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

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

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The Final Straw Radio
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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

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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.

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Featured Track:

• Rise Above by Ibeyi from Spell 31

“Clean For Who? Safe For Who?”: Asheville Business Improvement District

We sat down with three local activists to talk about the proposed Asheville Business Improvement District, a model of service provision using public funding to increase policing in downtown by an un-elected and unaccountable body of largely business and property owners. For the hour, Grace, Madison and Elliot talk about attempts to ram the BID through public process, some of the businesses and individuals behind it, how bids have panned out in other cities around the country and what space there is left to oppose this further privatization of public space in Asheville. We didn’t mention it here, but there have also been rumblings of the BID model, a version of which was fought and never funded in 2012, being applied to other parts of Asheville, for example West Asheville. You can find more information and ways to get involved with folks organizing against the Business Improvement District at AshevilleBID.com and on Instagram at @NoAVLBid. This is our show for the week of May 12^th. A full version of this episode is available at our website.

As a quick note, there are a few acronyms frequently used in this conversation. One is RFP, which stands for Request for Proposals and is a process of contracting out an element of a project. Another acronym is ADA, in this case Asheville Downtown Association which is an independent pressure group made up of individuals, business and property owners. Not to be confused with the Asheville Downtown Commission, which was created by the City Council and contains appointed representatives from the ADA, city council, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and few other community members including business owners.

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Featured Tracks:

• Asheville BID song (unknown artist)
• Moving Through The Streets (instrumental)