Movement Memos
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.
Episodes
No Abandonment, No Bunkers: Preparing for Disaster Together
As climate disasters intensify and authoritarian threats escalate, most of us are underprepared for moments when systems fail or are weaponized against us. In this episode, Kelly talks with Chris Begley and Amy Edelman, authors of The Emergency Playbook: A Bunker-Free Guide to Disaster Preparation, about how preparedness can move us away from fear, isolation and bunker fantasies, and toward commun
ICE Camps Are Not Untouchable. Here’s How Communities Can Push Back.
“The immigration camp, it really depends on a lot of local infrastructure. It is not this untouchable federal abstraction. It is up to us, neighbors, community members, and we have the actual power to shut them down,” says journalist John Washington. In this episode, John and Kelly Hayes discuss his book How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention, the rapid expansio
What Trump’s “Whenever Wars” Reveal About U.S. Empire
“Trump is banking on the idea that the entire U.S. population is as cynical and hateful as he is. And evidently, it's not true,” says Khury Petersen-Smith. In this episode, Kelly and Khury discuss Trump’s “whenever wars,” the spectacle of militarized violence, and the anti-war movement this moment demands. From ICE raids in U.S. cities to military violence abroad, Kelly and Khury explore how fasci
Hope Is Not Naive: Rebecca Solnit on Backlash, Power, and Political Memory
“One of the greatest cures for despair and depression is to do something, and to do something with the people who care,” says Rebecca Solnit. In this episode, Kelly talks with Rebecca about hope, backlash, political memory, and why history can help us understand our own power. Their conversation explores feminism, climate grief, authoritarianism, misogyny, interdependence, and why the right’s push
Repair Is a Survival Skill Under Fascism
In the second part of a two-part conversation, Kelly and Tanuja Jagernauth discuss why conflict transformation can be so difficult, what happens when efforts at repair break down, and why conflict resolution skills are survival skills in fascist times.
Music: Son Monarcas, Katori Walker, and David Celeste
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/
Rupture and Repair Under Fascist Conditions
“We have a great opportunity in our movements to learn how to be opponents without being enemies,” says Tanuja Jagernauth. In this first of a two-part conversation, Tanuja and Kelly discuss the language people use to describe harm and conflict, the difference between disagreement and abuse, and how organizers can move through conflict with more clarity and care under fascist conditions.
Music: S
Why Libraries Matter in a Fascist Moment
“A lot of people in power view knowledge as dangerous,” says organizer Mariame Kaba. In this episode, Kelly speaks with Maraime and organizers Alison Macrina and Katie Clark about why public libraries matter, not just as places to borrow books, but as vital public infrastructure. They discuss libraries as spaces where people can gather without spending money, learn together, and build the kind of
The Science of Unlearning And Why Organizers Need It
Why do some people change, while others double down? In this episode of Movement Memos, Kelly talks with journalist and author Lewis Raven Wallace about the deeper mechanics of political transformation. Drawing on neuroscience, trauma research, and stories of people who have broken with deeply held ideologies, Wallace argues that real change rarely happens through debate or persuasion. Instead, tr
Living Under a Concentration Camp Regime — and Fighting Back
In this episode, Kelly talks with journalist Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, about what it means to live under a concentration camp regime — and how people can fight back. Pitzer explains how mass detention systems are built through “end runs” around the law, how they become normalized, and why the rapid expansion of U.S. detention infrastructure s
Minneapolis Community Defense Is “Riding on the Learning Edge of a Whirlwind”
“Our days are riding on the learning edge of a whirlwind — crisis management, harm mitigation, helping everyone come to terms with new conditions and new impossible choices that they're faced with,” says Minneapolis organizer Andrew Fahlstrom. In this episode, Andrew and local organizers Jordan and Susan Raffo talk with Kelly about community defense in Minneapolis, the social fabric of collective
How We've Resisted ICE: Street Lessons From Chicago
“The best way to respond to fear and intimidation tactics is to just show we're not afraid. We're going to keep showing up. We're going to keep speaking out,” says musician Jocelyn Walsh, who is facing federal charges for protesting ICE activity in Chicagoland. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Walsh and Chicago organizers Gabe Gonzalez and Rey Wences talk with host Kelly Hayes about what activ
Fascism at the Door, Neighbors in the Street: Abolition in Practice
“We’re very aware that things are awful … That means that we’re alive, and that we want something different. That’s a really important starting point, is just to even have that kind of repulsion and to have that awful feeling about things,” says Tamara Nopper. “So, I want more of that energy, but I want more of that energy to be connected to some more skills.” In this episode, Tamara and Kelly dis
Burnout is Not Inevitable: Building Movements That Can Hold Us
What happens when our movements start to run on empty? In this episode, Kelly talks with organizer and WildSeed Society strategist Aaron Goggans about trauma, dysregulation, burnout, and the myth that we can just push through. They discuss why nervous system regulation is a crucial part of political strategy, how neurodivergent organizers hold essential wisdom for this moment, and why rest, ritual
Resisting ICE, Building Worlds: Care and Survival in Fascistic Times
“It's all hands on deck and we have to fight. This is the only way,” says Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. In this episode, Leanne and Kelly discuss lessons from Leanne’s book Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead and the ongoing struggle against ICE in Chicago, where Kelly is involved in rapid response efforts.
Music: Son Monarcas and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
You can find a trans
Making Things Together: Zines, Strategy, and Survival
“We can only be brave together,” says Mariame Kaba. In this episode, Kelly talks with Maraime and writer and organizer Red Schulte about political education, collective courage, and the mistakes we’ll make along the way.
Music: Son Monarcas & Sarah, the Illstrumentalist
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/
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Holding the Line Through Tear Gas and Censorship
"You're either on the side that is singing and showing up and holding other people, or you're on the side of the helicopters and the gas canisters and the guns,” says Eman Abdelhadi. In this episode, Eman, Maya Schenwar, and Kelly discuss immigration raids and the violent repression of protesters in Chicago, the administration’s war on free speech and the organized left, and lessons from the upcom
Raids, Retaliation, and Radical Solidarity in Chicago
“History shows us that repression always breeds resistance. Fear can never kill solidarity," says Chicago organizer Miguel Alvelo Rivera. In this episode, Kelly uplifts the voices of activists and organizers across Chicago as the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz" terrorizes communities across the Chicagoland area. Benji Hart, Stacy Davis Gates, Arti Walker-Peddakotla, Ric Wilson, and
The Trap of Law and Order Under Fascism
“There's no rule of law that's going to get us out of where we are,” says author and organizer Andrea Ritchie. In this episode, Andrea and Kelly discuss the role of criminalization in authoritarian and fascist regimes, and why “we need more outlaws” and less fetishization of “law and order.”
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement
Resisting the Authoritarian City, Block by Block
What does gentrification have to do with authoritarianism? In this episode, Kelly talks with organizer and author Andrew Lee about how displacement, surveillance, and “quality of life” policing function as tools of social control—and why housing struggles are class struggles. “Anti-displacement fights are interesting,” Lee says, “because of the revolutionary implications of what’s really an incred
Public Assemblies Strengthen Community Resistance to Rising Authoritarianism
“The People's Movement Assembly process provides a unique opportunity for people to build a democracy that has yet to be born,” says Denzel Caldwell. In this episode, Kelly and Denzel discuss the power and potential of People’s Movement Assemblies, and how the practice of direct democracy can help us fight fascism.
Music: Son Monarcas and David Celeste
You can find a transcript and show notes (i
Traitors to the Earth: Fascism, Christian Nationalism, and the Tech Elite
“They understand that what they're doing is devastating, and they're doing it anyway,” says Astra Taylor. In this episode, Astra and Kelly unpack the apocalyptic politics of the right—and why we need “a movement that is attuned to the fact that the people we're up against are traitors to this planet, and its people, and the other species who we share the earth with.”
Music: Son Monarcas, Isobel
The Authoritarian Machine Is Growing — And It Won’t Stop at Immigrants
“Fascism and authoritarianism are deployed through law enforcement,” says Silky Shah. In this episode, Silky and Kelly discuss immigration raids, rising authoritarianism, mass protest, innocence narratives, and what it means to organize effectively in this moment.
Music: Son Monarcas & David Celeste
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series
Awareness-Raising Protests Won’t Threaten the Richest, Most Well-Armed People on Earth
“Making durable changes isn't always about the raw numbers,” says Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. In this episode, Olúfẹ́mi and Kelly talk about protest, why large “awareness raising” events will not defeat Trump, and the kind of actions and formations we need in these times.
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movement-memos/
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We Live in Fearful Times. Our Safety Comes Through Preparing Together.
“Part of my work as a community safety and security practitioner is about offering tools for people to feel and move through fear so that we can continue to keep more of us in this fight,” says Che Johnson-Long. In this episode, Che and Kelly discuss safety planning and practical actions that individuals and organizations can take right now to create as much safety as possible in our lives and our
How to Fight Fascism in a Captured State
"We need to think deeply about cultivating that mindset of collective survival, of needing to understand each other and work together, even if we don’t like each other, and would never actually choose each other, because this is the 'us' we’ve got in an us versus them situation," says Kelly Hayes. In this episode, Kelly and guest Shane Burley discuss the realities of organizing under a federal gov
Fascism Isn’t Coming — It’s Here. Now What?
“We're not just contending with right-wing movements. We're talking about movements that have reached one of their goals, which is to take over the government,” says organizer and grassroots strategist Ejeris Dixon. In this episode, Ejeris and Kelly discuss fascism, coalition building, and the compassion and shared knowledge we need to create safety and justice in these times.
Let's Be Politically Promiscuous
“Our movements are pretty much just made of our relationships — whether we can move together, coordinate, collaborate, figure out disagreements [and] stay loyal to each other when the repression comes down,” says Dean Spade. In this episode Dean and Kelly discuss the lessons of Dean's new book, Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together.
Music: Son Mon
We Must Burst Our Algorithmic Bubbles and Build Together Across Difference
“We need each other, and interdependence is key to survival for human beings,” says Mariame organizer Kaba. In this episode, Mariame and Kelly talk about what their book Let This Radicalize You brings to this moment. They also discuss the fight for reproductive justice, the problem with schadenfreude, and the need to build collective courage.
Music: Son Monarcas and Pulsed
You can find a transcr
Fight Fear, Build Power: Community Defense Works
“This kind of repression, part of its intention is to isolate people,” says organizer Nikki Marín Baena. In this episode, Kelly talks with Nikki about community defense organizing and how communities are fighting back against Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Music: Son Monarcas and Heath Cantu
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: truthout.org/series/movemen
Let’s Learn and Live Lessons in Collective Survival Together
“We are really good at finding what's wrong with each other,” says author and podcaster Margaret Killjoy. “We really need to challenge ourselves to be ready to let people be better.” In this episode, Kelly and Margaret talk about preparedness, collective survival, and the organizing lessons we need in these times.
Music: Son Monarcas, Curved Mirror, Pulsed, and David Celeste
You can find a transcr
We Won't Take Risks Alone. Our Relationships Make a Better World Possible.
“Our power comes from knowing who's around us, from trusting who's around us, and from strategizing with every lever that we have,” says tenant organizer and Abolish Rent co-author Tracy Rosenthal. In this episode, Rosenthal and their co-author Leonardo Vilchi talk with Kelly about what rent strikes and tenant unions can teach us about the work of collective survival in this moment.
Music: Son Mon
How Immigration Organizers Are Gearing Up for Another Trump Era
“It’s inherently a racial justice and economic justice fight,” says Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network. In this episode, Kelly talks with Silky about the threats posed by the incoming Trump administration, how organizers are preparing to defend immigrant communities, and what actions we can take to prepare and respond.
Music: Son Monarcas, Curved Mirror & David Celeste
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We Must Contest the Christian Right’s Agenda in Every Venue of Our Lives
“Our enemies are waging a war, and to many of them, it’s a holy war,” says host Kelly Hayes. In this episode, Hayes and guest Talia Lavin discuss the emotional impacts of the presidential election, the expansive agenda of the Christian right, and how everyday people can resist what Lavin calls “our nation's precipitous slide into autocracy.”
Music: Son Monarcas, David Celeste & Heath Cantu
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To Transform Our Trauma, We Must Nurture Movements for Change
“We really have a big opportunity right now to decide, within traumatic conditions and circumstances, how we are going to show up, again and again, for ourselves and each other,” says Tanuja Jageranauth. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” host Kelly Hayes talks with radical therapist Dorian Ortega and Healing Justice practitioners Tanuja Jagernauth and Chiara Galimberti about trauma, and some of
From the Ashes: How Grief Shapes Our Struggles
“The capitalist system also doesn't care if we die. So insisting on the value of human life, insisting on grieving, particularly grieving publicly and collectively, is a real statement against this entire death-making system,” says author Sarah Jaffe. In this episode, Kelly talks with Sarah about the lessons of Sarah’s latest book, From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire.
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Keeping Each Other Alive: Mental Health and Collective Survival
“I've seen a lot of people lashing out at people horizontally, and my gut sense is that sometimes it happens because the folks who are lashing out are definitely super traumatized, in crisis, feel and are really powerless in a lot of ways,” says Disability Justice organizer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. In this episode, Kelly talks with Leah and Elliott Fukui, who develops community safety str
Breaking Down Sudan’s Struggle: What the World Is Missing
“This war is not a civil war, it's a counter-revolutionary war against civilians. It's a war of military elites against the entire civilian population,” says Sudanese organizer Nisrin Elamin. Sudan is currently experiencing the largest mass displacement event in the world today. Thousands are dead and famine is “almost everywhere” in the country. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Elamin, organi
"Our Power Is Where We Choose One Another”: Abolitionists Discuss Our Moment
“This is a moment that is going to be looked back on 50 years from now, 100 years from now, and what is going to be said of us is how we came out of this moment,” says M4BL organizer M Adams. In this episode, Kelly talks with Adams and community organizer Montague Simmons about the last decade of Black-led organizing, the state of movements against police violence, and where prison and police abol
Remembering How to Care: Lessons from Deep Space Nine
“The immediacy of the crisis that we're in demands a new society and not in some imagined future, but now,” says Rehearsals for Living co-author Robyn Maynard. In this episode, Kelly talks with Maynard and David K. Seitz, author of A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine, about the radical legacy of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and how science fiction can shape our politics.
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It's “Open Season” on the Unhoused. We Must Oppose It.
“We don't have a housing system, we have an unhousing system,” says author and organizer Tracy Rosenthal. In this episode, Kelly and Tracy examine the impacts of the Supreme Court’s recent decision allowing municipalities to criminalize the act of sleeping outside. Tracy and Kelly also examine the larger terrain of criminalization unhoused people face, why cities are working to expel unhoused popu
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 rig
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
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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 Betasa
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 affe
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
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 solidari
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
“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 resou
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 A
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-
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 “Move
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 sho
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
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
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
“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 relation
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 Ind
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 n
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
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 Palestin
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 los
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 thi
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 t
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
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 wo
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 s
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
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 th
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 tran
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
Latin American Feminism Has Much to Teach US Left on How to Fight for Abortion
In this episode of Movement Memos, Kelly talks with Camila Valle, translator of Set Fear on Fire: The Feminist Call That Set the Americas Ablaze by LASTESIS. Kelly and Camila discuss the struggle for abortion rights and access in Chile and Argentina, the need for democratic structures in movement wor, and how LASTESIS has used art and performance to bring feminist theory to the streets.
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Labor History Can Help Us Learn to Fight Like Hell
In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with Kim Kelly, labor reporter and author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, about labor history and how understanding union struggles, past and present, can help us get free.
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos
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We Need Collective Healing, Not Commodified “Self-Care”
In this episode, Kelly talks with Cara Page and Erica Woodland, authors of Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety about collective healing, collaborative care, and surviving the onslaughts of our oppressors.
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemos
If you would like to support the sho
Disability Justice Organizers Dream Big and Resist a Culture of Disposability
In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, author of The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs about disability justice, interdependence, rejecting human disposability in the COVID era and the practice of grief as stewardship.
You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementme
Antifascists Are Adapting to a Strange New World
In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes and Shane Burley, editor of No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, discuss the state of the far right, antifascism and how we can build power and sustain empathy in these times.
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 don
The Death of a Forest Defender at Stop Cop City
“It's all hands on deck for the forces of the prison industrial complex, the forces of capitalism … they are willing to use any and all tactics and tools available to them, whether that's literal murder, whether that's trying to deter the broader movement by slapping people with domestic terrorism charges. As environmental catastrophe is upon us, I think the forces of capital are organizing themse
Building New Worlds in an Era of Collapse
“We know that capitalism, which is already racial, gendered and violent, is not inevitable. And there's nothing natural about it,” says Robyn Maynard. In this episode, host Kelly Hayes talks with Rehearsals for Living authors Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson about about organizing and parenting amid catastrophe, and how organizers can build new worlds, even as the worlds we know colla
Navigating Grief and Cultivating Hope at the End of 2022
“How do we practice deep and reciprocal relationships as resistance to our culture of transactionalism and extraction?” asks Tanuja Jagernauth. In this year-end episode of “Movement Memos,” Jagernauth and host Kelly Hayes discuss the cultivation of hope, how activists can practice reciprocal care, the importance of celebrating big and small victories, and how to process painful feelings without be
We Need Harm Reduction With a Liberatory Vision
“Liberatory Harm Reduction is concrete. It is a framework, but it is also a daily practice, and it is also a set of strategies. So what strategies do we need that prioritize self-determination and body autonomy right now? And how can we come up with whatever it is that we need collectively to get us through?” asks Shira Hassan, author of Saving Our Own Lives. In this episode, Shira talks with Kell
Abolition Is About Escaping the Death Trap of “Normalcy”
“There's no doubt that we have to abolish the carceral state. And there's no doubt that policing and racial capitalism go hand in hand so that we can't be pursuing abolition in a capitalist context,” says author and organizer Andrea Ritchie. In this episode, Andrea and Kelly talk about why the Democrats will not save us, the relationship between abolition and the state, and why it’s so hard for mo
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