The Response

For our final episode of The Response this year, we interviewed three mutual aid organizers from Orlando, FL, Hartford, CT, and Bvlbancha (aka New Orleans, LA).

• Gabbie Barnes is the founder of FREE HART Closet, a worker-owner at the People's Saturday School, a mutual aid organizer, and a Library of Things Fellow.
• Rachel Kinbar is an organizer with Central Florida Mutual Aid, Orlando DSA, the operations director for Beautiful Trouble, and is a participant in both the Emergency Battery Network Co-Lab and a Library of Things Fellow.
• Ida Aronson is an active member of the United Houma Nation and organizes with Bvlbancha Collective, Imagine Water Works, and Bvlbancha Radio among other mutual aid projects, and was a participant in the Emergency Battery Network Co-Lab.

While they each are working on several unique projects, they are connected by their dedication to their communities and their participation in our SolidarityWorks program.

Together, we discuss the current threats to their communities, both political and environmental, the ways they are collaborating with others to develop community-led solutions, and how they find joy in their life and work despite the many challenges they face.

We're in the middle of our end-of-year fundraiser and could really use your support. If you appreciate this show and are in a position to donate, please contribute today: www.shareable.net/donate.

Check out the resources below to learn more about all of their projects:

• SolidarityWorks
• Emergency Battery Network Toolkit
• Mutual Aid Hartford (MAH)
• FREE HART Closet
• The People's Saturday School
• Central Florida Mutual Aid
• Beautiful Trouble
• Bvlbancha Collective
• Bvlbancha Radio
• Imagine Water Works
• How To Set Up An Open Mesh Network in Your Neighborhood
• Meet Freifunk, the German group that aims to provide free internet to all
• "The Food Conspiracy Cookbook"
• Urban Recipe (Food Distribution Co-op)

Episode credits:

• Hosted and produced by Tom Llewellyn
• Edited by Robert Raymond
• Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Response is an award-winning podcast series produced by Shareable exploring how communities respond to disaster — from hurricanes to wildfires to reactionary politics and more.

On this week's show, we'll be turning our focus towards the Solidarity Economy and what is meant by 'Resist & Build'.

Joining us for this conversation is Emily Kawano, Co-Director of the Wellspring Cooperative Corporation and Coordinator of the United States Solidarity Economy Network, Matthew Slaats, co-director of the Solidarity Research Center and the founder of the Virginia Solidarity Economy Network, and Edget Betru, an attorney who is on the boards of Community Movement Builders and the Organization for Human Rights and Democracy in Atlanta.

Together, we unpack what 'Resist & Build' looks like in practice, discuss the necessity of cross-movement dialogue and collaboration, and explore pathways for scaling up (and arguably, more importantly, scaling out) the solidarity economy.

Resources:

• Resist & Build
• US Solidarity Economy Network
• Virginia Solidarity Economy Network
• Community Movement Builders
• Organization for Human Rights and Democracy
• People's Network for Land and Liberation
• Wellspring Cooperative Corporation
• Solidarity Research Center
• Stop Cop City Solidarity
• The Response: Stop Cop City with Jesse Pratt López & Nolan Huber-Rhoades

Episode credits:

Produced and hosted by Tom Llewellyn

Edited by Robert Raymond.

Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

On today's show we brought on Mohamed Shehk, Campaigns Director for Critical Resistance and member of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center here in the Bay Area.

In this conversation we talk about some of the recent actions taking place to support the struggle for Palestinian liberation, including recent actions aimed at stopping military cargo intended for Israel from leaving docks in Oakland and Tacama. We talk about the role of direct action in our movements, the horrific situation in Palestine, and some of the ways you can get involved.

This is Robert's last interview with The Response! You can follow him and his work at Upstream.

Resources:

• Critical Resistance
• Arab Resource and Organizing Center
• The Palestinian Youth Movement
• US Campaign for Palestinian Human Rights
• Palestine Legal
• Our episode with Pedro Mancilla of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and Anchor Brewery: Labor Battles and the Beer Industry
• For more on police abolition check out our episode: Mutual aid and police accountability with Tha Hood Squad
• Upstream's episode: Palestine Pt. 1 with Sumaya Awad

Episode credits:

Produced, hosted, and edited by Robert Raymond.

Co-produced by Tom Llewellyn

Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

Today, we're cross posting "A Roundtable on Palestine-Israel" from our friends at The Fire These Times podcast as a bonus episode for listeners of The Response.

The Fire These Times Co-hosts, Joey Ayoub and Daniel Voskoboynik are joined by Dana El Kurd, Orly Noy, and Yair Wallach to think through this moment, process their grief together, and articulate alternative visions for both peoples.

After listening to several inflammatory takes for the past month, this was exactly the conversation that we needed to be a fly on the wall for. We hope you learn or feel something new while listening as well.

Resources:

Medical Aid for Palestinians | Adalah | Al-Shabaka | Gisha | Hamleh | Hamoked | The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel | Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC) | MIFTAH: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy | Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) | Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) | Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) | Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)

Episode credits:

Presented, hosted, and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn

Edited by Robert Raymond

Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

After a statement about the war in Palestine, we're in conversation with Stephanie Rearick, a founder, and Director of the Madison Mutual Aid Network Cooperative and Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks, or HUMANS for short, which is a new type of networked cooperative 'creating means for everyone to discover and succeed in work they want to do, with the support of their community'.

Stephanie talks about how mutual aid has changed since the pandemic began, how to create networks of Care that can actually support members of our communities long term, the new tech stack that they're creating to support mutual aid work to scale, and what it means to live a POSHtarity Lifestyle.

Resources:

• Mutual Aid Network
• Humans at Home
• Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza
• Jewish Voice for Peace Call for Ceasefire in Gaza
• Mutual Aid and the Movement to Stop Cop City

Episode credits:

Presented, hosted, and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn

Edited by Robert Raymond

Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

Summer might be over for us in the Northern Hemisphere — but things are still heating up in the US labor movement. A ground-swell of labor action continues to heave and crack the crust which had been slowly hardening on the surface of the radical fires dormant under neoliberalism.

The latest news in the ongoing strike wave comes out of the United Auto Workers Union, where workers at a number of plants have walked out and are engaging in a historic "stand-up" strike — fighting for better wages and better working conditions.

To talk about the strike, the labor movement more broadly, and the current state of the class war between workers and capital, we've brought on Teddy Ostrow, a labor and economics journalist and host of the podcast Upsurge.

In this conversation Teddy talks about what it's been like out on the UAW picket lines, the revitalization and re-radicalization of the labor movement, where the labor movement in the United States is headed, and much more.

Resources:

• The Upsurge Podcast
• When Auto Workers Stand Up, Here's How to Stand with Them, Labor Notes

Episode credits:

• Hosted, edited, and produced by Robert Raymond
• Presented, edited, and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

Anyone who's been in a disaster and experienced the initial government or major nonprofit response may have noticed that there's a lot of waste involved. From the thousands of single-use water bottles and throw-away medical supplies to the constant churning of diesel and gas-powered generators, there's just really no other option. But what if there was? Would it be adopted? How could these large disaster response institutions even know that things could be done differently?

That's where Footprint Project comes in. Since 2017 they've been proving that it's possible to respond cleaner and build back greener by deploying 200+ kW of mobile solar and 600+ kWh of mobile battery storage on more than 20 disaster response and recovery missions, to provide emergency clean power access to over 28,000 people in some of the hardest hit communities following disasters.

Today on the show, we've brought on Footprint Project's Operations Director, Will Heegaard, who shares the genesis stories for how he got involved in disaster response work and the impetus behind launching the organization. He also unpacks the importance of building resilient communities and the role he feels that state agencies should play in disaster relief.

And for those listeners who just completed our Emergency Battery Network Co-Lab (or are planning to check out the course recordings and Toolkit that are soon to be on our website), stick around for the full conversation to hear Will's advice on how to build power in your community.

Resources:

• Footprint Project

Episode credits:

• Hosted and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn
• Presented, edited, and co-produced by Robert Raymond
• Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

On today's show we're continuing our ongoing Disaster Dispatch series with a deep dive into the Maui wildfires. Earlier this month a series of wind-driven wildfires in Hawaii, predominantly in Maui, led to widespread devastation and destruction, killing at least 115 people and leaving 850 others missing in the town of Lāhainā. These numbers are estimated to actually be much higher as the search to find and identify victims remains painstakingly slow.

To tell us more about what happened and what the community response has been, we've brought on Nicole Huguenin. Nicole is based in Maui and is the co-lead of Maui Rapid Response, an ahupua'a-based citizen disaster response team that's part of a much broader community response ecosystem working all across the island to provide relief and mutual aid to residents of Maui.

Resources:

• Maui Rapid Response
• Maui Rapd Response on Instagram
• Help Maui Rise Donation Google Doc
• ʻĀina Momona
• Kāko'o Haleakalā
• Tamara Paltin
• Mauna Medic Healers Hui
• Kanaeokana

Episode credits:

• Hosted, produced, and edited by Robert Raymond
• Presented by Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

This summer has truly turned out to be a hot labor summer, with a number of high-profile labor actions stretching across industries and across the country, from the streets of Hollywood to the shop floors at UPS — things are heating up.

With that said, there is a story that hasn't hit headlines in the same way as some of these other actions and confrontations. And that's the story of Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. You might have seen their Anchor Steam beer in the beer aisle before, or heard about their unionization campaign that took place in 2019 after this locally beloved brewery was bought by a giant beer conglomerate, Sapporo. That unionization campaign was successful, but recently, Sapporo abruptly, and controversially, closed Anchor Brewing down. Now, some of the workers at Anchor who don't want to see this centuries-old institution stripped for parts, want to turn the brewery into a worker-owned cooperative.

This is really a sort of David and Goliath story, and to tell it, we've brought on Pedro Mancilla, who led the Anchor Brewery tour program, is a member of the ILWU Local 6 Warehouse Union, and is part of the team working on the cooperativization campaign.

Pedro has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of beer and beer history, and he begins by giving us a sort of virtual tour of the San Francisco brewery's history and also a bit of San Francisco labor history. He then talks about the union, the struggles with Sapporo, the effort to convert Anchor into a worker cooperative, and also, how local Bay Area beer producers and enjoyers are coming together in an act of true solidarity to stand behind the workers that have been the backbone of this historic brewery.

Resources:

• Anchor Brewing Union
• Stand Together to Save Anchor Brewing Company!
• Solidarity Ale Release at Enterprise Brewing in San Francisco
• Project Equity

Episode credits:

• Hosted, produced, and edited by Robert Raymond
• Presented by Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music by Cultivate Beats

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.

All across the globe, temperatures are rising, and thanks to the most recent report published by the International Panel on Climate Change and recent U.N. projections, we know that even if we do make sweeping cuts to emissions, we're still on course for a catastrophic temperature rise of 2.7 degrees Celsius by the year 2100. That means, the record-breaking floods, droughts, storms, wildfires, and heatwaves we're currently seeing, or for many of us, directly experiencing, are just the beginning. Global warming is not just some distant thing to worry about in the future — it's here. Right now.

Although cataclysmic events like hurricanes and wildfires tend to monopolize most of the headlines on climate change, as paltry as it is to begin with, climate news coverage hardly ever focuses on the less flashy impacts. Things like heatwaves, for example, might draw some attention if they're record-shattering — but oftentimes, the impacts of long-lasting higher temperatures are not covered in any depth by mainstream news outlets.

In this episode of The Response, we're going to focus on an issue that isn't talked about hardly enough: energy poverty. When temperatures rise to the point where they become dangerous, what happens to people who can't escape the heat? As temperatures continue to soar and extreme heatwaves become the norm, a lack of resources to stay cool — so, having access to things like air conditioning, for example, — is a huge issue across the world. This is especially true in southern Europe, a region that experienced a series of record-breaking, climate-fueled heatwaves this past summer.

Episode credits:

• Written, produced, and edited by Robert Raymond
• Narrated by Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music by Cultivate Beats
• Additional music by Belong, Fugazi, and Chris Zabriskie
• Cover illustration by Kane Lynch

This episode features:

• Eleni Myrivili, Chief Heat Officer for the City of Athens (the first person to hold this title – recently featured in New York Times).
• Lidija Živčič is the senior expert at the FOCUS Association for Sustainable Development and a coordinator at EmpowerMed.
• Mònica Guiteras, a member of the Alliance Against Energy Poverty in Catalonia, and Engineers Without Borders.
• Martha Myers, energy poverty campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe and the coordinator of the Right to Energy Coalition.

Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show.

The Response is published by Shareable.