AW@L Radio - Smash the State Report: March 15, 2013
From the March 15th 2013 edition of AW@L Radio - a PSA for the Everybody conference going on Mar 22-24 in Guelph starts the show then....
We hop into info on the International Day Against Police Brutality which was launched in Kitchener with a report from Basics news on the use of counter-insurgency policing methods, gleaned from the colonial north ireland police, in Waterloo region with the PAVIS program. Cops in Toronto also use this model (TAVIS there), which see cops try to befriend community members and get information, and intimidate activists into inaction. In both Toronto and Kitchener police have gone into community meetings where organising against police brutality was being undertaken.
KW occupy and the Spot collective followed up on the Basics report with the release of the People's Report on PAVIS and Policing. A copy of the report will be delivered to the police during the march against police brutality, and contains anonymous testimony from the over 70 interviewees who have been targets of police abuse or have simply come into contact with police. Check the report on the TMC and listen to Dan read it on the show!
Sounds of the Police by KRS-1 breaks up the show, and we come back with a reading of When Not To Run a set of sober reflections on maintaining calm when the police start to get funky. This piece was put together by a street medic and posted on the Toronto street medic collective webpage. It reminds people to develop a tactical mind and to always be safe in your decisions. I take from it a little, practice makes perfect!!
Dan then reads Alex Hundert's most recent post from prison, this one called They Don't Want Us to Organise. The piece looks at the authoritative system that we operate under, and how at every level they (the state) does not want us (people who by choice or by their very existence challenge the dominant norms) to work collaboratively and intentionally to create a better existence. Noting that organising got him sent to prison, the piece also talks about how he was sent to isolation for demanding an end to the constant degradation of rights and trying to organise other inmates into an inmate committee, similar to those that use to exist at the CNCC jail in ontario. While in "the hole" Alex became aware of the brutal conditions many prisoners are forced to endure and with other segregated prisoners (including hunger striker David Cedeno), he started to demand accountability. After being told he could not see the rules that govern the place or the policies that actually exist for "security reasons", Alex was returned to general population where he has been threatened with further punishment if anything (at all) happened. Check http://alexhundert.wordpress.com for all of Alex's posts.
Next up is Sole with the badass song that the stimulator posted called I think I'm Emma Goldman.
We close out the show with an update on Bradley Manning who has admitted to releasing files from the US army to Wikileaks, though he pled not guilty to the charge of aiding the enemy. We play a short clip from Manning's statement to the courts, and read his nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.
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The Smash the State the Report is a segment on the weekly 2 hour AW@L radio (16:00-18:00est) on CKMS 100.3FM CKMS * Community * Co-op * Campus * Radio - Waterloo - http://soundfm.ca