from http://www.ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw/10/2011/tranzmission-prison-project-ca-prisoner-hungerstrikes-resume
Today’s show featured an interview with with Bender, a volunteer with Tranzmission Prison Project. From their facebook, “The Tranzmission Prison Project is an Asheville, NC based group which offers support for queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people who are incarcerated. This support comes in the form of providing people with books, zines, resource lists and penpals.” We talk about the group, Prison Abolition and how to get people involved. Contact them at tranzmissionprisonproject@gmail.com
But, first, we talk a bit about Occupy Asheville and the resumption of hunger strikes by prisoners in CA. Prisoners there are claiming that the state officials have not implemented any of the rights demanded by hunger strikers in July. AND the CDCR (California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation) has stated that it will be punishing hunger strikers as if they were rioters. Please support their cause, starting by visiting Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity to keep up on news.
(originally posted at
http://www.ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw/09/2011/occupy-wall-street-in-asheville)
200 to 300 bodies occupy the space and sleep on the street right next to Wall Street, financial hub of the east coast. To some, the place symbolizes the living and breathing Sacre Coeur of Capitalism, the highest stage of human global awareness and economy. A system offering to break down monolithic governments and swap them for more democratic ones and to scoop the ingenious and hard working out of poverty, it’s promoters often present it as a panacea. Capitalism’s detractors range from the belief that it’s a necessary evil to an alienator of communities and a destroyer of worlds.
This Friday will mark day 13 of the Occupy Wall Street protest. Those occupying the space of Liberty Plaza were definitely influenced by the occupation movements of the “Arab Spring” and the attempted anti-electoral occupations in Spain and have set off many related, if smaller, occupations around the United States (Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles…. in fact 64 listed in total so far in North American and 12 internationally found on occupytogether.org). This Friday, we’ll discuss the movement and the upcoming (Saturday, Oct 01) protest in solidarity with the occupy movement as well as other related initiatives coming out of Asheville.
This weeks show is an interview with Flatline from the Hackbloc collective and Bill Silverfox about internet security, hacking, hacktivism, Anonymous and other topics. In light of recent attacks by Anti-Sec against the Arizona DPS, Anonymous on multiple targets and alleged members’ subsequent arrests, the BART protests, Wikileaks, I thought it’d be good to shed some light on a misunderstood topic. We also discuss the role of hackers in the Arab Spring movement as well as international solidarity to disrupt corrupt government censorship and activity, in the hopes of facilitating a more free flow of information around the world (Malaysia, Australia, the U.S., Morocco, Libya, Egypt, China, Iran…etc). Lots of good introductory information on internet security and history of hacking during this hour-long show. Enjoy.
Streaming live on 8/26 @ 1PM EST at www.ashevillefm.org/
Available from 8/27/2011 @ 3AM EST at www.ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw
Today’s show features an interview with the Portland-based author and activist, Kristian Williams. Williams speaks on his first book, Our Enemies in Blue (a history of policing in America), on recent articles about community policing and the counterinsurgency training shared between the U.S. military and domestic law enforcement agencies and the growing movement calling for the abolition of police in the United States, and the Pacific Northwest in particular). The show will air at 1pm EST at www.ashevillefm.org and be archived for a week at www.ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw .
Check out www.kristianwilliams.com for more information on the interviewee
In November of 2008, 13 identified individuals entered a mega-church in Lansing, MI, known for it’s active anti-gay stance and organizing. These 13, deemed the Mount Hope Infinity as the number of Jane and John Does (20) kept growing in the civil law suit that followed, threw leaflets telling the congregation (particularly the youth) that it’s ok not to be straight, kissed at the pulpit and chanted slogans. A two and a half year civil suit was subsequently brought by the Alliance Defense Fund (a legal group devoted to the end of persecution to Christians) under the auspices of the “Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances Act” (a law passed to stop people from blocking access to clinics that offer abortions). This week’s hour is a discussion with one defendant about the case, the events and the aftermath.
Bash Back! communique on Mount Hope:
http://www.myspace.com/bashbacklansing/blog/448202823
The Mount Hope Infinity website:
https://themounthopeinfinity.wordpress.com/
This show was based on what information I could garner concerning the Pelican Bay and Corcoran prisoners in CA who had promised hunger strikes concerning a number of concerns. This strike eventually spread to many outside prisons throughout the state and the United States.
This weeks show was a conversation my friend Loida. Loida lives in the Asheville area, works here, was up until recently a student here. Loida is undocumented. We spend the hour talking about some of the laws recently passed around the U.S. and NC (and on their way to passage) that target folks without documentation, we discuss racism, we explore belonging and exclusion and identity.
A live conversation with Ryan Conrad, blogger at Against Equality blog and editor of Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage. During the hour we discuss inclusion, mainstreaming, marriage as an institution and the “rights” that come with it. We also discuss the lobbying groups pushing for same-sex marriage.
Tonight’s show (Monday, 1/24/11 from 8-10pm EST, thanks to The Invisible Worm) will focus on the struggle for justice in Northern Ireland from Fenians through the United Men, the IRB, IRA, INLA and the Civil Rights Marches. Recognizing that this is guilty pleasure for some of us Americans of Irish Descent (myself included), allow me these two hours to play some of my favorite Irish Republican songs.
Please also understand that I do not condone the actions of the paramilitary movements (Unionist or Republican) or governments (Irish, Northern Irish or British). My understanding is that the Irish situation is a terribly complicated product of centuries of colonization, genocide and divide-and-conquer tactics of the lower classes (mostly along religious and ethnic lines) by the elite and powerful. A free Ireland, in my opinion, would be one: free of class division; free of the managing elite; free of religious persecution and the persecution of religions; free of sectarian conflict; free of racism, sexism and homophobia. A free Ireland would be autonomous from European oversight and debt and yet one in which Irish identity does not take the form of jingoistic nationalism.
For more information on some interesting Irish projects, check out the following pages:
Worker’s Solidarity Movement
Black and Red Revolution
RAG (Revolutionary Anarchafeminist Group
This week’s show, during Dystopia, I presented my humble homage to the songs of the Spanish Civil War, and particularly to the Anarchist forces. These two hours feature many original recordings and beautiful readaptations, with little rants/snippets of history on the significance of songs.
I noted after the show ended that I left out the original of what is perhaps my favorite song ( “A Las Barricadas”, the CNT theme to the tune of Warszawianka 1905) from that period, available here for your enjoyment on youtube.
For some light reading on the subject, check out:
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spaindx.html
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/scw/scw.htm
