Wed, 18 September 2019
On August 26th, riot police under orders from the newly elected right-wing government stormed and evicted four squatted social centers in the Exarchia neighborhood of Athens, Greece, in a serious attack on both precarious migrants and the anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements. In response, Greek anarchists have organized assemblies and demonstrations, while solidarity efforts have poured out from across the world. Both shaken and inspired by these events, the Ex-Worker podcast has emerged from hibernation to ask anarchists in Exarchia what’s going on and what needs to be done. This episode explores the situation in Exarchia through three interviews with anarchist residents of the renowned radical neighborhood. The first is an audio version of “The New War on Immigrants and Anarchists in Greece,” published on the CrimethInc. blog on August 28th, which gives an in-depth analysis of the evictions with historical context and insight into the dynamics of the Greek anarchist movement, supplemented by an excerpt from the 2015 piece “Syriza Can’t Save Greece.” The second is a long discussion with a squatter from the Lelas Karagianni 37 squat in Exarchia, the oldest squat in Greece and a central hub for assemblies and anarchist organizing in Athens; it touches on the role of the media and the previous Syriza regime in paving the way to this wave of attacks; the anarchist movement’s strategy for regaining the initiative from the state; and the significance of international solidarity. The third and shortest interview with the Void Network reports back on the September 14th anti-repression demonstration in Athens and reflects on the prospects for ongoing resistance. Tune in to learn more about this critical struggle to defend freedom and autonomy in an inspiring enclave of radical experimentation. {September 18th, 2019}
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Direct download: 65_Greek-Anarchists-Fight-Back-in-Exarchia.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:36am PDT |
Thu, 13 June 2019
Welcome to Episode 11, the final installment of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This episode concludes the book with personal reflections about the author’s own journey in and out of the desert and the unavoidable links that bind all of us across all borders. To become a real force for change, those who would act in solidarity must overcome the limits of privilege politics and guilt, understanding our activities as fighting for our own lives and dismantling the illusion of separation between ourselves and others. What links migrants, solidarity workers, and all people struggling to survive amidst the disorienting nightmare of postmodern civilization is the pursuit of dignity—a sentiment beautifully expressed in a message sent by Rachel Corrie, an American solidarity worker in occupied Palestine, to her mother in 2003 just weeks before she was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to stop a home demolition. Two final stories—one chilling and one touching—illustrate the astonishing peril of the desert even for experienced travelers, and the solace that unexpected alliances with creatures of the desert can provide for migrants and solidarity workers alike. Ultimately, the book concludes, to end death in the desert, to rediscover our own humanity, and to have any hope of our survival on this planet, there is one thing in common that we all must do—find our way back home. {June 13th, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-11_From-East-to-West-Part-II_Solidarity-and-Home.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:20am PDT |
Thu, 6 June 2019
Welcome to Episode 10 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. Over the past two months, we’ve explored the ins and outs of irregular migration across the US/Mexico border. Where does it leave us? As the crises produced by climate change and economic exploitations intensify across the world, revolutions turn in to wars, which beget tyranny, which in turn provoke revolutions. In this climate of escalating chaos, what can we do? This episode explores the meaning of revolution in the twenty-first century, looking at the forms it has taken and assessing what it would take to defend it today. The Zapatista struggle offers one of the most durable and promising models of autonomy we’ve seen in recent decades—yet the limits it has encountered point towards unavoidable contradictions facing those who wish to avoid warfare and bloodshed but also cannot defend their achievements against remorseless foes without the force of arms. A harrowing story about the siege of San Juan Copala, an indigenous community whose effort to secure autonomy from the Mexican state was brutally crushed, illustrates the agonizing dilemma that faces would-be revolutionaries today. This episode offers an unflinching look at the perils confronting those who would defy these global systems driving displacement and death, setting the stage for our final installment next week on solidarity and coming home. {June 6th, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-10_From-East-to-West-Part-I_Chaos-and-Order-and-Transformation.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:45pm PDT |
Wed, 29 May 2019
Welcome to Episode 9 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. The border doesn’t end at the border: the violent regime of citizenship constrains and ruins lives throughout the north, as a chilling story of a narrow escape from death makes clear. Yet this ongoing migration constitutes, against all odds, a powerful form of resistance that is changing the United States in unpredictable ways. This installment begins to explore what it might take to actually end death in the desert—which would also mean dismantling the global systems of exploitation, colonialism, white supremacy, and state power that lie at its roots. We can take inspiration and strategic guidance from some of the stories that appear in this episode, ranging from an extraordinary migrant whose ingenuity and determination helped him to survive multiple crossings against unthinkable odds to a team of civil disobedience activists whose simple action managed to briefly grind part of the migrant detention industrial complex to a halt. Listening won’t offer a single path, program, or tactic that’s guaranteed to work, but rather a way of thinking about resistance at multiple points of intervention that can start wherever you are. Whatever action you take, it’s time to take sides.
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-9_The-North.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:01am PDT |
Wed, 22 May 2019
No Wall They Can Build, Episode 8: Designed to Kill, Part II – The Border Patrol, The Game, and The Desert
Welcome to Episode 8 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This installment continues to explore the reality of border policy by taking a closer look at the agency that enforces it, describing the atrocities that its agents perpetrate and their mindsets to justify it. The Border Patrol is merely one of the largest and most vicious players in a game that brings lucrative profits to a host of players on both sides of the border, at the expense of the vulnerable migrants who are driven into the desert. The episode concludes with a discussion of the environmental landscape of the desert itself and a poignant reflection on its harsh beauty, envisioning the healing of the land when one day it will no longer be scarred by borders. {May 22, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-8_Designed-to-Kill_Part_II_The-Border-Patrol-The-Game-and-The-Desert.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:29am PDT |
Wed, 15 May 2019
Welcome to Episode 7 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. The Border Patrol, with its swollen budget and lavish technologies, clearly has the technical capacity to stop most, if not all, traffic across the border, yet their behavior seems to be at odds with their stated objective. This installment investigates the actual goal of border policy—which is not to end “illegal immigration,” but to control and manage it. While preventing this migration altogether would have catastrophic effects on the US economy, using selective enforcement to funnel traffic into increasingly remote areas while militarizing and hyper-policing certain areas maintains the labor supply while ratcheting up the profits to be made at every step in the process. A variety of stories—some heartbreaking, some hilarious—illustrate how this approach to enforcement impacts the lives of everyday people as they attempt to travel north into the United States. This episode identifies the various parties—both Republicans and Democrats, private prison and tech corporations, Mexican officials and cartels—who benefit from this counter-intuitive and cruel border policy… while reminding us of its horrific cost in human lives. {May 15, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-7_Designed-to-Kill_Part-I_Who-Benefits.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:03am PDT |
Wed, 8 May 2019
Welcome to Episode 6 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This installment investigates the three-tiered border and the process of crossing it, focusing on the places where the most deaths occur—southern Arizona and South Texas. The story of Arivaca, a small community of ranchers and hippies, shows how state arrogance and vigilante brutality turned the population towards solidarity with migrants. The complex politics of the Tohono O’odham reservation at Komkch’ed e Wah ‘osithk (Sells) reflect the fraught relationship between migration, colonialism, and the challenges facing indigenous communities today. The barren deserts and army base lands around Ajo mark some of the most grim and hazardous terrain of the entire border, while the recent surge in deaths around Falfurrias indicates the urgent need for further solidarity. Explanation of the actual mechanics of crossing the border, and the terrible perils faced by vulnerable migrants along the way, is supplemented by a poignant story about two flawed heroes of the desert. This episode paints a vivid picture of where and how migration into the United States actually happens, and the dangers stalking every step across the harsh landscape of the borderlands. {May 8, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-6_The-Border.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:59am PDT |
Wed, 1 May 2019
Happy May Day, everyone! Welcome to Episode 5 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. Having discussed the political and economic forces that drive migration north, this week’s installment examines how people get from Central America to the US/Mexico border. The routes vary in risk and cost, and are stratified depending on a traveler’s wealth and nationality, from navigating the expensive and infuriating process of attempting to secure a visa to braving La Bestia, the notoriously dangerous freight trains heading north. Some hazard the northeastern route to Reynosa through Zetas cartel territory, while many traverse the northwestern route to Altar through Sinaloa cartel lands and towards the Sonoran desert. The “unaccompanied minors crisis” of 2013–2014 serves as a case study for how the machinations of powerful states, cartels, and corporations can impact the lives of migrants. Understanding the dynamics of border crossing requires an in-depth look at the economics of the marijuana trade, concluding with a thought-provoking analysis of politics of drug legalization and an unflinching look at the customs and border patrol corruption that makes the trade possible. This episode reframes our understanding of the multi-stage process of migrating north and the power relations and economic imperatives that shape the experiences of migrants as they set off into the desert towards the United States. {May 1, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-5_The-Trip-and-The-Product.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:20am PDT |
Wed, 24 April 2019
Welcome to Episode 4 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This week’s installment continues the previous episode’s exploration of the conditions south of the border that drive migration north by surveying the situation in the three countries of the “Northern Triangle.” Guatemala’s malnourished, heavily indigenous population languishes in poverty under oligarchic rule, the legacy of centuries of colonialism and a devastating civil war. Our narrator analyzes the numerous problems plaguing the country and examines the unfinished struggle for freedom and dignity that prompted the war, including its impact on global revolutionary imagination through its influence on the Zapatistas. The horrifying levels of violence in El Salvador trace their roots both to economic pressures and to US support for the former reactionary military regime during a bloody civil war. The section concludes with a hair-raising anecdote about the guerrilla movement’s creative revenge against a genocidal army officer. A brief note on the profound dysfunction of Honduras, stemming from the structure of North American economy, is followed by a discussion of the tensions between these four Central American nations and their inhabitants. This episode rounds out our picture of the recent history of the region and the dynamics that push people from their homelands on the perilous trip towards the US/Mexico border. {April 24, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-4_The-South_Part-II_Guatemala_El-Salvador_and_Honduras.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:58am PDT |
Wed, 17 April 2019
Welcome to Episode 3 of No Wall They Can Build, the Ex-Worker Podcast’s serialized audiobook exploring borders and migration across North America. This installment begins exploring the conditions south of the border that drive migration north by exploring the recent history and economy of Mexico. As NAFTA’s “free trade” policies impoverished and displaced millions, border militarization altered previous patterns of seasonal migration and established a permanent undocumented underclass of millions in the United States. The author cuts through myths around the “drug war,” helping to explain the complex web of players from the Sinaloa and Zetas cartels to the Mexican state and the social movements that contest them both—and how the situation might be transformed, if US drug and immigration policies changed. The episode concludes with an inspiring story of the determined and colorful resistance to state violence by the community of San Salvador Atenco. This episode provides a brief introduction to the fierce, many-sided conflicts across Mexico resulting from the actions of the US government and exacerbated by the Mexican state and cartels, but always contested by popular forces. {April 17, 2019}
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Direct download: No-Wall-They-Can-Build_Episode-3_Mexico_Part-I_The-South.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:06am PDT |