Rebel Girl: August 29, 2018: Neo-Nazi escalation in Chemnitz, Germany, action reports from the national #PrisonStrike, an interview about the riotization of protest, and the global week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners on this episode of…

Riot Dogg: The Hotwire.

A weekly anarchist news show brought to you by The Ex-Worker

Rebel Girl: With me, the Rebel Girl.

Riot Dogg: And me, the Riot Dogg.

Rebel Girl: A full transcript of this episode with shownotes and useful links can be found at our website, CrimethInc.com/podcast, where you can also find a radio-ready twenty-nine-and-a-half minute version of this episode for standard radio broadcasts, and no cussing!

Riot Dogg: And now, for the headlines…

HEADLINES

Riot Dogg: On Monday, a week of action was launched in Humboldt County, California, to defend the ancient Mattole Forest. Forest defenders demonstrated outside the offices of the Humboldt Redwood Company. Other actions are taking place throughout the week, which you can find out about by calling 707–336–2231.

Rebel Girl: Animal liberation activists in Sweden released 5,000 mink from a fur farm on August 19. The communiqué from the action reads, in regards to the farmer, QUOTE “this is not the first time he has been targeted and it will not be the last!” In our shownotes we have a link to a video of the action with the adorable, frolicky, free mink.

Riot Dogg: In Ireland, people angry over the Catholic Church’s cover up of child sexual abuse and complicity in the Magdalene Laundries, organized a Say Nope to the Pope online campaign, where people reserved tickets to Pope Francis’ speaking events that they never intended on using. The Guardian reports that, “One person claimed to have secured 1,312 tickets to the events, including several under the name ‘Jesus Christ.’” The Magdalene Laundries were essentially slave labor sentences that women faced for offenses as commonplace as not being married or being morally wayward

Rebel Girl: Chemnitz, Germany, has seen the convergence of thousands of neo-Nazis and racists since Sunday morning, when one Iraqi and one Syrian national were arrested over a fight that left a German man stabbed to death during the city’s annual festival. Much remains unclear about the fight, but Nazis and organized xenophobes from Alternativ Fur Deutschland were quick to exploit the story. By Sunday night, 1,000 fascists had mobilized and were patrolling the city, attacking people of color, journalists, and people they deemed “lefty.” On Monday night, between five and ten thousands Nazis and far-right had arrived from all over Germany to march and attack anyone who looked “non-German.” Police threw up their hands and claimed to be overwhelmed, and even responded by escorting people of color away from the city center, QUOTE “for their own safety,” essentially doing the Nazi mob’s job for them.

Riot Dogg: Of course, the Nazis in Chemnitz don’t care as much about protecting anyone from stabbings so much as they want an excuse to be the ones doing the stabbings themselves. Fascists are always pulling this doublespeak crap. Just a couple of years ago in Germany, they were calling newly arrived Syrians and Iraqis “rapefugees” and terrorists, when in fact these were people fleeing the terror of fundamentalist rule, which had weaponized systemic rape against women. But it’s not enough to call out their hypocrisy—they’re not looking for rational debate, despite how much they whine about their opposition not settling for simply debating them. Chemnitz shows how important it is to mobilize against the far-right so that their distorted portrayals of the world can never take hold, because if they do, they can escalate very quickly with very dear consequences.

Rebel Girl: It’s Going Down reports that, “On Saturday, August 25th a group of over 100 people gathered in a park a few blocks away from the local jail in Tucson, Arizona, occupied Tohono O’odham land, in response to a call for a march to ‘evict ICE’ from the Pima County Jail.” However, rather than evicting ICE, they blocked jail employees inside from leaving by arriving at just the right moment between shifts, and it thoroughly disrupted the jail’s functioning for a few hours. A Food Not Bombs meal was served and there was plenty of talk about the ongoing prison strike, which we have more about in a few minutes. Well planned y’all!

Riot Dogg: Back on August 16, anti-fascists in Little Rock joined in a rally for religious pluralism and the first amendment, which… if that sounds like a strange place to find antifa, just wait. The rally was in support of the Satanic Temple’s unveiling of its Baphomet statue in front of the Arkansas State Capitol, which was met with a smattering of far-right religious Klan-affiliated pro-confederates and neo-Nazis in opposition. Antifascists handed out information about known local neo-Nazis and racists, and were thanked by others who showed up for the rally.

Rebel Girl: Pittsburgh’s Steel City John Brown Gun Club recently released a report about a picnic and march they held in Avalon, Pennsylvania after a racist attack there in July. As Paul Morris, who is black, entered a local bar on July 7, Nazis affiliated with the neo-Nazi gang Keystone United grouped up on him. He and a friend were miraculously able to fight off the attackers until the Nazis fled when cops arrived. On August 12, the anniversary of Charlottesville, John Brown Gun Club and community members from Avalon held a cross-racial gathering in opposition to Keystone United, right in the middle of their territory. The fireteam from John Brown Gun Club created a perimeter around both the picnic and the march, and no Nazis or cops messed with either. The march of about 30 held a 20 foot banner reading “MOURN THE DEAD. FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING” and folks chanted “Charlottesville to Avalon! Nazi trash get off our lawn!”

PRISONSTRIKE

Riot Dogg: We’re one week into the historic #PrisonStrike and reports are already coming in from all over.

The IWW’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee confirmed that all but a dozen prisoners at McCormick prison in South Carolina have engaged in a work stoppage, and Jailhouse Lawyers Speak reports that at least 5 other facilities have seen widespread work stoppages and/or commissary boycotts.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak also reports strikes at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.

IWOC Gainesville confirmed at least 5 prisons in Florida are participating in the strike.

Prisoners in Sussex II State Prison in Virginia are on a 24 hour fast in observance of the strike, during which time they are encouraging prisoners to, QUOTE “engage in intense study, training, and organizing.” They also want to bring attention to the 2017 murder of fellow prisoner John Tran, and you can read more about him and the fast at consciousprisoner.wordpress.com/.

And there have been prisoner hunger strikes in Arizona, Indiana, Texas, Ohio, and at New Folsom prison in California. And don’t forget the audio report we received last Hotwire about prisoners in North Carolina taking to their yard with banners. Earlier in the month, prisoners at Sterling Correctional in Colorado announced that at least 10 inmates there have been on hunger strike. Many of these strikes have particularized demands that aren’t exactly the same as the national prison strike, but they roughly follow the same priorities: an end to group punishment, an end to solitary confinement, re-introduction of parole, and re-instatement of rehabilitative and educational resources.

Rebel Girl: Strike activity has reached across borders too. Prison rebels at Burnside Prison in Nova Scotia, Canada released a protest statement tying this year’s prison strike to the centuries of Black struggle against slavery and incarceration in the Americas.

Palestinian prisoners held within Israeli jails released a moving statement of solidarity with the strike. It draws a connection between the colonialism of the Americas and that of Palestine, mourns the assassination of 60’s prison rebel George Jackson, and salutes political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, and Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Listen to this excerpt:

“We know from our experience that it is through struggle and confrontation that true freedom can be realized. Your strike is being launched within the heart of U.S. imperialism, the greatest danger faced by our Palestinian people and the people of the world. We know that your victory will also be a victory for Palestine – just as our victories in Palestine will be a victory for all of the struggles against imperialism, racism and oppression in the United States and globally.”

Riot Dogg: One of the largest collective actions on the inside came from the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. We caught up with two of the supporters on the outside to hear more.

Who are we speaking with and what is the Northwest Detention Center?

Emma: Yeah, so, this is Emma out of Tacoma.It’s an immigration detention center that opened in 2004. It houses about 1500 immigrant detainees. They range; there are, you know, criminal pods or non criminal pods. So it’s not just any prison. However it is run by Geo Group, who operates about 141 prisons nationwide.

Riot Dogg: And what’s happening within the NWDC in regards to the prison strike?

Emma: We have been in contact with the Northwest Detention Center and it sounds like as of today, just a couple of hours ago, I just now recognized the hunger strike. There are currently about six left that are striking. The medical units are full, the solitary confinement units are full. It started as 200, they’re doing a good job of moving people around into different pods so that the numbers are a bit hard to track.

I got a letter in front of me that said “We are taking part in the hunger strike, demanding change and closure of these detention centers. We are acting in solidarity for all these people who are being detained wrongfully and stand together to help support all those women who have been separated from their children, and to stop all the family separations happening today.” I think the main–on the top of the list of demands is better food, better healthcare, and an end to the slave labor; they currently work for a dollar a day.

Riot Dogg: And is this kind of action unprecedented for the NWDC?

Emma: No, there have been dozens. I think one of the most major, one of the biggest ones took place in 2014 with about 1,200 participants. That one lasted 56 days, and two more were organized that same year.  So there’s ongoing solidarity actions outside of the Detention Center and there have been for years.

Riot Dogg: Anything else you’d like to add?

Emma: Yeah, there are reports coming out today actually that there are a number of women who would like to participate in the hunger strike, that they are being threatened with being transferred to other facilities further away from their families, who are U.S. citizens and currently can visit them here in Tacoma.

Riot Dogg: Thank you so much and keep up the support y’all are doing.

Emma: Thank you.

Rebel Girl: Remember, it often takes time for the state to acknowledge prisoners’ collective actions, if they even do so, and the lines of communication are heavily controlled and sometimes shut down. So the fact that we already have any reports of action on the inside is inspiring, and we’ll keep bringing them to you as they come in.

And that’s another reason to keep the noise up on the outside —to show support to prison rebels and to spread awareness about their struggles.

In Des Moines, Iowa, abolitionists disrupted the showroom of Iowa Prison Industries.

In New Haven, on the first day of the prison strike, members of the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement participated in a hunger strike outside the courthouse there to grant a stay of deportation for a Bangladeshi mother who has already lived nearly 2 decades in Connecticut. The stay was granted the following day.

In Eugene, Oregon, the Neighborhood Anarchist Alliance has been tabling and flyering about the strike for weeks, as well as hosting prison and repression related film screenings.

The Providence, Rhode Island Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee hosted a public assembly about how to support the strike from the outside.

There was a rally in support of the prison strike’s demands outside San Jose city hall in California.

And folks from Seattle Solidarity Network disrupted a Starbucks on the University of Washington’s campus to expose how one of the company profits off of prison slave labor.

There were noise demos outside the youth jails in both Minneapolis and Philadelphia. Both demos had dozens of people, fireworks, and blasting music, but the one in Philadelphia had a saxaphone!

There were also noise demos outside the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Multnomah jail in Portland Oregon, Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles, outside a prison in Phoenix, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Atlanta City Detention Center in Georgia, and outside a prison slave labor camp in Gainesville, Florida.

500 anti-prison activists rallied outside San Quentin prison in California over the weekend.

In Asheville, North Carolina, strike supporters held a solidarity demo that was seen by inmate laundry workers at three different spots along their commute between the prison and the laundry facility.

Riot Dogg: There has been graffiti and wheatpasting and banner drops in a ton of cities.

Posters pasted on the streets of Montreal connected the strike’s opposition to prison slavery to commemorations of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a Black slave in Montréal who was sentenced to torture and death in 1734 for allegedly setting fire to her slave owner’s house.

In Lafayette, Indiana, anarchists dropped a banner reading, “Until all are free” across from the entrance used for prisoner transports at the local courthouse.

In Oakland, a billboard featuring the internet slang DTF was changed to DTFire to the prisons.

Rebel Girl: It’s important to remember that spectacular actions like noise demos and raising visibility for the strike are just the tip of the iceberg. Much of the support and organizing takes place over a long period of time, through things like keeping up correspondence with prisoners and making phone calls to put pressure on the staff.

We often put phone numbers you can call to support prisoners in the Hotwire, and if you never use them, take two minutes and call Indiana’s Wabash Valley Warden Richard Brown at 812 398 5050 and tell him that prisoners in the Secure Housing Unit need more food and control over the temperature of their units, and that folks on the outside will support the inmates’ hunger strike and keep an eye on them.

We include phone numbers and prisoner addresses in the Hotwire because writing a letter or making a call just takes a few minutes on the outside, but it can really make a difference for those isolated inside prison walls. Try to pick one number or address per episode and reach out in support. Thanks!

WEEK OF SOLIDARITY WITH ANARCHIST PRISONERS

Riot Dogg: While the prison strike is spreading across North America, it coincides with a global week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners. From the reports we’ve read and received, much of the actions for the week of solidarity are coming out of Europe, and especially Russia and Belarus. There have been film screenings and presentations in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk, and Minsk. Anarchists in Bern, Switzerland took cool photos with flares stating their opposition to the repression after the riots that made Hamburg, Germany ungovernable during the G20 last year. https://solidarity.international/index.php/2018/08/27/august–26th-bern-germany-transparents-for-anarchist-prisoners/

And the Anarchist Black Cross in Melbourne, Australia hosted a political prisoner letter-writing night in observance of both the prison strike and the week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners.

Rebel Girl: Over at CrimethInc, we published an essay on Taking a Global View of Repression, exploring how states develop and share repressive strategies, and how anarchists can counter them. From the Tarnac case in France to Operation Pandora in Spain to Operation Fenix in the Czech Republic to the ongoing “network” case against anarchists and anti-fascists in Russia, it goes through many of the important cases against anarchists internationally over the last two decades, and it’s a good way to learn from movements in other contexts.

Riot Dogg: There is one more day left in the international week of solidarity with anarchist prisoners, and the organizing website Solidarity.International seems to appreciate hearing about everything from wheatpasted posters to mentions of the global week of solidarity during other events, so there’s still time to send solidarity across borders to folks fighting for a world free of cages and every other kind of oppression.

REPRESSION ROUNDUP

Rebel Girl: In this week’s repression roundup…

16 anti-fascists were arrested in Philadelphia on Saturday during a counter-protest to a Blue Lives Matter pro-police march. The counter-protest had about 100 in attendance, including a masked-up Anarchists with Conflictual Aspirations Bloc—ACAB. Meanwhile, the Blue Lives Matter march boasted barely even 20 in attendance, thanks to some savvy anti-fascist intelligence work and exposés in the days leading up. Those who did show up subscribed to a wide range of abhorrent ideologies—some were connected to the anti-Muslim group Act for America, and one had attended Unite the Right in 2017. Obviously, demonstrations like this are intended to persuade the police to support authoritarian causes in return for support from authoritarians.

Riot Dogg: Sounds a lot like the recent pro-confederate rally in North Carolina where one of the participants, who was holding a sign reading “Heritage Not Hate,” literally had a Nazi SS tattoo on his neck.

Rebel Girl: Oh my god, you can’t make this stuff up.

Riot Dogg: I mean, we could, but it’s not like we even have to. The rally, which took place in Chapel Hill, was in response to last Monday when an anti-racist demonstration toppled the town’s 105 year old confederate statue. During that action, one of the Chapel Hill police officers was proudly displaying his Three-Percenter tattoo, the ultranationalist militia that has done security for far-right and white nationalist events.

Rebel Girl: Ok now I kind of wish you were making this stuff up.

Riot Dogg: Oh it gets better. The police chief has announced that he has bravely… ordered the cop to not display his tattoo on duty.

Rebel Girl: Um, if cops are going to be explicit fascist sympathizers… I’d at least like them to be up front about it, rather than literally cover it up. You know, like the Nazi SS neck tattoo, yet somehow “heritage not hate,” guy.

Riot Dogg: Well, it sounds like on Saturday you didn’t need a tattoo to tell you how the cops felt about the pro-confederates—they arrested 6 anti-racists, including folks who were literally just standing around, while they calmly and politely escorted one pro-confederate away for arrest after he punched a kid a third of his age in the face.

Rebel Girl: By the way, watching the video, that kid really took it in stride. Comparing how casually he took that hit with how whiny Richard Spencer was when he got punched at the inauguration kinda shows you the courage and integrity of anti-fascism versus the precarious oxymoronic worldview that white supremacists hold—that somehow they’re both master race and helpless victims at the same time.

Riot Dogg: Speaking of the inauguration, there were 3 more arrests in North Carolina on Saturday, which reportedly included charges of inciting a riot stemming from the statue toppling last Monday.

Rebel Girl: God damn, it’s like since J20, in the state’s eyes, what doesn’t count as rioting at this point?

Riot Dogg: Well, even though outlets as big as the New York Times reported that those were the charges, it turns out people were actually arrested for causing a public disturbance and defacing a statue. The University just lied about the seriousness of the charges, probably to intimidate anti-racists from further protests. But yeah, when folks in Durham toppled a confederate statue last year after Charlottesville, there were riot charges too, and while J20 was the biggest case of riot charges being used to repress resistance, this trend has been going on since before Trump. For more about the riotization of protest, we caught up with anarchist, J20 defendant, and social movements academic, Michael Loadenthal.

Hey so what do you know about the riotization of protest?

Michael: For one, I’ve been organizing internationally with anarchist and anti-authoritarian networks for nearly twenty years at this point. I’ve been able to observe movements on four continents, and have lived amongst and studied a variety of these groups. For those who care, I also have four interdisciplinary degrees on this subject, including a master’s degree focused on political violence and a Ph.D. on conflict analysis. Lastly, I have the unfortunate displeasure of being prosecuted recently for the last eighteen months as part of the J20 case. And just a few weeks ago, I was sent an intelligence report circulated to the FBI and other national intelligence agencies which identified me as a prominent activist who seemingly is the target of repression. So I can say that why I’m a relevant voice is somewhat of a complicated answer but I do feel able to weigh in on these questions.

Riot Dogg: And what do you mean by riotization? Is that even a word?

Michael: For example, following the 9/11 attacks, the state sprung into action on a rhetorical and discursive level to begin linking popular resistance, especially that which involved damaging property, to terrorism. What we saw in the post–9/11 world was that the term “terrorism” as a rhetorical label was overapplied, and in doing so, it was muddied and quickly rendered meaningless.

So when we speak of riot-ization in the contemporary, we’re talking about a similar linguistic and political shift. In this case, the reframing of demonstrations and demonstrators and other illegal assemblies as riots, and the use of that labelling to justify, and indeed necessitate, laws, policing practices, and prosecution. If the assembly can be deemed a riot, then the individuals present are rioters and since rioters are understood to be apolitical, irrational, amoral, criminal, and sociopathic, they can be repressed and attacked outside of the liberal rights-based debate on freedom of assembly, chilling of speech, and so on. What we talked about a lot in D.C. as part of the J20 trials was that in this particular law, the riot act which people were prosecuted under, was actually created with a racist logic from its inception, in the sense that the rioters were deemed rioters and not demonstrators precisely because their assembly was deemed to be apolitical, whatever that means. So what we see in the last two years is a rapid increase in this sort of measure. We have the J20 case where more than 230 people were charged with conspiracy to riot, which is an absurd notion. We also have a series of other cases where dissent is recoded as a riot or more commonly where political organizing is recast as conspiracy and prosecuted through felonies. In tight lockstep with the riot-ization and, indeed it’s roots, the felonization, so creating additional felonies, we can see a rapid rise with the use of felony indictments. If you’re looking at this, there’s tons of examples. You could look at the charging of forty Black Lives Matter activists in the Twin Cities following the Philando Castile demonstrations in July 2016. You could look at the Glo Merriweather case in September of 2016. You could look at the charging of Standing Rock organizers in May of 2018, and the conviction of Red Fawn in July of this past year. You can also see this in cases where the state postures for felony charges and then retreats, such as the case of antifascists in Newnan, GA, where some of the 10 arrestees were originally charged with felonies. In addition, the obvious cases can also be extended by looking at state level laws. And so around January and February of 2017, we have numerous state laws which are introduced which expand the definition of what constitutes a riot or a rioter. And such additional penalties are applied on something that’s already illegal, this kind of further felonization, this riot-ization. A bunch of these laws were introduced in states including Arizona, Oregon, Virginia, Missouri, and Georgia, to say nothing of the unmasking Antifa act of 2018, which is another absurdity. In all of these laws and moves, that state seeks to use rhetorical, political, judicial, and psychological pressure to recast the resistance and silence people with violence, courtrooms, and prisons.

Four days after the brave act which saw the toppling of Silent Sam, media, reported that arrest warrants had been issued for three individuals charging them with misdemeanor riot and misdemeanor defacing of a public monument. This use of the “riot” term clearly fits in with this riot-ization I’m speaking of. With the Silent Sam case, we see the use of the “r” word, “riot,” to reframe the action and so it appears to be a clear example of the riot-ization, the recasting of demonstrations wherein property is damaged as thus in order to be considered a riot. Certainly, it serves the state’s interests to describe anti-racists as rioters, and in doing so, the individuals can be denied legitimacy and their critique of white supremacy can be rendered meaningless.

Riot Dogg: And, what can we do about the riot-ization of protest?

Michael: I think in general, we need a three-part approach: analysis, defense, and continuation. So first, we need to understand the tactic of riot-ization or felonization or terrorization and how it fits into the state’s overall strategy. We do this by watching the media, watching the courts, and, as much as it sickens us, listening to the words our opponents use to describe and defame us. Secondly, we need to work at the level of rhetoric and discourse to challenge and eventually change the narrative. We can see some success with this recently in the more mainstream acknowledgement of the effectiveness of militant antifascism. And a similar shift is yet to take place concerning the deemed rioters, but I think there were some great inroads, which were made in the support for the J20 defendants. The task now is to defend and expand this. Lastly, I think we need to continue to act bravely, with courage and ferocity, and to not let our awareness of state violence and repressive omnipresence incapacitate us. We need to be bold in our vision and action and be careful not to get bogged down in the traps of liberalism, namely the discourse on riots, protected speech, and criminal guilt versus innocence. These are the tools of a carceral system and not the tools of resistance.

Riot Dogg: Thanks to Michael for that interview, and CONGRATS on your charges being dropped!

Rebel Girl: Hey…wait a second, is this the first time we’re talking about the incredible J20 victory?

Riot Dogg: Yeah… we were kind of scrambling when we came back with our first episode this season and somehow forgot to include the big J20 news in our summer re-cap.

Rebel Girl: Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last three months, ALL of the remaining J20 cases were dismissed over the summer. The second trial in June resulted in only acquittals and mistrials—no convictions! Soon after, the prosecutors were found to be hiding dozens of undercover video evidence provided by the right-wing provocateur group Project Veritas. And not long after that, they just decided to throw in the towel and dismiss the remaining cases. This was a major victory for anti-authoritarian resistance and organizing—bravo to everyone involved, from supporters to the defendants who actually went to trial. Y’all are heroes!

Riot Dogg: And a major middle finger salute to all the villainous detectives and prosecutors who tried to lock up our comrades for decades—especially the lead prosecutor Jennifer Kerkhoff. Fuck off Kerkhoff!

Rebel Girl: Hey Dogg, I know we’re a few weeks late with this story, but for one last time can we don our burning limo t-shirts and sing along to Now That’s What I Call Kerkhophony Volume 1, the album dedicated to that rotten scum of a prosecutor?

Riot Dogg: Here here!

REBEL GIRL AND Riot Dogg: Jenny’s heart is blackened, she don’t care what she done The jury’s not the only ones who knows there something wrong Kerkhoff makes a comfortable living violating others’ rights Jenny wants to lock me up for 75, that’s the rest of my life Destination: the hole, Jenny Jenny Jenny low-blow

Riot Dogg: Wow, I love Op Ivy. That song really picked me up.

Rebel Girl: Well, now that we’re in a good mood, we have some good news to share! A federal court dismissed a lawsuit against the environmental movement Earth First! That’s right—the movement, not the Earth First! Journal, the Earth First! Newswire, or any specific Earth First! organizers. The lawsuit was brought by Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, and a number of other earth-destroying infrastructure projects. The firm representing ETP is the same one Donald Trump uses. Congrats to Earth First! for not having to deal with this headache—although we realize that we’re congratulating a nebulous assortment of individuals and organizations that are too loosely connected for even a federal court to deem them sue-able. So potentially, this is a victory for us all, congratulations everybody!

Riot Dogg: Yup, and we can celebrate this weight being lifted off our shoulders by then putting our weight behind those individuals who are facing legal repercussions for opposing Energy Transfer Partner’s greed and destruction. ETP is also behind the Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana, where several people have been arrested over the past month since the passage of a bill that 1) makes trespassing on critical infrastructure a felony and 2) deems all pipeline construction critical infrastructure. To support those who’ve been arrested, you can donate to L’Eau Est La Vie at gofundme.com/nobbp.

NEXT WEEK’S NEWS

Riot Dogg: And now for prisoner birthdays and next week’s news.

Rebel Girl: August 31 is the birthday of Ronald Reed, a veteran of the 60’s black power movements who is serving life in prison for allegedly shooting a St. Paul police officer, despite the lack of any physical evidence.

Riot Dogg: And on September 1, John Bramble, one of the prison rebels involved in the Vaughn Prison uprising, celebrates his birthday. In February, 2017, inmates at Vaughn Correctional Center in Delaware took over their unit for 18 hours and killed one prison guard. They released a communiqué that cites both the conditions of their incarceration as well as the election of Donald Trump as motivating factors for the uprising. In total, 18 prisoners there are now facing charges as a result, and Bramble is one of them.

Rebel Girl: We have addresses for writing to Ronald Reed and John Bramble in our shownotes, where you can also find a useful guide for writing prisoners from New York City Anarchist Black Cross.

Riot Dogg: And now, for next week’s news, our list of events that you can plug into in real life.

There’s a bunch of prison strike support stuff coming up. IWOC Providence just announced a noise demo on September 1 at the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, there’s a sit-in at the Florida Department of Corrections September 4 at 4 PM, and the Blood Fruit Library in Chicago is hosting a Black August letter writing night to recently captured black liberation fighters on August 30 at 7:30 PM.

Rebel Girl: There’s a Tattoo Circus in Zurich, Switzerland this weekend. Get some sick ink, enjoy some vegan nosh, and rock out to great punk bands to raise money for political prisoners and the Anarchist Black Cross there. Oh, and tell them the Riot Dogg sent you, bork bork! Find out more at TattooCircusZurich.noblogs.org.

Riot Dogg: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief will give their two part presentation in Durango, Colorado, with the first presentation on Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism taking place on Saturday, September 1st at 1pm and the second presentation on Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness on Sunday, September 2nd. Both days will be held at the Durango Community Recreation Center. There will be a smattering of more tour dates throughout the fall, in the southwest and in California, listen in the future for more dates or check out mutualaiddisasterrelief.org.

Rebel Girl: Portland Rad Movie night is screening the cult anti-capitalist classic They Live! at 7 PM on September 6 at the Social Justice Action Center on 12th Ave. The event is BYOB—as in bring your own bubblegum.

Riot Dogg: Lastly, two anarchist book fairs will be taking place on Saturday, September 15. One in New London Connecticut at Parade Plaza, and in California the 23rd annual Bay Area anarchist bookfair will take place from 10am to 6pm, check out bayareaanarchistbookfair.com for more info.

OUTRO

Riot Dogg: And that’s it for this Hotwire. As always thanks to Underground Reverie for the music, and thanks to Emma, Three, Michael, and our friend from the Bayou for the interviews, and thank YOU for tuning in. Stay in touch with us by e-mail to podcast[AT]CrimethInc[DOT]com or follow us on Twitter @HotwireWeekly. Don’t forget to check out all the links, mailing addresses, and useful notes we customized for this episode at CrimethInc.com.

Rebel Girl: 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. Believe it or not, every Hotwire is radio ready, so feel free to put The Hotwire on your local airwaves. If you do, let us know so we can plug your station.

Riot Dogg: Stay informed. Stay rebel. Plug into the Hotwire. Ow oww…!