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 on The Final Straw Radio, we’re featuring a conversation with our guest, Ketino, to speak about Especifist anarchism and anarchist approaches at anti-Imperialism. Ketino is a member in Florida of the Black Rose / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation and they grew up in Cuba. You can learn more about Black Rosa, or BRRN, at BlackRoseFed.Org
First up, here are a few prisoner struggle updates
Announcements
Prisoners For Palestine
It was announced on January 14th that members fo the Prisoners For Palestine hunger strike, from the Palestine Action case in the so-called UK, ended their strike after 73 days without food after a key demand was met with Elbit Systems being denied an important government contract. You can read their statements at PrisonersForPalestine.org and check out our November 30, 2025 episode for some background on the cases.
On January 1, Xinachtli (state name Alvaro Luna Hernandez) was transferred to the Carol Young Medical Facility. In the moment, this was a major victory getting him moved from McConnell, and Xinachtli shared that he felt the power of the people!
However this victory was short-lived. The transfer was carried out without any notice to his attorney, and made Xinachtli unable to communicate with them before his latest court hearing on January 6, effectively blocking his right to counsel.
Within days of the transfer, we also learned that Xinachtli had been placed in a cell with no running water, and a broken sink and toilet.
In Xinachtli’s words: “They bring me a bowl of water. I first use it to drink, and then I use the rest for hygiene for the remainder of the day. I also have not been able to flush the toilet in days.
Prison conditions in the U.S. are deeply dehumanizing. For Xinachtli, who is attempting to recover after months of medical neglect, these conditions risk further delaying his recovery and compounding the harm he has already endured.
We know that applying pressure works. A director of TDCJ called organizers earlier this month begging for an end to the “hundreds of calls.” Contrary to their request, we will not stop until Xinachtli is FREE.
Xinachtli’s current demands are:
That he be moved to a cell with running water and functioning plumbing.
That he receive his ID card so he can purchase needed items and receive his commissary order from January 2.
That he receive all of his personal property from the McConnell Unit.
Contacts:
• Carol Young Medical Facility TDC): (409) 948-0001
◦ WARDEN: (**129)
• Region III Director Jerry Sanchez: (281) 369-3736
• TDC) Executive Director: (936) 437-2101
You can sign up for slots and find tips for making calls, including scripts, at https://bit.ly/xphoneblast
Repression in Alabama Prisons
In the last few days, according to supporters of the Free Alabama Movement as we approach the February 8th call for a statewide work stoppage Kinetic Justice, Hannibal Ra Sun and Raoul Poole have been transferred to another prison and prisoners across the ADOC have had food rations cut. To learn how to advocate for these three FAM leaders now at Kilby CI and read the press release announcing the upcoming strike actions, check our shownotes :
followingtheir announcement of an upcoming labor strike, Melvin Ray, Robert Earl Council (Kinetik Justice), and Raoul Poole — three prominent voices in the film “The Alabama Solution” — were taken to Kilby Prison.
In anticipation of the strike, the AL Dept. of Corrections has also reduced access to food in its prisons. This is a dangerous violation of [prisoners] constitutional rights.
Call Kilby: (534) 215-6600
Demand they keep these men — and all those in state custody —safe.
The Press Release announcing the strike is here:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 2, 2025
FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT (FAM)
ANNOUNCES STATEWIDE SHUTDOWN ADOC 2026
Effective February 8, 2026
Alabama — The Free Alabama Movement (FAM) announces a coordinated, statewide shutdown of Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) facilities beginning February 8, 2026. This nonviolent action comes in response to decades of unconstitutional sentencing practices, forced prison labor, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis throughout Alabama’s prison system.
With the release of the documentary The Alabama Solution, state officials can no longer deny or ignore the overwhelming evidence that Alabama’s prison system is in catastrophic failure and requires immediate, sweeping reform. The documentary exposes systemic corruption, violence, and deliberate neglect that incarcerated people have endured for generations. The truth is no longer hidden behind prison walls — it is publicly available, undeniable, and morally urgent.
Despite federal investigations, DOJ findings, and repeated warnings, the State of Alabama has failed to enact meaningful change. Therefore, incarcerated people across the state are exercising their lawful right to peaceful protest through a statewide shutdown and work stoppage.
LIST OF DEMANDS
Repeal Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA)
Abolish the outdated and excessively punitive enhancement statute that has produced life and virtual-life sentences far beyond any rehabilitative purpose and out of step with modern standards of justice.
Make the Presumptive Sentencing Guidelines Retroactive
Apply current presumptive sentencing standards to all eligible prior convictions so that people sentenced under older, harsher laws can receive the same fair and consistent treatment as those sentenced today.
Make HJR 575 Retroactive (Drive-By Shooting Statute Reform)
Apply the legislative clarification of Alabama’s drive-by shooting statute retroactively so that individuals who were improperly charged or enhanced under the statute can receive review and relief.
First-Time Offender / Capital Murder Reform Bill
Create revised sentencing options for first-time offenders and end Juvenile Life Without Parole by providing parole eligibility after 20 years, recognizing the capacity for growth, change, and rehabilitation.
Parole Board Reform and Clear, Objective Criteria
Mandate transparent written standards, meaningful hearings, and review procedures that ensure fair, non-arbitrary parole decisions for every eligible incarcerated person.
Medical Furlough & Compassionate Release Expansion Expand and enforce mechanisms for the release of elderly, terminally ill, severely disabled, and medically fragile individuals so they can receive appropriate care in the community instead of dying in prison.
Establish a Statewide Conviction Review Unit
Create an independent conviction review body with the authority and resources to investigate wrongful convictions, excessive sentences, and cases involving prosecutorial or judicial misconduct.
Abolish Forced Prison Labor
End uncompensated and coerced prison labor by guaranteeing fair wages, voluntary participation, safe working conditions, and basic labor protections for incarcerated workers.
Strengthening Families Act (Including Conjugal Visits)
Implement policies that protect and strengthen family bonds, including conjugal and overnight family visits, expanded contact visitation, increased access to phone and video communication, and parenting and family-support programs.
STATEMENT FROM FAM
“For decades, incarcerated men and women in Alabama have lived in conditions that violate human rights, constitutional protections, and basic dignity. With the undeniable evidence now in the open, we are left with no alternative but to demand justice through collective, peaceful action. This shutdown is not an act of hostility — it is an act of survival, truth, and human rights.”
Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun
Kinetic Justice Amun
CALL TO ACTION
We call upon:
Civil rights and justice organizations
Faith-based institutions
National human rights observers
State and federal officials
Families, supporters, and the public to stand in solidarity and demand immediate reform of Alabama’s prison system.
First up, Ian talks with Philadelphia-based cartoonist Ben Passmore about his new book, Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance. They discuss the research and making of the book, Passmores anarchism, the themes of inter-generational struggle, contextualizing history through lived experience, and the pitfalls of mythmaking. In addition, they spend some time discussing Ben’s martial arts practice and the legacy of Assata Shakur in light of her recent passing.
Then we’ll hear a brief interview with Mikola Dziadok, a Belarusian journalist, anarchist activist, blogger, and former political prisoner. Mikola is now about 3 months out of prison and starting a new life in exile. The interview was conducted in mid-November by comrades from Frequenz-A and appears in the December 2025 episode of B(A)D News from the A-Radio Network. Check our show notes for links on how to support Mikola’s next stage of life
This week, an interview we did with a couple of smart friends about the question: what would those of us who rely on Signal encrypted messaging do if that service were disabled in the US. First up, all participants in this discussion agree that Signal is amazing and always getting better, so this is not a take down of that app or it’s developers. But the buds do think that the weakest point for Signal is the centralization of infrastructure with US-based companies. My friends did some thinking and research and put it into a website called Signal-Contingency-Plan.Info and made a zine discussing it and what they consider the best alternative for their needs an app called Delta Chat.
So, for this discussion, they’ll talk about how encrypted apps work, what works so great about Signal, some ups and downs of other available encrypted chat apps and how folks might rebound if Signal got choked out in this manner. As a reminder, at the end of 2024 large parts of the region I’m in lost cellular and internet service and it came back in starts and staggers over a number of months, similar for running and potable water, roads and other infrastructure we rely on. Our hope in sharing this conversation is that people will consider threat modeling to develop social plans for contingency and alternatives for the infrastructures they rely on.
First up, you’ll hear from anarchist and author Peter Gelderloos speaking about his ongoing trip to Brazil as a member of Weaving Paths to Ecological Revolution to listen to and network with indigenous, anarchist, autonomous, ecological and land reclamation projects in that country, coinciding with the COP30 UN climate conference.
Then, we hear an interview with Gah Te Iracema of the Kaingang people from southern Brazil, speaking about their land reclamation, reforestation, their post-flood water distribution mutual aid in 2024 and other topics.
Finally, Črna luknja from the November 2025 episode of B(A)D News spoke with a Danish activist about the February 2025 Cut Ties With Genocide action camp in Copenhagen which included an action against Maersk, a Danish shipping and logistics company facilitating arms transfers from the US to Israel. You can hear the rest of this interview in the upcoming B(A)D News, Angry Voices from Around The World, episode 96 for November of 2025 from the A-Radio Network.
Links
Cut Ties With Genocide Action Camp: https://cuttheties.ukrudt.net/
Collective members of Prisoners for Palestine (PrisonersForPalestine.Org), a prisoner-led collective in Britain representing all those detained under charges related to Palestinian liberation, have entered their fourth week of their hunger strike as of the day of this podcast, with participation of Qesser, Amu, Heba, Jon, T, and Kamran. This week, the first of the Filton 24 trials began as well. From a press release of the collective’s website:
While suffering physically due to the effects of the hunger-strike, the six prisoners currently taking part in the protest remain strong, defiant, and committed to winning their… demands:
An end to the censorship of letters and books, and freedom of expression.
Immediate bail.
The right to a fair trial.
The deproscription of Palestine Action.
The closure of all Elbit weapons factories in Britain.
We hope to conduct an interview soon with members of the Prisoners for Palestine on the proscription of Palestine Action, Elbit Systems, the conditions of confinement case and the hunger strikes.
. … . ..
Featured Track:
Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection) by Massive Attack v Mad Professor from No Protection off Wild Bunch Records
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/
. … . ..
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.
First up, you’ll hear a brief interview with M, an organizer of the first Pittsburgh anarchist book fair, happening October 24-26 across a few venues in the Steel City
As is anarchist book fair tradition, everything will be free.
We’re renting a few spaces, and expecting a few other costs. Sharing that info here so folks can get a sense of what that looks like. If you/others are inclined and able to support, would be grateful for that.
Attached is an image of the break down as of today, and below is a link we’ll update live time as to what costs look like. https://pad.riseup.net/p/r.ca0a70f3bd595bb58b9daab4e6d9a576
You can buy a beautiful book fair shirt (design by the illustrious N.O. Bonzo), or simply donate. Venmo: @pghbookfair. (If you’d like a shirt, indicate size in the note – S-3XL; if yr just donating, any emoji or strange note is fine!) Feel free to message for other ways to donate.
“Gen Z” Uprising In Nepal
Then, an interview that I conducted with Anarcho, a member of the Black Book Distro collective out of Kathmandu, Nepal, about the protests and aftermath of the September 2025 “Gen Z” anti-corruption protests that ousted the prime minister, released prisoners and left the parliament in smoldering ruins.
Because we don’t follow a strict chronology of events, we’re including a few articles linked in our show notes for further study. We worked heavily off the interview with members of the Black Book Distro and CrimethInc, which is among those in our show notes.
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.
