This week, you’ll hear our chat with Simón Sedillo, author of Weapons, Drugs & Money: Crime, Corruption, and Community Based Liberation in the U.S./Mexico Neoliberal Military Political Economy. Simón talks a little about his early days in media near the start of the Indymedia world, his documentary that became the news website El Enemigo Común (which translates to “the common enemy”) which covered grassroots, indigenous led movements in southern so-called Mexico, and about his book with a focus on intervention and integration from capitalist and military powers in the US, multinational banking and big pharma and the violence against and resilience of indigenous communities under that nation-state.
Check out the website https://www.weaponsdrugsandmoney.org/ for more info on how to order a copy, and the chapters are being posted and translated into castellano at https://elenemigocomun.net/ , where you can find two decades + of really interesting content. Simón suggests people follow Avispa Mídia https://avispa.org/ as a project following in the legacy of El Enemigo Común.
A big thanks to Mitchell Verter for the suggestion.
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Featured Track:
Get It Together (Buck Wild Instrumental) by Beastie Boys from Get It Together
This week on the show, Ian talks to Sara and Josh, organizers from the Certain Days Collective on the publication of this year’s certain days calendar. The two discuss the creative and administrative processes involved in producing one of the most consistent projects in the abolition space. They also discuss the past, present, and future of the project and the constant need to balance short term emergent issues against the long term abolition project. [ 00:02:37 – 00:33:14]
You can learn more at CertainDays.org, find them on a bunch of social media platforms, and order calendars for deliver in Canada via LeftWingBooks.Net or in the USA via BurningBooks.Com and you can find our past conversations with Josh by searching Josh Davidson on our website, including a recent interview about Rattling The Cages.
“A scholar-activist with over 60 years of experience in the Civil Rights, Black Power, Pan-African, and Social Ecology movements will discuss the role of critical historiography in the study and documentation of directly democratic communities across human history. Modibo Kadalie’s presentation will touch on ideas discussed in his two most recent books, Pan-African Social Ecology and Intimate Direct Democracy. Dr. Kadalie will also discuss his upcoming book, tentatively titled State Creep: A Critical Historiography.”
Sean Swain
Sean‘s segment on destabilizing the economy with flash mobs can be heard from [ 01:32:32 – 01:40:28 ]
This week we’re sharing a recent interview with Elia J. Ayoub, host of The Fire These Times podcast to talk a bit about #solarpunk. He was on the show with Leila Al-Shami some years ago to speak about revolution and civil war in Syria, uprisings in Lebanon and Iraq.
For the hour, we speak about the importance of radical imagination, the artistic genre known as solar punk, technology and it’s role in societies based on pleasure and leisure, utopian movements of the past and the decentering of the imperial cores in an anti-imperialist visioning.
On October 9th, join comrades for a youtube stream to help fundraise for our incarcerated comrade and homie GZ’s legal fees. This is a great way to participate in Indigenous Peoples Day from home- the stream content will being centered on connecting between decolonization and abolition, featuring dialogue and performances by artists and MCs including Bigg Villainus and Ant from Savage Fam, as well as FD Signifier, and poetry by GZ. Stay tuned for more info and the full schedule, and please help us boost this and circulate the fundraiser: https://tinyurl.com/gzlegalfund
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Featured Track:
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by Cannonball Adderley from Rock Instrumental Classics, Vol 4: Soul
First up, former co-host on the show Shuli talks about the upcoming Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair happening the weekend of August 11 – 13th, some of the content and notes on access, as well as mentioning some new projects their involved with. You can learn more about the bookfair by visiting ACABookfair.noblogs.org , the project’s instagram, facebook or mastodon.
Then, Fern from the International Anarchist Defense Fund (AFund.Info) talks about the upcoming International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners from August 23-30th, taking place wherever you make it happen. You can find the call-out, materials, supported prisoners, some anti-repression groups involved and info on past actions and events at https://Solidarity.International .
Hybachi Lamar, an incarcerated Black, Kemetic anarchist being held at the Cook County Jail talks about the conditions in the jail in an audio message that is shared alongside links to his writings and info on how to help South Chicago Anarchist Black Cross support him. All of this can be found at https://southchicagoabc.org/helpcompa/
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Featured Track:
Everything In Its Right Place (by Radiohead) by The String Quartet from Strung Out On Kid A – The String Quartet Tribute To Radiohead
This week, you’ll hear an interview with Matthew Scott, a journalist with ACPC in Atlanta to talk about recent developments with the struggle against Cop City, the building of a giant police training facility with a simulated cityscape for urban counter insurgency training for law enforcement from around the USA & around the world in a forest in Atlanta, Georgia. You can read Matthews work at ATLPressCollective.Com.
We review the development of the project and the organizing against it, touch on the current situation for the 41 people facing domestic terrorism charges from the state of Georgia, talk about the SWAT raid and financial crime charges against the Atlanta Solidarity bail fund, the vote by city council to move forward with tens of millions of dollars of funding despite 15 hours of public comment against and take a look at where the project is now that clearcutting has happened.
This week, we’re sharing an interview with 2 contributors an amazing history of anti-racist organizing in the late 1980’s through the mid 1990’s in Portland, Oregon, and with ripples across the so-called USA & beyond. In 2020 KBOO radio released a serialized podcast which became the basis for the book.
Mic Crenshaw was born and raised in Chicago and Minneapolis and currently resides in Portland, Oregon. Crenshaw is an independent hip hop artist, respected emcee, poet, educator, and activist. Crenshaw is the lead US organizer for the Afrikan Hiphop Caravan and uses cultural activism as a means to develop international solidarity related to human rights and justice through hip hop and popular education. Crenshaw was a founding member of the Minneapolis Baldies and Anti Racist Action. He was a coproducer and narrator of the podcast version of It Did Happen Here. Moe Bowstern is a alum of the anarchist space in Chiacgo known as the @-zone that lasted from 1993 to 2003. She’s also a writer, laborer, Fisher Poet, and DIY social practice artist. Moe is the longtime editor of many publications, including the commercial fishing zine Xtra Tuf. She contributed to the writing of the book version of It Did Happen Here and lives in Portland, OR.
For the hour, we talk about the book and podcast, the reach, the resonance to anti-racist struggle today in Portland and beyond. We also talk about the toll of the violence faced and engaged by folks pushing back the organized white supremacy of the day, police and institutional violence and other, related topics. If you would like people featured in this book to come and speak at your institution, you can reach them at ItDidHappenHerePodcast at gmail dot com, through PM Press, or via the IDHH instagram.
This book was published by PM Press as a part of the Working Class History series. Another featured title in that series that was recently released was a similar documentary history with a really good narrative on the history of Anti-Racist Action in the 1990’s and early 2000’s throughout the midwest of Turtle Island, both in so-called Canada and the USA, and bits of other areas. Hopefully we’ll feature a chat with one of the contributors to that book entitled We Go Where They Go: The Story of Anti-Racist Action soon on this show.
First up, a chat with two members of the South Florida Anti-Repression Committee doing solidarity for the 4 queer activists facing up to 12 years in Federal prison on charges related to graffiti at a Pregnancy Crisis Center, aka a building funded by church and state to dissuade people from getting abortions. The Department of Justice is charging them under the FACE Act, a criminal law passed in the 1990’s to stop threats, violence and blockades against health clinics that offered like abortions, screenings, contraception and other services under attack by religious extremists in the USA. There are also Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, known also as a SLAPP suits being brought by a Miami-based Christian anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Center called Heartbeat of Miami as well as the state of Florida against the accused apparently intended to have a chilling effect and minimize their ability to defend themselves against the Federal indictments.
Oso and Hunter of SFLARC talk about the arrests, about the defendants and the rising tide of gender fascism and war on bodily autonomy in DeSantis’ Florida and around the country.
Following this, we’re sharing audio from the February 2023 episode of Bad News, a monthly English-language podcast from the A-Radio Network. In this segment, you’ll hear comrades from Črna luknjashow on Radio Študent speakin with an activist inSofia, Bulgaria about theantifascist mobilization known as Anti-lukovmarsh, which will take place on 25th February under the slogan “No Nazis On Our Streets” – Thisis amanifestation against one of the biggest international neo-nazi gatherings(Lukov March). You can find moreinfo at: http://antifa-bulgaria.org.
Announcements
Support Parole for Sundiata Jawanza
Political prisoner and activist Sundiata Jawanza in South Carolina has an upcoming parole and is looking for support. You can learn more about his case at https://www.sundiatajawanza.com/
We’re happy to share this chat with Leah and Payton, directors of the upcoming documentary series “The Elements of Mutual Aid”. You can find previews of the film on their social media and links to those and more in our shownotes at our website. The series is about to enter post-production once they’ve gotten JUST a little more footage to add to their 5 years of work. For the hour, we talk about the series, their concepts of mutual aid, the process of radically respectful film making and some of their inspirations.
This week on The Final Straw, we feature three segments: words from a friend of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, the forest defender killed by law enforcement on January 18th outside of Atlanta, Georgia; A-Radio Berlin’s conversation with an activist at Lutzerath encampment in western Germany attempting to block a lignite coal extraction operation by RWE; a discussion of the Tren Maya megaproject by the AMLO administration in Mexico.
First up, we caught up with Eric Champaign of Tallahassee, FL, about his friend Manny, aka Tortuguita or little turtle. Manuel Teran was shot and killed by law enforcement during an early morning raid of the forest encampment to defend the Welaunee aka Atlanta Forest and to stop CopCity on Wednesday, January 18th, 2023. Law enforcement claimed in the media that they responded to shots fired and the wounding of an officer by killing the shooter, but at the time of this release the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has not yet produced a weapon or bodycam footage of the clash. [Update, Georgia Bureau of Investigation claims they found Tort’s gun and ballistics match the bullet in the pelvis of the cop] The killing of Tortuguita has sparked outrage, calls for independent investigations, vigils and calls for renewed and dispersed activity. Word is that another 6 people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism during the raid. Check out our chat with a member of Atlanta Anti-Repression Committee for some context and links to group fighting back in the courts. There’s a fundraiser for Tortuguita’s family at GoFundMe
Then, we feature two segments are selections from the January, 2023 episode of B(A)D News from the A-Radio Network. You can find this ep, #64, alongside many others at A-Radio-Network.Org
Updates from Lützerath
This second segment is a recording by A-Radio Berlin of a conversation with a radio activist from Aalpunk from Lützerath giving some context of the struggle there in the west of Germany. Since this recording, the encampments have been evicted but resistance continues against the ginormous lignite mine that the corporation RWE is attempting to expand there. You can also hear or read our September 25th, 2022 episode for some background. More info at https://luetzerathlebt.info/en
Opposing Project Tren Maya
Finally, we’re sharing a segment by Frequenz-A about Proyecto Tren Maya in the Yucatán peninsula of so-called Mexico. The conversation with a member of Recherche-Ag about a report they published in Solidarity with the Zapatista movement, on the German state and corporate participation in this mega-project and the dangers posed by the Maya Train, which includes huge expansion of electric, travel and other corporate and state infrastructure through sensitive ecosystems and sovereign indigenous lands, being overseen by the Mexican military. You can find this report and more at ya-basta-netz.org.
To hear a past interview of ours talking about Tren Maya & AMLO’s infrastructure projects, you can find our February 2nd, 2020 interview.
Announcements
Phone Zap for Jason Renard Walker
Jason Walker, a writer and organizer held in the Texas prison system, is currently being held at a psychiatric unit after having to fake suicide attempt in order to escape a plot to murder him. He’s asking for urgent support in ensuring that he’s not transferred back to Connally Unit, where the original incident took place, and for his entire classification file to be reviewed to help him get moved to a safer place. You can check our show notes for the relevant contacts and words from Jason and a script to call with at BRABC.BlackBlogs.Org
Then, you’ll hear a recent interview with Aryanam, a member of the Federation of Anarchism Era, an anarchist grouping based in Iran, Afghanistan and the diaspora to speak about the morality police murder of Zhina or Mahsa Amini and the ongoing revolt against the imposition of the hijab and general cruelty of the Islamic Republic regime. More by the Federation can be found at https://asranarshism.com and their fundraiser for comrades in Afghanistan & Iran at https://asranarshism.com/donation/
Image from @loozanar on Instagram, Drawing in black and red of Persian words swirling around Zhina watching over a crowd of people in the streets and a youth holding a giant, burning dandelion
Next week….
Next week we hope to share with you an interview about the case of the Pendleton 2, two Black prisoners still suffering punishment in the Indiana Department of Corrections for standing up to defend their lives and that of a jailhouse lawyer in the face of a racist, Ku Klux Klan -affiliated corrections officer gang known as the Sons of Light in 1985. To learn more, check out related episodes of Kiteline Radio or the recent documentary by TheKingTrill on youtube, both linked in our show notes, or by visiting linktr.ee/freedomcampaign
Announcements
Solidarity with Striking Alabama Prisoners
If you’re in the southeast, there is a Break Every Chain demonstration outside of the Alabama State Capital, 600 Dexter Avenue in Montgomery on Friday, October 14th at 9am in support of striking prisoners across the Alabama Dept of Corrections. You can find more info at www.bothsidesofthewall.com or by emailing contact@bothsidesofthewall.com
Certain Days Calendars Out
Also, the Certain Days: Freedom For Political Prisoners Calendars are back from the printers. You can find out how to order one for someone behind bars, for your self or place a bulk order for distribution at certaindays.org
