Category Archives: repression

Anarchist, Ben Turk, General, Hunger Strike, Music, Prisons, repression, Sean Swain

Ben Turk on the silencing of Sean Swain, anarchist prisoner in Ohio

seanswain.org
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On April 6th of 2014, anarchist prisoner Sean Swain, who’s been kind enough to allow us to present his audio commentaries (available at http://www.seanswain.org) had his access to phone calls and email shut down by JPay corporation (which facilitates financial transactions between prisoners and their families and other corporations while skimming profit and also saving and mining the private user data) alongside of Global Tel* Link. This comes just after Sean was able to engage a new lawyer, Richard Kerger, who’s done work on the Lucasville Uprising death row prisoners.

This episode, we speak to Ben Turk, a supporter of Sean’s about new updates in Sean’s case, his silencing and how folks can help pressure the state to give Sean back his access to phones and email.

Prior to that interview, however, a special guest reads a script from Sean for this week’s “You Are The Resistance”. Take a listen, or find it later at archive.org as youaretheresistance04132014 alongside the past segments for download or streaming.

Ben then tells us about his efforts, via Insurgent Theatre, to print a compendium of the plays he’s written and his upcoming tour of the play BADGE (formerly known Know Your Enemies and prior to that as ACAB), where Ben play’s the part of Officer Friendly, a community liaison officer who slowly realizes that, in fact, all cops are bastards. This play will be touring with D. Jones’ film “The Shadow of Lucasville” around numerous parts of the U.S. and Canada. Check out the play intro and the preview of the film at http://www.insurgenttheatre.org

Ben also suggests taking a moment to call the current Prison Director, Gary Mohr at 614-752-1677 and requesting that Sean Swain be given back access to his email and phone communications so that he can resume more direct contact with lawyer, Rick Kerger.

If you care to apply pressure to Global Tel Link, which controls the private-side of the ability of prisoners and outsiders to communicate via email and phone, Sean says they are headquartered in Reston, VA and has offices in: Houston, TX, Sacramento, CA; Altoon, PA; & Mobile, AL. http://www.gtl.net

More on JPay can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPay

The last half of this episode features the first track from new album by the Baton Rouge anarchist metal project, Thou. The album’s called Heathen and the track is called Free Will. Next up, we hear the track IV from the album Descent of Man by Vestiges.

Playlist available here

A-Radio Berlin, Author, Belarus, Bomani Shakur, General, Hunger Strike, Keith Lamar, Lucasville Uprising, Political Prisoner, Prisons, Racism, repression, United States

Keith Lamar, Lucasville Defendant, speaks on his new book “Condemned”

http://keithlamar.org/
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This week we present quite the variety of consumables. Firstly couple of announcements about KOWA-LP and AshevilleFM and an update on the 5E prisoners from Mexico which includes a description of life and bribery culture in the prison where Carlos is currently held.

Next, the TFS crew’s newest member, Neka, interviews Keith Lamar (AKA Bomani Shakur), a defendant in the Lucasville Uprising case, facing the death penalty for allegedly leading a death squad of prisoners who killed snitches in April of 1993, of which he claims innocence. Keith is the author of a new book, Condemned, which he talks about alongside talking about his case and his upcoming final appeal. Find out more about his case and check out his book at his website, http://keithlamar.org and if you’re in or around Ohio and can make his hearings, please do show support.

If you’re in the line of travel for Black Bird Raum, pick up a copy of Keith’s book from their tour. http://www.blackbirdraum.net/

After that we are happy to present a recently translated interview by comrades from Anarchistisches Radio Berlin with a member of the Anarchist Black Cross of Belarus about a number of topics including prisoner support and anti-repression work the ABC is doing, the confusing nationalist and anarchist alignments occurring in parts of Ukraine, repression in Russia and much more. More from ARB can be found at http://aradio.blogsport.de

Finally, we play two tracks from a recent split by Drom and Moro Moro Land, two metal bands from eastern Europe. http://negationrecords.bandcamp.com/album/drom-moro-moro-land-split

Anarchist, Environment, General, Germany, Hambacher Forest, Lucasville Uprising, Prisons, repression, Sean Swain, ZAD

Hambacher Forest resists RWE’s lignite carbon mine!

hambachforest.blogsport.de
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This week’s episode, we start off with announcements of the April 12th anti-racist march in Olympia, the April 28th Intl. Police conference in Phoenix, and a thanks from us for the recent awarding of The Final Straw with recognition by Anarchist News of our audio work.

Next, Sean Swain talks about the defendants of the Lucasville Uprising case.

The main segment is a discussion with Sonny, a German anarchist involved in resistance to the operation and spreading of the Lignite Carbon mine and subsequent destruction of the nearby environment by RWE. Sonny talks about the resistance there, the displacement of animals, devastation of the landscape and the eviction of 55,000 people over the years from local villages to expand the mine.

This week’s discussion happened as news came from the Hambacher resistors that the state was in the process of evicting the forest defenders. On 3/29/13 Sonny and I got back together to talk about updates on the situation.
https://hambachforest.blogsport.de

More on the American Water (company) operated by RWE within the U.S., check out the info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Water_%28company%29

Anarchist, France, General, Notre Dames-de-landes, repression, Sean Swain, Vinci, ZAD

“The Sacking of Nantes, indeed!”: ZAD residents respond for Feb 22nd demo (16/03/2014)

zad.nadir.org
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This week’s show features an interview with two residents of the ZAD about the demonstrations of February 22nd in Nantes, France. Also, Anarchist prisoner Sean Swain talks about Swivilization in his weekly segment. More on him can be found at seanswain.org

The demonstration, dubbed a “sacking” by the media and police, featured directed attacks by demonstrators on offices of the French construction company threatening the lands of Notre-dames-de-Landes, a police station, a travel office, and a private transit company. The day of action also featured speeches, picnics, play, marches, discussions and theater.

In this conversation, some folks from the ZAD describe what they saw, why violence occurred, how that violence as an idea is wielded to form a narrative by the media and state and how it was experienced by folks actually present with the movement and the land.

More info on the ZAD can be found at zad.nadir.org
More on the No-TAV movement, which co-called-out the February 22nd demos from Turin: http://anarchistnews.org/content/whole-world-reflected-fragment-3-myths-around-struggle-against-high-speed-train-tav-susa

activism, Anarchist, Canada, gender, General, Immigration, Political Prisoner, Prisons, Queer, Racism, repression, Sean Swain, Toronto G20, United States

CeCe McDonald on release + Dane Rossman about extradition and borders (February 23, 2014)

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This week’s episode has 3 portions:

The first is Sean Swain’s most recent challenges to Governor Kasich of Ohio.

Next up, William interviewed CeCe McDonald. CeCe was recently released after her arrest in 2011 after the death of neo-nazi who attacked CeCe and friends while hurling transphobic, homophobic and racist epithets. CeCe talks about the support she received, what time was like inside for her and how release has been. For more about her case, check out: http://supportcece.wordpress.com/

Then, Bursts spoke with Dane Rossman, who was extradited to Canada from the U.S. in relation to charges around the 2010 Toronto anti-G20 protests. Dane speaks about his experiences in detention, the other 3 known extraditees and what they face with their convictions, how to support them and anti-border and detention work going on in the Southwest of the U.S.

activism, Anarchist, Canada, General, Immigration, Move 9, Police, Political Prisoner, Prisons, Racism, repression, Sean Swain, Toronto G20

Update on the G20 extraditees + the MOVE 9 parole push (02/16/2014)

MOVE members surrender to an army of Philly PD in 1978
MOVE members surrender to an army of Philly PD in 1978
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This week we’ll feature a segment by anarchist prisoner Sean Swain about education under Capitalism, a quick update about the U.S. activists threatened with extradition to Canada in relation to the 2010 Toronto anti-G20 protests and finally an interview with Orie Lumumba about the MOVE9, their 1978 conviction and their bid for parole. The last 20 minutes will feature tracks by Vallendusk from indonesia, Ah Ciliz from Los Angeles.

The playlist for this episode can be found here

A past interview relating to the G20 protests and extraditions, as well as the “Main G20 Conspiracy” can be found here: http://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2013/04/03/joel-bitar-and-dane-rossman-resist-extradition-to-canada-march-17-2013/

The first of 6 parts on youtube of a movie about the Move 9 narrated by Howard Zinn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbOPrV_NHAE

activism, Anarchist, Environment, General, Music, NATO3, NATO5, North Carolina, Prisons, repression, Water

NATO3 Trial winds down + Coal Ash spill in North Carolina (February 9, 2014)

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This week, we featured a segment by Sean Swain on sovereignty and consent of the ruled. We’ve begun archiving Sean’s segments under the title “You Are The Resistance” on archive.org, and those can be found linked as they come out on http://seanswain.org

This was followed by a conversation with Emily who does support work the NATO3 about what’s happened in the trial and what the next steps appear to be as sentencing approaches. Great news is that defendants Brent Betterly, Jared Chase & Brian Jacob Church were found Not Guilty of all of the terrorism charges, however they still each have felonies that stuck. Check out more at http://freethenato3.wordpress.com

Next, we speak with Johanna of Keeper of the Mountains Foundation, a grassroots group out of West Virginia that looks to the effects of Mountain Top Removal and coal extraction and burning on the environment, economy and people in Appalachia. Johanna shares some info on the recent Duke Energy Coal Ash Pit spill on the Dan River, near the North Carolina-Virginia border and what impacts can be expected from the 82,000 tons of toxic ash getting into a water source that provides for roughly 50,000 human animals, and uncounted non-humans and other life. http://www.mountainkeeper.org/

Finally, we’ll hear An Unearthly Sacrament by the Marin-County-California-based metal project Radagast, their only release thus far. That’ll be followed (really finally) by Destroyed By Ourselves from Katahajime from Allentown, PA.

activism, Anarchist, communization, Environment, Feminism, General, Immigration, Police, repression, Vinci, ZAD

ZAD: some views from the inside

zad
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This week’s episode of the Final Straw features a conversation with Cami, a resident of the ZAD (Zone À Défendre or Zone To Defend) speaks about experiences of living on, defending, struggling on and with the project and the people in Western France and against the police, airport expansion and fascists.

Backstory: Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL) in western France has been the target of the French government and private corporations like Vinci Construction for the building of new infrastructure. Plans have been brewing for 40 years to build a new, larger airport in the area, to expand the bus systems, build a high speed train out to the airport from the nearby city of Nantes and expand the port at Saint-Nazaire. The struggle, for many of the members of the farming communities around NDDL, has been about saving their countryside from gentrification, from preserving their generations-old ways of life, their homes, their agency in what happens to their homes so that it’s not just people in Paris and Nantes who reshape their world. For many others it’s about preserving some of the last remaining undeveloped lands in the area, resisting the expansion of the Metropolis and the way of life that it brings and even in making their own way of life with others while resisting eviction and learning new ways of struggle.

Much media coverage of the ZAD has worked to build a myth around the project that it’s hunky-dory heroism and everyday revolution. While those things exist there, the story is not so clean cut. This hour we’ll also be speaking about internal problems of sexism, racism, interpersonal violence, drug use, valorization of certain forms of struggle, homophobia… the same crap we have to deal with everywhere, sadly. Cami also talks about how people on the ZAD have tried to work through these problems. While also struggling against the occasional neo-fascist incursion from the outside.

We have hopes at the Final Straw that this will be the first of a few shows that focus on communities resisting development by Vinci, a company that destroys ecology, builds prisons and greenwashes around the world. Vinci is also the main holder of contracts with the Moscow government in relation to the development of old growth Khimki Forest to build a road and a village for the rich as well as Combe Haven in the U.K. Also, in the Atlanta, GA, USA they’ve been awarded (under the sub-subsidiary Hubbard Construction) the Northwest Corridor contract, worth $600 million, which will bring 30 miles of toll highway to that city.

(The following note is apparently up for dispute, according to some sources…)
2 days ago Vinci was seeing red in Bristol, UK, due to an arson at some of their offices by Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI)

The portions of the interview talking about Insurrectional theory, Radio Klaxtion (pirate radio on the ZAD), fascist attacks on the ZAD, immigrant solidarity, ability and the ZAD, films about the ZAD, and some of the music created through resistance by folks at the ZAD… don’t appear here due to lack of time. They’ll be linked on our afm blog page and eventually on thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org

activism, Anarchist, General, Indigenous, Police, Political Prisoner, Prisons, Racism, repression, Xinachtli

Alvaro Luna Hernandez, plus Oso Blanco call-out and METAL

freealvaro.net
freealvaro.net
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This week’s episode features three elements.

The first is a call-out on behalf of Oso Blanco (Byron Shane Chabbuck #07909051) in his bid to receive medical treatment for chronic illness (Hep-C) and an unexplored growth in his liver that cause debilitating pain and have resulted in health crises for him. We suggest you participate in the call-in day on Wednesday, December 18th. More info on the call should soon be found at: http://denverabc.wordpress.com/prisoners-dabc-supports/political-prisoners-database/byron-shane-chubbuck/

The main portion of the episode features an interview with Alvaro Luna Hernandez, a Chicano political prisoner serving a 50 year sentence in Texas for disarming a Sheriff who pulled a gun on him, and then fleeing. Mr. Hernandez speaks about his case, his legal history, his political development, and his imprisonment. Special thanks to the Central Texas Anarchist Black Cross for this material. More info on Alvaro can be found at http://freealvaro.net

The final portion of the show features 3 new metal tracks: I by Dusk from their EP; Black Fast with Levitations from Starving Out The Light; and Voidcraeft from the album Scorn with the track As If Amongst Animals.

The playlist can be found here

activism, Anarchist, Da Bay, General, Luke O'Donovan, North Carolina, Police, Prisons, Queer, Racism, repression

Luke O’Donovan; Police murders coast to coast

andy-lopez
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This week’s episode features three, that’s right, three whopping conversations.

Firstly, we hear from Luke O’Donovan about his case. Luke is an Anarchist in the Atlanta area who defended himself against a queer bashing last New Years at a party. Luke suffered multiple wounds inflicted by knives as well as beating which sent him to the hospital. He’s facing 5 charges of aggrivated assault with a deadly weapon for injuring the people attacking him, who’d earlier called him a faggot repeatedly. Each of those 5 charges could carry a twenty year sentence.

After that, we’ll hear from Rafi, an organizer in Durham North Carolina, about the spate of police murders of young men of color in that city. Particularly we’ll talk about the case of Jesus Chuy Huerta, a 17 year old latino man shot in the back of a patrol car while handcuffed that the police are claiming was self-inflicted.

Finally, we’ll hear from Jess who’s been organizing alongside youth in Santa Rosa, California since the shooting death by Sheriff’s there of 13 year old Andy Lopez for having a toy gun. The fatal shooting of Andy Lopez fell
on October 22nd of this year. For those who don’t know, October 22nd is a day when many people in the United States remember those killed and imprisoned by police and protest against police violence.

You can find out more about Luke’s case at http://letlukego.com

To help Jesus “Chuy” Huerta’s family with funeral costs, check out their We Pay

Some impressive video of kids facing off with the riot cops as referenced by Jess in her portion can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYXqfiiupg0

And here’s a song about Andy Lopez:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xafj-qvi-d4