VABF Day 7: Ann Hansen on Prisoner Organizing and Working With Allies

The No State Solution: A Dialogue with Palestinian sociologist Mohammed Bamyeh and Israeli political scientist Uri Gordon

How can anarchist perspectives contribute to Palestinian liberation?

Professor Mohammed Bamyeh, Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh, is author of Anarchy as Order: The History and Future of Civic Humanity (2009)

Dr. Uri Gordon, author of Anarchy Alive!: Anti-Authoritarian Politics from Practice to Theory (2007), is an Independent scholar now based in the UK.

This event took place on the unceded Territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt in Victoria, BC Canada, and in the U.K. via Zoom on January 28, 2024. Sponsored by Camas Books & Infoshop, Anarchist Archive at UVic, Sunset Labs, Anarchist Network of Vancouver Island (ANVI)

An interview with Jordan House and Asaf Rashid, authors of the book Solidarity Beyond Bars: Unionizing Prison Labour. 

We discuss the background of the book, some historical and legal precedents, the pros and cons of right-based approaches, the core strategic arguments for a prisoners union, and an exciting new initiative by prisoners in Laval, QC to form a union.

If you're around Montreal, check out their upcoming book launch at Concordia University on Friday, November 24th.

With music from David Parker & Stefan Christoff.

On this special edition of From Embers, we’re sharing a reading of Under New Management: Resistance to Prisons in Ontario & Quebec. Originally published in 2018 on It's Going Down under the title Our Neighbors to the North, this article discusses the establishment of the Canadian prison system and highlights some examples of prisoner resistance in Ontario and Quebec over the decades, with an emphasis on the widespread unrest throughout the 1970s.

This AudioZine was first broadcast by CFRC Prison Radio in Kingston and has been edited and republished with permission. 

With music from Young Spirit, Christian Collins, Beatrice Deer and Cee Reality.

Our fediverse correspondent Lenny returns to discuss the FBI seizure of the servers of Kolektiva.social, the largest anarchist instance on Mastodon. We also talk about the continuing discrediting of big tech companies such as Twitter, Meta and Reddit, and what that might mean for people working to build an open-source, decentralized alternative to corporate social media platforms.

LINKS

Kolektiva.social Security Alert (Statement on seizure)

From Embers - Social Networks, Online Life and The Fediverse

From Embers - New Communication Infrastructure For Anarchists

F-91W Distro - Mastodon OPSEC guide

F-91W Distro - An anarchist introduction to federated social media

CrimethInc - Doxxing Prevention and Aftercare Guide

Anti-Hate.ca Story on Poast Leak

Reddit alternatives Lemmy & Kbin

With music from Deep Sixed

Talking with Louve Rose from P!nk Bloc Montreal about Quebec’s transphobic far right, drag defence, and building a revolutionary anti-capitalist queer organization for both community self-defence and to intervene against gay assimilationism.

Links

P!nk Bloc MTL – Instagram, Facebook, Linktree

August 12 Rad Pride (Facebook Event)

Montreal Antifasciste

MAF reportback from April 12 drag defence

From Embers - Anti-Fascism in Quebec

Revolutionary Trans Politics and the Three Way Fight

Submedia: Pride and Prejudice

Music

The Muslims - Fuck the Cistem

Interview with an anti-fascist observer about insights gained from the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings, a public inquiry into the federal government's use of the Emergencies Act to repress the so-called Freedom Convoy in February 2022.

We discuss why governments invoke emergencies, OPP's Project Hendon, how the Convoy was funded, the relationship between convoy organizers and police, comparisons with #ShutDownCanada, liberal conspiracy theories, the scale of economic disruption during the Convoy, and more.

Links

Public Order Emergency Commission

Our previous episodes on Yellow Vests Canada and the Freedom Convoy 

Ill Winds From Ottawa - Crimethinc report on the Freedom Convoy

Anarchist report from Ottawa during the Convoy

Music: Lee Reed

Note: Due to a technical glitch, this episode was removed, edited and re-published after it's initial release on January 11, 2023.

Interview with the author of the PET Guide, a zine discussing secure digital communication tools from an anarchist perspective. We discuss Signal and its critics, and some new tools being released that incorporate peer-to-peer communication, end-to-end encryption and the Tor network.

Further reading:

How the U.S. Military buys location data from ordinary apps

The challenge of cracking Iran's internet blockade

Catholic bishop / Grindr / App data scandal

Signal

Interview with new Signal president Meredith Whittaker

Signal Warning? Why Moxie's Departure Is Not The End Of Signal

Signal Fails

PET apps

Briar Project

Cwtch

A conversation with two anarchists following a workshop they gave at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair entitled 10 years since the strike: the place of nationalism within militant struggle. We discuss the history of Quebec nationalism and its influence in anarchist and radical milieus, responsibilities of settlers in anti-colonial struggle and in relating to land, possibilities and uncertain futures opened up by anarchism as a guiding practice, and more.

Further reading:

« Sauvage », « esclave » et « Nègres blancs d’Amérique » : hypothèses sur le complexe onto-politique québécois

Keshena Robinson - Québec Redux: Settler Coloniality and Reactionary "Decolonialism"

Robin Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - Rehearsals for Living

William C. Anderson - The Nation on No Map: Black Anarchism and Abolition

Tuck and Yang - Decolonization is Not a Metaphor

Sever - Land and Freedom

Music in this episode:

Cris Derksen - Our Home on Native Land, Fires

Kae Tempest - Tunnel Vision

Escaping Tomorrow's Cages is a six-part essay being published throughout the month of May that lays out the coming wave of provincial jail expansions in Ontario and propose a strategy for how they might be opposed. We spoke with 3 anarchists involved with the project.

All music in this episode is from the 2012 anti-folk opera "What The F*ck Am I Doing Here?" about anarchist participation in the 2012 Quebec student strike. Check it out on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/whatthefuckamidoinghere/sets/what-the-fuck-am-i-doing-here


Learn more about Divest McGill here: https://www.divestmcgill.ca/