Kate Bertash of the Digital Defense Fund to talk about Flock cameras, automatic license plate readers, the ubiquity of ai-driven surveillance, databasing and storage of real-time info of people and vehicle movements in public and privacy fears being raised. Katie also speaks about organizing with her village-mates to counter or limit them and artful approaches towards resistance with her Adversarial Apparel project.
This week, we’re sharing an interview with Selena who speaks about the “Stop Cop City: Imaginary Crimes Tour” and Jordan, a RICO defendant from the Stop Cop City 61 case. The two speak about anti-repression, about where the case is at right now and a wider view of resistance and support. The tour will be hitting over 60 cities (not all in the USA)
61 people are facing RICO trials in Atlanta for alleged involvement in resistance to the construction of Cop City. The State uses imaginary associations and crimes, framed as RICO, as a means to break solidarity and momentum when movements are strong. Anti-repression is a response that uses an alternate imagination to strengthen solidarity and resistance.
In Spring 2025, a nationwide tour will visit over 60 cities to discuss the history of the Atlanta forest, the resistance to Cop City, history of RICO, ongoing legal updates and facilitate discussions on anti-repression and movement defense. Through this tour we aim to share the lessons we have learned across struggles, and adapt to the evolving repressive forces so that we can continue to move bravely together.
To hear past episodes of ours on the Stop Cop City movement, check out this link.
Announcements
A Message from Peppy
A brief statement from Brian “Peppy” DiPippa, an anarchist in Pittsburgh convicted of engaging a home made smoke bomb at cops protecting an anti-trans event at University of Pittsburgh in May of 2023 and sentenced to 60 months in Federal Prison. You can learn more about Peppy & his co-defendant Krystal (who just had a birthday!) at their support site
May we find inspiration and creativity in these challenging times. Let us be guided by friendship and self determination. May we mind our pace, study our ancestors, listen to our storytellers and run towards expansive freedom and autonomy. Solidarity to all those held captive by the state and their loved ones on the outside, your work is felt even if it is not always the most visible.
Now Airing on WEFR 1700 AM, Fairmont WV
We are happy to announce that we’re airing at 3pm on Saturdays on WEFR 1700AM in Fairmont, WV. To support this small station, check out their GoFundMe, and if you’ve got a community radio station, college radio station or public radio station in your area that you’d like to hear us on, check out our Radio Broadcasting tab and send us their way!
This week, we’re featuring an anonymized chat with a longtime anarchist on lessons learned trying to stay sane while facing state repression. We talk about experiencing trauma, the need for strong relationships and movements offering shelter and strong alternatives to the alienated society of state and capital, while also speaking on the challenges of mental health and inviting in new participants in anarchist movement.
This week, we’re sharing words from anarchist, author, organizer and former participant in the Black Panther and Black Liberation Army, Ashanti Omowali Alston, in the key note address at the 2024 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville. The presentation was entitled “Solidarity, Spirituality and Liberatory Promise on a Turtle’s Back”. You can support Ashanti’s GoFundMe here.
Trusting in solidarity, the mysterium of spirituality, and a promise from god knows where—a “where” that at this historical moment, might just be Palestine. What does it mean TO BE in the midst of all this right now? RIGHT NOW!
M. Ashanti Alston is a revolutionary Black nationalist, anarchist, abolitionist, speaker, writer, elder motivator. A long-time member of The Jericho Movement, he is presently an advisory board member of the National Jericho Movement and co-founding board member of the Center for Grassroots Organizing (Vermont land project). He continues giving talks and writing inspirational analyses concerning the dismantling of the myriad oppressive regimes in which we find ourselves enmeshed.
Ashanti is one of the few former members of the Black Panther Party who identifies as an anarchist in the tradition of ancestor Kwesi Balagoon (BPP & BLA). He developed abolitionist politics in the early years of Critical Resistance. He has helped save the life of a baby pig with animal liberationists, learned depth-queer politics from being challenged, and wants to see non-ego eldership partaking through sincerely loving the younger generations who truly want to ‘CARRY IT ON.”
Prisoners have been filing grievances at Granville CI, a prison in Butner, North Carolina, to no avail complaining about a lack of the legally mandated showers and access to the exercise yard, and are asking for phone calls and emails to demand a resumption of serving these basic needs despite any claims of understaffing. If you check our show notes, you can find a call or email script and the numbers and addresses to direct your words at.
By Joseph ”Shine White” Stewart
How many prisoners must die and how long must we languish in solitary confinement subjected to these harsh and unconstitutional living conditions before there is a public outcry?
The deficiencies in the day-to-day operations of this prison have been longstanding/persistent and well documented. In the past I’ve reported on the culture of abuse, negligence and unprofessionalism here at Granville Correctional.
Over the past couple of months the conditions have only worsened. Those of us who are assigned to Restrictive Housing for Control Purposes (RHCP) are being deprived of showers, recreation, subjected to inadequate health care and other unconstitutional treatment.
Pursuant to Chapter C subsection .1205(A) of the NCDAC policy and procedure manual, prisoners assigned to RHCP will have the opportunity to shower a least three times a week.
Lately prison staff have been using the excuse that there is not enough staff to give us showers or even saying that they are too tired to do showers. As always I must maintain my integrity and be honest when reporting on these conditions. The laziness and neglect I am mentioning here doesn’t apply to all the staff. Sergeant Jones, the second shift sergeant here in C-1 building, makes sure that we are afforded the opportunity to shower. However when it’s not her shift or if she’s not scheduled to work we’re likely not to receive showers if there is a shortage of staff.
Despite being demoted to a less restrictive solitary confinement setting I’ve yet to be offered to exercise outside.
Pursuant to Chapter C section .1206 of NCDAC policy and process manual, prisoners assigned to RHCP shall he allowed one hour per day, five days per week to exercise outside of the cell, moreover the outdoor exercise cages should be used as the primary exercise area. During the exercise periods we are to be allowed to exercise unrestrained.
As when it is time for us to take showers the same excuse is used to deprive us of any recreational time. They don’t have enough staff. As mentioned I haven’t been afforded outside exercise for almost three years now despite being demoted to a lower security level.
Recreation here in C-1 building consists of us being placed in full restraints and allowed to pace up and down the tier for one hour. Lastly, custody staff are having any medical appointments cancelled claiming there isn’t enough staff to escort is to the nurse’s station. This includes mental health appointments as well.
Of course the foregoing isn’t all that needs to be addressed, however these are the issues that my peers and I find to be the most important, thus we entreat that the reader call and demand redress for the aforementioned issues.
Warden James Williams and unit manager Eldridge Walker are responsible for promulgating the aforementioned policies and procedures and for the allowance of the aforementioned practices/customs, therefore they are the individuals who should be held accountable. Please contact these officials repeatedly:
Granville Correctional Institution warden, James Williams – 919-575-3070 (call main line and ask for warden’s office)
Granville CI C-1 Unit Manager Eldridge Walker- 919-575-3070 (call main line and ask to be connected to Unit Manager Eldridge Walker)
NCDAC Dep. Director of Rehabilitation/Correctional Services Maggie Brewer – maggie.brewer@dac.nc.gov – 919-733-2126 (call main line and ask to be connected to Brewer’s office)
“I am (calling/emailing) to demand that prisoners being held in solitary confinement in the C-1 building be afforded the opportunity to shower and exercise outside according to NCDAC’s policies and procedures and pursuant to their U.S. Constitutional rights.
I am demanding that an internal investigation be conducted at the Granville Correctional concerning the grievances being made by prisoners there and I demand warden James Williams and C-1 unit manager he held accountable for the deliberate indifference they have demonstrated.”
. … . ..
Featured Track:
Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow (instrumental) by Funkadellic from Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow
This week, I spoke with two members of No More Deaths, a 20 year old humanitarian organization operating in the borderlands between Mexico and the USA. We talked about the organization, the work it does, how the border has changed, the political legacy of the Republicans and Democrats in the current situation for immigrants, deaths at the border and ways to get involved in supporting people on the move. Here’s a chat from 2017 we did with NMD as well.
We sat down with three local activists to talk about the proposed Asheville Business Improvement District, a model of service provision using public funding to increase policing in downtown by an unelected and unaccountable body of largely business and property owners. For the hour, Grace, Madison and Elliot talk about attempts to ram the BID through public process, some of the businesses and individuals behind it, how bids have panned out in other cities around the country and what space there is left to oppose this further privatization of public space in Asheville.
We didn’t mention it here, but there have also been rumblings of the BID model, a version of which was fought and never funded in 2012, being applied to other parts of Asheville, for example West Asheville. You can find more information and ways to get involved with folks organizing against the Business Improvement District at AshevilleBID.com and on Instagram at @NoAVLBid. This is our show for the week of May 12th.
As a quick note, there are a few acronyms frequently used in this conversation. One is RFP, which stands for Request for Proposals and is a process of contracting out an element of a project. Another acronym is ADA, in this case Asheville Downtown Association which is an independent pressure group made up of individuals, business and property owners. Not to be confused with the Asheville Downtown Commission, which was created by the City Council and contains appointed representatives from the ADA, city council, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and few other community members including business owners.
First up, you’ll hear a chat with organizers of the 2024 Heart of the Valley Anticapitalist Bookfair which ran its first iteration in Corvallis, Oregon from January 19-21st. A zine of their experiences will appear on that blog soon. [ -> 00:24:18 ]
Then, you’ll hear a brief segment updating listeners on the conspiracy case against six anarchists and antifascists in Russia known as the Tyumen case (for where it initiated). The six anarchists, some of whom barely knew each other, were tortured into confessions of conspiracy to further anarchist ideology and damage the Russian war machine. [ 00:24:34 – 00:32:53 ]
Following this, we spoke with Aster, a European anarchist involved in the counter-surveillance and anti-repression project known as the No Trace Project which works to share information about known methods and cases of state surveillance. The project does this in order to improve and expand our collective knowledge, tools and abilities at evading state crackdowns as we organize and act. This interview was conducted via encrypted messages and Aster’s portion is being read by an unrelated volunteer. [ 00:35:47 – 01:05:18 ]
If you plan to visit their site, we suggest at least running a VPN (riseup.net has a free one) and using an anonymized browser. One method is to download the tor browser (find your device/operating system at ssd.eff.org for some tips) and visit the NoTrace Project tor address. Their website can also be found at https://NoTrace.How
Finally, you’ll hear Sean Swain’s reading of names of people killed by cops in the USA during October of 2023. [ 01:09:50 ]
Hey listeners, this mid-week release features the words of anarchists involved in or doing support for the December 8th Affair in France, in which 9 people were arrested at the end of 2020, following Movement for Black Lives protests took place around the world to challenge police impunity and racism. The French state is asserting, based on some pretty flimsy arguments, that 7 radical and anarchist folks were a part of a conspiracy to engage in terrorism based on their common connection to an activist recently returned from the supporting the YPG’s fight against Daesh or ISIS in Rojava. This activist goes by the name Libre Flot, or Free Flow, and he shares some words here as well.
The court case runs from October 3rd until 27th and can use international solidairty demonstrations, support for those defending themselves, and more that you can find information below:
This week, you’ll hear an interview we conducted with researcher and journalist Jessica Pishko about the upcoming, September 9th Constitutional Sheriff & Peace Officers Association gathering in Cherokee, North Carolina. For the hour, Jessica talks about the office of Sheriff in the US, the CSPOA and Constitutional Sheriff movement, their ties to militia or other far-right wing and white nationalist formations and related topics. You can find Jessica’s blog at Sheriffs.SubStack.Com.
This week, you’ll hear an interview with Matthew Scott, a journalist with ACPC in Atlanta to talk about recent developments with the struggle against Cop City, the building of a giant police training facility with a simulated cityscape for urban counter insurgency training for law enforcement from around the USA & around the world in a forest in Atlanta, Georgia. You can read Matthews work at ATLPressCollective.Com.
We review the development of the project and the organizing against it, touch on the current situation for the 41 people facing domestic terrorism charges from the state of Georgia, talk about the SWAT raid and financial crime charges against the Atlanta Solidarity bail fund, the vote by city council to move forward with tens of millions of dollars of funding despite 15 hours of public comment against and take a look at where the project is now that clearcutting has happened.
