IT'S GOING DOWN
IT'S GOING DOWN
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Top 10 IT'S GOING DOWN Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best IT'S GOING DOWN episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to IT'S GOING DOWN for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite IT'S GOING DOWN episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
12/27/21 • 179 min
photo: Pixabay
In this latest episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we are joined with a participant of the CrimethInc. collective as we spend several hours broadly discussing contemporary anarchist history and organization, the impact of both material conditions and repression on those organizational forms, how we can build and maintain healthy group dynamics, and the impact of post-rebellion and pandemic burn-out. Some of the key topics touched on include:
- How historically forms of formal and informal organization have been directly shaped by State repression and the material conditions at the time, not just simply ideology.
- A look at the impact of the anti-globalization movement, Occupy, the student occupation movement, and the Oscar Grant and Ferguson rebellions on autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggles.
- How anarchist ideas and forms spread in the pre-internet age.
- The impact of repression on multi-generational movements and maintaining trust.
- The real weight of burnout and the need to build healthy and holistic group dynamics in our organizing models.
We hope you enjoy this episode – it grew out of email correspondence with fans and listeners of the show and it covers a lot of ground. This episode also drops as we are currently promoting our end of the year fundraiser. Thanks to your support, we have already met our first goal and are hoping to meet our second goal so we can print a new round of stickers. Please donate here.
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Report from Tijuana: Building Autonomous Mutual Aid As the Border Continues to Militarize
IT'S GOING DOWN
04/19/23 • 61 min
In this episode, we speak with someone involved with El Comedor, an autonomous mutual aid hub and organizing center in so-called Tijuana, Mexico, which was founded by anarchists and asylum seekers in 2018. From a previous report:
El Comedor is currently one of the only places, if not the only place, serving hot meals everyday in Tijuana. Though “the caravan” is out of the news, thousands still pass through Tijuana on their way north hoping to escape violence.
During our discussion, we speak about autonomous, mutual aid, and anarchist projects in Tijuana, Mexico as well as the rapidly militarizing borderlands. Under Biden, the US, and by extension, the Mexican and Canadian borders have continued to crack-down on refugees. In late March, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) was passed. As Canadian Tire Fire wrote:
[The new agreement] forces migrants to claim asylum in the “first safe country” they reach, [and] until recently applied only to legal border crossings. Until Saturday, migrants could cross into Canada from the US, and vice versa, at irregular points along the border and, if they made it, claim asylum once they arrived without being immediately turned away under the agreement.
This crackdown comes after years of far-Right attacks on migrants and refugees and has already led to the deaths of eight people that died attempting to cross into Canada, including two infant children.
The Biden administration has also continued to pressure the Mexican state to act as a police force for Central and South American migrants. Under Title 42, a rule which was originally put into place by Trump advisor Steven Miller, the white nationalist and former friend of Richard Spencer, the United States has barred asylum seekers from entering into the US under the ironic pretense that it will contribute to the spread of COVID-19. While Title 42 is set to expire in a month, Biden’s new plan is now to:
[N]ot [allow refugees] to enter the US to apply for asylum, regardless of the fact that such a right is guaranteed under international law, on the grounds that they should apply for asylum in Mexico instead.
[President] AMLO has deployed the Mexican military to serve as an auxiliary of the US border police, arresting and often brutalizing Central and South American immigrants passing through his country on the way to the United States.
This brutality was recently thrust into the spotlight by the deadly fire in Ciudad Juarez, after guards refused to release detained migrants when a blaze ripped through the facility, killing forty and injuring over twenty. And while hundreds of migrant children remain separated from their families, according to the New York Times, “The Biden administration is considering reviving the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the border illegally — the same policy the president shut down over the past two years because he wanted a more humane immigration system...”
As neoliberalism, US foreign policy, and climate change continues to force millions from their homes in an attempt to cross into the US and Canada, autonomous spaces like El Comedor will be needed more than ever.
More Info: Support El Comedor here and check out this article on Mutual Aid in the Borderlands by Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, and check them out on Instagram here.
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“Fight For Others, Like You Would Fight For Your Own Freedom”: Eric King on Building a Fighting Abolitionist Movement
IT'S GOING DOWN
01/17/24 • 75 min
In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we present an interview with former anarchist political prisoner Eric King along with Josh from the Certain Days calendar collective. During our interview, we speak with Eric about the impact and importance of prisoner support during his nearly 10 years of incarceration and his thoughts about building large-scale prisoner support and a robust abolitionist movement.
We also touch upon the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it spread inside the prison walls, and the racial dynamics that played out between prisoners and guards during the rise of Trumpism.
Eric and Josh argue that anti-repression organizing and support for political prisoners cannot remain sidelined within social movements, but must be something that we center within the wider abolitionist struggle.
More Info: Eric King interview on the Final Straw, Rosenberg Fund for Children, Eric King on Instagram, Certain Days calendar collective, Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners
This Is America #150: University Occupations Spread; Daniel Baker Gets 3.5 Years for Facebook Posts
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10/21/21 • 58 min
photo: @ChuckModi1
Welcome, to This Is America, October 20th, 2021.
On today’s episode, we speak with attorney Brad Thomson about the case of anarchist and antifascist, Dan Baker, who was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in Florida, after posting calls to social media for counter-demonstrations against the far-Right, directly after the attempted January 6th pro-Trump storming of the DC capitol. We discuss how the state utilized fear of anarchists, antifascists, and Baker’s background of volunteering with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the fight against ISIS in the autonomous region of Rojava, in order to paint him as a monster and dangerous to the public at large.
We then switch to our discussion, where we unpack the latest bombshells from whistleblowers at Facebook. All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
Living and Fighting
Video collage of last night's Vigil for Sean (sound on). Music by @TheNewAmerLeft
For @KealiherLaura #LightTheSky4Sean#Justice4Armeanio pic.twitter.com/LPKBihcoza— John #ProtectThackerPass (@Johnnthelefty) October 13, 2021
In Portland, over 100 people took to the streets to remember and celebrate the life of anarchist Sean “Armeanio” Kealiher, who was killed in a hit and run two years ago.
For ppl wondering, no sign of police moving in at #BlackburnTakeover at this time after notice that it could happen tonite. Currently occupation has reached about 35 tents plus ppl sleeping inside Blackburn at Howard. pic.twitter.com/zdqZCkyrsm
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) October 19, 2021
There are occupations happening at two HBCUs. At Howard University, students have maintained a sit-in an autonomous occupation over housing conditions, while in Atlanta, another occupation has been launched demanding administrators address basic conditions. According to Yahoo News:
Tensions at Howard University reached a boiling point this week as students staged a sit-in over housing conditions they say are so bad that some students have gotten sick, while others have been forced to stay on the streets. The complaints made by students run the gamut from mold infestations, rats and insects running amuck, to safety concerns, with students questioning why they pay nearly $50,000 a year for such “unlivable” conditions.
I encourage everyone to support the students at #HowardUniversity as they continue their direct actions to move the administration to meet their demands. #BlackburnTakeover https://t.co/RWqOrMs6pp
— zellie (@zellieimani)
From Failed Reform to the Victory of Law and Order: Jarrod Shanahan on the History of Rikers Island and Lessons for Abolition
IT'S GOING DOWN
05/25/22 • 71 min
photo: @AshAgony
How did an attempt at carceral reform lead to the creation of one of the US’s most notorious jails? In this podcast interview, we speak with author and organizer Jarrod Shanahan about his new book, Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage, and how the various forces within the facility in turn shaped New York city. We also explore how looking at the history of Rikers – and resistance to it – can inform the wider abolitionist struggle.
From rank-n-file guards, city unions, to the Black liberation movement, and neoliberal politicians, we discuss how various forces attempted to fight for their interests inside one of the largest so-called correctional institutions within the United States. As Shanahan argues, the ability of the guards and police to push for more control and impose “law and order” from below against growing resistance on the streets and in the jails, worked hand in glove with neoliberalism’s program of gutting social welfare and public sector programs and infrastructure. What was left, was a society largely held together through massive State violence, a process we continue to see play out today, especially during the pandemic.
As The Nation wrote of Captives:
In particular, Shanahan documents two opposed but mutually reinforcing traditions: the liberal reforms that he calls “penal welfarism” on the one hand, and the more straightforwardly punitive agendas that over the course of the 1960s congealed into the law-and-order coalition on the other. Although these traditions “remained two distinct visions of the postwar order,” Shanahan’s project in a sense is to demonstrate the major role of liberal reformism both in creating the Rikers Island complex, with its perpetual state of humanitarian crisis, and in advancing the law-and-order political consensus that ultimately dominated city politics for decades. In a grim, ironic reversal, penal welfarism created much of the physical and political infrastructure of the city’s carceral apparatus and also fueled the development of the coalition that would eventually reject jail reform in full.
With similar forces at play across the US today, looking at the history and resistance at Rikers gives us insight into the wider struggle for a world without prisons and police.
More Info: Jarrod Shanahan homepage, Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage
06/17/22 • 66 min
On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we talk with both long-time anarchist organizer Suzy Subways and historian Spencer Beswick about how anarchists in the 1990s organized in the face of a deadly far-Right attack on abortion access across the so-called United States.
With the growth of both the above ground organization Operation Rescue, which mobilized thousands to shut down abortion clinics and the underground anti-abortion movement which targeted doctors and reproductive health offices with firebombings and assassinations, abortion access was under threat like never before. But while liberals stuck to legalistic attempts to sway the courts, anarchists, utilizing strategies and tactics from groups like Anti-Racist Action, brought a fresh perspective to the struggle and began to mobilize and build coalitions.
During our discussion we cover this history as well as what led to the passing of Roe v Wade; as Beswick argues that it was the creation of a mass, militant movement that centered bodily autonomy and freedom that forced the State to codify limited abortion rights into law. As the supreme court is poised to rule on striking down Roe v Wade, this history, and the lessons and questions that it raises, is needed now more than ever.
More Info: We’re Pro-Choice and We Riot: How Anarcha-Feminists Built Dual Power in Struggles for Reproductive Freedom, Empty Hands History, and Claim No Easy Victories: An Anarchist Analysis of ARA and its Contributions to the Building of a Radical Anti-Racist Movement
Exploring the History of Anarchist Popular Power in Uruguay and its Lessons for Today
IT'S GOING DOWN
12/17/23 • 77 min
Listen and Download HERE
On this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we feature an audio recording from a presentation in the bay area this summer on July 18th by the Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation’s Bay Area local and AK Press hosted historian Troy Araiza Kokinis to discuss his new book Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay, 1956-76.
Anarchist Popular Power is the first-ever full-length English-language history of the Anarchist Federation of Uruguay. As Araiza Kokinis explains, the FAU organized students and workers to directly confront international and domestic capitalists, far-Right violence, and state repression amidst rising IMF-mandated austerity and declining living standards during the 1960s and 1970s. Pushed underground and into exile by governmental ban and a decade of US-backed military dictatorship, the organization has spread its model for revolutionary change around the world since it resurfaced in the mid-1980s.
The FAU‘s innovative engagement with, disciplined commitment to, and steadfast confidence in everyday people’s capacities to control their shop floors, classrooms, neighborhoods, and lives offers important lessons for revolutionaries today. If you are inspired to adapt these and other lessons for the so-called United States, reach out to Black Rose / Rosa Negra at blackrosefed.org.
Due to some technical issues during the event, the following combines portions of live audio with recreations of the author’s talk. We hope you enjoy the conversation!
Produced and edited by Kenny Donovan.
04/01/22 • 66 min
On this episode of It’s Going Down, we again speak with anarchist theorist and author Peter Gelderloos, who discusses his new book, The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below, which is part indictment of capitalist civilization and part collection of interviews with those on the frontlines of ecological and anti-colonial struggles from below. Sales of The Solutions Are Already Here will also go towards the projects featured in the book.
My new book with @PlutoPress is out!
The Solutions Are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below.
Here's a short thread on what the book is all about, from the critiques of green capitalism to the interviews with effective movements!https://t.co/hHJxBQrJMA
— PeterGelderloos (@PeterGelderloos) February 6, 2022
From Pluto Press:
Are alternative energies and Green New Deals enough to deliver environmental justice? Peter Gelderloos argues that international governmental responses to the climate emergency are structurally incapable of solving the crisis. But there is hope.
Across the world, grassroots networks of local communities are working to realise their visions of an alternative revolutionary response to planetary destruction, often pitted against the new megaprojects promoted by greenwashed alternative energy infrastructures and the neocolonialist, technocratic policies that are the forerunners of the Green New Deal.
Gelderloos interviews food sovereignty activists in Venezuela, Indigenous communities reforesting their lands in Brazil and anarchists fighting biofuel plantations in Indonesia, looking at the battles that have cancelled airports, stopped pipelines, and helped the most marginalised to fight borders and environmental racism, to transform their cities, to win a dignified survival.
During our discussion, we talk about how corporations and government have known about climate change for decades and have viewed it, as they do now, as a security threat, pushing to militarize borders, stop the flow of migrants, protect capitalist interests and infrastructure, and beef up surveillance.
On our latest podcast, we spoke with @PeterGelderloos about the last days of the Trump regime, the neoliberal Center taking power, and what this means for both civil liberties and autonomous social movements on the streets as #COVID19 continues to rage. https://t.co/9rkKGJloOM
— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) January 23, 2021
We talk about how autonomous movements can combat these growing realities and get ready for a future that is fast approaching. Along the way we also talk about Desert, prepping, Extinction Rebellion, land projects, inspiring ecological, indigenous and anti-colonial struggles – and much more.
More Info: Peter Gelderloos on Twitter, The Future is Already Here online, and Peter Gelderloos on IGD
photo: Johanna Buguet via Unsplash
07/02/22 • 109 min
Welcome, to This Is America, June 30th, 2022.
On this episode, we speak with anarchist youtuber and podcaster, Andrew, about anarchist media, climate change, and much more. Support them on Patreon here!
We then switch to our discussion, were we are joined by Lee, an anarchist writer and theorist at Butch Anarchy, as we discuss the recent Supreme Court decision, ongoing protests, and their meaning. Support Lee on Patreon here!
All this and more but first, let’s get to the news!
Living and Fighting
Oakland School Remains Occupied Against ClosureWe are almost at 40 days of our “occupation” of Parker K-8 School—that the corrupt school board voted to close— and it’s one of the longest sit-ins in the Bay Area over the past 40 years. To make it to 50 days, we need your support. Spread the word and DM us to get involved! pic.twitter.com/c0mWEuG9lM
— Parker For The People (@saveparker510) July 1, 2022
Last Friday, East Oakland community members marked the one month anniversary of an occupation of the Parker Elementary school in the Bay Area of California. Parker is one of several schools that the Oakland Unified School district has recently targeted for closure. Parents and students have been protesting the wave of attacks on public education, angry that school closures will hit working-class communities of color the hardest, forcing student to travel farther, often through unsafe environments, just to go to school. Over the past month, a collection of students, staff, and community members have occupied the campus, creating a radical summer school program complete with food, classes and a wide range of activities. Despite ongoing angry protests at budget meetings, the Oakland Unified School district has remained firm in its commitment to close the school, but community members remain committed to continuing the resistance.
Defend the Atlanta ForestIf not now, then when?
If not us, then who?
July 23-30
ATL pic.twitter.com/EY6UXKMDQ6
— Defend the Atlanta Forest (@defendATLforest) June 16, 2022
The fight to defend the Atlanta forest continues. Currently, there is a speaking tour happening across the West Coast and the East Coast, with more speaking events being organized all the time. Meanwhile in Atlanta, a wide variety of actions continue in defense of the forest – from weekly community gatherings were local residents drop off supplies to tree-sitters, to the canvassing of local neighborhoods, direct physical disruption of construction in the forest, and a continuing chorus of direct action against the project.
Today marks another week of work delays in the Atlanta Forest where tree sitters have occupied aerial blockades to #StopCopCity 🌳💚 pic.twitter.com/A8Dqgid9tr
— Defend the Atlanta Forest (@defendATLforest) June 17, 2022
On June 2nd in Columbus, Ohio, an office belong to Atlas, one of the construction firms involved in the Cop City project was smashed up. On June 5th, a new road blockade went up, complete with old cars, blocking a path for police to enter the forest. The day after, Defend the Forest activists visited the church of Michael Keller, leaving flyers on cars during a serv...
This Is America #151: The Fight Against Line 5, Brenton Lengel on New Durruti Comic Book
IT'S GOING DOWN
10/29/21 • 168 min
Welcome, to This Is America, October 29th, 2021.
On today’s episode, we speak with several Water Protectors involved in the ongoing struggle against the Line 5 pipeline. We discuss the history of the fight against the Embridge project, how the company has worked with the police to attack grassroots organizing, a recent action which shut down oil production, and much more.
Here is their communique from a recent action on October 19th which shut down oil flow on Line 5:
Mni Wiconi. Water is life. We are here to protect the water, land, and air that support all life, including our own. Line 5 poses an immediate threat to our lives and these actions are taken out of necessity and in self-defense.
The sacredness of mother earth is understood in indigenous communities. For generations, water protectors across Turtle Island and the world have led the fight to ensure a livable planet for future generations. Tribes in Bad River and Bay Mills have both taken legal action against Enbridge who continues to illegally operate line 5 on sovereign land.
The urgent need to protect mother earth’s natural resources is recognized in settler colonial society as well. Governor Whitmer and Attorney General Nessel acted as true public servants by filing case number 19-474-CE revoking the 1953 easement that allows Enbridge to operate line 5 under the straits of Mackinaw. I quote Attorney General Nessel, “Simply put, Michigan law requires that the pipelines be shut down.”
Line 5 is a 68-year pipeline with a planned lifetime of 50 years and Enbridge violates the public trust every second that Line 5 continues to operate. Enbridge repeatedly and knowingly violated the terms of the 1953 Easement and failed to correct structural shortcomings in the Line 5 pipeline. Furthermore, Line 5 has already spilled 33 different times totaling over 1.1 million gallons of oil and it is only sheer luck that the multiple anchor-strikes in recent years have not led to a spill in the straits.
A broader look at the history of Enbridge reveals the extremely high likelihood of a massive imminent spill. Consider this: Enbridge is responsible for the two largest inland oil spills in history. Spilling 1.7 million gallons in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and more recently spilling 1.2 million gallons in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is still being cleaned up to this day. Enbridge repeatedly dismissed alarms for over 17 hours during the Kalamazoo spill, instead opting to increase the pressure in the pipeline multiple times up until the public discovered and reported the spill.
BREAKING: a water protector in Michigan took action to stop oil flow on Line 5, an @Enbridge pipeline, while the band Only Lucky Once played a show nearby.
From the valve turner: “I know my life is in danger from the risk of a spill and from the contributions to climate change.” pic.twitter.com/xXCi5yl4HY
— Resist Line 3 (@ResistLine3) October 19, 2021
Additionally, Enbridge is responsible for digging deeper than permitted and breaching a groundwater aquifer in Minnesota this January resulting in 24 million gallons of groundwater leakage. Although aware of the breach they failed to report it and it was only discovered by an independent investigation by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in June, six months later.
This list is incomplete but should make clear that Enbridge holds no respect for the sacredness of human life, the rule of law, or mother earth. The environmental impacts listed above overlook the greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuels and the tragic consequences of climate change that result from this suicidal industry. This characterization is not a metaphor, the impact of Enbridge and other capitalist fossil fuel titans threaten the viability of all human life on earth.
I know my life is in danger because of the risk of a spill and because of the contributions of Enbridge to climate change. In Detroit we saw record flooding leave cars strewn across the city and upend lives, elsewhere people have died in wildfires and hurricanes, or from starvation as unpredictable weather patterns destroy food production.
Shutting down oil pipelines and overcoming our addiction to fossil fuels i...
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FAQ
How many episodes does IT'S GOING DOWN have?
IT'S GOING DOWN currently has 227 episodes available.
What topics does IT'S GOING DOWN cover?
The podcast is about News, News Commentary, Podcasts and Politics.
What is the most popular episode on IT'S GOING DOWN?
The episode title 'Organization, Repression, Burnout, Action: A Discussion with CrimethInc.' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on IT'S GOING DOWN?
The average episode length on IT'S GOING DOWN is 89 minutes.
How often are episodes of IT'S GOING DOWN released?
Episodes of IT'S GOING DOWN are typically released every 6 days, 13 hours.
When was the first episode of IT'S GOING DOWN?
The first episode of IT'S GOING DOWN was released on Jan 27, 2020.
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