Radical People

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks to his long time friend Panagioti about a recent protest that took place at Florida State Prison in which three people, including Panagioti, were violently arrested. The protest was in honor of long time prison abolitionist Karen Smith who recently passed away.

This is part two of my conversation with Karen Pickett, someone who has been organizing with the Earth First! movement since 1983. In this episode she takes us back to the early nineties, and tells the story of a blockade of a nuclear power plant that was under construction in small town Tennessee. Show Notes: Earth First! Journal Website www.earthfirstjournal.news

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon has a discussion with Karen Pickett, a woman who has been involved with the Earth First! movement since 1983. She talks about how she came to the biocentrist direct action philosophy. Her story of a particular action will come in part two of this episode. Show notes: If you want to check out Earth First!, they don't have much web presence, but this is the site for the movement's print magazine. www.earthfirstjournal.news

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks with Lupine and Walter from the Redwood Forest Defense campaign currently underway in Humboldt County in Northern California. Right now, near Strawberry Rock, tree sitters have taken to the canopy to protect a section of land slated for clearcutting by Green Diamond Resource Company. The unit has already been partially cut, but the presence of blockaders has stifled further work. Show Notes: This is the campaign's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/redwoodforestdefense/ Here is some local media on the tree sits (with some rough comments: https://kymkemp.com/2020/04/01/redwood-forest-defenders-occupy-treesit-platform-in-the-strawberry-rock-timber-harvest-plan/

In this episode Eamon talks with Sunflower about her time at Camp White Pine in Pennsylvania, where she worked for months with others to blockade the construction of the Mariner East 2 Pipeline. They also discuss how Sunflower moved into radical direct action and the Earth First! movement. Show Notes: A good write up by a participant at Camp White Pine: https://medium.com/@leeziesche/spring-destruction-and-more-surveillance-come-to-camp-white-pine-d7bd5c19ad1 Video from the blockade: https://vimeo.com/232750411 Another epic video from the blockade: https://www.facebook.com/CampWhitePinePA/videos/you-shall-not-pass/1916115425324922/

In this episode, Eamon speaks with Amy and Maura, not only about Amy's podcast Rebel Steps, but about a direct action they both participated in back in 2017 in which they worked with others to blockade the NYPD and Toronto Police contingents that were marching in New York City's pride parade. Show notes: And article with images of the action in question: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/twelve-arrests-lgbtq-activists-turn-pride-march-protest-n776726 Another article with more photos https://gothamist.com/news/photos-12-arrested-at-nyc-pride-parade-outside-stonewall-inn Information on the alternative Queer Liberation March: https://reclaimpridenyc.org/ https://www.instagram.com/queermarch/

In this episode Eamon interviews Scott Parkin about the Earth First! Dirty South campaign that was started ay back in 2003 to target Maxxam, a financial company that had taken over Pacific Lumber and was driving the timber company to clear cut redwoods in northern California. EF! Dirty South was in Houston, and its participants worked to target Maxxam's executives at their homes and places in the community in order to publicly shame them for their culpability in the clearcutting of ancient forests. Show Notes: This Wikipedia page actually has a pretty good history of Pacific Lumber and the takeover by Maxxam, as well as some brief information about Earth First! resistance to the company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Lumber_Company This article was written by Scott Parkin about his time fighting Maxxam, and how the federal government monitored their activities: https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/21/green-scare-lite/

In this episode, Eamon talks with Glen about an action that happened roughly ten years ago in which a group of activists were working to save the last in tact mountain in Coal River Valley, West Virginia. Glen has organized with the RAMPS campaign for years now, and has also been active in assisting the Appalachians Against Pipelines campaign in Virginia. Show Notes: This is a link to the RAMPS Campaign's official website https://rampscampaign.org/https://rampscampaign.org/ This is a link to Coal River Mountain Watch's site for more info on mountain top removal in West Virginia https://www.crmw.net/ This is a link to the Appalachians Against Pipelines Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/

In this episode Eamon speaks with an anonymous guest about their time fighting with the Kurds in Syria. This person left the US at a young age and fought alongside other international volunteers and the local kurds against Daesh (ISIS). Over the course of the fighting, this person sustained some serious injuries before returning home.

In this episode Eamon chats with Chief Dsta'hyl of the Likhtsamisyu clan about their struggle against Coastal Gas Link; a pipeline that will carry gas and possibly tar sands across their unceded land from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia for export. Show Notes: Here is a link to the Likhtsamisyu's website: https://likhtsamisyu.com/ Here is a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/likhtsamisyu/ Here is the video of Chief Dtsa'hyl in at the meeting in the band hall: https://youtu.be/OhMg0pr4pfA Here is a link to the Likhtsamisyu's GoFundMe: https://ca.gofundme.com/f/likhtsamisyu2019

In this episode, Eamon talks with Rhubarb about the ongoing campaign to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline from being constructed across West Virginia and Virginia. Right now, Rhubarb is sitting in one of the two trees that comprise the Yellow Finch Tree sit, which has now successfully halted construction of the fracked-gas pipeline for over a year. Show Notes: This is the facebook page for Appalachians Against Pipelines https://www.facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/ This is the Twitter profile for the campaign https://twitter.com/stopthemvp?lang=en Here is general info about the pipeline project itself https://www.mountainvalleypipeline.info/

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks with Dusty who is currently in a tree sit blocking the path of construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia. Of late, there have been arrests on the ground, and the don't know if the near year long tree sit will face increased pressure from State Police in the near future. Show Notes: Appalachians Against Pipelines Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/ Twitter Page https://twitter.com/stopthemvp?lang=en

In this episode Eamon speaks with Hi Wire from the Mattole Forest defense campaign to get an update on everything that is currently happening to protect the ancient forest in a short window of time until Humboldt Redwood Company's permit to cut expires. Show Notes: Blockade Babes Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blockade.babes/ Blockade Babes Twitter: https://twitter.com/BabesBlockade Save the Ancient Mattole Forest Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/savethemattoleforest/

In this episode, Eamon continues his series of conversations with indigenous women who are leading resistance to pipeline infrastructure by speaking with Cherri Foytlin about how the residents of Louisiana fought and continue to fight against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. - Show Notes - A link to the Bridge the Gulf project site: https://bridgethegulfproject.org/ More about L'eau Est La Vie Camp https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/17/tribal-blessing-louisiana-activist-buys-land-path-proposed-bayou-bridge-pipeline Here are some links to interviews with Cherri: “Good water in their bodies and good air to breathe”: A Conversation with Cherri Foytlin https://kairoscenter.org/cherri-foytlin-interview/ Cherri Foytlin: A Call to Action https://www.indigenousgoddessgang.com/matriarch-monday/2019/2/4/cherri-foytlin-call-to-action

In this episode, Eamon speaks with MKoontz about their resistance to the tar sand pipeline, Line 3, that Enbridge is trying to build from Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. Show Notes: Stop Line 3 Website: https://www.stopline3.org/ A link from Unicorn Riot about Line 3 Resistance Work: https://unicornriot.ninja/2018/arts-culture-and-hip-hop-resist-line-3-as-lawsuits-against-approval-continue/?fbclid=IwAR04FEAlI7YhDySP1tZ36xFVF2IS4_b_jNEGwFRx7S2L_5TDk1nsEz-V0Gk A write up about a lock down in Wisconsin against Line 3 construction: https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2017/09/15/water-protectors-lockdown-at-wisconsin-enbridge-site/

In this episode, Eamon talks to Delee from the Gidumt’en Camp about resistance to the oil and gas industry that seeks to run pipelines across their unceded territory. Recently, the RCMP raided one of their road checkpoints, bulldozed their structures and traplines, and set up a small garrison on Gitemden teritory. Notes: Here is a link to a map of Wet'suwet'en territory: http://www.wetsuweten.com/territory/

In this episode, Eamon talks to MJ about an action at a waste water injection site that took place in 2013. A crew of Earth Firsters rigged a monopod inside a pump station in Ohio where fracking backwater was stored underground. All went well, until it didn't, as usual. Show notes: This is a video that Appalachia Resist! made of the action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ClE_OR8YPQ

For twenty years direct action has been the tactic of choice for small bands of forest defenders in Humboldt County's Mattole forest. In this episode of Radical People, High Wire gives a glimpse into what has gone down on the ground away from the eyes of the public as rag tag activists did whatever it took to keep the old growth standing. Mattole Campaign's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Save-the-Mattoles-Ancient-Forest-572103586221093/

For twenty years forest defenders have used direct action to prevent logging in the Mattole forest in northern California. In July of 2018, the most recent blockade was dismantled by HRC security. In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks to Slingshot to get the inside scoop on just what went down. This is the facebook page for the campaign: https://www.facebook.com/Save-the-Mattoles-Ancient-Forest-572103586221093/ This is a write up about the recent raid: https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2018/07/30/forest-defenders-blockade-in-californias-mattole-forest-raided-by-paramilitary-style-security/

For twenty years, people have engaged in direct action in order to protect the Mattole forest in northern California from being logged. In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks with Sweet Pea who has spent a significant amount of time as part of the fight to defend the Mattole. This is a link to the campaign's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Save-the-Mattoles-Ancient-Forest-572103586221093/ This is an article from the Earth First! journal about a blockade in the Mattole from 2017: https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2017/06/06/blockade-in-the-matole-forest/ This is an article from the Earth First! journal about the current blockade in the Mattole: https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2018/06/24/new-blockade-in-californias-mattole-forest-protects-old-growth-from-timber-harvest-plans/

Breaking event right now - Monday July 9, 2018, - as members of Earth First! and the American Indian Movement blockade an ICE facility in Columbus, Ohio with demands that ICE be shut down and the families they have detained, released and reunited.

In this Episode of Radical People Eamon talks with Caleb about his time as an international volunteer fighting alongside the Kurds of Rojava against ISIS in northern Syria. Caleb was shot in the leg and had to return home before he intended, which may have been fortuitous for him. Show Notes: This is a Chicago Tribune article detailing Caleb's story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-american-fighter-syrian-militia-20180214-story.html

In this episode of Radical People Eamon talks with Hanna, who served two tours as an international volunteer in Rojava with the all woman fighting force, the YPJ. Hanna is featured in the film "Fear Us Women" viewable here: https://fearuswomen.com/ This is an article about how Turkish forces seized the Kurdish region of Afrin: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/world/middleeast/afrin-turkey-syria.html

In this episode, Eamon speaks with Marcus, an American man who travelled to Syria to fight as an international member of the Kurdish YPG. Marcus explains his motivation for going, and what the several month experience was like, from the boredom to the intensity of combat. Show Notes: This is a link to the YPG site about Rojava: http://ypg-international.org/rojava/ This is a link to the North American Kurdish Alliance, which Marcus mentions in the episode everyone should support: https://thenaka.org/ This is a story about Michael Israel, a young international volunteer killed in Syria that Marcus mentions in the show: http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-california-man-20161201-story.html This is some current reporting on the Turkish invasion of Afrin in Rojava: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42765697 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/afrin-turkey-invasion-syria-enclave-kurds-ypg-airstrike-war-civil-a8182266.html

In this episode, Eamon speaks with Charlie, a young man from Britain who travelled to Syria to fight with the Kurds against ISIS in Raqqa. Show Notes: Articles on the Kurdish political experiment in Syria: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/magazine/a-dream-of-utopia-in-hell.html https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/10/kurds-rojava-syria-isis-iraq-assad/505037/ Article on how Turkey is now attacking the Kurds in Afrin: http://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/30012018

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon speaks with his friend High Jinks, who has spent the past few years learning how to sail. Since learning this skill from various anarchist sailors, she began to work with a group called Women on Waves, whose goal is to bring women out to international waters so that they can have legal abortions. Show Notes: Here is a link to the Women On Waves project: https://www.womenonwaves.org/ Here is a link to the Tell Tales Collective: http://notelltales.org/

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks with "Malcom," who was one of the thirteen people who repelled off of the St. John's Bridge in Portland, Oregon in order to blockade the icebreaker ship, the Fennica back in 2015. This was an effort to keep Shell Oil from being able to drill for oil in the Arctic. Photo Malcom talks about with climbers at night: https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceusa09/20085738936/in/photostream/ Here is an article from Oregon Live about the blockade: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/08/greenpeace_protest_dangling_ac.html Here is a profile of the Fennica: http://arctia.fi/en/ship/fennica/

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks to his friend Sycamore about an action that was attempted back in 2013 in Cushing, Oklahoma, but that was ultimately foiled by someone who informed the police of the plan ahead of time. It is later discovered via FOIA request that aside from the disenfranchised person who snitched on the action, two police officers had been tasked with infiltrating the action camp where this action was planned. Sycamore recalls that the police infiltrators were obvious, but unconfirmed until the FOIA was received. Show Notes: Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance Home Page: https://gptarsandsresistance.org/ Their last update mentions that the two individuals charged with a "terrorism hoax" after glitter fell off a banner they hung in the entry hall of a building were found not guilty. Guardian Article explaining the "Terrorism Hoax" Charge leveled against GPTSR activists: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/10/terror-charges-oklahoma-fossil-fuel-protest Article explaining the FOIA release that documents police infiltration of the action camp Sycamore talks about in this episode: http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/undercover_agents_infiltrated_tar_sands_resistance_camp_to_break_up_planned/

In this episode of Radical People, Eamon talks with "Brandon" who was an organizer with Tar Sands Blockade in Texas back in 2012-2013. Brandon tells a story about a day when everything went right. Strangely, everything played out perfectly. The action was at the outset of the campaign, and Brandon then describes how only weeks later, things took a turn for the worse, as Transcanada directed the police to begin using "pain compliance" on blockaders. Show Notes: Here is a link to Tar Sands Blockade's page regarding the action in which two people were put into pain positions, were peppered sprayed, and then were tazed in order to get them to unlock themselves from an excavator. One of those blockaders then sued the police in a case which is apparently ongoing: http://www.tarsandsblockade.org/suecops/

In this episode, Eamon talks with "Brady" about time she spent in the Two Rivers Camp in West Texas fighting against the construction of the Trans Pecos Pipeline. Show Notes: Here are some links to media concerning the Trans Pecos Pipeline and those who worked to stop it. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/05/texas-pipeline-controversy-trans-pecos/ http://www.texasmonthly.com/energy/native-americans-continue-fight-stop-trans-pecos-pipeline-west-texas/ https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/02/where-fracked-gas-headed-mexico-texas-trans-pecos-pipeline

In this episode of Radical People Eamon talks with Ben about some of his time working with the Cascadia Forest Defenders out of Eugene, Oregon as they attempted to protect the Elliott State Forest. Ben shares two stories, one rather humorous, the second a bit more harrowing. Show Notes: Here is some recent journalism regarding the Elliott State Forest: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/05/its_unanimous_elliott_state_fo.html http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2017/07/timber_companytimber_company_s.html This is an article about former Oregon Governor Kitzhaber's embezzlement scandal: http://www.thestate.com/latest-news/article13953725.html And here is a glorious photo of the banner hang action off of the state capitol building in Salem: https://lintvkoin.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/vlcsnap-2013-09-19-11h54m58s146.jpg?w=650

This is the first episode of the podcast, Radical People, a show dedicated to hearing behind the scenes stories from people who engage in various forms of direct action. In this episode, "Sarah" talks with show host Eamon about an action they were both engaged in back in 2013 as part of the Tar Sands Blockade campaign that aimed to prevent the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline through East Texas and Oklahoma. SHOW NOTES: Here are some links to provide context to the episode. The youtube videos are videos that were shot during the construction and execution of the "cupcake" blockade. Day of blockade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyJRI_vTtS4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys5ExsWSl0o Building the blockade before hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2f69tHx99k