recent success of a tree sit at Poor Windy, revelations of police surveillance and some of the history of forest defense in this region.
This week we got to sit down with two members of the Portland General Defense Committee, AC (they them) and Raoul (they he), about the ongoing Uprising in Portland OR in the months since the murder of George Floyd. We get to touch on a lot of topics in this interview; the neo-liberal whitewashing of the image of the city of Portland which masks a lot of ultra racist and colonial tendencies, personal timelines of engagement in the Uprising, and a lot of tips and tricks for newer and older anarchists and radicals for dealing with and anticipating state repression and violence.
Here are some notes and links to the topics that our guests spoke on:
-One note on the group Riot Ribs that AC mentions, I think that the group has disbanded for now but have seemingly regrouped as Revolution Ribs, you can find them @RevRibs on Twitter and their Cashapp is $RevolutionRibs. This group does not have a verified Instagram presence as far as I know.
–Walidah Imarisha on Oregon’s racist, anti-Black history:
-Indigenous Mutual Aid is a platform that started up at the start of pandemic and has a very thorough list of Indigenous led and centered projects in their directory (indigenousmutualaid.org)
-Portland Freedom Fund which is a general fund that bails out BIPOC (portlandfreedomfund.org)
–Twitter folks to follow for otg news on the PDX Uprising:
-And finally, there are too many autonomous local bail funds around the country to all name here, but if you do a search for “mutual aid bail fund in [name of town/city]” then that should give you a pretty solid clue about how to support places that haven’t made it into the news as much. You can also do searches for Black Mamas Bail Out in your area to help fund efforts to bail out Black mothers and caregivers.
This week William had the opportunity to speak with someone who works closely with the group Cascadia Forest Defenders, which is based around Eugene Oregon. This crew has been opposing logging in the Willamette National Forest, and was recently driven out of the camp by forest workers and employees of Seneca Jones Timber Company. We talk about this incident, plus much much more in the way of contextualizing and re-contextualizing forest defense in a time of climate change, plus some important things to keep in mind if you are looking to join established political movements like this. More on this group, this struggle, and the many ways to get involved can be found at forestdefensenow.com
To follow up on something that I said toward the beginning of the interview, about logging around the Asheville area, there were plans in place to log in the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests as of 2014. The stated reasons for this logging were environmental and maintenance minded in nature, but it’s thought that those endeavors would help literally pave the way for future commercial logging by establishing a roadway system through the forest.
As promised, here are some links for further reading:
The J20 inauguration arrestees case is starting on November 15th. There is a call out for court support including note takers, as well as folks to fill the court in their finest black dress clothes, also for fundraising and any legal support you can muster. For a really good article on the topic, check out https://itsgoingdown.org/j20-case-need-know/ . Despite the good news that 2 of the Felony “Riot” and “Conspiracy To Riot” charges being dropped down to Misdemeanors this case still has a long way to go.
And a few local announcements from Blue Ridge ABC
For those in the Asheville area coming up Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross has 3 events we’d like to share with you. Firstly, today from 5pm to 7:30pm BRABC will be hosting it’s monthly Political Prisoner Letter Writing Night. The first Sunday of every month, join BRABC, who’ll provide stationary, stamps, pens, camaraderie and the addresses of political prisoners with upcoming birthdays you can write to. Or, just take the time to hang, or write to someone you know behind bars. This month, they’ll also be showing TROUBLE #7 about anarchist disaster relief in the Western Hemisphere plus maybe another film.
The pre-registration for BRABC’s benefit Ping Pong Tournament is coming up fast. If you wanna play and help earn some money for legal support coffers, send an email to blueridgeabc@riseup.net by November 12th and then show up November 15th at 6:30pm at the Standard Pizza at 755 Biltmore Ave in South Asheville to battle for a good cause. If space allows and you miss the pre-register, show up the day of and there might be a spot.
On Friday, November 17th at 9pm at The Mothlight in West Asheville, get ready for a #ItsARiot benefit comedy show for autonomous disaster relief efforts in Mexico City and Oaxaca in the aftermath of 3 deadly and destructive earthquakes this year and an incredibly inept government response. Door donations will go to some of the folks on the ground in those cities. The night of comedy will be hosted by Moira Goree, featuring the stylings of Kira Magcalen, Chesney Goodson and a special
guest. More info on these and other events from Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross can be found at https://brabc.blackblogs.org
Sole and Bursts Podcast Eminent
Also, keep an eye on our website, thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org, this week for a special podcast conversation between Bursts and the anarchist hip hop artist, podcaster and rad dad outta Denver, Sole. Should be dropping Tuesday. We talked about Channel Zero Network, about prisoner support, the J20 inauguration case, the Situationists and a bunch of other topics. You can hear some of Sole’s work including his podcasts at his website.
