Category Archives: Prisons

Anarchist, Asheville, General, Prisons, Queer

Tranzmission Prison Project + CA Prisoner Hungerstrikes Resume

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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.

Anarchist, Author, General, History, Police, Prisons, Racism, repression

Police Abolition: An interview with Kristian Williams

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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

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.

activism, Anarchist, Cleveland 4, May Day, Police, Prisons, repression, Security Culture

Gail Stevens, mother of Connor, Cleveland 4 defendant

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This week’s show features a conversation with Gail Stevens. Gail is the mother of imprisoned activist and anarchist, Connor Stevens, who is one of the four anarchists that the FBI is accusing of attempting to blow up a bridge outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Connor and two other defendants, Brandon Baxter and Doug Wright, have taken a non-cooperating plea deal in the case and face their sentencing hearing on November 5th & 6th of 2012. Joshua Stafford is currently undergoing psychiatric testing to see if he can stand trial. Anthony Hayne took a cooperating plea.

During the interview Gail talks about her son, Connor, and offers a different story than what the FBI and even Rolling Stone Magazine have proposed as to what happened leading up to the arrest of the 5 on April 30th of this year. Gail also rips into the poor journalism involved in “The Plot Against Occupy” and tells us what Sabrina R. Erdely got wrong.

For more info on the case, check out http://cleveland4solidarity.org

For a news excerpt with video of Connor at Occupy, check out:
http://youtu.be/DEpQwuTMALA

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

activism, Anarchist, Author, Cleveland 4, conspiracy, Earth & Animal Liberation, Eric McDavid, General, Grand Jury, Ian Coldwater, June 11, Marius Mason, Occupy, Pax, Police, Prisons, repression, Security Culture, Will Potter

Cleveland Anarchists, Pax and Support for Long Term Anarchist Prisoners: Conversations with Will Potter & Ian Coldwater

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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/

Anarchist, conspiracy, Earth & Animal Liberation, Eric McDavid, General, June 11, Marius Mason, Police, Prisons, repression

Eric McDavid, Marius Mason and June 11th Day of Solidarity (June 10, 2011)

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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