From Embers

Conversation with two organizers from Anti-Police Power Surrey (APPS), a grassroots organization committed to building collective resistance to police and the systems of power and domination they uphold: capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. They are active on the unceded, stolen territories of the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt, and Kwikwetlem nations, occupied...

A conversation with an anarchist who was around during the height of the 2010 anti-Olympics resistance in Vancouver. We talk about the impact the Olympics has had on the social climate, the surveillance experienced by anarchists and other organizers, and the infamous Heart Attack demo that tore up the city's downtown core.

An interview with a now Bogota-based member of Projet Accompagnement Solidarit é Colombie , a Quebec-based collective that works to build direct solidarity with Colombian communities, organizations and social movements. Topics include: - the meaning of internationalism and why and how we frame our struggles in an international context. - what North-South solidarity looks like. - political violence...

An interview with author, farmer and organizer Aric McBay about his new book Full Spectrum Resistance . We talk about building effective movements, his departure from Deep Green Resistance, dynamics between radicals and liberals, what is a victory, movement case studies, and the importance of moving from abstract ideas to tangible struggle. Music by Janelle Monae and Bakunin's Bum (with words from...

A conversation with a Kingston organizer of an anti-police and anti-military protest contingent in Kingston Pride Parade, and an interview with two folks from Hamilton about people at Hamilton Pride defending themselves homophobic street preachers and violent far-right white supremacists without relying on the police. Note that we re-recorded this second interview to protect their anonymity. Check...

Audio from a panel at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. Hosts from The Solecast , Intersection'elle , Changing On The Fly , and From Embers discuss questions about podcasting, Internet culture, radio, privacy, and "being a personality." Music in this episode is Sole, off his album Destituent . Also it's the one year anniversary of From Embers!

This year on May Day in Toronto , anarchists and radicals brought a replica guillotine to a rally at Queen's Park, leading to outrage in the mainstream media and government calls for a police investigation . In light of this, and in a context where guillotine memes and other gestures towards political violence are becoming more popular, we spoke with an author of the article Against the Logic of t...

In 1919, what started as a dispute over how workers in a particular trade should negotiate with their employers became a generalized workers' revolt that we now know as the Winnipeg General Strike. Don't click skip just yet! It can be hard to see the relevance in things that happened so long ago, but how to build things that (a) generalize, and (b) actually threaten business as usual is a pressing...

Today we bring you an episode of a brand-new podcast miniseries entitled " What Happened to Prisoner Justice Day? " about the history of prisons in canada focusing on differences in the prison system in the 1960s-1980s versus today. The podcast features interviews with former and current prisoners, as well as supporters on the outside. "In [this] episode, we talk to Gene, who started doing time in...

The Montreal Anarchist Bookfair is the largest anarchist gathering in North America and 2019 is it's 20th year.  In this episode, I interviewed two members of this year's bookfair collective.  Topics include: - what, if anything, does the bookfair have to do with books? -is the bookfair for "us," for "recruitment," or both? -how much should event planners try to shape a space like this? what kinds...

Recording of a talk by Alexis Shotwell on veganism, relational ethics, and mutual aid. From the event description: " Will eating plant-based foods save us from climate catastrophes? Should everyone eat vegan? How should people who care about the world understand "clean eating"? Is Jordan Peterson pursuing a beef-only diet because he's an asshole, or because he's managing a severe disability, or bo...

Interview with Kevin Tucker about his latest book The Cull of Personality , which tells the story and surrounding context of the murder of Shipibo-Conibo healer and indigenous rights activist Olivia Arevalo at the hands of Canadian ayahuasca tourist Sebastian Woodroffe in the Peruvian Amazon. Woodroffe was subsequently lynched by members of Arevalo's community, which became a big story in the Cana...

Tonight on From Embers we're talking about the unfolding crisis in Venezuela, and specifically the role of the Canadian state and the Lima Group. We open with a bit of a rant about how tricky anti-imperialist politics can be for anarchists to navigate - somewhat coincidentally, the topic of the week on Anarchist News this week. Then we feature an interview with Lydia of the Women's Coordinating Co...

This week's episode features two interviews with people involved in the struggle to stop a new migrant prison from being built in Laval, Quebec. Topics discussed include: -the project and how the government is trying to frame it as a "nice" cage. -senses of strategy and what might work to actually stop a project like this. -actions that have taken place against the prison, how they've gone, and wh...

This week's episode features two perspectives on the right-wing "Yellow Vests Canada" movement and how anti-fascists are taking them on.  Topics include: What, if anything, do these people have to do with the yellow vest movement in France? Are they workerists, xenophobes, populists, fascists or all of the above? How are neo-nazis and other fascists recruiting from inside the movement? Should we a...

Today's episode features a conversation with some members of Feminist Action Hamilton, an anyone-except-cis-men collective organizing around anarchist principles. We talk about some of the actions and workshops Feminist Action Hamilton has been organizing over the past year; feelings and motivations around creating an organizing space without cis men; intentions and desires to support each other,...

An interview with Craig Fortier , who is an organizer and academic based in Toronto. Among other things, Craig is involved with No One Is Illegal and helps coordinate the Field of Dreamers Cooperative Softball Association , which was featured on a recent episode of Talking Radical Radio . Craig is the author of the short book Unsettling The Commons: Social Movements Within, Against and Beyond Sett...

SubMedia is an anarchist video collective based in Montreal. Founded in 1994, they have been putting out high-quality video for more than two decades, featuring satirical takes on the news , "riot porn", explanations of anarchist concepts , calls to action, and more, always with a strong dose of humour. Their latest project is called Trouble , and features in-depth interviews about a new theme eac...

Today's episode features two interviews about solidarity actions with the Wet'suwet'en people currently defending their sovereignty, their lands and their waters by resisting pipeline construction through their territories. In our first interview we speak with an urban Indigenous organizer about several different solidarity actions on unceded Coast Salish territories in Vancouver and some of the b...

This episode features two interviews with organizers of New Years Eve noise demonstrations in Hamilton and in Montreal.  We talk about the rage and sadness we feel about the existence of prisons, noise demonstrations, building traditions and rituals, and our favourite New Years Eve stories. Links: Seven Years Against Prison (2015) Montreal Against Prisons  International Call For New Year's Even No...

An interview with Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan, co-authors of Policing Indigenous Movements: Dissent and the Security State , available from Fernwood Publishing . The book is based on a series of government records obtained through Access to Information requests. The authors use these records to reveal how policing and other security agencies in Canada have been monitoring, cataloguing and w...

IWW organizers in Hamilton and Kingston discuss organizing solidarity pickets at mail processing facilities in Ontario and share different perspectives on supporting postal workers on strike who were recently legislated back to work. Music in this episode: Spanner - Work Lee Reed - Get Mad    

From Embers presents a two-part feature on the Locke Street Affair in Hamilton, Ontario. We sat down and interviewed a defendant in the case who will be in jail when this episode is released. In March 2018, on the weekend of the Steel City Anarchist Bookfair, about 30 people marched through the Kirkendale neighbourhood of Hamilton. Some in the group lit fireworks, attacked luxury cars and smashed...

From Embers presents a two-part feature on the Locke Street Affair in Hamilton, Ontario. We sat down and interviewed a defendant in the case who will be in jail when this episode is released. In March 2018, on the weekend of the Steel City Anarchist Bookfair, about 30 people marched through the Kirkendale neighbourhood of Hamilton. Some in the group lit fireworks, attacked luxury cars and smashed...

An interview with a member of the collective of prisoners and non-prisoners that produces the Certain Days: Freedom For Political Prisoners calendar.  We talk about sharing projects with our imprisoned comrades, the importance of long-term projects and how our movements are doing when it comes to political prisoner support. https://www.certaindays.org/