Category Archives: General

Animal Rights, Earth & Animal Liberation, General, Health, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prisons, repression, Skanska

Solidarity with Nicole + Joseph, accused Animal Liberationists

Nicole and Joseph + Mumia

supportnicoleandjoseph.com
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This week we play a brief segment of last week’s conversation we couldn’t air for reasons of length in which Orie Lumumba talks about former Black Panther, political prisoner and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia was sentenced to the Death Penalty for the shooting death of Officer Daniel Faulkner of the Philadelphia PD. We talk about medical maltreatment of Mumia over the last year concerning his prior undiagnosed type-2 diabetes and his hepatitus C. He contracted Hep C in 1981 from a blood transfusion related to the shooting surrounding his arrest. Mumia & his supporters are now trying to get access for Mumia and the other 10,000 prisoners in the state of PA who are known to have Hep C but which the government is denying due to the cost of treatment. For more info on Mumia’s incarceration, writings and activism, check out http://freemumia.com and for his and others radio commentaries, check out http://prisonradio.org

Following this, we speak with Petey, a supporter of Nicole Kissane & Joseph Buddenberg, two animal activists living in the Bay Area facing charges of conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Petey talks about the people, about the case so far and a bit about the potential of a chilling affect left by AETA terrorism charges on the animal rights and animal liberation movements in the U.S. More on the case can be found at http://supportnicoleandjoseph.com

Announcements

No New Animal Lab

In December of 2012, Skanska USA was granted a contract from the University of Washington for the development and construction of the Animal Research & Care Facility, a secret underground lab intended to centralize animal research and vastly increase the number of animals that will be caged, abused, and killed. It was at this moment that Skanska chose to involve itself with the vivisection industry and to profit from the imprisonment and torture of endless generations of animals by literally burying them underground. They were eagerly prepared to make millions. What they were not prepared for was the animal liberation movement.

We here at the Final Straw Radio interviewed No New Animal Labs recently no the resistance to the Skanska USA lab at U W. In light of the contract being granted to Skanksa USA, the No New Animal Labs initiative is calling for supporters to #StormSkanksa: Swarm New York from January 15-17th of 2016. To find out more and get involved, check out http://nonewanimallab.com

Playlist

Alabama, Anarchist, General, Michael Kimble, Prisons

“We need to kick it up a notch”: an interview with anarchist prisoner Michael Kimble

Michael Kimble

Michael Kimble
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First off some words from Sean Swain on morality. Spoiler alert: it may not exist!!

This time we’re speaking with Michael Kimble, who is a black gay anarchist prisoner incarcerated in Atmore, Alabama. Mr Kimble is active in many prison organizing projects, including the Free Alabama Movement. We speak about his case, his writings, a possible future for anarchist organizing, his upcoming parole hearing, and vampires among other topics. For more about his case and to read his writings, you can visit his support page at http://anarchylive.noblogs.org.

Apologies for the audio quality on this interview, since it was recorded from inside prison it is not always easy to hear. But stick with it, there’s some really good stuff here.

To write to Michael Kimble, or to send him books or zines, you can address letters to:

Michael Kimble
#138017
3700 Holman Unit
Atmore, AL 36503

To write support letters for his hopefully upcoming parole hearing, address letters to:

Alabama Dept. of Pardons and Parole
301 South Ripley Street
Montgomery, AL 36130

Info on what to say and how to word those letters of support please visit his support page

Playlist

activism, Anarchist, Capitalism, Da Bay, General, History, Housing, Occupy, Race, Squatting

Foreclosure Defense Group: Brooke’s reflections on strategy + organizing around Occupy Oakland

Foreclosure Defense Group

https://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/
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This week we feature an interview conducted by an Audio Cadre of ours on the West coast with Brooke, an anarchist who participated in the Foreclosure Defense Group that sprang from Occupy Oakland in March of 2012. During the hour, they speak about the history of that group, it’s strengths and weakness and lessons around cross-race and cross-class organizing around displacement in Oakland based on some of the models worked out by SolNet, the Seattle Solidarity Network. For an extended version of the conversation, check out the podcast version of the show.

If you’re in Asheville on Friday, December 18th, there will be a free event you can check out at Firestorm Books and Coffee at 8pm. From the description:

“The ZAD is a large scale land occupation near Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France. It was squatted in 2009 at the invitation of local citizen and farming associations, who had been resisting the imposition of an airport, highway, high speed train, and tram line since 1972. Since then, the anti-airport movement has depassed traditional limitations of “issue-based struggles” with a strong critique of capitalist and hierarchical systems (including and especially the State), and links and shared projects with a wide diversity of people, to the point where the divisions between squatter, farmer, local, have become blurred.

After a massive police operation in 2012, “Operation Cesar”, the zone of 8 miles square has been free of State intervention, and has become known as a “zone outside the law”. Zadistas have created our own infrastructures and are autonomous in many ways. Some things work less well, like conflict resolution, but overall the occupation is settled into the territory and is planning for the long term, together with the “locals” and “farmers” involved in the struggle and those living close by. At the moment, however, the French prime minister is threatening to evict the ZAD and begin work on the airport early 2016. Ironically, they are waiting until just after the COP 21 in Paris (while billing the airport as “good for the environment”).”

Playlist

Anarchist, Capitalism, communization, Environment, Feminism, gender, General, Health, Paul Z Simons, Race, Religion, Rojava

Ecology + Anti-Capitalism in Rojava: Paul Z. Simons part 3 of 3

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This week we start off with a dispatch from Sean Swain, read by William. Sean is an anarchist prisoner we’ve featured commentary from over the past 2 years. Sean Swain has been under media block for the past few months, so his commentary here has been sparse. In this segment he addresses his media silencing and his bid for presidency of the U.S. in 2016. More of Sean’s writings at seanswain.org

Paul Z. Simons on Rojava, pt3

For the meat of the episode, we feature part three of Bursts conversation with Paul Z. Simons about his experience of the Rojava Revolution going on in northern Syria. The Rojava Revolution began in 2012, as an outgrowth from the insurgency of the PKK and other Kurdish groups in Turkey that’s been locked in an off-and-on civil war for 30 years. Paul, a post-left anarchist from the U.S. talks about his experiences in Rojava in October of this year of their multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, feminism revolution.

The Rojava Revolution has been described as anti-state, anti-capitalist, feminist and ecological, however in the conversations Bursts has had on what’s gone on in Rojava with students of it, little has come out in terms of how the Rojava experiment has been ecological or anti-capitalist. So, in this conversation Paul and Bursts spoke about Paul’s understanding of economic models, property rights, modes of exchange in Rojava as well as discussions of it’s war-time and long-view approaches towards ecology in Rojava.

The first two parts of this interview can be found here.

Playlist can be found here

Anarchist, Feminism, gender, General, Paul Z Simons, Religion, Rojava

Paul Z. Simons on the Dispaches from Rojava (part 2 of 3): Form, Function, Gender & Martyr culture in the Rojava Revolution

Paul Z. Simons on Rojava, pt 2

http://anarchistnews.org/content/report-back-rojava-revolution
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This episode features part two of Bursts conversation Paul Z. Simons on his recent trip to the northern, autonomous regions of Syria known as Rojava. In this conversation Paul shares his experiences of gender, feminism, power distribution and infrastructure in Rojava and his thoughts as a post-left anarchist of experiencing what he’d consider a social revolution. Paul is an editor of the Modern Slavery Magazine, where his writings can be found here and William’s interview with him last year can be found HERE. You can find weblinks and more context on the page for our prior conversations on Rojava with Paul.

The audio from part one of the conversation can be found here. To hear part three before it airs, check it out here.

Announcements

Sean Swain

Sean Swain is having a very hard time right now and could really use to be reminded that he is not alone. If you haven’t written to Sean in a while or haven’t heard back from him due to the ODRC messing with his mail or cutting off his other methods of communication, now would be a great time to flood him with letters, cards, photos, drawings, books, zines, anything.

In particular, now would be a good moment to remind Sean that he matters to you, that you are glad he is alive, and that you see him as contributing to the world in a way that matters to you. Every once in a while we all need a loving kick to the head to get us back on track and feeling ready to continue fighting. Now is that moment for Sean. So send him a kick; he deserves it.

Write to Sean at:
Sean Swain #243-205
Warren Correctional Inst.
P.O. Box 120
Lebanon, Ohio 45036

Playlist

activism, Animal Rights, Earth & Animal Liberation, General

No New Animal Lab interview and Sean Swain on gentrification

No New Animal Lab

No New Animal Lab
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First off, Sean Swain gives his perspective on gentrification and some recommendations on how to effectively fight that blight.

You can write to Sean by addressing letters to:
Sean Swain
243-205
Warren CI
P.O. Box 120
5787 State Route 63
Lebanon, Ohio 45036

This week on the show William speaks with Amanda and Justin about the No New Animal Lab campaign, which aims to protest the building of a massive animal testing facility on the University of Washington campus at Seattle and to explore the nuances which the animal rights movement in the US is capable of. We speak about Skanska (the company responsible for building the lab), NNAL’s nation wide tour (which just ended a few weeks ago) and about solidarity building with other projects, state repression and how to deal, as well as the condition of the animal rights movement today.

To learn more about this campaign, and for more information on the upcoming demo in New York on January 15-17, you can visit their website at http://nonewanimallab.com/ and click the “take action!” tab. To contact our interviewees for discussions about how you can get involved in this issue, you can shoot them an email at info@nonewanimallab.com, and if you feel in a position to donate to any legal defense you can go to their website and click the “Donate” button.

To learn more about the SHAC 7 you can visit this website

If you’d like to read the BUAV Liberator (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection) text mentioned in the interview, you can visit here

Playlist for this show features Asheville’s own Uninhabitable with a track off their brand new release, and a track from the new Yob album, which will be playing in Asheville at the Mothlight on Tuesday the 10th.

Playlist

activism, Anarchist, CounterInsurgency, Environment, Eric McDavid, General, Grand Jury, History, Jerry Koch, panel discussion, Political Prisoner, Prisons, repression

GE Trees update + pt 2 of former prisoner panel from NAABC conference, 2015

GE Trees + Former Political Prisoners

http://denverabc.wordpress.com
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This episode has two parts.

In the first segment of the episode, William spoke with Anne Peterman of the Global Justice Ecology Project, following up on the GE Trees Action Camp which took place in late September outside of Asheville. To hear the previous interview you can go to http://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org and search GE Trees, and to learn more about GJEP and to donate to Anne and Ruddy’s legal defense, you can go to http://nogetrees.org

The bulk of the hour we’ll hear the second half of the Former Prisoner Panel proceeding the North American Anarchist Black Cross conference in Denver, 2015.

On the panel you’ll hear from:

  • Jerry Koch, an anarchist who was incarcerated over 9 months for refusing to testify before a grand jury (for a second time) in New York, as he talks about his incarceration and his release.
  • Eric McDavid is a green anarchist who served 10 years of a 20 year sentence before release in January of 2015.
  • Lynne Stewart is a movement who served 2.5 years of a 10 year sentence, released due on compassionate grounds due to terminal cancer.
  • Kazi Toure is a formerly incarcerated member of the marxist guerrilla group United Freedom Fighters/Ohio 7.
  • Jihad Abdulmumit is national chairperson for the Jericho Movement and spent 23 years in prison for involvement in the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.
  • Mark Cook was a social prisoner who founded a Panther Chapter in prison and became involved in the George Jackson Brigade.

The first half of the panel discussion can be found here: http://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2015/10/14/former-political-prisoner-panel-in-denver-2015-pt-1/

In this presentation, the panelists speak about experiences of re-entry, trauma of incarceration, support they’ve received, experiences behind the bars and critiques of how prisoners are supported. This event was hosted by Denver Anarchist Black Cross (http://denverabc.wordpress.com)

We lacked time to announce this benefit for Stephanie Wilson, a dear friend who was struck by a car while attempting to render care to a dog who’d been previously hit by another vehicle. The benefit is to raise medical funds for Stephanie. More info here: https://www.youcaring.com/stephanie-wilson-454345

Playlist

Anarchist, Author, General, Marxism

Lawrence Jarach on Anarchy (A Journal of Desire Armed) & critiques of tactics of debate

Lawrence Jarach

http://anarchymag.org
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This week, Bursts speaks with Lawrence Jarach. Lawrence is a co-editor of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. You’ll hear about that project, some of it’s history, Post-Left anarchy, individualism, mass society and more.

We also speak about conflict and resolution processes featured in the main article of this latest issue of AJODA (#76). The title of the article is “Against Identity Politics” and attempts to discuss methods of engagement or disengagement around issues of Identity and argues that some of the methods employed (call-outs, denunciation, crit-self-crit, accountability processes) developed out of Maoist practice with the desire to actually eschew and silence rather than open up room for debate and discourse. More on the project and article can be found at http://anarchymag.org

Alabama, Anarchist, Bomani Shakur, Eric McDavid, General, Hunger Strike, Jerry Koch, Marxism, panel discussion, Political Prisoner, Prisons, Racism, repression

Former Political Prisoner Panel in Denver, 2015 (pt 1)

Former Political Prisoner Panel

denverabc.wordpress.com
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This week The Final Straw is airing some audio from the recent Anarchist Black Cross Conference which took place outside of Denver. This is a panel discussion which was hosted by the Denver ABC and includes a number of folks who had been formerly incarcerated and were speaking on the importance of supporting prisoners, among other topics. The panelists we’ll be hearing this week include: Lynne Stewart, Jihad Abdulmumit, Kazi Toure, Eric McDavid & Mark Cook.

  • Lynne Stewart was a movement lawyer involved in anti-capitalist and liberation prisoners since the 1960’s who was incarcerated this in 2010 to a decade in prison for passing a public statement on from her client, Abdel-Rahman, convicted in the first World Trade Center bombing. She was got out of prison in 2013 on Compassionate Release as she was dealing with Terminal Breast Cancer.
  • Jihad Abdulmumit is the national chairperson for the Jericho Movement and spent 23 years in prison for his involvement with the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army and and is on the Majlis Ash-Shura of Muslim Alliance in North America, or MANA. He is also a community activist, motivational speaker, author and playwright.
  • Kazi Toure is a former Black Panther and was a member of the United Freedom Front, an American Marxist guerrilla group active through the 1970’s and 80’s and carried out at least 20 bombings of government and corporate targets and 9 bank robberies. The UFF is also known as the Sam Melville / Jonathan Jackson Unit, as well as the Ohio 7.
  • Mark Cook became active in a growing leftist paramilitary underground in Seattle in 1967, which perpetrated a series of high profile bombings and robberies. He was co-founder of the Black Panther Party chapter in the Walla Walla State Penitentiary and served as its Lieutenant of Information for many years. In 2000, he was released after serving 24 years in prison for his participation in a bank robbery and jail break associated with the George Jackson Brigade in Seattle. The GJB was a leftist urban guerrilla group in the Pacific Northwest that carried out bombings, bank robberies and other actions to overthrow the U.S. government.
  • Eric McDavid, a green Anarchist who served a 9 years of a 20 year sentence and was released this January after a Habeaus Plea led the Government to release him. Eric was railroaded, along with two other young eco-anarchists, by the FBI and convicted of conspiracy to damage property, including planning to blow up dams in the U.S. Eric McDavid’s case is exemplary among Green Scare cases in it’s employment of an infiltrator and informant for the FBI who went by the name Anna.

In the next installment in coming weeks we’ll hear statements from Jerry Koch who was incarcerated for 9 months in a New York maximum security prison for refusing to give informaton to a grand jury, and was released on a Grumbles motion in January of last year. This’ll be followed by audience questions. For the full video stream of the event, check out http://DenverABC.wordpress.com. Thanks to Unicorn Riot for the recording.

Next week, tune in to hear Bursts conversation with Lawrence Jarach, a main editor of Anarchy: Journal of Desire Armed.

We’ve been listening to the first half of the former prisoner panel prior to the North American Anarchist Black Cross event held in Denver, Colorado this year. In an upcoming episode, we’ll hear the voices of Jerry Koch and Eric McDavid from the panel. The full video of this event can be found at http://DenverABC.wordpress.com or on http://unicornriot.ninja

Announcements

FAM Hunger strike

A founder of the Free Alabama movement is currently on hunger strike and in his 620th day of Solitary Confinement at Holman in Alabama. Robert Earl Council is on day 5 of hungerstrike for being denied adequate medical care. There is a request that folks call in to Holman and the DOC of Alabama to inform them that folks on the outside care about Robert Earl Council. You can call Walter Myers, Warden at Holman Correctional at 251-368-8173 or Commissioner Dunn at 334-353-3883

Bomani Shakur Events

On October 8th, several U.S. cities will be hosting events around the case of Bomani Shakur, also known as Keith Lamar. Bomani is facing threat of execution this year by the state of Ohio for alleged participation in deaths that took place during the Lucasville Prison Uprising of 1993, a charge which Bomani has always denied, claiming that he stayed in his prison wing to defend his cell. To find out more about his case, check out http://keithlamar.com

activism, Antifa, General, Hunger Strike, Illinois, Prisons, Racism

Daryle Lamont Jenkins on the far right in the U.S. and an update on the Menard hunger strike

Daryle Lamont Jenkins & Menard Hunger Strikes

http://onepeoplesproject.com/
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This week we’re speaking with Daryle Lamont Jenkins of One People’s Project based in Philadelphia, PA. Mr Jenkins is a writer, activist, and committed anti fascist. This hour we’ll speak about the state of fascism in the US and how to approach dealing with fascists and racists in your community. We talk about the One People’s Project, its history, and its goals. Keep an eye out for their new website at http://idavox.com/ to be up next month. You can see our previous interview with Mr. Jenkins at The Final Straw’s website

To write to the One People’s Project, address letters to:

One People’s Project
PO BOX 42817
Philadelphia, PA 19101

For more about Ida B. Wells you can visit the wikipedia article about her.

For information about the TORCH Antifa Conference in November 2015 you can visit their website

And for more about the 0161 Festival in England, you can visit their facebook link

. … . ..

Here is an update on the hunger strike in Menard:

Some of you will remember the hunger strike in
January-February 2014 by prisoners in Administrative Detention at the Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois. During and after the hunger strike, several of the hunger strikers were sent to prisons as far away as California, Virginia, West Virginia, and New Mexico. Others remain in Administrative Detention at Menard. Many of the 2014 hunger strikers wanted to know why they were there, and they wanted to know what they had to do to get out of Administrative Detention. Although the Illinois Department of Corrections now issues some notices, the notices still don’t answer those questions.

The following information is drawn from letters received in
September 2015 from prisoners in Administrative Detention at Menard, compiled by Alice Lynd.

Here in A.D., everything is still the same. No one is being released and we are still not getting meaningful hearings. We are still not getting any written reasons or any new info relied on for the basis of the Committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D. We are still getting the same vague memos.

We now only get 1 day a week of out-of-cell exercise (yard). We are in our cells 24 hrs. a day, 6 days a week. We are being excessively confined in our cells. We are still not allowed to participate in any educational programs. Our mail is not being picked up or passed out 5 days a week, as they are supposed to.

We don’t see any end to this indefinite isolation/solitary confinement. Due to these issues and more, we are going to go on hunger strike once again. *We will be declaring a hunger strike on September 23, 2015. *We will feel very thankful for your help in spreading the word.

*Our core demands are:*

We demand an end to long term solitary confinement.

We demand minimum due process at Administrative Detention Review Hearings by providing inmates with written reasons, including new information relied upon, for Committee’s decision for our continued placement in A.D. and be allowed to grieve all adverse decisions. As it stands, the basis of the Committee’s votes are kept secret.

We demand more access to outside recreation for the sake of our physical and mental health. As it stands, we are confined indefinitely to these cages for 6 days out of the week, with the exception of one 5 hour day. This is unbearable.

We demand that meaningful educational programs be implemented to encourage our mental stability, rehabilitation, and social development for the sake of ourselves and our communities that we will one day return to.

We demand access to more visiting privileges. For most of our families traveling to Menard is like traveling to another state. Considering the distance, 2 hour visits behind plexiglass is insufficient. We should be allowed 5 or 6 hours. Moreover, our family members, including inmates, should be provided the human dignity and decency to purchase food items and refreshments from vending machines after traveling such great distances. This would benefit one’s social development, as well as benefit prison staff environment.

We ask the public’s help by calling the warden, the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the Governor on September 23, 2015, and so forth, to check on our welfare.

Warden Kimberly Butler, 618-826-5071
Menard Correctional Center
711 Kaskaskia Street
Menard, IL 62259

Director John Baldwin, 217-558-2200
Illinois Department of Corrections
1301 Concordia Court
P. O. Box 19277
Springfield, IL 52794-9277

Governor Bruce Rauner, 217-782-0244
Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706

We will stay on hunger strike as long as possible in order to hopefully bring some change to our conditions. We thank you for any kind of support you can give us.

. … . ..

Playlist here