Category Archives: General

Anarchist, Bash Back, General, Prisons, Queer, repression

The Mount Hope Infinity

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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/

General, Immigration, Police, Prisons, Racism, repression

Immigration over Coffee: a conversation with Loida (June 17, 2011)

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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.

Anarchist, Author, General, Queer

Ryan Conrad: Against Equality in Marriage (February 27, 2011)

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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.

Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage

Be warned, about 2 minutes of silence on this file version

General, History, Ireland, Marxism, Music, repression

“…For the love of one’s country is a terrible thing…” (January 24, 2011)


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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

Anarchist, General, History, Marxism, Music, repression, Spain, Spanish Civil War

“Yo se que un dia te estarias con nosotros como querias, como querias.”

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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

General, Police, Racism

Ben Saari on the Oscar Grant case & Police Accountability

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An hour-long conversation with Ben Saari, member of Santa Rosa CopWatch and longtime police accountability activist from the Bay Area. We spoke about the case of Johannes Mehserle, BART cop who was video taped shooting Oscar Grant III in the back by numerous witnesses. The show was not edited for FCC consumption. The playlist features many songs concerning the shooting of Grant.

General

‘Sup, world.

Welcome to The Final Straw Radio Blog.  This site will function, basically, to make for easier access to the content of the show without having to search all over the place and to continue following it. First, if you happen to be watching, you’ll see past episodes come up starting with our earliest until the site is populated.  Afterwards, we’ll be posting the shows up on the site after they are no longer streaming on AshevilleFM.  Be sure to check out the other great shows on AFM and support our local, independent media project!

If you have content suggestions, we welcome them.  See our Kontact page.

Thanks to the folks at noblogs for hosting us!

Salud y Anarquia!

activism, ALKQN, Anarchist, Author, communization, conspiracy, CounterInsurgency, Earth & Animal Liberation, General, Grand Jury, History, Immigration, Occupy, PNW, Police, Prisons, repression, Security Culture

Life During Wartime: Counterinsurgency in the U.S.

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This week’s show features a conversation with William Munger, co-editor and contributor to the upcoming AK Press book, Life During Wartime (2013). We talk about the application of Counterinsurgency praxis by law enforcement domestically in the U.S. and what that looks like in it’s varying forms.

What is COIN (Counterinsurgency)? How is it being applied to movements and communities in the United States? How do we resist it? These are among the topics covered during the conversation.

Among other things, Will’s research has focused on the case study of the relationship and dialogue developed between law enforcement in Salinas, California and the Monterey, California-based Naval Postgraduate School. This relationship has allowed NPS to conduct the beginnings of a proxy-war on the local Latino populations with a focus on eradicating gang networks. Will’s essay, “Social War in the Salad Bowl” won a grant from the Institute for Anarchist Studies this last year.

U.S. Army Field Manual 3-24: Counterinsurgency Warfare
NPS: Gangs and Guerrillas

The playlist for this show can be found at AshevilleFM

activism, Anarchist, Cleveland 4, conspiracy, General, May Day, Occupy, Prisons, repression, Security Culture

The Case of the Cleveland 4: The FBI, Entrapment & the construction of Terrorists

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This week’s conversation features a discussion of the case of the Cleveland 4, anarchists arrested in Ohio on April 30th for allegedly attempting to blow up a bridge. But the case isn’t so simple as idealists independently taking direct and spectacular action against infrastructure. As members of Cleveland 4 Justice (the support group for the defendants) share with us information about the accused, what is known about the alleged infiltrator sent by the FBI to facilitate a terror case (Shaquille Azir), and the significance of the timing of the arrests to coincide with May Day celebrations worldwide and the reawakening of the Occupy Movement in the U.S., we see a widened scope of intrigue and entrapment that fits into a bigger picture of corrupt government and self-serving security services.

Cleveland 4 Justice. ORG
How FBI Entrapment Is Inventing Terrorists and Letting Bad Guys Off The Hook”

Crimethinc’s “Inside The FBI Entrapment Strategy”
My boys, The Cleveland 5