Rebel Girl: April 4, 2018: Teachers wildcat in Kentucky and strike in Oklahoma, Sacramento stays rebel against police oppression, an interview with an anarchist from Israel about the recent killings in Gaza, students confront a speaker ban in Ohio, while black students in Parkland demand to be heard, we reflect on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and we have a ton of announcements for upcoming bookfairs, gatherings, and protest mobilizations on this episode of…   The Hotwire.   A weekly anarchist news show brought to you by The Ex-Worker.   With me, the Rebel Girl.   A full transcript of this episode with shownotes and useful links can be found at our website, CrimethInc.com/podcast. You can subscribe to The Hotwire on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, just search for The Ex-Worker. You can listen to us through the anarchist podcast network Channel Zero, or on your radio’s dial in… Eugene, Oregon every Sunday at noon on KEPW 97.3, Fairbanks, Alaska Saturday mornings at 9 on KWRK 90.9 and in Tacoma, Washington every Friday at 9 AM on KUPS 90.1. Every Hotwire is radio ready, and in our shownotes you can download a twenty-nine and a half minute version of this episode for standard radio timeslots. If there’s a story or upcoming event you’d like us to include in a future Hotwire, just hit us up at podcast[AT]crimethinc[DOT]com.   And now for the headlines…  

HEADLINES

On March 30, students shut down a Joe Arpaio campaign event in Prescott, Arizona, using street theater and chants. Arpaio is the infamously racist ex-Sherriff of Maricopa County who went beyond the law to lock up migrants. After only speaking for five minutes, Arpaio abandoned the stage while his Oathkeeper militia goons harassed student protesters.

Students also got rowdy in small-town Athens, Ohio, where Ohio University is proposing to ban certain kinds of demonstrations on university property. At a recent hearing, anarchists showed up with banners that read, “We don’t need your permission, you can’t silence dissent,” and “Become Ungovernable.” They also chanted “Cops and Klan go hand in hand, drop the fucking protest ban!” while managing to take as many cookies as possible from the event.

Folks in Missoula, Montana dropped a banner that improved on our recent pamphlet about gun control, reading “No Gun Control, We Need To Take Control. Arm The Oppressed!”

And in Florida, some nocturnal heroines splashed red paint all over the Trump International Golf Club sign just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago. Bravo!

Last week we left out some important details on March 25’s fascist march and anti-fascist counter-protest in Hamilton, Ontario. That day, folks at The Tower anarchist social center had received intelligence that attendees of the “Patriot’s Walk” were planning to attack their space. Fascists from the Proud Boys and the Soldiers of Odin showed up twice, but anarchists from the Tower had prepared, invited comrades to defend the space, and had each others’ backs, even as the Proud Boys tried to fight their way into the space, which they were repelled from doing. We love you The Tower.

In Montreal, anti-fascists gathered intelligence on neo-Nazi Soldiers of Odin members and retaliated for their attempted recruiting on St. Patrick’s Day. The anti-fascists destroyed three Soldiers of Odin members’ cars in nighttime attacks.

Anti-pipeline resistance is going strong across Turtle Island, even as a new law criminalizing water protector actions was introduced in Louisiana. The law raises the possible sentences for trespassing on oil infrastructure sites or damaging them, and it specifically equips the state to charge people with conspiracy for such actions.

Despite this, the L’eau Est La Vie camp in Louisiana has been tweeting out almost daily disruptions of construction on the Bayou Bridge Pipeline.

In southwestern Giles County, Virginia, the Earth First! Newswire reports, “Anti-pipeline activists erected an aerial blockade across an access road in the Jefferson National Forest. The blockade prevents state vehicles and Mountain Valley Pipeline personnel from accessing the two treesits on Peters Mountain, and halts the daily construction of a 7-mile road… One pipeline fighter sits atop a lone 50-foot log attached to nearby trees with a banner that reads, ‘The Fire is Catching, NO PIPELINES.’”

In Nova Scotia, private security hired by Alton Gas tried to serve trespassing warnings to Mi’kmaq water protectors at the Treaty Camp, an ongoing blockade of Alton Gas infrastructure. Water protectors weren’t having it though—pssh, how you gonna say they’re trespassing on stolen indigenous land? Fake ass pigs.

We’re saddened to announce the passing of Paul Z. Simons, longtime anarchist, journalist, and author. Paul possessed a playful spirit, an uncompromising love of life, and equally uncompromising hatred for authority—be it from the right or the left.

Recalled by his eldest daughter as “a uniquely intelligent writer, traveler, idealist, and fire-breathing anarchist,” Paul participated in some of the most inspiring thinking and action of the past forty years. He reported firsthand from the front lines of social conflicts in Greece, France, and Brazil, never hesitating to subject himself to great risk or set off on a romantic adventure in pursuit of his ideals and desires. He also wrote on everything from theater to the history of various insurrectionary struggles. In 2015, Paul published “Rojava: Democracy and Commune” with us about his experiences visiting Rojava and participated in the dialogue that produced our book From Democracy to Freedom. 

We are not equipped to properly write his eulogy, but we hope others will, and now that he is no longer able to speak to you himself, we urge you to read the materials he left behind. You can find a list of them on our page about him at crimethinc.com.

On Friday, tens of thousands gathered on the border of Gaza to demand Palestinian refugees’ right to return to land that is now occupied by Israel. Israeli security forces killed 17 Palestinian demonstrators, and injured hundreds more. For more, we interviewed an anarchist from Israel.

Uri Gordon: This is Uri Gordon and I am an anarchist commentator on Palestine and Israel, and co-editor of the book Anarchists Against the Wall: Direct Action and Solidarity with the Palestinian Popular Struggle.

I’m gonna give you an update about recent events in the Gaza Strip. Today, Tuesday, the number of Palestinians killed in demonstrations near the border fence went up to 19 according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Today the Israeli military shot a 25-year-old Palestinian man to death in the central Gaza Strip. The man—identified as Ahmed Omar Arfa from the city of Deir Al-Balah—was injured in the chest after being targeted by live fire near the border fence just east of the refugee camp of Bureij. And on Friday, 30,000 people participated in mass demonstrations next to the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. In those demonstrations, 17 people were killed and since Friday, over 800 people have been injured including by live ammunition. This killing of protesters has already caused waves of criticism both in the Palestinian Authority, among the Israeli left and in the world. The U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on Saturday to open transparent and independent investigation of the killing of Palestinians in demonstrations, but the U.S. has blocked a Security Council resolution calling on Israel to do that. There’s also been some exchange of accusations between the Turkish President Erdoğan and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, where Erdoğan declared in a rally that Israel had conducted a massacre in Gaza and Netanyahu was a terrorist, and Netanyahu answered him that Erdoğan was not used to being answered, and he told him that he himself was massacring civilians in Afrin so he shouldn’t preach to us, said Netanyahu. In any event, the Israeli military clarified yesterday that they would not change the rules of engagement, as they call them in the Gaza Strip, and will continue to use live fire against those who come close to the fence.

Let me just emphasize one thing, that the number of people killed since Friday is about the same as the number killed over a year or so in a similar manner, either coming close to the fence or in fishing boats coming close to Israeli exclusion zones that are enforced by the navy. So every two, three weeks on average a Palestinian is shot and killed by the Israeli military. So this is I think an attempt of forces in Gaza to amplify this reality through an unarmed popular demonstration—they would only have stones, and a few Molotovs there, but it was an unarmed popular demonstration. It’s also an amplification of the kind of popular demonstrations that have been happening in the West Bank against the segregation barrier and the settlements, but here on a much higher level of violence.

Rebel Girl: The epic wildcat strike that West Virginia teachers won last month has been inspiring similar actions across the country. On Friday, teachers in Kentucky began calling in sick en masse, and Monday saw thousands of teachers walk off their jobs in Kentucky and Oklahoma, with teachers showing up in droves to their respective state capitals, demanding change. 

In Kentucky, teachers, who don’t qualify for social security, are striking over an uncertain future, as the state legislature is rabidly pushing changes to their pension funds without consulting the public. In Oklahoma, politicians tried to placate striking teachers by offering them an additional $6000. They rejected it, and in a show of actually not leaving children behind, teachers are not only demanding wage increases, but also increased funding for schools and supplies. They’re also demanding raises for support staff, like bus drivers and custodians, illustrating well what solidarity really means—that we don’t rise alone. 

There are several things that makes these strikes so exciting, foremost-they’re spreading like wildfire-first West Virginia, then Oklahoma and Kentucky, and rumor has it that Arizona may be next. Also, these are mostly wildcat strikes-where the strike isn’t sanctioned by the union or the union is left scrambling to get on board as their members push for change. This shows that union members are fed up with trade union bureaucracies that hold members back from acting while not winning gains on their behalf. Lastly, on Monday in Oklahoma, union Iron Workers also went on strike for the day in solidarity with teachers, showing that working class solidarity has the potential to build. 

We here at the Hotwire are keeping our fingers crossed that people, in all working sectors, continue to realize that power lies in numbers and that that the strikes keep spreading. Ultimately, politicians won’t take care of us, we have to take care of each other, and in the words of one Oklahoma teacher. “We’re not just walking out for ourselves anymore—we’re walking for everybody”

Check out itsgoingdown.org for more in-depth coverage as the strikes unfold.

Today, April 4, is the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Schools and mainstream media will freeze him as a hero in history, suggesting that his struggle is over—but here at the Hotwire, we know that without continued resistance and combative memory, the gains made by social movements will eventually be eroded by the underlying white supremacist logic of capitalism and the state. School segregation is as bad today as it was in the 1960s, one million Black people are held hostage behind bars, police continue killing Black people with impunity, and any supposed reforms just get used against the people they’re alleged to help. Take police bodycams for example, and how they are used as extra surveillance for police when it suits them, yet they “lose” the tape or turn off the recording when it doesn’t, like they did with Stephon Clark. Even social movement heroes get used against us—MLK’s legacy gets boiled down to dogmatic non-violence and used to hamper social movements’ strength rather than build it.

We don’t want to get into evaluating Dr. King’s personal beliefs and accomplishments—for that, Democracy Now or even Vice probably have a decent, generally leftist take on his legacy. Rather, we would like to remember Dr. King’s platform as built on a foundation of countless autonomous Black freedom organizations, civil disobedience campaigns, and plenty of righteous and often violent rebellions. Many know about Dr. King’s Birmingham campaign and children’s crusade of 1963, but what often doesn’t make it into the official history is the following excerpt from Dixie Be Damned, “The fragile approach of strict nonviolence fell apart: upon seeing cops attack children, the crowds of onlookers began hurling bricks and bottles at the police.” Just days later, feeling the pressure of “the economic boycott, the bad publicity, and the threat of another outbreak of Black violence,” white Birmingham business leaders agreed to meet most of King’s campaign’s demands. Years earlier, King had attempted a similar campaign elsewhere in Alabama, but its solely non-violent approach was unsuccessful.

While it’s convenient for the government, the school system, and mainstream news to use Dr. King as a shorthand for the whole civil rights movement, it was perhaps most obvious fifty years ago today, after Dr. King’s assassination, that there was a multitude of other politics and approaches at play in the Black freedom struggle.

As soon as news of King’s assassination reached the nation, Black people in cities across the US took to the streets in anger and outrage, often confronting police. It was the largest urban uprising in US history. Over 15,000 were arrested nationwide. Some of the most notable looting and burning took place in Chicago, Harlem, DC, Baltimore, Louisville, and Cincinnati. In the week after, [more traditional demonstrations and marches took place all over, as well as Black worker strikes.

When these urban uprisings get mentioned, they’re often depicted as an ugly contrast to Dr. King’s dream of non-violence, but these were political rebellions too. Just listen to this interview from The Ex-Worker #53 about the riots in DC after Dr. King’s assassination.

Marshall Brown: I’ll give you a thing that you should chew on. There was the Safeway, and there was a thing called Giant. Not one Giant got burned down, but yet the Safeways got burned down. Giants were the only huge food chain that would hire young Blacks to bag their groceries. So they were never touched. They were never touched by certain people for a lot of reasons. There were certain liquor stores that got by and never touched, because the owners were very friendly with the neighborhoods. Then you had others who just took the money and went out to Maryland or Virginia. 

Rae: So it wasn’t just mindless destruction? 

Marshall: No, no, no. That’s the way they try to portray it, as if it’s just…and that’s why I call it a rebellion. And I can back it up with facts, because I was here and I participated and I burnt and I threw stones through windows. I did all that.

Rebel Girl: That rebellion, by the way, was the first time people were charged with the rioting law now used against the J20 defendants.

In so many ways, fifty years on from Dr. King’s death, much hasn’t changed. We’ll close our segment on Dr. King’s assassination with a clip from a Sub.Media interview with anarchist panther Ashanti Alston, describing why so much hasn’t changed despite so much struggle, and why it will take all-out revolution to overthrow white supremacy.

Stimulator: So, it’s 2014, we have a Black president, and white cops are still killing young Black men.

Ashanti Alston: For me the reason is very simple. White cops will continue to shoot Black and Brown people and poor people because this country was built on the back of Turtle Island. And they built an empire and you need a force to keep that empire going. They have to continually use legality, policing, every institution even education and religious to keep those people on the bottom down—which, you’re talking about native folks, you’re talking about Black folks and others. But because we are in the position that Black people are in in this society, in the cities, and what has been done to us, we’re considered so dangerous and police have been given that kind of permission to shoot us down. It’s what they’ve done ever since there’s been police. So what happens to the Michael Browns in Ferguson and the Amadou Diallos and all the others is what policing is supposed to do in maintaining a reign of terror over those who they have crushed.

It’s not a surprise to me—the only thing that has surprised me about Ferguson is how long this resistance has lasted and a few other things that seem to be unique about how this resistance from the ground has been happening.

Rebel Girl: While we’re on the topic of collapsing complicated, multitudinous movements for black freedom into a single brand or leader, we were inspired by a recent announcement from Black Lives Matter Cincinnati on how the formal Black Lives Matter organization has let down the popular movements who use the BLM slogan:

“We originally took the name, inspired by a rising movement for Black liberation, manifested through spontaneous actions breaking out after the killings of Mike Brown, Jr., and Trayvon Martin. People chanted ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!’ and ‘Black Lives Matter.’ This was before any serious national structure and unified platform existed. We felt — in that context — we had the right to try to champion the name and give it the meaning worthy of the people it claims to support and defend.

“But we can no longer use or identify with the name Black Lives Matter — a rally cry that still has meaning, even if perverted by those pushing it as a brand. The depth and scope of betrayal of struggles against police brutality and the families fighting for their loved ones is too great. The continuous shift towards electoral and liberal Democratic Party politics and away from revolutionary ideas is too great… The possibilities to build a truly independent movement on a national scale for Black liberation are too ripe.

“BLM did not create or build this new grassroots movement against police brutality and racism; they capitalized off a nameless groundswell of resistance sweeping the nation, branded it as their own… All the while raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from high-end speaking engagements and donations from foundations that support the Black struggle (or want to co-opt it).”

Until you have a new name, we just want to say, “Hell yeah Black Lives Matter Cincinnati.” It’s so refreshing to hear from folks who don’t want to turn the power that’s been built in the streets back over to Democratic politicians, especially as the post-Parkland student movement that began with walkouts becomes more and more a get-out-the-vote-a-thon for Democrats.   On Thursday, March 29, hundreds of students using the hashtags #StudentPower and #HUResist began occupying the administration building at Howard University in Washington DC. Last week, a student whistleblower at the historic Black university alleged that employees embezzled nearly one million dollars in financial aid. However, the students’ demands transcend solely financial aid or even university concerns, and include things like combating food insecurity and gentrification in the neighborhoods by the school, the disarming of campus police, a mandatory one-credit course on consent and rape culture, and immediate resignation of the university president. As we go to press, the occupation is ongoing, and you can support it by sending pizzas to the administration building at Howard University, although the students have renamed it the Kwame Ture Student Center.

In Sacramento, California it’s been a week of non-stop protest over the March 18 police murder of unarmed young Black father Stephon Clark. Last Tuesday, protesters blocked thousands of ticketholders from entering an NBA game at the Sacramento Kings stadium, while a group of demonstrators burst into a City Council meeting, where Stephon Clark’s brother jumped onto the council’s dais, chanting his brother’s name in front of stunned politicians. On Friday, the autopsy of Clark’s body found that police shot him six times in the back. The following day, a large protest was organized in part by a former pro-basketball player and featured at least one current Kings player in attendance. That evening, a Sacramento pig ran a Sherriff’s cruiser into marchers and then drove off, injuring one 61-year-old local activist who had to go to the hospital. Police are murderers and cowards.

Solidarity demonstrations have taken place around the country, including Baltimore; Charlotte, North Carolina; Phoenix, Arizona; and a particularly spirited march last Wednesday in New York City, where fearless young protesters took over Times Square and blocked traffic, despite the NYPD making arrests.

Since Stephon Clark’s murder, at least 49 people have been killed by law enforcement, and over the weekend it was announced that no Baton Rouge cops will be charged over the 2016 shooting and killing of Alton Sterling, despite recently released police bodycam footage that shows officers pulling their guns and threatening his life immediately upon arriving on the scene.

No wonder the Black survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting feel less safe at the prospect of increasing the number of school cops, as they stated in a March 28 press conference about how the concerns of Black students and students of color have been overlooked. 17-year-old Parkland student Kai Koerber was quoted saying “It’s bad enough we have to return with clear backpacks, should we also return with our hands up?”

REPRESSION ROUNDUP

  Rebel Girl: In this week’s repression roundup…    The next J20 trials are scheduled to start in less than two weeks, with one beginning on April 17 and the other on April 23. Consider coming to DC to pack the courthouse and show support. There was a call-in campaign to drop the charges for the remaining J20 defendants that just ended yesterday, but it probably wouldn’t hurt if you wanted to call the prosecutor’s supervisors at (202) 252–7485 or (202) 252–7274 and remind them how ridiculous the J20 case is. There’s also a day of solidarity announced for April 10, for which we have a new printable poster available at Crimethinc.com. Keep up with DefendJ20 on Instagram and Twitter for updates and announcements about local events.

Although DeAndre Harris was acquitted last month on his absurd charges incurred at Charlottesville’s Unite the Right Rally, supporters are still asking for help for Corey Long and Don Blankney. Corey and Don are both African-American men local to Charlottesville that are still facing charges for defending their community against violent neo-Nazis and the KKK. You can call the Commonwealth Attorney at 434–970–3176 to demand they drop the charges against Corey Long and Don Blankney.

On March 30th, the trial for eight of the Tarnac 9 concluded in the Criminal Court of Paris with a judgment to be rendered on April 12th. The Tarnac 9 were arrested in 2008 for alleged sabotage of French railways. The government maintains that one of them also authored the best-selling call-to-arms The Coming Insurrection.

Peike, one of the first G20 prisoners from the riots that rocked Hamburg last year, has appeal hearings on all the Thursdays throughout April, except for the 12th. When Peike went in, prisoners on his block shutdown their wing and made a roaring ruckus to welcome him, so let’s show him as much love as we can on the outside too. Those near Germany can attend Peike’s appeals hearings at the courthouse in Hamburg, Germany.

Long time Black Liberation Army political prisoner Herman Bell was granted parole several weeks ago. However, this action has been met with backlash from the Police Benevolent Association, other cop unions, New York City Mayor De Blasio, and New York Governor Cuomo. Supporters are still asking folks to call Governor Cuomo at 518–474–8390 and express support for the parole board’s decision, or tweet at him at @NYGovCuomo on Twitter.

Robert Seth Hayes, one of the longest-held political prisoners in the U.S., who was active in the Black Panther Party and, later on, formed the Black Liberation Army, is in the infirmary and is need of support. The Jericho Movement reports that people can call the superintendent at Sullivan Correctional Facility and demand that Robert Seth Hayes be taken immediately to the Albany Medical Center. Superintendent Keyser’s number is 845–434–2080.

In what is a sign of the times, both the Chilean and Greek governments are using anti-terrorism laws—to crack down on indigenous activists in Chile and against anarchists in Greece. Newly inaugurated Chilean President Sebastian Piñera is using the reformed Antiterrorism Law to target indigenous Mapuche activists fighting for their ancestral, unceded land. Piñera signed the law into effect days ago – in front of a slew of businessmen and police – and the administration is already using it to send in military-style police to attack and arrest unarmed protesters in Mapuche regions.

In Greece, five anarchists were recently sentenced to prison on sentences ranging from 5 to 27 years. The prosecutor suggested that just being an anarchist is enough to characterize a person’s acts as “terroristic”, and that if a person is not a member of a group, they act as “lone wolves.” Act for Revolution reports that this is the first time in Greek court history that the article about “individual terrorism” is being used on anarchists.

We’d like to wrap up this week’s repression roundup with a poem written by comrades of Şevger Ara Makhno, an anarchist from Turkey who died one month ago today while fighting alongside The Antifascist Forces in Afrin.

How many tears one can cry? Those tears alone could move back the waters Of the Tigris and Euphrates way back to their springs And then up again to the foothills of Ararat

Into how many bits a heart can be broken? With shaking hands we will collect them Those shattered bits will become our teeth, So we can still bite If we have nothing else.

The warrior’s heart was burning with passion Its glow joined with the Newroz fires Forever will it light the nights So we can see the path to freedom And walk it with our heads up.

That fire is heating up our hearts With rage so hot that it could melt out of one’s chest.

Nightwalker, you’ll walk with us. They can never kill you.

And while passion will melt their tanks The tears—they will turn the desert green.

NEXT WEEK’S NEWS

  We’ll close out our episode with political prisoner birthdays and next week’s news.    April 11 is the birthday of Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, a former Black Panther Party member who has been in prison for nearly 50 years.   Writing to Chip will only take you a few minutes, but it could be the highlight of his week. We have his mailing addresses in this episode’s shownotes at Crimethinc.com/podcast, as well as a link to a beginner’s guide to writing prisoners from New York City Anarchist Black Cross.   And now, next week’s news, our list of events that you can plug into in real life.   There are protests over the police execution of Stephon Clark tonight at 6 PM at the police headquarters in Roxbury, Boston, and on Saturday, April 7 at 6 PM in Westlake Park in Seattle.

This weekend, from April 6–8, there’s an Anti-Colonial & Anti-Fascist Community Defense Gathering in Flagstaff, Arizona. Workshops include anti-fascism and security culture, practical Taekwondo, a discussion on anti-fascist and anti-colonial intersections and tensions, and a people of color only workshop on indigenous revolutionary doctrine. Registration is required, so go to taalahooghan.org/cdg to sign up and see the full list of workshops.

There’s also the Opening Space for the Radical Imagination conference this weekend at Oregon State University in Corvallis. More than a few anarchist-sympathetic speakers, like Walidah Imarisha and Hillary Lazar are speaking, and you can find out more at OregonImagines.com.

Also this weekend, there’s the fourteenth Zagreb Anarchist Bookfair in Croatia. For more info in Croatian and English, go to ask-zagreb.org. And there’s also an anarchist bookfair on Saturday in Liverpool, England. You can find out more at Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair on Facebook.   Mutual Aid Disaster Relief continue their speaking tour on Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism and Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness.   This week, you can find their tour in… Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today, April 4, at 7 PM at the Glitter Box Theater; in Cleveland, Ohio on April 6 at 6 PM and on April 7 at noon, both at Guide to Kulchur; in Ypsilanti, Michigan on April 8 at 2 PM at Off Center; and in Lansing, Michigan at the Capitol Area District Library at 6:30 PM April 9; 
and at the First Presbyterian Church on West Ottawa Street at 6:30 PM April 11.

Go to MutualAidDisasterRelief.org to find details on all the tour dates from now through May.

Anarchists in South Korea are hosting a gathering in the mountains from April 13–15. We think it’s in the Muju mountains area of the country, but for more info in Korean, go to Solidarity.KR.

April 20 is the anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine, and another round of high school and middle school walkouts is planned for that day. You can find one list of planned walkouts at Indivisible.org, but considering Indivisible is a straight-up front group for the Democratic Party, we wouldn’t rely on their walkouts to be disruptive enough on their own. Students, make your own plans for what you want to see happen on April 20, and if you want zines or other printable literature to pass out that expand the debate about gun control to discuss the real roots of gun violence in our culture, check out the text, “We Don’t Need Gun Control, We Need to Take Control,” available at Crimethinc.com.

From April 26–29, the Southeast Trans and/or Women Action Camp will take place in the smoky mountains of western North Carolina. The action camp is open to all trans and/or woman identified folks and will offer a bunch of different workshops and skillshares. You can find out more by e-mailing setwac@protonmail.com.      In Vienna, Austria from April 26–28 the Anarchist Black Cross solidarity festival will take place at the famous EKH squat. The festival will have punk bands, tattoo booths, discussions and workshops, karaoke, vegan food, and techno party!

The Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism Conference (ROAR) returns to Ohlone land, the so-called Bay Area, California on April 28 and 29, and will take place in both Oakland and San Francisco. ROAR is a free two-day conference focused on revolutionary anti-racism, solidarity, and strategy, rooted in the legacy of anti-colonial, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, feminist, and queer movements and fighters who have come before us. To find out more, go to roarconference.net.    Starting in May, there will be a solid month of anarchy in Quebec. It starts with the Montreal anarchist film festival from May 17–20, then there’s the Montreal anarchist theatre festival from May 22–23, the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair is happening May 26–27, the North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference is June 1–3 also in Montreal, and the grand finale will be the mobilization against the G7 summit, which will feature fierce anti-capitalist protests in Quebec City on June 8 and 9.  

OUTRO

  Rebel Girl: And that’s it for this episode of The Hotwire. As always thanks to Underground Reverie for the music, and thanks to Uri Gordon for the interview. Don’t forget to check out all the links, mailing addresses, and useful shownotes we customized for this episode at CrimethInc.com. Every Hotwire is radio-ready, so if you want to replay part or all of this show, just go for it! We can edit episodes down to specific time constraints if you e-mail us at podcast[AT]CrimethInc[DOT]com. You can also send us news or announcements to include in the future.    Stay informed. Stay rebel. Plug into The Hotwire.