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Asheville’s Policing Crisis with Ursula Wren of Asheville Free Press
This week, we spoke with local journalist, activist, abolitionist and anarchist, Ursula Wren of the AvlFree.Press about Asheville’s “crisis in policing”, a brief blooper roll of Asheville police foibles over the last decade, homeless camp evictions, prior and current efforts to restructure public safety, the reactionary business effort to bolster the police with blue ribbons of support, housing issues and other fare.
Cindy Milstein On Mending The World As Jewish Anarchists
June 20th, 2021 by bogoodness
This week, we air a conversation between Scott and anarchist, author and organizer Cindy Milstein. The conversation is framed around the most recent compilation that Milstein has edited and contributed to, “There Is Nothing So Whole As A Broken Heart: Mending The World As Jewish Anarchists” (AK Press, 2021).
Eric Laursen on Anarchist Conceptions of The State
June 13th, 2021 by bogoodness
Scott Branson’s interview with Eric Laursen, author of “The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State” (AK Press, 2021) on power, the State, autonomy and organizing.
Making Links: June 11th, Long-term Prisoners, Anti-Repression Work
June 6th, 2021 by bogoodness
A June 11 conversation with anarchists who do support for prisoners from the Fergusson Uprising of 2014, an activist from Atlanta doing jail support and bail fund work, former anarchist prisoner and hactivist Jeremy Hammond on his experience of organizing in prison and his brother Jason on working in Chicago with the Community Bond Fund. This June 11 we talk about long term anarchist prisoners, anti-repression work from the 2020 uprising and beyond.
Shane Burley on “Why We Fight”
May 9th, 2021 by bogoodness
This week, we present a conversation with Shane Burley, author of the new AK Press book, “Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse”. For the hour, we speak about the contents of the book, anti-fascism, toxic masculinity, pushing racists and fascists out of cultural space, antisemitism (including in the left), conspiricism, right wing publishing and other topics.
An Indian Anarchist on Anti Caste Organizing and More!
April 25th, 2021 by bogoodness
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…
Veronza Bowers, Jr: 47 Years of Justice Denied
April 18th, 2021 by bogoodness
This week, we’re airing a conversation recorded by Eda Levinson on September 12th, 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.
Alive With Resistance: Diasporic Reflections on the Revolt in Myanmar
April 11th, 2021 by bogoodness
This is a conversation with Geoff Aung (@Rgnhardliner on twitter), a Burmese American Marxist anthropology Phd candidate at Columbia University living abroad, about the current uprising, repression and revolutionary potentials in Myanmar. We discuss the evolution of tactics on the ground as revolutionaries adapt to the brutal murders of protesters by the state. Geoff also talks about the ways in which this movement is different from similar current movements in Asia and some of the historical context of struggle in Myanmar.
adrienne maree brown on Cancellation, Abolition and Healing
February 14th, 2021 by bogoodness
This week on The Final Straw, we feature a conversation between our occasional host, Scott, and adrienne maree brown. For the hour, Scott and adrienne speak about “We Will Not Cancel Us and Other Dreams of Transformative Justice”, her latest booklet available through AK Press, as well as sci-fi, abolition, harm, accountability and healing.
Prison Bars Won’t Stifle These Hearts
December 27th, 2020 by bogoodness
This week, we’re presenting three segments, all related in some way to prison. We hear an essay by an anarchist prisoner in Chile about a prison massacre on it’s 10th anniversary, the voice of David Easley reporting from within a covid outbreak in an Ohio prison, and the voice of someone who’s protest against nuclear weapons was leading her to incarceration.
Uncovering Spy Cops in the UK
November 29th, 2020 by bogoodness
Airs on WSFM-LP 103.3 in Asheville / streaming at AshevilleFM…
Defending The Earth By What Means?: Rik Scarce and Leslie J. Pickering on Radical Action
July 12th, 2020 by bogoodness
The following is a recording from November of 2017 at Burning Books of a conversation between Rik Scarce and Leslie James Pickering about property destruction, terrorism labels and the radical ecological movement. Rik and Leslie speak about definitions of violence, concerns around alienating the wider community and repercussions of militancy.
Pan-African Social Ecology: A conversation with Dr Modibo Kadalie
June 21st, 2020 by bogoodness
Dr Modibo Kadalie talks about autonomous community organizing, the contradictions between the survival of the species and capitalism, CLR James, his read on Pan-Africanism and Social Ecology, the pandemic, and direct democracy. We also talk about Geechee history in south so-called Georgia, the weaknesses of nationalism, hierarchy and revering individual historical figures and the strength of spontaneity and community action.
Graham Clumpner: Anarchist Veteran on GI Resistance
May 17th, 2020 by bogoodness
This week we’re sharing a chat with Graham Clumpner, an anarchist veteran of the U.S. military from the early days of the so-called Global War on Terror. Graham works with the Mosquito Fleet, engaging in resisting oil drilling in the arctic and elsewhere through direct action.
Wayne Price on Anarchism and Marxist Economics
May 10th, 2020 by bogoodness
Wayne Price is longtime anarchist, author and currently a member of Bronx Climate Justice North and the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council, or MACC, in New York City. His most recent book is “The Value Of Radical Theory: An Anarchist Introduction to Marx’s Critique of Political Economy” (AK Press, 2013)