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We (MUST) Keep Us Safe: An interview with a Long-Term, Anonymous Anarchist Comrade on Repression, Trauma, Security Culture, and Revolutionary Solidarity

The Final Straw Radio

Release Date: 01/12/2025

Mo on Knowing Your Rights and Risks With Police

The Final Straw Radio

This week we spoke with Moira Meltzer-Cohen, an anarchist and lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild who practices mostly in New York City. For the hour, Mo talks about knowing ones rights and risks during interactions with law enforcement in the US during Trump 2.0, why even scofflaws should know some basic Bill of Rights trivia, info on warrants and house visits, airports and borders, and the importance of face-to-face practice with local lawyers who know the legal precedents on the ground in your jurisdiction. Links NLG Anti-Repression Hotline: NLG website: CUNY CLEAR website: ...

An Anarchist View from Havana

The Final Straw Radio

This week on the Final Straw, we’re sharing another audio gift from comrades. Isbel Diaz Torres is a participant in the Taller Libertario Alfredo Lopez / ABRA in Havana, Cuba, recorded in late 2018. In this chat, Isbel talks about the ABRA which is the only openly anarchist organization in Cuba at the time, about the LGBTQ movement and abortion rights in Cuba, political discourse and difference, government co-optation, neoliberalism, animal rights, repression of dissent and the erasure of anarchist histor

"Anarchy In The Big Easy" with Max Cafard and Vulpes

The Final Straw Radio

This week, we spoke with author Max Cafard and illustrator Vulpes about their new book, . Among other topics, they discuss Cafard’s , the origins and production of the book, and what the media gets right and wrong about New Orleans. The book came out from PM Press on April 15, 2025. . ... . .. Featured Track: Four Corners (part 2) by Lee Dorsey from Four Corners EP

The Lives and Legacy of Martin Sostre (with Garrett Felber)

The Final Straw Radio

This week, we’re sharing an interview with Garret Felber, author of the book , out May 5 from AK Press. Garret speaks about the life of Martin Soster, famed jailhouse lawyer who successfully won cases related to the constitutional rights of prisoners, was politicized in prison by the Nation of Islam in the 1950’s, ran radical Afro-centric bookstores in Buffalo NY to radicalize the youth, embracing anarchism during his time imprisoned on a frame up during which he was a celebrated political prisoner resisting cavity searches through the courts, went on to organize after his release...

A Red Road To The West Bank (with Clifton Ariwakhete Nicholas and Franklin Lopez)

The Final Straw Radio

This week, an interview with Clifton Ariwakhete Nicholas and Franklin Lopez about about the film currently in production via , . The conversation covers some about relationships between the people of occupied Palestine and Kanehsatà:ke in so-called Canada, histories of settler colonialism and resistance of it. Clifton and Franklin are attempting to raise $10000 CAD for the film. PDF (Unimposed) - pending Zine (Imposed PDF) - pending Franklin also talks about his recently published kids book “The mega-adventures of ” that he co-created with his son. Links: (film by Clifton) ...

Former Uprising Defendant from ICE Detention (Ángel Espinosa-Villegas)

The Final Straw Radio

This week, we’re sharing an interview with Ángel, an ICE detainee currently incarcerated in Otero Detention Center in New Mexico. Ángel is a trans-masculine lesbian of Mapuche heritage, whose family moved hir to the US from Chile at the age of 7 and has lived undocumented since, attaining DACA status under Obama. During the 2020 George Floyd Uprising she pled guilty to charges related to arson of police vehicles in Little Rock, serving 15 months before moving to Chicago and where s/he was detained by ICE. Approaching 30 years old, the majority of which has been in the so-called USA, Angel...

Countering Dispossession in Casiavera, Indonesia (with David E Gilbert)

The Final Straw Radio

This week you’ll hear our chat with the author of , the political ecologist David E Gilbert (not to be confused with the former Weather Underground prisoner in the US). For this episode, David and I speak about the book, the small community in south Sumatra, Indonesia known as Casiavera, the legacy of colonial land grabs, the people who live there and the agro-ecology of the rainforest at the base of the Arin volcano. You can find more of David’s work at Links: by Via Campesina: Landless Workers Movement (MST): Sarakhat Patani Indonesia (SPI): Mentions of Tan Malaka in the...

A Left Trans Voice from Turkey + no Bonzo on Art and Anarchism

The Final Straw Radio

This week, we're sharing two segements. First up, you’ll hear comrades from Frequenz-A out of Germany speaking with Eylem Çağdaş, a trans woman and an activist from Istanbul about current protest, queer and feminist perspective, anarchist participation and needs of solidarity. This segment was featured in the April 2025 episode of Bad News: Angry Voices from Around The World, the monthly English-language podcast from the A-Radio Network, which will be available early this week, so keep an eye out in our social media and updated links in our show post. You can find more work by at...

Pushing Back On Flock Cameras with Kate Bertash

The Final Straw Radio

Kate Bertash of the Digital Defense Fund to talk about Flock cameras, automatic license plate readers, the ubiquity of ai-driven surveillance, databasing and storage of real-time info of people and vehicle movements in public and privacy fears being raised. Katie also speaks about organizing with her village-mates to counter or limit them and artful approaches towards resistance with her Adversarial Apparel project. Good Links: Articles on the subject: (Maybe visit with TOR or a VPN?) . ... . .. Featured Tracks: Somebody's Watching Me (Instrumental) by

Solidarity Collectives: 3 years into the Full-scale Russian Invasion in Ukraine

The Final Straw Radio

This week, we’re featuring an interview with Anton, a longtime member of Solidarity Collectives, a group that supports anti-authoritarian and anarchist activists involved in the resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as funding mutual aid projects for civilians and domesticated animals suffering or displaced by the invasion, bolstering left libertarian social movements during wartime, making propaganda and manufacturing FPV drones as well as a few other projects. In this ranging conversation we spoke for 2 hours covering issues of anarchists participating in military...

More Episodes

This week, we're featuring an anonymized chat with a longtime anarchist on lessons learned trying to stay sane while facing state repression. We talk about experiencing trauma, the need for strong relationships and movements offering shelter and strong alternatives to the alienated society of state and capital, while also speaking on the challenges of mental health and inviting in new participants in anarchist movement.

Chapters:

Introduction and Disclaimer [00:00:23]
Post-911/Patriot Act State of Heightened Repression and build up to today [00:02:29]
Navigating security amidst a post-social media and post-smart phone era [00:23:33]
Creating safer and more secure revolutionary communities that can better withstand the heat [00:31:02]
Recognizing and overcoming repression-based trauma on an individual and community level [00:40:02]
Supporting comrades overcoming mental health episodes (spiralling) amidst repression and burnout [01:09:13]
On infiltrators and the depths the state will go to inflict trauma, fish, and divide [01:15:57]
Recognizing the ‘severity’ of our position, and taking ourselves seriously [01:26:22]
Some tips on facing trauma or intimidation, or supporting others experiencing repression-related trauma [01:34:18]