The Hotwire #6: St. Louis stays rebel, mutual aid relief continues, 'free speech' has no meaning

This week we have a ton of headlines about rebellion and cooperation, resistance and mutual aid, from all over the world. Protests in St. Louis continue into their second week after the not guilty verdict for a white cop who viciously murdered Anthony Lamar Smith, a young black father. We weigh in on the chatter about whether the NFL #TakeAKnee protests are about white supremacy or the first amendment. Meanwhile, the so-called "free speech week" hosted by far-right students in Berkeley has utterly failed. The mutual aid relief efforts we've covered in Texas and Florida still need support, as well as in Mexico and Puerto Rico after the earthquakes and hurricanes there. {September 27, 2017}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:00}
  • Headlines {2:28}
  • Repression Roundup {22:15}
  • Anarchist Podcast Jingles {25:18}
  • Prisoner Birthdays {26:59}
  • Next Week's News {28:35}

• Upcoming anarchist book fairs:

  • The fourth annual Radical Book Fair in Gothenburg, Sweden from September 28 to October 1. That same weekend, the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement will try to march through Gothenburg. Read the anti-fascist call to action here.

  • The sixth annual anarchist book and propaganda gathering in Santiago, Chile will take place on October 14 and 15.

• Grassroots relief efforts:

  • Florida: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
  • Texas: Bayou Action Street Health, Greater Houston Grassroots Relief, Austin Common Ground, the Black Women's Defense League, Redneck Revolt Houston, West Street Response Team, Houston Food Not Bombs
  • Puerto Rico: Hurricane Maria Community Recovery Fund

• Get your pre-orders in now for the 2018 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar. This year's theme is "Awakening Resistance," and features art and writings by Jesus Barraza, Fight Toxic Prisons, Serena Tang, Andrea Ritchie, Roger Peet, Sophia Dawson, Rasmea Support Committee, EE Vera, Herman Bell, Fernando Marti, Alexandra Valiente, Billie Belo, Arlene Gallone Support Committee, Marius Mason, David Gilbert, UB Topia, April Rosenblum, Design Action Collective, Sundiata Acoli, CrimethInc, Annie Banks, Mutope Duguma, Xinachtli, Zola and more. You can sponsor copies for prisoners for only $8, postage included! Just be sure to specify their full legal name and prisoner number. Single copies of the calendar will be available for purchase in a few weeks. Any questions can be sent to info@certaindays.org.

• For current information on how to support folks still facing charges from No Dakota Access Pipeline actions at Standing Rock, visit FreshetCollective.org to find out how to help and for their comprehensive update on NoDAPL cases. It's also worth reading this great piece by Natasha Lennard on the courtroom battles that Water Protectors are now facing.

• Cop cars on fire in France. Cop cars getting crushed in Illinois.

• Go here. to donate to the bail and legal fund for those arrested in St. Louis after the no-guilty verdict for killer cop Jason Stockley.

• For an in-depth anarchist critique of "free speech," check out the essay This Is Not A Dialogue.

• The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement's call to deface Columbus Day on October 9 has a dope video here.

• We mention the upcoming new episode of Submedia's excellent show Trouble. This month's episode is on counter-insurgency. Submedia does great work, so throw them some taco money while they are fundraising this month. From Submedia:

  "The straw that finally broke the camel's back was when alt-right shitlords targeted us last month with a mass snitching campaign, and successfully got Paypal to cancel our account – wiping out, in the push of a button, a monthly sustainer base that had taken us ten years to build up. The time has come to #BringBackStim and unleash him full-force on these fucks. We want to give him a new show – a weekly digital pulpit where he can expose and ruthlessly antagonize far-right personalities, while also covering topical news segments from an anarchist lens. But in order to do that, we need to grow our collective so that we can handle the increased workload. And in order to do that, we need your support."

• If you're near Vancouver, BC, there's a building materials supply drive going on until October to support the Secwepemc people's tiny homes blockade of the proposed Kinder Morgan TransMountain tar sands pipeline.

• The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons is going international with a UK roadshow this fall, from September 28 to October 6.

• There's a call to disrupt the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Philadelphia from October 21st to the 24th. Read the call to action here..

• Donate to the Counter Repression Spokes Ride to support the nearly 200 people facing 8 or more felonies each after being mass-arrested at protests of the presidential inauguration. Keep up with the latest at defendj20resistance.org. Consider coming down to DC to pack the courtroom during the first trial at the end of November 2017. You can also find action items at DropJ20.org. And don't forget to write a letter to political prisoner Dane Powell, the first of the J20 defendants to serve time. He recently wrote a letter to all of us. This video shows Dane's courage on the streets that day.

  Write Dane a letter: Dane Powell BOP Register number 82015007 Federal Correctional Institution – Low PO Box 1031 Colman, Florida 33521

• Ex-Worker podcast episodes mentioned in this Hotwire:
  • #37 is all about the Hambacher forest occupation.
  • #41 has an in-depth interview with an anarchist from the anti-Fenix anti-repression crew in the Czech Republic.
  • #17 has an in-depth interview with an anarchist supporter of King J from the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation.
  • Hotwires #3 and #4 have interviews with anarchists doing autonomous relief work in Texas and Florida, respectively.
  • The Final Straw's interview with Yellow Hammer Alternative, an Alabama-based far-left group doing mutual aid support along the Gulf Coast.
  • The Final Straw's interview on the Catalonian independence referendum on October 1.

• For a good introduction to writing prisoners, check out this guide from New York City Anarchist Black Cross.

• Political prisoner birthdays:

  Brian McCarvill #11037967 Snake River CI 777 Stanton Blvd Ontario, OR 97914–8335 {September 27th}

  Jorge P. Cornell #28152–057 FCI Petersburg Medium P.O. Box 1000 Petersburg, VA 23804 {September 29}

  Joshua Stafford* #57976–060 USP McCreary Post Office Box 3000 Pine Knot, Kentucky 42635 *Please address card/letter to Skelly, envelope to Joshua Stafford {October 3rd}

• Here is this month's Political Prisoner Birthday Calendar.