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Movement Memos

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An ongoing call to action for movement work and mutual aid efforts around the country. Kelly Hayes connects with activists, journalists and others on the front lines to break down what’s happening in various struggles and what listeners can do to help.
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Episodes

Radical Acts of Care: From Underground Abortions to Militant Clinic Defense

“When you're engaged in political work that is as embodied and vulnerable, uncharted and courageous as self-help, you're really harnessing something like a new world building power,” says Deep Care author Angela Hume. In this episode, Kelly and Angela discuss the work of abortion self-help activists who provided illegal abortions in the 1970s, as well as militant clinic defenders, who repelled right-wing efforts to blockade abortion clinics in the 80s and 90s. As Angela says, “There are deep les...

Aug 01, 202459 minSeason 7Ep. 7

How Solidarity Falters Amid Repression and How We Can Do Better

“This system was designed to do exactly what it is doing and has been doing: concentrating wealth and facilitating racial capitalism and colonialism and extraction,” says author and activist Dean Spade. In this episode, Kelly and Dean discuss some common traps that activists fall into when discussing repression and how we can strengthen our practice of solidarity. Music: Son Monarcas You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/...

Jul 18, 20241 hr 4 minSeason 7Ep. 6

To Stay in the Fight, We Must Navigate Trauma and Find the Healing We Need

“If you're trying to destroy things that are as massive as the structures and the institutions that we talk about wanting to get rid of, that we talk about wanting to overthrow, you're going to have to sustain yourself,” says organizer and author William C. Anderson. In this episode, Kelly takes a trip to the Northwest Territories and talks with Anderson, Robyn Maynard, Harsha Walia, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Mahdi Sabbagh, and others about the crises of trauma, grief, and overwhelm in our co...

Jul 05, 20241 hr 13 minSeason 7Ep. 5

What Today’s Workers Can Learn From Machine Breaking Luddites

The Luddites, who smashed machines in the 19th century, in an organized effort to resist automation, are often portrayed as uneducated opponents of technology. But according to Blood in the Machine author Brian Merchant, “The Luddites were incredibly educated as to the harms of technology. They were very skilled technologists. So they understood exactly how new developments in machinery would affect the workplace, their industry, and their identities.” In this episode, Kelly talks with Brian abo...

Jun 20, 202453 minSeason 7Ep. 4

Objectivity in Journalism Is a Deadly Myth That Serves Israeli Military and Cops

“If you think about all the cop shows and you think about the birthright tours and you think about all the friendship visits of U.S. officials to Israel, where it's as if there's no Palestine, and you think about Coffee With A Cop, these are all in the same school of actually deeply violent, militaristic propaganda that tries to soften something that only exists to control vulnerable people,” says journalist Lewis Raven Wallace. In this episode, Raven Wallace talks with Kelly about the similarit...

Jun 06, 20241 hr 1 minSeason 7Ep. 3

Palestine Solidarity Encampments Are a Rehearsal for Self-Governance and Liberation

“At UChicago, they were chanting, ‘40,000 people dead. You are fighting kids instead,’” says author and University of Chicago faculty member Eman Abdelhadi. “Palestine has laid open all the contradictions that are at the core of our society, and the sheer absurdity of trying to suppress this movement.” In this episode, Kelly talks with Abdelhadi and Alex, who participated in the Palestine solidarity encampment at Northeastern University, about what we can learn from the recent wave of student-le...

May 23, 20241 hr 5 minSeason 7Ep. 2

Outside Agitators Are Good, Actually

"When people come from outside your community or your campus, it makes you feel like you're connected to a bigger whole," says Solidarity co-author Astra Taylor. "It makes you feel like what's happening there matters. It creates a sense of a larger coalition. And that's powerful, which is exactly why the people in power don't like it." In this episode, Kelly talks with Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix about solidarity, divide-and-conquer tactics, and the concept of “outside agitators.” Music: Son Mo...

May 09, 202454 minSeason 7Ep. 1

“Hope For Me is in The Doing of Things,” Says Mariame Kaba

While Kelly is away on medical leave, we revisit a fan-favorite episode in which Kelly and Mariame Kaba talk about lessons from their book Let This Radicalize You. "I have experienced countless losses, but there have also been some magnificent wins, so I know that these are possible," says Kaba. Music: Son Monarcas & David Celeste You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/audio/let-this-conversation-with-mariame-kaba-radicalize-you/ If you wou...

Apr 25, 20241 hr 3 minSeason 6Ep. 19

Family Policing is Part of a "Carceral Web"

Kelly is still on medical leave, so we are revisiting their conversation with Dorothy Roberts about the fall of Roe and the carceral nature of the family policing system. “This strategy of making fetal protection more important than the lives and freedom of women and other pregnant people began with the prosecutions of Black women, who were pregnant and using drugs,” said Roberts, author of Torn Apart and Killing The Black Body. Music: Son Monarcas and Pulsed You can find a transcript and show n...

Apr 15, 20241 hr 8 minSeason 6Ep. 18

Capitalism is Killing Us and Our Work Won't Love Us Back

While Kelly is on medical leave, we hope you enjoy this fan favorite from the archives. In this episode, Kelly talked with Sarah Jaffe about surveillance, criminalization, and lessons from Jaffe's book, "Work Won't Love You Back." Music: Son Monarcas You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/audio/work-isnt-fulfilling-because-capitalism-is-a-death-march/ If you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonate If you would like ...

Mar 29, 202450 minSeason 6Ep. 17

Care Must Be a Collective Practice of Survival, Not a Site of Profit Extraction

“In this moment of crisis, we have to understand how the care economy functions … I think we have to ask ourselves, do we want someone to profit from our pain? Do we want our loved ones to be for sale? I think it is imperative upon all of us to push back on the system of profit from care and to find alternative ways of thinking and doing care,” says author Premila Nadasen. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Nadasen and host Kelly Hayes discuss the role of care work in the U.S. economy, the exp...

Mar 14, 20241 hrSeason 6Ep. 16

State of US Journalism Is “Worst I’ve Ever Seen It,” Says Sarah Kendzior

“The public domain is being purchased, and it is being purchased in order for it to be destroyed,” says journalist Sarah Kendzior. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Kendzior and host Kelly Hayes discuss the decline of journalism in the U.S. and how we can resist the erosion of our shared history, our values, and our shared reality. Music: Son Monarcas & Pulsed You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos If you would like to support th...

Feb 29, 20241 hr 2 minSeason 6Ep. 15

Chicago Organizers Defeat Police Tech in Ongoing Fight for Community Safety

“Every interaction between Black and Brown community members and CPD responding to a gunshot alert is dangerous. It puts people at risk of violence and harm,” says Stop ShotSpotter organizer Navi Heer. In this week’s episode, Kelly talks with two organizers from Chicago’s Stop ShotSpotter campaign, which claimed a major victory this week, and investigative journalist Jim Daley of South Side Weekly , about the interaction of Big Tech and policing in Chicago. Music: Son Monarcas & David Celest...

Feb 15, 202458 minSeason 6Ep. 14

Predictive Police Tech Isn’t Making Communities Safer – It’s Disempowering Them

“The truth is, every time community groups have asked questions about policing, the police haven't had good answers. And when really pushed, they had to fold to recognize that maybe this technology wasn't worth the money, wasn't doing what it was said. And while sure, it sounded good in a soundbite, it sounded good to the city council when you said you had to do something to stop crime, in reality, it wasn't doing what it said, and may also have had real harms on those communities,” says Andrew ...

Feb 01, 20241 hr 2 minSeason 6Ep. 13

Attacks on the Concept of Settler Colonialism Are About Undermining Solidarity

“Surviving settler colonialism isn't just about surviving its material realities, it's also about surviving how settler colonialism requires destroying cultures, and languages, and sensibilities, and values, and ways of being in the world,” says scholar and activist Nadine Naber. In this episode, Naber and host Kelly Hayes discuss the connections between the struggle for Palestinian liberation and U.S. movements against police and prisons, the history of Palestinian and Arab organizing in the U....

Jan 18, 20241 hrSeason 6Ep. 12

“Palestine Is About Living in Spite of Everything”

“Belonging isn't about a claim of ownership, it's actually about this notion of love and longing. And so I've come to say, I don't claim that Palestine belongs to me. I just know that I belong to Palestine,” says Palestinian author Rana Barakat. In this episode, Rana and host Kelly talk about Palestinian history, Indigenous solidarity, how colonial violence disrupts ancestral and familial relationships, and what resisting that disruption can look like. Music: Son Monarcas , David Celeste, Raymon...

Dec 07, 202355 minSeason 6Ep. 11

Native Organizers Celebrate Solidarity, Grieve Losses and Work to Reduce Harm

“We're connected to each other and these liberation fights across the globe,” says Indigenous Justice organizer Ashley Crystal Rojas. In this episode of Movement Memos, Rojas and Morning Star Gali talk with host Kelly Hayes about Native solidarity with Palestine, how Native communities have reclaimed the “Thanksgiving” holiday, tools for harm reduction, and how Native organizers are supporting Indigenous victims of violence and their families during the holiday season. Music: Son Monarcas You ca...

Nov 23, 202350 minSeason 6Ep. 10

Vigil for Palestine: We Mourn and Consider What Solidarity Demands of Us

“During a genocide, there is no silent vigil. There are no pauses without action,” says organizer Nadine Naber. In this episode, Naber, Iman Abid, Mike Merryman-Lotze, Leanne Simpson, Shane Burley, Brant Rosen, and others join Kelly to hold vigil for Palestine, and to talk about what solidarity demands of us in this moment. Music: Son Monarcas and David Celeste You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos If you would like to support the show...

Nov 07, 20231 hr 1 minSeason 6Ep. 9

Practicing New Worlds in a Time of Collapse

“Our survival is at stake, and so, let's think about all the best things that can help us better understand how we can ensure the collective survival of as many of us as possible,” says author and organizer Andrea Ritchie. In this episode, Kelly and Andrea discuss organizing, solidarity with Palestine, and why activists cannot defer the work of practicing new worlds. Music: Son Monarcas and David Celeste You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movemen...

Oct 26, 20231 hr 11 minSeason 6Ep. 8

Israel's Tools of Occupation Are Tested on Palestine and Exported Globally

“The danger now is not just in Palestine for Palestinians. It's gone well beyond that now. It's exported, the idea that you can export occupation, you can export the tools of occupation, the tools of apartheid. That is where we currently are in the early 2020s,” says The Palestine Laboratory author Antony Loewenstein. In this episode, Kelly talks with Loewenstein about how Israel has used Palestine as a laboratory for surveillance and war-making technologies. Loewenstein argues that Israel is al...

Oct 12, 20231 hr 3 minSeason 6Ep. 7

To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

“If you've never tried to organize a movement without the internet, I'm here to tell you, it's really hard. We need to seize the means of computation, because while the internet isn't the most important thing that we have to worry about right now, all the things that are more important, gender and racial justice, inequality, the climate emergency, those are struggles that we're going to win or lose by organizing on the internet,” says author and activist Cory Doctorow. In this episode, Kelly tal...

Sep 28, 20231 hr 4 minSeason 6Ep. 6

We Can Survive Together By Becoming Kin

“I want the land to know me, to claim me. I want to feel at home in it in a way that's reciprocal … When we talk about land back, we're not talking about laying claim to land the way that the U.S. might say, or the way that other countries might say, of claiming ownership, it's claiming relationship, and it's claiming a relationship that's reciprocal,” says Becoming Kin author Patty Krawec. In this episode of Movement Memos, Krawec and host Kelly Hayes discuss decolonization, and how activists a...

Sep 14, 20231 hr 10 minSeason 6Ep. 5

Our Movements Need Infrastructure for Care, Recovery and Belonging

“What are the ways we could organize people into new social forms in which new human, more humane, more liberatory capacities would emerge that we could use for our own liberation?” asks Aaron Goggans of the WildSeed Society. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Goggans and host Kelly Hayes talk about how activists can resist the trends of late capitalism, including the alienation imposed by the tech world, by cultivating modes of communication and communal care that defy the norms of our indivi...

Aug 31, 20231 hr 8 minSeason 6Ep. 4

Rocket-Launching Billionaires Promise a New Pie in the Sky

“What we're getting from both Musk and Bezos is this classically new age-y religious drama of disaster and salvation. They preach, they tell us that the end is near, the disaster is coming, that the world is going to end, but there is another world that everybody can build together, a new world and a place that they've never seen and a place that seems totally impossible,” says professor Mary-Jane Rubenstein, author of Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race . In this epis...

Aug 17, 20231 hrSeason 6Ep. 3

AI Won’t Overthrow Us, But It Will Optimize the Capitalist Death Machine

“How are these tools going to be used to increase the power of employers and of management once again, and to be used against workers,” asks Paris Marx. In this episode, Paris and Kelly break down the hype and potential of artificial intelligence, and what we should really be worried about. You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos If you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonate If you would like to receive Trut...

Aug 03, 20231 hr 2 minSeason 6Ep. 2

Bizarre and Dangerous Utopian Ideology Has Quietly Taken Hold of Tech World

“It's really important for people to understand what this bundle of ideologies is, because it's become so hugely influential, and is shaping our world right now, and will continue to shape it for the foreseeable future,” says philosopher and historian Émile P. Torres. In this episode, Kelly and Émile discuss what activists should know about longtermism and TESCREAL. You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos If you would like to support the...

Jul 20, 20231 hr 19 minSeason 6Ep. 1

Cop City is Only the Beginning, Unless We Fight

“This is a global struggle against fascism, it's a global struggle against the militarization of the police and state violence against folks whose dissent is being oppressed,” says Jasmine, an organizer in Atlanta. In this episode, Kelly talks with authors Alex Vitale and Stuart Schrader about the frightening trajectory of policing in the United States. Kelly also talks with Chicago activist Benji Hart, and Jasmine, an organizer in Atlanta who is engaged in the struggle to Stop Cop City. You can...

Jun 01, 20231 hr 6 minSeason 5Ep. 21

Palestinian Organizers: We Honor Our Grief by Practicing Hope

“Whenever there is grief, there is unity, and in unity, there is strength, and we feel it.,” says Jalal Abukhater. In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with Abukhater, a Palestinian writer living in Jerusalem, and Palestinian activists Jeanine Hourani and Lea Kayali, about the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, resistance in the face of Israeli aggression, and how hope sustains their work. You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movem...

May 18, 202358 minSeason 5Ep. 20

To Transform Conflict in Movements, We Must Learn How to Stay in It Together

“It's never too late to pause and reevaluate the purpose, the structure, or the norms that you're operating with as a group of people trying to make a change in the world or get something done together,” says Aarati Kasturirangan. In this episode, Kelly talks with facilitators Aarati Kasturirangan and Rebecca Subar about how organizers can transform conflict in movement spaces. You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos If you would like to...

May 05, 20231 hr 12 minSeason 5Ep. 19

Let This Conversation With Mariame Kaba Radicalize You

“Hope for me is in the doing of things,” says Mariame Kaba. In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with Mariame Kaba about their upcoming book, Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos If you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonate If you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter...

Apr 20, 20231 hr 3 minSeason 5Ep. 18
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