Rednecks Rising

In episode 12, I talk with another Appalachian podcaster!

TJ - host of Appalachian Firesides - is based out of Kentucky, and gearing up for law school. We have a fun conversation that digs into the art of story telling and how integral it is to our region. We bond on our shared goal of our podcasts to amplify the various stories and voices of our region, and we talk about how we got started on our podcasting ventures. It wouldn't be a Rednecks Rising episode if we didn't dunk on the generalizations portraying Appalachia as a monolithic region, and as an added touch this time around we also touch on spiritual grounding and guidance under late-stage capitalism. What about navigating political identities under the two-party for-profit electoral system? Yup! We talk about that too, and of course, so much more.

Please excuse the broadband issues that interfered with some parts of the audio in this interview. 😇

Please follow & listen to Appalachian Firesides at:
https://linktr.ee/appfiresides

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ALL HANDS ON DECK, WE NEED YOU TO STAND FOR APPALACHIA, NOW!

Sign up for POWHR’s newsletter to learn how you can act in solidarity against the MVP: https://powhr.org/sign-up-for-powhrs-newsletter/

We’re taking the Redneck Resistance to DC!

Climate deals can’t afford to cut corners. This side deal that’s on the table in climate negotiations happening behind closed doors in congress greenlights Joe Manchin’s dangerous pet project (the Mountain Valley Pipeline - aka MVP) by NAME in a crooked deal that’s cutting corners at the expense of front-line communities that are already suffering at the hands of the climate crisis and bypassing checks and balances in order to undermine bedrock environmental laws, tribal sovereignty, state’s rights, all to make a buck.

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There are many voices that can and should be involved in telling the story of the MVP, the history of environmental extraction & the push for a transition towards regeneration, and this is only one of them. We are not experts. Please continue to seek additional voices to inform your understanding of the fossil fuel industry and the movement against it, here is a brief list (not comprehensive) of a few resources to get you started as you continue seeking perspectives:

1) Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town
by Colin Jerolmack
2) Virginia Organizing - https://virginia-organizing.org/
3) People vs Fossil Fuels - https://peoplevsfossilfuels.org/
4) Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck - https://linktr.ee/crystalcavalier
5) Tara Houska -https://www.democracynow.org/2022/8/9/democrats_739b_bill_prescription_drug_prices
6) Mountain Valley Watch Project - https://www.newrivergeographics.com/mvw/
7) West Virginia Rivers Coalition - https://wvrivers.org/
8) New York Times Article - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/07/climate/manchin-schumer-pipeline-political-funding.html?referringSource=articleShare
9) Frackalachia - https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/tag/frackalachia/

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Be on the lookout for a surprise bonus episode later this week!!!

Today's episode is all about the Marion Massacre, which took place in Western North Carolina. What started with exploring a story of labor organizing that ended in tragedy that's close to home for yours truly, ended with reflections on how the police state is inherently designed to benefit systems of oppression. A well-kept mountain secret makes way for teaching an important lesson about how we have the opportunity to make a choice about our contributions to the ongoing journey towards true liberation.

Sources for today's episode:
- All newspaper articles that were referenced or used as source material for this episode were compiled by McDowell County locals in scrapbook formatted and later presented digitally by the Mountain Xpress. They can be accessed at the following two links:
1) https://issuu.com/mountainx/docs/marionscrapbookpart1
2) https://issuu.com/mountainx/docs/marionscrapbookpart2

Additional Sources include:
- Frankel, J. (2011, March 29). Mountain shame: Remembering the Marion Massacre. Mountain Xpress.
- Jones, A. H. (2021, October 7). North Carolina’s Anti-labor Record is a Shameful Betrayal of our State’s People. The Mountaineer.
- Palumbo, M. (n.d.). The Lawrence Mill Strike and Other Famous Mill Strikes. Retrieved August 13, 2022, from http://20thcenturyhistorysongbook.com/song-book/the-industrial-age/the-lawrence-mill-strike-and-other-famous-mill-strikes/.
- Guthrie, W. (2011). The Marion Massacre. YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved August 13, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFZU9c6mdkw.

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TW: Coming out to religious family, homelessness

In today’s episode I sit down with Clover-Lynn, aka HillbillyGothic, a traditional bluegrass banjo musician with deep roots in Virginia. We explore a few different questions during our conversation: Who defines Appalachia? What are the differences in the Appalachian dialect throughout the region? Why are we taught to be embarrassed by our Appalachian accents? What does it mean to be poor or middle class? What is it like being trans in Appalachia and how is it different from being trans in other areas? What does acceptance from Appalachian family members look like? How do we hold the pieces of ourselves that are in conflict?

Check out, follow, and support Clover-Lynn:
https://linktr.ee/hillbillygothicc
https://www.tiktok.com/@hillbillygothic/
https://www.instagram.com/hillbillygothicc/

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Hint: it's way more than you think.

In today's episode, we let ourselves spin off into the web of race & labor and bring together pieces of history a little bit more clearly — taking us on a journey from today all the way back to the Virginia Slave Codes and then we even manage to bounce back to Joe Manchin before we wrap things up. Just call me the Miss Frizzle of Appalachian History because we're time travelling in this one.

Sources for today's episode:
- Blizzard, W. C. (2010). When miners march. PM Press.
- Flavelle, C., & Tate, J. (2022, March 27). How Joe Manchin Aided Coal, and Earned Millions. The New York Times.
- Films Media Group. (2016). The mine wars. Films On Demand. Retrieved July 25, 2022, from https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=103805xtid=151152.

Shoutout Tail Light Rebellion for upgrading our sound quality, check out their music here:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6uMlTTOG0kfTlbfII0d6GQ?si=KKmNJ7HlS_6EFLARcbQ1fg

Support and follow the pod:
linktr.ee/rednecksrising

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In today's episode, I sit down with Sierra Kennedy - an Indigenous Appalachian single mom of three that's going to law school determined to get past the classist barriers and into the belly of the beast. In this episode we touch on how the legal system was shaped to protect profit and power by keeping poor folks & POC in check, we consider the dual reality of Appalachia's deep majesty contrasted with the pain and trauma that is held in these mountains, and Sierra asks the listeners to be the spark that ignites the wildfire so that as our flames come together, we can burn the whole system down (for legal reasons, I mean this metaphorically).

Check out Sierra's publication in the American Indian Law Journal here: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1243&context=ailj

Support this podcast at linktr.ee/rednecksrising

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In the 7th episode, we finally touch on The Battle of Blair Mountain that I set out to cover in episode 3, but not without first covering the events leading up to the Battle from 1919-1921. This episode is definitely not an in-depth summary of the Mine Wars, but touches on the events including: The Battle of the Tug, the Matewan Massacre, the assassination of Sid Hatfield, the March on Logan County, and the "grand finale"... the Battle of Blair.

Support the show at: linktr.ee/rednecksrising

Sources for this episode:
1. Bailey, Kenneth R. "Battle of Blair Mountain." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 02 September 2021. Web. 13 July 2022.
2. Boissoneault, L. (2017, April 25). The Coal Mining Massacre America Forgot. *Smithsonian Magazine*.
3. Corbin, David A. "The Miners’ March." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 24 August 2020. Web. 13 July 2022.
4. Corbin, David A. "The Mine Wars." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 13 July 2020. Web. 13 July 2022.
5. Hood, A. L. (2020, November 26). The Battle of Blair Mountain Was the Largest Labor Uprising in U.S. History. Teen Vogue.
6. Nida B, Adkins MJ. The social and environmental upheaval of Blair Mountain: a working class struggle for unionisation and historic preservation. In: Smith L, Shackel PA, Campbell G, eds. Heritage, Labour, and the Working Classes. Key Issues in Cultural Heritage. New York, NY: Routledge; 2011:52-68.
7. Savage, Lon (1990). Thunder in the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920–21. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press
8. Shogan, Robert (2004). The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Union Uprising (https://books.google.com/books?id=XyTuG5fO5E4C). Boulder, CO: Westview Press
9. West Virginia Archives & History, West Virginia's Mine Wars (n.d.). West Virginia State Archives. Retrieved July 13, 2022, from (https://archive.wvculture.org/history/archives/minewars.html).

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In this episode, I interview Cody from the Chattanooga Free store in Tennessee while he is on duty at the store. We talk about everything from leftist theory to praxis and how there is no role too small in the movement... except talking shit on social media, that role is too small. Cody talks about growing into a leftist after being raised the son of a chicken farmer in a town with no stop lights in the Northern Georgia mountains, and gives some insight into what it takes to start and maintain a Free Store mutual aid effort in an Appalachian community.

Please take some time to support the Chatt Free Store!
website: https://www.chattfreestore.org/
donate through paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=29Z7MLWJA6E2Y
patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Chattfreestore
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chattfreestore/
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chattfreestore/

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“I was born in revolution.” - Mother Jones

In this episode, I skip over the Revolutionary War era and get straight to the good stuff connected to the labor uprisings at the end of the 19th century. But first! We introduce a new segment: TRIVIA QUESTIONS with CHRISTOPHER!

Once Christopher asks the first official trivia question of the Rednecks Rising universe, then I talk a little bit about our controversial labor hero, Mother Jones. We get introduced to the Lattimer Massacre and the decades of bloody conflict surrounding attempts to unionize West Virginia's coal fields. It always comes back to the wealthy elite using whatever tools they have at their disposal to control and exploit the labor of the working class for their own profit.

Sources for this episode:
1. (Fetherling, Dale. Mother Jones, the Miners' Angel, Southern Illinois University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/haywoodlibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1354527.
Created from haywoodlibrary-ebooks on 2022-07-06 00:39:47.)
2. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-1897-massacre-pennsylvania-coal-miners-morphed-galvanizing-crisis-forgotten-history-180971695/

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I feel like today's episode needs to be titled something different to mark the era that we have entered since Ep. 3 dropped.

Today's interview was recorded before the Supreme Court decision became official, but it feels quite relevant considering the escalating action and mutual aid networks that might carry risk of criminalization for those who are associated with them in the coming days, weeks, months, and years.
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In today's episode, I chat with Gina & Raph from Fire on the Mountain Podcast - two working class "transplants" based in Henderson County, North Carolina. We talk about what it was like for them to move into Appalachia as kids, and then we get to juicy stuff like running for office against the Establishment Machine, participating in civil disobedience that results in arrest, and the horrible conditions of Buncombe County jail.

Support Fire on the Mountain Podcast:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g32wgpNqUlQ
Listen on Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/515d5941-244f-4d76-84d1-d8dbb811ff79/fire-on-the-mountain
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1R3U85w7oUcpOkhsKeTmYA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fireonthemtnpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireonthemountain_podcast/

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