Monthly Archives: December 2025

activism, Anarchist, Art, Author, Black Panther Party, Cartoons, Comics, History, Transcribed, United States, zine

Black Arms To Hold You Up (with Ben Passmore)

In this episode, we have two segments.

Ben Passmore

two hands holding the book "Black Arms To Hold You Up" featuring two cartoon figures running in the bottom corner and the words "TFSR 12-28-25 | Black Arms To Hold You Up (with Ben Passmore)"
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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.

Other titles by Ben:

Mikolo Dziadok

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

Follow Mikola’s Channel in YouTube: www.youtube.com/@Radixbel

Support Mikola financially (it is needed for setting up life in a new country):

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Featured Track:

  • Keep On Keeping On by The Impressions from Dead Presidents OST

Continue reading Black Arms To Hold You Up (with Ben Passmore) →

Anarchist, Author, General, Middle East, Rojava, Syria, Transcribed, zine

Leila Al-Shami with Updates from Syria + The Peoples Want

photo of a mural on the side of a multi-story building of Bashar Al-Assad with the face removed, plus "TFSR 12-21-25 | Leila Al-Shami with Updates from Syria + The Peoples Want"
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This week, we’re sharing a recent chat with Leila Al-Shami, co-author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War and host of Syria: The Inconvenient Revolution Podcast, to give us an assessment and update on situations in Syria since our last episodes on the subject, as well as an introduction to The Peoples Want, an initiative towards a new anti-authoritarian internationalism in which Leila is a participant.

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Featured Track:

  • Yal Harak Qalbe by Omar Souleyman from Elbir

Continue reading Leila Al-Shami with Updates from Syria + The Peoples Want →

activism, Art, Canada, Cartoons, Comics, Palestine, Politics, Protest, Transcribed, Xinachtli, zine

Michael DeForge on Art and Organizing + Xinacthli Medical Emergency

Michael DeForge

"Michael DeForge on Art and Organizing | TFSR 12-14-25" and a screenshot page of 4 black and white comic panels featuring bolt cutters cutting a fence ("We performed our little rituals around security"), masks reflected in windows ("the masks were one of them, 'skeletons' idea. we'd go on not knowing each others faces"), building in the dark with broken windows and masks hovering ("at the debrief later that night, I'd start an argument"), masked people walking ("I wouldn't participate in the argument, I'd instead set two other members off against each other, I'd instigate in a way that wasn't obvious")
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This week we’re sharing Ian’s talk with cartoonist Michael DeForge about the intersection of organizing and art. The conversation touches on Michael’s recent organizing efforts in solidarity with Mskwaasin Agnew, who was among those detained by Israel as part of the Flotilla to bring aid to Gaza. They also discuss the good and bad of instructive political stories and Michael shares details about his upcoming collection from Drawn and Quarterly, scheduled for release in early 2026.

Xinachtli

But first we’re sharing an interview that Outlaw Podcast did with Jazz from the support crew for Xinachtli. Xinachtli is a Chicano anarchist who’s been serving a 50 year sentence since 1996 for aggravated assault, and now, nearly 30 years into his sentence (22 of which have been in solitary confinement according to his support website) is suffering accumulated health issues. During a collapse of his health, he was moved to the infirmary but he’s been denied any treatment, diagnosis or access to his medical care. While in infirmary, he had personal items from his cell  thrown away, including his commissary card The demands for Xinachtli are simple and you can find the numbers and links in our show notes:

  1. Call to put pressure for his demands on TDCJ and McCConnell unit.

  2. We are asking organizations to sign our demand letter to TDCJ. Link can be found in our bio or tinyurl.com/xsupportletter

  3. Join us on December 13 to protest in Austin, Texas.

  4. Donate to the campaign to support legal expenses.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NO. 1: PHONE AND EMAIL BLAST

  • Call the McConnell Unit to demand they give X access to commissary and his medical records IMMEDIATELY. McConnell Unit: (361) 362-2300
  • Call TDCJ Health Services to demand X receive his medical records and is transfered to a hospital for treatment IMMEDIATELY.
    TDCJ Health Services: (936) 437-4271
  • Call or email TDCJ State Classification Committee to demand they reclassify X so he can be transferred to a medical facility.
    TDCJ SCC: (936) 437-6231
    classify@tdcj.texas.gov

Phone blast signup: https://bit.ly/xphoneblast

If you’re on instagram, you can learn more about Xinacthli’s condition and how to get involved via his site @FreeXinacthliNow and if you can hear our conversation from 2024 with Xinacthli or a recording of him speaking about his arrest from 2010.

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Featured Track:

  • Slip by Autechre from Amber

Continue reading Michael DeForge on Art and Organizing + Xinacthli Medical Emergency →

Encryption, Error451, Surveillance, Technology, Transcribed, United States, zine

Signal Contingency Plan (Delta Chat with Fanny and Mary)

Delta Chat logo featuring a lower case Greek delta in a speech bubble
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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.

Delta Chat & having a backup for Signal:

Some reporting mentioned:

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Featured Track:

  • Creep (Instrumental) by TLC
  • Sad React by Emperor X from Sad React _ United Earth League of Quarantine Aerobatics

Continue reading Signal Contingency Plan (Delta Chat with Fanny and Mary) →