Movement Memos

“This war is not a civil war, it's a counter-revolutionary war against civilians. It's a war of military elites against the entire civilian population,” says Sudanese organizer Nisrin Elamin. Sudan is currently experiencing the largest mass displacement event in the world today. Thousands are dead and famine is “almost everywhere” in the country. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Elamin, organizer Yusra Khogali, and host Kelly Hayes discuss the historical and political roots of the violence, how global powers are fueling the conflict, and the revolutionary efforts of grassroots mutual aid networks on the ground. This episode unpacks what the world is missing about Sudan’s struggle and explains how you can act in solidarity with those fighting for their lives and their freedom.

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“This is a moment that is going to be looked back on 50 years from now, 100 years from now, and what is going to be said of us is how we came out of this moment,” says M4BL organizer M Adams. In this episode, Kelly talks with Adams and community organizer Montague Simmons about the last decade of Black-led organizing, the state of movements against police violence, and where prison and police abolitionists should go from here.

Music: Son Monarcas, HATAMITSUNAMI, and Guustavv

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“The immediacy of the crisis that we're in demands a new society and not in some imagined future, but now,” says Rehearsals for Living co-author Robyn Maynard. In this episode, Kelly talks with Maynard and David K. Seitz, author of A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine, about the radical legacy of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and how science fiction can shape our politics.

Music: Son Monarcas, Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen & Howard Harper-Barnes

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“We don't have a housing system, we have an unhousing system,” says author and organizer Tracy Rosenthal. In this episode, Kelly and Tracy examine the impacts of the Supreme Court’s recent decision allowing municipalities to criminalize the act of sleeping outside. Tracy and Kelly also examine the larger terrain of criminalization unhoused people face, why cities are working to expel unhoused populations, and how communities can defend their unhoused neighbors.

Music: Son Monarcas, Pulsed & David Celeste

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“When you're engaged in political work that is as embodied and vulnerable, uncharted and courageous as self-help, you're really harnessing something like a new world building power,” says Deep Care author Angela Hume. In this episode, Kelly and Angela discuss the work of abortion self-help activists who provided illegal abortions in the 1970s, as well as militant clinic defenders, who repelled right-wing efforts to blockade abortion clinics in the 80s and 90s. As Angela says, “There are deep lessons here about comradery, about fellowship, about friendship, about relationality that we can learn from today, and that can inspire us to do good work together.”

Music: Son Monarcas & David Celeste

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“This system was designed to do exactly what it is doing and has been doing: concentrating wealth and facilitating racial capitalism and colonialism and extraction,” says author and activist Dean Spade. In this episode, Kelly and Dean discuss some common traps that activists fall into when discussing repression and how we can strengthen our practice of solidarity. 

Music: Son Monarcas

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“If you're trying to destroy things that are as massive as the structures and the institutions that we talk about wanting to get rid of, that we talk about wanting to overthrow, you're going to have to sustain yourself,” says organizer and author William C. Anderson. In this episode, Kelly takes a trip to the Northwest Territories and talks with Anderson, Robyn Maynard, Harsha Walia, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Mahdi Sabbagh, and others about the crises of trauma, grief, and overwhelm in our communities, and the kind of healing activists need to stay in the fight. 

Music: ​Son Monarcas, Leela Gilday & Wiiliideh Drummers

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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The Luddites, who smashed machines in the 19th century, in an organized effort to resist automation, are often portrayed as uneducated opponents of technology. But according to Blood in the Machine author Brian Merchant, “The Luddites were incredibly educated as to the harms of technology. They were very skilled technologists. So they understood exactly how new developments in machinery would affect the workplace, their industry, and their identities.” In this episode, Kelly talks with Brian about the history and legacy of the Luddite movement, and what workers who are being oppressed by the tech titans of our time can learn from the era of machine-breakers.

Music: Son Monarcas & David Celeste

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“If you think about all the cop shows and you think about the birthright tours and you think about all the friendship visits of U.S. officials to Israel, where it's as if there's no Palestine, and you think about Coffee With A Cop, these are all in the same school of actually deeply violent, militaristic propaganda that tries to soften something that only exists to control vulnerable people,” says journalist Lewis Raven Wallace. In this episode, Raven Wallace talks with Kelly about the similarities between copaganda, which launders the image of US policing, and the pro-Israel bias of corporate media outlets.

Music: Son Monarcas & Pulsed

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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“At UChicago, they were chanting, ‘40,000 people dead. You are fighting kids instead,’” says author and University of Chicago faculty member Eman Abdelhadi. “Palestine has laid open all the contradictions that are at the core of our society, and the sheer absurdity of trying to suppress this movement.” In this episode, Kelly talks with Abdelhadi and Alex, who participated in the Palestine solidarity encampment at Northeastern University, about what we can learn from the recent wave of student-led protest, and where the movement should go from here.

Music: Son Monarcas, David Celeste & Curved Mirror

You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/

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