Category Archives: General

We Will Need Time: Two Libertarian Communist Perspectives on Events and Possibility in Syria

"TFSR 12-29-24 | We Will Need Time: Two Libertarian Communist perspectives on events and possibility in Syria"<br /> featuring a photo of two people (one with a rifle slung over their shoulder) hugging and facing away from the camera and towards a bombed-out building with graffiti reading "We Will Return" in Arabic
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In this episode, you’ll hear Cedric and Khuzama, two libertarian communists with connections to Syria and editor contributors to the blog interstices-fajawat.org , speaking about their observations of what’s been going on leading up to and through the ouster of Bashar Al-Assad, as well as complications among various factions on the ground and the view from the Syrian diaspora. The situation on the ground is changing fast.

And if you care to hear a perspective from an anarchist combatant affiliated with Tekosina Anarsist, which works with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria affiliated with the SDF and Rojava Revolution, you can find our episode from December 22nd and the transcribed zine already online at our website.

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An Anarchist View From Rojava on Recent Events in Syria: A conversation with a combatant of Tekoşîna Anarşist

"An anarchist view from Rojava on recent events in Syria: a conversation witha combatant in Tekoşîna Anarşist | The Final Straw Radio, Dec 22, 2024" featuring a drawing of a combatant with their face covered, holding an AK47 and sitting on cinder blocks
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This week, we’re sharing a conversation with Errico, a combatant member of Tekoşîna Anarşist, an internationalist anarchist formation in critical solidarity with the Rojava Revolution. For this episode, Errico answers some questions we had about what’s been happening in Syria and concerns from within the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. You can find ideas and updates from the TA formation on their blog, https://tekosinaanarsist.noblogs.org. Past interviews with TA can be found here.

Errico’s voice has been re-recorded by a comrade for anonymity. The transcript is already up in the show notes and at our website for easier reading, translation and sharing and you can find past interviews we’ve done with TA linked in the show notes. And there is an announce-only signal group that anyone can join with updates and analysis by anarchists in the region or paying attention which we’ll link in our shownotes. Just a headsup, the usernames of members of this group will be visible to the all other users there and it might be a good opportunity to set up your signal username and make your phone number unfindable for better anonymity prior to joining the signal group ( https://signal.group/#CjQKIN0TDK_nsHV4uXRtLIdaUOL2R6yv7uvRs8c3RUiXLr-EEhBPEntGCDqJQOD4pzU36i6O )

We simultaneously recorded an interview with Cedric and Khuzama, two libertarian communists and editors of and contributors to the blog Interstices-Fajawat.org about their insights into Syria. This interview will be coming out soon, so keep an eye on our feed.

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Art As A Vehicle For Anarchist Ideas (ACAB 2024)

photo with a line of riot cops covered in various colors of paint
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This week, we’re sharing another presentation from the 2024 ACABookfair in so-called Asheville. On youtube you’ll find the audio sync’d up with the slideshow presentation from the bookfair by visiting youtube.com/@thefinalstrawradio.

The following is a recording from the 2024 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville, NC. You can find more info and recordings from this and other years at ACABookfair.NoBlogs.Org. This is a presentation entitled Art as a Vehicle for Anarchist Ideas with N.O. Bonzo, Des Revol, and Sugarbombing World. From the description:

“Three longtime anarchist artists—N.O. Bonzo, Des Revol, and Sugarbombing World—will explore the role that art plays in resistance and movements, along with remembrance of the past and visions of the future. They’ll look at ways that art brings people together, and can serve as a great tool, whether in organizing and agitating, and/or inviting people into anarchism.”

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Red Onion Prison Updates + Antifa-OST Case in Germany

This week, we’re featuring two segments.

logo featuring an onion with a person behind bars in the pearl and the logo for "Soli Antifa-Ost"

First up, Phil Wilayto of the Virginia Defenders talks about conditions at Red Onion State Prison in western Virginia where a number of prisoners have been self-immolating in order to escape longterm isolation and racist guard violence. You can find Phil’s article on the SF Bay View which includes a clip of Noelle Hanrahan on Al-Jazeera talking about this subject, and past interviews with and about Kevin “Rashid” Johnson at this link here. [00:01:02 – 00:41:15]

Then, you’ll hear Jo, an anarchist from Germany, speaking about the recent building of conspiracy cases against antifascists known as Antifa-Ost, or Antifa East. You can find our prior interview about NSU Watch and Day X here. [ 00:44:45 – 01:11:42 ]

More info on Antifa-Ost and the Budapest Structure:

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Featured Track:

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Peter Gelderloos on Memory, Community, Organization and Struggle

book covers of "They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us: Forcing Nonviolence on Forgetful Movements" and "Organization, Community, Continuity"
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This week, we’re airing an interview with anarchist author, Peter Gelderloos about two of his recent books They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us: Forcing Nonviolence on Forgetful Movements (Pluto Books, 2024) as well as Organization, Community, Continuity (Detritus, 2024). For this episode, we speak on movement memory, community, care work, organization and struggle.

Past interviews with Peter can be found here and his collaboration with Sub.Media is here.

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NC Womens Prisons + Overcrowding Post-Helene in NCDAP

This week, we’re featuring two interviews concerning prison conditions in North Carolina.

"TFSR 11-17-24 | NC Womens Prisons + Overcrowding Post-Helene" featuring a photo of women in a county jail in NC and a photo of Benevolence Farm
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First up, you’ll hear from Elizabeth Simpson of Emancipate NC, one of the signatories to a public letter to this state’s department of corrections calling for the release of hundreds of prisoners in North Carolina. This comes in response to over-crowding and understaffing of prisons following the emergency transfer of 2,000 prisoners from prisons in the western part of the state effected by Hurricane Helene. [00:01:15 – 00:18:50]

Then, Mona Evans of Benevolence Farm, a post-release residence and re-entry program in North Carolina for people coming out of the women’s prisons talks about their programs, re-entry and some of the realities faced inside womens prisons in this state.   [00:20:04 – 01:04:40]

In this conversation I mentioned Victoria Law’s latest book, Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration (Haymarket Books). You can find our 2013 interview with her about her 2nd edition of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women at this link.

Other projects Mona mentioned include:

  • Arise Collective re-entry program
  • DownhomeNC engages in a number of progressive causes in this state, including the bail fund that Benevolence Farms is currently running. You can find our 2020 interview with them here.

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Featured Track:

  • Women on the Inside by Sistas In The Pit from The We That Sets Us Free: Building A World Without Prisons

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Out-Organizing Antisemitism with Ben Lorber and Shane Burley

book cover of "Safety Through Solidarity" with a star of david made of interlocking hands
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A recent conversation we had with the Ben Lorber and Shane Burley, co-authors of the recently published book, Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism. For the hour we discuss the roots of antisemitism in the West, pushing back on Zionism in the midst of the genocidal war on Palestinians, a rebirth of Bundism and addressing antisemitism in left spaces. I definitely recommend this book to folks and hope you enjoy the chat! And as always, thanks for supporting this project.

If you’re a non-Pacifica station looking for this weeks 58 minute radio show, you can find it here. We’re hoping Archive.Org will be back online and allow us to upload files there soon.

Past interviews with Shane:

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Prisons and Prisoner Solidarity with Eric King, Jake Conroy and Josh Davidson

Prisons and Prisoner Solidarity with Eric King, Jake Conroy and Josh Davidson

collage of photos of Eric King smiling with his book, Josh Harper and Jake conroy
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This week we’re sharing a discussion recorded some months back in the pacific northwest featuring former political prisoners Eric King, who went in for actions in solidarity with the Ferguson Uprising in 2014, and Jake Conroy, who was convicted for coordinating successful anti-vivisection divestment campaigns against Huntington Life Sciences as one of the SHAC7. They are joined by Eric’s co-author of Rattling The Cages, Josh Davidson. We hope you appreciate the wisdom and passion of the discussion.

You can find Jake’s youtube channel The Cranky Vegan for a long-running and ongoing commentary on animal liberation topics. And you can follow Eric’s panels with other former prisoners and supporters on the instagram for Rattling The Cages and past media and articles by and about Eric (including past interviews we’ve done with or about him) at SupportEricKing.org and find more from Josh at linktr.ee/JoshDavidson..

Prior interviews:

There are two upcoming Firestorm Books political prisoner panel talks in November, both of which you won’t want to miss.

  • Saturday, Nov. 9th, 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET, Eric King will be talking with Jason and Jeremy Hammond. Register now!
  • Saturday, Nov. 23, 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET, Eric will be talking with Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, and Nicole Kissane. Register now!

A few other things (per Josh):

  • BPP/BLA comrade and former NY Panther 21 defendant Dhoruba bin Wahad needs our support. Help if you can!
  • The 2025 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar is now available, and it’s beautiful. Get one or 100 today!
  • If you missed the last panel talk with Eric, Jake Conroy, and Claude Marks – or any of the previous 6 Firestorm Books panel talkswatch them here.
  • Don’t stop talking about Gaza, genocide, and US imperialism. Long live all those dying every day for Palestine.

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Featured Track:

  • Walking Is Still Honest by Against Me! from Crimes As Forgiven By…

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Jail and Housing Conditions, Recovery in Post-Helene Asheville

Jail and Housing Conditions, Recovery in Post-Helene Asheville

WNC Tenants network logo, Sumud Collective logo and Asheville Community Bail Fund logoWNC Tenants network logo, Sumud Collective logo and Asheville Community Bail Fund logoThis week on The Final Straw Radio, you’ll hear three  interviews relating to community needs and recovering concerning Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.

If you’re a non-Pacifica radio station airing the show, here’s a link for the 58 minute radio edition while Archive.Org continues to be down due to hacker attacks.

First up, you’ll hear Jen Hampton of the WNC Tenants Network about the re-opening of eviction courts in Buncombe County and conditions of housing in an already difficulty place to live.

Then, Bruce and G talk from the Asheville Community Bail Fund speak about conditions in the local jail during and after this unnatural disaster.

Finally, Yousef of the Palestinian and Arab-led Sumud Collective speaks about his experience of the storm and recovery work in the region in an interview recorded a couple of weeks ago.

Other links from Jen:

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Featured Track:

  • Reflections by The Supremes from Gold

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Mutual Aid and Disaster Relief in Southern Appalachia

Mutual Aid and Disaster Relief in Southern Appalachia

<a href='https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/thefinalstrawradio/tfsr-podcast-20241006.mp3">Download This Episode</a>Over the first weekend of October, 2024, there was a deluge from two storms (including level 4 Hurricane Helene) descended on southern Appalachia, mostly on the eastern side which includes Asheville and other parts of western NC, eastern TN, south eastern Ohio, and northern Georgia. At the point of this recording there are over 200 known dead and hundreds missing, portions of the region continue to be without electricity or cellular service, and where the toxic mud and water linger and separate people from medical and community care. This episode, we’re speaking with two people who’ve lived in the region and have been helping other residents distribute storm relief.

Groups worth following doing work on the ground include:

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Featured Tracks:

  • 500 Year Flood by Adam Pope
  • Day 3 on Pigeon River by Sarah Howell

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