Category Archives: Squatting

A-Radio Network, activism, Anarchist, Asheville, Autonomy, Capitalism, Črna Luknja, Gentrification, Greece, Housing, Hurricane Helene, Immigration, Protest, Squatting, United States

G20 Finance Track in Asheville + Prosfygika

This week’s episode features two segments.

G20 Finance Track in Asheville this month

old-timey postcard showing cityscape of Asheville, plus words "G20 Unwelcome in Asheville N.C. in the Land of the Sky", "G20AVL.NoBlogs.Org" and "TFSR 8-16-26 | G20 Finance Track in Asheville + Prosfygika"
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First up, you’ll hear Jeremy and Sea speak about the upcoming G20 Financial Track gathering of Finance Ministers and Central Bankers happening in Asheville at the end of August this year. We speak about the G20, neoliberalism, and some of the organizing happening locally. More info available at G20AVL.NoBlogs.Org

  • Transcript
  • PDF (Unimposed) – pending
  • Zine (Imposed PDF) – pending

Squatted Neighborhood of Prosfygika

Then you’ll hear a segment form the June 2026 episode #103 of B(A)D News: Angry Voices from Around The World by the A-Radio Network. In this audio, members of Crna Luknja from Ljubljana, Slovenia, speak with participants in the autonomous, squatted neighborhood of Athens, Prosfygika, a name which translates to Refugee. The audio was recorded on May 28th , so likely the situation has shifted and you can find more information and updates at SaveProsfygika.GR/index.php/en/ for English. According to a statement from June 24th found on that website, the hunger strikes of Aristotelis Chantzis and Suzon Doppagne were suspended following municipal statements in line with movement demands. Check the Materials page for statements, photos, audios and documentaries from and about the community.

Announcements

Mutual Aid in Spokane in the wake of massive fires

A comrade sent some fundraising links for mutual aid, particularly for undocumented community members and folks at the Colville Tribal Rez north of town where fire damage has been extensive. Check our show notes for links.

Asheville Anti-Surveillance Week of Action August 16-22

CAMS (Community Against Mass Surveillance) is doing a week of action against mass surveillance alongside the nationwide DeFlock week of action. Check our show notes for the local schedule of events in Asheville.

SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF ACTION:

Aug 16-22:

Sunday 8/16 – Week of Action kickoff & potluck: coalition building, info and resource sharing, and organizing for week of action and beyond, 1 to 3 pm, Home Hub Pavilion, 27 Balm Grove Ave., W AVL, rain or shine (covered outdoor space and access to indoor spaces).

**Tuesday evening 8/18 – online panel and Q&A with local and national experts, 7 – 8:30 pm.**

Friday evening 8/21 – Infoshare, Q&A, Speak Out + dance party, 6 to 10 pm, location TBD.

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Featured Track:

Read more: G20 Finance Track in Asheville + Prosfygika

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AVL G20 Transcription

Bursts: Would you care to introduce yourselves to the audience with any names, pronouns, affiliations, or locations that’d be helpful for the listeners?

C: I’m going with C. As for affiliations, I don’t know if I have any. Pronouns of she and her.

Jeremy: Hey, I’m Jeremy. My pronouns are he and they. We’re with a group of folks who got together to do some community education around the G20 when we heard that it was coming to Asheville. Speaking for myself, I knew that the G20 and these financial summits are bad, but if you’d ask me why exactly, I don’t think I could have really explained it. I wanted to try to learn as much as I could to spread that analysis to the community.

Bursts: I’m happy that we can go on this journey of discovery with you both, because I know you’ve been doing a lot of research into this. So, what even is the G20, or the G8, for that matter? What does an organization like that do, and why are anarchists and others who are interested in international solidarity, ecological issues, and class warfare concerned about groups like the G20?

Jeremy: The G20 is a summit of global financial leadership to plan global economic policy. It’s basically a meeting of elites to talk about how they’re going to exploit the working-class, maintain and expand global capitalism. It exists as a reform that came out of a crisis of legitimacy in the neoliberal global capitalist structure. You mentioned the G8. There was a formation after the end of a system called the Bretton Woods System. It was placed to limit international financial speculation, and it ended under the Nixon administration and this opened the door for international financial speculation. The G7, which is another formation that’s similar to the G20, consists of the countries with the seven largest economies, which are mainly Western. It’s Western European countries, the United States, and Japan – who made up the G7. The G8 was basically the G7 plus Russia. Russia was added after its liberalization, after the fall of the Soviet Union. Then Russia was kicked out again in 2014, and the G8 went back to being the G7. I think that anarchists, anti-authoritarians, and people who are in solidarity with working-classes all over the world pay attention to these summits because this is really where the rich plan how they’re going to set policies that are used to control populations, extract wealth, oppress the working-class people, and prevent international solidarity. I think that it is a time when we should be thinking about how we can rebuild international solidarity between working-class people to fight what these capitalists are doing.

Bursts: If the G20 is a sort of reform of the G7 or G8, and it includes countries that were former colonies, does that reform reflect a democratization of global finance or of these decisions that have an impact on such a large proportion of the world? Was this an opening of the gates to the rooms where decisions are made?

C: So it was definitely intended as a neoliberal reform to do that, but that is not the case. What it really just does is reinforce austerity measures. The G20 does encompass over 80% of the world population’s GDP as well as pollution in the world, but what they do is just try to force austerity measures on the Global South. They do this with the help of the IMFand World Bank, which are also invited to the finance ministers’ and bank governors’ summits that we’re going to see in Asheville. So it isn’t really democratic. It was trying to say that it was more democratized, but Africa is put in as just the entire continent in the African Union. There was one African country that was in it, which was South Africa. They hosted last year’s G20, but they’ve been excluded this year due to a thing that I have a Trump quote here for: “To put it more bluntly, the South African ANC are killing white people and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them.” He and Rubio have also stated that they are “sheltering Hamas sympathizers.” It is just racist rhetoric trying to make false claims about white genocide and so on. So it’s still an incredibly racist and elitist forum.

Bursts: There’s probably an element there because South Africa, as a former apartheid state, stood up and made statements to the international court and the international community more widely decrying the genocide in Gaza as well as the ongoing apartheid in Israel. Besides the white genocide claims of certain Afrikaners and the white supremacist movement, I guess that’s probably the other element of it. It seems like a lot of the wheels are being turned and strings are getting pulled still by some of the same actors that have always pulled the strings.

C: Absolutely.

Bursts: You mentioned that Asheville is going to be hosting finance ministers. Is it called the “Financial Track”? What is the upcoming event in Asheville, and why was this fair city chosen to host a gaggle of Central Bank ghouls?

Jeremy: Let me also add a clarification to the last question. When we think of the G20 as a sort of reform to the G7 system, which still exists, we have to be clear about who it was a reform for. Giving these other countries a seat at the table was not an effort to give the working-class or the people of those countries a seat at the table. In the 90s the policies set under the direction of the G7 system destroyed a bunch of economies. They created a bunch of financial crises: the Mexican Peso Crisis, they instigated the fall of the Soviet Union, as well as a follow-up crisis of the Russian financial system; and the Asian Financial Crisis. Where they screwed up caused a lot of damage to a lot of rich people all over the world. This is giving the rich people of those countries, the financial leadership of those countries, a seat at the table. That’s what the G20 is about. The G20 Finance Track is actually how it started. The original G20 summit was first held back in 1999, and it was literally held a month after the Battle of Seattle resulted in an early end to the WTO summit in Washington. The Political Leaders Summit didn’t start until 2008 under the Bush administration. This year, the Leaders Summit is happening in Miami in December. The Leaders Summit started in response to the housing bubble that was popping, and the G20 came to a consensus at that summit in 2008 to reaffirm neoliberal principles and to bail out the bankers. This, of course, resulted in the Great Recession. C, would you like to talk about why it’s being held here?

C: Yeah, I’ll try to answer that.

Jeremy: Thanks.

C: Typically, the process for choosing cities involves cities or regions volunteering or putting up offers. This did not apparently happen here, according to some people who asked the city of Asheville if they did that. They were told by the federal government, and the rationale the government gave is that it’s meant to highlight resiliency post Hurricane Helene. At the time of this announcement, I believe, and correct me if I’m wrong, the federal administration was withholding over 170 million dollars in FEMAfunds for recovery. It’s basically just them trying to say, “Look, we can choose a place that was the poster child of climate-change-caused-crisis, and say it’s not that bad.” I don’t know exactly what convinced the Asheville government to agree, other than maybe being told around the same time they got more funding for a real-time Intelligence Center, or it is perhaps related to the tourism industry. That is more in the realm of speculation, but it’s definitely coming with an increase in surveillance from the federal trend.

Bursts: So you mentioned the withholding of FEMA funding. There was a decision after Hurricane Helene, or maybe rather after the election and with the new Trump administration taking office in 2025, that FEMAwould be restructured so that redistribution of emergency aid after a natural disaster, for instance, would go through the White House and be at the discretion of the Oval Office. I wonder if that model falls in line with the model of neoliberalism that’s being promoted by the G20. And I wonder if you have the numbers or the experience that you want to speak to? How has the recovery in this region been since the storm? Is it a poster child for a success story?

Jeremy: I think that’s a good question. It’s sort of funny. Here I’m just going to read a quote from what Treasury Secretary Bessent stated. He said, “I am proud to spotlight that the United States will host the G20 Finance Ministers Summit and central bank governors in Asheville, North Carolina. The selection of historic Asheville reflects the Trump administration’s commitment to the revitalization and resilience of Western North Carolina, which continues to rebuild after the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene.” A lot of people in the community are obviously very upset by, because we got little to nothing from the federal government. The government was extremely unhelpful at every level. Everybody here knows that it was people, their neighbors, and community groups that have done the recovery. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but we still have a ton of newly unhoused people that are the result of Hurricane Helene. It hasn’t gone well by any measure, and so it’s a slap in the face to tell people that this is about Helene recovery. Though when you consider what neoliberalism is all about and what they are promoting at this summit, it is perfect for them, because it is a demonstration that these elites can come to this beautiful tourist mountain town. They can have a retreat, have a nice weekend where they can have their meetings despite the fact that they did nothing to help us. Despite the fact that there are still so many poor and working-class people who are struggling here, so many unhoused people, and they will at least, they assume, still get to have their nice vacation here.

Bursts: Yeah, and besides people being made newly homeless, there was also a destruction of a good portion of the percentage of the housing stock around western North Carolina. That in itself will increase the cost of living and the market cost of rents as well as for purchasing housing afterwards. If there are fewer houses available, the market will increase the costs. To be fair, it’s not just the Trump administration. Hurricane Helene hit during the election period, but it was still the Biden administration up until the top of the year. There were a few months left under Biden’s administration, where the recovery was super slow in the region.

Jeremy: That’s a good point. Certainly, this formation and this neoliberal ideology are bipartisan and have maintained a continuity between all the administrations of this country. I want to add a projection here from the president of the much-hated Tourism Development Authority. They say that there will be approximately 500 attendees and that it will generate 1.5 to 2 million dollars in direct spending and that this is somehow good news for people here. It’s going to be held at a luxury resort, the Grove Park Inn. Who is this going to benefit? This is going to benefit a small handful of rich people in the tourism sector. It is not going to benefit the people of the area in general.

Bursts: The term ‘neoliberalism’ was used; it gets bandied about. You’ve talked about some of the institutions globally, for example, bringing up the Bretton Woods Agreement. People may be familiar with the three organizations that really are the powerhouses of that period, which are still in existence – the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO, which acts as a court. I wonder if you could talk a bit about how what you’re saying is translating in terms of the economic impact on the local community. What are the values behind neoliberalism, and how has it played out to perform in real-world settings?

Jeremy: Yeah. It is a term that I think is widely misunderstood and can just stand in for a lot of things we don’t like, which is not a helpful way to use words. I think it can be summed up with this: there was a title of a book called Freedom for Capital, Not for People. I think that accurately sums up the political program of neoliberalism. It’s often referred to as ‘free market fundamentalism’. This is the idea that capital needs to flow, that financial speculation is a good thing, that deregulation is a good thing, that austerity measures are good for the economy, and that governments should not be spending money to help their populations. They should be spending money to support businesses. And the way that the IMF and the World Bank have played into this system is that these institutions reside in the US – the center of empire – and financial speculation has been used to create financial crises in other countries. Often, these are those who are perhaps not as open to US investment and US interests as the businesses and our capitalists in this country would like. So, first, you destroy a country’s economy and create a financial crisis, and then the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank can dangle aid money to bail out the bankers and the governments of those countries in exchange for implementing neoliberal economic policy reforms or structural adjustment reforms, which involve implementing austerity measures. It involves deregulating markets, selling off nationally held assets (oftentimes to US business interests), and making the world free for US capital.

Bursts: And the countries that are participating – it’s not like they started on an equal footing with setting up this organization and the rules that it imposes. I’ve heard people talk about ‘neo-colonialism’ as a way of describing the post-colonial, post-1950s wave of recapturing by first-world capital or Global North capital of the economies and the institutions and resources held within the industrializing or formerly colonized parts of the world. Is that a fair assessment?

Jeremy: Yeah, I think the two are very much connected.

Bursts: Could you all talk a little bit about what resistance to G20 summits has looked like historically or in recent years and what you know about what’s planned in Asheville or later this year in Miami?

C: Most of the resistance is super well documented, at least as resistance-to-summits goes. As for the Leaders’ Summit, like the one that is happening in Miami, I believe there was another Final Straw episode about this a while ago, it’s worth noting that these are National Security Special Events. They bring police and law enforcement officers and agencies in from all over the country, spearheaded by the FBI and the Secret Service. There are several larger ones where I saw the number 18,000 police flowing into town, I believe. Some large examples of resistance have been Hamburg, Germany, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Toronto, Canada, where there were mass movements against these summits. These often did manage to disrupt, not in a quite Battle of Seattle way, but in a very significant way.

All of these summits, regardless of whether they are the massive Leader Summit or the like we have here in Asheville, the Finance Track, are going to come with increased repression and surveillance. We are already seeing this in Asheville with the development of the real-time intelligence center, putting up more Flock cameras and more ALPRs. We are seeing our unhoused community get hit with more and harder charges, like enhancements for having a screwdriver on your person, making it like attempted breaking and entering. And jail’s already overcrowded. I believe that downtown patrols have doubled over the summer, and Pisgah View Apartments is now under 24/7 patrols. So we’re seeing the repression start early, and we are not really seeing a reason why it would leave after the summit does.

Jeremy: As far as resistance in Asheville goes, we have a website that I’ll promote again at the end, G20avl.noblogs.org. We’ll promote any public events that we hear about on there. The main thing that I’ve heard about so far is there’s a group that’s called the WNC Alignment Table, which is organizing a series of events in response to the summit. The WNC Alignment Tableis a group of local activists and political organizations that are working together to address issues impacting our most vulnerable communities and build collective power. They’ve got a weekend of programming for the weekend of the G20. They will be having an info session on Thursday the 20th, and then there will be some demonstrations and a press conference on Friday the 28th. On Saturday, there’s going to be some more demonstrations, and on Sunday there’s going to be a WNC Community Summit that’s specifically focused on Helene recovery, since that’s one of the stated reasons it’s being held here. They’re going to be honoring groups that actually did work to help the community during Helene and who continue to do work. This organization’s events are going to be linked on our website. If anybody wants more information, they can also go to linktr.ee/wncalignment. That’s got a bunch of resources as well as their list of events for the weekend.

Bursts: Rolling back to C, who brought up the National Special Security Events. If anyone’s interested, that show from a couple of months ago was a Christian Williams show. C, can you talk a little bit about what’s expected for the footprint of the financial summit here? I’ve heard that there is going to be an increased number of law enforcement from various agencies here. Can you talk a little bit about what is feared in terms of immigrant populations and undocumented neighbors? About the homeless sweeps that have been going on – what’s expected to continue around those? Changes in jurisdiction – I heard someone saying something about federal property? How is it going to be for those communities, or what’s expected or feared for those communities and also for non-targeted populations that live in the areas where finance ministers are going to be transiting, staying, or meeting?

C: It’s likely that the other jurisdictions will be at a very significant and still alarming number. As for our vulnerable communities, we are likely going to see a large uptick in license checks and checkpoints. We already know that Buncombe County Detention Center is a major way that WNC is transporting people into ICE detention, and this is a very big risk for our local immigrant communities. We are already starting to see an uptick in arrests of unhoused people, and we expect to see a greater uptick in sweeps of encampments and such. Basically, they want to show this as “Wow! Look how well we did cleaning up the storm.” They are going to try to make it look like the city is rich by pushing the people that they don’t like out and into detention. There is a risk for everyone that is marginalized that they will be swept away in this sense by checkpoints and encampment sweeps. These are definitely the most vulnerable populations here and the ones that can use the most community support. As for federal jurisdiction, Jeremy, do you want to talk more about that? Do you have more notes?

Jeremy: I don’t have a lot of information on this. This is something that I’ve heard from people who were trying to get more information about this event and who have been talking to city leadership, city council, and city managers. What somebody was told by the city is that the Grove Park Inn property is going to be designated as federal land. Now, what exactly that means, honestly, I’m not sure of. I can just speculate. I would imagine that it’s to give federal pigs jurisdiction over the area and to elevate consequences for anybody who is arrested for attempting to disrupt the event on the property or anything like that, but I really can’t say for sure.

Bursts: There was a list of described events that are on the Poor People’s Campaign alignment table, which is going to be linked at the noblogs for the pop-ed group. There’s the blog, but are there any ways that you could suggest that people learn more about how the policies of international institutions like the G20 impact their daily lives and organizing even outside of these local summits and the pressure that they put onto communities that host them? Jeremy, I don’t know if that video is going to be online, or we could just point to the slideshow or whatever at the website, but are there any other resources, podcasts, articles, books, or anything like that that stem from ongoing education that either of you can think of?

Jeremy: I think it’s a difficult question to answer just because it’s such a big question. The way I’ve started to think about this is that every time I was with somebody and they were reading the news and saw something horrible happening in their community related to developments in local government or whatever and asked themselves, “Why are we living in the stupidest timeline possible?” I think it almost always connects back to this stuff. This is part of a very large and long-running program to destroy our lives that goes back since the end of World War II and even before that. I guess as far as educational resources, we do have the website that I already mentioned, G20avl.noblogs.org, that we will have more educational resources on. We’re hoping to get a recording of a presentation that we are doing for the community that goes into the history of not just the G20, but neoliberalism and how it has created problems.

If people want a book to read, the book The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is a pretty good summary of how these things connect. It’s a good book to check out, and we’ll have some other books linked on the website that go into more depth and details. Another thing is to look at the resources linked on the WNC Alignment Table’s Linktree that point to the rationale given by our own political leaders for why the G20 is happening and what is on the agenda for the G20. One of the things on the agenda is building data centers. They want to make sure that countries are open for building data centers. I think at this point data centers are even less popular than ICE. Across the political spectrum, everybody hates data centers. They are destroying the environment, and why are they doing that? They are doing it for policing and surveillance technology primarily, as well as for AI infrastructure. Right now, Flock cameras as well as ALPRs and facial recognition—all of these surveillance tools—depend on this infrastructure. It’s pretty easy for people to make the connection of how this affects their daily life. There is a community group in Asheville called CAMS, Communities Against Mass Surveillance. People might want to check out that group and consider getting involved in that. I would also just suggest getting involved in organizations that are aligned with your values in your area. If you are in the Asheville area, check out Firestorm.Coop and look at their event calendar. They host a lot of great community events.

I was just skimming the G20 agenda right before we got on this call, and another thing that I didn’t notice previously on the agenda, right at the very bottom, that might seem pretty innocuous is promoting financial literacy. That’s something that in the past I might have just seen and thought nothing of really. I want to shout out the work of Dr. Jared Ball, his book The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power, as well as Black Liberation Media and I Mix What I Like. I think he’s done a lot of work to analyze how this concept of financial literacy is a really important tool for counterinsurgency. There is so much stuff on social media and the internet. Our popular culture is saturated with the notion that people need to work really hard for their money, that you’ve got to grind, and you’ve got to get a second job. It’s shown that if people are poor and struggling, it is their fault for not understanding finance. In reality, it is the fault of the elites who are organizing the G20 and who are intentionally planning to extract wealth and exploit us. That’s the reason people are poor and struggling. It’s not because people are not working hard enough. So it’s a pretty noxious thing to see on the list of things on the agenda that they’re promoting.

Bursts: C again. Any follow-up?

C: That was an awesome, comprehensive answer. Just touching on resources. The G20avl.noblogs.org does have a list of resources. I agree with everything else, especially talking about ways to plug in and getting involved with groups that align with your values; that’s so awesome. If you can’t find a group that is doing what you want, or if it’s not working for you, just go out and do it. I very much believe that a lot of these issues seem like they need a seat at the table to stop, and I think we don’t need the table at all. Do what you want. You can help your neighbors without a seat at the table, and that will make the table less relevant.

Jeremy: One thing that I might want to highlight here. You mentioned before that South Africa was dis-invited from this summit and that the stated reason is this white genocide conspiracy. I think that it’s important to note (and you may have already mentioned this) that the United States has stopped accepting refugees from any country except for white South Africans. I think it’s notable to make the connection between the economic policy that is set by this organization and mass migration. Because a lot of the migration that has been coming into the United States for decades is the direct result of this global financial policy destroying the economies of those countries. The United States destroyed the economy of Mexico in order to force them to sell communally owned land to US corporations, and this drove massive poverty in Mexico. It’s one of the reasons that the Mexican Coke that you see in the grocery store comes out of a factory in Chiapas outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, which is the highest poverty area in Mexico. The United States is destroying the economies of these countries and then trying to crack down on immigration.

C: These policies are completely “freedom for capital, not for people.” This freedom for capital creates crises, which then lead to debt and more crises, which then are capitalized on. It’s this endless cycle that ends with the upward flow of capital and people subjected to being part of an underclass because everything is taken from them due to not their decisions at all but the decisions of finance ministers. Remember, all of the people that are coming to Asheville are unelected officials. This is purely money acting for money’s sake, as close as it gets.

Bursts: One other point that I heard Jeremy refer to before the recording is the WTO protests. When the WTO protests happened, there was dialog from elements of the statist left about increasing the voices of formerly colonized countries within the framework of the WTO so as to democratize the institution. Brazil, South Africa, and India were three of the most recent hosts of G20 summits. I don’t know if you have any insights into what impact or voice those host countries have within the G20 or if they were able to make any changes in the policy. Do they have an impact? Is their voice heard? Does the voice of a country like India under Modi represent an opening of the gates or democratization of international capitalism?

Jeremy: That’s a great question and something we have a little bit of information on in our history presentation, which we’ll hopefully have online sometime soon. This is where it’s important to remember that these financial leaders, these states, they are not the people. The past three G20 summits that have been hosted in Global South countries have attempted to shift the agenda somewhat to bring in some issues that are of interest to those countries. This is why, under the Trump administration, they are trying to roll that back out. In those countries they have still done sweeps. They have done mass arrests of poor people. They have been generally repressive of their working-class populations and were very unpopular. I think the biggest organization that has consistently maintained a line against the G20 summits is the International Federation of Trade Unions, and I actually have a quote from an organizer in India in response to the G20 summit being held there. They had massive protests where they burned effigies of financial leadership, and they also had a lot of sweeps there. This quote is from a union leader in India, Sarwan Singh Pandher; he says, “We are against this summit, as the decisions taken by G20 countries have always been anti-middle-class and anti-below-the-poverty-line populations. India is a developing country, and so efforts are always made to exploit its labor and natural resources by imposing pro-corporate policies.”

Anarchist, Capitalism, Feminism, Gentrification, Greece, Housing, Police, Political Prisoner, Protest, Squatting, Transcribed, zine

Fighting Back Against Displacement In Greece

Fighting Back Against Displacement In Greece

Drawing of a turtle with a park on its shell, with text in Greek "Ο λόφος του Στρέφη ελεύθερος θα μείνει!" translating to "Strefi Hill will stay Free!" in English
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This week, we spoke with Alex, an anarchist squatter in the Athenian neighborhood of Exarchia. They talk about repression by the New Democracy party, struggles against green washing wind turbines around rural Greece, the fires raging through the country, resistance to rape culture, fighting against the building of a metro station in Exarchia and the privatization of public spaces like Strefi Hill, police presence at Universities, anarcho-tourism and the hunger strike of anarchist prisoner Giannis Michialidas.

Links:

Continue reading Fighting Back Against Displacement In Greece →

activism, AK Press, Author, Autonomy, Rebroadcast, Squatting

NIne Tenths of the Law: Hannah Dobbz on US Squatting (2013)

NIne Tenths of the Law: Hannah Dobbz on US Squatting (2013)

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This week on the podcast, we’re sharing an interview that I did with Hannah Dobbz, author of “Nine-Tenths of the Law: Property and Resistance in the United States”, published by AK Press. This interview originally aired on March 31st, 2013.

From the original post:

“Hannah was also the creator of the documentary “Shelter: A Squatumentary”. We talk about squatting in the U.S., homesteading, market values, views on squat resistance in other countries from the U.S. and more. The latter half of the show features a musical selection from the metal and gothy end of the spectrum.”

More info on the book can be found at PropertyAndResistance.wordpress.com.

community, General, Gentrification, harm reduction, Housing, Minneapolis, Squatting, Transcribed, zine

Hotel Sanctuary in MPLS

Hotel Sanctuary in MPLS

modified image of the Sheraton hotel that was taken over and used as shelter in Minneapolis
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This week we got to connect with Rosemary, who is an organizer in Minneapolis, about the liberation of a former Sheraton Hotel in that city and its slow but steady transformation into something that is becoming so much more than a housing cooperative. They speak about how this resocialization came to happen, some of the circumstances involved, about how this is a very deep collaboration between un-housed folks in Minneapolis and people involved in doing care work, the power of George Floyd who was profoundly involved in doing that same kind of care work with un-housed people, and many many more topics. Check out their new website up at SanctuaryHotel.org and their fundraiser at GoFundMe.com/f/SanctuaryHotel

In this episode, you’ll also hear a statement by anarchist prisoners, Comrade Malik and Sean Swain.  We invite you to stay tuned for mid-week as we release a podcast special for the June 11th day of solidarity with Marius Mason and longterm anarchist prisoners. We hope to feature the voice of a longtime supporter of Marius with updates on his case, and that of anarchist prisoner, anon hacker and Federal Grand Jury resistor, Jeremy Hammond. More about June 11th on June11.org.

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Further resources from Rosemary:

Sharing from the Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel FedBook page, hoping a website and crowdfunding link will be up soon so stay tuned!
Greetings community. We hope this long post finds you as safe and well as is possible during a righteous uprising. We wanted to provide you some updates and opportunities to plug in.
The Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel is a community-led sanctuary space for over 200 displaced and homeless people who needed safety from the military occupation that occurred following the murder of George Floyd. We center values of autonomy, harm reduction, community care, mutual aid, and abolition.
1. First! This page, started as a space to boost all kinds of different work related to COVID, homelessness, and community care, is transitioning to become the Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel Facebook page. Look for changing name and photos shortly!
2. We are overwhelmed with support. This is a good problem to have but we’ve had to rapidly scale up our infrastructure to meet the needs. Here are some ways to plug in:
> If you are media with interview or press release requests, please email: sanctuaryhotelmedia@gmail.com
> If you are a restaurant, catering company, or are interested in providing hot meals, please contact Kimberly at 612-203-2779
> If you are a new volunteer looking to get connected or are a previous volunteer with a special skill set we don’t know about, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScy9VNQ1Xnamf6pUC-kphgXrnI3OwakUucW4YAfYNVz7o5cBg/viewform
3. A few boundaries to set for resident safety, capacity, and COVID reasons:
> Please DO NOT show up at the sanctuary hotel if you are not signed up to work a shift.
> Please NO MORE *non-perishable food* donations.
> Please DO wear a mask when on-site
Please continue to watch this space for more updates as we continue to learn and grow in the work of building a sanctuary.

. … . ..

Vigil For Fallen Comrades 6/7/2020 everywhere

From anarchist BIPOC & accomplices: Since the George Floyd rebellions began on May 26 2020, following his horrific murder by police, at least a dozen more lives have been taken by state and vigilante violence in the struggle for Black freedom. We wish to honor them by making space to say their names, commemorate their lives, and celebrate our own resistance. By acknowledging the risk we all take when we move into the streets, we remember the martyred and continue to fight for the living.

Calling for vigils everywhere, Sunday 6/7 at sundown.

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Featured Track:

Continue reading Hotel Sanctuary in MPLS →

Autonomy, Chicago, community, Disaster Relief, Hacking, Health, Housing, Squatting, Technology, United States

Doing For Selves: Open Source Supplies and Tenant Organizing

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Doing For Selves: Open Source Supplies and Tenant Organizing

3d printed n95-quality face mask
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Welcome to a podcast special from The Final Straw. While William is was busy producing an episode featuring voices of medical professionals and activists inside and out of prison to talk about the impacts of covid-19 on incarcerated people for broadcast, I had a couple of conversations about work folks are doing on the outside that I’d like to share.

Sean Swain [00:08:06-00:15:12]

Hacking To Fight Covid-19

[00:15:12-00:33:01]

First, I spoke with Bill Slavin of Indie Lab, space in Virginia that is in the process of shifting it’s purpose since the epidemic became apparent from an broader scientific and educational maker space to work on the manufacturing and distribution of covid-19 related items in need such as testing kits, medical grade oxygen, ventilators and 3d printed n95 quality masks for medical professionals to fill public health needs. Bill talks generally about the ways that community and scientists can come together through mutual aid to deal with this crisis left by the inaction of the government on so many levels. They are also crowd-sourcing fundraising for scaling up their production and facilities and there’s a link in our show notes on that. The platform that Bill talks about in the chat is known as Just One Giant Lab, or JOGL. Consider this an invitation for makers to get involved.

Organizing With Your Neighbors For Homes and Dignity

[00:35:08-01:45:44]

Then, I talked to Julian of Tenants United of Hyde Park and Woodlawn in Chicago. What with all of the talk about rent strikes in the face of such huge leaps in unemployment during the spread of covid-19 and accompanying economic collapse, I thought it’d be helpful to have this chat to help spur on these conversations of how we seize power back into our hands while we’re being strangled by quarantine and hopefully afterwards. You can learn more about the group Julian works with at TenantsUnitedHPWL.Org. Philadelphia Tenants Union and Los Angeles Tenants Union were both mentioned and will be linked in the show notes, alongside a reminder that the national Autonomous Tenants Union Network (ATUN) is being organized and folks can reach out to Philly TU or LA TU via email to get onto their organizing zoom calls. Finally, if you’re in the Chicago area and need a lawyer for housing, check out Lawyers Committee For Better Housing online at lcbh.org. Julian also mentioned squatting of homes in southern CA owned by the state, here’s a link to an article.

Announcements

WNC Mutual Aid Projects

Linked in our show notes is also a googledoc that Cindy Milstein and others are helping to keep updated that lists many mutual aid projects that have sprung up all over concerning the exacerbation of capitalism by the covid-19 crisis, as well as a similar page up from ItsGoingDown.Org

If you’re in so-called Western NC and want to get involved, the project Asheville Survival Project has a presence on fedbook and is soliciting donations of food and sanitary goods for distribution to indigent, bipoc, elder and immune compromised folks in the community. We’ll link some social media posts on the subject that list our donation sites around Asheville in the show notes and you can venmo donations to @AVLsurvival.

If you care to contribute to efforts in Boone, NC, you can follow the instagram presence for @boonecommunityrelief or join the fedbook group by the same name, reach them via email at boonecommunityrelief@protonmail.com find donation sites and venmo donations can happen up at via venmo at @Bkeeves.

NC Prisons Covid-19 Phone Zap

Flyer about call-in to NC prisonsAnd check our show notes for an invitation to call the NC Department of Public Safety and Governor’s offices to demand the release of NC prisoners susceptible to infection and possible death of Corona Virus in the NC system due to improper care. Wherever you are listening, consider getting together with others and calling jails, prison agencies and the executive branches to demand similarly the release of AT THE VERY LEAST the aged, infirm, folks in pre-trial detention, upcoming release or who are held because they can’t pay bail.

North Carolina Corrections Department-Prison Division

(919) 838-4000

North Carolina Governors Office

919-814-2000

https://governor.nc.gov/contact/contact-governor-cooper

sample script:

My name is ________, and I am a North Carolina resident  deeply concerned about the safety of the states’s incarcerated people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Incarcerated people have a unique vulnerability to disease due to their crowded, unsanitary living conditions and lack of access to adequate medical care. For humanitarian reasons as well as reasons of public health, we call for the immediate release of all people in the North Carolina prison system. We also urge that you stop the intake of new prisoners during the pandemic. The cost of failing to take these steps will be paid for in human lives, and we refuse to abandon our neighbors and loved ones to die in lockup.

CALL AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN

stay tuned to the twitter accounts for @NCResists and @EmptyCagesColl for updates

10th Anniversary

Even while the world burns, our 10th anniversary still approaches and we’re still soliciting messages from you, our listenership. Not sure what to say, likely you have a LOT of time on your hands, so go back through our archives and dive in. If you want a deep dive, visit our website where you can find hundreds of hours of interviews and music. If you want to drop us a line, check out the link in the show notes, or you can leave a voicemail or signal voice memo at +18285710161, you can share an audio file with the google drive associated with the email thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net or send a link to a cloud stored audio filed to that email address. Tell us and listeners what you’ve appreciated and or where you’d like us to go with this project.

Spreading TFS

If you appreciate the work that we do here at TFS, you can also help us out by making a donation if you have extra cash rustling around. The link on our site called Donate/Merch will show you tons of ways. If, like most of us, money is super tight at the moment, no prob, we struggle together. You can share our show with other folks to get these voices out there and more folks in the conversation. And if you REALLY like us and have a community radio station nearby who you’d be excited to have us air on for free, get in touch with us and we’ll help. The page on our site entitled Radio Broadcasting has lots of info for radio stations and how to let them know you want us on the airwaves. Thanks!

. … . ..

Featured music:

  • From Monument To Masses – Sharpshooter – The Impossible Leap In One Hundred Simple Steps
  • Filastine – Quémalo Ya (instrumental) – Quémalo Ya
  • Etta James – I Don’t Stand A Ghost of a Chance (With You) – Mystery Lady: The Songs of Billie Holiday
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

activism, Anarchist, Antifa, Autonomia, Belgrade, Czech Republic, Education, Feminism, gender, General, Immigration, Music, Operation Fenix, Racism, Sean Swain, Serbia, Squatting, Student

An interview with a member of Koko Lepo – an autonomous youth collective in Belgrade -, an update on AntiFenix, and words from Sean Swain

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Koko Lepo – Belgrade, Serbia

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This week we feature an interview with Freddy, who is a member of the autonomous youth collective in Belgrade, Serbia known as Koko Lepo. We speak about the origins of the collective as growing out of a self organized kindergarten primarily for Roma children, about solidarity between anarchists and Roma people in Belgrade, about some history of the region, and about the complex nature of solidarity itself.

It should be mentioned though, that due to a very unfortunate technical error, we lost the final 13 or so minutes of this interview, many apologies both to you – dear listeners – and to our guest. Just to give you a broad picture of what we talked about, we touched a bit more on the complex nature of actual solidarity, and made the point that sometimes so called “real” solidarity can look somewhat ordinary or boring. We also spoke more about the tour that Freddy just concluded with a stop in Asheville, and about challenges that the various audiences brought to the talks he did, in particular the question of race, racism, and ally complexes. Our guest brought up the point that there have been various conversations about this topic in the US that have not happened – or have not happened in the same way – as they have in Belgrade. He was particularly excited to engage with American audiences about this issue, and said a lot of really cool and poignant things which we are unfortunately unable to share with you. Though if you would like to write to this project you can email them at kokolepo(aat)riseup.net and get in touch with them on facebook by searching kokolepoav

However, all of this perhaps gives us the opportunity to share more in depth than we may originally have been able some of the musical projects that our guest recommended. It also bears mentioning that mutual aid in the form of money donations most often happen for this project in the form of music shows, punk, metal, hardcore, or other varieties. If you feel so moved to, please feel free to make a solidarity show in your town!

The first project we’ll share is a Roma language hip hop project called Lord Kastro with Djelem Djelem. The next is a track from a hardcore project called Katma, the singer of which is one of the co-founders of the original kindergarten. The third is another track from Gipsy Mafia (an antifa Roma hip hop group, a track from which opened up the show as well) with “Ava Kari”.

Announcements

Operation Fénix

Here is an update from comrades in Czech Republic:

On Friday 5-27-2016 in Pankrác remand prison anarchist Martin Ignacák accused of terrorism went on hunger strike. He did this because on 4-29-2016 the City court in Prague ruled in favour of his release from remand and the state’s attorney appealed this decision to the High court in Prague. On friday 5-27-2016 the High court in Prague extended the remand. Therefore the anarchist has decided to protest by going on hunger strike and has stopped taking in nutrition and liquids. This type of hunger strike threatens the life of the hunger striker after a week.

During the year long investigation of the preparation of a supposed terrorist attack the imprisoned anarchist has exhausted all legal options, to achieve objective procedure of the respective organs active in the criminal proceedings. None of them were taken into account. This is why he now chose this radical form of expression, to draw attention to this manipulated police case. “I consider the approach of the investigators and the police to be very problematic, it is a threat to the freedom of every human being, a threat to freedom of speech, a threat to activism that tries to lead to a better world , and this doesn’t just involve anarchists.”

Martin has been prosecuted in the so called Fénix case since April 2015, in which 5 people altogether were accused of the preparation and the failure to notify of a terrorist attack on a train. Martin is the only one who has been in remand prison this whole time and his detention has now been extended after the intervention of the state’s attorney. As a reason for the extension of remand the state’s attorney used the testimony of a police agent who infiltrated the anarchist movement in 2014. From his testimony the state’s attorney drew the conclusion that Martin might attempt to escape to Spain. Another reason, according to him, was that Martin “is connected to the so called Sít revolucních bunek/ The Network of Revolutionary Cells (SRB) and therefore also to similar organizations abroad.” The police spoke about SRB when they began Fénix and provided information to the media.” Any connections between the 5 attacks ascribed to SRB and all the detained and accused have been refuted. The investigators themselves have ruled it out” says Martin.

At the moment Martin is the second longest detained prisoner in the Pankrác remand prison. For 13 months he has been living there under conditions that negatively affect his psychological and physical state. For example he has been refused food free of animal products, which means he practically doesn’t have access to hot food. Friends, who have come to visit him have been mentioned by name in the indictment. Police from the Department for combating organized crime have started to collect information on Martin’s sister, only because she tries to support her brother in whichever way she can.

For Martin parole would mean that after 13 long months he would again see his friends, family, nature, that he wouldn’t be exposed to emotional deprivation and physical hardship.

Update Sunday, May 29th: Martin’s sister Pavla B. joined her brother in the protest and this morning she has started hunger strike herself as well.

For more information follow https://antifenix.noblogs.org/

Our past interviews on AntiFenix can be found here: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/?s=antifenix

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playlist

A-Radio Berlin, activism, Africa, Antifa, Autonomia, Colonization, European Union, Feminism, gender, General, Germany, History, Immigration, Middle East, Nazis, Neoliberalism, Racism, repression, Slovenia, Squatting, Sudan, Turkey

2 views on migrant struggle in Germany + the E.U.

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Migrant Movements in E.U.

http://oplatz.net/
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In this hour we’ll be hearing two perspectives on migrant struggles in the EU, Germany in particular, dating back to roughly 2012. The first we’ll hear is Adam Bahar. Adam is an immigrant from Sudan who currently works on emergency phone networks connecting Coast Guards with migrants cross the sea in distress. In the second, we hear from Adams interviewer, a Berlin-based German-born no-border activist about their experiences. We tried to cut overlapping information to decrease redundancy but there will be a little overlap in order to make space for both differing experiences expressed.

In this first interview Adam Bahar talks about his participation in migrant struggles, including taking part in the public migrant march in 2012 from Wurzburg to Berlin, the tent occupation of Oranienplatz in Berlin by 150 migrants for a year and a half followed by the squatting of an empty school building. In German, the word Lager is used as a storage place, also used for the camps or shelters where asylum seeking refugees are kept isolated from the rest of the German population. Another word that may be difficult for listeners to understand is Adams phrasing of Guardsea, comparable to Coast Guard. Adam also talks about the cooperation between corrupt African governments and the German government either in their business of dictatorship or the deportation of Africans back to their continent of origin.

For the rest of the hour we’ll be hearing part of an interview conducted by myself and William with the activist who held the conversation with Adam in the first half hour. Here, our German friend talks a little more about the occupation of Oranienplatz from 2012-2014 in Kreutzberg, Berlin and more generally we discuss the Shengen Zone for the understanding of non-regional audience members. Later, they speak about their understanding of border situations in the Balkans as they’ve been closing down and thoughts about relationships between richer countries and the intolerable situations in the poorer nations from whence come many of the refugees.

Thanks to our buddies affiliated with Anarchistisches Radio Berlin for helping us out with setting up these recordings. More content from them at http://aradio.blogsport.de

Announcements

Prison Resistance Updates

First, a couple of announcements. Here’s a wrap up of prisoner resistance activities this week around the U.S., followed by a few specific prisoner updates.

Momentum is growing behind the bars. After two intense rebellions in four days at Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama last month things have really heated up. Prisoners in Texas called for and initiated a state wide series of work strikes on April 4th, the Free Alabama Movement announced a shutdown of ADOC for the month of May and prisoners across the country announced and called for a nationally coordinated strike and protest this September.

Reports from Texas prisoners are still coming in, but at least 7 facilities participated enough to get locked down by prison authorities. There have been a lot of threats and harassment by staff reported, but no specific reprisals or people targeted as leaders, yet.

On Saturday, April 9th outside supporters gathered for solidarity events across the country, including, Austin, Houston, Phoenix, the Bronx, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Providence, Denver, Tucson, Minneapolis and Fayetteville Arkansas, as well as a protest at Holman prison in Alabama by the Mothers and Families of the Free Alabama Movement.

These events were either protests at corporations that profit from prison slavery, or workshops and planning sessions about prison slavery and supporting the growing wave of prisoner resistance. Supporters hope to see this tide continue to rise leading up to the September 9th work-stoppage, since attention from the outside is essential to protect striking or otherwise rebellious prisoners from violent reprisals.

The Incarcerated Worker’s Organizing Committee of the IWW is heavily involved in support efforts. You can keep up to date by following their website at http://IWOC.noblogs.org or by monitoring and signing up for the email list at http://SupportPrisonerResistance.net.

on twitter:
#SupportPrisonerResistance
#EyesOnTexas

Alvaro Luna Hernandez (Xinachtli)

Supporters of Alvaro Luna Hernandez sent this message:

“Alvaro is in dire need of immediate, practical solidarity from all who support his emancipation from unjust incarceration and cruel punishment.

Alvaro’s Recent Hardship
In these past few weeks it has come to our attention that Alvaro is enduring multiple forms of inadequate and cruel treatment by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).

He is in need of dire medical attention; the TDCJ has placed him in more inhospitable holding conditions; the TDCJ has confiscated and stolen from him; the TDCJ has limited his mail correspondence; and when in transport to Lubbock, TX, the TDCJ transported him with—what you will certainly agree is—little to no regard for his health or comfort.”

Therefore, Alvaro’s supporters are urging you to email or call relevant TDCJ authorities by Thursday, April 14th, 2016 (at midnight) to protest these conditions and demand immediate improvements. More information at http://FreeAlvaro.net

Playlist

activism, Anarchist, Capitalism, Da Bay, General, History, Housing, Occupy, Race, Squatting

Foreclosure Defense Group: Brooke’s reflections on strategy + organizing around Occupy Oakland

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Foreclosure Defense Group

https://foreclosuredefensegroup.wordpress.com/
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This week we feature an interview conducted by an Audio Cadre of ours on the West coast with Brooke, an anarchist who participated in the Foreclosure Defense Group that sprang from Occupy Oakland in March of 2012. During the hour, they speak about the history of that group, it’s strengths and weakness and lessons around cross-race and cross-class organizing around displacement in Oakland based on some of the models worked out by SolNet, the Seattle Solidarity Network. For an extended version of the conversation, check out the podcast version of the show.

If you’re in Asheville on Friday, December 18th, there will be a free event you can check out at Firestorm Books and Coffee at 8pm. From the description:

“The ZAD is a large scale land occupation near Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France. It was squatted in 2009 at the invitation of local citizen and farming associations, who had been resisting the imposition of an airport, highway, high speed train, and tram line since 1972. Since then, the anti-airport movement has depassed traditional limitations of “issue-based struggles” with a strong critique of capitalist and hierarchical systems (including and especially the State), and links and shared projects with a wide diversity of people, to the point where the divisions between squatter, farmer, local, have become blurred.

After a massive police operation in 2012, “Operation Cesar”, the zone of 8 miles square has been free of State intervention, and has become known as a “zone outside the law”. Zadistas have created our own infrastructures and are autonomous in many ways. Some things work less well, like conflict resolution, but overall the occupation is settled into the territory and is planning for the long term, together with the “locals” and “farmers” involved in the struggle and those living close by. At the moment, however, the French prime minister is threatening to evict the ZAD and begin work on the airport early 2016. Ironically, they are waiting until just after the COP 21 in Paris (while billing the airport as “good for the environment”).”

Playlist

activism, Anarchist, Antifa, California, Olympia, PNW, Police, Racism, Squatting, Student, Transcribed

Che Café still stands and Confrontations with Nazis in Olympia, WA

http://thechecafe.blogspot.com/
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This week we have three segments for the audience.

First, we bring you segment from Sean Swain, an anarchist prisoner in the Ohio prison system. You won’t be hearing Sean’s voice on this recording despite Sean having his communication reinstated. The segment is about calls by members and supporters of the Free Alabama & Mississippi Movement of incarcerated workers for a boycott of McDonalds due to some of their exploitation of prison labor. More on FAMM can be found at https://freealabamamovement.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/f-a-m-s-step-3-mcdonalds-initiative-s-to-p-the-school-to-prison-pipeline/

Next, William spoke with folks involved in the struggle to save the Che Café, a social space present on the University of California in San Diegos La Jolla campus. The Che Café is a 25 year running co-op space and venue that is now in danger of eviction by the University and is currently squatting their location. Check out the website for The Che Café http://thechecafe.blogspot.com. What you’ll hear is an anonymized version of the conversation for the safety of those in struggle with the campus. Thanks to the folks at the Ex-Worker for putting us in contact with the folks at the Café. You can find the text from William’s conversation later in this post.

Finally, Bursts & William spoke with an anarchist resident of Olympia, Washington about the shooting of Bryson Chaplin & Andre Thompson, two unarmed young Black men by Officer Ryan Donald of the Olympia PD and some events that followed. Chaplin & Thompson, in two incidents on the night of the 20th of May, shot and seriously injured the men for allegedly trying to steal beer from a convenience store. The men were shot in the back, Bryson Chaplin being left paralyzed from the waist down. Over the next few days, rallies took place under the monicer of Black Lives Matter with hundreds entering the streets of Olympia. In response pro-cop rallies under the name of Blue Lives Matter (not a pro-smurf movement, sadly), in small numbers, countered the anti-murder demonstrations. As time went on, White Supremacists became more visible in attendance, which the police tried to distance themselves officially from. As more White Supremacists, some openly carrying guns, attended these events an Anti-Fascist march was called for.

This escalated into the night of May 30th when police held back their presence and the anti-fascist march collided with the White Supremacists, including armed Citizens Patrols Militia members, Neo Nazis, and Third Positionists. As conflict ensued, the racists were chased from the streets of Olympia for the night and their manifestation has been resisted by Anti-Fa patrols. We spend a good portion of the hour talking about police power, institutional White Supremacy, anti-fascist organizing and some of the potential pitfalls of de-centering struggle away from a critique of institutional power and towards the fringe reactionaries.

Related-ly, there has been a call-out for folks to engage in the July 25th 2015 International Day of Solidarity with Antifascist Prisoners. From the call-out:

“Antifascists fight against those who—in the government or in the streets—dream of imposing their fascist and other Far Right nationalist nightmares on the rest of us. Throughout the world, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and racist bigotries are on the rise. Antifas are on the frontline in confronting these reactionary politics, and we will not forget our comrades imprisoned in the course of this struggle.”

More can be found at nycantifa.wordpress.com

Also, to relate this to local issues to Asheville North Carolina, well-known character from the so-called National Youth Front, Daxter Reed has been attempting to recruit at our local community college, ABTech as well as around town and in the punk and metal scene. The goofball even tried to show up at the May Day rally holding a sign for NYF and was summarily run off. It should be made apparent that these nazis and their foolish antics are not welcome here.

First, though, The Final Straw is soliciting folks in the audience with design skills to submit sticker and poster designs to us. We’re hoping these stickers and posters can make their way out to bookfairs, conventions, manifestations and the walls and un-smashed windows of the world, widening our audience and spreading some audio-anarchy further. We’re looking for the designs to include the show name, our website at thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org and either imagery or words pointing to the nature of the show. If you have a design, you can send a mockup or completed version to thefinalstrawradio(at)riseup(doot)net in pdf format. Designers of chosen images will receive some free swag from the Anarchyland.

Playlist

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Continue reading Che Café still stands and Confrontations with Nazis in Olympia, WA →