In this midweek special, we’re sharing a recent chat with Juan of Casa Carmelita to talk about Camp O:Shad about the tree sit and defense of the landscape around Tohono O’odham land around Lochiel Arizona against a double border wall being constructed and in the run-up to the October 4th day of action that organizers are hoping to invite people to at the US-Mexico border. Alongside this, you’ll hear Jackson, an organizer with the Human Rights Coalition talking about the situation of 2020 Uprising prisoner Khalif Miller.
We hope you enjoy the interviews! This episode will also be this Sunday’s podcast, so expect to hear back from us October 11th.
First up, a long sharing of perspectives from occupied Kumeyaay [Kum-ee-aih] land, the Mexico-US border. Devi Machete from Contra Viento Y Marea in Tijuana in the Mexican state of Baja California about the history and activity of that project and journalist and activist James Stout speaks from San Diego in the US state of California about desert conditions north of the border wall. For this chat, you’ll hear third-hand accounts of border crossings, imprisonment, and deaths in border regions but also about solidarity, organizing, and resistance among those on the move as well as the communities they encounter.
After that, at roughly one hour and forty six minutes in, you’ll hear this year’s statement for the June 11th Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and long term anarchist prisoners which will include perspectives of organizers, updates in folks struggles and conditions of confinement and reflections on solidarity and insurrection. Check the show notes for a few links and the time stamps of where this section begins. [ 1:46:45 ]
Many of you have been asking for an update, so here’s where things stand.
While at Scotland Correctional Institution, Shine was helping organize political education among prisoners and speaking out about conditions and serious medical concerns inside the facility. As many already know, he had a contraband cell phone. According to Shine, that phone contained recordings and information documenting conditions inside Scotland, including prisoners begging for medical attention. Not long after, Shine and others around him were transferred and separated across different facilities.
In mid-April, Shine was transferred overnight from Scotland to Granville Correctional Institution in what he described as one of the fastest transfers he had seen in 17 years of incarceration. Upon arrival, he was immediately placed on HCON (High Security Maximum Control). Shine maintains the placement was arbitrary, requested a grievance regarding that placement, and to our knowledge has yet to receive a meaningful opportunity to challenge it. He has been on hunger strike ever since.
Over the past few weeks, many of you participated in Calls to Action, making phone calls and sending emails seeking answers about his health, communication, property, grievances, and HCON status. Those efforts led to direct conversations with Assistant Regional Director Timothy Jones, who assured us that concerns were being reviewed and investigated.
Here’s the problem.
We have now confirmed through official records that Shine was already housed at Central Prison on the same date we were being given information that appeared to place him at Granville. We still don’t know whether that means the Regional Office had outdated information, didn’t know where he was, or something else entirely. What we do know is that the answers we were given don’t line up with the timeline we can now verify.
At this point, we have no direct communication with Shine. Updates are coming through fellow comrades who have been able to get word out through prison channels.
What we know right now:
Shine remains on HCON.
Shine remains on hunger strike.
Shine is housed in Central Prison’s medical unit.
Communication remains extremely limited.
Questions about his mail, property, grievances, and classification remain unanswered.
The transfer changed the address. It did not answer the questions.
This week we are launching another Call to Action. Supporters will once again be contacting Central Prison, the Regional Office, and NC DAC leadership seeking answers and accountability.
If Shine’s status remains unchanged and these concerns continue to be ignored, we are preparing for an in-person demonstration later this week.
If the goal was to make people stop paying attention, it didn’t work.
This week, an interview we just conducted with Madeleine Wattenbarger and Axel Hernández of the Cooperativa de Periodismo in Mexico and Ambar Ruiz of Radio Zapote about the case of autonomous resistance and repression in the Mazateca community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón in Oaxaca, Mexico, so named for being the birthplace of the Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón, revolutionary Mexican anarchist who was murdered by medical neglect by the US prison system in 1922 (check out our 2022 episode on the history).
We talk about the rise to economic and political power of the family of Manuel Zepeda and his daughter Elena, their weaponization of the judiciary against community defenders resisting a hijacking in 2014 of the traditional community assembly and the years of organizing by Mazateca women whose loved ones face long prison sentences. We also speak about the case of Miguel Peralta, a Mazateca anarchist challenging his 5 decade sentence related to this case, as well as the recent murder by medical neglect while in prison of militant anarcho-punk Yorch Esquivel at the hands of the Mexican state at the behest of UNAM.
Excerpts of our translation of the MANIFESTO OF THE FEMALE SELF-DEFENSE FORCES IN SUPPORT OF FREEDOM (June 2023, translated & narrated): https://ahuehuete.substack.com/p/eloxochitlan
First up, Chicano anarchist prisoner Xinachtli (state name Alvaro Luna Hernandez) was transferred on December 23rd from a hospital in Galveston back into solitary at McConnell Unit in Texas as punishment for the call-in campaign. He’s still lacking access to an ADA-accessible bathroom and shower unit and has not had his property or commissary card returned. According to his supporters, Xinachtli is still experiencing weakness in his legs and has now been forced back into a completely inaccessible space, where he faces a serious risk of another life-threatening fall or injury.
Xinachtli’s supporters demand remains: Xinachtli must be moved out of McConnell into an ADA-accessible facility that can address his medical needs. McConnell has already proven it can’t and won’t provide adequate resources to care for Xinachtli in his current state. They are putting his life in danger.
McConnell Unit Director Angela Chevalier +1 361 362 6328
TDCJ Executive Director: +1 936 437 2101
To learn more about his case, check out our interview with Xinachtli from late 2024, or the earlier recording of him telling the story of his case.
Prisoners for Palestine Hunger Strike Continues
Four members of the Prisoners for Palestine collective, which we covered in our November 30th 2025 episode, continue their hunger strike with 3 of them at around or beyond 60 days without food as of this recording. As the situation is shifting daily, we suggest you get updates for ways to provide solidarity and the current demands of the hunger strikers at PrisonersForPalestine.org
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Presente!
Revolutionary Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, returned to the ancestors on November 23, 2025 after 25 years in federal prison. The Imam was convicted in 2002 for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy and Al-Amin continued to be incarcerated despite the video-taped confession of another man with the means and the motivation for the killing. You can find a brief writeup and further readings, right before notes about the state murder by medical neglect of Yorch in the December 10th issue of In Contempt
Stop Cop City RICO Dismissed
Judge Farmer finally decided to dismiss the RICO charges against the 61 defendants in the Stop Cop City case on the grounds that they were filed improperly. This doesn’t remove the domestic terrorism or arson charges against some remaining defendants, and the state says it will refile the RICO charges but for now that’s a little off our comrades’ plates. To learn more, check out our latest episode on the subject from October.
Jessica Reznicek In Transitional Housing
Catholic Worker and pipeline saboteur Jessica Reznicek has entered transitional housing and left prison, proper. You can read her address to the public at the ABCF website. To hear an interview on her case, check out the one linked in our shownotes.
You can write directly to Jess at:
Fresh Start Women’s Center (Women’s Residential Correctional Facility)
1917 Hickman Rd,
Des Moines, IA 50314
Northumberland 2 Has Some Charges Dismissed
Judge Rosini dismissed 11 charges total between defendants Cara and Celeste—including one count of ecoterrorism and several misdemeanors. The two friends from Massachusetts were accused of liberating hundreds of minks from a fur farm in PA that kills thousands of minks every season.
As Phily Anarchist Black Cross says:
There is a pretrial conference in February. After that will come trial.
While this is big and exciting news, the case isn’t over yet. Cara and Celeste still have many charges to fight. Trial will come with extra costs on top of the other legal fees.
A date has been set for the start of the Prairieland Defendants’ federal jury trial: February 17th! We have been told by multiple lawyers this date is very unlikely to change. The North Texas federal court circuit in Fort Worth is well know for being fast and firm with trial dates. Also, Dario Sanchez’s state trial is set for 1/12 in Johnson County. This is not a lot of time! We’re calling on supporters everywhere to do everything you can to help the defendants get the best defense possible. That means continued fundraising for expert witnesses and other trial expenses, writing letters to keep their spirits up, and raising awareness to highlight the importance of this case. If you’re able to come to DFW for the trial please do! We will have other concrete asks soon, so please stay tuned!
Letter writing info is available at: https://dfwdefendants.noblogs.org/getinvolved/
This week, we’re sharing an interview we just conducted with Madeleine Wattenbarger and Axel Hernández of the Cooperativa de Periodismo in Mexico and Ambar Ruiz of Radio Zapote about the case of autonomous resistance and repression in the Mazateca community of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón in Oaxaca, Mexico, so named for being the birthplace of the Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón, revolutionary Mexican anarchist who was murdered by medical neglect by the US prison system in 1922 (check out our 2022 episode on the history).
Transcript (lost transcript in move from NoBlogs) – pending
We talk about the rise to economic and political power of the family of Manuel Zepeda and his daughter Elena, their weaponization of the judiciary against community defenders resisting a hijacking in 2014 of the traditional community assembly and the years of organizing by Mazateca women whose loved ones face long prison sentences. We also speak about the case of Miguel Peralta, a Mazateca anarchist challenging his 5 decade sentence related to this case, as well as the recent murder by medical neglect while in prison of militant anarcho-punk Yorch Esquivel at the hands of the Mexican state at the behest of UNAM.
Excerpts of our translation of the MANIFESTO OF THE FEMALE SELF-DEFENSE FORCES IN SUPPORT OF FREEDOM (June 2023, translated & narrated): https://ahuehuete.substack.com/p/eloxochitlan
This week, I spoke with two members of No More Deaths, a 20 year old humanitarian organization operating in the borderlands between Mexico and the USA. We talked about the organization, the work it does, how the border has changed, the political legacy of the Republicans and Democrats in the current situation for immigrants, deaths at the border and ways to get involved in supporting people on the move. Here’s a chat from 2017 we did with NMD as well.
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 sharing a recent chat with Devi Machete, an anarchist involved in the Tijuana mutual aid project known as Contra Viento y Marea Comedor Comunitario which distributes clothing, medical supplies, meals and boxes of stable food throughout the week at the border with the USA. The project, known for short as El Comedor Comunitario is launching a free school and art laboratory on June 17th. For the hour, we talk about the migrant caravan in 2018 that gave rise to El Comedor Comunitario, the self-organized work around the project and resisting the dehumanization of the border through solidarity and community.
Since the US allowed the Trump-Era Title 42 Covid-based restriction on immigrants entering the country to expire and has moved back to Title 8, so in a post-script Devi talks about concerns of a surge at the border and the further difficulties this change creates for migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the north.
You can also check out our prior interview with Elements of Mutual Aid directors Leah & Payton to get some visuals of El Comedor Comunitario, which is a featured project in that docu-series.
Announcement
Phone Zap for Shine White
All power to the people,
As I’ve pointed out in my previous writings, Hepatitis C kills more Amerikans each day than HIV and sixty other infectious diseases combined, making it the deadliest infectious disease in the United States. It is a viral infection, caused by the Hepatitis C virus (“HCV”) that affects the liver and can result in serious, life-threatening complications.
On February 15 of this year blood tests revealed that I had Hepatitis C. In contrast to NCDAC’s Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the treatment of Hepatitis C, I was sent back to my cell, instead of having further blood testing done to determine my fibro-scores.
I was provided no further information, other than that I had Hepatitis C and that I would be seen by the facility’s healthcare provider at a later date. The following days were mentally exhausting.
Only after consulting with a prisoner who was receiving treatment for HCV at the time, did I become aware of the procedures that are in place for evaluating and treating prisoners who have the Hep-C virus. Before treatment can be started, additional blood testing is required to determine one’s level of fibrosis.
After becoming aware of the aforementioned, I immediately began to submit sick calls requesting the required blood testing be done to determine my Fib-4 index score. My sick calls went unanswered, only after those of you on the outside made calls to the prison on my behalf was I taken to medical to have the Fib-4 test done. The test results revealed that my Fib-4 score was 5.7, which indicates that I am at risk of cirrhosis, liver disease and/or liver cancer. However, the health care provider has yet to begin my treatment.
These scores were revealed to me on March 3, subsequently I’ve not been assessed by medical personnel since, despite submitting multiple sick-calls due to the complications I am experiencing caused by the hepatitis-c virus.
Since early March I have lost approximately 30 pounds, I have various pock-like scores on my lower legs, rashes cover my elbows and knees, and the sharp pains in my lower back and side make it difficult to sleep at night. When I inquire about my treatment, the response I receive is that it is out of their hands.
I am firmly convinced that they have no intentions of treating me. Combined with the recent continuation of my term on supermax, it’s evident that their intentions are to hold me incommunicado and hope that the hepatitis-c will do what they have been unable to do – silence me!
Having to openly admit that I am at the mercy of my overseers infuriates me. I feel helpless and I am scared. I’m witnessing what is being done to Komrade Rashid, I witnessed the late elder Maroon Shoatz languish with cancer for years, Mumia Abu-Jamal continues to suffer from complications caused by hepatitis-c, the names go on and on. I feel as if my twenty-year prison sentence has become a death sentence.
I entreat that calls be made and emails be sent on my behalf, demanding that I be treated immediately. Only if pressured by those of you on the outside will these miscreants act with professionalism.
I am deeply grateful for the support. I conclude this as I began,
Daring to struggle, daring to win
All power to the people,
Joseph “Shine White” Stewart
Below is the contact information for those who should be contacted:
NCDAC’s Deputy Secretary – Comprehensive Health Services
Gary Junker
919-838-4000
gary.junker@dac.nc.gov
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
We just passed the 100th anniversary of the murder by incarceration and hounding of Mexican Revolutionary anarchist communist Ricardo Flores Magón on 21st of November. For this hour or so, I spoke with Mitchell Cowen Verter, co-author of the 2005 AK Press book, Dreams of Freedom: A Ricardo Flores Magon Reader(also free from archive.org). We talk about RFM’s life, ideas and legacy.
Chicano anarchist communist prisoner of war Xinacthli, held by the State of Texas on some BS charges, had a support rally in Austin, Texas, on November 21st this year. There’s a link in these show notes to a recording someone passed us of him telling his story like a decade ago. You can learn more on his case at FreeAlvaro.Net.
Sean Swain’s segment on marriage starts at [ 01:15:00 – end]
Next Week…
We hope to bring you voices on labor disputes in the University systems and on the rails in the UK. If you’re subscribed to our patreon, you’ll get an early listen to Scott’s recent chat with Sophie Lewis on Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation.
This week on the show, we re-air Amar’s 2015 interview with Hilary Klein, author/editor of the book Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories, out from Seven Stories Press.
Over the hour, Hilary talks about her 7 years of living in Chiapas and recording the stories and experiences of women there, collecting stories on their behalf. The book covers the Zapatistas experiences before the EZLN uprising of 1994, during that period and after. Discussion address what gender, indigeneity and class looked like and how that’s changed in the Zapatista communities, the state of Chiapas and in Mexico. William and Hilary also explore the effects that the EZLN & La Otra Compaña have had on radicals and anarchists abroad, the origins of the EZLN, some parallels and distinctions between anarchism and Zapatismo and much more.
You’ll find a transcript of this audio available soon at our website. The book is also available for free reading on archive.org. Next week, stay tuned for another rebroadcast, with some new content coming up real soon.
SUPPORT FUND FOR NEW AFRIKAN POLITICAL PRISONER ON HOSPICE, MAUMIN KHABIR! (SN MELVIN MAYES). CURRENT GOAL IS $3K FOR ESSENTIAL MEDICINE! Maumin Khabir served a 27 year sentence behind prison walls in North Carolina for a crime he didn’t commit. Declared a terrorist by the U.S. government, Khabir was targeted by RICO laws (a draconian set of laws that target individuals opposed to U.S. ideology) and captured in 1995. Maumin turned down a plea deal that would require him to confess to crimes he did not commit. As a political prisoner, he has remained an organizer, educator, and devote Muslim while on the inside. Maumin is a citizen of the sovereign Republic of New Afrika and his secession from the United States of America is the motivating factor behind the government’s prosecution and has no criminal basis. Maumin asks the court to recognize him as a political prisoner in accordance with the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol 1.
In February, Maumin was granted compassionate release by the courts due to his severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He is now in the care of people who love him but it is still a very difficult situation. Maumin is on 24hr oxygen and can hardly move and it’s overall difficult to care for him. We are raising funds for to support Maumin’s care, to ensure it is the best it can be right now, and so his family who cares for him can give him a proper burial after he transitions. We ask you to share this link and donate what you can! We need money for medication, medical bills, and hopefully new transportation so Maumin can see loved ones and make appointments. Thank you for your support! Free The Land!
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Featured Tracks:
Politiks Kills (Prince Fatty Instrumental) by Manu Chao from Politiks Kills single
Himno Zapatista (track #20) from Antología Musical Zapatista
