listen to this mega episode: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thefinalstrawradio/tfsr_podcast-20210425-An_Indian_Anarchist_on_Anti_Caste_Organizing.mp3

An Indian Anarchist on Anti Caste Organizing and More!

This week we are very happy to present an interview with Pranav Jeevan P, who is a student, a writer, an anti-caste activist, and an Indian anarchist living in the state of Kerala. You are listening to the full extended audio from this conversation, where you’ll hear Pranav explaining how he got into anarchism, how anarchistic praxis unfolds in India, some about the origins of and worldwide implications of the caste system, anti-caste organizing and how anarchism feeds it, and about how the BJP and Hindutva have real influence on people’s lives and destinies.

He further touches on the struggle of Dalit and Other Backwards Caste folks and how this tendency has always had solidarity with Black liberation here on Turtle Island, much more information about the anti CAA protest and the Farmer’s Protest, a little bit about the ongoing military occupation of the state of Kashmir, and many more topics. There is already a lot of really good anti-caste hip hop out there, mostly performed by those in oppressed castes, and I’ll be including a bunch of those tracks which have been recommended by our guest, plus providing links in the show notes.

There are a lot of terms in this episode which may be unfamiliar to all listeners, and we warmly invite folks to take a look at our show notes for this episode to see links for further reading and research. Please also look forward in the coming week to this show being transcribed in full, if you would like a copy to send to a friend or to read along while listening.

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• PDF (Unimposed)
• Zine (Imposed PDF)

Send Solidarity while India fights the pandemic!

Also you may have heard that covid is spreading out of control in India right now, in no small part due to government mismanagement. Please also take a look at this ongoing list of donations compiled by the group Students Against Hidutva Ideology. You can follow this group on Twitter @Students_A_H to see their updates and events. You can also follow India Solidarity Network on Instagram for updates on COVID in India.

We will link to a form for mental healthcare workers to donate their time and services to Indian frontline healthcare workers, who are really struggling right now.

Pranav’s social media links:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

Links to articles by Pranav Jeevan P:

• Liberty without Equality is Privilege and Injustice, Equality without Liberty is Slavery and Brutality
• Annihilation of Caste: Can an Anarchist Perspective Work?
• Ruling Class’ Stupidity and Privilege
• Re-Imagining Justice: From Punitive to Transformative
• Begumpura: The Anarchist Commune
• Anarchism, Mutual Aid, and Self-Organization: From the George Floyd Uprising to India’s Farmer Rebellion
• Okupa Cuba Casa Refugio: The Shaheen Bagh of Mexico
• Mutual Aid and Self-Organization in Anti-CAA and Farmers’ Protests
• Myth of Brahmin Merit: Refutation of Superiority

Incomplete list of people and topics mentioned by our guest, for further reading:

• Kerala state
• Anti-CAA Protests (Citizenship Amendment Act passed 19 December 2020)
• Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Dalit professor and author of the current Indian constitution
• Har Dayal, mentioned as someone who was an Indian anarchist in the Freedom Movement
• MPT Acharya another Indian anarchist who organized abroad
• Shaheen Bagh Protests led by Muslim and oppressed caste women
• Jyotiba Phule, anti caste and education-for-all organizing in Maharashtra in the late 1800’s
• Periyar anti caste organizing in Tamil Nadu in the early-mid 1900’s
• OBC: Other Backwards Castes
• Cisco caste case, California based lawsuit of a Dalit worker against their privileged caste employers
• Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, current Hindu nationalist dominant political party in India)
• BJP politician promotes drinking cow urine to fight covid
• Hindutva the far right, nationalist, and classically fascist ideology of the BJP, the RSS, and the VHP
• the Dalit Panther Party was explicitly allied with the Black Panther Party through the Black Panther newspaper
• Dalit Lives Matter
• Muslim Lives Matter
• Delhi Pogrom
• Mohenjo-daro first known instance of (for example) indoor plumbing in this ancient Indus Valley city
• UAPA (Prevention of Atrocities Act in Kashmir)
• NSA (National Security Act in Kashmir)
• Article 35 in Kashmir
• Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA)

May Day

Happy May Day, y’all. We hope that you have a rebellious and joyous celebration in whatever way you see fit this week. If you’re looking for a place to hook in or have a public event, consider checking out ItsGoingDown’s post “May Day Is Our Day” and joining in or adding to their list.

NYC ABC has called for people to get together and to write anarchist prisoners Casey Brezik, Bill Dunne and Gage Halupowski, more info at NYCABC.Wordpress.Com or linked in our show notes.

Finally, another idea is to act in solidarity with the “Eyes on Starbucks: Don’t Fund Tigray Genocide!” call from the Indigenous Action Federation and Horn Anarchists from Eastern Africa for boycott and protest actions against the genocidal actions in Ethiopia from May 1^st – 7^th. More info on that linked in our show notes and at https://iaf-fai.org where you can find background, stencil designs and ideas of places to apply pressure.

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Featured Tracks:

• “Karma” Indian rap beat by Maxxbeats (intro music)
• Enjoy Enjaami – Dhee ft. Arivu (Prod. Santhosh Narayanan) [00:30:41]Ladai Seekh Le – Sumeet Samos August 2018 (ends track by saying Jai Bhim, which is to commemorate Dr. B.R. Ambedkar). The Anurag Minus Verma Podcast episode #3 (in Hindi and english) is an interview with Samos about his work, what the role of privileged caste people could be in the Anti-Caste movement, the future of Ambedkarite politics, and more. [00:45:48]
• Kab Tak Sahenge: A Powerful Rap Song on Caste-Based Atrocities – The Quint [01:10:53]
• Jaat Kya hai? – MADARA [01:37:51]

Get ready for two hours of mind torching, butt scorching blues brought to you by the Blueshound on Soul of the Blues, airing this Thursday from noon till 2pm on AshevilleFM! You can listen live in Asheville at 103.3fm or stream it live and also for one week after it airs at ashevillefm.org! I got a new blues release I’ll turn you on to by Dave Thomas! You’ll also hear some choice tidbits from JJ Grey & Mofro, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, Kenny Neal, the Blues Brothers and Peter Case! The Notcho’ Blues Artist this week is renowned Canadian folk musician, David Leask. His new release of a 6 song EP was inspired by the Six String Nation Guitar named Voyageur, made from over 64 fragments of wood gathered from every province and territory in Canada! Join the Blueshound to get right with the blues on Soul of the Blues this Thursday on AshevilleFM!

listen to the podcast asyou feel: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thefinalstrawradio/tfsrpodcast-20210418-VeronzaBowersJr.mp3

Veronza Bowers, Jr: 47 Years of Justice Denied

This week, we’re airing a conversation recorded by Eda Levinson on September 12^th, 2002, with political prisoner Veronza Bowers, Jr. It originally aired on Youth Speaks Out on KZYX in Modesto County, California, and we re-air this with permission of Veronza and the current producer of the Youth Speaks Out. The show continues to produce youth focused and progressive content available at YouthSpeaksOut.net.

For the hour, you’ll hear former Black Panther Party member Veronza describe to the audience in his own words his upbringing, his experiences of racism, his time in prison, his case, his views on the burgeoning War on Terror, and the situation of political prisoners in the US. You’ll also hear some recordings of Veronza playing the shakuhachi bamboo flute. Veronza was convicted of the death of a US Park Ranger on the word of two prison informants who were paid and received reduced sentences. Veronza continues to claim his innocence and he has been illegally held beyond his mandatory release date of June 21, 2005, based on political pressure by GW Bush appointed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales apparently on behalf of the Association of National Park Rangers, the widow of the dead ranger and the Fraternal Order of Police.

The conversation is very much a product of it’s time, for instance the discussion of the implications of the one year anniversary of the September 11^th attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Sadly there is a timelessness in their discussion of the brutal war against the people of Afghanistan as well as the continued incarceration of Veronza, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier, alongside many other long term, leftist and liberation political prisoners held by the US government. Currently, the Biden administration is discussing some sort of pull out of US troops from Afghanistan on the 20^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in the last year we’ve seen the deaths due to medical neglect and decades of incarceration for political prisoners like Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, deaths right after release like Delbert Africa, and the endangering of aging political prisoners in their 70’s and 80’s who’ve had bouts with covid and cancers inside like Sundiata Acoli, Dr Mutulu Shakur and Russell “Maroon” Shoatz. Veronza was successfully treated for lymphoma and pneumonia in 2017 and 2018, having hip surgery in 2019 but his death by incarceration only looms a larger possibility day by day.

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

He is currently being held at FCI Butner in North Carolina and can be written at:

Veronza Bowers, Jr. ##35316-136
FCI Butner Medium II
P.O. Box 1500
Butner, NC 27509

You can learn more about his case as well as see pictures of Veronza and loved ones, read his writings, poetry and interviews at Veronza.Org. Some of this is also available by viewing his page on PrisonerSolidarity.Com and you can read many articles about his situation on the SFBayView.com.

Other Veronza Audio Recordings

Announcements

BadNews #44 Out!

The A-Radio Network has released the 44th monthly episode of our Angry Voices From Around The World, English-language podcast. Check it out! Updates from Bristol & the wider UK, Mare Liberum about resisting deadly anti-refugee practices in the Mediterranean, hunger striking anarchists and prisoners of the Uprising in Chile, interview with a Myanmar Food Not Bombs activist, the student movement and trial of the anarchist Vaggelis Stathopoulos from Greece, anti-dam resistance in Aragon (Spain), and notes on repression and struggle against the state in Greece!

All Out for Mumia’s Birthday

It’s notable also, that Mumia Abu-Jamal, prolific author and journalist, former Black Panther and political prisoner in Pennsylvania is in grave danger. He’s been in prison since conviction for the 1981 death of a cop in Philly based on flimsy evidence and perjured testimony. From a blood infusion, he contracted hepatitis-c which was eventually treated and cured due to his struggle on behalf of so many other prisoners, that condition gave Mumia cirrhosis of the liver and damaged eye sight. He developed congestive heart disease from his time inside and this year Mumia has contracted covid-19 and is fighting for his life in an emergency heart surgery. The white supremacist police state failed at assassinating Mumia, they failed at executing him and now they’re killing him by medical malfeasance and mistreatment.

It is long past time for Mumia to be free. You can join Mumia’s friends and family for his 67^th birthday on April 24^th by taking to the streets to exert pressure to releaes Mumia so he can get the medical treatment he needs and end this charade of injustice. There are events popping up around the world for the 23^rd through the 25^th. You can find some info at FreeMumia.Com

New bilingual website for Fidencio Aldama Pérez

There is a now a bilingual support site for Fidencio Aldama Pérez, a Yaqui de-colonial activist in so-called Mexico who is serving a bullshit 15.5 year sentence on a murder he did not commit. You can hear a little in our Mexico interview from last year, there’s a brief intro post at IGD about the case and the site, and you can learn more at FidencioAldama.org/en/

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Featured tracks:

• To Touch The Spirit by Jah Roots (featuring Veronza Bowers, Jr. on shakuhachi flute) [01:02:42]
• Song For Alexis by Jah Roots (featuring Veronza Bowers, Jr. on shakuhachi flute) [00:22:50]
• Healing Heart by Jah Roots (featuring Veronza Bowers, Jr. on shakuhachi flute) [00:37:59]