Movement Memos

“I think we can reframe and re-understand the immigrant rights movement, not just as one of many movements, but something that is fundamentally connected to how we remake the world,” says Harsha Walia. In this episode, Kelly and Border & Rule author Harsha Walia talk about the plight of Black students fleeing Ukraine, borders, the climate crisis, and taking action in these times.If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

While officials spin false narratives blaming violent crime on bail reform, and police insist too many people are getting out of jail, conditions in U.S. jails and prisons remain nightmarish. In this episode, Kelly Hayes talks with organizer Brooke Terpstra about a hunger strike at the Santa Rita Jail in California, and about some of the complexities and political dynamics of organizing in jails and prisons.If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

“What we cannot do is rally our compassion on the basis of whether or not we think the U.S. war machine can drop some bombs and make it better. Making things better is not what the war machine is for,” says Kelly Hayes. In this episode, Kelly talks with organizer Yaira Matos from the youth anti-war group We Are Dissenters about militarism, international solidarity, and why the U.S. war machine cannot be made good.If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

“What we have is a situation where our opponents are fixated on us and our allies are leaving us behind,” says trans attorney and activist Chase Strangio. Republicans have made attacks on trans youth a signature policy item at the state level. In this episode, Kelly and Chase talk about the avalanche of transphobic legislation Republicans have generated, the role of fascist politics in this onslaught and why trans students are not getting the support they need.If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

“This will be an era defined by who is deemed worthy of survival, and who isn’t, who gives a damn, and who doesn’t, and how we keep each other alive during and in between catastrophes,” says Kelly Hayes. In this episode, Kelly talks with Shane Burley, the author of Why We Fight and Fascism Today, about right-wing power, the apocalypse, and organizing a counterculture of care.If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

“When you have a power that is designed to be unaccountable and has been unaccountable for so damn long, the reforms that stick to it just make it stronger and more efficient as they cover it in a veneer of legitimacy." In this episode, Kelly talks with abolitionist criminology professor and activist Brendan McQuade about how securitization has shaped popular ideas about what it means to be free, and how we can build something better.If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

From the Amazon to Hubbard County, Minnesota, corporations are funding the repression of protesters. In this episode, Kelly talks with Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, about the history and future of corporate collaborations with the police. Kelly also talks with attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard about newly exposed documents that reveal the lead prosecutor in Hubbard County sought corporate funding for the prosecution of Line 3 protesters.If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

“Capitalism is the unfolding catastrophe,” says activist Bree Newsome Bass. “It's this thing that has grabbed us all in its arms and it is just plummeting down.” In this episode of Movement Memos, Kelly talks with activist and artist Bree about long COVID, voting rights and getting organized in these times. If you need a transcript, you can find that on our website.If you would like to support the show, you can donate here.If you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up!

“At the close of 2021, the right is poised to treat the pandemic as a political portal, and the left is not. That’s a disturbing reality, but it is not a fixed condition." In this year-end episode of Movement Memos, Kelly reflects on what we’re up against and what we need to build in the new year. You can find a transcript, audio and show notes on our website.

“The women who were already long-timers when I was just coming in, they were the light in my tunnel. We were all in the tunnel together just making light,” says formerly incarcerated organizer Monica Cosby. In this episode of Movement Memos, Cosby and Kelly Hayes talk about the emotional support networks imprisoned people create to survive institutions that punish symptoms of emotional distress, and what we can learn from those efforts. Alan Mills from the Uptown People’s Law Center also offers an update on the fight for mental health care in Illinois prisons. You can find a transcript, audio and show notes on our website.