This week on the final straw we’re featuring a conversation with Tom and Miriam of the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led network of activists standing in solidarity with Palestinians on the ground in the occupied territories. For the hour we talk about the organization, its history, what got these folks involved, the recent and tragic murder of Ayşenur Eygi in Beita in the West Bank which Miriam witnessed, and how conditions have changed as the war by the Israeli settler state has expanded.
Our chat with Louis, an anarchist emergency room nurse who has just returned from a second tour doing healthcare work in Gaza and is about to leave again. During this difficult conversation, we talk about medical conditions that he encountered in Gaza, what aid is getting in and how it’s being distributed, health infrastructure and how this relates to his prior mutual aid and anti-border work in the so-called USA. You can find a prior interview with Louis from Living and Fighting blog.
This week we’re sharing audio from Dr. Mohammed Bamyeh’s presentation entitled “The No-State Solution” as recorded at the 2024 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville, NC. Dr. Bamyeh is a Palestinian sociologist and professor at Pitt and the author of multiple books. There is a youtube video of this chat available on the Firestorm Books channel. Shuli Branson’s current podcast is The Breakup Theory and she also authored a zine by the same title as this presentation.
A prior presentation of this title appeared at The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, a discussion between Dr. Bamyeh and Dr. Uri Gordon. You can find a video or a zine of the dialogue.
Announcements
SCI Fayette hunger strike
According to incarcerated activists in SCI-Fayette in Luzerne Township, Pennsylvania, there are plans to initiate a peaceful hunger strike starting with breakfast on August 5th, 2024, to protest lack of out-of-cell time, locked down for laundry, commissary and evening recreation time during which they can contact family and friends. More on the details in our show notes to support their hunger strike demands.
The brothers at SCI-FAYETTE are planning a peaceful resistance 2 strike all the meals beginning the morning of 8/5/2024 because administration is continuing 2 limit our time out of the cell on the unit, as if we’re in a pandemic. This is the only facility n PADOC that are doing pandemic procedures. Continues to take from us. Creating problems & hostile environment. The men are tired of being locked down for commissary, laundry & now they’re restricting are evening recreation. For most inmates that’s the only time we can contact are family & friends. We want full day room recreation (no cohorts) on every housing unit 7:45-10-30am, 1:15-3:35pm & 5:00pm-8:30pm & more seats on the housing unit 2 accommodate the seating arrangements. We need their help on the outside to call #724-364-2200 & speak up 4 us.
Administration likes to keep matters like this in-house & hope we don’t have any outside support.
Please support us?
To hear about more ongoing and recent prisoner struggles and anti-repression news, check out the monthly column on ItsGoingDown.org entitled In Contempt.
Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners
August 23-30th is the Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners. To learn who is being supported, find propaganda and art and how to send your own updates, visit the website solidarity.international
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Featured Track:
Viva Tirado (part 1) by El Chicano from Viva Tirado
First up, we spoke with Tala Nasser of the Palestinian prisoner human rights group, Al-Addameer which has offices in Jerusalem or Al-Quds, as well as in Ramallah. We speak about the report they released on Palestinian Prisoners day, April 17th, on the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, particularly since October 7th, 2023 including in Gaza since the invasion. More info on the group and their findings can be found at addameer.org
Then, we’ll hear a segment by our comrades at A-Radio Berlin speaking with Johan Eriksson, an anarchist game designer has recently published such an RPG called “Oceania 2084“, based on George Orwell’s novel “1984”. You can find more of about the game including a free austere pdf of the gameplay at jocher-symbolic-systems.itch.io , and you can hear more audios from A-Radio Berlin at aradio-berlin.org .
Sean Swain’s 2024 Presidential Run
For the sake of anyone in the office of Attorney General of Ohio if they’re listening: this segment is political satire. We feel it’s necessary to make this disclaimer as they referenced a spoof press conference for Sean as governor in exile of Ohio on the January 18th, 2015 radio segment in court filings to prove how dangerous Sean is, while actually just showing how stupid hierarchs are.
Midweek Release: Yaffa As
In case you missed mid-week release of our interview with Yaffa As, a queer and trans Palestinian poet, author, publisher and activist living in the diaspora about two recent collections they published as well as mutual aid and fundraising to get queer Palestinians out of range of Israeli genocide.
As a mid-week special, we’re releasing a conversation we had last weekend with Hani Almadhoun, a Palestinian-American journalist from Gaza and living in Virginia. Mr Almadhoun is also Director of Philanthropy at UNRWA USA, an independent charity to support the UN organization by the same name. In the chat, he speaks about conditions generally and for his family specifically in Gaza as well as the soup kitchen that his brother founded in north Gaza (https://www.gofundme.com/f/Hot-meals-in-gaza-daily , on Instagram at @GazaSoupKitchen ).
This week, we’re featuring a conversation with Mohammad Hureini (twitter / instagram), a young activist from Masafer Yatta, an area in the hills south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Mohammad is a member of a non-violent group called Youth of Sumud that struggles to hold on to the sites and lives of Palestinian villages despite displacement by the Israeli military occupation as well as the illegal zionist settlements (like the neighboring Havat Ma’on) and their routine violence and impunity. For the hour, Mohammad speaks about the work of Youth of Sumud, their recent report co-published with The Good Shepherd on increased settler violence entitled Indigenous Erasure: How the zionist movement is using state sanctioned violence to eliminate the Palestinian communities of the West Bank, the South African genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice and other topics.
Check out the January 2024 episode featuring updates on support for antifascists facing charges in Budapest from February 11, 2023; reflections from an Autonomist on the ’80s-’90s journal “Radikal”; a portion of our interview with Israeli refuser Yuval Dag; and an interview from Solidarity Zones on the case of accused Russian war sabateur, Ruslan Siddiqui
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Featured Track:
Building Steam with a Grain of Salt by DJ Shadow from Entroducing….
First up, you’ll hear an interview with Shupavu wa Kirima, General Secretary of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party, comes on to talk to us about the ongoing hunger strike among prisoners at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia protesting the abuse of solitary confinement and the medical status of hunger striker Kevin “Rashid” Johnson. More at https://RashidMod.Com [00:01:18 – 00:25:47]
Then, Yuval Dag, an Israeli anarchist member of Mesarvot recently imprisoned for publicly refusing conscription, talks about draft refusal, opposing the war on Palestinians and the occupation and undoing zionist ideology. More at https://linktr.ee/meaarvot [00:27:31 – 01:06:13]
We’re joined again by podcaster, writer and activist Elia J. Ayoub, who is a Lebanese Palestinian living in Europe, co-hosts a podcast called The Fire These Times which is soon to be a part of the From The Periphery podcast network. For the hour we speak about the Israeli war on Palestinians, US policies in the SWANA region and the possibilities of war expanding to neighboring states, conspiracy thinking in the early days of these massacres, European state approaches to massacres in the Occupied Territories and other subjects.
Supporters of antifascist and anarchist activist Daryle Lamont Jenkins are raising funds for DLJ after a recent visit to the hospital. You can learn more and kick in some funds at GoFund.Me/e40da8b8 or check the link in our show notes.
New Episode of B(A)D News
The latest episode of the monthly podcast from the A-Radio Network is available, featuring stories from:
Kilavo Seme about Quilombos and struggles in Brazil;
A-Radio Berlin on the trials concerning the 2017 G20 protests in Hamburg
Flora Radio in so-called Valparaiso, Chile, on recent repression against Mapuche people claiming their lands
Hunger Strike At Red Onion Expands
The hunger strike that began on December 26th at the infamous Red Onion State Prison in Virginia has doubled in size as of a few days ago with participation of 7 more imprisoned resisters protesting abuse by isolation despite Virginia policy and international human rights law. There is a rundown of the hunger strike and conditions at Red Onion available at RashidMod.Com and supporters are requesting that people call or email VDOC officials to end this cruel and unlawful use of segregation.
Newly joined the strike:
Nguyen Tuan – #1098070
Demetrius Walllace – #1705834
Gregory Binns – #1157265
P. Williams – #2103207
DeQuan Saunders – #1458253
J. Hilliard – #1988319
Ray Galloway – #1407902
Gregory Azeez – #1421616
Who To Contact:
VADOC~ Central Administration; USPS—
P.O. Box 26963
Richmond, VA 23261
This week’s show features four segments: an announcement from IGD Podcast; an anti-Zionist Jewish voice from Palestine; an interview of two anti-repression activists on the harassment of two antifascist activists in Budapest, Hungary; Sean Swain’s segment.
Reflections of a Jewish Anti-Zionist from Palestine
First up, we’re featuring the voice of a Jewish anti-Zionist anarchist living in lands occupied by the Israeli state. We speak about some of his experiences of trying to resist the ongoing war against Palestinians, collaboration with Palestinian comrades against the occupation, the silencing of dissent during the escalation by the Israeli state and other topics. [ 00:07:28 – 00:50:13 ]
For a very thoughtful series of podcasts about the situation in Palestine, check out the two recent episodes of the Its Going Down podcast (1st and 2nd).
Following this, you’ll hear a segment by A-Radio Berlin (a co-member of the Channel Zero Network as well as the A-Radio Network with The Final Straw) about repression of antifascists recently under the far right Hungarian administration of Victor Orban. This also appeared in the November 2023 episode of Bad News, the monthly English-language podcast of the A-Radio Network. [ 00:52:10 – 01:05:53 ]
This week on The Final Straw, we’re excited to share a panel discussion recorded at Firestorm Books entitled Against Genocide: A Palestinian Solidarity Panel, recorded on Sunday, October 22nd 2023.
From the event description:
“With the “iron-clad” support of the United States and other Western powers, Israel has made explicit its plan for the systematic destruction of Gaza and the Palestinian people. At this event, participants—including Palestinian and Jewish activists—will discuss the history of the occupation and the present campaign of dehumanization that’s paving the way to genocide. We’ll also explore the radical solidarities that are necessary to stop the assault on Gaza and secure a just peace.
This event is a fundraiser for The Hebron International Resource Network (HIRN), an organization based in the West Bank that is working to house Gazan workers deported to the West Bank by Israeli forces. Please consider bringing a cash donation! Firestorm will additionally be donating the net proceeds from all sales in-store and online.
Art by Heba Zagout, Palestinian artist killed with her two young children in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza on Friday, October 13.”
We’re linking here to Sean Swain’s most recent segment on the history of violence before the most recent escalation of war on the people of Gaza coming from the state of Israel.
Announcement
Support Former Political Prisoner Zolo Azania
Former Black political prisoner and friend to many of us, Zolo Azania, needs our financial assistance to pay for important repairs on his car. He uses his car to drive to work. Details below. Please be generous.
Zolo recently had a new transmission installed in his car along with other necessary repairs. The total bill came out to $4,659.51. He had put aside $1,200 for car repairs, therefore he needs another $3,459.51 in order to reclaim his car.
After spending nearly 37 years in Indiana prisons, Zolo has been free for nearly 7 years now. After facing many challenges on the outside, we’re very happy to say Zolo now owns a house! Of course he needs to pay a mortgage and pay for repairs and upkeep on the house. After working 5 years at low paying jobs, Zolo was recently able to obtain a better paying job with benefits. This job requires a commute which is difficult on public transportation.
Zolo would like to avoid excessive charges for the dealership to store his car. If Zolo cannot pay this repair bill he risks losing his car altogether.
Zolo appreciates any donation but please be as generous as you can.
You can send donations to him via Zelle, Venmo or Cash App ($ZoloAzania5). His accounts are under “Zolo Azania”
Bad News #72 Online Now!
You can find the October 2023 episode of the English-language BAD News: Angry Voices From Around The World podcast produced by the A-Radio Network online now, featuring a short version of our interview about the December 8th case in France, updates from Greece by way of the comrades in Thessaloniki at 1431AM Free Social Radio, and Frequenz-A about the about the Karl Helga Wagenplatz in Leipzig, which is under the threat of ever-present forces of gentrification.
