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.
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!
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
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
This week’s show features two conversations around the fbi, prisons and Anarchists.
The first is with Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red and blogger at greenisthenewred.com . Will is an award winning, independent journalist based out of Washington, D.C. Our conversation revolves mostly around the recent case of Anarchists in Cleveland entrapped into plotting destruction of infrastructure by the FBI and an informant.
The second conversation is with Ian This show is also in preparation for the upcoming June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. Ian updates us on Marius Mason and Eric McDavid, two of the main focuses of his recent tour of the U.S. called Never Alone, in run-up for June 11th. Ian also speaks about security culture, revolutionary solidarity and growing cultures of resistance, as well as updates us on the cases of Pax in Portland (accused of property destruction) and the Grand Jury in the S.F. Bay Area.
http://www.june11.org
http://www.greenisthenewred.com
http://www.supportmariusmason.org/
http://www.supporteric.org/
http://freepax.org/
http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/
In recognition of June 11th as a Day of Solidarity with Long Term Anarchist Prisoners, this week’s The Final Straw (now 1-2pm EST on Fridays) will present the second of two shows on the Green Scare. I’ve interviewed supporters of Marius Mason and Eric McDavid, both victims of the Green Scare serving 20 year sentences and, also, Anarchists.
The first was an interview with Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red and is archived on archive.org
This week we’re speaking with Jesse, a Midwest organizer of June 11th Solidarity about the history of June 11th and the importance of being out here for the folks in there. We’ll also be speaking with Sarah on Marius Mason’s struggle as well as with Jennie from Sacramento Prisoner Support, which handles the case of Eric McDavid. Both Marius and David are anarchists facing around 20 years each for crimes that either: a.) didn’t harm anyone; b.) didn’t ever happen (Eric was convicted of conspiracy despite lacking intent). Both cases involve snitches cooperating with the law enforcement. Both cases concern people taking action (or thinking about it) to defend the earth.
For more info check out the following pages:
http://june11.org
http://supportmariusmason.org
http://www.supporteric.org
As the June 11th day of Solidarity with long-term anarchist political prisoners approaches, The Final Straw will be addressing the Green Scare over the next two shows.
I’m happy to bring you an interview with Will Potter, author of the new book, “Green is the New Red” and founder of GreenIsTheNewRed.com , a blog where Will follows the suppression of free speech and activists working to end animal cruelty and the destruction of our natural environment.
Next week, The Final Straw will bring you an interview with members of the support committees for long-term anarchist political prisoners Marie Mason and Eric McDavid (respectively).
Soundtrack for this week’s episode was taken from Filastine’s album, Burn It, which was pressed by CrimethInc to benefit the legal defenses of victims of Operation Backfire and the Green Scare.
Free all prisoners!
For more info on these shows, check out:
http://www.greenisthenewred.org
http://www.june11.org
http://supporteric.org
http://www.supportmariemason.org
http://breakthechains.info/