This week, we’re sharing a conversation with Errico, a combatant member of Tekoşîna Anarşist, an internationalist anarchist formation in critical solidarity with the Rojava Revolution. For this episode, Errico answers some questions we had about what’s been happening in Syria and concerns from within the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. You can find ideas and updates from the TA formation on their blog, https://tekosinaanarsist.noblogs.org. Past interviews with TA can be found here.
Errico’s voice has been re-recorded by a comrade for anonymity. The transcript is already up in the show notes and at our website for easier reading, translation and sharing and you can find past interviews we’ve done with TA linked in the show notes. And there is an announce-only signal group that anyone can join with updates and analysis by anarchists in the region or paying attention which we’ll link in our shownotes. Just a headsup, the usernames of members of this group will be visible to the all other users there and it might be a good opportunity to set up your signal username and make your phone number unfindable for better anonymity prior to joining the signal group ( https://signal.group/#CjQKIN0TDK_nsHV4uXRtLIdaUOL2R6yv7uvRs8c3RUiXLr-EEhBPEntGCDqJQOD4pzU36i6O )
We simultaneously recorded an interview with Cedric and Khuzama, two libertarian communists and editors of and contributors to the blog Interstices-Fajawat.org about their insights into Syria. This interview will be coming out soon, so keep an eye on our feed.
This week on the show, we’re featuring an interview with 3 activists involved in the Emergency Committee for Rojava about recent developments in Rojava, escalation of violence from the Turkish state and the KDP party-led Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, experiences of recent visits to the region, updates on the US relationship to aggressive regimes in the region and other topics.
Midweek Release on the December 8th Affair in France
If you didn’t hear, we released a podcast in the middle of last week with anarchists involved in anti-repression in France concerning the conspiracy case known as the December 8th Affair, where the French state surveilled and arrested a YPG veteran who goes by the name Libre Flot, as well as comrades and acquaintances on the accusation of building a terror network following the Movement for Black Lives uprisings of 2020.
Support for Palestinians
If you’re looking for a way to support folks in or from Palestine during the unprecedented and genocidal violence of the Israeli settler state one non-profit we’ve heard is good for distributing funds to people in need is Hebron International Network, which can be found at https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/donate_hirn . Surely there are more out there, but be careful to vet where you send money due to precedent set by the US government of pursuing charges against nonprofits funding people in Palestine by claiming they’re supporting terrorists, even when they aren’t, as in the case of the Holy Land Five.
Michael Kimble
Anarchist prisoner Michael Kimble is fundraising right now to help cover legal costs as he attempts to gain freedom from prison after decades behind bars. You can find more info at his support site, anarchylive.noblogs.org and make donations via the link at fundly.com/help-michael-kimble-hire-a-new-attorney
Hey listeners, this mid-week release features the words of anarchists involved in or doing support for the December 8th Affair in France, in which 9 people were arrested at the end of 2020, following Movement for Black Lives protests took place around the world to challenge police impunity and racism. The French state is asserting, based on some pretty flimsy arguments, that 7 radical and anarchist folks were a part of a conspiracy to engage in terrorism based on their common connection to an activist recently returned from the supporting the YPG’s fight against Daesh or ISIS in Rojava. This activist goes by the name Libre Flot, or Free Flow, and he shares some words here as well.
The court case runs from October 3rd until 27th and can use international solidairty demonstrations, support for those defending themselves, and more that you can find information below:
The following is an interview we conducted with Katka and Hazel, who both live in the UK and were recently back from Bakur, the portion of Kurdistan within the borders of Turkey. For 2 hours the guests speak about the political violence from Erdogan’s ruling AKP, suppression of the Kurdish movement, electoral strategies, democratic confederalism, political prisoners and the F-Type prisons in Turkey, the earthquakes from earlier in the year, widespread corruption and other topics. We hope you enjoy this conversation,. A transcript of this interview will be available in the near future. You can reach the guests at BakurDelegationUK at riseup dot net
Emre, Rimac, Xero and Anya, members of the Emergency Committee for Rojava join us on the show this week to talk about the escalation of violence and threats of invasion by Turkey into northeast Syria, updates from the region and their thoughts on how people in the West can help folks living under the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria. You can learn more about their work at DefendRojava.Org and find related interviews covering some of the subject matter discussed and past events on our website by searching for Rojava.
You can keep find Xero’s upcoming podcast, a member of the Channel Zero Network, at ManyWorldsPod.Github.io and you can find the latest of Anya’s co-authored pieces at The Nation (though it’s paywalled).
Greg Curry Hunger Strike
[00:01:07 – 00:10:35]
First up, we’ll be sharing a message recorded a week ago by PAPS Texas of incarcerated activist and survivor of the Lucasville Uprising in 1993, Greg Curry, about his hunger strike for the ODRC’s retaliation to his organizing behind bars at Toledo Correctional. Greg’s support is asking folks to contact ODRC officials as he’s entered over a month on hunger strike, had his communication meddled with and has been hospitalized.
Greg has asked folks to contact Chief Legal Counsel Stephen Gray by email (stephen.gray@odrc.state.oh.us) or by phone (614-752-1765) or Annette Chambers-Smith via email at annette.chambers-smith@odrc.state.oh.us
Suggested script:
“Hello, I am contacting you as a concerned friend of Greg Curry A213159. During Greg’s RIB hearing, Officer Sgt O’Brien, who witnessed and investigated Greg was also on the RIB committee which is against your policy RIB/5120-9-08. We are asking you to act on Greg’s appeal which has been formally submitted to the Chief Legal Counsel and return Greg to population so he can come off this hunger strike.”
You can find a recent interview with a member of Prison Abolition Prisoner Support on Greg’s case at 1 hour 2 minutes into the episode (mislabeled as September 3rd 2020) at NewDream.US. You can hear our 2016 interview with Greg Curry.
Anarchist Struggle, or Tekoşîna Anarşist in Kurmanji, is an anarchist combat medic collective operating in Rojava since the time of the war against Daesh / Isis, though its roots go back further. For the hour, you’ll hear a voice actor sharing the words of a member of TA calling themselves Robin Goldman about the their experiences of Asymmetric Warfare waged by Turkey and its proxies in the TFSA, the culture of TA right now, the medical work they’re doing, queerness in Rojava and other topics.
You can find TA online on twitter at @TA_Anarsist as well as their website TekosinaAnarsist.NoBlogs.Org. Members of TA suggested that folks interested in queer and trans organizing in Rojava support the group Keskasor, Kurdish for rainbow and based in Diyarbakir, Turkey. It can be emailed at heftreng.keskesor@gmail.com, found on twitter via @Keskasor_lgbti or on instagram at @KeskesorLGBTI, though their social media presence was last updated in 2020.
The Age of Globalization (pdf) by Benedict Anderson, the updated edition of Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination. Published by Verso, but seems out of print
This week William had the chance to interview someone, a 20 year old anarchist from the territory of so called Chile, about the uprisings which have been occurring there. The protests began on Monday October 14th in Chile’s capital, Santiago, as a coordinated fare evasion campaign by high school students which led to spontaneous takeovers of the city’s main train stations and open confrontations with the Chilean Police. While the reason for these protests was a fare hike for public transportation by the government and the transit companies, this was only the tipping point in a much larger and diffuse situation of economic pracarity. We will post a great info graphic on social media about all that is tied up in this situation, but in short education and healthcare are private and so are very expensive, jobs pay very little (400 US dollars a month on average), and it is the only country in the world where water is privatized. According to Food and Water Watch, having a privatized water system increases the yearly cost of water by 59%, or over twice the amount as public water. Many of the systems that people are forced to live under, such as the current mechanisms of the State of Emergency and the pension system, were created under the Pinochet dictatorship and have not been updated to reflect the so called “democratic” rule.
Our guest outlines these situations, and also speaks about the violence that protestors are facing from the police and from the state. They also speak on the relationship of this current violence to the violences that Indigenous Mapuche people have been facing from the Chilean state all along.
According to the Wikipedia article on the 2019 Chilean Protests, as of yesterday October 26th “19 people have died, nearly 2,500 have been injured, and 2,840 have been arrested. Human rights organisations have received several reports of violations conducted against protesters, including torture.” Our guest outlines the peaceful nature at the outset of these protests, which were quickly escalated by hyper repressive tactics on the part of the police, and says that these actions are making it clear that the “democracy” – which was fought for by the generations above them – is a fake system.
You can also visit our blog at thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org for a partial list of links and accounts to follow, including some on the ground reporting by crimethInc.
Here is an announcement on behalf of the IDOC Watch:
IDOC (Indiana Dept of Correction) Watch is an organization in Indiana, composed of people directly affected by the prison system and prison abolitionists, that is organizing to expose and stop the widespread abuses in the Indiana prison system, with the long-term objective of dismantling the prison system. (check out IDOC Watch at idocwatch.org)
This event will be a panel discussion on the base-building IDOC Watch is doing in prisons and communities affected by incarceration, prisoner struggles and counter-insurgency in Indiana, and the effects of the prison-industrial complex on individuals, families, and communities.
Featuring:
Zolo Agona Azania, former Black Liberation Army activist and long-term New Afrikan political prisoner from Gary, IN, who beat two death sentences after being falsely accused and convicted of murdering a Gary police officer during a bank robbery. Zolo was released from prison in 2017, after serving over 35 years. He is currently working to establish re-entry housing for people being released from prison in Gary, through the Gary Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated.
S.T. : A mother and grandmother from Gary who organizes with IDOC Watch and currently has a son incarcerated at Indiana State Prison, a maximum-security facility in Michigan City, IN.
An organizer with FOCUS Initiatives LTD, an abolitionist re-entry project in Indianapolis, IN: focusreentry.com.
Location
1845 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL 60208
217 Fisk Hall
Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM CDT
This is a show with two parts, firstly I got to sit down with two members of Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross about the ongoing and increasingly dire situation in South Carolina prions. I won’t take up too much space here with an intro because we have a pretty packed show, but they outline some upcoming actions coordinated at the behest of people incarcerated in SC, a phone zap scheduled for tomorrow (Monday the 21st), and about organizing as anarchists doing prisoner support/solidarity.
Phone Zap information:
“What you can do:
-On Monday (October 21): Call Head of SCDC Bryan Stirling at 803-896-8555 to tell him about this multi-city, international action. Let Stirling know that his department is now not only a national embarrassment, but an international one as well!
-All week, October 21-28: Follow and spread the hashtag #SunlightIsAHumanRight
-Ongoing: Document what you and your loved ones are experiencing; evidence and testimony will help us prepare a formal complaint”
Secondly, Bursts got a chance to connect to a couple of anarchist comrades working as combat medics engaged with the SDF in Rojava. In this episode, they speak briefly about the work they’re doing, their experiences in the recent Turkish invasion into Syria. Here are a few news sites you can keep up with on what’s been going on, also check out the recent interview on fellow Channel Zero Network affiliates, ItsGoingDown.org with CJ, a Syrian anarchist in Qamishlo, as well as the recent series by crimethInc, also of Channel Zero Network, on background of the Rojava revolution and anarchist approaches to it.
Teem Propaganda Workshop
Teem seeks to educate students in digital design skills, image preparation, printmaking techniques, dissemination methods and visual strategy to sharpen our movements’ ability to communicate, disrupt and intervene in spectacle society.
For four days, students will be hands on learning screen-printing, risograph, offset lithography, publication layout, design for print as well as partaking in conversations and lectures to connect practical with theoretical knowledge. We will exercise, eat, and take care of the space together while producing material. Participants will leave the program with not just the printing and design skills to produce effective propaganda, but also a know-how about starting (and continuing) an autonomous printshop.
For this special podcast episode I spoke with Gönül Düzer, who is a labor activist, math teacher, and a board member of the Kurdish Cultural Center in Chicago. Gönül was willing to take the time to speak on the current Turkish invasion of Northeast Syria, some history that would be useful to keep in mind when considering current events in this region, the complex tensions of being an anti imperialist and calling for US support, and about the Global Day of Action on this Saturday October 12th against this current invasion into NE Syria which has been brought about by actions by the US and many many more topics.. She also talks about Rojava, the role that this region plays in the area, and some ideas about how to get involved against the current invasion.
The audio quality for this podcast special is a bit low, so I recommend listening in a quiet place with headphones if you can manage that.
We will be airing a version of this episode on Sunday, the day after the Global Day of Action, so you won’t hear from us that day via this platform, but we will be back in your podcast feed next Sunday with more content.
A content warning for this episode, Gönül describes some brutal actions on the part of Daesh or ISIS, including rape and sexual assault. The descriptions are not graphic but may be difficult to engage with.
You can go to the Rojava Information Center at rojavainformationcenter.com, @RojavaIC on Twitter, for on the ground updates about this situation.
You can also visit the link for a way to support the Rojava Medical Emergency Fund. Since the majority of medical NGOs have pulled out of the region, it has become necessary to pull together whatever medical needs fighters may have from a rapidly diminishing resource pool. This fund is for on the ground medical supplies and secure communication equipment for those people defending NE Syria.
. … . ..
For a radio version of this episode, airing on 10/13/2019, you can visit our Collection on archive.org. This episode contains more music, including a song written in support of Tekoşîna Anarşîst (Anarchist Struggle), an anarchist group fighting in Rojava, plus some audio submitted by a listener of a pro Rojava, anti-imperialist rally held in Chicago on the Global Day of Action on 10/12.
Please help spread this information! One thing that people in Syria are asking for is informational, educational efforts on the part of allies abroad.
First up, we’ll be sharing a message recorded a week ago by PAPS Texas of incarcerated activist and survivor of the Lucasville Uprising in 1993, Greg Curry, about his hunger strike for the ODRC’s retaliation to his organizing behind bars at Toledo Correctional. Greg’s support is asking folks to contact ODRC officials as he’s entered over a month on hunger strike, had his communication meddled with and has been hospitalized.
