The Final Straw Radio

This week we spoke with James.  James is involved in anti-fascist and anti-repression work.  Over the hour we spoke about the election of Donald Trump, the need for resistance in the face of a rising autonomous ethno-nationalism in the form of the alt-right and other formations, liberal ideas of the CIA and deep-state saving us from "ourselves," autonomous community building and self-defense and m...

This week we feature two interviews in the show. Kamua Franklin on #ungovernable First, we spoke with Kamau Franklin, who is a radical activist, the political editor for the online publication Atlanta Blackstar, and former attourney based out of Atlanta, GA. We are speaking today about Ungovernable, which is a radical organizing platform rooted in anti state Black and POC autonomy, how it began, i...

Interview This week we are rebroadcasting an interview with Peter Werbe of Fifth Estate magazine, which originally aired in February 2015. Fifth Estate is an "anarchist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian, anti-profit project" which is published cooperatively three times a year, and this year marks its 50th year of publication. The magazine tackles current events, issues, theory, and praxis which...

Here, we present the first part of an interview with Merve Arkun, Hüseyin & Özgür, members of Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet, or DAF. DAF translates to Revolutionist Anarchist Action and is a network of overlapping collectives in Turkey. They are based out of Istanbul and run an office and two cafe's, both called 26A, which is a meeting space and employer for collective members. This conversation was...

This week on The Final Straw Radio, I spoke with Mars Goetia. Mars is, among other things, a musician , parent and anarchist who's been doing a lot of thinking and working around conflict engagement in and around anarchist communities. In this episode, Mars and I speak about about the difficulty of language when engaging in interpersonal conflict, about state repression, expectations and more. Ann...

Grand Jury Resistance at Standing Rock This week we are airing two short interviews, the first is with an anarchist legal worker who has been participating in resistance at Standing Rock in so called North Dakota. This interview is specifically about the grand jury summons which was recently served to someone who was struggling at Standing Rock, we speak about what a grand jury is and how people m...

This week, we're replaying an interview that Bursts conducted with Ron Sakolsky in March of 2016. Ron had just recently published Breaking Loose: Mutual Acquiescence or Mutual Aid? From the original posting: "Ron is a poet, an anarchist, a surrealist, a pirate radio broadcaster and author and more. Recently, Little Black Cart published a small book by Ron Sakolsky entitled Breaking Loose: Mutual A...

This week, we air 2 interviews, one about the case of the Cleveland 4 and one with members of Unicorn Riot.      pt 1: The Cleveland 4 Firstly, we speak with Amanda Shemkes.  Amanda does legal support for members of the Cleveland 4.  The Cleveland 4, or CLE4, are 4 anarchists who're serving around a decade in Federal prisons in the U.S. on charges of terrorism.  Back story is that Brandon Baxter,...

This is a podcast version of the second part of the 2016 North American Anarchist Black Cross Former Political Prisoners Panel. The first part can be found  here In this, the question and answer portion, we hear from Sekuo Kombui, Kazi Toure, John Tucker and Daniel McGowan about their thoughts on incarceration in the U.S., steps forward in resistance, violence in struggle and sources of hope among...

This week on the Final Straw, we air a conversation Bursts had with a member of New York City Anarchist Black Cross, heretoforth known as nyc-abc.  For a good portion of the hour we speak about this activists views on anarchist support for prisoners and long term liberation prisoners.  We also talk about the work that NYC-ABC does including: prisoner-writing nights; the Running Down The Walls even...

This week we spoke with two Asheville area anarchists, May and Julie, about THE ELECTION of all things. We talked about anarchist strategy in this day and age, the tactic of a general strike and what might prevent or incite some folks' participation, some things which are missing from anarchist and other discourse right now, the role of social media, and much much more. If you are listening to an...

This week we spoke with an autonomous participant in CrimethInc. about the work of that collective around elections, about their views on the recent election of Donald J. Trump as president of the U.S.A., voter turnout, anarchist perspectives on elections, democracy, and about building on-the-ground resistance to not only this new administration but the autonomous far right that's attempting to em...

This week (last week, actually) we spoke with Daniel McGowan. Daniel is from New York City (Queens, actually) and talks about his start in activism with Earth First!, his current views on his activities with the Earth Liberation Front, Communication Management Units in the prison systems, prison gang structures, prisoner support, the Certain Days calendar designed by political prisoners and more....

Here we present the first half of the Former Prisoner Panel of the 2016 North American Anarchist Black Cross Conference. During the hour, you'll hear words from Sekou Kombui, Daniel McGowan, John Tucker, Kazi Toure. These speeches will be prefaced by some brief introductions, the texts of which can be found below. This audio will air soon as a radio episode. For more info on political prisoners in...

This week, we present a conversation with a member of CNA-DF, or Anarchist Black Cross of Mexico City.  During the hour she speaks about the work of CNA-DF, prison in Mexican society, anti-prison organizing versus prison abolitionism, transformative justice, counter-repression and prisoners the CNA is working to support. More on CNA-DF at http://www.abajolosmuros.org/ Specific prisoners CNA-DF sup...

This week we spoke with members of Central PA Antifa about antifascist organizing in Pennsylvania, about some of the racial and socioeconomic aspects of that place, and many more topics but mainly about the National Socialist Movement counter protest that folks are calling for on November 5th in Harrisburg. We talk about the logistics of the event and what sorts of things to expect and what sorts...

This week on the show we decided to take a musical interlude, and I thought we would try something slightly different from what we normally do. Since it's getting all autumnal and halloweeny, it seemed appropriate to settle in with some tunes that reflect that mood, and perhaps get spooky. What I'm trying to say is that I went through and found anarchistic, antifascist, antiracist goth, darkwave,...

This week, we spoke with Bruno Y Hinojosa-Ruiz, a co-director of CIMA, Companeros Inmigrantes de las Montanas en Accion, about some immigration situations in Western NC, organizing here and the case of Elmer Reynoso-Reynoso, a Guatemalan-born resident of Weaverville who was recently released from detention after public outcry and pressure. http://www.cimawnc.org Announcements Bo Brown support Firs...

I wanted to do some announcements regarding the prison strike, but honestly so many amazing things have been going on it would be impossible to do them justice in the time we have for this segment. In brief, at Holman Prison in Atmore Alabama, where many rebels are part of the Free Alabama Movement, it was reported a few days ago that most if not all of the prison guards there had quit their jobs,...

This week we'll be rebroadcasting a recent update from A-Radio Berlin on the repression called Operation Fenix in Czech Republic against anarchists there.  Following that, we'll hear some music from Wildspeaker, Cara Neir and Allochiria. First, text from the intro to the A-Radio Portion:     "In the context of the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners (23.-30th of August 2016),...

Greg Curry This week Bursts speaks with Greg Curry, a prisoner serving time for alleged participation in the Lucasville Prison uprising of 1993 where prisoners took over the Ohio prison, leading to the death of 10 inmates and one guard.  For the hour, they speak about incarceration in the U.S., intersections of race and class, the prison strikes, capitalism and resistance. More on Greg's case can...

This week, we'll be featuring a short roundup of some of the events inside and outside of the prison walls during the beginning of the Prisoner Work Strike that started on September 9th in the United Snakes with the goal of ending Prison Slavery in U.S. prisons.  After that we'll hear the last half hour of Gil O'Teen's conversation with Guy McGowan Steel Steward, an American anarcho-communist abou...

Tyler of PDXABC on September 9th Strikes This week's episode features a conversation with Tyler Durden of Portland Anarchist Black Cross (http://pdxabc.org) & the Portland Industrial Workers of the World (http://portlandiww.org/) about the upcoming September 9th National Prisoner Work Stoppage across the United States.  September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprsing in 1971 and i...

Prison officials recently placed Siddique Abdullah Hasan, a death row prisoner held at Ohio's supermax, in segregation. Siddique was framed as a leader of the Lucasville prison uprising in 1993 and has been a vocal supporter of the September 9th national prisoner work stoppage. His segregation should really come as no surprise as prison (mis)managers have long waged a brutal war on truth and on th...

Main Event This week we'll feature a recording produced by our friends at Anarchistisches Radio Berlin of a debate that took place at the Congress of the International Of Anarchist Federations (IFA).  The debate concerned the No Border camp that activists from different places had participated in in the area of Thessaloniki, Greece in July of 2016.  The No Border camp was a site of active solidari...