From Embers

85 years ago this week, in the midst of another long hot summer, a series of anti-semitic and xenophobic provocations in Toronto escalated into a full blown riot at Christie Pits.

Tonight we bring you two interviews to mark the 85th anniversary of the Christie Pits Riot in Toronto. The first is with Cyril Levitt, co-author of the book The Riot at Christie Pits. The 2nd edition is being released this week through New Jewish Press with a new foreword and postscript.

The second interview is with Isaac, a member of the Toronto General Defense Committee, a local of the Industrial Workers of the World. Isaac is organizing a Commemorative BBQ at Christie Pits this Sunday, August 19th in the spirit of anti-fascism.

From Embers is also proud to announce that we are now a part of the Channel Zero Anarchist Podcast Network, which links anarchist podcast projects across the world. In the coming weeks we will be fully integrating into the network, while still broadcasting every Wednesday night at 8pm on CFRC 101.9FM in Kingston.

With music by Geoff Berner, Leonard Cohen, and Lloyd McNeill.

An interview with a comrade who recently published a critique of Max Stirner's The Ego And Its Own. We discuss anarchist morality and ethics, why we hate the state, whether anarchism means building a world with no masters or slaves, egoism, individualism, killing the cop inside your head, and whether dead philosophers matter.

An interview with an anti-fascist based in Montreal. We discuss the history of the Quebec far right dating back to the 1930s, anti-fascist resistance in 1990s Montreal, and the contemporary context, including an important victory against La Meute on July 1, 2018.

Links:

Montreal Antifasciste

Montreal Counter-Information

I talk to Rosa, a friend and anarchist person of colour living in Montreal, about racism, identity politics, identity-based organizing and projects she's involved with. Thanks to Rosa for the music selections!

A post-Canada Day reflection on resistance to colonial celebrations. Interviews with two Indigenous organizers, one about "Canada Day" here in Kingston, Ontario, and another on "Australia Day," also known as Invasion Day, which meets massive protests across Australia each January.

Links:

Background on the resistance to colonial birthday parties in Kingston.

Idle No More Kingston (facebook link!)

Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (also a facebook link!)

Canada Day actions in Kingston in 2016, 2017, and this year.

Some background on "Australia Day" and corporate media coverage of Invasion Day.

After The Apology

An hour-long investigation into efforts in recent years to resist the Trans Mountain Pipeline and its world.

Our first interview is with an anarchist who participated in an anti-pipeline camp on Burnaby Mountain in 2014.

Our second interview is with Kanahus Manuel, a Secwepemc woman currently involved in the struggle against the pipeline which runs through her territory.

Links:

Wreck: A Vancouver Anarchist Publication

Defend the Territory by Warrior Publications

Secwepemcul'ecw Assembly

Tiny House Warriors Facebook Page

Tiny House Warriors GoFundMe

Unsettling Canada by Arthur Manuel

A conversation with a friend who recently gave an "introduction to anarchism" workshop and is also writing an article called "Making Our Relationships More Free." He's putting forward an anarchism that seeks a collective, relational freedom rather than an individual one.

Topics include:

- how to frame anarchism to people who don't understand it yet.

- a forthcoming anthology about the place of individualism in anarchism.

- the difference between freedom and capacity.

- the definition of freedom, and how to envision freedom without relying on liberal or capitalist conceptions of the individual.

- how we get free through changing and remaking our relationships with other people and other living things.

- the possibility of global revolution.

- the difference between anarchist analysis and revolutionary strategy.

Links:

The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin

23 Theses on Anarchism: Revolution is More Than A World

The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement

Entanglement: On anarchism and individualism

Stories from the Québec anti-G7 mobilizations, June 7-9. Two interviews, one with a RRAG7 (Réseau de Résistance Anti-G7) organizer in Québec and one with an Ontario anarchist previously charged with conspiracy for organizing against the Toronto G20 summit in 2010. Music by Keny Arkana.

Two interviews with people involved in supporting the thousands of refugees currently crossing irregularly into Canada from the United States through Southern Quebec. Topics include migrant justice, border policy, countering the far right, and solidarity.

For more information on Solidarity Across Borders: http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org

For more information on Bridges Not Borders: http://www.bridgesnotborders.ca

An interview with anarchist and surrealist author Ron Sakolsky.

We discuss his life, free jazz, academia, the intersections of surrealism and anarchy, mutual acquiescence, maroon communities, and his day to day life on Denman Island, BC.

Ron's latest book "In Search of the Masterless Men of Newfoundland" is available from Little Black Cart.

This interview was recorded at the 2018 Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. The music is by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.