Italian anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike for over 100 days, demanding his release from the brutal regime of solitary confinement and severe restrictions known as “41bis.” Despite the mobilization of anarchist and radical networks across Italy in solidarity, as well as actions in support across the world, the Italian state stubbornly refuses to acknowledge his protest, and Alfredo’s life is in severe danger. In this episode, we share three short pieces that introduce you to Alfredo Cospito, explain the context behind the hunger strike and the repressive prison regime in Italy, and describe anarchist efforts to challenge the state’s attempt to bury our comrade. We open with a short solidarity statement about the case, along with a translation of a statement by Italian philosopher Donatella Di Cesare titled “Release Alfredo Now—It’s a Question of Justice.” The episode concludes with an interview with a friend from Rome who locates the hunger strike and solidarity efforts in a broader context of anarchist activity in Italy and beyond. {February 9, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------    Table of Contents:  Ex-Worker Introduction {0:01} Episode Introduction {0:37} Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito {2:27} Release Alfredo Now—It’s a Question of Justice {8:30} Interview with Alfredo Cospito Supporter in Rome {16:14} Conclusion {30:10}    This episode includes an audio version of  Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, originally published February 3, 2023. The text includes a translation of an  article by philosopher Donatella di Cesare.   Learn more about Alfredo Cospito and his hunger strike through the following resources:  Autonomies article from December; “Scripta Manent: a Political Trial against 20 Years of History of Revolutionary Anarchism” (about Alfredo’s trial and broader background); writings by Alfredo on The Anarchist Library,  a June 2022 interview and dialogue with Alfredo,  global solidarity statements, and Alfredo’s support page.  

#90: Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, Italian Anarchist Prisoner on Hunger Strike

Welcome to the Ex-Worker: an audio strike against a monotone world! This twice-monthly podcast explores a wide range of anarchist ideas and action. In each episode, we take an in-depth look at a different topic, introducing various manifestations of the struggle for liberation, and round it off with news, reviews, profiles of current anarchist projects, upcoming events, and more. If you're curious about anarchist visions of freedom—or if you dream of a world off the clock—tune in!

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This episode offers an audio version of “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published on December 12th. It traces the activities of the movement to Stop Cop City and defend the Weelaunee Forest from June through December 2023, including accounts of the campaign for an Atlanta voter’s referendum on Cop City, the Sixth Week of Action, the relationship between clandestine direct action and public organizing, local Black organizing against the project, the Block Cop City march in November, and potential strategic pathways forward. Tune in for an in-depth evaluation of the latest phase in one of the most critical social struggles of our time. {February 4, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------    Table of Contents:  Introduction {0:37} The Hour Is Drawing Late {2:37} They Don’t Care About You {6:38} The Referendum {8:24} What Mass Organizing Makes Possible {11:19} The Sixth Week of Action {17:58} The New Balance of Forces {22:03} Escalating Tactics {25:20} Atlas Technical Consultants Drops Out {27:45} Scooping the Mid-Range: Repressing Public Resistance {30:16} The Storm Before the Storm {33:26} Escalating Repression: RICO and the Furtherance of the Conspiracy {36:26} RICO in Georgia {39:54} You Can’t Break Us {41:12} The Scope of Repression Broadens {43:30} This is Not a Local Repression Strategy {45:37} Attrition and Conflict {47:51} From Atlanta to Gaza, No Cop City Anywhere {52:22} Black Self-Organization {54:51} Block Cop City {58:05} Building a Common Understanding {1:01:10} Anatomy of a March {1:03:26} Forward, Arm in Arm {1:06:52} Re-Grouping {1:14:16} A Supporter of the Police? {1:15:45} Gauging Success and Failure {1:17:40} Victory and Defeat: A Chimera {1:27:13} Fighting without Assurances {1:29:38} Continuing Forward {1:31:14} Winning by Attrition {1:35:03} Outro/PSA {1:38:54}    This episode offers an audio version of “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published by CrimethInc. on December 12th. It includes excerpts from “Don’t Panic, Stay Tight: Frontline Reflections on Block Cop City,” an account of the November 13th march in Atlanta.  For background on the first two and a half years of the movement, see the following articles and podcast episodes:  “The City in the Forest,” (audio version) – chronicles the first year of the movement. “The Forest in the City” (audio version) – chronicles the second year of the movement. “Beneath the Concrete, the Forest” (audio version) – collects first-person accounts from the occupation of Weelaunee forest through the first half of 2022. “Balance Sheet” – explores and evaluates the strategies that different currents in the movement have employed. “Defending Abundance Everywhere” – essays on the webs of relationship linking all creatures and underlying the struggle to defend the forest. “The Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol Are Guilty of Murder” – analysis of the assassination of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán. “Living in an Earthquake” (audio version) – chronicles February through June of 2023, including the fifth week of action, the repression that followed, and the City Hall mobilizations. “Understanding the RICO Charges in Atlanta” (audio version) – analysis of the new wave of legal repression launched in September 2023.    Stay up to date on developments with news from the Atlanta Community Press Collective   The Uncover Cop City campaign is targeting the insurers whose coverage makes Cop City possible, including  Nationwide Insurance and Accident Fund - follow the links to find office locations and contact information to show your opposition to the project.  

#105: Don't Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City

At first, it appeared to be an ordinary forest defense campaign aimed at discouraging Atlanta city government from pouring money into an unpopular police training facility. But over the past two years, the fight against Cop City has escalated into one of the fiercest struggles of the Biden era, pitting a wide range of courageous people against a united front of politicians, prosecutors, and police. In their desperate efforts to deflect popular resistance and force through the project, police and prosecutors have pressed trumped-up domestic terrorism charges against almost every defendant arrested since last December; they have killed one forest defender; they have charged those engaged in legal support for the arrestees. In the following account and analysis, published on June 21st as “Living in an Earthquake: The Fight against Cop City Confronts Unprecedented Repression,” participants in the movement in Atlanta trace its trajectory from the fifth Week of Action that began on March 4, 2023 through the City Council vote of June 5. {December 28, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------    Table of Contents:  Introduction {0:37} Preface {2:21} Living in an Earthquake {3:28} February 2023 {5:59} The Fifth Week of Action {8:33} Retaking Weelaunee People’s Park {9:19} The South River Music Festival: A Flower Between Two Abysses {11:49} The March on the Cop City Construction {16:01} Role Reversal {20:15} The Raid on the South River Music Festival {22:12} The Defense of the Music Festival {26:19} A Pyrrhic Victory? {32:31} Jumping to Conclusions {33:20} Defense {36:25} Urban Encampments {38:54} The Limits of Deterrence {43:51} Time and Space {46:14} Controlling Risk {48:21} The Aftermath {52:45} The Week of Action Continues {55:09} Without a Shadow of Doubt {57:07} The Conclusion of the Fifth Week of Action {1:03:14} Clearing Out {1:08:10} Deforestation and Its Consequences {1:14:20} Earth Day Weekend of Resilience {1:15:59} Campus Actions {1:16:50} War by Other Means {1:19:03} The Attack on the Solidarity Fund {1:25:21} The Centrists versus Everyone {1:27:43} However They Vote, We Must Be Ungovernable {1:30:39} The Theory of Failure and Disappointment {1:40:07} Making a Virtue of Necessity {1:42:50}    This episode offers an audio version of “Living in an Earthquake: The Fight against Cop City Confronts Unprecedented Repression,” published by CrimethInc. on June 21st.   For background on the first two and a half years of the movement, see the following articles and podcast episodes: “The City in the Forest,” (audio version) – chronicles the first year of the movement “The Forest in the City” (audio version) – chronicles the second year of the movement “Beneath the Concrete, the Forest” (audio version) – collects first-person accounts from the occupation of Weelaunee forest through the first half of 2022 “Balance Sheet” – explores and evaluates the strategies that different currents in the movement have employed “Defending Abundance Everywhere” – essays on the webs of relationships linking all creatures and underlying the struggle to defend the forest “The Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol Are Guilty of Murder” – analysis of the assassination of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán “Understanding the RICO Charges in Atlanta” (audio version) – analysis of the new wave of legal repression launched in September 2023   For our most recent coverage, see “Don’t Stop: Continuing the Fight Against Cop City”, published by CrimethInc. on December 12th; stay tuned for the audio version, soon to be released as Ex-Worker Episode #105.   You can find texts, posters, graphics, and more materials about the movement online through Defend the Atlanta Forest: Library. Check out the Atlanta Community Press Collective for ongoing coverage.  

#104:  Living in an Earthquake—The Fight against Cop City Confronts Unprecedented Repression

A so-called “anarcho-capitalist” has just been elected president in Argentina. What does this mean for anarchists and the prospects for revolutionary change in South America? Spoiler alert: it’s not looking good. In this episode, we share an account from an Argentinian anarchist analyzing the recent rise to power of Javier Milei, an extreme neoliberal economist, in the context of the global turn towards fascist and reactionary populist leaders like Trump and Bolsonaro. You’ll get an in-depth look at the history of center-left rule, military dictatorship, and neoliberal austerity that resulting in the powerful popular uprising of 2001, along with an detailed assessment of the economic challenges, disillusionment with the political class, and failures of the left and radical social movements that facilitated Milei’s rise. This is a disturbing but essential exploration of one of the year’s most important political developments, with critical implications for those of us fighting the culture and politics and fascism around the world. {December 10, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------    Table of Contents:  Introduction {0:37} Back to the Future {1:30} “Viva la Libertad!”—Freedom to Work or Starve, to Submit or be Shot {5:53} History Repeats Itself Again {17:30} Ultraliberals, the Military, and Repression: A Love Story {27:18} The “Forces of Heaven” against the Orcs {35:04} Outro/PSA {42:31}    This episode offers an audio version of  Back to the Future: The Return of the Ultraliberal Right in Argentina, published by CrimethInc. on November 26th. The article quotes from  a post-election statement by a coalition of “especifist” anarchist organizations in Argentina.   For coverage of recent popular mobilization in Argentina, see our coverage of the 2018 G20 protests in Buenos Aires:  Setting the Stage: Background Materials and Logbook November 14–16,  Logbook November 17–19: Peronism, Counter-Summit Creativity, and the Schedule of Resistance, and  Logbook November 20–22: Security Zones and Shantytowns.   This episode discusses in depth the 2001 uprising that succeeded in driving the neoliberal regime from power. The classic zine account is Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Uprising.   Argentina featured one of the world’s largest and most powerful anarchist movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including some of the earliest anarcha-feminist projects. To learn more about this history, you could start with some of these resources: “Anarchism in Latin America” by Ángel Cappelletti, “The Anarchist Expropriators: Buenaventura Durruti and Argentina’s Working-Class Robin Hood” by Osvaldo Bayer, “Anarchism in Argentina” and “Resistencia Libertaria: Anarchist Opposition to the Last Argentine Dictatorship” by Chuck Morse, and “No God, No Boss, No Husband: The world’s first Anarcha-Feminist group.”   In case you were confused on this point, “anarcho-capitalist” is an oxymoron. We explore this in more depth in Episode 18 of the Ex-Worker, “What Anarchism Isn’t, Pt 1: Libertarianism and Anarcho-Capitalism.”  

#103: The Return of the Ultraliberal Right in Argentina

On November 13, 2023, demonstrators in southern California blockaded a facility of Raytheon, a defense contractor, in solidarity with the Palestinians on the receiving end of the bombs that it produces. They managed to block the facility for more than seven hours, supported by waves of hundreds of activists joining the action, and succeeded in shutting down operations for the day. This episode offers an audio version of  How They Stopped Work at the Raytheon Facility: Report on a Day of Blockading, published on November 15th. Participants summarize how the action was organized and unfolded, police responses, the background of direct actions against the war machine and mobilization in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and reflections for future resistance. {November 25, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------    Table of Contents:  Introduction {0:37} The Action {3:25} Background {8:39} Going Forward {11:56} Outro/PSA {12:38}    This episode offers an audio version of  How They Stopped Work at the Raytheon Facility: Report on a Day of Blockading, published on November 15th.   For evaluations of direct action strategies towards Palestinian solidarity, see our previous articles and episodes “Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma: Reflections from the Salish Sea,” also available as Episode 101 of the Ex-Worker; and “Strategizing for Palestinian Solidarity: Expanding the Toolkit From Demands to Direct Action,” also available as Episode 99.   Our coverage of the war in Palestine so far includes “From the Galilee to Gaza—A Voice From Palestine” – also available as Episode 98 – and  ““A Nuclear Superpower and a Dispossessed People”: An Anarchist from Jaffa on the Escalation in Palestine and Israeli Repression”. For further background, see  “A Coup d’État in Israel? The Bitter Harvest of Colonialism” (March 27, 2023) – also available as Episode 92 of the Ex-Worker -  “The Revolt in Haifa: An Eyewitness Report” (2021), and  “Contemporary Israeli Anarchism: A History” (2013).   For classic strategic analysis, you can also read more about  why we don’t make demands and what we mean by direct action.  

#102: How They Stopped Work at Raytheon

On November 6, 2023, several hundred people showed up at the Port of Tacoma in Washington State to block access to a shipping vessel that was scheduled to deliver equipment to the Israeli military. This episode shares an account and analysis of the action published on November 10th as “Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma: Reflections from the Salish Sea.” Participants review the history of port blockades in the Puget Sound, share their experience at the protest, and seek to offer inspiration for continued transoceanic solidarity. {November 23, 2023} -------SHOW NOTES------    Table of Contents:  Introduction {0:36} Escalating Resistance {1:41} Drawing on Decades of Port Blockades {4:03} Gathering at the Port {7:23} Evaluation {11:27} Outro/PSA {17:36}    This episode offers an audio version of  Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma: Reflections from the Salish Sea.   To read more about this action, see the reportback “The Boat That Wasn’t Blocked” on Puget Sound Anarchists.   For background on a previous blockade action in the region, check out Episode 61 on The Olympia Train Blockade of 2017.   The recent history of port shutdowns in the Northwest includes the Port Militarization Resistance movement blockades of the ports of Olympia and Tacoma to protest against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006–2009; coordination between Occupy/Decolonize Seattle ILWU port workers in  Longview that shut down  the Port of Seattle among other ports in 2011–12; the  Block the Boat action in 2014; the  “Shell No” lockdown in 2015, Shell No. and  the Block the Boat delay of an Israeli-operated ship for weeks in 2021.   Our coverage of the war in Palestine so far includes “Strategizing for Palestinian Solidarity: Expanding the Toolkit From Demands to Direct Action” - also available as Episode 99 of the Ex-Worker; “From the Galilee to Gaza—A Voice From Palestine” – also available as Episode 98 – and  ““A Nuclear Superpower and a Dispossessed People”: An Anarchist from Jaffa on the Escalation in Palestine and Israeli Repression”. For further background, see  “A Coup d’État in Israel? The Bitter Harvest of Colonialism” (March 27, 2023) – also available as Episode 92 of the Ex-Worker -  “The Revolt in Haifa: An Eyewitness Report” (2021), and  “Contemporary Israeli Anarchism: A History” (2013).   For classic strategic analysis, you can also read more about  why we don’t make demands and what we mean by direct action.  

#90: Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, Italian Anarchist Prisoner on Hunger Strike

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