Thu, 28 December 2023
At first, it appeared to be an ordinary forest defense campaign aimed at discouraging Atlanta city government from pouring money into an unpopular police training facility. But over the past two years, the fight against Cop City has escalated into one of the fiercest struggles of the Biden era, pitting a wide range of courageous people against a united front of politicians, prosecutors, and police. In their desperate efforts to deflect popular resistance and force through the project, police and prosecutors have pressed trumped-up domestic terrorism charges against almost every defendant arrested since last December; they have killed one forest defender; they have charged those engaged in legal support for the arrestees. In the following account and analysis, published on June 21st as “Living in an Earthquake: The Fight against Cop City Confronts Unprecedented Repression,” participants in the movement in Atlanta trace its trajectory from the fifth Week of Action that began on March 4, 2023 through the City Council vote of June 5. {December 28, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 104_Living-in-an-Earthquake-The-Fight-against-Cop-City-Confronts-Unprecedented-Repression.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:01pm PDT |
Sun, 10 December 2023
A so-called “anarcho-capitalist” has just been elected president in Argentina. What does this mean for anarchists and the prospects for revolutionary change in South America? Spoiler alert: it’s not looking good. In this episode, we share an account from an Argentinian anarchist analyzing the recent rise to power of Javier Milei, an extreme neoliberal economist, in the context of the global turn towards fascist and reactionary populist leaders like Trump and Bolsonaro. You’ll get an in-depth look at the history of center-left rule, military dictatorship, and neoliberal austerity that resulting in the powerful popular uprising of 2001, along with an detailed assessment of the economic challenges, disillusionment with the political class, and failures of the left and radical social movements that facilitated Milei’s rise. This is a disturbing but essential exploration of one of the year’s most important political developments, with critical implications for those of us fighting the culture and politics and fascism around the world. {December 10, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 103_The-Return-of-the-Ultraliberal-Right-in-Argentina.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:15pm PDT |
Tue, 28 November 2023
On November 13, 2023, demonstrators in southern California blockaded a facility of Raytheon, a defense contractor, in solidarity with the Palestinians on the receiving end of the bombs that it produces. They managed to block the facility for more than seven hours, supported by waves of hundreds of activists joining the action, and succeeded in shutting down operations for the day. This episode offers an audio version of How They Stopped Work at the Raytheon Facility: Report on a Day of Blockading, published on November 15th. Participants summarize how the action was organized and unfolded, police responses, the background of direct actions against the war machine and mobilization in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and reflections for future resistance. {November 25, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 102__How-They-Stopped-Work-at-Raytheon.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:09am PDT |
Mon, 27 November 2023
On November 6, 2023, several hundred people showed up at the Port of Tacoma in Washington State to block access to a shipping vessel that was scheduled to deliver equipment to the Israeli military. This episode shares an account and analysis of the action published on November 10th as “Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma: Reflections from the Salish Sea.” Participants review the history of port blockades in the Puget Sound, share their experience at the protest, and seek to offer inspiration for continued transoceanic solidarity. {November 23, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
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Thu, 23 November 2023
On April 19, 2023, a Russian anarchist named Dmitry Petrov was killed in battle near Bakhmut, Ukraine. In this episode, we offer a eulogy remembering Dmitry as an uncompromising anarchist fighter who participated in an unbelievable amount of radical activity around the region. His extraordinary life spanned anarchist organizing as a teenager in Moscow; environmental defense, radical unionism, and refugee solidarity activism; years of underground direct action against police, military, and profiteers from gentrification; participating in the Maidan protests in Ukraine, uprising against dictatorship in Belarus, and the struggle against the Islamic State in Rojava; co-founding the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization; and finally taking up arms against Russian imperialism in Ukraine. This episode combines an incomplete biography of his life in combat against all forms of hierarchy and domination, along with a translation of his text “The Mission of Anarchism in the Modern World,” a remembrance published by the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization titled “Dima Ecolog’s Partisan Path”, and a song inspired by his direct action. Join us in commemorating the life of a powerful anarchist comrade who will be dearly missed. {November 7, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
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Tue, 7 November 2023
As the Israeli bombardment of Gaza intensifies, with over 10,000 deaths recorded to date, it is more urgent than ever for people everywhere to take decisive action to stop the war machine. In this episode, we share the strategic reflections of a collective of Jewish anarchists based in the US on Palestinian solidarity. The authors propose a shift from making demands to taking direct action, relying not on appealing to the consciences of politicians but on concretely interrupting the functioning of the businesses and agencies that are enabling the slaughter. After offering historical context to Israeli settler colonialism and Palestinian resistance, this article connects the movement to defend the Weelaunee Forest and Stop Cop City to Palestinian solidarity struggles, and describes approaches used by different collectives involving targeting war profiteers and law enforcement/military exchange programs. A publisher’s afterward reflects on the uses and limits of tertiary targeting through reflections on the SHAC model and the Green Scare. Tune in for vital strategic reflections on what we can do from wherever in the world we’re listening to take action against militarism, displacement, and death in Palestine. {November 7, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 99_Strategizing-for-Palestinian-Solidarity.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:25pm PDT |
Wed, 1 November 2023
As the Israeli military escalates its slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and societies around the world fracture and clash over the conflict, we want to amplify anti-authoritarian voices from within the territory to share their experiences and analysis. In this short but moving account, we present the perspective of a Palestinian living in the north of Palestine, who speaks about different aspects of life under colonization and about the struggle for liberation through grassroots organizing and solidarity. {November 1, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 98_From-the-Galilee-to-Gaza_A-Voice-From-Palestine.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:29am PDT |
Fri, 6 October 2023
Prosecutors in Georgia have charged activists protesting against a planned police militarization facility known as "Cop City" with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has indicted 61 people on RICO charges. In this episode, we explore the ramifications of this more or less unprecedented stage of repression. {Oct 6, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 97_Understanding-the-RICO-Charges-in-Atlanta.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:33pm PDT |
Fri, 26 May 2023
This episode continues the Ex-Worker Podcast’s coverage of the movement to Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta, Georgia. In this episode, we present an audio version of The Forest In The City: Two Years Of Forest Defense In Atlanta, Georgia, originally published February 22, 2023, which continues the chronology of the movement whose origins we reported in episodes 85 and 86. In this eloquent and nuanced narrative, you’ll hear a detailed account of the movement’s second year, from the frenzy of activity in spring 2022 through the third and fourth weeks of action, waves of backlash and repression, and the tragic murder of forest defender Tortuguita, up to the eve of the March 2023 week of action. In addition to a chronology of developments and actions, the article shares insights learned by participants in the movement about relations with the media, the significance of music and the arts in social struggles, the importance of optimism and confidence, the risks of specialization, and many more aspects of revolutionary strategy. We encourage all of our listeners to learn what you can from this account, and to take action to support forest defenders and fight back against Cop City and its world. To learn more, be sure to check out the show notes and links, and stay tuned for forthcoming audio versions of more of CrimethInc.’s coverage of the struggle. {May 25, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 96_The-Forest-In-The-City_Two-Years-Of-Forest-Defense-In-Atlanta-Georgia.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:09am PDT |
Wed, 24 May 2023
On February 6, 2023, two powerful earthquakes hit southern Turkey and Northern and Western Syria, inflicting tremendous damage and killing tens of thousands of people. But there was nothing “natural” about this disaster: the lethal combination of negligence and repression imposed on the people of the region by the authoritarian regimes of the Turkish and Syrian states is directly responsible for the misery. This episode offers an audio version of the article “Disasters of State: The Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria”, originally published on March 16, 2023. It includes two texts, the first from supporters of the movements for liberation in the regions of Bakur and Rojava and the second from supporters of the revolution in western Syria. These offer different vantage points on how the Turkish and Syrian governments not only failed to protect their subjects but used this catastrophe as an opportunity to consolidate power and target their adversaries via neglect, blockading, and even bombing. Against the opportunism and violence of the state, we are inspired by the international grassroots mobilization with which communities around the world have responded to the earthquake. But in order for these efforts to succeed, we have to understand both the earthquakes and the state as aspects of the same catastrophe and take action against both of them. {May 23, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 95_Disasters-of-State-On-the-Earthquakes-in-Turkey-and-Syria.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:27am PDT |
Thu, 20 April 2023
In December 2022, a wave of popular protests led by campesino and Indigenous movements swept across Peru, including a nationwide mobilization in the capital. In response, the government has decreed a state of emergency, and the police have killed more than 60 people and injured thousands. For a direct view of these events, we spoke with Peruvian anarchists, hoping to get perspective on the aspects of this movement that exceed state politics. This episode narrates The Uprising in Peru, an interview conducted by comrades in Latin America with participants in Periodico Libertária, an anarchist publication based in the territory of Peru, originally published on February 19th. The comrades discuss the centrality of campesino and indigenous participation in the uprising, the brutality and racism of the police and their connection to the former dictatorship, the failures and opportunism of the political left, regional tensions across the Peruvian state, and different forms that anarchism takes in the region. (April 20, 2023) -------SHOW NOTES------
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Sat, 15 April 2023
In France, a powerful protest movement has erupted against the government in response to an attempt to raise the retirement age. Millions have gone on strike and poured into the streets in the most substantial unrest in France since the Yellow Vest movement. President Emmanuel Macron and his henchmen have attempted to crush this movement by escalating police violence to lethal extremes. In this episode, we share two recently published texts on the movement against Macron’s pension reform in France. In France: The Movement Against The Pension Reform—On The Threshold Of An Uprising?, published on March 22nd, we present an introduction and a translation of a French text, which explore the roots of the movement, an overview of its first phase, and an analysis of the issues at stake—which, our correspondents argue, goes beyond the democratic process or social benefits to a rejection of work itself. In France in Flames: Macron Attempts to Crush the Movement against the Pension Reform with Lethal Violence, published on March 30th, we offer a chronology of the events of the previous week, including a translation of an account by one participant in the brutally repressed demonstration at Sainte-Soline on March 25th and a statement from the parents of another who remains in a coma. As anti-government struggles with very different characters rage across the globe, from Peru to Iran to Israel, we’re doing our best to transmit reports from anarchists on the ground about what’s happening, about the possibilities and risks they present, and about how we can think critically about the currents of liberation inside of them. (April 15, 2023) -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 93_France-in-Flames_The-Movement-Against-Macrons-Pension-Reform.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:05pm PDT |
Wed, 12 April 2023
In this episode, the Ex-Worker presents an audio version of A Coup D’Etat In Israel? The Bitter Harvest Of Colonialism, originally published on March 27th. The article assesses the recent attempts by Israeli President Benjamin Netanhayu to strip power away from the judiciary, a power grab that has precipitated the largest protest movement in modern Israeli history. As our correspondent from the region argues, however, the crisis has emerged out of a conflict between competing elites and their respective colonial models. The article provides in-depth context behind the social rifts and political developments that led to the current showdown, and highlights the structural exclusions that make Jewish democracy in Palestine—i.e., ethnocracy—possible. While different sectors within the state of Israel clash over its future and a “reactionary international” supports the most extreme right-wing Zionist currents, determined Palestinian resistance to escalating genocidal violence on the other side of the wall shows that the struggle has many sides. Tune in for an in-depth anarchist analysis of a complex and critical struggle for the future of the Middle East and beyond. (April 12, 2023) -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 92_The-Bitter-Harvest-of-Colonialism-in-Israel.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:40am PDT |
Fri, 3 March 2023
<p>In Brazil, a three-way contest is unfolding between the far right in the streets, the institutional electoral left in the halls of power, and autonomous radical movements caught between them. When authoritarian president Jair Bolsonaro was narrowly defeated at the polls in October, a popular right-wing movement emerged to contest the election results, culminating in a protest in which Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in the capital of Brasilia. In this episode, we share two articles in which Brazilian anarchists analyze these developments: the first, published in October shortly after the election, assesses the limits of electoral strategies as pathways to social transformation or checks to fascist power; the second, published just after the right-wing attack on government buildings in January, analyzes the similarities and differences between the events in the US and in Brazil, and argues for the urgent necessity of autonomous direct action to counter both the limits of the left and the threat of the right. Anarchists in the United States and beyond can learn much from our Brazilian comrades as we strategize to push back against rising fascism in our own contexts. <ul> <ul>
Direct download: 91_Elections-Fascism-and-Popular-Resistance-in-Brazil.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:52am PDT |
Thu, 9 February 2023
Italian anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike for over 100 days, demanding his release from the brutal regime of solitary confinement and severe restrictions known as “41bis.” Despite the mobilization of anarchist and radical networks across Italy in solidarity, as well as actions in support across the world, the Italian state stubbornly refuses to acknowledge his protest, and Alfredo’s life is in severe danger. In this episode, we share three short pieces that introduce you to Alfredo Cospito, explain the context behind the hunger strike and the repressive prison regime in Italy, and describe anarchist efforts to challenge the state’s attempt to bury our comrade. We open with a short solidarity statement about the case, along with a translation of a statement by Italian philosopher Donatella Di Cesare titled “Release Alfredo Now—It’s a Question of Justice.” The episode concludes with an interview with a friend from Rome who locates the hunger strike and solidarity efforts in a broader context of anarchist activity in Italy and beyond. {February 9, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 90_Solidarity-with-Alfredo-Cospito-Italian-Anarchist-Prisoner-on-Hunger-Strike.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:21am PDT |
Mon, 6 February 2023
In this episode, we share an audio version of a recently published account from the history of anarchist struggles against fascism. On January 12, 2002, hundreds of neo-Nazis gathered in York, Pennsylvania to promote white supremacy. Anarchists and other opponents of fascism throughout the region mobilized to oppose them, making common cause with locals and sending the fascists packing in a clash that came to be known as “the Battle of York.” Twenty-one years later, a participant in the day’s events recounts the clashes and reflects on what has changed since then, comparing the events in York with those in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. This account is adapted from a memoir forthcoming on PM Press, entitled The Anarchist International. {February 6, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 89_The-Battle-of-York_January-2002_Anti-Fascism-Then-and-Now.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:11am PDT |
Tue, 31 January 2023
We’ve survived 2022—and with it, the ebb tide following the upheavals of 2019 and 2020. Both in the United States and around the world, this has been a year of challenges and reversals. In this episode, we offer an audio version of 2022 in Review: A Year to Endure, in which we revisit how we got here, explore the events of the past twelve months, and review our own efforts to contribute to movements for liberation. The year began with our warehouse in ashes, and ended with the world’s richest man personally banning us from Twitter, yet we managed to continue our coverage of the year’s major developments, ranging from the surge in anti-work sentiment and action to resistance to attacks on reproductive autonomy and gender self-determination to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and anti-war movement, and much more. We go into 2023 ready for the next round—and we hope you’ll be right there beside us. {January 31, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
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Mon, 30 January 2023
In November, CrimethInc. was banned from Twitter by Elon Musk, part of a concerted campaign by right wing trolls and the world’s richest man to shift global political discourse to the right. Why is this happening now, and what should we do about it? This episode collects three months of our writings and coverage of developments with social media as it enters a new phase of consolidation and cooptation. We open with an article published in October—before our ban—tracing the evolution of Twitter from a protest tool developed by anarchists for use at mass mobilizations into a corporate platform controlled by a right-wing billionaire. Next, we share the statement we issued when Twitter banned CrimethInc. from the platform, as well as a poster developed to take our response offline and into the streets. The episode concludes with Canary in the Coal Mine: Twitter and the End of Social Media, an in-depth analysis of how communications in movements for social transformation have evolved within the shifting landscape of technology, politics, and resistance in the past decades, concluding with suggestions for ways to take action beyond the nightmare of corporate social media. {January 30, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 87_The-Twitter-Ban-and-the-End-of-Social-Media.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:33pm PDT |
Sun, 29 January 2023
In this episode, we continue our coverage of the struggle to Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta, Georgia. While Episode 85 offered a history and analysis of the first phases of the movement, today we present a series of anonymous first person narratives from participants who describe their inspiring and transformative experiences in the forest, originally published in August 2022 as “Beneath the Concrete, the Forest.” The episode opens with the text of a solidarity statement we’re encouraging all listeners to sign with groups or as individuals, in response to the police’s murder of forest defender Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran. Around the US and escalating repression of the movement. {January 29, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 86_Stop-Cop-City-Defend-Weelaunee-Forest_Part-II-Accounts-and-Solidarity.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:31am PDT |
Fri, 27 January 2023
The Ex-Worker is back! Episode 85 introduces the history behind the struggle to Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta, Georgia. For nearly two years, a coalition of anarchists, abolitionists, environmental activists, indigenous communities, local residents, and supporters from all over has faced off against police, entertainment and construction companies, politicians, and media intent on destroying a beloved forest to build a police training compound and a film industry sound stage. Recently, the state has arrested over a dozen activists on absurd charges of “domestic terrorism,” and on January 18th, police murdered forest defender Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran. Around the US and beyond, folks are mobilizing in outrage against the killer police and the corporate and political power structures responsible for their murderous repression. In this episode, we present a long article first published in April 2022, titled The City in the Forest: Reinventing Resistance for an Age of Climate Crisis and Police Militarization, which combines a comprehensive history of the campaign to defend the forest with a strategic analysis that locates it in reference to the broader political context and other similar campaigns. Stay tuned for more coverage in Episode 86, including accounts from the forest and a solidarity statement you can sign to show support. {January 27, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------
Direct download: 85_Stop-Cop-City-Defend-Weelaunee-Forest-Part-I-History-and-Analysis.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:19am PDT |