Shut ‘Em Down 2024 + Monsour Owolabi

An interview with Courtney of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee & Millions For Prisoners New Mexico and Roc, communications bridge for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and residential manager at the JLS housing center to speak about the JLS call for Shut ‘Em Down strikes inside and outside of prisons in December of 2024. We talk about abolitionism, the organizing that JLS is doing including that transitional housing project and other topics. You can find a past interview with Courtney here.

• JLS Transcript

Then, you’ll hear Monsour Owolabi, incarcerated New African political prisoner in the Ferguson Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system sharing some perspectives on inside-outside collaboration, the role of isolation in prisons as counter-insurgency and the importance of transitional housing projects. Monsour has been involved in Prison Lives Matter, the website https://www.texasletters.org/ has published his writings, and supporters have an instagram @FreeMonsourOwolabi

• Monsour Owolabi Transcript

By putting these segments together, we are not proposing any organizational overlap between Mr Owolabi and JLS. A slightly longer episode, including Sean Swain’s segment, can be found at our website.

. … . ..

Featured Track:

• Remember Rockefeller at Attica by Charles Mingus from Changes One

Views from the “Rogue Gold” Tree Sit (with Cricket and D)

This week you’ll hear an interview we conducted with Cricket, a tree sitter in a tree called Goldie in southern so-called Oregon as well as D of Siskiyou Rising Tide. The two talk about the experience and efficacy of tree sits, about the land threatened by the Bureau of Land Managements plan to have Boise Cascade and other timber companies log this area they’re calling Rogue Gold, recent success of a tree sit at Poor Windy, revelations of police surveillance and some of the history of forest defense in this region.

The full interview can be found at our website.

You can find more at TreeSittersUnion.org , donate via venmo to @Cascadia-Defenders or see lovely pictures on the instagram accounts @TreeSittersUnion or @Siskiyou_RisingTide

• Police spying on Siskiyou Rising Tide: https://risingtidenorthamerica.org/2023/11/oregon-police-obsessively-spied-on-siskiyou-rising-tide-for-years-even-after-pipeline-fight-ended/
• Recent article on both tree sits: https://leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/tree-sit-stops-old-growth-logging-project-in-southern-oregon/
• Announcement of lawsuit by conservation groups:  https://www.kswild.org/press-releases/rogue-gold-litigation

. … . ..

Bursts O’Goodness (co-host, producer)
Amar and Ian (co-host)

twitter: @StrawFinal
Mastadon: @[email protected]
fedbook: @TheFinalStrawRadio
Tumblr: The Final Straw Blog
IG: @TheFinalStrawRadio
youtube: Final Straw Channel

The Final Straw Radio
P.O. Box 6004
Asheville, NC 28816, USA

Memory, Movement and June 11th 2024

This week on The Final Straw, we’re sharing an interview we conducted in recognition of the upcoming celebration of June 11^th International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason and other long term anarchist prisoners. This week you’ll hear Julie Herrada, a long time anarchist activist, comrade of Marius Mason and worker at the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan. Julie is joined by Matthew Hart, another longtime anarchist involved in labor organizing, historical research with the Dockstadter Mutual Aid Society and the Los Angeles Anarchist Black Cross chapter of the Federation. We speak about history, memory, prisoner support and continuing the struggle.

If you’d like to hear more about the history of June 11^th and voices of anarchist prisoners and those who support them outside, we’ve taken the opportunity each year to have at least one show focusing on specific cases or concepts related to ongoing struggle and anti-repression work.

But first up, you’ll hear a comrade reading the 2024 call entitled No Separate Worlds and you’re hearing a conversation between anarchist historians and prisoner supporters about memory and the upcoming June 11^th international day of soldiairty with marius mason and longterm anarchist prisoners. More info at June11.noblogs.org

Announcement

Fundraiser for Oso Blanco’s Family

There’s a fundraiser for the family of Cherokee anarchist prisoner, Oso Blanco, as they recently suffered a housefire that destroyed their home. You can learn more and find where to donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-political-prisoners-family-cherokee-rebuild-after-fire

. … . ..

Featured Track:

• Blindblindblind by Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band from 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

Asheville’s Southside Community Farm

This week, we’re sharing a recent interview with Chloe Moore, a steward, farmer and educator at the Southside Community Farm, in the historically Black neighborhood of Southside in Asheville, NC. The farm has been serving the neighborhood and the region with free and inexpensive, fresh produce for a decade, providing educational opportunities, grocery deliveries, an herb garden and a BIPOC farmers market. The farm sits on land owned by the public Housing Authority of the City of Asheville (HACA) and there is currently a threat that HACA will destroy the farm. For the hour we talk about the work of the farm, the legacy of a community farm in the wake of government policies that destroy Black communities, and ways that community members can support the SCF and help it thrive.

. … . ..

Featured Track:

• Rise Above by Ibeyi from Spell 31