This week, we spoke with Donna Mae, a longtime resident of Minneapolis and registered nurse working mostly with people who are unsheltered and use injection drugs. Donna lives in a neighborhood of the city that has had very heavy ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) activity and speaks for the hour about the last two months of invasion, organizing with neighbors, the legacy of the George Floyd Uprising and the aftermath of the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, the recent General Strike and lessons for preparing in the next incursion, wherever that may be.
Recently, armed conflict has flared between the Syrian Democratic Forces and both the Turkish-backed, so-called Syrian National Army militia and the forces aligned with the Syrian transitional government. In coming days we’ll be sharing a timely podcast featuring an interview with a member of Tekoşîna Anarşîst and another with a western activist on the ground in Qamişlo to share their perspectives on the situation and updates on the changing terrain. We talk about the danger of a resurgence of ISIS, the humanitarian crisis growing due to the seige in Kobane and the fears of a renewed patriarchal governance, but also about organizing and international solidarity.
This is a good time to get together with community in your area to figure out how you can support the revolution in Rojava. If you don’t have a Rojava solidarity group in your area (start one), keep an ear out for calls to action via the Emergency Committee for Rojava: https://www.defendrojava.org/
This week, an interview we just conducted with Madeleine Wattenbarger and Axel Hernández of the Cooperativa de Periodismo in Mexico and Ambar Ruiz of Radio Zapote about the case of autonomous resistance and repression in the Mazateca community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón in Oaxaca, Mexico, so named for being the birthplace of the Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón, revolutionary Mexican anarchist who was murdered by medical neglect by the US prison system in 1922 (check out our 2022 episode on the history).
We talk about the rise to economic and political power of the family of Manuel Zepeda and his daughter Elena, their weaponization of the judiciary against community defenders resisting a hijacking in 2014 of the traditional community assembly and the years of organizing by Mazateca women whose loved ones face long prison sentences. We also speak about the case of Miguel Peralta, a Mazateca anarchist challenging his 5 decade sentence related to this case, as well as the recent murder by medical neglect while in prison of militant anarcho-punk Yorch Esquivel at the hands of the Mexican state at the behest of UNAM.
Excerpts of our translation of the MANIFESTO OF THE FEMALE SELF-DEFENSE FORCES IN SUPPORT OF FREEDOM (June 2023, translated & narrated): https://ahuehuete.substack.com/p/eloxochitlan
First up, Chicano anarchist prisoner Xinachtli (state name Alvaro Luna Hernandez) was transferred on December 23rd from a hospital in Galveston back into solitary at McConnell Unit in Texas as punishment for the call-in campaign. He’s still lacking access to an ADA-accessible bathroom and shower unit and has not had his property or commissary card returned. According to his supporters, Xinachtli is still experiencing weakness in his legs and has now been forced back into a completely inaccessible space, where he faces a serious risk of another life-threatening fall or injury.
Xinachtli’s supporters demand remains: Xinachtli must be moved out of McConnell into an ADA-accessible facility that can address his medical needs. McConnell has already proven it can’t and won’t provide adequate resources to care for Xinachtli in his current state. They are putting his life in danger.
McConnell Unit Director Angela Chevalier +1 361 362 6328
TDCJ Executive Director: +1 936 437 2101
To learn more about his case, check out our interview with Xinachtli from late 2024, or the earlier recording of him telling the story of his case.
Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike Continues
Four members of the Prisoners for Palestine collective, which we covered in our November 30th 2025 episode, continue their hunger strike with 3 of them at around or beyond 60 days without food as of this recording. As the situation is shifting daily, we suggest you get updates for ways to provide solidarity and the current demands of the hunger strikers at PrisonersForPalestine.org
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Presente!
Revolutionary Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, returned to the ancestors on November 23, 2025 after 25 years in federal prison. The Imam was convicted in 2002 for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy and Al-Amin continued to be incarcerated despite the video-taped confession of another man with the means and the motivation for the killing. You can find a brief writeup and further readings, right before notes about the state murder by medical neglect of Yorch in the December 10th issue of In Contempt
Stop Cop City RICO Dismissed
Judge Farmer finally decided to dismiss the RICO charges against the 61 defendants in the Stop Cop City case on the grounds that they were filed improperly. This doesn’t remove the domestic terrorism or arson charges against some remaining defendants, and the state says it will refile the RICO charges but for now that’s a little off our comrades’ plates. To learn more, check out our latest episode on the subject from October.
Jessica Reznicek In Transitional Housing
Catholic Worker and pipeline saboteur Jessica Reznicek has entered transitional housing and left prison, proper. You can read her address to the public at the ABCF website. To hear an interview on her case, check out the one linked in our shownotes.
You can write directly to Jess at:
Fresh Start Women’s Center (Women’s Residential Correctional Facility)
1917 Hickman Rd,
Des Moines, IA 50314
Northumberland 2 Has Some Charges Dismissed
Judge Rosini dismissed 11 charges total between defendants Cara and Celeste—including one count of ecoterrorism and several misdemeanors. The two friends from Massachusetts were accused of liberating hundreds of minks from a fur farm in PA that kills thousands of minks every season.
As Phily Anarchist Black Cross says:
There is a pretrial conference in February. After that will come trial.
While this is big and exciting news, the case isn’t over yet. Cara and Celeste still have many charges to fight. Trial will come with extra costs on top of the other legal fees.
A date has been set for the start of the Prairieland Defendants’ federal jury trial: February 17th! We have been told by multiple lawyers this date is very unlikely to change. The North Texas federal court circuit in Fort Worth is well know for being fast and firm with trial dates. Also, Dario Sanchez’s state trial is set for 1/12 in Johnson County. This is not a lot of time! We’re calling on supporters everywhere to do everything you can to help the defendants get the best defense possible. That means continued fundraising for expert witnesses and other trial expenses, writing letters to keep their spirits up, and raising awareness to highlight the importance of this case. If you’re able to come to DFW for the trial please do! We will have other concrete asks soon, so please stay tuned!
Letter writing info is available at: https://dfwdefendants.noblogs.org/getinvolved/
First up, you’ll hear form Xavier de Janon, NLG Director of Mass Defense who’s worked on the Stop Cop City case and is currently also working on the DFW case where Federal and Texas prosecutors have been seeing prosecution of 18 people (so far) related to the noise demo of July 4th, 2025 at the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas. We speak about the case and about the wider web of repression being pushed by the Trump administration in the name of battling ANTEEFAH. For more info, check out nlg.org
Then we’ll speak to two members of the DFW Defendants Support Committee following the announcement last Wednesday by the committee concerning pressure on the defendants to take plea deals and some updated perspective on the case. For more info and updates, you can visit DFWDefendants.wordpress.com. Support resources for Des Revol, check out Instagram @free-des-revol on instagram
DFW Support Committee PDF (Unimposed) – pending
DFW Support Committee Zine (Imposed PDF) – pending
One quick announcement is that Malik Muhammad, 2020 Uprising prisoner you heard in August 17th, 2025 episode, has spent the better part of a year in solitary confinement and could use some support. There’s a post with more information plus a new fundraiser up at their support website, MalikSpeaks.NoBlogs.Org: https://malikspeaks.noblogs.org/post/2025/11/15/support-malik-with-funds/
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Featured tracks:
Risingson (Instrumental) by Massive Attack from Instrumentals
This week, we’re sharing two segments: a chat with Palestinian writer and assistant professor Abdaljawad Omar and a segment of the October 2025 B(A)D News with network participants discussing thinking-through resisting the rise of fascism.
Assessing The Israeli Ceasefire
First up, an interview with Abdaljawad Omar, a writer, analyst and an Assistant Professor at Birzeit University in Bethlehem in the West Bank in Palestine. For the hour we speak about the status of the ceasefire, the continued killing by the Israeli state and the lack of significant humanitarian supplies of food and medicine in Gaza, ongoing violence in the West Bank and settlement expansion and settler impunity, representation of Palestinian resistance in Western media and meaningful solidarity from abroad.
Mr Omar’s writing is frequently featured on Mondoweiss and the newly launched Equator Journal and other journals listed in our show notes. He can be found on X and Bluesky and has a couple of books due out in the near future.
an essay by the title of one of his upcoming books on RustedRadishes
Playing Out Resistance
The next segment was recorded at the annual A-Radio Network gathering that happened in Freiberg, Germany, by participants in the network in attendance. For this segment, you’ll hear people discuss a workshop they participated in about thinking through preparation for rising authoritarianism, keeping safe while preparing for social revolution. Feel free to reach out to projects on the participants page for the A-Radio Network website (we suggest you first try A-Radio Berlin as they’re quite good at answering their email) if you would like the materials used in the workshop to host one with your community.
Ed, co-founder of SASSI (Southerners Against Surveillance Systems & Infrastructure), speaks to The Final Straw Radio about the proliferation of surveillance infrastructure in the South (and more broadly in United States), methods of researching and a little into resisting them.
We speak about topics such as the increasing cooperation between the state and corporate surveillance companies, the desire of these companies to extract ever-increasing amounts of data from the public, the way the state uses private databases to sidestep traditional warrant processes, some of the specific technologies that cities in the south have contracts with and their efficacy. We also touch on how folks at SASSI investigate these topics, and what can be done to help with this effort and ways to think about individual and community safety.
A conversation with Tariq D. Khan, author of The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression, out from University of Illinois Press in 2023. In this conversation we talk about the connections between the anti-Indigenous motivations of the genocidal frontier wars in the US and the inward turn to heretical movements pushing for freedom for the laboring classes through the great upheavals of the period known as the Nadir, between the end of post-Civil War Reconstruction and the 1920’s. We talk about the roots of anti-Leftist violence of the various Red Scares and intersections with the institutions and psychology of white supremacy settler colonialism as well as the importance of resistance and education.
This week, we’re featuring two segments. First up, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild, speaks about the recent declarations of war by the Trump administration on anteefah, what has changed legally, what they might be telegraphing and smart ways to move forward in this tense atmosphere. Check out our recent chat with Mo about Knowing your Rights and Risks with the police, linked in our show notes, or learn more about their work at NLG.ORG
Then, A speaks briefly about supporting mutual aid efforts in Gaza. For more information, check out the recommended article on ItsGoingDown.org and some links in our show notes
This week, we spoke with Nolan Huber of the Atlanta Community Press Collective about recent developments in the case of 61 people facing RICO indictments and other charges in relation to the movement to Stop Cop City, an urban police training center built in south Atlanta’s Weelaunee forest. For the hour we talk about the case, last week’s dismissal of racketeering and arson indictments and other recent victories for the Defend The Forest movement.
You can hear past interviews in our archives by clicking the tag for Stop Cop City and see ACPC’s coverage of the case and other local topics at ATLPressCollective.com. You can learn more about A City In The Forest, the film Nolan’s working on, at https://levomel.com/acitf or following @ACityInTheForest on Instagram.We also brought up support for Jack Mazurek, more info can be found at FreeJack.Co
Also, if you haven’t checked out Outlaw Podcast, they had a recent interview with NLG lawyer Xavier de Janon & defendant Peatmoss on the Stop Cop City RICO 61. Check out this and past episodes of this great, anti-repression podcast. Here are some notes for following up from this episode:
Follow Fire Ant Movement Defense on Instagram @fireantmovementdefense for updates and info on showing up to support in person in Atlanta.
Watch the live stream of the hearings on Youtube via Atlanta Community Press Collective: https://www.youtube.com/ The hearings begin at 9:30am ET and go through the afternoon.
PHONE ZAP: With an important motion hearing for 4 #stopcopcity defendants approaching on September 8th, call & email to demand Georgia AG Chris Carr drop ALL charges!
This week, we’re featuring an interview with Shannon, one half of the mutual aid project operating in Washington DC known as Remora House. For the hour we talk about Remora House, the impact on houseless and non-citizen communities has been impacted by the Trump Administration’s crack down and sending in of troops to DC and some ideas on strengthening the resistance as the feds and national guard are deployed into our neighborhoods to break up our communities and our resolve
Then you’ll hear Parias of Athens from the June 2025 episode of B(A)DNews podcast. It’s a chat with participants in a project called Research Critique about the distraction of the Greek public from media coverage of the deadly Tempi train disaster by a heavy dose of culture war discourse about lawlessness on University campuses and social decay. The rail accident was caused by negligence and understaffing under the neoliberal New Democracy regime, killing 57 and injuring nearly 200 and led to heated demonstrations for months more than a year to follow. You can hear the full interview by finding B(A)D News #92 on the website a-radio-network.org or in our shownotes.
Announcement
Update on T. Hoxha Hunger Strike
In a brief update to last week’s announcement of Casey Goonan’s solidarity hunger strike with T. Hoxha in the UK of the Filton24. Casey has ended their participation after 12 days, but as T. Hoxha continues, she has been joined by the anarchist prisoner we spoke to a few episodes ago, Malik Muhammad (currently held in the Oregon prison system). As of Sunday September 7th, Casey is on their 11th day of hunger strike and T. Hoxha is on her 28th against the conditions of her confinement. You can read more and find how you can offer support at https://calla.substack.com/p/international-hunger-strike-grows
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Featured Track:
March On la Migra by Guerrillaton from Made in Mexico
As we enter into the 2025 Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners, we’re sharing a discussion with three anarchists doing prisoner support in different national contexts, prompted by topics brought by the guests. You’ll hear first from Moshe of ABC Belarus, then Nicole of the Solidarity Apothecary and finally from Anya of Solidarity Zone speak on topics such as service work in solidarity, gendered dynamics of care work, difficulties in organizing ongoing and longterm anti-repression work from within exile and diaspora communities, burnout and self-care.
