Dec 4, 2016
This week, we air 2 interviews, one about the case of the Cleveland 4 and one with members of Unicorn Riot.
pt 1: The Cleveland
4
Firstly, we speak with Amanda Shemkes. Amanda does legal
support for members of the Cleveland 4. The Cleveland 4, or
CLE4, are 4 anarchists who're serving around a decade in Federal
prisons in the U.S. on charges of terrorism. Back story is
that Brandon Baxter, Connor Stevens, Doug Wright, Joshua "Skelly"
Stafford and Anthony Hayne were arrested on April 30th in 2012 for
attempting to blow up a bridge with the provocation of an FBI
informant named Shaquille Azir. The young anarchists had
coalesced during Occupy Cleveland as a group after encamping
together, being involved in food distribution and activism and were
targeted and entrapped by Azir who escalated their talk of direct
action to the bombing plot and provided them with work, housing,
drugs, alcohol, access to (fake) explosives and more. Anthony
Hayne took a cooperating plea deal with the Federal Government
while Brandon Baxter, Connor Stevens, Doug Wright and Skelly all
received sentences of around a decade each with terrorism
enhancements promising lifetime probation. Amanda talks about
their case, their time inside, government attacks on social
movements and how to support Brandon, Connor, Doug & Skelly, the
Cleveland 4. More on their case can be found at http://cleveland4solidarity.org
Also of note, Connor Steven's birthday is coming up on
December 17th, so send him a bday card! Same day is Chelsae
Manning's bday, actually... on that note, why not visit PrisonBooks.Info to see
political prisoner birthdays for this month and sign up to receive
the monthly calendar that the Prison Books Collective puts
out? No good reason, I reckon.
pt 2: Unicorn
Riot
Following this, we speak with volunteers with the non-profit,
radical media outlet Unicorn Riot. Founded in 2014, UR has
expanded from it's Minneapolis base to be present on the ground at
struggles around the U.S. covering events as they unfold with the
words of the people involved, documenting the brutality of the
state's reactions and bravery in the streets and the fields of
those resisting. As a platform, UR distributes regular tv
episodes, podcasts and features small news briefs as well as a
presence on social media. UR's coverage of the uprisings in
Minneapolis around the killings and lack of justice in the killings
of Jamar Clark & Philando Castille and more recently of the
struggles of Water Defenders at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota have
gone viral, increasing solidarity and pressed mainstream media
outlets to expand their coverage of these violent government
interventions. In this second half of the episode, the plucky media
rebels share their views on activism and journalism, on media
paradigms, their project and some of the resistance it's
participated in.
A quick postscript correction
Patrick misspoke a couple of times during the interview that we
didn't catch. Corrections are: 1.) When describing the drone rules
on Standing Rock, he meant to refer to no-fly rules from the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and not the FCC (which
oversees broadcast restrictions and allowances in the U.S.); 2.)
When Patrick talks about Niko being flagged down by police to
broadcast a police statement over Unicorn Riot, it was actually
during the Justice for Jamar Clark struggle, not in the aftermath
of the killing of Philando Castille.
Also, a tool noted by Wendy & Pat for research into government
coverup used by journalists these days: https://www.muckrock.com/
This week Sean Swain shares his thoughts on Fidel Castro and the
Cuban Revolution in light of Fidel's death last week. More
from Sean at http://seanswain.org
Announcements
Asheville Peace Vigil with Standing Rock
Tomorrow, Monday December 5th in Asheville there's a prayer and
vigil in Soldarity with Standing Rock as regards the struggle to
stop the expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline we'll be
talking about later in the episode. Folks are meeting at 6pm
at Pack Square. Bring an offering.
Anti-klan rallies in NC/VA
Also, big ups to the folk who went out to face off the kkk motorcade on Saturday the 3rd in Danville, VA & Pelham, NC. This time the KKK got their own stabby after the fact.
Tragic fire at Ghostship warehouse in Oakland
Of note, our hearts here at the final straw go out to those
suffering the devastating effects of the fire at the Ghostship
warehouse on Friday December 2nd during a 100% Silk party.
According to the most recent KGO-7 news out of San Francisco at 2pm
EST on Sunday the 4th of December, 24 victims have been found
inside the warehouse. A list of missing people has been
compiled in an article on heavy.com. Not all of
those pictured are known to be among the victims of Friday's
fire. To donate to relief funds, visit youcaring.com.
Playlist pending