Kite Line

After the news, we hear from Daniel McGowan, former political prisoner and member of the Certain Days Collective. Daniel’s been on the show before, talking to us about the Certain Days calendar- which is out now.

Later on in the episode, we talk to an organizer with the group Both Sides of the Wall.  Alabama prisoners have been striking since September 26th. Prisoners at all 13 prisons in the Alabama department of corrections system went on labor strike, demanding improvement to conditions. This week we speak again with an outside organizer, who gives us updates on the situation. As we hear,  the strike is now on hold- but they are still fighting on the inside and out.

Our previous episodes on the strike can be found on kitelineradio.org

Our previous episode about the Certain Days calendar is here:

289 | Certain Days

And you can support Both Sides of the Wall here.

We start off this week with a statement, released today, by Alabama Confined Citizens, speaking for people striking behind the walls of the Alabama prison system. We then speak with Elizabeth, who is one of many supporting the strike because they have an imprisoned loved one.

In contrast to official narratives from the Governor and prison officials, Elizabeth emphasizes what she and others have been hearing directly from inside: in response to weeks of work stoppages, prisons have responded with near-starvation rations, lack of access to laundry, frightening medical neglect, and at least one reported case of direct physical violence by guards.

She emphasizes the peaceful nature of the strike, and describes some demands that have emerged from within different facilities.  Alabama is one of five states where prison slavery – work without payment, remains legal today – and strikers are demanding reasonable wages for work.  She also speaks about other demands, like increased use of the Good Time Incentive Program and the repeal of Alabama’s infamous Habitual Offender Act.

We close the show with a recording from Episode 6 of Kite Line: a reading of “Let the Crops Rot in the Fields” an important document published by the Free Alabama Movement in 2015, setting out a strategy for direct economic action against mass incarceration.

Find out more here:

https://libcom.org/article/let-crops-rot-fields

https://freealabamamovement.wordpress.com/

We start off this episode with our monthly round up of prison disturbances, as compiled by Perilous Chronicle.

As we have covered, Alabama prisoners have been striking since September 26th. Prisoners at all 13 prisons in the Alabama department of corrections system went on labor strike, demanding improvement to conditions. We spoke with an inside organizer, Swift Justice, last week. And this week, two outside organizers share updates about this ongoing struggle.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the show. Thanks to Perilous Chronicle for the headlines- you can find out more at PerilousChronicle.com

Check out last week’s episode with Swift Justice:

323 | Swift Justice on Alabama’s Prison Strike

This past week, we spoke to Swift Justice, who is an incarcerated organizer in Alabama. Thousands of Alabama prisoners began a strike last week to protest poor prison conditions across the state, where prisons are overcrowded, understaffed and notoriously dangerous. Today, Swift Justice speaks about the recent retaliation the strikers have faced. He updates us on the strike’s progress, some of the unprecedented challenges they are facing, and how he is inspired by the people who pushed the idea forward.

You can see the video they mention of Kinetik Justice a.k.a. Robert Earl Council here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN4bg7qX0CU

And the recent video on conditions is here: https://twitter.com/freealamovement/status/1575288754406825985?s=46&t=pJOBT0w9BWPXmxS3AugVcw

We will keep updating our social media with ways to support them, and will continue to share coverage as the strike progresses.

This week, we share the second part of a recorded discussion hosted by the Civil Liberties Defense Center.  CLDC has been at the forefront of anti-repression legal work for decades now, working on many of the Green Scare cases, in which the FBI infamously hounded and smashed radical environmental organizing between 2000 and 2008.  In this discussion, Chava and Lauren speak with Letha, a long-time supporter for Marius Mason, who is the last remaining Green Scare prisoner.  Marius is a former Bloomington resident whose public organizing and clandestine acts of sabotage in the 1990s presaged many of the ecological concerns which have now become global issues as we face climate catastrophe.  Marius was harshly sentenced – to almost 23 years in prison – for acts of sabotage against logging, highway construction, water privatization schemes, and corporate genetic engineering.  He came out as a trans man while inside and is being held at the federal prison in Connecticut.

Thanks to the CLDC for organizing this important discussion and for all their work.

You can find out more about how to support Marius here: https://supportmariusmason.org/

Here are some of our favorite previous episodes about Marius:

Last Week’s Episode: https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/321-marius-mason-the-last-green-scare-prisoner/

https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/dear-marius/

https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/ongoing-support-for-marius-mason-and-his-family/

https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/be-like-water-j11-reflections-on-marius-masons-journey-through-federal-prison/

This week, we share a recorded discussion hosted by the Civil Liberties Defense Center.  CLDC has been at the forefront of anti-repression legal work for decades now, working on many of the Green Scare cases, in which the FBI infamously hounded and smashed radical environmental organizing between 2000 and 2008.  In this discussion, Chava and Lauren speak with Letha, a long-time supporter for Marius Mason, who is the last remaining Green Scare prisoner.  Marius is a former Bloomington resident whose public organizing and clandestine acts of sabotage in the 1990s presaged many of the ecological concerns which have now become global issues as we face climate catastrophe.  Marius was harshly sentenced – to almost 23 years in prison – for acts of sabotage against logging, highway construction, water privatization schemes, and corporate genetic engineering.  He came out as a trans man while inside and is being held at the federal prison in Connecticut.

Thanks to the CLDC for organizing this important discussion and for all their work.

You can find out more about how to support Marius here: https://supportmariusmason.org/

You can hear our previous episodes about Marius here:

8 | Dear Marius

45 | Ongoing Support for Marius Mason and His Family

150 | Be Like Water: J11 Reflections on Marius Mason’s Journey Through Federal Prison

Shawn Sutton is from Greenville, North Carolina, and she participated in the George Floyd Uprising when it spread there in late May 2020.  Shawn was imprisoned due to her participation and has been recently released.  Today, she discusses the incident surrounding her arrest and the overall way recent years have shaped her politics.

You can support her re-entry process by sending funds via CashApp at $SeckundChanse1. 

Up first, we have our monthly round up of prison disturbances, as compiled by Perilous Chronicle.

In celebration of over 300 consecutive weekly episodes of Kite Line, we are revisiting some features from our archive of shows. In this clip from Episode 58, which aired in 2017, we return to the topic of incarceration’s impact on families. From that episode, “We continue our conversation with Ray Luc Levasseur. He is a former underground combatant with the United Freedom Front, which carried out a campaign of attacks from 1975-1984 against South African Apartheid and US intervention in Central America. He spent 13 years in solitary confinement after his capture.

This week, he shares with us his thoughts on the impact of incarceration on families, including his time as a parent both in clandestinity and in prison. He talks about his own experiences, leading to insights about the larger issues facing many families, as millions of children are deprived of their parents in a society with record-high incarceration rates.”

You can listen to our previous episodes with Ray Luc:

57 | Lines Should Be Drawn: Ray Luc Levasseur on Fighting Jim Crow and Surviving Federal Supermax

58 | Family Values: A Conversation with Ray Luc Levasseur

You can read his piece “Family Values” here.

This week, Zolo Azania returns to Kite Line. He recently visited Indiana University’s campus, and gave a talk that we began airing last week. On that episode, he reflects on that visit and talks about his history, focusing on how learning to use the law improved his life. The efforts of Azania, his lawyers and supporters successfully freed him from death row and he was released in 2017.

Next, we hear from Don Abdul Roberts, who gave us advice in 2016 on one of our early shows. Don stresses the importance of using legal tools to help people free themselves from the system. As he says, it’s a bourgeois tool with working class implications.

Both Zolo and Don are former prisoners from the Midwest who organized outside and inside the prison walls. Zolo worked within the tradition of the Chicago and Gary Black Panther Party, and Don was a member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement. We appreciate their insights into the power of self-education and learning the law to use it against the system.

Our full interview with Don on Habeas Corpus is here.

You can listen to our previous episodes with Zolo Azania here.

This week, Zolo Azania returns to the show. Azania was on the Kite Line back in 2019, shortly after he was released after surviving decades on Indiana’s death row.  He speaks with Jok Huerta, who has been on the show previously, moderating discussion with various Indiana prisoners.

Zolo will be on upcoming episodes of the show, but today he what it was like growing up during his time. He also speaks to how he was radicalized in prison, and what it was like to fight against, as he calls it- the vicious cycle generations end up within. We would like to give a content for brief mention of sexual assault.

This conversation is part of a series put on by IDOC Watch and other organizations, including Focus Initiatives, LTD. We encourage you to check out their projects, which focus on inside/outside prisoner and re-entry support.

You can listen to our previous episodes with Zolo Azania:

25 | Education in Prison

145 | The Arc of Prison Struggles in Indiana: A Conversation with Zolo Azania, Part One

https://www.kitelineradio.org/podcast/appealing-the-death-penalty-a-conversation-with-zolo-azania-part-two/