This week we re-air an interview done with Aishah Shahidah Simmons, who is a writer, community organizer, prison abolitionist, and cultural worker who has done just an immense amount of work over the years to help disrupt and end the patterns of sexual abuse and assault within marginalized communities. In this interview we talk about a lot of things, her background and how she came to be doing the work shes doing right now, how better to think about concepts like accountability, what doing this work has been like for her as an out lesbian woman, and about her book Love WITH Accountability, Digging Up the Roots of Childhood Sexual Abuse which was published in 2019 from AK Press.
This interview feels very important right now, because we are in a time of overturn, tumult, stress, and uncertainty, and I think that in order for us to really be able to knuckle down and go in this for the long haul itll be imperative for our radical communities to take solid care of ourselves and of each other. I hope you get as much out of hearing Aishah’s words as I did conducting and editing this interview.
Before we get started, as a content notice: we will be talking about some difficult topics in this interview. I will do my best to repeat this notice at regular intervals, but please do take care and treat yourself kindly (however that looks).
This week on the show, we’re airing a portion of our 2018 interview with filmmaker and activist Yousef Natsha about his film about his hometown, Hebron, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. We invite you to check out our full interview with him from March 25, 2018, linked in our show notes and we’re choosing to air this right now because of the flare up in violent evictions, home destruction and the assassination of around 100 Palestinian residents of Gaza by the “Israeli Defense Forces”. [00:10:24]
Then, we’ll be sharing a panel from the 2021 UNC Queer Studies Conference called “No Blank Slates: A Discussion of Utopia, Queer Identity, and Settler Colonialism” featuring occasional Final Straw host, Scott Bransen alongside E. Ornelas and Kai Rajala. This audio first aired on Queercorps, on CKUT radio in Montreal. If you’d like to engage in this project, reach out to noblankslates@riseup.net [00:24:05]
No Blank Slates: A Discussion of Utopia, Queer Identity, and Settler Colonialism
Presenter(s)
Scott Branson, E Ornelas, Kai Rajala
Abstract
Under the neoliberal regime of multiculturalism, the settler colonial project has relied on the assimilation of certain subaltern communities into its project for the effective dispossession and control of indigenous lands. This discussion will present ideas from a book project we are collaborating on in order to invite conversation around the intersection and tension around ideas of liberation and forms of appropriation and oppression. Our main challenge for radical queers is to rethink the kinds of futures we try to include ourselves in, and how our liberatory work can subtly replay exclusion and erasure. How do neoliberal utopian gay politics perpetuate settler colonial erasure and genocide? How do politics that seek inclusion and representation–in other words assimilation–disavow the work by indigenous self-determination movements, which are also poised on the frontlines of planetary self-defense? The workshop will be divided up into short presentations by each writer, followed by a structured discussion facilitated by the presenters.
Description:
The utopian project that underwrote the Canadian/American settler colonial states that still exist today was eventually transmuted into a neoliberal utopian sense of identity. The entire concept of space and self that we inherit is imbued with utopian longing for a time and place that we can fully be ourselves. This kind of rhetoric is largely at play in mainstream identity-based movements, like gay rights. But this longing often works in favor of the regime of violence and dominance perpetrated by the modern nation state. We can see how the attempt at inclusive representation of queer cultures leads to assimilation and appropriation. What gets included in regimes of representation ends up mimicking the norms of straight/cisgender heteronormativity, in terms of class aspirations, behaviors, and family structures. This therefore contributes to systematic erasure of Black and Brown queer folks, who are still the most targeted “identities” for state violence and its civilian deputies. With images of diversity that appeal to bourgeois urban gays, businesses and governments can pinkwash their violence.
A radical queer politics that relies on unquestioned utopian and dystopian visions risks aligning itself with a settler colonial imaginary of terra nullius or “blank slate” space. On the one hand, dystopian and apocalyptic visions perpetuate the unquestioned assumption that a societal collapse is impending, as if the continual degradation of human and more-than-human communities has not already arrived. Particularly dangerous in this assumption is the kind of crisis rhetoric that fosters opportunities for settler colonial sentiments of insecurity and, in the face of this insecurity, assertions of belonging and sovereignty in land and lifeways. Furthermore, visions of radical utopias as-yet-to-be-realized (or, as-yet-to-be-colonized) discount the ongoing presence of Indigenous alternatives to the current settler colonial dystopian reality, and instead preserves a view of geographic and social space as blank and ready to be “improved” with a “new” model.
Here we have a problem of erasure of the oppressions and resistances that have been ongoing in different iterations, in favor of the blank space of the utopian frontier. We argue against these linear progression narratives of societal and environmental collapse which promise to bring about a future idealized world of rainbow-diverse identities. Instead, we propose ways for radical politics, particularly those espoused by non-Indigenous people, to disavow such settler colonial mindsets. There are a few ways to offer a glimpse into the lived realities—what we might still call utopian moments—that make up the non-alienated, revolutionary life: queer and indigenous histories of resistance, rituals and moment of community care and mutual aid, and science fiction revisions of the world. We argue that this other world does in fact exist—has existed and has not stopped existing—if only in the interstices or true moments of communing and inhabiting the land alongside friends and family.
This is not an argument in favor of utopia, but one that seeks to bypass the utopian/dystopian divide. The world we inhabit is clearly dystopian for most, and utopian for some, and in many estimations, constantly on the verge of ending. The disaster scenarios, repeating the puritanical eschatology that helped settle the colonies in America, perpetuates the history of erasure of ways of life that aren’t in fact gunning for that disaster. We still argue that the purpose of dreaming, of envisioning alternatives, is to make action possible today, through recognition of the power we do already hold. Our discussion will interrogate the settler-utopian impulses that get hidden within apparently liberatory movements, such as radical queers and strands of environmentalism, as well as the way these identities and politics are represented in narratives of liberation that rely on the same logic they claim to oppose.
Bios
E Ornelas (no pronouns or they/them) is a Feminist Studies PhD candidate in the Department of Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies. As the descendant of a survivor of the Sherman Institute, a Native boarding school in Riverside, California—and therefore robbed of cultural, linguistic, and tribal identity—E’s research interests focus on the continued survivance and futurity of BIPOC communities, particularly through the use of literature. E’s dissertation illuminates community-based, abolitionist-informed, alternative models of redress for gendered, racialized, and colonial violence by analyzing Black and Indigenous speculative fiction. When not on campus, E can be found reading feminist sci-fi, making music, baking vegan sweets, and walking their dog. [00:45:06]
Kai Rajala (pronounced RYE-ah-la) is a queer, nonbinary, white-settler of Finnish and mixed European descent. They are a writer, and an anarchist anti-academic working and living on the unceded territories of the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples on the island colonially referred to as Montréal, and known otherwise as Tiohtià:ke. They are currently pursuing studies as an independent researcher and are interested in sites outside of the university where knowledge production occurs. You can find Kai on twitter at @anarcho_thembo or on instagram at @they4pay. [00:57:28]
Scott Branson is queer trans Jewish anarchist who teaches, writes, translates, and does other things in Western so-called North Carolina. Their translation of Jacques Lesage De la Haye’s The Abolition of Prison is coming out with AK Press this summer. Their translation of Guy Hocquenghem’s second book, Gay Liberation After May 68, is due out next year with Duke University Press. They edited a volume of abolitionist queer writings based on two iterations of the UNC Asheville queer studies conference, due out with PM Press next year. They are currently working on a book on daily anarchism for Pluto Press and researching a book on the institutionalization of queerness in the academy. They also make books of poems and artwork. You can find Scott on Instagram @scottbransonblurredwords or check out sjbranson.com for more of their work or on twitter at @sjbranson1. [00:30:41]
This week we are re-airing a conversation that Bursts had last year with Aric McBay, who is an anarchist, organizer, farmer, and author about his most recent book called Full Spectrum Resistance published by Seven Stories Press in May 2019. This book is divided into 2 volumes, and from the books website [fullspectrumresistance.org]:
“Volume 1: Building movements and fighting to win, explores how movements approach political struggle, recruit members, and structure themselves to get things done and be safe.
Volume 2: Actions and strategies for change, lays out how movements develop critical capacities (from intelligence to logistics), and how they plan and carry out successful actions and campaigns.”
This interview covers a lot of ground, with topics that could be of use to folks newer to movement and ones who have been struggling and building for a while. McBay also talks at length about the somewhat infamous formation Deep Green Resistance, some of its history, and tendencies within that group that led him to break with them.
Links to Indigenous and Migrant led projects for sovereignty and climate justice, and some for further research:
Wet’suwet’en Strong [groundworkforchange.org/wetsuweten-strong.html], which includes extensive educational material on allyship, racism, settler colonialism, and decolonization.
Interview on TFS with Smogelgem, a Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief of the Likhts’amisyu clan, on ongoing struggles against pipelines and moves to create a Wet’suwet’en lead climate change research facility on their lands at Parrot Lake.
“Hannah was also the creator of the documentary “Shelter: A Squatumentary”. We talk about squatting in the U.S., homesteading, market values, views on squat resistance in other countries from the U.S. and more. The latter half of the show features a musical selection from the metal and gothy end of the spectrum.”
This week on the Final Straw, we are taking a break from consistently bringing fresh content over the last few months (frequently twice a week, instead of just the usual Sunday episodes) and re-airing this segment form a prior episode 2 years ago. Here we re-present a speech by William C. Anderson, keynote of the 2018 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville, NC. William is the co-author with Zoe Samudzi of the book “As Black As Resistance: Finding The Conditions For Liberation” (AK Press, 2017).
The talk he is giving here is based heavily on the first chapter of the book called Black in Anarchy, and in addition to laying the groundwork of how he and Samudzi wrote the book, he speaks about the truly conditional nature of so called “citizenship” that many people living in the US face, the continuing evolution of race and the reliance of white supremacy to Black subjugation, and he places Blackness in proximity to Anarchy, and much more.
From the back cover: “As Black As Resistance makes the case for a new program of self-defense and transformative politics for Black Americans, one rooted in an anarchistic framework that the authors liken to the Black experience itself. This is not a book of compromise, nor does it negotiate with intolerance. It is a manifesto for everyone who is ready to continue progressing towards liberation for all people.”
We hope you will enjoy this talk, and if you are curious about the book As Black As Resistance by Zoe Samudzi and William C. Anderson, you can head over to AK Press to learn more!
We’ll be back with new content soon, once we’ve re-energized. If you are in the radio listening audience and are fiending for more voices from the streets, radical authors and more, consider checking our website for a backlog of episodes going back to 2010. You can play on our website, or subscribe to our podcast stream with your smart phone, tablet or computer, and you can also find all of our content for free on those nasty, streaming platforms like spotify, youtube, google podcasts, itunes ad nauseum.
Announcements
Anarchist Media
Comrades at Sub.Media have had some really exciting projects hit the web in the last week or so. First up, after ending their monthly Trouble series, they have inaugurated a new series entitled “System Fail”, this first episode is entitled ‘Riots Across America’, is hosted by a Dee Dos and features an interview with Oluchi Omeoga of Black Visions Collective and Reclaim The Block in so-called Minneapolis. While it’s currently unavailable on youtube, it can be watched via Archive.org and their website, Sub.Media.
Sub.Media has also announced, in collaboration with AntiMidia in Brazil, is launching ‘Kolektiva’, an anarchist and anti-colonial video platform based on peer-tube. This project already features videos in French, German, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Arabic and they are looking for more rad video collectives to participate and more folks to help with translation. You can check it out and learn more at Kolektiva.Media
Fundraisers
There are a number of ongoing fundraisers for folks arrested during the Uprising for Black Lives aka ACAB Spring, many of which can be found at ItsGoingDown.org among other places. One group that could use the funds is the Free Deyanna Davis legal defense fund in Buffalo, NY. You can learn more by visiting gofundme.com/f/free-deyanna-davis-legal-defense-fund
Also, from Black Hills Bail and Legal Defense Fund:
“On July 3rd, 2020, Indigenous People and our allies were arrested in the process of defending our sacred lands in the Black Hills. Acts of courage and civil disobedience resulted in arrests and criminal charges. We were protesting the desecration of sacred lands that were stolen by our people.”
To support the 15 arrestees from July 3rd, consider visiting BHLegalFund.org.
The SF Bay View National Black Newspaper has been producing a print newspaper since 1976 featuring voices from the Bay Area in California, voices from imprisoned people, stories about struggles for ecological justice in working class communities of color and views and news online and in print up til today for Black Liberation. The paper is sent to prisoners and thus acts as a powerful conduit for ideas and action behind bars and with the outside. I had a chance to speak with the editor, Mary Ratcliff a few years back about the paper. Mary, who is in her 80’s, has been diagnosed with breast cancer and her husband and the publisher, Willie Ratcliff, has his own serious health issues and she is his care giver. They are fundraising with a GoFundMe at the moment to help bring on board the soon to be released, but currently incarcerated, Comrade Malik to become editor. Malik has been acting as assistant editor of the Behind Enemy Lines column and is set to be released from Federal custody in September and is excited to take on this responsibility. If you are excited and want to learn more about how to help, you can visit GoFundMe.com/f/fund-liberation for more information and how to help sustain the SFBayView in this exciting transition. And you can check out the paper at SFBayVIew.com
Prison Related
Prisoners at Coffee Correctional in Georgia are facing a major spike in the pandemic and are requesting a phone zap beginning Monday, July 6th in response to this crisis. You can learn more at the Atlanta
To hear more recent updates about political prisoners and their struggles in the so-called U.S. including some context about the recent uprisings and arrests, check out the latest addition to the ‘Prison Break’ column at ItsGoingDown.Org. For a wider view of the impacts of the pandemic and resistance to it behind bars, IGD also just published a new installment of their ‘Break Out’ column featuring views from members of the Philadelphia chapter of the Revolutionary Abolition Movement and Oakland Abolition and Solidarity (formerly Oakland IWOC). Both are linked in our show notes.
There is an invitation for folks to organize events in their cities and to share the call for an international action week in solidarity with anarchist prisoners August 23-30th. You will find the call at www.solidarity.international (available in 5 languages), on Twitter (@solidarity_week), Facebook (@WeekOfSolidarity), Mastadon (@tillallarefree) and you can share your actions by writing to tillallarefree@riseup.net . Their pgp key is up on the contact page of their website.
. … . ..
The featured track in this episode was:
Unbound Allstars – Mumia 911 (Rocks Tha World Full Length Mix Instrumental) – Mumia 911
This week we are rebroadcasting an interview that William and Disembodied Voice conducted with Walidah Imarisha, who is an Oregon based writer, educator, public scholar and spoken word artist about her book Angels With Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption, her 2016 book out from AK Press and IAS, which highlights three distinct experiences that are all in different degrees tangential to the realities inherent to the prison industrial complex. This book won the Creative Non-Fiction Award in the state of Oregon earlier on in 2017.
In this interview we got to touch on a wide array of topics, mostly centered on Angels With Dirty Faces but also on accountability processes and what might have to change in order for them to feel more effective, her relationship to anarchism, and some upcoming projects and appearances.
We also get to touch on the book Octavia’s Brood, a compilation of speculative fiction that Imarisha co-edited with Adrienne Maree Brown, who also wrote the book Emergent Strategy.
First tho, for all of you who enjoyed our interview with Mango and Marin about anarchist approaches to psychiatry and mental health, there is going to be an Anarchist Mental Health Conference in New York City on Saturday February 23rd 2019 at Judson Memorial Church at 55 Washington Square South, New York NY 10012
The call for proposals reads as follows:
“1. Are you an anarchist (or other leftist anti-capitalist anti-authoritarian)?
2. Are you a mental health provider (psychotherapist, counselor, peer specialist, or psychopharm prescriber)?
3. Do you have something to share with anarchist mental health workers? (a critique of the field, a skill you have, or a resource we need to know about)?
If the answer to these questions is yes, please email an accessible language abstract of 100 or so words to nycamhc@protonmail.com describing what you want to share, why it’s important, and what conference participants will take away from the presentation. Separate from the abstract, please also specify how much time you need (45 minutes max) and what format you’ll be using (lecture, workshop, roundtable, longtable, etc)
Thanks to everyone who reached out to us about the interview about anarchist mental health, your comments and feedback were truly wonderful to hear! Keep an eye out for further interviews with Mango and Marin, on this and other anarchist and anti authoritarian media platforms.
Support the Vaughn Prisoners!
We also would like to report on a very concerning and terrible event which took place recently. For the second time this month, someone connected with the James T. Vaughn prison uprising trials has died.
For a bit of context, from a support flyer at It’s Going Down, “On February 1st, 2017, inmates at the Vaughn Correctional Center in Delaware took control of their unit and held staff hostage in an uprising that lasted 18 hours. They called the media, released a list of demands, and explained their actions as motivated by their conditions of confinement as well as the election of Donald Trump as President. One prison guard, Steven Floyd, was killed by inmates during the uprising.”
The remaining prisoners are still facing charges associated with the riot.
Kelly Gibbs, the man who passed, was not a defendant in the first trial, but his name was mentioned during that time in connection with the uprising. The implications of these two deaths are all too apparent; prison workers and wardens often take matters into their own hands in retaliation for acts of prison rebellion. Now it’s important to support the Vaughn uprising! We will link to an updated flyer that includes all the names and addresses of the remaining people, as well as to articles for further reading.
From the Philly ABC, calling for court support of the Vaughn 17 back in October:
In many ways the demands of the Vaughn 17 anticipated the 2018 National Prison Strike, calling for increased wages for their mandatory labor, and the introduction of rehabilitation and education programs. These comrades positioned their struggle inside against the threat posed by Trump’s election, which has now been realized in the increasing detention of immigrants and the rise of fascism on the outside. Since the occupation’s end, they have been subjected to extreme repression and violence, including beatings and the denial of basic necessities, including having their water shut off. Yet in the face of these hardships and the betrayal, 17 of the defendants are standing together, unwavering in their solidarity.
This week we are re-broadcasting an episode which originally aired in early May 2015 with Jesse Cohn who is the author of the book Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture 1848-2011, published by AK Press. In the book, Jesse explores trajectories in literature, cartoons, comics, music, poetry, drama produced at times by and or for or just conspicuously consumed by anarchists in europe, north and south america and asia during that time period. More info on the book can be found at https://www.akpress.org/
Stay tuned next week for a conversation with an anarchist who has spent a bunch of time in struggle at Standing Rock about their experiences and moving forward with an explicitely anti colonialist approach to resource extraction resistance.
But first here are some announcements
“Imperial Wizard” kicks it!
To start off with some good news, yesterday February 11th the bloated corpse of KKK Imperial Wizard Frank Ancona was fished out of the Missouri River, apparently after having been there for a hot minute. This piece of human garbage white supremacist is the bonehead who was credited with saying that Ferguson protesters, showing their rage at the police murder of Mike Brown, had awakened a “sleeping giant” in the KKK and claimed unlimited violence in “retaliation”. Who’s sleepin now, Frankie? In whatever way this death occured, here’s hoping that KKK will follow their leader in this ultimate act.
Support NC #DisruptJ20 arrestees
On January 20, 2017, tens of thousands of people converged in Washington, D.C. for the #disruptJ20 protests opposing the inauguration of Donald Trump. A combination of blockades, marches, and festive demonstrations made it clear around the world that the people do not recognize Trump’s authority or support his policies.
In response, D.C. police went on a rampage, shooting pepper spray, tear gas, and concussion grenades indiscriminately at protesters, including children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. In one instance, police cordoned off an entire block and mass arrested 257 people, including dozens of North Carolinians.
This attack on political dissent is intended to create a chilling effect to keep protesters out of the streets so that Trump can move forward with his divisive agenda. We owe it to the arrestees to support them through the legal process so they can get adequate representation and as fair a hearing as possible.
A group of North Carolinian community organizers created the NC J20 Legal Defense Fund to quickly and efficiently support the arrestees from North Carolina. Please join us in donating, and spread the word to everyone who cares about civil discourse and the future of our world.
If you are a North Carolinian arrested at #disruptJ20 and are not yet in touch with us, email ncj20legalteam@gmail.com
We cannot accept donations in individual’s names, but all donations will be used to provide legal support to #disruptJ20 arrestees from North Carolina.
You can donate at http://ncj20defense.com/
Antifa Sacramento medical support
From Antifa Sacramento:
One of the six antifascists who was stabbed by Neo-Nazis at the capitol building in Sacramento on June 26th, 2016 still has thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay. An artist has made a beautiful print to support this person, and it is now being sold to continue fundraising for this brave individual’s remaining medical bills. They are 5 dollars each, and printed on 7×8 cardstock. If you would like one, please head over to the website https://antifasac.noblogs.org/donate/, make a donation, and email the crew to let them know how many cards you’d like and what address we should mail it to.
Thank you for the support!
-Antifa Sacramento
Herbal Clinic at la ZAD
From comrades at la ZAD, the autonomous occupation resisting the building of an airport in in Notre Dame des Landres outside of Paris, France:
We’re a group of people who have been working with medicinal plants on the ZAD for the past 6 years. We’ve made a collective medicinal plant garden and do wild harvesting to stock a small apothecary of dried plants that we distribute at the non-market or out of a house. Some of us do first aid in demos or everyday on the ground, and others do education like plant walks and workshops.
In an effort to have more collective autonomy in healthcare, we would like to be able to do consultations, both individual and group. The idea is to have one day a week for free price individual consultations, and another for people to come and learn together, combining different people’s knowledge while having access to plants, to figure out common acute illnesses. However, to have enough medicine for 300 people all year long, would mean full time in the garden and probably bitter burnout. Which is why we are asking for money.
Just this week a group in solidarity finished building a cabin where we can dry, process, and store plants, and do consultations and workshops. We’re able to get access to bulk tinctures that are super cheap (€2 an oz.!!!) and plan to distribute medicine at free or indicated price so that we can make some of the money back and the clinic can fund itself and time can be spend gardening instead of having to beg for money all the time. Money raised will go primarily towards tinctures and dried plants, but also to bottles, tools and machines, and menstrum for making more medicine.
Please help us out! Also if you can donate dried plants or medicine get in touch at plantesmedicinaleszad@riseup.net
This time we are rebroadcasting an episode which originally aired in March 2015 with the two authors of the book “The Inspection House”, Emily Horne and Tim Maly. In this interview we talk about the book, the idea of the panopticon, the concept of security theater as a psychologically repressive tool and much more. We decided that now would be a good time to rebroadcast this particular episode because, what with a bunch of comrades and heros ramping up in righteous ways on various fronts, it might be a good idea to re-introduce this idea of panoptic surveillance with an eye to helping spark conversations in yalls communities about security culture and keeping safe in the midst of a high key surveillance state. It’s believed that under Trump, the surveillance will only get more nightmarish and more fascistic, however we can and will adapt to this newer state of affairs.
If you are listening in Asheville, there is a protest called for at 4pm TODAY at the Atlanta airport – which is the busiest in the country – in response to Trump’s ban on Muslim people from countries including Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. This has led to folks with greencards getting detained and questioned in airports all over the U.S. If you can make the drive and want to be a part of the already massive resistance, please do!
Be advised that protesting at airports is a different ballgame than in the streets, the presence of homeland security makes the possibility of being detained for lengthy periods without access to legal aid more likely. Keep yourself and your crew safe by making sure no one gets lost or separated.
Sean Swain on Hunger Strike
Sean Swain continues his hunger strike against his unfair treatment at the hands of the Ohio Department of Corrections at Warren Corruptional in Lebanon, Ohio. For those who don’t know Sean, here’s some background.
Sean Swain went to prison in 1991 for defending himself during a home invasion. He was dating and living with a woman and her kids when her abusive ex-partner and father of the kids was released from prison and came to confront Sean, who he saw as a usurper. When dude kicked in the door to the apartment Sean defended himself from what he saw was an attacker with a weapon and stabbed the man. Sean had no prior record. The home invader was related to court officials and so the case was made and Sean Swain was convicted.
As time went on, Sean became politicized in prison, developed anarchist critiques and began publishing zines with the help of outside groups like Anarchist Black Cross. As time went on, Sean became a thorn in the side of the administration of his prisons by developing and implementing skills as a jailhouse lawyer, adept at filing lawsuits on behalf of himself and other prisoners against deplorable conditions.
In 2012, Sean was charged with being an organizer with the Army of the 12 Monkeys, a guerrilla sabotage movement in the Ohio Prison system that spread ideas of resistance among prisoners and organized conflagrations in institutions. Sean denied his participation with what he called a self-styled Maoist organization, though he expressed appreciation of the content. Due to this conviction, Sean was shuttered away in super duper uber mega ultramax prisons. This is when our relationship with Sean began.
Since January 19th, 2014, we’ve aired mostly weekly installments of a segment by Sean called “You Are The Resistance”, in which Sean talks about his time inside, his ideas, shares his humor at the illogical world of politics and what he calls Swivelization and more. You can find these segments linked from Sean’s support site, http://seanswain.org, alongside his writings and updates on his case.
Sean is currently being held in a suicide cell, away from general population at Warren CI in Lebanon, Ohio, as I mentioned. He has refused to speak to administrators and refused food since December 26th of 2016, only taking water. This is worrisome as he’s no spring chicken, he’s hunger struck before, and according to word that got out a few days ago he’s dropped in weight by 28 pounds and has crossed the 30 day threshold, increasing the danger of organ and bone damage due to lack of nutrients.
Sean is striking because administration keeps throwing unwarranted charges his way and isn’t providing him with functioning means of communication with his aging parents and his supporters.
Here’s what you can do, dear listeners: you could annoy the Deputy Warden of Operations at Warren CI by calling him at 513 932 3388 extension 2005 and requesting that he seee to the repair of all broken phones at the institution holding Sean and a regular schedule of maintenance be established.
You can also call Warden’s Assistant Greg Kraft (513) 932-3388 ext. 2010 and request that they retract the charge of extortion that’s been placed on Sean and that they stop messing with our boy.
Stay Dangerous, Swainiacs, and let’s get Sean outta the hole and back on the mac n cheese.
Legal Defense for J20 Protesters
Various community defense funds have sprung up around getting support moneys to folks facing charges from arrests in Washington DC while protesting the Inauguration of Donald Kampf, I mean Trump on January 20th. On that day at around 11AM, a group of over 200 folks were kettled at the intersection of 12th & L (12L!), including journalists, medics, legal observers from the NLG & ostensibly protesters. While the kettle was valiantly charged and briefly broken, the majority of these folks inside were arrested and face felony riot charges. Likely, most of these charges will be dropped AAAAND a suit against the city and USPP and other law enforcement that kept kettled folks out in the 40 degree weather over the course of 7 hours is pending. But, check out our blog post for various fundraisers to get moneys to friends across North Carolina, in PA, Virginia, and other places who could use help covering lost wages, legal fees and travel costs outside of what’s being offered by the DisruptJ20 crew.
J20 New Orleans Arrestee Support Durham DisruptJ20 Legal Fund Pittsburghers arrested in DC Richmond Antifa of the Seven Hills defense fund
Keep your eyes out for more defense initiatives, this is by no means a complete list.
Richard Spencer got clocked and everyone loves it!
Philly antifa is also pre-emptively raising money to support the person who sucker punched alt-right pundit and nazi saluter Richard Spencer in the head on January 20th in the streets of DC. While conducting an interview and being heckled by folks around him, Richard Spencer was just reaching for his trusty Pepe the frog pin to explain the meme to the cameras when, irony of irony, he was about to become one himself. While the puncher has yet to be unmasked, don’t think that the state and autonomous right don’t want to make a trophy of them.
We’re including a link to this in our notes as well. Here’s to more direct action and more dance remixes. To donate or learn more, check out https://phillyantifa.org/aboutdonate/
Antifa gunshot support
During a protest against a speaking engagement by over-rated, pro-genocide & anti-semetic alt-right yackjob and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, a right winger shot an unarmed antifascist IWW organizer. The shooter later turned himself in, claiming self defense, and was released by Seattle police. The Wobbly who was shot is apparently not filing charges and is requesting dialogue. If you’d like to offer medical support to the shot antifascist, you can find a fundraising page at https://www.crowdrise.com/medical-fundraiser-for-iww-and-gdc-member-shot-in-seattle
This week we are rebroadcasting an interview with Peter Werbe of Fifth Estate magazine, which originally aired in February 2015. Fifth Estate is an “anarchist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian, anti-profit project” which is published cooperatively three times a year, and this year marks its 50th year of publication. The magazine tackles current events, issues, theory, and praxis which would be of interest to an anarchist audience. To find out more about this project, and to subscribe, you can visit http://www.fifthestate.org
In this interview we talk about the magazine’s historical trajectory, from its inception in 1965 as a weekly, less political periodical, to its takeover by anarchists in 1975, to what it is today. They talk about the Eat The Rich Gang and its associations with Fifth Estate magazine, as well as directions the project could take. For more on Peter Werbe’s radio work, you can visit http://www.peterwerbe.com
Announcements
Nina Chaubal Needs Help
The founder of the crisis hotline Trans Lifeline is being detained by immigration authorities in Arizona after being stopped while driving home to Chicago.
Nina Chaubal, 25, an India-born Chicagoan and the co-founder of Trans Lifeline (a San Francisco-based non-profit), was driving to Chicago from California on Interstate-8 with her wife and two friends when the group encountered an immigration checkpoint in Arizona on Wednesday. There, officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Chaubal and demanded she show them her passport (Chaubal was carrying her Illinois drivers license at the time, but not her passport, because she was traveling through the United States and not crossing international borders, so she provided ICE with a photo of her passport) and that she provide proof that she is married to a U.S. citizen. They then took her into custody after learning that her gender identity did not match the gender listed on her Indian passport and that she was in the country on an expired work visa.
Chaubal’s family and friends are urging ICE to release Chaubal, who has been held since Wednesday by ICE in two Arizona immigration detention facilities. She is currently being held at Eloy Detention Center in Eloy, Arizona—a privately operated prison with a disturbing reputation for violence against LGBT detainees.
Chaubal’s wife is pushing to have her released—reasoning that the well-known activist and non-profit founder should not be imprisoned and is not a flight risk—or at least transferred to another detention center with a better track record for treating LGBT people. She is also urging friends, family and supporters to help amplify her voice by contacting ICE with these requests.
To hear more about this situation, and to contact ICE in various ways about their treatment of Nina Chaubal, you can visit the website http://messica.codes/freenina/
On Jan 5th, 2017, The Odditorium in Asheville will be hosting a benefit concert for the newly-formed Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross starting at 9pm. Come early for a Security Culture 101/201 training where folks’ll talk about things you need to keep your community safe.
The lineup includes: Secret Shame, Nomadic War Machine, Kangarot & Cloudgayzer
ACAB2017 Infosession
–Before this event, don’t miss the Anarchist Bookfair Planning and Info Session at Firestorm from 8-9:30pm on the 5th for Asheville’s first ever anarchist book fair in the summer of 2017! Come share ideas for what you would like to see at this event and for ways on how to get involved.
The Trump Era: An Anarchist Viewpoint
And on Tuesday January 10th from 7-9pm at Firestorm Books and Coffee, there will be a presentation entitled Preparing for the Trump Era: An Anarchist Viewpoint. In this talk, the presenters will address various questions such as how did Trump come to power, and what does that tell us about the era we are entering? They will go on to discuss what strategies might be effective in countering repressive government policies and the rise of grassroots nationalism.
This week, we’re replaying an interview that Bursts conducted with Ron Sakolsky in March of 2016. Ron had just recently published Breaking Loose: Mutual Acquiescence or Mutual Aid? From the original posting: “Ron is a poet, an anarchist, a surrealist, a pirate radio broadcaster and author and more. Recently, Little Black Cart published a small book by Ron Sakolsky entitled Breaking Loose: Mutual Acquiescence or Mutual Aid? The essay is an anarcho-surrealist critique in which Ron levels a challenge to readers to move past (or break free) from the limitations we internalize from engaging with and within (as well as with others within) the systems of domination. In the conversation, Ron revisits the essay, breaks down some terminology and eggs the listener on to exercise their imagination and act from places of inspiration to apply direct action against the status quo. The essay it’s built off of can be found in Modern Slavery #1.
During the hour, we discuss that book, we chat about radio and Ron’s 30 years of radio experience starting in college radio in IL, later involved in the pirate station called Black Liberation Radio, publishing and promoting the building of micro-broadcast transmitters, and currently with Radio Tree Frog in the forests of Coast Salish Territories AKA British Colombia. He contributed to and edited the titles Seizing The Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook (AK Press, 1998) and Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada (New Star Books, 2010). A sample of featuring mostly content from the “Old Pal” show on Tree Frog radio is found here: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tree+frog+radio&t=ffsb&ia=videos&iai=CACQMFIi9Pk ”
To hear more of our archives, dating back to 2010, check out thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org
Announcements
Jerry Jai Williams
Later this week, District Attorney Todd Williams plans to announce whether or not he will be indicting Sgt. Tyler Radford for the murder of 35 year old Asheville resident Jerry Williams (no relation), who was a children’s book author and father of 5. The particulars of this meeting will hopefully be made public later this week. For those who are unaware of this case, Williams was murdered in early July this year at the Deaverview apartment complex after police were called regarding an unrelated domestic dispute. In response to Jai, or Jerry, being killed by law enforcement and the discrepencies between stories of witnesses and the police narrative, Asheville experienced its first of many vigorous protests under the auspices of Black Lives Matter. It is expected that the DA, who recently received a 900 page report on the case from the State Bureau of Investigation, will deliver a non-indictment announcement, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for calls for solidarity from the Williams family and for community responses. You can also call the DA’s office to express your opinion at (828) 259-3410.
KINETIC JUSTICE
There is urgent need for folks to call prison administrators at Limestone Correctional Facility, where Kinetic Justice (who was one of the main organizers of the September 9 #PrisonStrike) has been transferred in order to isolate and endanger him. He was brutally beaten on December 2, and continues to fear for his life.
WE NEED TO SHOW THE PRISON THAT THERE ARE MANY EYES AND EARS ON THE OUTSIDE KEEPING TRACK OF KINETIK!
Here are the numbers to call, and the script provided by IWOC:
Call Limestone Prison Warden Christopher Gordy 256-233-4600
Call Commissioner Jeff Dunn & Ass Comm Grant Culliver 334-353-3883 webmaster@doc.alabama.gov
Call Gov Robert Bentley 334-242-7100
Call Department of Justice 205-244-2001ussaln.civilrights@usdoj.gov
Say this, “I am calling to demand that you release Robert Early Council from solitary confinement and move him out of Limestone Correctional Facility immediately. He was brutally beaten on December 2nd and continues to fear for his life.”
You can read about Kinetik’s work at the Free Alabama Movement’s website freealabamamovement.com
GRAND JURY RESISTANCE AT STANDING ROCK
On or around December 3rd, 2016 a water protector at Oceti Sakowin received a summons to appear before a federal grand jury that has been convened in relation to the resistance of water protectors. What we know about grand juries is that they have a long history of being used to target those in resistance to the state and engaged in political or revolutionary movements. The purpose of this grand jury and all grand juries that target revolutionary people and communities is to cause division, manufacture prisoners of war, create paranoia and suspicion amongst comrades. We will not be intimidated and resistance to this is only strengthening our resolve to kill this black snake and all the others.
Water protectors stand in resistance to this grand jury and all tools of state repression, be it on the ground through Morton County’s violent tactics or in the shrouded secrecy of a grand jury courtroom.
Indigenous people, water protectors, legal workers, revolutionaries and comrades from across the camps are actively organizing resistance to this grand jury. Camp wide education efforts are already underway as well as reaching out through our networks of solidarity that know no borders in order to spread the word.
If you have been contacted by federal law enforcement or have been served with a subpoena related to water protector activities or the resistance at Standing Rock please contact the Water Protector Legal Collective at (605) 519-8180. Grand juries rely on the isolation and fear that can come with a subpoena. The first step of resistance is seeking solidarity and support!
And for many other fantastic resources regarding grand juries and grand jury resistance, you can visit itsgoingdown.org and search the article Grand Jury Resistance at Standing Rock #NoDAPL Grand Jury Resistance at Standing Rock
Oakland March in response to Gentrification & #Ghostship
In Oakland, there’s a call for a March on Monday entitled: Honor the dead! Fight for the living!
Resist the destruction of all that allows us to survive and sometimes thrive. Let us mourn and rage together against a world that tears us apart, slowly in the form of ongoing gentrification, development, deportation, and imprisonment – or swiftly through tragedy that could have been prevented.
From Libby to Trump, they don’t care about us, let’s show them we don’t need them! It’s not about the artists. It’s about all of us trying to survive in Oakland. Poor people, people of color and queer people have been fighting for their existence for decades.
Communal warehouses are only one of our most recent dwellings where sometimes we get to imagine what another life could look like.
Defend tent cities and takeover vacant buildings! Fight landlords! We demand a moratorium on all evictions and affordable housing for all!
Monday, December 12th, 6pm at Grand Lake Theater @ Grand Ave and Lake Park Ave next to Lake Merritt
FBI Spying & Rule 41
Also of note, the December 9th episode of On The Media, a podcast produced by NPR’s WNYC studios with a progressive focus on media production in the U.S. and politics, had a really good interview with Rainey Reitman, the Activism Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The OTM interview, the second interview of the episode, focused on the recently passed updates to Rule 41 of the U.S. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, giving permission for the FBI to hack computers outside the jurisdiction in which the warrant was granted, often specifically where encryption or another means of obscuring or securing the information is being used. Check out that episode at http://www.wnyc.org and more work and analysis of digital freedom and surveillance from our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation can be found at https://eff.org, alongside toolkits for staying safer in the interwebs
