Category Archives: Virginia

Anti-Racist Action, Antifa, Charlottesville, General, Klan, Protest, Racism, Virginia

Shite The Right: Charlottesville (VA) July 8th Report-back Plus August 12th Announcement

Shite The Right: UTR in Cville

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This week William got to speak to two people about the anti KKK demo in Charlotesville VA on July 8th, plus about the resistance to a Unite the Right gathering proposed for Charlotesville on August 12th. We speak about what went down on J8, plus things to keep in mind for A12 and who all may be attending the event.

Here is some intro text from our guests that lays the groundwork for some of the things we will speak about:

In the wake of the Charleston Massacre in 2015, the Confederate flag saw a drastic change in social tolerance, and its removal from public institutions sparked widespread reaction from scores of White Southerners, even leading to further terrorizing and violence. Donald Trump’s campaign and election saw these fires stoked further, now emboldening the more explicit White Supremacist dialogue that so many had attempted to distance the flag from a year earlier.

In late April of 2017, the city council of Charlottesville, Virginia voted to remove its statues depicting Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, and rename the downtown parks that hosted them as Justice Park and Emancipation Park, respectively. Local Confederate advocates such as the VA Flaggers and politicians like Corey Stewart had already inserted themselves into the dialogue, but they did not stop when the City’s decision was cast.

With the assistance of local white activists a court injunction was filed to challenge and halt the removals, and only a few weeks later, White Power figureheads from across the U.S. descended on Charlottesville’s parks unannounced for a day of rallies and photo-ops, in a calculated move to insert themselves into the conflict. Since May, the people of Charlottesville have been dogged by intermittent rallies, harassment, stalking, threats, and outright violence from these forces, all the while fighting to resist this fascist creep.

Just two weeks ago, on July 8th, the infamous Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Justice Park. Many from the city and across Virginia assembled for a peaceful counter-demonstration that sought to block the Klan from entering the park. This time, the police led a violent and one-sided escalation against those protesting white supremacy that included 23 arrests.

As the far-right and so-called Alt-Right’s campaign in Charlottesville continues, August 12th has been set for what they hope to be a culminating event, a rally to “Unite the Right” in Emancipation Park.
With a special guest line-up featuring the worst of the worst, they are counting on even greater numbers of alt-righters, Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, neo-confederates, militia groups, and even biker gangs to converge from all corners of the country, with aims not only of unification but of violent retribution against those who oppose them.

A call to action for A12 resistance and detailed information chronicling this struggle, including how to support those arrested on July 8th, can be found at solidaritycville.com, and you can contact Defend.Cville@protonmail.com for more. Use #DefendCville and #TheNewKKK for news and conversation before, during, and after A12; and most importantly, show up to support Charlottesville and help send these Nazis packing!

To support those who were arrested resisting the KKK on July 8th please visit https://fundly.com/virginia-anti-racist-bail-fund

98FM podcast coming out soon
Keep an ear out for a special podcast segment we’ll release this week about 98Fm, Radiozones Of Subersive Expression in Athens Greece. This is the squatted pirate radio station we were going on and on about during the interview on Its Going Down. Well, as you may have heard on B(A)D News: Angry Voices From Around The World #2 last week, they’ve been having some issues with the Telecommunication Ministry, the police, a commercial pirate station and the University where they squat. So, we chat about it for about 45 minutes and they tell us about what’s going on in Greece these days. Take a peek at our website mid week for this interview.

Announcements

Updates from Comrade Malik Washington
Now a quick announcement from the dungeons of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice:
Comrades incarcerated in the “Ad-Seg”–that is, solitary confinement”–block at the Eastham Unit in Texas are reporting that mentally ill prisoners who are unable to care for their own physical health and hygiene are being utterly neglected by prison COs, and even by mental health personnel supposedly tasked with oversight functions at the prison.

Comrade Kado is an occupant of the Ad-Seg unit who has seen this neglect firsthand, related in a recent communication that his concern for one particular individual on the block has become acute. He writes, “It is known that this man is mentally ill. If engaged directly in conversation, he is able to respond, although only in very short sentences. He knows he is from Nebraska, and that he is here for “trespassing too much”… when asked why he’s in solitary, he states “they want me to do work and it’s too hard” or “the guards yellin’ all the time, I get upset”.

Each time Comrade Kado tried to engage the prison staff about getting some assistance for this man, who had been living for months in his own filth, in a roach-infested cell, he was ignored or told he can’t advocate for fellow inmates. Well-known prison activist and human rights advocate Comrade Malik Washington, who also resides on this unit, similarly tried to speak out on behalf of this person, and he, too, was promptly told to mind his own business.

A major concern is that this man could become ill from the deadly heat people in Texas prison are regularly exposed to; this is a concern for ALL Texas prisoners, but especially those who no longer (or maybe never did) possess the cognitive ability to advocate for themselves. As Comrade Malik writes, “[This man] lives only 3 cells away from me. He has no fan and really doesn’t know or understand how to ask for one, so he suffers more than the normal prisoner in ad seg…And yet from the senior warden all the way down to the lowest-ranking correctional officer, no-one sees the importance or urgency of obtaining a fan for this mentally ill humyn being!”

Officials at Eastham will not succeed in destroying solidarity amongst imprisoned people. Comrades Kado and Malik will continue speaking out for their fellow incarcerated brothers and sisters–and they need our help!! Take a minute to call Bryan Collier, Executive Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, at (512) 463-9988, to tell him that mentally ill prisoners need to be properly cared for. And if you want to learn more about this pressure campaign and about prisoner advocacy, write to Comrade Kado at:

Noah Coffin
#1795167
Eastham Unit
2665 Prison Road #1
Lovelady, TX 75851

Dare to struggle! Dare to win! All power to the people!

J20 Week of Solidarity
This is the week of solidarity with the over-200-people arrested during the protests against the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20th, known as the J20 defendants. Among the ways to get involved, one could thrown a fundraiser, attend a fundraiser, do graffiti, drop a banner, have an info-session to teach people about it, re-socialize your local Fox News outlet and read a statement on the air, plaster your social media, talk to your awkward manarchist uncle Jerry, and otherwise raise awareness that might support the support lawyers in their attempt on July 27th to get the charges against the J20 defendents dismissed. More info on events ongoing can be found at defendj20resistance.org.

Za in NYC with the Wobs for J20
If you’re in New York and wanna have some pizza about this, the New York City General Defense Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World is organizing a pizza dinner as a benefit of the over 200 people who were arrested in Washington D.C. on Inauguration Day. Here’s a fedbook post for the event, and here’s where the funds are being collected if you can’t make it but wanna give.
WHEN: Saturday, August 5, 2017 from 4 P.M. to 4 A.M.
WHERE: Rebecca’s, 610 Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn NY 11206

Fire Inside Zine & Tour
From FireInside.noblogs.org, we read an announcement about Firehawk & Ben’s upcoming rust-belt tour with a zine compiling the experiences of prisoners of the September 9th #PrisonStrike from last year in the prisoners own words, as well as info about the August 19th Millions for Prisoner Justice march this year.

July 25th day of International Solidarity with Antifascist Prisoners
From IGD
Tuesday, July 25th, marks the 3rd Annual International Day of Solidarity with Antifascist Prisoners. In the aftermath of the fiery protests against the G20—and the arrests of hundreds of comrades—we are again reminded that the embers of direct action need long-term prisoner support in order to keep the flame of resistance strong. Some forty G20 protesters remain in prison in Hamburg and need our solidarity.

Here‘s a list of prisoners needing support.

Mike Williams
From IGD
Longtime Sacramento activist and indigenous elder Mike Williams is one of three people of color who face charges stemming from the antifascist mobilization which shut down a neo-Nazi rally in June of 2016. Only one neo-Nazi, William Planer, is facing charges, and he was only arrested after vandalizing a synagogue in Denver, CO. Mike is currently facing massive charges and a high bail. Please support him here and share the fundraising link far and wide along with this article to raise awareness of his case.

Check out the full post for more details.

Playlist here

Capitalism, community, communization, Environment, Euskal Herria / Basque Territory, Housing, North Carolina, Petroleum, Pipeline, repression, Squatting, Virginia, West Virginia

Anti-Pipeline Action Camp in VA & Errekaleor Bizirik squatted neighborhood in Euskal Herria/Basque territory

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This week we featured two conversations in the episode.

“Stop The Pipelines Action Camp”

Firstly, Bursts chatted with erin. erin is a resident of the Blacksburg VA area and an affiliate of Blue Ridge Rapid Response Project (or BRRRP) and is helping to organize the “Stop The Pipelines Action Camp” in that area from July 13-17th, 2017. The action camp is being organized in hopes to spread resistance to the Mountain Valley & Atlantic Coast Pipelines that are traversing Appalachian West Virginia, Virginia and, in the ACP’s case, North Carolina. We talk about what it is to live in a place and defend your home, to get to know your neighbors, to build the skills needed to resist ecocidal, capitalist infrastructure projects. More info at https://blueridgerapidresponse.wordpress.com. The event is being co-sponsored by Smokey Mountain Eco-Defense (SMED)

erin mentions pipeline security pursued by mercenary groups like TigerSwan as well as industry-sponsored astro-turf (or fake grassroots) group YourEnergy meant to muddy the water of community resistance to pipeline expansion and other infrastructural projects.

Errekaleor Bizirik!

After that, Bursts chatted with 2 residents of the squatted neighborhood of Errekaleor Bizirik in the Basque territory within the borders of so-called Spain. The residents talk about the history of Errekaleor Bizirik, feminism, energy infrastructure, recent attacks by police on the project and pre-figuring a post-capitalist life-way in the rubble of the existent. For more info on the project, which translates to Dry River (Errekaleor) Lives (Bizirik)!, check out:
The draft wikipedia page;
An IGD post about the project with links and context;
Their Coopfunding page.

From their post on igd, is this quote:

For those of you that are too far away to personally attend, feel free to make a quick call to the mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz Gorka Urtaran at +34 945 16 13 82 or +34 945 16 13 83 or send us a message at errekaleorbizirik@gmail.com!”

We wanted to also state that the folks at Errekaleor reached out to us for the interview, which was super awesome. If you have a project, a book, an article, a fight that seems like it’d be interesting to us and our listeners, send us an email at thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net and get the ball rolling.

If you want, find us on itunes and subscribe for free. You can rate us there as well, to help others find us more easily.

Announcement

The Arizona based humanitarian aid group No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes in spanish) has been under semi constant surveillance by Border Patrol for the past week. This is unprecedented attention; since its foundation in 2004 this group has had a written agreement, essentially a non interference good faith contract, with Border Patrol that names the group as a health aid and humanitarian group that has every right to be doing the work it’s doing. NO More Deaths is a group based on certain faith principles (it is an official ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Tuscon) and on critical engagement with policy reform, nevertheless it is a group that has a high degree of anarchist involvement and solidarity with what could be called anarchist principles. It is most famous for desert aid; volunteers hiking out and leaving supplies such as water – essential in the 100 plus degree heat – food, socks, blankets, other supplies, and directed first aid where needed along remote corridors in the Sonoran Desert. The group also engages with legal aid, abuse documentation, searching for missing or disappeared people, helping getting belongings back from Border Patrol, networking with other border solidarity groups in the area, and consciousness raising and education to subvert the extremely stale narrative that immigration has in the US.

A couple of days ago, after almost a week of constant surveillance, Border Patrol raided a camp “in an unprecedented show of force, [with] approximately 30 armed agents raided the camp with at least 15 trucks, two quads, and a helicopter to apprehend four patients receiving medical care.” We hope to talk with someone about this situation soon for the radio show; the fact that this raid is coming now is a clear sign of the administrations attitude toward this kind of work. For more information on this issue and to keep up with No More Deaths, you can go to their website https://nomoredeaths.org

Playlist

#NoDAPL, activism, Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Capitalism, Environment, Fracking, Mid-Atlantic, Mountain Valley Pipeline, North Carolina, Petroleum, Pipeline, Protest, Virginia, Water

Resistance to the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines

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This week, we spoke with Whitney about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline, two pipelines flowing through mid-Appalachian and the mid-Atlantic region on Turtle Island and both connect Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania County, VA. The pipelines are 48 inches in diameter and are made for transporting dangerous compressed and pressurized natural gas through many watersheds, towns and farmlands. In addition to fears of contamination of waterways and soil, through possible leaks and explosions, many people are concerned the pipeline will be carry gas for export , not even for domestic consumption.

Whitney is also involved in an upcoming podcast series to inform folks in Virginia about the history and aspects of the pipelines to be released in the run-up to the decisions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on whether or not these projects can move forward.

As of now, there is no website address for our guest’s podcast, but their podcast’s mission statement is as follows:

“‘End of the Line’ is a pre-recorded podcast created by local Richmonders, following the developing story of two proposed pipelines in Virginia – the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Over the past year, the subject of fossil fuel “pipelines” has reached a high point of saturation in the national consciousness. While the nation watched major milestones unfold around the rejection of Keystone XL by President Obama and Standing Rock’s struggle to protect water against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, resistance to pipelines in Virginia has been building as well. Residents and landowners in mostly rural parts of the state have taken on an uphill battle to try and stop two high pressure natural gas pipelines from going through their land as well as some of Virginia’s most treasured places.

Featuring the voices of those directly affected by the proposed infrastructure, this ongoing series will examine every aspect of the local pipeline struggle, episode by episode, starting at the very beginning and working our way to the present. Through voices of those on the frontlines, we will touch on issues such as eminent domain, energy policy, industry influence on local politics, environmental impacts, and the mental health aspect of how residents are coping with this tremendous burden. Our goals are to provide listeners with the stories of Virginians who have been and are currently resisting both proposed natural gas pipelines and build a wider audience of people throughout our region who may not be familiar with all that has occurred since the summer of 2014 when the pipelines were first introduced. The built-in question we will be posing to listeners is the same many landowners are facing, “Are these pipelines a ‘done deal’?” To that end, as our episodes begin to meet up in real time with the decision-making process at state and federal levels, “End of the Line” will continue to report on developments as the pipeline saga unfolds”.

We will announce a website for this project as soon as we know!

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Other, regional upcoming events related to the ACP & MVP pipelines may consider attending include the following: Beyond Extreme Energy will be putting on a convergence in Washington DC from April 26-28th. BXE was a co-sponsor of the walk across NC areas that may be affected by the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline. More info on the conference and other stuff by BXE can be found at http://beyondextremeenergy.org Delaware River Keepers have compiled “People’s Dossiers” on shortcomings of studies in the economic and environmental harms of the ACP & MVP by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC. http://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/ongoing-issues/peoples-dossier-ferc-abuses-economic-harms

Another site of interest worth check out is http://www.apppl.org for the Alliance of People to Protect the Places we Live.

If you’re in the South East (or wherever), you are cordially invited to attend the 1st Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfaire, also known as ACAB2017 from May 5-May 7th in Asheville, North Carolina. The weekend of events kicks off with an a welcome table at firestorm books at 610 Haywood Rd from 3pm until 6pm with a schedule of events and ways to plug in. There are multiple musical events Friday and Saturday night. Featured speakers include Shon Meckfessel, Jude Ortiz of Tilted Scales Collective, members of the crimethInc collective as well as from the Water Protectors Anti-Repression Crew and a special appearance by author and activist Ward Churchill. Vendors over the weekend will include PM Press, AK Press, Little Black Cart, Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, Combustion Books and many more. Consider the daytime events to be all ages. Check out https://acab2017.noblogs.org/ for updates and info.