The Final Straw Radio Updates from Afghanistan and Iran
This week, we’re joined again by Aryanum, a member of the Federation of Anarchism Era (ASRAnarshism.Com), mostly made up of anarchists from Iran and Afghanistan. We mostly get updates about the situation of anarchists, atheists and feminists in Afghanistan under the Taliban or in an effort to escape as refugees, but we also get a few updates from Iran as well, including the regime’s founding of a national anarchist group called Iranarshism. At the time of this release, we’ve already got the transcript and a zine available for download, translation, reading and sharing.
You can find out more about the Federation by visiting ASRAnarshism.com, or finding them on instagram, twitter, Telegram, facebook and youtube. You can also hear our past interviews with Aryanum alongside other episodes concerning Iran here: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/category/iran/
A few links of note:- Resistance in Pancheer, Ahmad Massoud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Massoud
- liberal Afghanistan news source that’s decent: Amajnews.com
- Tamana (Zaryabi Paryani) whose phone was taken by the Taliban leading to the arrest of 49 people, 25 women trying to leave Afghanistan who had forced confessions:
- ngo that is all volunteer, anectdotally worth supporting Azadi Charity: https://azadicharity.com/
- Baktash Abtin, poet dissident died of covid in prison which is causing political prisoner hunger strikes in Iran
- Ervin prison is where many political prisoners were on hunger strike
- Sohiel Arabi is an anarchist political prisoner in Iran who Aryanum describes as an FAE correspondent inside the prisons
The March 2022 episode of the A-Radio Network's monthly, English-language podcast. This month with additions from: 1431 Social Radio in Thessaloniki, Greece; A-Radio Berlin on workers from Gorilla gig delivery app service; A-Radio Vienna with experiences from a queer anarchist in Kyiv right after the invasion by Russia; Crna Luknja from Ljubljana, Slovenia with a Serbian anarcho-syndicalist organizer on the part in the war in Ukraine played by NATO and resisting from within that framework. Check it out!
Eric King TrialIn a surpisingly good piece of news, a jury recently found anarchist and antifascist political prisoner in the good ole USA, Eric King, not guilty of assaulting an officer, a charge which would have given a 20 year hit to Eric who has been slated for release from Federal prison in July of 2023. You can find updates at SupportEricKing.Org as well as ABCF.Net. You'll hopefully here more about this in an upcoming interview with members of his support crew and you can direct thanks to the amazing folks at the Civil Liberties Defense Center, or CLDC, for lawyering for him.
Doug Wright Out of Prison!The remaining member of the Cleveland 4 case, Doug Wright, has been released from prison nearly 10 years since the initiation of the case. You can find our past interviews about the case here: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/category/cleveland-4/
You can support Doug's life on the outside: https://fundrazr.com/81xTKc?ref=ab_6jmRCDUT7nt6jmRCDUT7nt
War In UkraineYup, still happening.
- There's continued coverage from crimethinc's resurrected Ex Worker podcast (the last 3 episodes have covered related topics).
- This week there was a video panel with voices from Operation Solidarity (Kyiv), Anti-Rupression (Russia) & Belarus ABC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0-M_voH-Bc
- A list of resources around supporting anarchists in Ukraine & Russia curated by Jewish anarchists: https://express.adobe.com/page/55i83AhF95E0b/
- A recent writing by Peter Gelderloos on the topic: https://itsgoingdown.org/the-invasion-of-ukraine-anarchist-interventions-and-geopolitical-changes/
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Featured Tracks:- Rope (طناب) by Toomaj (توماج) and Biqlb (بیلقب). Tamooj is an Iranian protest hip hop artist released on March 17th 2022. Toomaj Salehi was detained by Iranian officials for propaganda because of his anti-corruption, anti-regime music and Amnesty International had to step in on his behalf, which in addition to popular pressure secured his release from Dastgerd Prison. Tamooj just released a new video on March 17th, 2022: Blind Spot ( نقطه کور) . You can hear more at his soundcloud or watch more videos on youtube.
- Year of Famine (Sale Ghahti, سال قحطی) by Fereydoon Forooghi (فریدون فروغی), recorded in 1974 and leading to Fereydoon's ban from acting for it's public performance by the Shah's regime. He released an album by this name in 1977.