Unionizing Prison Labour

Two anarchists from southern Ontario talk about 25 year climate projections in that region and what it might mean to take them seriously. Related Links Workshop Recap: The Coming Climate Catastrophe Climate Atlas of Canada Desert by Anonymous Aric McBay Interview on Climate Crisis It's Revolution or Death The Long Emergency: A Discussion with Adam Greenfield  

An interview with two settler anarchists in northern British Columbia who are active in a growing struggle against the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project or PRGT. Resistance to the project has been heating up all summer as government approvals have been issued and construction work is expected to begin in the fall of 2025. Discussions includes history and overview of the project, the changing context of the Canada-US trade war, anarchist-indigenous solidarity, and taking some lessons from Shut Down Canada. Pipeline project updates at PRGT-news.ghost.io Anarchist reports at bccounterinfo.org (Tor Browser recommended) For security reasons, this interview has been re-voiced by voice actors. Music by Airtone

An interview with one of the collective members behind Black Oak Anarchist Social Space, which launched in Hamilton in Spring 2025.  LINKS Black Oak Anarchist Social Space Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair North Shore Counter-Info RELATED EPISODES The Locke Street Affair (Part 1) Queers Fight Back Cedar on #FreeCedar Five Years After The Brawl At Hamilton Pride MUSIC Ant.Survila - Nostalgic Reflections 

A discussion with two organizers of this year's New Year's Eve noise demo in Laval. We discuss how things went, prisoner solidarity organizing in Montreal, the value of noise demos as an anarchist tactic and tradition, and where we might go from here.  Thanks to CKUT Prison Radio for the live footage. Links: Video from Clash MTL Report from 2025 Hamilton Noise Demo Seven Years Against Prison: On the practice of noise demos outside of prisons in Southern Ontario (pdf link) It's Going Down Roundup of 2025 NYE Noise Demos Rafales: An Anarchist Learning Camp Constellation Anarchist Festival December 2018 From Embers episode about noise demos What Happened to Prisoners Justice Day?   Photo credit: scabby m

Five summers ago on June 15th 2019, a group of homophobic "street preachers" and their white nationalist allies attempted to enter and disrupt the annual Hamilton Pride celebrations at Gage Park. Based on experience the previous year at Hamilton Pride and elsewhere in southern Ontario, anarchists and radical queers were expecting this and had organized to counter them. Wearing pink t-shirts over their faces and carrying a 30' wide 9' tall black banner nicknamed the Black Hole, the Pride Defenders confronted the bigots and formed a wall between them and the Pride festival. The situation in the park quickly escalated into an all-out brawl, with several Pride Defenders sustaining serious injuries. Despite the chaotic scene, the banner held and the haters accepted a police escort out of the park. Much of the fight was captured on right-wing livestreams and it created an immediate political scandal. The Pride Committee blamed the police for failing to intervene and the Police Board announced an independent investigation. For their part, the Hamilton Police attempted to frame the anarchists as outside agitators, attempting to link the (relatively popular) Pride Defence to the (very publicly unpopular) Locke Street affair from the previous year, where anarchists had smashed windows of gentrifying businesses along Locke Street. Anarchists who were still on conditions related to that earlier demonstration were targeted and arrested in the days following. Our guest today, Cedar, had her parole pulled ostensibly for participating in the fight – when it became clear that she wasn't even at Gage Park that day, the narrative changed to one of "incitement." The police strategy to regain control backfired and the repression kicked off a month-long campaign to #FreeCedar and drop the charges against all Pride Defenders. The city was covered in graffiti and posters and there were several rowdy anti-police demonstrations, along with solidarity actions around the world. For in-depth analysis and coverage during this time, see our show notes for links to various statements and reports on North Shore as well as our two previous episodes on the topic. Today we're sharing an interview with Cedar for the five year anniversary of the brawl and its aftermath. We discuss some of the ways anarchists in Hamilton have tried intervening in Pride over the years, the independent report and police recuperation, the problem with hate crime legislation, the worrying increase in anti-queer and anti-trans attacks from the post-Convoy far right in Canada, a predicted wave of reaction following the next federal election, and what we can do now to start preparing and practicing community defence. With music from Deep Sixed

An interview with Ben Morea, recorded after an art show and talk he gave in Kingston, Ontario entitled "Revolutionary Animism – The Unified Field: Art, Politics and Spirituality." Ben Morea is best known as a key figure in the Black Mask group, The Family (popularly known as Up Against The Wall Motherf**ker), and the Armed Love commune movement. In this interview Ben recounts stories from his life, reflects on some of the challenges facing anarchists and revolutionaries of yesterday and today, and shares some thoughts on animism, indigenous ways of life, conflict, art, and more.

The No State Solution: A Dialogue with Palestinian sociologist Mohammed Bamyeh and Israeli political scientist Uri Gordon How can anarchist perspectives contribute to Palestinian liberation? Professor Mohammed Bamyeh, Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh, is author of Anarchy as Order: The History and Future of Civic Humanity (2009) Dr. Uri Gordon, author of Anarchy Alive!: Anti-Authoritarian Politics from Practice to Theory (2007), is an Independent scholar now based in the UK. This event took place on the unceded Territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt in Victoria, BC Canada, and in the U.K. via Zoom on January 28, 2024. Sponsored by Camas Books & Infoshop, Anarchist Archive at UVic, Sunset Labs, Anarchist Network of Vancouver Island (ANVI)

An interview with Jordan House and Asaf Rashid, authors of the book Solidarity Beyond Bars: Unionizing Prison Labour.  We discuss the background of the book, some historical and legal precedents, the pros and cons of right-based approaches, the core strategic arguments for a prisoners union, and an exciting new initiative by prisoners in Laval, QC to form a union. If you're around Montreal, check out their upcoming book launch at Concordia University on Friday, November 24th. With music from David Parker & Stefan Christoff.

On this special edition of From Embers, we're sharing a reading of Under New Management: Resistance to Prisons in Ontario & Quebec. Originally published in 2018 on It's Going Down under the title Our Neighbors to the North, this article discusses the establishment of the Canadian prison system and highlights some examples of prisoner resistance in Ontario and Quebec over the decades, with an emphasis on the widespread unrest throughout the 1970s. This AudioZine was first broadcast by CFRC Prison Radio in Kingston and has been edited and republished with permission.  With music from Young Spirit, Christian Collins, Beatrice Deer and Cee Reality.

Our fediverse correspondent Lenny returns to discuss the FBI seizure of the servers of Kolektiva.social, the largest anarchist instance on Mastodon. We also talk about the continuing discrediting of big tech companies such as Twitter, Meta and Reddit, and what that might mean for people working to build an open-source, decentralized alternative to corporate social media platforms. LINKS Kolektiva.social Security Alert (Statement on seizure) From Embers - Social Networks, Online Life and The Fediverse From Embers - New Communication Infrastructure For Anarchists F-91W Distro - Mastodon OPSEC guide F-91W Distro - An anarchist introduction to federated social media CrimethInc - Doxxing Prevention and Aftercare Guide Anti-Hate.ca Story on Poast Leak Reddit alternatives Lemmy & Kbin With music from Deep Sixed