Show #78 BarnCamp 2013

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Loosey Parsuns

Barncamp2013-webheader

On this episode, our host chickpea talks to Mike, one of the participant organisers of the UK Hacktionlab Network about their event, BarnCamp 2013; a rural technical skillsharing weekend open to people of all abilities and backgrounds focusing on hacktivism (hacking + activism), with workshops, entertainment, politics, and fun in the sun taking place on Friday 7th to Sunday 9th June. HacktionLab is UK tech-activist run project that aims to create regular convergence spaces where activists interested and/or working in the areas of alternative media, renewable energy, on-line video distribution, free software or any other form of activism that utilises technology can get together and plan how to better harness the technology (or not) to support grass roots social movements. Mike and chickpea discuss the importance of understanding the political aspects of using technologies in pursuit of freedom. This episode also features music recorded at Barncamp 2010 open-mic sessions.

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Show #77 Voices from the Thatcher Party

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Donnacha DeLong
Thatcher Party in Trafalgar Square

© Donnacha DeLong

In case you didn’t notice, Margaret Thatcher’s funeral took place today. Last Saturday, an estimated 3,000 joined a party in Trafalgar Square, called many years ago by Class War, to show their disdain for the Iron Lady.

In a special episode of The Circled A, Donnacha DeLong introduces a mix of voices recorded at the party with anti-Thatcher songs by Elvis Costello, Chumbawamba and the beautiful Coal not Dole by Norma Waterson.

Listen now: 

Join the campaign to get Coal not Dole into the charts next week – join the Facebook group or just buy the song – iTunes / Amazon.

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Show #76 Martin Bowes (Attrition)

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Donnacha DeLong

Logo of the band Attrition

For more than 30 years, independent musician Martin Bowes has been making his own kind of music with Attrition, rarely bothering anyone in the mainstream. As the music industry comes crashing down around big business’ ears, On this show, Donnacha talks to Martin about what a veteran of doing things his own way thinks about what’s happening and where things are going from here. And hear a track from Attrition’s new CD, The Unraveller Of Angels.

Listen now: 10th April 2013 –

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Show #75 Iain McKay Part 2

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Loosey Parsuns

an-anarchist-faq-v-1

Part 2 of an interview with Iain McKay. We all know the present system exploits many of us for the benefit of the few – but how else can humans organise society for mutual benefit in a sustainable and ethical manner? This show poses questions to the knowlegdable Iain McKay, contributor to countless radical publications and editor of “Anarchist FAQ”, who discusses possible methods for anarchist inspired societal and economic organisation while providing some pretty compelling reasons for doing so!

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Show #74 – Sex and hierarchy

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Donnacha DeLong
© Simon Green

© Simon Green

From the SWP to the police, the Catholic Church to the Lib Dems, hierarchical organisations are in crisis over how they’ve dealt with – or failed to deal with – allegations of sexual impropriety: rape or sexual assault. Donnacha DeLong talks to Zoe Stavri (@stavvers) and Laurie Penny (@pennyred) about the current crises, the unofficial hierarchies within even autonomous and anarchist groups and whether equality is possible in hierarchical organisations.

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Show #73 Iain McKay

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Loosey Parsuns

an-anarchist-faq-v-1

We all know the present system exploits many of us for the benefit of the few – but how else can humans organise society for mutual benefit in a sustainable and ethical manner? This show poses questions to the knowlegdable Iain McKay, contributor to countless radical publications and editor of “Anarchist FAQ”, who discusses possible methods for anarchist inspired societal and economic organisation while providing some pretty compelling reasons for doing so! This interview features in two parts – this is part 1 and part 2 will feature and the end of March 2013.

Listen Now: 

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Show #72 Freedom after the fire

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Donnacha DeLong

On Friday 1 February, Freedom Bookshop in Whitechapel was firebombed. The Bookshop is home to Freedom Press, founded in 1886 by a group of friends, including Charlotte Wilson and Peter Kropotkin. It remains one of the final remnants of the radical history of London’s East End and has been targeted before.

Donnacha talks to Simon from the Freedom Collective about what’s happening in the Bookshop and asks why Freedom Press is such an important part of anarchist history.

Listen Now:

Find out what you can do to help Freedom.

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Show #71 52 Commercial Road

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Loosey Parsuns

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

52 Commercial Road are a post-rock group from London, England who began in 2003.

Initially formed in the bedroom of five close friends at seventeen, where they found they all held uncommon musical interests and influences. They began learning their craft together with an aim no greater than to seek refuge in each other’s company and make the music they longed to hear.

Eventually finding a more suitable home (literally) amongst London’s activist and squatting scene, they refined their creative instincts in the abandoned structures from where they eventually took their name. 52 Commercial Road signified much more than a place to them; a shared experience of youth, hedonism, freedom, the birth of close friendships and an existence outside of mainstream culture. It has come to define and represent a collective memory, of transience, identity and politicisation.

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Show #70 – Review of 2012

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Donnacha DeLong

2012 – the year the world didn’t end. Mass spectacles – the Jubilee and the Olympics – dominated a year where that saw fewer examples of peoples’ anger on the streets than the year before. Donnacha DeLong is joined by comedians Kate Smurthwaite and Jonnie Marbles – the man who pied Rupert Murdoch.

A mix of serious comment and some humour.

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Show #69 Mainstream Media

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Donnacha DeLong
Union members at the BBC on strike in 2011

Union members at the BBC on strike in 2011 © Donnacha DeLong

Christmas strikes at the BBC called off, the crisis over Newsnight, the Leveson inquiry and the backlash in the media. It’s been an interesting year for the mainstream media. Donnacha DeLong speaks to Simon, a union rep at the BBC, and Thais Portilho-Shrimpton, who worked for the Hacked Off campaign during the Leveson inquiry.

Plus, at the end, a little bit of seasonal cheer with the ‘Crappy Christmas Song’.

Listen now:

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