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.
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.
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:
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
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.
This week on the show, we’re sharing two interviews.
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
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.
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 22ndand the transcribed zine already online at our website.
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.
First up, Phil Wilayto of the Virginia Defenders talks about conditions at Red Onion State Prison in western Virginia where a number of prisoners have been self-immolating in order to escape longterm isolation and racist guard violence. You can find Phil’s article on the SF Bay View which includes a clip of Noelle Hanrahan on Al-Jazeera talking about this subject, and past interviews with and about Kevin “Rashid” Johnson at this link here. [00:01:02 – 00:41:15]
Then, you’ll hear Jo, an anarchist from Germany, speaking about the recent building of conspiracy cases against antifascists known as Antifa-Ost, or Antifa East. You can find our prior interview about NSU Watch and Day X here. [ 00:44:45 – 01:11:42 ]
This week, we’re sharing a presentation entitled “Abortion Beyond The State” by Jex Blackmore and Hydra Mutual Aid Fund, recorded at the 2024 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville, NC. You can find more audios, past schedules and more at ACABookfair.NoBlogs.Org.
“Government control of reproductive capacity has long persisted as a tool to subordinate birthing people, women, people of color, people living on lower incomes, and other marginalized groups. The Supreme Court’s harmful ruling in Dobbs made clear that both the State, its actors, and the non-profit industrial complex have failed the people, giving rise to the urgent necessity for the movement to defend itself through direct provisions to community. This workshop will provide context to the current crisis surrounding bodily autonomy and reproduction and share a roadmap for subverting state control by building networks of support to provide safe and effective abortion regardless of legality.
The Hydra Fund is an independent mutual aid fund supporting access to reproductive care in Michigan. Their mission is to eliminate financial barriers to abortion access in Michigan by providing direct financial aid for purchasing abortion pills and obtaining in-clinic abortion procedures. Additionally, Hydra Fund is engaged in a community outreach education program to support access to evidence-based abortion information.”
For other abortion chats you can listen to from TFSR, check out this link
Malik Muhammad, a prisoner from the George Floyd Uprising has been on hunger strike against extended use of solitary confinement with no property and after a beating and tasering by staff. You can learn how to participate in a phone zap at MalikSpeaks.NoBlogs.Org
First up, you’ll hear from Elizabeth Simpson of Emancipate NC, one of the signatories to a public letter to this state’s department of corrections calling for the release of hundreds of prisoners in North Carolina. This comes in response to over-crowding and understaffing of prisons following the emergency transfer of 2,000 prisoners from prisons in the western part of the state effected by Hurricane Helene. [00:01:15 – 00:18:50]
Then, Mona Evans of Benevolence Farm, a post-release residence and re-entry program in North Carolina for people coming out of the women’s prisons talks about their programs, re-entry and some of the realities faced inside womens prisons in this state. [00:20:04 – 01:04:40]
DownhomeNC engages in a number of progressive causes in this state, including the bail fund that Benevolence Farms is currently running. You can find our 2020 interview with them here.
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Featured Track:
Women on the Inside by Sistas In The Pit from The We That Sets Us Free: Building A World Without Prisons
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 
