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S: This is Sprout
C: and this is Charyan, and we are the hosts of Molotov Now! on The Channel Zero Podcast Network, thank you for joining us on this episode of the podcast.
S: On this episode we have a round table with multiple chapters of Food Not Bombs around the country. All are facing their own version of repression of their work at the hands of the City they live in.
C: Food Not Bombs is an international all volunteer organizing structure that allows anyone anywhere to share food and political literature for free under their moniker. As long as what you are doing is not just giving food away but working to end hunger for everyone, then you can call yourself Food Not Bombs.
S: Today on the show we have members from Miami, Houston, West Palm Beach, and of course Aberdeen. All of these chapters have faced challenges to their free giving away of food and political literature by their local governments, some involving tickets and fines, some involving lawsuits and trials. There have been many victories as well as challenges, with activists successfully having won this type of cases many times in the past.
C: Beyond our current struggles we also get to ask questions that get to the heart of how Food Not Bombs has been so successful at keeping people involved over its long history, as well as ways that different chapters handle the underlying mission of Food Not Bombs… that is ending hunger, not simply feeding the hungry.
S: We are excited to share our interview with you but first we have some updates from Sabot Media’s newsletter The Communique, with some upcoming regional events and local Aberdeen news. Stay tuned for our radical news roundup as well as music but first here is a message from our sponsors. If you like what we do here and want to support it you can do that by going to linktr.ee/al1312 and clicking donate, or scrolling to the bottom for Patreon. Sabot media also now has a merch shop open at feralthreads.square.site, go get yourself some sick anarchist T shirts and stickers, more coming all the time. Thank you!
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The Communique:
This month we included a new addition to our newsletter, Sabotage Noise Production’s mini zine with upcoming radical events, and interviews with radical groups. This month they had an interview with Ostrich Bay Exchange, a harm reduction crew in Kitsap County, and a FAQ about Sabotage Noise Productions themselves.
For more follow them on Instagram @sabotagenoiseproductions.
Upcoming Events:
The first issue of the month included updates about some of the antics of our local politicians, looking at City Council hopeful Riley Carter and Mayoral candidate Douglas Orr.
The Violent and Fantastical Thinking of Riley Carter
Riley Carter is running for Aberdeen City Council Ward 5 Position 9. He bought a house here about a year and a half ago, somewhat near to the downtown core of Aberdeen, making him a part of the price hike in property values that occurred around the same time. He has an equally long history of organized harassment of the unhoused community, labeling them all as “tweakers” in order to dehumanize them and validate his violent fantasies. Here at Sabot Media, we have documented his founding of the Facebook group “HEY TWEAKERS OF ABERDEEN, I WANT MY SHIT BACK!!!” a troubling private group of locals who all gang together in comment sections to express their own visions of violence towards the unhoused, who themselves are the biggest victims of theft often having all their belongings seized by the state and others. This “out grouping” behavior is concerning, especially as many known fascists have used this group to advocate nothing short of murdering poor people whom they suspect of a crime which has led to a noticeable increase of harassment against the unhoused community that anyone who works with them will have seen. After founding this group he was called out publicly by many in the community who saw through the facade of “law and order” to the fascistic roots of this violent rhetorical propaganda. Riley was, and still is, trying to get people hurt. He clearly doesn’t see the unhoused, or those he deems to be addicts, as humans worthy of his empathy, although he knows how to censor himself in these regards when being interview by the local radio station KXRO.
The newsletter breaks down a video uploaded to his TikTok, the KXRO interview, and many screenshots of him in his private Facebook group, encouraging or dreaming about violence.
Douglas Orr’s History of Hate
As we write this Douglas Orr will be advancing to the General Election in November for Aberdeen City Mayor. The result broke down to a very close race, with an estimated 10 ballots yet to be counted, Doug Orr is leading Pieraccini by 59 votes and Shaw by 86 votes. In total 2,555 people voted for Mayor this primary election, which is about 15% of the City’s population according to the last census in 2020. By any calculation, a vast majority of people in the City of Aberdeen took our advice and didn’t vote for Mayor. It remains to be seen how many will take political direct action into their own hands. It’s too bad that a Mayor will still take office, regardless of the will of the people.
We have recently published a zine with some of Doug’s most egregious outbursts and views. We have also published plenty on his opponent, the hate group leader Debi Ann Pieracinni. While her history of harassing the unhoused is markedly more vicious and long-term, his is nonetheless useful to examine as we head into a useless general election between two candidates that both want the same things for the City.
We became aware of Doug Orr for the first time in the winter of 2022, when the last emergency Cold Weather Shelter (CWS) was open across the street from his massive art studio/house. This was when he began to loose his mind over the proximity of the extreme poverty near his place of residence and business. Instead of empathizing with the struggles of those on the streets, forced to go to a congregate shelter for survival, he chose to lash out at them through a series of rant posts on his Facebook profile.
The newsletter breaks down his various outbursts on Facebook over the months that the CWS was open.
Doug Orr Looses it at Rain Glow
Every year in Aberdeen the Aberdeen Art Center, Organized in part by Doug Orr among other community members and businesses, hosts their Rain Glow event. The alleyways and side streets are closed off near his art studio, and for a fee people can experience different “worlds” of light, sound, and art. A family friendly event that was disrupted by the main man himself screaming at comrades distributing our Aberdeen Anti-Voter’s Guide on the corner. He ran up on these good comrades, calling them “cunt lickers” and claiming that he was “not a fucking Republican” in front of dozens of families. He then said that he had reached out to them to see about working with them, possibly confusing Sabot Media for the Chehalis River Mutual Aid Network (CRMAN), whom he did contact about working together according to public Facebook posts by CRMAN posted before the Rain Glow event, after receiving his Facebook message proceeded to share a screenshot of its contents on their page with a scathing open response.
In this post they asked him to save his words and show up how it counts, with actions. They implored him to drop out of the race and join them in the streets. He has since claimed that he will act in accordance with the needs of the unhoused in his hopeful bid for Mayor.
His history of acting hostile and often downright violent towards people who have done nothing but disagree with him publicly is disturbing, and points to a pattern of behavior that would lead one to believe that he will continue to present a danger to the unhoused community, who are as unlikely to accept his authority any more than any other Mayor’s.
This little tirade was followed up by multiple instances of Doug having a tantrum, including walking up and snapping photos, and telling the security guard about our comrades. Hilariously his outburst had interrupted a conversation between one of our comrades and a member of the community who was trying to defend Doug, saying that he would “never say those things” when presented with his threatening screenshots.
New Drug Possession Ordinance Takes Effect
In a recent post on Facebook, the Aberdeen Police Department bragged about one of it’s officers conducting the first arrest for simple drug possession since the City’s new ordinance targeting drug users went into effect August 15th. As explained by APD, the new law allows officers to arrest on the first such offense, rather than them having to refer out to treatment for the first two offenses. Previously, people found in possession of controlled substances were diverted to treatment services. Now, they will be able to arrest people and impose a sentence of 364 days in jail, a $5,000 fine, or both. Somehow this is supposed to help them provide a “path to treatment” through the criminal justice system. They have yet to figure out that part, but they can at least arrest people for a recognized medical disorder.
The Communique ran through the City ordinance, and all it’s hypocritical language around Substance Use Disorder (SUD) being a recognized medical condition, all while laying out the new criminal penalties for it. Apparently the police and the City think that arresting people for medical disorders is “encouragement and care”. Health professionals would beg to differ. The newsletter then laid out the treatment for SUD, none of which happened to include incarceration or penalties.
The City’s professed concern is for the size of the drug market, and the time honor tradition of going after dealers by going after users. A ploy that has never worked in the long War On Drugs in this country.
The true reason for their actions is again to punish and harass people they have targeted for exclusion from their future society. The people who sit on the City Council have never wanted anything approaching treatment for drug users, they want to force people into sobriety in a cell, without any proper treatment. They want to be able to stock the jails and prisons with inmates based on low level drug offenses, another failed policy from the War On Drugs. This actually increases the market for drugs, as many people are exposed to hard drugs in prison, and once released selling drugs is often the only job opportunity open to a felon.
This is another in a long line of targeted ordinances aimed at making the lives of the poor, addicted, and unhoused in this City as miserable and shit as possible. Rather than focusing effort and resources on the proven medical interventions of the present, the City has taken a step back in time to a period marked by ruined lives, and mass incarceration.
Current elected officials such as Kacey Ann Morrison have built their career off of protesting against traditional treatment centers, and proven harm reduction measures. For example, her and her group SOAP (Save Our Aberdeen Please) was responsible for a weekly protest of the local needle exchange, every week for months. They showed up and harassed and demoralized the people walking up to and leaving the exchange. This resulted in many people choosing not to return to the exchange, despite needing its services.
Grays Harbor Sees Highest COVID rate in WA
The rate of COVID-19 transmission in Grays Harbor County is the highest of any county in Washington state, according to the most recent data from the Washington State Department of Health. The department’s COVID-19 data dashboard shows Grays Harbor County had a seven-day case rate of 73 cases per 100,000 during the last week of July, which amounted to 55 actual cases during that time period. The case rate didn’t breach 20 per 100,000 until the end of June, then steadily rose to about 50 by mid-July.
Grays Harbor is the only county in the state with a “substantial” COVID case rate, meaning greater than 50 but fewer than 100 cases per 100,000 people. Behind Grays Harbor is Thurston County with 46 cases per 100,000 people. The average state-wide is only 24.
“We’ve had way higher rates in the past, we’ve also had way lower rates, but it’s a spike from what we’ve been seeing,” said Emma Manley, epidemiologist with Grays Harbor County Public Health, in an interview with The Daily World.
This is reminder to still wear masks in large group settings. Test yourself if you feel sick, and take proper sanitation care such as handwashing and sanitizing. The Public Health Department supplies free COVID tests through the local Timberland Libraries. They also mentioned trying to increase access for the unhoused to vaccination services. The stats on Grays Harbor vaccination rates show us at 63%, below the statewide average of 71%.
While people would like to think that COVID is over and we are done with having to protect each other through simple precautions like masking up, this data demonstrates that we are still in this. We need to continue getting vaccinations as well. Just because Joe Biden declared an end to the state of emergency, doesn’t mean that the pandemic is over. It still affects the poor and vulnerable among our society.
It’s sobering to think about: 6,927,378 people have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic that we know about. The real number is far higher.
While the death rate has dropped significantly from its peak in January 2021 — when more than 102,000 people died in a single week — thousands of people still die of COVID-19 every week.
Trail Derailments in Aberdeen Cause For Concern
For the second time this year a train was derailed here in Aberdeen, a town crossed by train tracks at many vital and busy junctions. One of the most dangerous places to be in regards to possible train derailments is the homeless encampment under the Chehalis River Bridge, being at most 10 feet away from the tracks. They were placed here by the City in an attempt to find a spot for them to go after evicting them from their longtime River Camp in 2019, due, in part, to it being to dangerous and close to the train tracks. This location was set back a good 100 yards from the tracks as compared to their current location not evens a train cars width away from the tracks.
On August 8th at 9 p.m., a Puget Sound & Pacific train derailed in Aberdeen near West 1st Street, blocking the crossing there. The engine and five cars carrying soy meal derailed, but no injuries were reported, said Tom Ciuba, vice president of communications for PSAP’s parent company, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services.
“One of the derailed rail cars overturned and spilled roughly 500 pounds of soy meal on the ground,” Ciuba said in an email. “A contractor will be onsite this morning to begin the clean-up and re-railing process, which is expected to go through Saturday morning.” The cause of the the derailment is unknown at this time.
On May 17, 2023 another Puget Sound & Pacific Railroad train carrying soy meal experienced a derailment in nearby Central Park. Eight cars came off the tracks around 5:20 p.m., said Tom Ciuba, vice president of communications for PSAP’s parent company, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services, Inc.
No injuries were reported as a result of the derailment. The initial investigation indicates the cause of the derailment was thermal misalignment of the tracks, Ciuba said in an email —high heat, which can cause the tracks to buckle.
Neither of these specific train derailments happened to be carrying hazardous materials or hurt anyone in their derailments, thankfully. But this calls to memory the train disaster of East Palestine, Ohio. Where the train was carrying incredibly hazardous materials. It is concerning to think that something similar is bound to happen here in Aberdeen, with the amount of train traffic we see coming to and from the Port of Grays Harbor. If anything like that were to occur, we couldn’t sit by and say the warning signs weren’t there, as this type of thing has been happening with increasing frequency here locally. What will the next cargo be? Where will the next train go off the rails? Will it crush the unhoused beneath the bridge? Will it explode like in East Palestine? We cannot know at this time, but Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services, Inc need to conduct a thorough examination of their rail lines, and we here in town need to consider what types of cargo we want to be transported through our town.
In East Palestine, independent university researchers have found 80% of residents they surveyed say new symptoms experienced since the wreck – headaches, rash, coughs, eye irritation, diarrhea – are still present six months later, and about 40% said they suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. If we want to avoid this fate, then we need to be proactive in determining what exactly gets transported on the local rails, and have our say if something is deemed to be too dangerous or hazardous. We cannot rely on the goodwill or even mere competence of the railway companies.
365 Acres To Be Cleared For Seabrook Expansion
On the coast of Grays Harbor lies a strange little town, a town created by one development company, Seabrook. Seabrook is a private company, not an incorporated municipality, that owns land in Grays Harbor County. It caters exclusively to the wealthy in both it’s offerings of homes and services. Similar to other fabricated towns in the area like Oyehut Bay. It has a creepy and off-putting vibe, as though you have stepped into the movie ‘Stepford Wives’, where everything has the appearance of perfection but everything also is fully manufactured and fake. Towns like these are a part of a larger trend for the ultra rich to segregate themselves away from the economies and housing markets of local cities. They create their own corporate towns out of whole cloth, building everything from the ground up to be as exclusive as possible.
Seabrook currently has 34 acres, and has built 600 homes, the vast majority sold to wealthy white Seattle techies, only 130 of whom live there full-time. It is, essentially, what gentrification wants to do to every small town in the area. Who ever said the rich don’t live glamorous, extravagant lives surrounded by beautiful things?
Now Grays Harbor County has approved a pair of development deals with Casey Roloff, Seabrook’s founder and CEO. Over 20 years, Roloff wants to develop two large neighborhoods straddling the current town. This would add a maximum of 1,100 new lots.
“We were running out of land to develop and build houses on,” Roloff said in an interview with The Daily World. “This assures the county that we’re going to be building out here for the foreseeable future and it’s not just going to run out.”
This is the land of the Coast Salish Tribes, namely the kʷínayɬ /ˈkʷinajɬ/ or Quinalt tribe. We acknowledge our collective responsibility to abolish the settler colonial states occupying Turtle Island.
The Quinault Treaty was a treaty agreement between the United States and the Native American Quinault and Quileute tribes located in the western Olympic Peninsula north of Grays Harbor, in the recently formed Washington Territory. The treaty was signed on 1 July 1855, at the Quinault River, and on 25 January 1856 at Olympia, the territorial capital. It was ratified by Congress on 8 March 1859, and proclaimed law on April 11, 1859.
Signatories included Isaac Stevens, superintendent of Indian affairs and governor of Washington Territory, and representatives of the Quinault and Quileute, as well as the Hoh tribe, which was considered a subset of the Quileutes. The Quinault Indian Reservation was established under the terms of the treaty. Indian signatories included the Quinault Head Chief Taholah and Sub-chiefs Wah-kee-nah, Yer-ay-let’l, and Kne-she-guartsh, the Quileute Head Chief How-yat’l and Sub-chiefs Kal-lape, Tah-ah-ha-wht’l, along with other tribal delegates.
The Quinault Treaty was one of the last of several signed during Washington Territory’s first decade. Acquiring land cession from the Native Americans was one of Isaac Stevens’ primary goals as the first governor of the territory. Other similar cession treaties Stevens negotiated in the 1850s include the Treaty of Medicine Creek, Treaty of Hellgate, Treaty of Neah Bay, Treaty of Point Elliott, and the Point No Point Treaty.
The Quinault Treaty continued Isaac Stevens policy of consolidating tribes, often requiring tribes to move far from their homeland to a reservation to be occupied by several unrelated tribes. While not taking this policy as far as the Treaty of Point No Point did, the Quinault Treaty resulted in the establishment of the Quinault Reservation in the Quinault homeland but required the Quileute and Hoh to move there, although few did.
The treaty negotiations were conducted in Chinook Jargon, which, according to Paul Prucha, was “a lingua franca along the Pacific Northwest coast but hardly an effective tool for sensitive negotiations, for it had a vocabulary of only about 500 words, and a single word might be used to translate a number of different English words.”
Roloff also secured an exemption to the recent short-term rental regulations that limit AirBnb-type rentals in the County, due to their destructive nature. In the current town of Seabrook, between 300 and 400 out of about 600 total homes are currently operated as rentals by Seabrook’s hospitality department.” Short-term rentals in Seabrook generate more lodging tax revenue than any other source in the county” said Vickie Raines, county commissioner for District 3, which includes Seabrook. “I’ve always been pro-growth and development,” Raines said. “I appreciate people that want to come to Grays Harbor to vacation here, spend time here, and of course spend their money here.”
The County will always do anything for rich corporate interests, if there are laws that need exemptions, they have them. If there are environmental reviews to rubber stamp, no problem. Meanwhile, the poor are being pushed out of the last few places they can go by an increasingly erratic and hostile public, who see any sign of poverty as an excuse to dehumanize and degrade a person. Our City politicians want hostile architecture and more policing, and Seabrook wants more land to turn into short-term rentals for the ultra rich. Both will get what they want because the same people making the rules are the same people benefiting from them.
Aryan Freedom Network Continues To Spread Hate In Grays Harbor
On the night of Monday June 5th, members of the Aryan Freedom Network, a neo-Nazi group that is based in Texas and has chapters in 25 U.S. states, drove around town throwing flyers with their Nazi inspired logo, the 14 words of white supremacy, and a link to their website. The flyers also had a disclaimer at the bottom reading, “Distributed randomly without malicious intent”. They were sealed inside plastic bags with rice to weigh them down.
They have been discovered several times since, including August 24th, when the above video was taken and sent to us. This has been the overwhelming response by residents of Grays Harbor to finding these flyers on their doorsteps. The police told people to simply throw them away and that there was nothing to worry about. They claimed that there was no such activity seen around here and they believed that it was out of towner’s coming in to spread hate.
Yet, the facts beg to differ.
Not only have these exact flyers been showing up regularly ever since, but we have documented previous white supremacist activities both stickering and actual organizing. For example, below are some photos that were snapped of some white supremacist propaganda from White Lives Matter. The White Lives Matter movement was formed by several white supremacist groups, including the Aryan Renaissance Society and the Traditionalist Worker Party.
In terms of actual organizing The Communique gave the example of Joshua “Cache” McCallum, founder and leader of The Pacific North West Wolf Pack (PNWWP), a neo-Pagan white supremacist organization that has been actively recruiting and networking for years. They linked to an older report on Cache done by local antifascists Chehalis River Antifascist Social Support (CRASS). The group has grown substantially since that reporting, including many others groups throughout the region. Not only does this man lead this white supremacist group, he also is in a management position in the largest social service provider in the county, Coastal Community Action Program (CCAP). The newsletter then raises the concern that Cahce’s whtie supremacist agenda and views may be coloring his managerial work at CCAP. They even bring up the Northwest Territorial Imperative, a call to action for neo-Nazis and white supremacists to move en masse to the Pacific Northwest and eventually secede from the United States as their own white ethnostate. This connection between local officials and white supremacists is concerning but not surprising. The Pacific Northwest, and Grays Harbor in particular, have been the focus of the white supremacy movement for decades. The newsletter called for a more proactive response to these flyers than the police, who just said to throw them out and ignore it, saying, “We cannot afford to simply “throw them out” and forget about them like the police want. Despite what the flyers themselves say, this is direct threat against us and our communities.”
Monthly Radical News Roundup:
July 31, 2023 Travels of Hate: An American Far-Right Extremist in Greece
August 4, 2023 Gazans Flock to Beaches Amid Record Breaking Heatwave
August 5, 2023 ‘Traffic stops should not be death sentences’ – Trooper Kills Ricky Cobb II During Traffic Stop
August 8, 2023 Shipwrecked Synthesizers: How Electronic Music Came to Cabo Verde
August 12, 2023 The Supreme Court Bans Affirmative Action in Colleges, But Does it Really Matter?
August 14, 2023 Bombed Houses in Gaza Transformed by Palestinian Calligraphy Artist
August 16, 2023 Helicopter Footage From Mass Arrest Reveals State Trooper Surveillance Capabilities, Tactics, and Communications
August 20, 2023 Aimed at Protests, Surveillance Contractor’s New Owners Expand Spy Tech Portfolio
August 21, 2023 French Police Kill Teen During Traffic Stop, Leading to Mass Revolt
August 22, 2023 “Makeba” – A Viral TikTok Trend Pays Homage to Mama Africa
August 23, 2023 Tale of the City: Gentrification in London – Part 3
It’s Going Down is a digital community center for anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements across so-called North America. Their mission is to provide a resilient platform to publicize and promote revolutionary theory and action. You can find the following articles on their website at itsgoingdown.org:
Aug 1, 23 In Contempt #31: New Support Campaigns Rally Across the US Against Repression
Crimethought is everything that evades control:
CrimethInc. is a rebel alliance. CrimethInc. is a banner for anonymous collective action. CrimethInc. is an international network of aspiring revolutionaries. CrimethInc. is a desperate venture. Visit crimethinc.com for more.
2023-08-09 Learning from the Flames: Reflections on the June 2023 Revolt in France
2023-08-22 Memories from Saint-Imier, 1872 to 2023 :Accounts from a Worldwide Anarchist Gathering
2023-08-25 Gender and Sexuality in Saint-Imier: A Memoir
Segment one:
Welcome back to Molotov Now!
Before we get into our round table we want to lay out the situation here in so-called Aberdeen, WA in regards to the anti group-feeding ordinance that the City is trying to pass. After the first of three required readings on June 14th. As we discussed previously, concerns were raised by those in attendance as well as those on the council about the proposed ordinance and the effect it will have on those seeking to feed the unhoused in town. The Chehalis River Mutual Aid Network has a current petition on change.org that you can learn all about the actual text of the ordinance and hear from them why this is such a harmful change to local policy, please check out their linktree at linktr.ee/crmutualaidnet for more info and to sign the petition. From to the Communique Vol 4,
“Essentially it forces anyone seeking to bring resources to the homeless apply for a permit two days in advance, or face a $250 dollar fine for the first offense and $500 there after. All while being banned from applying for such a permit for a full year should they find any fault with it. Among the concerns the City seek to address with this ordinance is the trash accumulated by people dumping unwanted stuff at camp, a legitimate phenomenon to be sure. But in seeking to curb illegal dumping, which is already illegal based on current laws, they have come up with something that targets those bringing actual resources to the unhoused.”
Today we have a round table of guests from various Food Not Bombs chapters across the occupied territories of turtle island, yet this isn’t the only thing they have in common that have brought them on the podcast today, all have been facing harassment by their local jurisdictions. In fact many mutual aid projects have been facing repression from their City. We will be talking to members of the west palm beach food not bombs and the Memphis Food Not Bombs about their experiences organizing under these conditions and what we can do to remain resilient in the face of repression. Can we have everyone go around and give a quick introduction, pronouns, and a description, and tell us about any relevant organizing experience you have, and how you got involved in FNB?
We need transcription help, if you are interested please get in touch!
Music:
Its time for our musical break. We happen to have two songs from members of the round table today. First we have America Is A Lie by Free Radicals from Houston, next we will play Seen Kids by Dinero Muerto out of Memphis. Hit it!
Free Radicals:
Dinero Muerto:
Conclusion:
Here at Molotov Now! we are committed to people taking direct action to stop the oppression they face, our they see others face in their life. To that end we want to take this time to recommend everyone go out and check on their local Food Not Bombers, they may need some help if you can spare it. These folks work tirelessly and for free to not only salvage food from being thrown away but then help their community further by feeding the hungry. The core of this work is that it is in public, the core is to political direct action. Every Food Not Bombs share has political literature of flyers or even just conversations. These conversations can really push the boundaries of what politics truly is. From work like this we understand that in fact every aspect of life is political in nature, from clothing and food, to housing and health care. Everything is traded as a commodity in a marketplace propped up by governments and massive trans national corporations. Without them and their devastating profit motive we could rethink whether we want housing and food, basic human requirements for life, to be bought and sold for profit at all. We can re-imagine modes of commerce that don’t exploit the land or the workers. All if these are conversations that have been had around a meal at a Food Not Bombs share. It is good to talk to people over a meal, it is in OUR nature. That is the genius of the organizational structure, the dynamic it sets up around the act of sharing food.
Cities across this country are facing off against their local chapters of Food Not Bombs, in a replay of what happens with reactionary cities every so often. When cities eventually try to gentrify and kick out their homeless population one of the best ways to go about doing this is to attack those providing them services. Food Not Bombs does this, and does it without the traditional permits or red tape that other institutions have to deal with. Bureaucracies that stand as a barrier to entry for many wishing to get involved in the community. FNB provides people a no barrier way to get involved in community organizing and experience non hierarchical structures and ways of being. This is the inherent danger that it poses to local authorities, the spread of anti authoritarian feelings among the poor and desperate. This has traditionally been looked down upon by those in charge, with Food Not Bombs being labeled as a terrorist organization by law enforcement during a previous incarnation of this reactionary fervor. One thing should be clear to the City, because we know they listen. Nothing will ever stop Food Not Bombs from sharing food for free to those in need. This is not a charity that will be cowed by threats, this is a political direct action campaign that has won numerous court battles in the past over this exact issue. Food Not Bombers are engaged in legally protected free speech when they conduct their shares.
Outro:
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Molotov Now! We hope you found it informative and inspiring. Our goal with the podcast is to reach out beyond our boundaries and connect the happenings in our small town with the struggles going on in major urban centers. We want to talk to you if your a big city organizer, we think we have a lot you can learn from, and we know you have much to teach us. If you would like to come on the show please email us at sabot_media@riseup.net with the header “Molotov Now!” and we will be in touch about setting up an interview and crafting an episode to feature you. Don’t forget, if you like what we do here and want to support it, you can do that by going to linktr.ee/al1312 and clicking donate, or scrolling to the bottom for Patreon. You have to go check out the amazing shirts up at feralthreads.square.site, all sales from these shirts are also donated to our comrades with The Blackflower Collective. Thank you!
We want to give a shout out to our friends at:
- C: Sabotage Noise Productions for helping to promote such awesome benefit shows, including one for The Blackflower Collective, and for being all around awesome people.
- S: The South Florida Anti-Repression Committee who have launched a solidarity campaign for two individuals facing 12 years for an alleged graffiti attack on a fake Christian anti-choice clinic that does not provide any reproductive care. This Federal overreach and use of the FACE Act, an act meant to protect people visiting reproductive clinics from harassment, is unprecedented. To support this solidarity campaign please visit bit.ly/frCeeourfighters
- C: We want to thank The Blackflower Collective for their continued support and wish them luck in their fundraising efforts. To support them or learn more their website is blackflowercollective.noblogs.org.
- S: Kolektiva, the anarchist mastodon server, is growing faster than ever thanks to Elon Musk’s stupidity as many activists close their accounts for bluer skies as can be seen in the fluctuation of followers over on IGD’s socials, join at kolektiva.social and follow us and other online activists on decentralized federated internet.
- C: Chehalis River Mutual Aid Network is holding a fundraiser for their weekly meals with Food Not Bombs. To donate visit linktr.ee/crmutualaidnet
- S: The Communique is looking for artist and upcoming event submissions, please write to sabot_media@riseup.net to submit your entry.
- C: As reported previously, Katey Hussey is still struggling in the wake of harrassment by Dayton Police that has cost her their employment and housing. Luckily it appears as though the charges against her have been dropped. But she has lost everything because of this and still faces an uphill battle getting back on her feet. Please send any donations to Venmo @katyHussey or Cashapp $KatyHussey to help them during this time.
- S: Thank you to Pixel Passionate for producing our soundtrack, please check out their website at www.radicalpraxisclothing.com and check out their portfolio in our show notes.
- C: and Thank you to the Channel Zero Anarchist Podcast Network. We are proud to be members of a network that creates and shares leading critical analysis, news, and actions from an anarchist perspective.
Remember to check out sabot media’s new website for new episodes, articles, comics, and columns. We have new content all the time. Make sure you follow, like, and subscribe on your favorite corporate data mining platform of choice and go ahead and make the switch to federated social media on the kolektiva mastodon server today @AberdeenLocal1312 for updates on Sabot Media projects such as The Harbor Rat Report, The Saboteurs, The Communique, our podcast Molotov Now! and many other upcoming projects.
That’s all for tonight. Please remember to spay and neuter your cats and don’t forget to cast your votes at those who deserve them.
Solidarity Comrades,
This is Molotov Now! Signing off