Category Archives: United States

General, Immigration, LGBTQ, Prisons, Queer, repression, United States

Former Uprising Defendant from ICE Detention (Ángel Espinosa-Villegas)

"TFSR 5-4-25 | Former Uprising Defendant from ICE Detention (Angel Espinosa-Villegas)" + Selfie of Angel in a leather jacket, framed by white clouds in a blue sky, beside hir dog
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This week, we’re sharing an interview with Ángel, an ICE detainee currently incarcerated in Otero Detention Center in New Mexico. Ángel is a trans-masculine lesbian of Mapuche heritage, whose family moved hir to the US from Chile at the age of 7 and has lived undocumented since, attaining DACA status under Obama. During the 2020 George Floyd Uprising she pled guilty to charges related to arson of police vehicles in Little Rock, serving 15 months before moving to Chicago and where s/he was detained by ICE. Approaching 30 years old, the majority of which has been in the so-called USA, Angel made the hard choice to waive the right to fight deportation and has been in detention centers since on hir way to being sent to Chile to join hir mother and family now living there.

For the hour, Ángel speaks about conditions at Prairieland and Otero detention centers, the conditions of hir fellow prisoners, the hurdles they face in access to healthcare, quality food, clean facilities, legal resources, access to communications with their families, ability to communicate needs and demands with staff and guards who only speak English, and other topics.

Support hir Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/political-prisoner-facing-deportation

If you want to learn more about 2020 Uprising prisoners (from 2022 & 2023), you can find our interview with one of the people running the website UprisingSupport.org linked in our show notes.

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Anarchist, General, Politics, Russia, Ukraine, United States, war

Solidarity Collectives: 3 years into the Full-scale Russian Invasion in Ukraine

SolCol Collage featuring a man leaning on the hood of a car with drone equipment next to him, a cat sitting on a lamp, an FPV operator with a flare under their tripod, a masked & uniformed soldier, someone taking a photo of a large stone statue and "TFSR 4-6-25 | Solidarity Collectives: 3 years into the Full-scale Russian Invasion in Ukraine"
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This week, we’re featuring an interview with Anton, a longtime member of Solidarity Collectives, a group that supports anti-authoritarian and anarchist activists involved in the resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as funding mutual aid projects for civilians and domesticated animals suffering or displaced by the invasion, bolstering left libertarian social movements during wartime, making propaganda and manufacturing FPV drones as well as a few other projects.

In this ranging conversation we spoke for 2 hours covering issues of anarchists participating in military structures, the state of the armed resistance, impacts of changes in the US administration and more.

Solidarity Collective Links:

Sol Col socials:

Anton’s  work related socials:

Other Links:

Media About the 3 Internationalist Anarchists Who Fell April 19, 2023:

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Anarchist, Atlanta, Police, repression, StopCopCity, Transcribed, United States, zine

Stop Cop City: Imaginary Crimes Tour

"Imaginary Crimes Tour - Stop Cop City | TFSR 3-30-2025" featuring an alchemy-style drawing with three heads with the skulltops cut off over a flat disc cut into portions with symbols floating above the heads and on the disc
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This week, we’re sharing an interview with Selena who speaks about the “Stop Cop City: Imaginary Crimes Tour” and Jordan, a RICO defendant from the Stop Cop City 61 case. The two speak about anti-repression, about where the case is at right now and a wider view of resistance and support. The tour will be hitting over 60 cities (not all in the USA)

From their tour announcement:

61 people are facing RICO trials in Atlanta for alleged involvement in resistance to the construction of Cop City. The State uses imaginary associations and crimes, framed as RICO, as a means to break solidarity and momentum when movements are strong. Anti-repression is a response that uses an alternate imagination to strengthen solidarity and resistance.

In Spring 2025, a nationwide tour will visit over 60 cities to discuss the history of the Atlanta forest, the resistance to Cop City, history of RICO, ongoing legal updates and facilitate discussions on anti-repression and movement defense. Through this tour we aim to share the lessons we have learned across struggles, and adapt to the evolving repressive forces so that we can continue to move bravely together.⁩⁩

Stay updated here:

If you want some more content on the struggle, check out this really interesting episode of Audio Interference, a podcast associated with the Interference Archive in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood featuring materials from and discussion of a September 2024 installation entitled “Archiving Stop Cop City: This Is Not A Local Struggle”

To hear past episodes of ours on the Stop Cop City movement, check out this link.

Announcements

A Message from Peppy

A brief statement from Brian “Peppy” DiPippa, an anarchist in Pittsburgh convicted of engaging a home made smoke bomb at cops protecting an anti-trans event at University of Pittsburgh in May of 2023 and sentenced to 60 months in Federal Prison. You can learn more about Peppy & his co-defendant Krystal (who just had a birthday!) at their support site

May we find inspiration and creativity in these challenging times. Let us be guided by friendship and self determination. May we mind our pace, study our ancestors, listen to our storytellers and run towards expansive freedom and autonomy. Solidarity to all those held captive by the state and their loved ones on the outside, your work is felt even if it is not always the most visible.

Now Airing on WEFR 1700 AM, Fairmont WV

We are happy to announce that we’re airing at 3pm on Saturdays on WEFR 1700AM in Fairmont, WV. To support this small station, check out their GoFundMe, and if you’ve got a community radio station, college radio station or public radio station in your area that you’d like to hear us on, check out our Radio Broadcasting tab and send us their way!

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Continue reading Stop Cop City: Imaginary Crimes Tour →

abortion, Art, Author, Comics, Feminism, gender, General, Health, Politics, Transcribed, United States, zine

Bodily Autonomy and Health Education In An Easy To Swallow Package (Abortion Pill Zine)

Abortion Pill Zine Cover featuring flowers and houses
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This week, we’re sharing an interview Ian conducted with cartoonists Isabella Rotman, Sage Coffey, and Marnie Galloway on the subject of the Abortion Pill Zine: A Community Guide to Misoprostol and Mifepristone out now from Silver Sprocket (and freely readable on their website). They discuss the process by which this resource was assembled, the benefits of local, focused abortion organizing, the timeliness and timelessness of the fight for safe abortion care, and the power of comics to disseminate valuable and complex information.

Links

Announcements

BAD News for February 2025

The A-Radio Network of anarchist and antiauthoritarian radios and podcasts just released the latest in their monthly series, B(A)D News: Angry Voices From Around The World for February 2025, episode 88. This one features Parias from Athens sharing an interview about resisting wind farms and green developmentalism in the Greek mountains as well as Črna luknja from Ljubljana speaking with antifascists from Budapest and Sofia about resisting Europes largest annual neo-nazi rally, the LukovMarch.

Support for Anarchists in Sudan

You can read a short publication by the Sudan Anarchist Gathering called Al-Amal in English thanks to the translation work of CNT-AIT France (or the original Arabic as well) at this blog. From the blog:

If you want to receive the next
issues, please contact us : contact@cnt-ait.info
If you want to support financially the Sudan Anarchist Gathering, you can use our paypal
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/cntait1
(please validate “Sending ‘money to an individual’ to pay less bank charges) Send an email to contact@cnt-ait.info to inform us of the donation and also so that we can keep you informed of its use.

Continue reading Bodily Autonomy and Health Education In An Easy To Swallow Package (Abortion Pill Zine) →

Anarchist, military, Transcribed, United States, war, zine

Military Decruitment, Trump 2.0 and Resisting New Empire (with Fig of About Face)

About Face: Veterans Against The War logo featuring an M16, muzzle to the ground, with a helmet seated on the butt inside a circle
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This week, we’re featuring an interview with Fig, an anarchist and member of the anti-Imperialist US veterans organization About Face to talk about decruitment, the work of About Face and an assessment of shifts in military priority under the lead of Hegseth towards the southern US border and the Trump administration 2.0’s multi-polar spin. There’s a lot here and we’ll have a transcript in the near future.

Past veteran interviews on TFSR:

Continue reading Military Decruitment, Trump 2.0 and Resisting New Empire (with Fig of About Face) →

Appalachia, Asheville, community, Disaster Relief, Hurricane Helene, Mutual Aid, North Carolina, Transcribed, United States, zine

5 Months After Hurricane Helene in Barnardsville, NC

Photo of mutual aid in early October, 2024 in Barnardsville, NC
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This week we’re sharing recent chat with Jazz and Badger, two residents of Barnardsville, a small village just outside of Asheville, NC. We spoke about the community, the impact of Hurricane Helene, some lessons learned from coordinating among the neighbors and how people are faring now, nearly 5 months out from the storm. You can find their website at MutualAidBarnardsville.com

To hear similar stories from after the storm you can find links to past interviews here. Also mentioned were interviews recorded by Blue Ridge Public Radio: Voices of Helene.

Articles on recovery referenced:

If you’d like to help out after recent flooding in Eastern Kentucky, there are a few links in our show notes to Hillbillies Helping Hillbillies aka EKY Mutual Aid

Recent Storm Support for EKY, ETN, SWVA + WV

Recent floods in middle Appalachia in the middle of an intense winter cold snap have left many without potable water or other basic needs. ATV donation / loan / operation request to help check on people in hollers, help clear roads, drive supplies: reach out to theferalraccoon (a t) proton (d ot) me OR MutualAidDisasterRelief ( at) gmail (do t) com.

EKY

One place you can look for where to send resources is Eastern KY Mutual Aid, found on Instagram or Facebook under the name Hillbillies Helping Hillbillies. And you can find out more by visiting the website or checking social media for Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. Some of the useful links are here for those unable to use the platforms:

  • EKY Mutual Aid Patreon
  • Volunteer form if in the region
  • EKY Mutual Aid Cashapp: $SoupBeansFriedTaters
  • EKY Mutual Aid Paypal: @EKYMutualAid

In Pikeville, KY, there’s a request for food grade 5 gallon for water filtration where municipal water isn’t running or wells are contaminated there’s a request for restaurants to save buckets for water filtration. People interested can contact Cara at 859_533_0349

DROP OFF LOCATION:
Pike Central HS
100 Winners Circle Drive Pikeville, KY 41501

Other EKY sites:

  • Appalachian Crisis Aid Fund
  • The Y’all Squad TheYallSquad.org/donate

SWVA

  • SAMS Lonesome Pine Mutual Aid Paypal: @SAMSVA
  • The Care Collective of SW VA Venmo: @carecollectiveofswva
  • Cumberland Mountain Mutual Aid
    • Paypal: cumberlandmountainmutualaid (a t) gmail (d o t) com
    • Venmo: @CMMAID
    • CashApp: $CMMUTUALAID

WV

  • WVUMC Disaster Response Ministries WVUMC.org/donate
  • Bluejay Rising BluejayRising.org/donate
  • Spark of Love Foundation
    • CashApp: $sparkoflove4thekids
    • PayPal: The Spark of Love Foundation

ETN

Continue reading 5 Months After Hurricane Helene in Barnardsville, NC →

Encryption, Surveillance, Transcribed, United States, zine

Surveillance Self Defense, Encrypted Chat Apps and Securing Devices with Thorin Klosowski

The SSD logo of a lock and a key in adjoining spaces of an infinity symbol, a photo of Thorin Klosowski and "TFSR 2-16-25 | Surveillance Self Defense, Encrypted Chat Apps and Securing Devices with Thorin Klosowski
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This week, a conversation with Thorin Klosowski of the Electronic Frontier Foundation about some basic tools and ideas for keeping our information a little safer online and the Surveillance Self-Defense site, ssd.eff.org . We discuss device encryption, tor-browser, vpns, encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram as well as password vaults. I’m hoping this’ll be the first of a few interviews to try to make digital security concepts a little more accessible.

Links to check

Continue reading Surveillance Self Defense, Encrypted Chat Apps and Securing Devices with Thorin Klosowski →

Anarchist, Anarchist Media, Art, Author, Comics, General, Immigration, Kristian Williams, North Carolina, Racism, repression, Transcribed, United States, zine

CIMA on Community Defense Against ICE + Kristian Williams on the Comics of Alan Moore

This week on the show, we’re sharing two interviews.

<a href="https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/thefinalstrawradio/tfsr-podcast-20250209-CIMAKristianWilliams.mp3">Download This Episode</a>First up, Dulce, a member of Companeros Inmigrantes en las Montanas en Accion, or CIMA, a local organizing and advocacy group by and for immigrants in western NC about her experience working for dignity and solidarity in light of the current and past administrations. More on CIMA can be found at CIMAWNC.Org

Then, Ian speaks with Kristian Williams, author of Gang Politics, Resist Everything Except Temptation, and Our Enemies in Blue, among others, about his recent book, The Illuminist: Philosophical Explanations in the work of Alan Moore. The chat touches upon Moore’s work and its anarchist underpinnings, his legacy in and out of comics, the necessity of imagination, and the possibilities that arise from death and disaster. The book is available from emergencyhearts.com, emergencyhearts.bandcamp.com, and kristianwilliams.com. You can find past interviews we’ve done with Kristian here.

Continue reading CIMA on Community Defense Against ICE + Kristian Williams on the Comics of Alan Moore →

Anarchist, community, Conflict, General, harm reduction, Health, Neurodiversity, Police, Prisons, repression, Security Culture, Transcribed, United States, zine

We (MUST) Keep Us Safe: An interview with a Long-Term, Anonymous Anarchist Comrade on Repression, Trauma, Security Culture, and Revolutionary Solidarity

two black bloc individuals hugging, tenderly and the text "We (MUST) Keep Us Safe: An interview with a Long-Term, Anonymous Anarchist Comrade on Repression, Trauma, Security Culture, and Revolutionary Solidarity | TFSR 1-12-25"
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This week, we’re featuring an anonymized chat with a longtime anarchist on lessons learned trying to stay sane  while facing state repression. We talk about experiencing trauma, the need for strong relationships and movements offering shelter and strong alternatives to the alienated society of state and capital, while also speaking on the challenges of mental health and inviting in new participants in anarchist movement.

Chapters:

  1. Introduction and Disclaimer [00:00:23]
  2. Post-911/Patriot Act State of Heightened Repression and build up to today [00:02:29]
  3. Navigating security amidst a post-social media and post-smart phone era [00:23:33]
  4. Creating safer and more secure revolutionary communities that can better withstand the heat [00:31:02]
  5. Recognizing and overcoming repression-based trauma on an individual and community level [00:40:02]
  6. Supporting comrades overcoming mental health episodes (spiralling) amidst repression and burnout [01:09:13]
  7. On infiltrators and the depths the state will go to inflict trauma, fish, and divide [01:15:57]
  8. Recognizing the ‘severity’ of our position, and taking ourselves seriously [01:26:22]
  9. Some tips on facing trauma or intimidation, or supporting others experiencing repression-related trauma [01:34:18]

Descending References and Resources List According to Interview:

Green Scare Background

Grand Juries

Border Detention

Police Visitation

On Phone and Digital Security Culture

Infiltration Cases:

Anti-Repression Resources:

J20 Case

Sobriety Discussion

Mental Health/Trauma/Burn Out

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Continue reading We (MUST) Keep Us Safe: An interview with a Long-Term, Anonymous Anarchist Comrade on Repression, Trauma, Security Culture, and Revolutionary Solidarity →

Anarchist, General, History, Iran, Israel, Politics, Russia, Transcribed, United States, war, zine

We Will Need Time: Two Libertarian Communist Perspectives on Events and Possibility in Syria

"TFSR 12-29-24 | We Will Need Time: Two Libertarian Communist perspectives on events and possibility in Syria"<br /> featuring a photo of two people (one with a rifle slung over their shoulder) hugging and facing away from the camera and towards a bombed-out building with graffiti reading "We Will Return" in Arabic
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In this episode, you’ll hear Cedric and Khuzama, two libertarian communists with connections to Syria and editor contributors to the blog interstices-fajawat.org , speaking about their observations of what’s been going on leading up to and through the ouster of Bashar Al-Assad, as well as complications among various factions on the ground and the view from the Syrian diaspora. The situation on the ground is changing fast.

And if you care to hear a perspective from an anarchist combatant affiliated with Tekosina Anarsist, which works with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria affiliated with the SDF and Rojava Revolution, you can find our episode from December 22nd and the transcribed zine already online at our website.

Continue reading We Will Need Time: Two Libertarian Communist Perspectives on Events and Possibility in Syria →