This week on The Final Straw we’re featuring a chat with Joey Ayoub, a Lebanese-Palestinian writer and researcher, and Leila Al-Shami, a British-Syrian activist and author. For the episode we discuss resistance movements in the last 30 years in Lebanon and Syria, the ongoing anti-sectarian and anti-regime protests in Lebanon, the Syrian civil war and diaspora, and shared elements between the two situations. We also talk about the western left and media, it's failings at solidarity and some ways it can learn from and support social justice movements emanating from that region. If you're listening to the radio edition, consider visiting our website, https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org for another hour of chat as we had to cut most of the Lebanon chat out of our broadcast.

This week, we feature two portions of the show. First up, we’ll hear Josh Harper, a co-defendant from the SHAC7 case and former political prisoner talking the struggle to shut down the company, Huntington Life Sciences, a contract animal testing laboratory, which is the focus of a recent documentary, 'Animal People.' Then, you’ll hear the voices of three warriors who were on the barricade on the road to Unist’ot’en Camp at the Gidimt’en Access Point. Eve Saint (Wet’suwet’en land defender), Anne Spice (Tlinket land defender) and Shiloh Hill (from Onandaga nation, Haudenosaunee, Six Nations) were there to defend unceded Wet’suwet’en land from the Canadian state’s violent imposition of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline.

This week on The Final Straw we feature a chat with a translator of the Anarchist Union of Afghanistan and Iran to share perspectives from membership in Iran and abroad about resistance to the regime from within, solidarity from abroad, the impact of US Sabre-rattling.

David Easley speaks about how his non-violent protests (hunger strikes and lawsuits) against torturous use of segregation for neurodivergent prisoners facing crisis are bringing officials in the ODRC and at Toledo CI to attempt to transfer David and Mustafa out of state. Then, Jason Goudlock speaks about the difference between the Old Law and the New Law sentencing disparities and dirty-dealing from the Parole Board in Ohio.

This week Cypress spoke with Io Ascarium. The conversation covered their work as a member of ABO Comix Collective and their work in comics and print.

A chat with Pura, Rozalinda and Lynn from LVSN, a community defense group that does tenant defense, confronts especially bad bosses, and confronting undocumented youth prisons around Chicagoland, particularly run by the Chicago Catholic Arch-Diocese and the non-profit, Heartland Alliance

“We are prepared, motherf**kers!”: Greek anarchists on New Democracy regime

This week, we’re sharing a conversation that I had with comrades from Radiozones Of Subversive Expression, an anti-authoritarian pirate radio station based in Athens, Greece. Mike, Sprout and Omar, three anarchists working with ROSE share their perspectives on the change in government in Greece, corruption in the New Democracy party that just came back into power, it’s attacks on immigrants and the anarchist stronghold neighborhood of Exarchia, the status of the social movements of the left and more. You can listen to their streaming radio station with ALL sorts of programming, from live reports from street actions, to comedy shows to music, all up at radio98fm.org. Check our past interview with folks from ROSE. ROSE is, notably, another member of the A-Radio Network to which we belong, which produces the monthly English-language anarchist news show, B(A)D News: Angry Voices From Around The World.

Other informative interviews conducted by fellow members of the Channel Zero Network on this topic include recent episodes by IGDcast and The Ex-Worker.

Announcement

Comrade Malik Phone Zap

But first, Comrade Malik Washington could use some help. He’s a politicized anarchist prisoner affiliated with the New Afrikan Black Panther Party who’s been serving time in Texas and been vocal about the mistreatment of himself and other prisoners. Despite his activism on the inside, Malik was recently paroled into Federal custody from Texas state control, and is being held currently at USP Beaumont. It was common knowledge among prisoners that he was in danger at Beaumont because of his activism, and Malik was attacked and is now in solitary. There is a phone zap ongoing to pressure administration to release him from solitary and move him to a federal prison in California, where he can be paroled after his brief stint in the DOJ’s gulags, and Comrade Malik can start working more actively with the SF Bay View National Black Newspaper where he has a spot upon his release. To learn more about his case and details on calling Warden Larry Schultz at USP Beaumont up at comrademalik.com.

Today you’ll hear Bursts interview Pepe, an anarchist from so called Connecticut. As of September 4^th 2019, Pepe has been sentenced to 5 years in prison on federal charges. In this interview he speaks on a range of topics related to the prison industrial complex, from detailing how prosecutors operate within the “criminal justice” system, to his personal experience in preparing with his family for his incarceration. Listeners can find part 2 of this interview on The Final Straw podcast. Folks can support Pepe and his family by visiting his record label at diybandits.bandcamp.com.

He will be releasing his own podcast soon at preparingforfreedom.org. We will announce when these episodes drop so stay tuned!

To get in touch with The Final Straw, for feedback or suggestions, you can follow us on all social media, we are @thefinalstrawradio on Instagram, @StrawFinal on Twitter, and The Final Straw Radio on Facebook. You can also email us at thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net or @protonmail.com, and send us letters at

PO Box 6004

Asheville NC

28816

. … . ..

Music for this episode by:

J Dilla – Y’all Ain’t Ready (instrumental)

Ramsey Lewis Trio – The ‘In’ Crowd

This week, Bursts spoke with Nora Samaran, author of the essay "The Opposite Of Rape Culture Is Nurturance Culture", which became the seed of her book "Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture." This book is recently out from AK Press.

First, Bursts interviewed Mark and anonymous, members of the Internationalist Commune of Rojava, about the work of the ICR, the possibility of Turkish invasion the continuing threat posed by Daesh (ISIS) in northern Syria. Next, William had the chance to speak with Smogelgem, a hereditary Chief of the Likhts’amisyu clan of the Wet’suwet’en people, about the Indigenous re-occupation of land stolen by the state of Canada in so called “B.C” and resistance against pipelines and other incursions by Canada.

This week we feature three segments. First, we hear from Janine, Janet and Eddie Africa of the Move9 (released this year after more than 40 behind bars) about their brother Delbert Orr Africa's fight to communicate while in a medical emergency in prison. Then, tree sitters at Yellow Finch against the Mountain Valley PIpeline talk about the blockade. Finally, organizers with Pansy Fest and Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in Asheville talk about their organizing.

A conversation with antifascist humanitarian, Ahkok, from Hong Kong to inform us about the context of struggle against the Chinese extradition laws being threatened to be imposed by the Hong Kong government.

This week, we feature two segments on the episode. First, a brief chat with Duncan of Perilous Chronicle, a site documenting prisoner resistance since from 2010 til today in the so-called U.S. & Canada. Then, we spoke with Kanahus Freedom, from the Secwepemc and Ktunaxa nations, who is involved in the Tiny House Warriors struggle against the Trans Mountain Pipeline threatening the sovereignty and health of unceded Secwepemc land.

Two chats this week. First, Bruno from CIMA-WNC talks about resisting ICE raids and organizing where we are. Then we share an interview that William did a few weeks ago with two members of the Indigenous Anarchist Federation, Bombshell and insurgent e about their histories as anarchist people, about the formation of this Federation, what true decolonization of anarchism could look like, and about the upcoming Indigenous Anarchist Convergence which is happening from August 16th-18th in Kinlani, Navajo/Dine land, occupied Flagstaff AZ, plus many other topics!

Ash Williams of Carolina Abortion Fund talks about their work and how to nuance and expand the thinking on this polarizing topic.

We’re happy to bring you three segments in this week’s show. The first is Sean Swain, who hasn’t been heard on the airwaves for a few weeks, followed by an anarchist from so-called Hamilton, Ontario, to talk about repression faced by queer folks and anarchists since Hamilton Pride and assess what’s next. It should be noted that at the time of this recording, Cedar Hoppington was on hunger strike from their initial detention for 5 days. We’re not sure where that stands. You can keep up on how to offer solidarity and what’s happening by visiting North-Shore.Info. Finally, we’ll be airing Timothy Grieve-Carlson reading the paper”The Spectre and the Sovereign: The Problem of the Paranormal in Biopolitical Thought”, presented on the panel “Liberatory Horizons” at the 2019 NAASN Conference in Atlanta, GA.

This week on TFSR, we’re featuring two audios from affiliates of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Maya Little & Dwayne Dixon talking about resisting neo-Confederate monuments in the so-called U.S. south, in particular the statue called “Silent Sam” that was toppled August 20th, 2018.