Tag Archives: the final straw

Bastille Day

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

July 14th is my favorite holiday. The only secular holiday I celebrate. I’d like to invite you to celebrate it with me, and if we celebrate it properly we might even celebrate it together.
I am talking about Bastille Day. Some history:
Back in 1789, the people of France were pretty angry with their government. It would seem that the government of France in 1789 was a lot like every government that’s existed for the last 6,000 years of hierarchical dystopia, including the current governments all over the globe, to some lesser or greater degrees. But 1789 in France was one of those rare moments like the L.A. riots or Occupy where the growing discontent and anger, and the indignation of being ignored provoked the people to do something a little more…radical.
They took to the streets and tipped over cop wagons, and they smashed windows and took bread. You know, a general state of disorder that happens a hundred times a year in our modern world, an outburst that normally exhausts itself and leaves a little glass to sweep up, while everyone goes back to their assigned seat… and then logs on to consult Crimethinc to find strategies for sustaining these disorders.
But I get ahead of myself. Back to France. The French peasants- an underclass- in the midst of their riot, did something totally Continue reading →

Sean Swain, INC

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

I’ve been thinking about incorporating myself. Not quite sure what the process entails, going from mere human to corporation. I hope it’s not too painful.
Recently, the United States Supreme Court ruled that corporations have religious rights. A company called Hobby Lobby took exception to some of the provisions in Obamacare that relate to employee coverage of some forms of birth control, claiming the company had an objection on religious grounds. The Supreme Court agreed and now Hobby Lobby, a corporation, is exempt from some of the portions of existing law due to the corporation’s religious beliefs.
Must be nice to have the right to hold religious beliefs, but I wouldn’t know. I’m just a mere human. My experience is, as a human, I have no right to beliefs whatsoever.
In 2009, when I arrived at Mansfield Correctional, the State ignored its own laws and placed me on a gang list for my “beliefs.” Unlike the situation with corporations where beliefs put the corporation beyond the laws, being a mere human, beliefs allowed the state to transcend the laws for purposes of monitoring and harassing. Even after I went through the bureaucratic process of having my religion recognized by the State – Neolithic Indigenism is now a recognized religion just like Christianity or Buddhism – Investigator Angela Hunsinger kept me on the “gang” list because one of the central tenets of Neolithic Indigenism is rejection of institutional Continue reading →

Immigration

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.
I think I have a solution to the immigration problem. But before I reveal what the solution is, maybe I should first point out what the immigration problem is. The problem is that governments regulate it in the first place. If you think about it, corporations aren’t regulated at the border. They can cross all borders and transcend all boundaries. Corporations are multinational. Money also passes freely across borders. Products. There are treaties the size of phone books that were signed in order to liberate products from being regulated at national borders. And we all know that jobs travel across national boundaries all the time.
In fact, the only thing regulated at the border is….people. That means corporations have more rights than you. So do green pieces of paper with dead slave-owners faces on them. Sneakers and cheese puffs have more rights than you. Even jobs. That means the machinery we use to toil all day for food rewards can cross a border before we can.
The reason for this makes perfect sense if you think about the purpose for national borders existing. Corporations need national borders. Those borders are essential for creating artificial pockets of poverty. Consider the situation on the U.S.- Mexico border, for instance. There you have a situation where you find hungry people on one side Continue reading →

I.W.W.

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

X380847. That’s my membership number in the Industrial Workers of the World. The I.W.W. has been around since 1905, making typical unions with the bosses and bureaucratic party, nervous, since the stated goals of the I.W.W. is the abolition of the wage system altogether rather than reformist efforts to “improve” the conditions of the owners and union bosses. Unlike every other union that sought to divide the workers into trades, the Wobblies, as the I.W.W. was called – had the ambitious program of unionizing all workers into one big union and thereby put the power into the hands of all workers collectively to shut down the industrial production system entirely.
Like the famed anacho- syndicalist unions of Spain, the F.A.I. & C.N.T, Wobblies promoted worker direct action. In the teens and 20’s, Wobblies were targeted with charges of criminal syndicalism, sabotage and sedition.
Yeah. It was treason to demand a fair shake, to imagine power wrested from the hands of Crapitalists.
Still is, of course.
After FDR’S New Deal and the rise of the more reformist and industrial friendly unions like the AFL-CIO, Teamsters, and United Workers , the threat and the influence of the I.W.W. faded. Between state repression and the major unions collaborating to squeeze out the Wobblies, the I.W.W. was largely neutralized during a time when anarchists were evolving new strategies and approaches that didn’t necessarily involve the seemingly impossible task of organizing all the workers of the entire of the entire world into the same union. But the Wobblies did not go away. They didn’t become extinct. They’re still Continue reading →

Radio Essay: Calling Gary Mohr

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.
Director Mohr? If you are there pick up the phone. Director Mohr? This is Sean Swain, calling you from the Super-Duper Max…. You know the guy who exposed how your sell-out policy for Jpay mega-profits was illegal? Yeah. You had my communication blocked for eight weeks to stop my participation in the Final Straw radio show….apparently somebody at your office there figured out how to use the interweb and discovered that I was still telling the truth about you from the Super-Duper Max, so you pulled the plug on me? Well, I’m back on the phone now. I wish you would pick up <sigh> No? You’re just gonna hide under your desk and pretend like your not there?
Okay. I guess I’ll just leave you a long message to play back. Continue reading →

Statement for Never Alone Art Exhibit

From: NeverAloneArt.org

An audio recording of this statement was broadcast on the Final Straw on June 8th.

I used to be a big fan of writer Daniel Quinn. For anyone unfamiliar, Quinn wrote Ishmael, My Ishmael, and Beyond Civilization, among other works. What I appreciated was that, through reasoned analysis, he led his readers to see that tribal living was not inferior to what we have now and, in fact, was probably superior. The logical conclusion from reading Quinn would be that this way of life, what I call SWIVILIZATION, with its mass production and its concurrent mass destruction, needs to go.

I’m sure that such a general statement – that Swivilization needs to go – would be acceptable to Marie Mason and to Eric McDavid. What I mean is, it would seem that such a statement would be a point of agreement for Marie Mason, Eric McDavid and Daniel Quinn.

Yet, as I understand it, when Quinn was asked to make a statement in support of Marie Mason, he not only refused but got somewhat irate and accused that people like Marie, engaging in radical attacks against the larger system, are part of the problem. Continue reading →

Radio Essay: April 20th

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show. swain defense

April 20th marks the 23rd anniversary of my arrest. The 8,168th day of continuous captivity for a crime I did not commit. [please see: details of sean’s case, including trial documents, photographs, etc.]

My case:

Back in 1991,I shared an apartment with Diane Cisternas and her two children from a prior relationships. Andrew Crouch was the father of one of them. Crouch had previously lit Diane’s hair on fire and kicked her down the steps while she was pregnant;he got away with that and more because his aunt Collette Crouch was Clerk of Courts.

On April 20th Diane and Crouch argued on the phone about visitation and she told Crouch she was taking the kids and leaving; they would not be there. Crouch later arrived at the apartment without a car seat for his infant son. He saw that my car was gone, so he knew Diane and the kids were not there. Also he had a stomach full of alcohol. Unless he planned to toss his infant son in the trunk and swerve drunkenly down the highway, he was not there to pick up the kids.

Police later claimed there was no break in. Police photos of my shredded door frame, the deadbolt plate ripped loose from the screws,door shrapnel all over the floor and a boot print visible on the outside of the door. [this surfaced four years later] Continue reading →

Radio Essay: Mad Max (Swivilization, Part 2)

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

After having rattled off a five minute history of the world to explain why I am against swivilization, it’s clear that I’m going to have to dispel some myths. It seems that we’re all held captive by some really bad movies from the 80’s
Hollywood produced a pile of post-apocalyptic movies where swivilization collapsed. In everyone of them, there is a band of maurauding pillagers and rapists who terrorize survivors and steal limited resources for their survival. The most popular of those films was the Max Max series, staring Mel Gibson back before he became a Jew hating, drunk, producing blood sport movies starring Jesus.

It seems everyone imagines that in the absence of swivilization we’d face a Mad Max world. So out of fear of that alternative everyone hangs on to swivilization as a as a kind of “lesser evil.”But I think we need to consider that these Mad Max movies are not written by sociologists. We need to question if a Mad Max scenario would really happen if swivilization collapsed.
There are two necessary preconditions that have to exist for a mad max scenerio to happen. The first is, there would have to be bloodthirsty, irrational maniacs who have a popular following of other, roving around and terrorizing peace-loving people. The second is, there would have to be a scarcity of resources. Continue reading →

Radio Essay: Shockupy

Okay. I’ve had four cups of coffee this morning and I’ve got a plan. Check it out: We need to go from Occupy to Shockupy. Here is the deal;
Based on what I have seen in Kiev, what we need to do in the U.S. is get rid of the delusional pacifists who insist on absolute nonviolence. That’s the first thing. These pacifists are the reason that Occupy resisters couldn’t meet state violence with equal and opposite revolutionary violence- like they did in Kiev.
So, for the Shockupy plan, we get rid of the pacifists. We can get rid of them, and get them to think it is their idea. Let me read for you a letter I’ve already written for setting this in motion.

Dear people of Kiev:
On behalf of the people of the United States, I
regret to inform you are not doing this right.
You are clearly not adhering to the principles of
nonviolence. Please know that we are sending
American advisors to help you.
Sincerely,
Sean Swain

Now, once Shockupy gets rolling, if we identify a delusional pacifist or a protest marshall, we hand them a flier and tell them
“The people of Kiev need you.” We give them an orange vest with U.S.A. stenciled on it and a plane ticket to Kiev. By now, plane tickets to Kiev are probably cheaper than Greyhound bus tickets to Cleveland. We can send thousands of goofy pacifists to Kiev. Thats
the last we will ever see of them. First problem solved.

Did you know there are 48,000 homeless vets from Iraq and Afghanistan? We can put out the invitation to them to replace the pacifists we sent to Kiev as “advisors.” That’s 48,000 disciplined and disillusioned combat ready resistors who know how to shoot.
Also,did you know there are 200 million privately owned firearms in the United States? That’s far more firearms than all government forces combined.
So,with pacifists on planes to Kiev, and with 48,000 homeless vets joining us to take back the future from traitors, banksters, and profiteers,we only need to converge on one area in order to turn Occupy into Shockupy. In the last engagement State forces could
overwhelm Occupy because pacifists precluded a violent response and encampments were spread out all over the country; numbers were divided.
So, with Shockupy we converge on one area, not with some silly goal of getting newspaper coverage, or holding a square until cops show up, but with the goal of creating an autonomous zone where the government collapses and the system of international crapital dissolves. Permanatly.
Shockupy
Converging on one State like, say, Ohio- we out number State forces. Molotov cocktails, bowling balls raining from rooftops, and, as Neo said in the Matrix “Guns. Lots of Guns.” And in Ohio, it’s legal. The Ohio Constitution promotes it.
Shockupy. We take one autonomous zone. An area, like Ohio- this is where rail, shipping air and highway transport converge. If Ohio goes off grid, the whole countries economic system starts to unravel. You create a major choke point and you inspire further rebellions. You export revolution to Indiana, Michigan,Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
You burn down swivelization, like the Barbarians who invaded the Roman empire and took it down by pooping in the bushes. And if the fascist forces can mobilize enough troops to take it back, you give it up, abandon it and gather back together the next state over. Like a bunch of swarming locusts. A travelling flash robbery.
Anyone gets captured, you liberate them. You can always find your way back to the main body of Shockupy, by following the train of burning cop cars.
Shockupy. A concentration of forces on one weak spot in the fascist order. Ohio has a lot of colleges with a lot of dorm rooms. The weather is getting nicer, this would be an awesome summer for a convergence to tear down this fascist machine once and for all. It all starts with a few volunteers at each university arranging for sleeping space. We can forage free food at Kroger’s and free combat supplies at Dick’s sporting goods.
By Autumn, we could all be dancing naked around a bonfire where the Ohio Statehouse used to be. From there, all it would take is 49 more cans of gasoline and a bunch of matches.
Shockupy. Tell all your friends.
This is Anarchist prisoner Sean Swain from Ohio’s Supermax. If you can hear the sound of my voice you are the resistance.

Radio Essay: Patriotism

This originally aired on The Final Straw radio show.

Patriotism is a really twisted if you think about it. It’s a kind of moral and intellectual cowardice. To be patriotic is to cheer for your country- which means the government of your country, which is to say the government that claims jurisdiction over you. Patriotism demands that you cheer for that government and hope it prevails over some other government that claims jurisdiction over other people.

What determines who you cheer for isn’t principles or the qualities of character demonstrated by this government or or that one, but geography. If you are born in Minnesota, patriotism demands that you cheer for the side that the Minnesota National Guard fights on, even if-such as the Civil War- your state is fighting against other states such as Georgia. You have to cheer for Minnesota and the United States. Patriotism says so, even if, for instance, you’re vacationing in Georgia at the time hostilities break out.

The issue of slavery or states rights or federalism are irrelevant.
Those are principles. Patriots don’t care about those things.What matters is geography.

Now, if you are born in one state but move to another state, patriotism demands that you cheer for the government where your house is located. So, at the time of the Civil War, if you were born in Minnesota, but you moved to Georgia, and you were in Pennsylvania on vacation when hostilities broke out, you have to cheer for the Confederate States because your home is in Georgia. It doesn’t matter where your person is.
If all that seems very confusing, we can simplify. To be patriotic, you have to cheer for the government that gouges you for the most tax money. You are obligated to reserve your greatest allegiance to the government that robs the most.
In fact, you are obligated, as a patriot, to volunteer and lay down your life in defense of the interests of the government that gouges you by killing as many people as you can who volunteer to defend the government that gouges them.
So, if, at any time, you come to the irrational conclusion that the government that gouges you might not be superior to some other government that never took a dime from you, and that you have nothing personal against that other government or the subjects it gouges, and you have the misfortune of speaking these sentiments out loud, you can be hanged from the nearest tree as a traitor.
See, patriotism requires you to believe in your country- which, really, is your government, which really is the government gouging you- is the “good guys”even when that government isn’t acting like the“good guys.” Patriotism is a kind of mass dishonesty where every one must pretend the government isn’t a bully and a hypocrite and a liar a murderer and a thief, even when all the evidence is right under your nose tells you the government really is. Patriotism demands that you insist your county is doing “ the right thing,” even when it is a reprehensible atrocity. You have to shake pom-poms for the home team, even when the home team is a bunch of ruthless monsters. You have to blindly serve the interests of the government gouging you rather than standing up for the principles you believe in, and rather than serving your own best interests.
That’s how governments stick around. They convince the people of their nation that they are exceptional and their government is exceptional. This euphoric government worship blinds everyone to the continuous and never ending crisis the government creates. In the U.S. the government has created an untold number of crises. The financial crisis, the unemployment crisis, the drug crisis, the economic crisis, the housing crisis, the environmental crisis,the energy crisis and of coarse, the international crisis of the week, the terrorism crisis, the crime crisis,the crazy gunman shooting people in public places crisis,the infrastructure crisis and on and on…..They never end. If not for sloganeering and flag-waving that manipulates all of us, we’d recognize how government makes our lives intolerable and we’d act in our own best interests ,toppling not just our lives intolerable and we’d act in our own best interests, toppling not just our government but every government and putting down anybody else who attempted to impose another one.
My allegiance is to freedom, a world without governments. I don’t love my country. I don’t have a country. And if I had one, it certainly would not act like this.
The government hated me first.
This is anarchist prisoner Sean Swain from Ohio’s supermax facility. If you can hear the sound of my voice, you are the resistance.