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, we’re featuring a conversation with Mohammad Hureini (twitter / instagram), a young activist from Masafer Yatta, an area in the hills south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Mohammad is a member of a non-violent group called Youth of Sumud that struggles to hold on to the sites and lives of Palestinian villages despite displacement by the Israeli military occupation as well as the illegal zionist settlements (like the neighboring Havat Ma’on) and their routine violence and impunity. For the hour, Mohammad speaks about the work of Youth of Sumud, their recent report co-published with The Good Shepherd on increased settler violence entitled Indigenous Erasure: How the zionist movement is using state sanctioned violence to eliminate the Palestinian communities of the West Bank, the South African genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice and other topics.
Check out the January 2024 episode featuring updates on support for antifascists facing charges in Budapest from February 11, 2023; reflections from an Autonomist on the ’80s-’90s journal “Radikal”; a portion of our interview with Israeli refuser Yuval Dag; and an interview from Solidarity Zones on the case of accused Russian war sabateur, Ruslan Siddiqui
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Featured Track:
Building Steam with a Grain of Salt by DJ Shadow from Entroducing….
First up, you’ll hear an interview with Shupavu wa Kirima, General Secretary of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party, comes on to talk to us about the ongoing hunger strike among prisoners at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia protesting the abuse of solitary confinement and the medical status of hunger striker Kevin “Rashid” Johnson. More at https://RashidMod.Com [00:01:18 – 00:25:47]
Then, Yuval Dag, an Israeli anarchist member of Mesarvot recently imprisoned for publicly refusing conscription, talks about draft refusal, opposing the war on Palestinians and the occupation and undoing zionist ideology. More at https://linktr.ee/meaarvot [00:27:31 – 01:06:13]
This week’s show features four segments: an announcement from IGD Podcast; an anti-Zionist Jewish voice from Palestine; an interview of two anti-repression activists on the harassment of two antifascist activists in Budapest, Hungary; Sean Swain’s segment.
Reflections of a Jewish Anti-Zionist from Palestine
First up, we’re featuring the voice of a Jewish anti-Zionist anarchist living in lands occupied by the Israeli state. We speak about some of his experiences of trying to resist the ongoing war against Palestinians, collaboration with Palestinian comrades against the occupation, the silencing of dissent during the escalation by the Israeli state and other topics. [ 00:07:28 – 00:50:13 ]
For a very thoughtful series of podcasts about the situation in Palestine, check out the two recent episodes of the Its Going Down podcast (1st and 2nd).
Following this, you’ll hear a segment by A-Radio Berlin (a co-member of the Channel Zero Network as well as the A-Radio Network with The Final Straw) about repression of antifascists recently under the far right Hungarian administration of Victor Orban. This also appeared in the November 2023 episode of Bad News, the monthly English-language podcast of the A-Radio Network. [ 00:52:10 – 01:05:53 ]
The following is an interview we conducted with Katka and Hazel, who both live in the UK and were recently back from Bakur, the portion of Kurdistan within the borders of Turkey. For 2 hours the guests speak about the political violence from Erdogan’s ruling AKP, suppression of the Kurdish movement, electoral strategies, democratic confederalism, political prisoners and the F-Type prisons in Turkey, the earthquakes from earlier in the year, widespread corruption and other topics. We hope you enjoy this conversation,. A transcript of this interview will be available in the near future. You can reach the guests at BakurDelegationUK at riseup dot net
f you missed the ACABookfair or any of the workshops, we’ve got a happy surprise for you. Give a gander in the next week to ACABookfair.noblogs.org for the media page that will soon be populated with audio recordings of some of the presentation events on various topics. More likely than not, some of those will end up in future episodes of The Final Straw, fyi.
Latest BAD News Out Now!
Also, the latest episode of Bad News from the A-Radio Network is also now up at their website, but also linked in our show notes. You’ll hear from contributing members of the A-Radio Network sharing perspectives at the 2023 St-Imier gathering in Switzerland on the importance of the audio medium like radio and podcasts to the building of anarchist movement. You can also find links in the show notes for this episode to the live broadcast throughout the weekend by Radio RIA and some video of presentations and audios of presentations in German, Spanish, French, Italian and English. Maybe even one or two in Esperanto for you spicey types.
This week we chatted with Jasmine, an anthropologist and activist involved in the migrant solidarity and freedom of movement cultural organization called Maldusa which is based in some of the southern most reaches of Italy in Palermo, Sicily, and the island of Lampedusa and in the Mediterranean Sea. We speak for the hour about migration across the sea, what drives and draws people to make the treacherous journey, state, para state and civil institutions on both sides of the sea engaging the issue of crossings and other topics.
This week, I spoke with Dr. Alexander Dunlap about a range of topics, such as Degrowth, green anarchism, the violence of extractivism, questions of the conception of renewable energy and resistance to ecocide. We covered a lot in this discussion and he’s written a lot on a range of related topics. Check out his ResearchGate where many pdfs are available or searching his name on AnarchistLibrary.Net. If there’s something at ResearchGate that isn’t available for download, you can email Alexander and request access.
Next week, we hope to bring you a conversation with Mixael Laufer of the anarchist biohacking crew, the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective talking about do it yourself medical infrastructures.
This week, we spoke with Maia Ramnath about her essay contribution to ¡No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches From a World in Crisis. The essay was entitled “The Other Aryan Supremacy: Fighting Hindu Fascism in the South Asia Diaspora”.
For the hour, we talk about about Hindutva, a brand of Indian ethno-religious-nationalism some have called fascism, the organizations that carry it in India and in the sub-continental or Desi diaspora around the world, some of the ideas and actions attributed to it, Islamophobia, Hindutva’s connections with the project of Israel, also it’s overlaps with far right, Nazi-inspired ideologies and how non-Desi anti-fascists can stand in solidarity against it.
Art for Life: Conversations with the Progressive Writers Movement on Pens, Swords, and Internationalism, from Antifascism to Afro-Asian Solidarity (paperback / ebook)
¡No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches From a World in Crisis (edited by Shane Burley). The essay was entitled “The Other Aryan Supremacy: Fighting Hindu Fascism in the South Asia Diaspora”. For audiophiles out there, there is an audiobook version of this book available from AK Press, though it’s a little pricey it is over 20 hours long!
Bursts also recommends Azadi by Arundhati Roy, which includes lots of thoughts on these topics. And you can hear our 2020 interview with Pranav Jeevan P. in Karela state in India which covers many of these same topics, which is also transcribed.
Phone Zap for #StopCopCity Arrestee, Emily Murphy
#StopCopCity protestor Emily Murphy has been in jail for almost a month since being arrested 1/22 following the protest against the police killing of Tortuguita. Emily has been vegan for many years, but the Atlanta City Dentention Center has not been giving them food they can eat. They describe being emaciated and having physical problems after a month of starvation. We are asking that you listen to Emily’s statement, participate in our call in campaign, and show up at Atlanta City Dentention Center at 7pm this Friday (2/24/23) to voice your discontent. We present Emily in their own words
The monthly, English-language podcast from the international A-Radio network is now available at a-radio-network.org for streaming or downloading. You’ll hear updates from antifascist struggle in Bulgaria, news from comrades in Greece as well as info about how the organizing of the 2023 St-Imier anti-authoritarian and anarchist gathering is going in Switzerland recorded by A-Radio Berlin.
This week we are re-airing an interview from November 10th, 2019, by Scott Branson with Eli Meyerhoff about his book “Beyond Education: Radical Studying for Another World”. In this book, Meyerhoff “traces how key elements of education emerged from histories of struggles in opposition to alternative modes of study bound up with different modes of world-making. Taking inspiration from Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, and Indigenous resurgence projects, he charts a new course for movements within, against, and beyond the university as we know it.” and this quote is from the University of Minnesota webpage, who also published his book.
This interview covers a lot of issues such as the historical and colonial construction of what we think of today as education. In this interview, Scott and Eli talk about his book, the vast terrain that the book covers, experiences in academia when one is operating as politically radical, and some alternatives to education that we can see and experience in the world around us.
This week on The Final Straw, we’re sharing a chat that Scott had with Smirk, Wink & Nudge of the Stop Camp Grayling Offensive, an anarchist effort to oppose the doubling expansion of the largest military base on Turtle Island, based in so-called Michigan. For the hour, the militants talk about the ecological, social, economic and other potential impacts of expanding the military industrial complex and this counterinsurgency training ground in particular.
You can learn more at twitter.com/GraylingCamp or instagram.com/stop_camp_grayling, soon at a blog they’ll be starting or on one of their upcoming info tours, with more information in our shownotes. There is also a zine, entitled “The Base Among The Pines: Notes on the Camp Grayling Expansion on Anishinabewaki” available at RiverValleyRevolt.NoBlogs.
This struggle consider itself in solidarity with the movement to #StopCopCity in so-called Atlanta.
11/11 Chicago, IL @ 6900 N Glenwood Ave in Rogers Park 7pm;
11/13 Cleveland, OH 11/14 @ Rhizome House 2174 Lee Road 7pm;
11/14 Pittsburgh, PA @ TBA;
11/15 Philadelphia, PA @ Grays Ferry Crescent Skatepark 7pm;
11/16 Ashville, NC @ TBD;
11/17-18 Atlanta, GA @ Weelaunee Forest;
11/19 Bloomington, IN @ TBA;
11/20 Grand Rapids, MI @ TBA;
Next Week…
Stay tuned next week for, hopefully, a segment on making inexpensive, alcohol heaters for surviving out of doors this winter & a conversation with Josh of the Certain Days: Freedom For Political Prisoners Calendars collective about the 2023 edition, now off the presses!
Announcements
Remember Ricardo Flores Magón! Free Xinachtli!
If you’re in the Austin, Texas, area, on November 21st, on the 100th anniversary of the death of Mexican anarchist communist and revolutionary Ricardo Flores Magon in Leavenworth Prison, there’ll be a remembrance vigil for RFM as well as a solidarity rally for political prisoner Xinachtli (state name Alvaro Luna Hernandez) at 12 noon at the University of Texas campus, corner stairway entry at 24th & Guadalupe Streets. This event is sponsored by Central Texas Anarchist Black Cross and “Xinachtli Defense Committee.” More info at freealvaro.net! And you can hear our past broadcast of Xinachtli talking about his case at our website.
Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito’s Hunger Strike
Solidarity actions with Alfredo Cospito’s hunger strike against confinement in 41 bis conditions in Italy continue, including the taking up of the method by anarchist prisoners Juan Sorroche Fernandez and Ivan Alocco, the arson of autos owned by subsidiaries of prison profiteers in Berlin and Leipzig, and the occupation of a crane outside the famous Opera theater in Milan, La Scala, who are today holding a rally against the 41 bis prison regime and in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners. You can learn more about Cospito and his struggle from our recent episode on the subject.
