Rebel Girl: March 7, 2018: Antifascists mobilize en masse against the alt-right in Michigan; the West Virginia teachers’ strike continues into its third week and begins to spread; and reports of actions against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, strikes in Iran and pinkwashing pride parades in Australia lead us to the conclusion that humanity’s only hope is capital-A Anarchy on this episode of…

The Hotwire.

A weekly anarchist news show brought to you by The Ex-Worker.

With me, the Rebel Girl.

A full transcript of this episode with shownotes and useful links can be found at our website, CrimethInc.com/podcast. You can subscribe to The Hotwire on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, just search for The Ex-Worker. You can listen to us through the anarchist podcast network Channel Zero, or on your radio’s dial in… Eugene, Oregon every Sunday at noon on KEPW 97.3, Fairbanks, Alaska Saturday mornings at 9 on KWRK 90.9 and in Tacoma, Washington every Friday at 9 AM on KUPS 90.1. Believe it or not, every Hotwire is radio ready, and in our shownotes you can download a twenty-nine and a half minute version of this episode for standard radio timeslots. If there’s a story or upcoming event you’d like us to include in a future Hotwire, just hit us up at podcast[AT]crimethinc[DOT]com.

And now for the headlines…

HEADLINES

Sunday was the end of a week of action against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. A report about the week of action on It’s Going Down explains, “The Bayou Bridge Pipeline is a project being financed and carried out by the notorious polluter and pipeline spiller, Energy Transfer Partners, and is the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline,” which in 2016 saw mass resistance by indigenous water protectors and other eco-warriors in Standing Rock, North Dakota. “The pipeline threatens the land, livelihoods, and water of people living in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana. In response to the threat, a resistance camp, L’eau Est La Vie, has been set up in Louisiana.”

The week of action kicked off with two-dozen pipeline opponents storming one of its construction sites in Louisiana, blocking the equipment, and unfurling a banner that read, “Protect what you love.” Throughout the week there were demonstrations for divestment outside, and inside, branches of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Chase bank, and US Bank. Students at Brown University disrupted a Morgan Stanley recruiting event with an anti-pipeline banner.

Meanwhile, outside Peterstown, West Virginia, a tree-sit against the Mountain Valley Pipeline was launched and is going strong. Check out their audioreport on the IGDcast.

The week of action against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline was bolstered by two announcements: one, that Citizens Bank will divest from Energy Transfer Partners, and two, that a judge issued an injunction against further construction on the pipeline. Make no mistake, these victories would not have happened purely out of the consciences of these corporate and state actors—the credit goes to water protectors and their people powered pressure campaigns.

However, allow us to be skeptical that the banks or the state will actually stop the pipeline. Capitalism ensures that those who have the least scruples about commodifying the earth are rewarded with profit, and that the state functions to protect their right to do so. To truly block the harmful effects of pipelines, don’t put your faith in judges or corporate PR. Instead, prepare to overthrow industrial capitalism and the state. Although, this doesn’t mean we think revolution is the only worthwhile effort or that any struggle that doesn’t achieve a full-fledged revolution is useless. Through small or local struggles you can learn how to take action directly instead of depending on the authorities, you can learn how to share power and cooperate as equals, and most importantly, you can get a taste for what it’s like to fight against authority. As anarchists ourselves, we here at The Hotwire live for those times—when the power is running—and it is our conviction that most of humanity shares this insatiable craving for freedom if given just a taste of struggle. In short, block the pipelines, never trust a judge or a bank, and revolt against all forms of domination and exploitation until all of humanity is liberated from social, political, and economic oppression and lives in harmony and cooperation with each other and the earth. Anarchy!

The March 5 deadline for congress to work out a solution for undocumented immigrants who came to the US as youth has come and passed. Two federal court injunctions have prevented the president from ending the DACA program, which protects nearly 800,000 immigrants from deportation, but there is still no lasting, legal assurance that immigrant DREAMers can stay. In response, DREAMers and DACA recipients blocked the entrance to the DNC headquarters in Washington, calling the democrats “fake allies.” And just in case you mistakenly took the injunctions on DACA’s ending to mean that the courts are on the side of immigrants, the Supreme Court ruled last week that undocumented folks could continue to be detained indefinitely, without any right to due process. The Final Straw podcast has an excellent episode titled Anarchist Perspectives on DACA, which features interviews with two anarchist DACA recipients and suggestions of ways to support and organize with migrants in these uncertain times.

Migrant solidarity activists in San Francisco gave one example last Wednesday. 300 people blocked all the intersections surrounding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building downtown in response to ICE raids that netted around 150 immigrants in Northern California. Just ahead of the operation, Oakland’s mayor gave a warning that ICE would be conducting raids. According to ICE, this alert allowed over 800 undocumented folks to evade capture, but it would be a mistake to depend on any government official to turn their back on ICE in the future. Let’s build up our own rapid response networks under our own control to alert our communities of ICE raids. Check out our coverage of the Koreatown popular assembly in Hotwire #19 for one model of how to do this.

We have some good news to share about anarchist comrade Konstantinos Giagtzoglou, who is currently imprisoned by the Greek state. According to Athens Indymedia, Konstantinos will end his hunger strike and his demand to be transferred back to a prison in his home city of Athens has been granted. Konstantinos is awaiting trial for allegedly belonging to the Conspiracy Cells of Fire and sending explosive packages to European institutions and to the former Greek Prime Minister. Konstantinos’ hunger strike was accompanied by a riot in an upscale shopping neighborhood of Athens, molotov attacks on police, and a prison rebellion. Those Greeks really know how to do solidarity.

In February, in the occupied Warrang land of so-called Sydney, Australia, anarchist queers briefly interrupted the 40th annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras parade. The original street festival in 1978 was a commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, and, like Stonewall, ended with police repression and queer resistance. The following year, despite opposition from mainstream gay businesses and media, another, even bigger Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade took to the streets under the theme “power in the darkness,” and from then on the festival has just gotten bigger. At some point, instead of drawing the ire of businesses, police, and politicians, the parade began featuring corporate sponsored floats, planning in cooperation with the police, and was even visited by the prime minister in 2016. This year, anarchist queers took to the streets during the parade to honor its rebellious roots with banners that read, “Never forgive, never forget, 40 years of struggle,” “Queers against capitalism and homo-nationalism,” and one giant transgender pride flag with a big freaking circle-A. Yeah! Anarchy!

They also handed out fliers that read, “In 1978 queers took to the streets of Darlinghurst to denounce the intersectional oppressions we have faced for centuries… Some danced, some kissed, and some carried placards, but most significantly, militant queers, fed up with being criminalized (and subject to various forms of physical, sexual, verbal abuse), literally fought the enemy, the notoriously violent, homophobic Darlinghurst cops, for our right to exist.

“Now, 40 years later, queers continue the struggle against ongoing and diverse examples of state sanctioned anti-queer violence, and the capitalist pink-washing of what Mardi Gras represents as a significant moment in queer revolutionary resistance. Remember, ‘they’ only gave us ‘rights’ because we rioted!

“Although we recognize and acknowledge that gains have been made, and they indeed should be celebrated; all around the clouds of oppression loom imminently and ominously. On an international level, fascism is on the rise, and while ‘they’ may not come first for the queers this time, they will surely come one day, under new guises. Our head in the sand hedonism is not only an insult to those who fought in the past, and an insult to those who suffer now, but it is also the victorious manifestation of deliberate social conditioning by a dominant and oppressive system that has never been defeated, only wounded. We have been distracted by glitter and bright lights, bought off by the mundane promises of festivity and consumption, while all around us others live in misery and the planet is being destroyed.

“The struggle… must no longer be just about ‘our’ rights. We as queers must show our support and active solidarity with the ‘others’, who are the burning witches and faggots of our age. By embracing the heteronormative values and morality of nationalism and capitalism, we only perpetuate norms which have done nothing but marginalize and oppress us and those we stand in solidarity with. We believe that homo-nationalism is akin to pink fascism, and that we all have a duty to ensure that the assimilationism so many of us are celebrating is critiqued through an anti-fascist and anti-capitalist lens.

“As radical queers, we struggle for true and all-encompassing liberation. Selling queer culture is not ‘liberation.’ A continuation of colonization, First Nations genocide, land dispossession and theft of indigenous land is not ‘liberation.’ A continuation of a border regime that routinely punishes queer refugees through indefinite detention in immigration prisons, and regularly deports queers back to unsafe countries is not ‘liberation.’ The over-representation of queers and trans people in state prisons and/or psychiatric institutions is not ‘liberation.’

“Embracing capitalism is not ‘liberation,’ not for queers and not for anyone else. We stand against the inherent inequality and injustice of a capitalist system, which normalizes patriarchal and kyriarchal systems of authoritarian power. Further, we vehemently renounce the capitalist take-over of our struggle, our passion and our very identities. Embracing the violent and oppressive institutions of this colonialist, racist government is in direct conflict with genuine notions of liberation (which we recognize as inherently involving principles of mutual aid, solidarity, collaborative struggle, direct action and the freedom of our sexuality and our lives from internalized straight, capitalist, religiously inspired values).”

Damn. Hats off to the anarchist queers down under—that was one of the fiercest, fieriest communiqués we’ve read in a while.

And speaking of anti-fascism in so-called Australia, on February 25 anarchists in Melbourne hung anti-fascist banners over a Greek patriot march, which featured Golden Dawn-affiliated fascists working security. One of the banners read, “No borders, no nation,” and the other featured a big circle-A and the anti-fascist action flag.

MICHIGAN HOLDS IT DOWN AGAINST FASCISM

After months of planning, antifascists in Lansing, Michigan turned out a thousand people on Monday to counter the neo-Nazis and alt-right types who came to listen to a speech by the whiny trust fund white nationalist Richard Spencer.

Only about 30 or so fascists showed up, and were blocked several times by protesters utilizing a diversity of tactics—from soft blockades to straight up Nazi-punching. The speech was delayed and the photos of a tiny crowd of supporters in front of Spencer are truly pitiful. Unfortunately, about 20 antifascists were arrested and are in need of legal support. You can find their bail fund at www.fundedjustice.com/stopspencermsu.

To find out what exactly went down, we caught up with an anarchist who has been involved in the #StopSpencer organizing in Lansing.

Thanks so much for speaking with us today. What went down in Lansing?

Michigan Antifascist: I feel like we can claim a really wonderful victory and pretty much all but ruining Richard Spencer’s wanting to speak at Michigan State University. Probably about 500 people, from all ages, all types of people, all backgrounds, a very good, diverse mix of folks came out and it was super beautiful to see the people who held together pretty well. There was a lot of self-initiative and mutual aid and basically what happened was folks were able to not let most of the white supremacists who wanted to get inside the venue get in. And, specifically, which we feel really proud about, the patriot front and the traditionalist workers party folks did not get in at all. When Spencer spoke to about 30 or so people inside this giant, agricultural barn-like building in a cornfield with no one almost listening to him, they had to sneak him in the back. The only way the few people got inside were that they had to have hundreds of heavily armed riot police, they were the ones having to escort the fascists into the window one-by-one and you could see a lot of the police and even the fascists that were being escorted in were looking scared and people were being really strong, holding tight and trying to even rip off those folks too. So it felt like pretty much a real victory for shutting down the event pretty much. And the best part about that was that we decided not to wait for the fascists that were inside and we had a nice little victory march back and made sure that everyone got back safely and have been doing really solid court and jail support for the couple of folks that got arrested.

The other real victory to me was in the organizing. Vast majority of people who came to the demos yesterday had never even been to a demonstration, much less one so intense as it was yesterday. Because, as there was a mini police state that was set-up to allow the fascists in it was scary, especially if you’ve never been to a demo like that. I feel like we feel really proud that a lot of people held really strong and I kept watching people who had never been at demos really stand up against police and fascists and it was really powerful. At the end we were all chanting “we will defend our neighbors and our friends” and I just kept thinking that we really did that.

Unfortunately, the police did things like taking a few people off here and there. We were going to have portable toilets on site and they said that they wouldn’t allow them so a couple of people went to the bathroom in the woods and they grabbed them there and they also grabbed people that were inside the demo. So far, some people have gotten out with no charges. Three people got out today, one arraigned with misdemeanors, two with felony charges. For us, pretty high bail set and we are scrambling to get a lot of bail money together because there are still a dozen or so people in jail and we’re thinking those are the people they will potentially arraign with felony charges. We’re not sure so we’re looking at having to fight those and needing legal funds and bail money for those. There is a website: www.fundedjustice.com/stopspencermsu.

The last thing is that Spencer and his fascist friends and organizations first tried to come to Detroit this weekend and various people figured out where they were planning to gather and the venues instantly said they didn’t want to host fascists. They had to run to the next town over, Ann Arbor, and they were running around town trying to figure out the next thing to do and meeting in parking lots. They finally ended up getting an AirBnB and realized by then they were being run out of town. Over the last two days, including today during court, people went out to get coffee and there was Spencer in the café. People chased him and he ran off scared, back to his car. Spencer actually showed up to the jail last night to pick up some of his friends who were in jail and people were standing up to him again and scaring him off. So I think overall, we were really strong in saying “you’re not welcome wherever you go” whether that’s coffee or jail to pick-up your friends or speak. Like I said, I think we really came out of this with a really profound sense of strong, radical, reinvigorated sense of resistance and mutual aid.

Rebel Girl: What does Monday tell us about the state of the alt-right right now? And what about the state of antifascism?

Michigan Antifascist: At least, the white supremacists who like to be really performative are increasingly having trouble doing that. That doesn’t mean that white supremacy isn’t moving forward strong but, for that milieu, I do think that a lot more venues are not wanting to have anything to do with them. In terms of what it says for anti-fascists, I saw people dressed up from everything from anti-fascist black bloc attire, to dressed up like clowns, to what people look like in real life, to queer and proud and all sorts of in-between. So here in Michigan at least, in the Midwest, it’s really beginning to look like and say that everyone should be an anti-fascist.

One more example, there were some religious groups that in the past have been skeptical of anti-fascists organizing and this time they wanted to hold an event in a church for people who wanted to go there, but they were in no way trying to take people away from the actual rally and they were working in concert and wanted to be supportive. They felt it was good to have a diversity of tactics happening.

WEST VIRGINIA TEACHERS STRIKE—HOW TO SUPPORT AND SPREAD IT

Rebel Girl: The teachers’ strike in West Virginia is now the longest strike in West Virginia history. Despite the teachers’ strike being described by both government officials and union leaders as illegal, all public schools in the state remain closed as the strike is about to enter its third week. As we went to press last episode, the media was prematurely celebrating an end to the strike due to a deal drafted between union leadership and the governor, which would have had teachers back in school by March 1, but without having fully met any of their demands. This deal was quickly rejected in votes from the rank and file, not to mention the thousands of non-union teachers who have continued to hold it down on the picket lines or volunteering at food drives for students instead of going back to work.

In a move that is as telling of government’s priorities as it is a slap in the face to the striking teachers, on March 2, West Virginia’s senate unanimously passed a pay raise for correctional officers. Totally disgusting, but it didn’t dishearten the teachers from keeping up their strike. In fact, the inspiration from their strike only appears to be spreading.

On March 4, another statewide strike hit West Virginia—this time for workers at Frontier Communication, the internet provider in the state. It’s Going Down reports that, “over the weekend it also came out that there was significant talk about a statewide strike from teachers in Oklahoma. At least 25,000 teachers have joined a secret Facebook group calling for a statewide walkout… Teachers in West Virginia and elsewhere have been very excited about this, immediately linking up the #55Strong hashtag with #77Strong (referring to the number of counties in West Virginia and Oklahoma respectively).”

After deciding over the weekend to occupy the state capitol, workers flooded the capitol building in Charleston on Monday and sang Take Me Home Country Roads loud enough that the politicians deciding on their pay and insurance could hear them from inside the senate.

We caught up with an anarchist from West Virginia to hear about what, besides singing John Denver tunes, makes this strike in particular so unique and important.

Who are we speaking with?

Bloom: I’m Bloom I work with the Morgantown ultra-left network and I am also working with a newly founded group as a journal, Whither Appalachia–which is a journal, for a class-based analysis of Appalachia’s problems and future.

Rebel Girl: What makes this strike in particular so unique?

Bloom: In terms of organizing the strike, it didn’t start but was organized in a Facebook group for West Virginia teachers and education employees and, from there that was the easiest way of mass communicating. A lot of people point to the unions, but I think it is also notable that the union membership in comparison to the amount of teachers is relatively low. I forget, but there was an article in which union members said, “we listened to the teachers, they decided to strike, we just followed.” The teachers have mostly been organizing autonomously, the union tried to tell them “go back to work,” but they didn’t. They decided to strike anyways. Of course, there’s a lot of semantics about whether it’s a strike or a work stoppage because it does have the permission of the bosses, the superintendents, who have been letting them shut down schools and treating them as snow days which can be made up later. The only thing that is certain that the strike will continue until at least a demand is met.

I was in Charleston this weekend but everywhere else, a downtown area or school, there is stuff about the strike everywhere. You sit in a coffee shop and people are talking about it. You go to your class and people are talking about it. You go to an intersection somewhere and there could be a picket line. The strike is everywhere and it concerns just about everyone I know in the state. It could be because of the regional identity or it could be because we are in the periphery of a lot of American political discourse and we have once again been thrust in the center of it.

Rebel Girl: Have you witnessed any kind of political or class consciousness shifting through the course of the strike?

Bloom: There are definitely ways of changing class consciousness within the state. For one, people are generally more angry now at natural gas and the coal industry because they are keeping state legislature from getting a severance tax to pay the teachers more. So there was a lot of class hatred I’d say toward the natural gas and coal industry who all have the same history. There appeared to be more of an allegiance toward them as coal jobs dwindled, but now we are seeing people more and more turn their backs on these industries. Ultimately, those industries represent the capitalist, industrial class that exists in West Virginia. When people are beginning to question their role in West Virginia society and social order, I think that has a dramatic shift in consciousness.

Rebel Girl: We wanted to add something to what our comrade said about West Virginians losing trust in the coal and gas companies. On Monday, It’s Going Down reported, “Coal-mine owning governor Jim Justice also attacked the strikers, calling them “rednecks,” a remark that was answered by many strikers who donned red bandanas around their necks, a reference to the Battle of Blair mountain in 1921, and the “Redneck” mine wars. In these battles, mine workers waged armed insurrections against hired goons of the coal industry as well as with the US government, taking over entire towns in the process, while the government used troops against and dropped bombs on the insurgent workers.” This was the largest insurrection since the Civil War, and probably the closest the US ever came to wide-scale class war.

With this kind of rebel history rising up and taking root in the imaginations of workers in West Virginia, we wanted to share a call from the West Virginia Industrial Workers of the World on how to support the strike.

First of all, they encourage anyone within driving distance to come check it out for yourself. If you do go, they suggest bringing agitational materials, like zines from prole.info or the cool posters they published on It’s Going Down. Of course, funds are both needed and a morale boost for the strikers. In our shownotes you can find donation pages for both the West Virginia IWW and the official teachers’ strike fund. Lastly, you can support the strike by spreading the strike. The IWW calls on strike sympathizers to, “begin talking in your communities about how you can support this strike and learn from it, education workers in particular. If possible, organize mass meetings of education workers to talk about next steps in your area. We’ve already heard of this happening in other states! If you want to do this and aren’t sure how, contact us or your local IWW group.” You can keep up with them at wviww@protonmail.com, or on Twitter or Facebook at WestVirginiaIWW.

And while President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu discuss renewed sanctions against Iran amidst thinly veiled threats of nuclear war, rebel workers in Iran remind us that the exploited of all nations have more in common with each other than their leaders would have them believe. Over 3,000 workers from a steel plant in Ahvaz, Iran have been on strike over unpaid wages since the end of January. On February 24, steelworkers occupying their factory resisted eviction by police and satirically chanted, “Death to the worker, long live the oppressor.” Over the weekend, workers from the Haft-Tapeh Sugarcane Factory went on strike for overdue wages and the return of corrupt bosses to their previous posts. The workers blockaded two of the factory’s shareholders from leaving the building.

While last year’s Muslim ban would suggest that no one from Iran should be trusted, the teachers strike in West Virginia shows that the most immediate, material threat to American workers’ livelihoods is from their bosses and rulers. In fact, the striking teachers in West Virginia and the striking steel and sugar workers in Iran have far more in common with each other than they do with their respective “leaders,” and the sooner the poor, powerless, and exploited of every country realize that, the safer we will all be from the militaristic horrors ensured by governments and nation-states. Down with nationalism! Anarchy now!

NEXT WEEK’S NEWS

We’ll close out our episode with next week’s news, our list of events that you can plug into in real life.

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women’s Day, and anarchists in New York City have called for an anti-authoritarian contingent within the Women’s Strike there. Their call reads, “In light of the current social climate we are living in, where patriarchal ideologues are attempting to reassert their domination and sexism and rape culture permeate every sector of our society, from the oppressive and murderous institutions of government, to the cutthroat world of business and entertainment, to women and queer students still having to put up with frat houses normalizing and promoting sexual assault on college campuses, we are calling for anarchists and anti-authoritarians to show up at Washington Square Park, in New York City on March 8, 5:00 PM.

“We believe that anarchism is uniquely suited to be the solution to these problems, and as anarchists we need to make sure that we commemorate and make visible the many important sacrifices and contributions of the numerous non-male anarchists, anti-authoritarians, anti-colonialists and anti-capitalists throughout history and to this day.

“Show up with flags, banners, and whatever fun stuff you may think of. Wear all black if you like. Let’s confront the usual workings of capital and the police and be ready to defend against any fascist scum that may rear their heads, as they did last year, even injuring one protester’s forehead with a shard of wood while being protected by the pigs. Lets make sure that this time they don’t even get the chance.”

On March 13, folks in Portland, Oregon can catch a screening of the new episode of Trouble, Learning To Resist, which is all about student led rebellions around the world. The screening is at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, March 13 at the Social Justice Action Center 400 Southeast 12th Avenue.

March 15 is the 22nd annual March Against Police Brutality in Montreal. The march meets at 7:30 PM at Parc LaFontaine. For a spectacular preview of what might happen, just search for videos of the Montreal March Against Police Brutality on the internet, you won’t be disappointed.

From now until March 18, there’s a presentation on the J20 case touring the West Coast. The presentation describes the unprecedented nature of the case and the need to support the remaining 59 defendants, whose next trials are scheduled to begin in the coming month. This week, you can catch the tour at… The Pageant Theater in Chico, California at 7 PM, March 8; Organize Sacramento’s office in Sacramento at 5 PM, March 9; Station 40 in San Francisco at 7 PM, March 10; Hasta Muerte Coffee in Oakland at 5 PM, March 11; The Freight Building in Santa Cruz at 6:30 PM, March 13; and at 1811 Johnston Street in Los Angeles at 7 PM, March 14.

For more tourdates and details, check out @DefendJ20 on Twitter and Instagram, or e-mail westcoastj20tour@riseup.net.

Starting today, CrimethInc. will be embark on a speaking tour for their latest book, From Democracy to Freedom. This week, you can catch the tour at… The Mr. Roboto Project in Pittsburgh at 7 PM today, March 7; Guide to Kulchur in Cleveland at 7 PM, March 9; The Common Good in Bowling Green, Ohio at 6 PM, March 10; At 2424 S. Western Avenue in Chicago at 7 PM, March 11; The Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington, Indiana at 7 PM, March 12; The Flyover Infoshop in Carbondale, Illinois at 7 PM, March 13; and at Foam Coffeehouse in St. Louis at 3 PM, March 17.

If you’d like to arrange a presentation in your own town or at your university, just contact rollingthunder@crimethinc.com.

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief are also touring throughout the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic from now until May. They’re doing two dates per town, on the first day presenting Protectors vs. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism, and the following day hosting a more participatory workshop entitled Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness.

This week, you can find their tour in… Asheville, North Carolina at 7:30 PM on March 9 and 12 noon on March 10 at Firestorm Books & Café; In Boone, North Carolina at 6 PM on March 13 at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts; And in Wise, Virginia at 6 PM on March 14 at SAMS Community Center.

Go to MutualAidDisasterRelief.org to find details on all the tour dates from now through May.

For a preview of what will be discussed on their tour, check out the recent interview with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief on the IGDcast.

There’s a call for March 24 to the 27 to be an international offensive to free political prisoner and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. Supporters are calling on folks to take local actions to free Mumia, and for March 27 to pack the courthouse in Philadelphia. They are also calling on folks to call the DA at 215–586–8000 and tell him to release all police files on Mumia to the public. You can find out more at FreeMumia.com

The Southeast Trans and/or Women Action Camp will take place from April 26 to 29 in the smoky mountains of western North Carolina. The action camp is open to all trans and/or woman identified folks. Workshops will be offered on earth skills, conflict resolution, botany, tree climbing, direct action, anti-racist organizing, black leadership training, prisoner support, security culture, herbalism and much, much more! Organizers hope to receive attendees from rural Appalachia to southern cities.

You can find out more by e-mailing setwac@protonmail.com. Also, their donation page has been shut down twice, so if you have some bucks to spare you can donate at PayPal.me/setwac2018.

OUTRO

And that’s it for this episode of The Hotwire. As always thanks to Underground Reverie for the music, and thanks to Bloom and thanks to our comrade in Michigan for the interviews. Don’t forget to check out all the links, mailing addresses, and useful shownotes we customized for this episode at CrimethInc.com. We also have a twenty-nine and a half minute version of this episode there. Every Hotwire is radio-ready, so if you want to replay part or all of this show, just go for it! You can also send us news or announcements to include in the future by e-mailing us at podcast at crimethinc dot com.

Stay informed. Stay rebel. Plug into The Hotwire.