Category Archives: Racism

Memphis organizes against police and the KKK: A Conversation with Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin

Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin
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Memphis, TN, is heating up! This year will be the first observance of the International Day of Action Against Police Brutality on March 15th, organized in part by Black Autonomy CopWatch. Also, on March 30th, the KKK will be holding a rally against the city’s decision to rename the park housing the body of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a confederate General and founder of the KKK. Memphis also plans to rename 2 other Confederate parks in the city, not only forrest park. Counter-demonstrations are planned by Anti-Racist Action and other American antifascists.

It should not surprise folx that one of the people working so hard to organize against police brutality and challenge white supremacists is Tennessee’s own Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin. Mr. Kom’boa Ervin is a former black panther, an author, a former political prisoner and a Black Autonomist.

The show also features an update from the Tinley Park 5 website on the status of the antifa prisoners.

The Playlist can be found here

Drug War Capitalism: A conversation with Dawn Paley (February 17, 2013)

drugwar-politico-cartoon
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Dawn Paley is an independent journalist based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Much of her work deals with the displacement of peoples, particularly of First Nation peoples, in Latin America as a result of the militarized and U.S. fueled War on Drugs. The story that Ms. Paley tells illuminates the creation of Free Trade agreements, the Multinational corporations that profit from the displacement of marginalized peoples from resource rich lands and links between state security forces and paramilitary narco-groupings into a complex web of profits and losses. As in most cases under Capital and State, there are a few winners and many who suffer the penalties.

Dawn’s journalism can be found at dawnpaley.ca

The playlist for this show can be found here.

Anarchism in Post-Revolutionary Spain, pt2

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This week’s episode of the final straw picks up where last week’s left off. The features speakers are Ana and Pablo, two anarchists living in Barcelona, and they’ll be discussing the rise and struggle of Anarcha-Feminism in Spain since the social revolution of the 1930’s through to current times. We’ll also be discussing intersections of anarchist struggle and healthcare in the age of austerity and visions of autonomous and anarchist forms of health care. This show also features a scene report of Anarchists in Spain today by Pablo and Ana presents some closing thoughts on struggles to engage in.

Following the discussion, you’ll be hearing some new metal tracks from Brighton’s own Light Bearer. Light Bearer is a 4 album project themed around the fall of Lucifer. Light Bearer shares members with the band, Fall of Efrafa, an epic crust band themed around the novel Watership Down. The 2nd album in the series, Silver Tongue, has just been released by the band to a mediafire file.

We’ll also hear a metal track posthumously released from the Austin Texas anti-civ anarchist sludge project, Ecocide. For archives of this and other episodes of the Final Straw, check out radio4all.net and search the show title.

The playlist can be found here

Root Force: Demolishing Colonialism at it’s Foundation

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This week we speak with Toby and Ben, two organizers with Root Force about industrial civilization and organizing in solidarity with indigenous communities against the spread of capitalist infrastructure projects in Latin America. We talk about La Parota Dam in Mexico, Anillo Periférico Highway in El Salvador and Corridors of the Future across North America.

Root force aims to stop the spreading of those infrastructure projects (bridges, dams, highways, factories…) that allow for the spread of neoliberal capitalism into comparatively less “developed” environments in hopes of helping protect environments and their stewards and force an economic retraction of imperial projects of the north.

www.rootforce.org

Victoria Law on the Struggles of Incarcerated Women

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This week’s show features a conversation with Victoria Law. From her PM Press Author’s page:

“Victoria Law is a writer, photographer, and mother. After a brief stint as a teenage armed robber, she became involved in prisoner support. In 1996, she helped start Books Through Bars-New York City, a group that sends free books to prisoners nationwide. In 2000, she began concentrating on the needs and actions of women in prison, drawing attention to their issues by writing articles and giving public presentations. Since 2002, she has worked with women incarcerated nationwide to produce Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison and has facilitated having incarcerated women’s writings published in larger publications, such as Clamor magazine, the website “Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance” and the upcoming anthology Interrupted Lives.”

This week we speak to Vikki about the second edition of her book, “Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women.” We discuss patriarchy, criminalization & invisibility that is faced by those held in women’s prisons. We also talk about resistance, organizing, support and engagement of those on the inside and about the organizing that formerly incarcerated people do to help their comrades on the inside.

North Carolina Prisoners Initiate Hunger Strikes

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This week’s show features a conversation with Francis Delaney about the Prison Hunger Strikes that were initiated on Monday, July 16 at three facilities in North Carolina. This action seems to have the potential to spread to other facilities because of the apparent universality of the demands (better/more food, access to legal literature, human contact, an end to torture, an end to mail tampering, medical care). We discuss some context for the strikes and how folks on the outside can get involved and show solidarity.
Chapel Hill Prison Books
Triangle Anarchist Blog
Down: Reflections on Prison Resistance in Indiana

The Tinley Park Five and Anti-Racist Action (July 1, 2012)

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The first half of this week’s show features a conversation with Telly of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, an Indiana Anti-Fascist grouping. We’ll talk about the Tinley Park 5, five young men arrested in a suburb south of Chicago and accused of disrupting a white supremacist gathering in early May.

July 21st is the next bail hearing for the Tinley Park 5. July 31st is International Day of Action against Fascism.

The second half of the episode is atmospheric black metal and sludge metal.

https://tinleyparkfive.wordpress.com/
http://antiracistaction.org/

Dean Spade on Critical Trans Politics; Freedom For Chris French

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This week features a conversation with attorney, educator and trans activist, Dean Spade about his new book, “Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the limits of law”, just out from South End Press. Normal Life is a finalist for the 2012 Lambda Literary Awards. Follow Mr. Spade’s writing at http://www.deanspade.net/

Before hearing from Dean Spade, though, we hear from Bailey, who’s doing support for Christopher French, an Atlanta Anarchist who’s facing multiple felony charges and has to raise $25,000 to be bonded out in relation to the recent anti-NATO demonstrations in Chicago. More information about Christopher’s case can be found at:
http://freedomforchris.wordpress.com

Racism and the Right in the U.S.: a conversation with Daryle Lamont Jenkins

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This weeks show features a conversation with activist, blogger and anti-fascist, Daryle Lamont Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins is a co-founder of the extreme-right-watch website, OnePeoplesProject.com, based out of Philadelphia. Our conversation covers: the upcoming convergence of American Renaissance in the Nashville, TN area in mid-march; links between white supremacists and the Libertarian movement in the U.S. and in particular the recent (deja vu) linking of Ron Paul supporters and white nationalism by Anonymous; and a discussion on Paleoconservatism and Paleolibertarianism.

https://www.onepeoplesproject.com

FBI raids of Almighty Latin Kings + Queens Nation of NC (12/11/2011)

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from http://www.ashevillefm.org/the-final-straw/12/2011/fbi-raids-of-almighty-latin-kings-queens-nation-of-nc

This weeks interview is with Sara Lee of the Greensboro support group for Almighty Latin Kings and Queens Nation in North Carolina. During the hour, Sara Lee talks about the history of the ALKQ Nation and it’s development in North Carolina, including being fundamental to the drawing together of Crips, Bloods, MS13 and community and faith groups in Greensboro in 2008 to draft a gang truce and common statement of the necessity for organizations of all stripes to focus on community enrichment and safety. On Tuesday of last week (December 6th) at 8AM, an elite FBI SWAT team, the ATF & the Greensboro-FBI committed synchronized and violent raids on houses and families allegedly aligned with the ALKQ Nation here in NC, rounding up 13 people and harassing their families for 3 to 4 hours.

Anarchists, like Sara Lee, are calling for support for the ALKQN defendants who they’ve worked with on anti-prison struggles here in state.

The defense network is made up of family, friends, allies and anarchist comrades. The arrested current and former members of the ALKQN organization in state are being indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on Racketeering and RICO charges.

More information on the case (as well as a link for donations for legal costs) can be found at http://alkqnsupport.com/

There will be a Noise Protest at the Detention hearings in support of the defendants on Tuesday, December 13th @ 10AM & 2:30PM outside of the L. Preyer Federal Courthouse at 324 West Market St in downtown Greensboro.