Free City Radio

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from Mamy Rakotondrainibe of the Collectif Tany pour la défense des terres malgaches who speaks on opposing corporate land grabbing in Madagascar. Essentially this is the coercive practice of collaborations between the government of Madagascar and international corporations who collude to displace peasant communities in Madagascar from their ancestral lan...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from radio host, author and community media activist Sonali Kolhatkar who speaks on the power of social movements to shift social, political and cultural narratives. Sonali speaks about this in relation to migrant justice movements and also in regards to challenging the dehumanization of the Palestinian people that is taking place within the context of th...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from Indigenous climate justice activist Nichole Keway Biber who speaks on the urgency of halting Line 5 pipeline that is owned and operated by Enbridge corporation. The pipeline pipes tarsands oil from Alberta across many Indigenous nations. Nichole is a Clean Water Action organizer in Michigan and Little Traverse Bay Bands (LTBB ) of Odawa tribal citize...

PALESTINE FOREVER Radio AlHara broadcast, Nov. 30, 2023 Accompanying original graphics is by the wonderful Valantina Gonzo. This radio broadcast includes sounds from protests around the world to support Palestinian freedom that have taken place over the last month. Also this broadcast includes interviews with artists focused on Palestine, including Palestinian artists in the diaspora and other awe...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from filmmaker Reem Al Ghazi on the project Becoming Iphigenia and incredible initiative in Germany that seeks to tell the stories of Syrian women refugees. The film is described this way: "Becoming Iphigenia is a feature-length creative documentary. The film follows the story of nine young Syrian women who have fled to Germany to escape the war and, for...

VOICES FOR PALESTINE Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023 1-7pm, Palestine time Live on @radioalhara https://www.radioalhara.net Outline of broadcast contributions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16alctO9dikFeeqp-ZPCzHcUYJcJ9BX_cSr9HujWceYY/edit?usp=sharing A global broadcast of solidarity aiming to highlight voices from around the world expressing their support, solidarity and love for the Palestinian peo...

An interview with Jiska Bours from Extinction Rebellion in the Netherlands speaking against state subsidies to fossil fuel industries. This interview focuses on a series of protests that took place in 2023 which blocked a major autoroute in the country to call on the Dutch government to cut subsidies for fossil fuel industries and also the airline industry, for which The Netherlands is a major glo...

LOVE FOR PALESTINE NOVEMBER 15, 2023 2pm-2am, Palestine time #LoveForPalestine A broadcast marking Palestinian Independence Day Live in Bethlehem on : https://www.radioalhara.net The accompanying graphic is by Susanna Gonzo. View the full playlist for this broadcast here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R7jDVEzLWUeexD_2YfNBiMMqfzicH9lp26C9qIp7CmU/edit?usp=sharing A global radio broadcast to ex...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from Andrea Alvarez Bermejo of Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos (The Experimental Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments), a musical project based in La Paz, Bolivia. This initiative creates a contemporary context of engagement with Indigenous musical culture that connects histories of Indigenous instrumentation with contemporary struggles in th...

On the latest edition of Free City Radio we hear from journalist and author Dawn Marie Paley on a recently released independent media project Ojalá which "is a digital weekly dedicated to journalism and analysis that aims to create a common sense of dissidence." The focus of this project is grassroots social movements in Latin America with a particular focus on Feminist movements, you can learn mo...

An interview with Tauno Bilsted recorded in NYC in August 2023 that took place at the Umbrella House, a formally squatted building that is now a home for artists, community activists and workers in the East Village in Manhattan. In this interview we speak about "The Anatomist's Tale" published by Lanternfish Press, this is a write up: Glorious Marshalsea! The cells here—slick with algae and vomit,...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from Kristin Schwartz a co-author of the book "We Go Where They Go, The Story of Anti-Racist Action." Also we hear from comic artist and activist Gord Hill who wrote the introduction. This conversation looks at the critically important work that local activists undertook at a grassroots level in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s to organize the Anti...

On this edition of Free City Radio community organizer Bita Eslami speaks about organizing with garment workers for just compensation in Montreal in the context of Lamour Inc., a Montreal based garment sector company, outsourcing jobs textile industry jobs to the global south between 2006-2008. Info on the series here: deindustrialization.org/voices-of-the-iwc Accompanying photo by Tatiana Gomez....

On Free City Radio edition 184 we continue with our series of interviews focusing on the organizing work of the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal to support garment sector workers facing the outsourcing of their work to the global south. In this context the interviews look at a specific company, Lamour Inc., who between 2006-2008 was outsourcing jobs to contexts where workers could be paid less...

This conversation with journalist Jesse Rosenfeld, based in Ramallah, Palestine, was recorded before the October 2023 events taking place in Gaza. I am sharing this conversation because it provides insightful critiques and ideas about the limits to the Israeli protest movement. Jesse speaks to the fact that very rarely is the reported 'political divide' in Israel over the past year related to dive...

An interview with artist and activist Helena Martin Franco. In this exchange Helena speaks about the process and the ideas behind the show Freehand Absence/Ausencia a mano alzada that showed in summer 2023 at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art. This show explores the silences in Helena's family past but also the ways that silences surrounding injustices, particularly relating to gender based...

On this edition of Free City Radio we continue with the series of interviews focused on the organizing work of the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal to support garment sector workers who were facing the outsourcing of their work to the global south. In this context the interviews look at a specific company, Lamour Inc., who between 2006-2008 was outsourcing jobs to contexts where workers could...

Listen to a conversation with Joey Calugay at the Immigrant Workers Centre on activism to support garment workers at Lamour. This was a grassroots campaign that built solidarity with and among Lamour garment sector workers in Montreal's garment sector district along Chabanel. The campaign used creative tactics including street theatre, pickets and grassroots media coverage to bring attention to th...

A joint mix for Radio AlHara worked on with Lucas Huang (Hsien). Accompanying illustration by Sahar Kubba (https://atelierjamad.ca). Tracks (Artist name / track name) 01. Reza Yazdanpanah - Improvisation In Dashti 02. Big Brave - Half Breed 03. Elizabeth Colour Wheel - Life Of A Flower 04. Mali Obomsawin - Lineage 05. Sister Ray - Justice 06. Joyful Joyful - Oh Jubilation 07. Markus Floats - Movin...

I selected a bunch of tracks live at The Lot Radio in Brooklyn on August 13, 2023. For this mix I highlighted artists who have supported the Musicians for Palestine appeal, reflected here in the remix of The Lot Radio graphic. Thank you for listening. - Stefan.

A joint mix for Radio AlHara that is a collaboration between Stefan Christoff and Irish artists Kate O’Shea and Ciaran Smyth. The first six tracks were shared in the context of Kate and Ciaran's Mentorship Song Cycle project that is part of the project. Stefan selected the additional tracks. Information about the project here: https://www.create-ireland.ie/publication/gravity-express-1 Accompanyin...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from human rights attorney Shayana Kadidal who works with the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York City. Shayana speaks specifically about the persisting injustice of those detained without charge at Guantanamo Bay until today. Since the first months after 9/11 the Centre for Constitutional Rights has been on the legal frontlines of supporting the...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear the second part of a panel discussion hosted at Concordia University in early 2023 that focuses on the the role of artists during the 2012 student strike in 2012. This program focuses on the ways that arts students and more broadly cultural workers were an essential part of the major strike movement against attempts by the Quebec government to boost unive...

On this edition of Free City Radio I am featuring audio from a live panel at Concordia University that took place in early 2023. This panel, hosted by the Social Justice Centre at Concordia, focused on the ways that artists played and important role in creating the political atmosphere and protest culture that shaped the 2012 student strike in Quebec an important moment within the history of grass...

On this edition of Free City Radio we hear from Jared Ball an author, activist and professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore. This year Jared authored the book "The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power," that looks at the persisting racial wealth gap and the myth of black buying power, the rhetoric around this myth, and the contextualization. In this interview we speak about the ways...