This week, we’re featuring two interviews concerning prison conditions in North Carolina.

First up, you’ll hear from Elizabeth Simpson of Emancipate NC, one of the signatories to a public letter to this state’s department of corrections calling for the release of hundreds of prisoners in North Carolina. This comes in response to over-crowding and understaffing of prisons following the emergency transfer of 2,000 prisoners from prisons in the western part of the state effected by Hurricane Helene.

Then, Mona Evans of Benevolence Farm, a post-release residence and re-entry program in North Carolina for people coming out of the women’s prisons talks about their programs, re-entry and some of the realities faced inside womens prisons in this state.

In this conversation I mentioned Victoria Law’s latest book, Corridors of Contagion: How the Pandemic Exposed the Cruelties of Incarceration (Haymarket Books). You can find our 2013 interview with her about her 2nd edition of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women at this link.

Other projects Mona mentioned include:

• Arise Collective re-entry program
• DownhomeNC engages in a number of progressive causes in this state, including the bail fund that Benevolence Farms is currently running. You can find our 2020 interview with them here.

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Featured Track:

• Women on the Inside by Sistas In The Pit from The We That Sets Us Free: Building A World Without Prisons

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This week, we’re featuring three segments in our episode.

First up, you’ll hear Maru Mora-Villalpando talking about the immigration prison known as the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA and the organizing that her organization La Resistencia does to shut down this private prison run by Geo Group.

Then, a member of Pittsburgh Fash Watch, an antifascist group, talks about their mobilization and unmasking of white supremacists in their area, such as WLM and Goyim Defense League (GDL) chud Brandon Cahall.

• Transcript

Finally, Sean Swain addresses post-election ennui.

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Featured Track:

• Bella Ciao by Leslie Fish

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A recent conversation we had with the Ben Lorber and Shane Burley, co-authors of the recently published book, Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism. For the hour we discuss the roots of antisemitism in the West, pushing back on Zionism in the midst of the genocidal war on Palestinians, a rebirth of Bundism and addressing antisemitism in left spaces. I definitely recommend this book to folks and hope you enjoy the chat! And as always, thanks for supporting this project.

Past interviews with Shane:

• Fascism Today
• Why We Fight

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Featured Track:

• Daloit Politsey by Isabel Frey
• In Ale Gasn = In Every Street / Hey, Hey, Daloy Politsey! = Hey, Hey Down With The Police! featuring Zalmen Mlotek, Adrienne Cooper, Dan Rous with The New Yiddish Chorale and The Workmen’s Circle Chorus from In Love and In Struggle: The Musical Legacy of the Jewish Labor Bund

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This week we’re sharing a discussion recorded some months back in the pacific northwest featuring former political prisoners Eric King, who went in for actions in solidarity with the Ferguson Uprising in 2014, and Jake Conroy, who was convicted for coordinating successful anti-vivisection divestment campaigns against Huntington Life Sciences as one of the SHAC7. They are joined by Eric’s co-author of Rattling The Cages, Josh Davidson. We hope you appreciate the wisdom and passion of the discussion. If you’re listening to the radio edition, check out a slightly longer version at our website.

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

You can find Jake’s youtube channel The Cranky Vegan for a long-running and ongoing commentary on animal liberation topics. And you can follow Eric’s panels with other former prisoners and supporters on the instagram for Rattling The Cages and past media and articles by and about Eric (including past interviews we’ve done with or about him) at SupportEricKing.org and find more from Josh at linktr.ee/JoshDavidson..

Prior interviews:

• With/about Eric
• With Josh
• Jake Conroy at ACAB2024:  audio
• Jake’s former co-defendant, Josh Harper on the movie about their case, ” Animal People”

There are two upcoming Firestorm Books political prisoner panel talks in November, both of which you won’t want to miss.

• Saturday, Nov. 9th, 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET, Eric King will be talking with Jason and Jeremy Hammond. Register now!
• Saturday, Nov. 23, 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET, Eric will be talking with Linda Evans, Laura Whitehorn, and Nicole Kissane. Register now!

A few other things (per Josh):

• BPP/BLA comrade and former NY Panther 21 defendant Dhoruba bin Wahad needs our support. Help if you can!
• The 2025 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar is now available, and it’s beautiful. Get one or 100 today!
• If you missed the last panel talk with Eric, Jake Conroy, and Claude Marks – or any of the previous 6 Firestorm Books panel talks – watch them here.
• Don’t stop talking about Gaza, genocide, and US imperialism. Long live Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah, Yahya Sinwar, and all those others dying every day for Palestine.

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Featured Track:

• Walking Is Still Honest by Against Me! from Crimes As Forgiven By…

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This week on The Final Straw Radio, you’ll hear three interviews interviews relating to community needs and recovering concerning Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.

First up, you’ll hear Jen Hampton of the WNC Tenants Network about the re-opening of eviction courts in Buncombe County and conditions of housing in an already difficulty place to live.

Then, Bruce and G talk from the Asheville Community Bail Fund speak about conditions in the local jail during and after this unnatural disaster.

If you’re listening to the radio edition, consider checking out the podcast where you’ll find an additional interview with Yousef of the Palestinian and Arab-led Sumud Collective speaking about his experience of the storm and recovery work in the region in an interview recorded a couple of weeks ago.

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Featured Track:

• Reflections by The Supremes from Gold

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Homeless Organizing in Oakland and Rural Relief After Helene

This week on the show we’re featuring two inteviews. First up, you’ll hear from Freeway, a houseless activist in Oakland, CA, about the recent series of sweeps of homeless being promoted by Governor Gavin Newsom. Freeway has been a member of Wood Street Commons and is now a member of Oakland Homeless Union (IG or donate). Then, Janet of Rural Organizing and Resilience (IG or donate) in Madison County, speaks about post-Hurricane Helene organizing and disaster preparedness in the mountains of Western North Carolina. More and links to be added soon.

If you’re a non-Pacifica station airing our show and need access to the episode, you can find a radio-friendly version here until Archive.Org is restored following a DDOS attack

A longer version of this show can be found here

Other groups mentioned by Janet of ROAR include:

• Holler Harm Reduction
• PODER Emma
• Appalachian Medical Solidarity
• Asheville Tool Library
• Asheville Repair Clinic
• Another Gulf is Possible
• Bulboncha Liberation Radio

Announcement

Phone Zap for Buncombe County Jail

Members of the Asheville Community Bail Fund have announced a phone zap concerning conditions in the Buncombe County Detention Facility where reports are coming out of a lack of clean water, irregular bathroom breaks and other lack of access are leading to calls for those in the jail to be released or transferred to a facility with more humane conditions.

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Featured Track:

• I Wanna Know If It’s Good To You by Funkadellic from Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow

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