This week, William speaks with Dan Berger – who is an author, prison activist and movement historian – about his new book “The Struggle Within: Prisons, Political Prisoners, and Mass Movements in the United States” just out from PM Press. They speak about histories pertaining to radical mileus as well as the much debated term “political prisoner” and how it relates to prison abolition and support work, among other topics. More about him and his work can be found at http://danberger.org.
Also included is a piece by comrades at ARadio Berlin entitled “Practical Self Help; An Abortion Hotline in Chile”. More of their works can be found at http://aradio.blogsport.de.
Sean Swain’s segment this week is read by The Stimulator of http://Submedia.tv, check out their radical films at that site. Sean is still refusing meals, so far as we are aware. Updates can be found at http://seanswain.org
On April 6th of 2014, anarchist prisoner Sean Swain, who’s been kind enough to allow us to present his audio commentaries (available at http://www.seanswain.org) had his access to phone calls and email shut down by JPay corporation (which facilitates financial transactions between prisoners and their families and other corporations while skimming profit and also saving and mining the private user data) alongside of Global Tel* Link. This comes just after Sean was able to engage a new lawyer, Richard Kerger, who’s done work on the Lucasville Uprising death row prisoners.
This episode, we speak to Ben Turk, a supporter of Sean’s about new updates in Sean’s case, his silencing and how folks can help pressure the state to give Sean back his access to phones and email.
Prior to that interview, however, a special guest reads a script from Sean for this week’s “You Are The Resistance”. Take a listen, or find it later at archive.org as youaretheresistance04132014 alongside the past segments for download or streaming.
Ben then tells us about his efforts, via Insurgent Theatre, to print a compendium of the plays he’s written and his upcoming tour of the play BADGE (formerly known Know Your Enemies and prior to that as ACAB), where Ben play’s the part of Officer Friendly, a community liaison officer who slowly realizes that, in fact, all cops are bastards. This play will be touring with D. Jones’ film “The Shadow of Lucasville” around numerous parts of the U.S. and Canada. Check out the play intro and the preview of the film at http://www.insurgenttheatre.org
Ben also suggests taking a moment to call the current Prison Director, Gary Mohr at 614-752-1677 and requesting that Sean Swain be given back access to his email and phone communications so that he can resume more direct contact with lawyer, Rick Kerger.
If you care to apply pressure to Global Tel Link, which controls the private-side of the ability of prisoners and outsiders to communicate via email and phone, Sean says they are headquartered in Reston, VA and has offices in: Houston, TX, Sacramento, CA; Altoon, PA; & Mobile, AL. http://www.gtl.net
The last half of this episode features the first track from new album by the Baton Rouge anarchist metal project, Thou. The album’s called Heathen and the track is called Free Will. Next up, we hear the track IV from the album Descent of Man by Vestiges.
This week we present quite the variety of consumables. Firstly couple of announcements about KOWA-LP and AshevilleFM and an update on the 5E prisoners from Mexico which includes a description of life and bribery culture in the prison where Carlos is currently held.
Next, the TFS crew’s newest member, Neka, interviews Keith Lamar (AKA Bomani Shakur), a defendant in the Lucasville Uprising case, facing the death penalty for allegedly leading a death squad of prisoners who killed snitches in April of 1993, of which he claims innocence. Keith is the author of a new book, Condemned, which he talks about alongside talking about his case and his upcoming final appeal. Find out more about his case and check out his book at his website, http://keithlamar.org and if you’re in or around Ohio and can make his hearings, please do show support.
If you’re in the line of travel for Black Bird Raum, pick up a copy of Keith’s book from their tour. http://www.blackbirdraum.net/
After that we are happy to present a recently translated interview by comrades from Anarchistisches Radio Berlin with a member of the Anarchist Black Cross of Belarus about a number of topics including prisoner support and anti-repression work the ABC is doing, the confusing nationalist and anarchist alignments occurring in parts of Ukraine, repression in Russia and much more. More from ARB can be found at http://aradio.blogsport.de
This week’s episode, we start off with announcements of the April 12th anti-racist march in Olympia, the April 28th Intl. Police conference in Phoenix, and a thanks from us for the recent awarding of The Final Straw with recognition by Anarchist News of our audio work.
Next, Sean Swain talks about the defendants of the Lucasville Uprising case.
The main segment is a discussion with Sonny, a German anarchist involved in resistance to the operation and spreading of the Lignite Carbon mine and subsequent destruction of the nearby environment by RWE. Sonny talks about the resistance there, the displacement of animals, devastation of the landscape and the eviction of 55,000 people over the years from local villages to expand the mine.
This week’s discussion happened as news came from the Hambacher resistors that the state was in the process of evicting the forest defenders. On 3/29/13 Sonny and I got back together to talk about updates on the situation. https://hambachforest.blogsport.de
This week’s show features an interview with two residents of the ZAD about the demonstrations of February 22nd in Nantes, France. Also, Anarchist prisoner Sean Swain talks about Swivilization in his weekly segment. More on him can be found at seanswain.org
The demonstration, dubbed a “sacking” by the media and police, featured directed attacks by demonstrators on offices of the French construction company threatening the lands of Notre-dames-de-Landes, a police station, a travel office, and a private transit company. The day of action also featured speeches, picnics, play, marches, discussions and theater.
In this conversation, some folks from the ZAD describe what they saw, why violence occurred, how that violence as an idea is wielded to form a narrative by the media and state and how it was experienced by folks actually present with the movement and the land.
This week William talks with Volodya, a Russian anarchist podcaster whos podcast Echo of Freedom can be found at http://freedom.libsyn.com. They talk about his experiences working in the anarchist milieu, anarchafeminism, and intersections between the LGBTQ movement in Russia and movements such as antifa.
Sean Swain (website http://www.seanswain.org) discusses Mumia Abu Jamal and class/race struggles as related to police forces. Among other things…
First up, an announcement from the Autonomous Worker’s Union in Kiev, Ukraine, about Russian military invasion of the Crimea and other parts of Ukraine. More info at http://avtonomia.net and http://nihilist.li
The first is Sean Swain’s most recent challenges to Governor Kasich of Ohio.
Next up, William interviewed CeCe McDonald. CeCe was recently released after her arrest in 2011 after the death of neo-nazi who attacked CeCe and friends while hurling transphobic, homophobic and racist epithets. CeCe talks about the support she received, what time was like inside for her and how release has been. For more about her case, check out: http://supportcece.wordpress.com/
Next, Bursts spoke with Dane Rossman, who was extradited to Canada from the U.S. in relation to charges around the 2010 Toronto anti-G20 protests. Dane speaks about his experiences in detention, the other 3 known extraditees and what they face with their convictions, how to support them and anti-border and detention work going on in the Southwest of the U.S.
More on Dane’s case can be found at: http://supportdanerossman.blogspot.com/
More on the 3 extraditees at: http://notorontog20extradition.wordpress.com/
More on the anti-Operation Streamline movement in the Southwest U.S.: http://endstreamline.org/
This week we’ll feature a segment by anarchist prisoner Sean Swain about education under Capitalism, a quick update about the U.S. activists threatened with extradition to Canada in relation to the 2010 Toronto anti-G20 protests and finally an interview with Orie Lumumba about the MOVE9, their 1978 conviction and their bid for parole. The last 20 minutes will feature tracks by Vallendusk from indonesia, Ah Ciliz from Los Angeles.
This week, we featured a segment by Sean Swain on sovereignty and consent of the ruled. We’ve begun archiving Sean’s segments under the title “You Are The Resistance” on archive.org, and those can be found linked as they come out on http://seanswain.org
This was followed by a conversation with Emily who does support work the NATO3 about what’s happened in the trial and what the next steps appear to be as sentencing approaches. Great news is that defendants Brent Betterly, Jared Chase & Brian Jacob Church were found Not Guilty of all of the terrorism charges, however they still each have felonies that stuck. Check out more at http://freethenato3.wordpress.com
Next, we speak with Johanna of Keeper of the Mountains Foundation, a grassroots group out of West Virginia that looks to the effects of Mountain Top Removal and coal extraction and burning on the environment, economy and people in Appalachia. Johanna shares some info on the recent Duke Energy Coal Ash Pit spill on the Dan River, near the North Carolina-Virginia border and what impacts can be expected from the 82,000 tons of toxic ash getting into a water source that provides for roughly 50,000 human animals, and uncounted non-humans and other life. http://www.mountainkeeper.org/
Finally, we’ll hear An Unearthly Sacrament by the Marin-County-California-based metal project Radagast, their only release thus far. That’ll be followed (really finally) by Destroyed By Ourselves from Katahajime from Allentown, PA.
First, we hear Sean Swain, anarchist prisoner in Ohio’s super-duper-mega-ultra-uber max prison at Youngstown talk about accusations of Utopianism thrown at him for his anarchism.
Secondly, we speak with author, activist and advocate Staughton Lynd. Mr. Lynd speaks with us about the ongoing hunger strike at Menard Correctional Facility’s administrative segregation units in Illinois. The strikes are in response to prisoner complaints of lack of heat and hot water in the freezing facility that was built in the 1870’s, leaks around the windows, rodent infestations and the lack of transparency around how people get put into the hole or get out of it. Upon initiating the hunger strike, prisoners (in particular Armando Velasquez who was witness being beaten, thrown down stairs and stomped by correctional officers/screws) have faced threats of force, including forced feeding for which Illinois law does not require court orders. You can find out more by contacting the Alice and Staughton Lynd at salynd(aat)aol (d ot)com. Also, check out articles at The SF Bay View on the subject.
If you care to call/write officials to press for an end to the torture:
Warden Rick Harrington, (618) 826-5071, P.O. Box 711, Menard IL 62794-9277
Illinois Department of Corrections Director Salvador Godinez, (217) 558-2200, ext. 2008, P.O. Box 19277, Springfield IL 62794-9277
Gov. Pat Quinn, (217) 782-0244, http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/Pages/ContacttheGovernor.aspx, 207 State House, Springfield IL 62706
The final portion of the episode is an interview with ecological and social activist, Yaroslav Nikitenko. Yaroslav has been involved for years in the struggle to save Khimki forest, the only old growth forest in the Moscow area, from development by a public-private construction project between Russian government, companies and VINCI construction (out of France). Yaroslav argues a lack of transparency by government, profit not surprisingly overshadowing concerns for peoples lives or the environment, neo-nazi thugs hired for home invasions and street attacks on journalists and activists working to speak out about Khimki and about how people can do solidarity work with those struggling to save this forest. Yaroslav also did solidarity work for incarcerated members of Pussy Riot, some of whom were involved in social struggles including the defense of Khimki. President Putin, prior to the Sochi Winter Olympics, released a number of political prisoners including members of the feminist punk band, Pussy Riot (albeit 2 month before their release). Lastly, Yaroslav shares his perspectives on the #euromaidan protests threatening the Ukrainian government, threats from the far-right in that nation, and his own fears as a Russian of the Ukrainian civil society coming further under Russian political sway. http://khimkiforest.org
