Genocide Gentry – How War Profiteers Manufacture Consent, with Sandra Tamari, Ramah Kudaimi, and Jen Byers

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain minor errors throughout.

[00:00:00] Cayden Mak: Welcome to Block and Build, a podcast from Convergence magazine. I’m your host and the publisher of Convergence, Kayden Mock. On this show, we’re building a roadmap for the movement that’s working to block the ascent of authoritarianism while building the influence of a genuinely progressive trend in the broad front that we need to win.

[00:00:27] Before we get I would like to invite you to join our [00:00:30] subscriber program. Convergence Magazine is an independent publication that relies on the generosity of our readers and listeners to create the rigorous, thoughtful takes you’ve come to expect from us week after week. You can become a subscriber at convergencemag.

[00:00:42] com slash donate. Any amount helps. Either it’s a one time donation or a recurring monthly or annual subscription. On the show this week, I’m joined by Sandra Tamari, Executive Director of Adala Justice Project, and Rama Khademi, who’s the Director of Crescendo, the Action Center on Race and the Economy, to discuss their new research project, [00:01:00] Genocide Gentry, which exposes the intimate links between war profiteers and the many prominent educational, cultural, and other institutions across the U.

[00:01:07] S. who’ve doubled down on their support of Israel and its genocide in Gaza. Then, I talked to investigative journalist Jen Byers about her reporting on the criminal cases being brought against a movement journalist in the Pacific Northwest for covering anti fascist activists. But first, these headlines.

[00:01:29] Although [00:01:30] Israel has a lot of There is officially, quote, no comment on its responsibility for this week’s disturbing attacks against Lebanese civilians using exploding pagers and other electronic devices, it seems pretty unlikely anyone else could be responsible, especially as the IOF continues to launch rockets into southern Lebanon.

[00:01:45] Over a dozen were killed, including a child, and thousands injured when pagers across Beirut and other parts of southern Lebanon appeared to spontaneously detonate earlier this week. Let’s call this what it is, a war crime. It’s an indiscriminate attack against civilians. It’s disgusting to see the [00:02:00] reporting on this in U.

[00:02:01] S. corporate media, which insists that it was somehow mass orchestrated or that all the victims were certainly, definitely verified members of Hezbollah. Even if they all were, we’re supposed to be impressed by this? Israel isn’t trying to start a regional war. They’re already in one, of their own design, and unfortunately the U.

[00:02:17] S. is about to be sucked into it. The New York Police Department also did a mass shooting this week at the Brownsville subway station, over a 2. 90 skipped fare. One person is dead, two people are seriously injured, [00:02:30] and one police officer was also shot by a police officer. No amount of money is worth this kind of violence and loss, and cert This is Mayor Eric Adams grand plan to make New Yorkers safer, and I really struggle to see the logic.

[00:02:45] According to the reports, the officers involved in the shooting were even back on their beats already this week, apparently suffering no consequences for opening fire in a crowd of unarmed civilians. Remember, if you see someone skipping a fare, no you didn’t. If you can afford it, swipe [00:03:00] them in. There were also rumors of Pinkerton security sightings, yes, those Pinkertons, on Columbia University’s campus, spreading on Twitter and Instagram earlier this week, with posts from students and faculty alleging photographic evidence.

[00:03:14] This is likely in response to campus protests against genocide last May in which NYPD was brought in to break up the encampment. Several campuses across the country have taken action to prevent another round of protests, including things like fencing off public grounds where [00:03:30] students would otherwise gather.

[00:03:31] While neither confirming nor denying the presence of a security group, the university was compelled enough by the evidence circulating on social media to have a campus spokesperson put out the following statement. From time to time, we contract with external contractors to add capacity to our public safety team.

[00:03:47] These contractors, like the rest of public safety, are unarmed, which is not particularly reassuring.

[00:03:57] Now I’m really excited to talk to [00:04:00] Rama and Sandra about Genocide Gentry, which as we’re talking about these university administrations doubling down on repressing anti genocide protests on their campuses, the thing that always comes to mind is why. When I was in graduate school for the years that I worked to get the university where I was at to cut tie fuel industry, in particular about their support for hydrofracking in western New York and Pennsylvania, I know that one thing you should always do to answer that question is to follow the money.

[00:04:28] The Action Center on Race and the Economy, [00:04:30] Little Sis, and Adala Justice Project have done just that around the ties between weapons manufacturers, the fossil fuel industry, big tech, and major institutions of cultural power here in the United States, including universities, but also think tanks and cultural organizations.

[00:04:45] They hope that this really helps organizers across the U. S. better understand the ties that their local communities have to the businesses that profit from war, and spend vast sums of money in Washington lobbying for their interests. You can find the research for yourself at [00:05:00] GenocideGentry. org. We’ll definitely stick a link in the show notes.

[00:05:02] And joining me to talk about this project today is Rama Khadimi, who’s the campaign director in charge of Crescendo at the Action Center on Race and the Economy, and Sandra Tamari, who’s the executive director of Adala Justice Project. Thank you both for making the time to come on the show and talk about this very important research.

[00:05:22] Sandra Tamari: Thank you, Kayden. Thank you. 

[00:05:25] Cayden Mak: Awesome. Let’s start like with the genesis of the project. Could you talk a little bit about the concept for [00:05:30] Genocide Gentry, where it came from and what brought you all together to work on it? 

[00:05:36] Sandra Tamari: Yeah. Thank you. We, like the rest of your audience have been, watching the protests on campuses.

[00:05:44] This genocide unfold. We for nearly one year have been, advocating, protesting, making millions of phone calls to Congress engaged, we’ve been engaged in direct action aimed at the white house and at members of Congress, and we have not been able to [00:06:00] secure a ceasefire or go. We haven’t been able to stop this and, it’s now time for us to think about what other targets are available to us if our government is not listening to us.

[00:06:12] Despite the fact that the polls show that a majority of Americans are calling for a ceasefire and are calling for an end of weapons shipments to Israel. We have to think about what strategically is available to us. We know that the weapons companies are making, [00:06:30] profits through the roof during this time of genocide.

[00:06:33] And, we started to think, how do we, what’s available to us. We know that in it in Gaza, Israel has destroyed every university and nearly 200 cultural and heritage sites since October. They’ve been using bombs that are made by companies, mostly companies in the U S including, the ones that we include in the genocide gentry companies like Lockheed Martin, [00:07:00] Boeing.

[00:07:00] Northrop Grumman, and we included Elbit the largest Israeli weapons manufacturer, and really just wanted to look and see, where are they giving their money, where are they serving and give an idea of what is, you know, what is the culture washing, what is the education washing that these companies are doing, what we found is that educational and cultural institutions have granted prestigious positions to weapons manufacturers.[00:07:30] 

[00:07:30] entrusting them with huge influence over how these institutions respond or don’t respond to the destruction of life in Gaza and across our planet. And we want people to, think about this as a way of, strengthening their organizing. I live in St. Louis, Missouri, which is home to Boeing’s weapons manufacturing.

[00:07:55] The F 15s are manufactured here in the J dam. Guided missiles are [00:08:00] manufactured here, and we’ve been long looking at, the ways, a ways of targeting Boeing. It’s a, it’s almost an impossible, task. This is a company that shows up everywhere in St. Louis. We started to pay attention.

[00:08:13] An arts fair shows up, a St. Louis art fair shows up. Boeing is a major sponsor. Botanical gardens are sponsored by Boeing. And even this year, the lead sponsor of the St. Louis Pride March. Was Boeing. And so we really want to think about consumers as the public are [00:08:30] not buying what Boeing sells, but we are consumers of the things that they are sponsoring.

[00:08:36] So how do we choose these targets as a way of putting some pressure pressure on these on these targets to impact, Boeing’s reputation? And then, when we were thinking about this project, it was natural for us to reach out to Little Sis, who has a long a long history of doing this kind of research, and our friends at Acre Rama who we’ll hear from, is, has been really great.

[00:08:59] [00:09:00] Embedded with our team about this kind of organizing 

[00:09:04] Cayden Mak: awesome. Yeah. I know that from my experience that a lot of research like this is really the bread and butter of a lot of the work that Especially acre and little sis have done together. Rama I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about the work that goes into creating a project like this and what kind of research you were doing and how you think about also presenting a lot of this data You 

[00:09:25] Ramah Kuwaiti: Yeah, so a lot of times when we think about research people get scared They’re like, I [00:09:30] don’t even know where to start.

[00:09:31] What questions to ask. How do I even find this information? And I think this project really highlights how you know this information a lot of times It’s like really right there out there and it just I don’t know about us coming together to make the connections in order to help the campaigning. So what we first did was identify the top weapons corporations by revenue that we know are sending arms to Israel.

[00:09:54] So that includes Lockheed Martin, which in the second quarter of this year reported net [00:10:00] sales of 18 billion. And Boeing which Sandro mentioned which reported at the same time same quarter of 2400 floor rise of venue 16. 9 billion. So that’s a lot of money that these companies are making selling off of it.

[00:10:14] And so once we identified the, Corporations, we looked at their websites and saw who’s sitting on their boards and started collecting from there. What are the affiliations they have listed there as part of their bios? And then did even more targeted [00:10:30] web searches, looked at, for example, LinkedIn and other kind of just like websites that pop up when we Google these folks names.

[00:10:37] And we wanted to identify more like, past and present academic and cultural ties, as well as other corporate boards they sit on. Or past associations with the government, since we know a lot of time there is this reality of a revolving door when it comes to the weapons industry. And we did this, folks did this on their own, but we also at times did, research a thons or folks just got together on zoom [00:11:00] and had some music playing and really making this a participatory project.

[00:11:03] So others could also plug in and strengthen their research skills. And it’s something I actually highly organized. For organizers and activists to not get overwhelmed in the research phase of campaigns make it a group project together. And then we did just like several waves of internal review for fact checking at times have to update because, oh, a board member stepped down someone took their place.

[00:11:24] And in the end, we found 54 museums, cultural organizations, [00:11:30] universities and colleges that currently host. These individuals who sit on the boards of weapons companies they either have them on their own boards or in other prominent roles. And so the website, when you go on it, there’s both a searchable map and an air table that displays this data.

[00:11:46] So folks have a couple different ways to look through the data. The map, I think, allows us to see how distributed this power network is. These in regions, which I think is a very, powerful way to imagine just how widespread, this network we’re talking [00:12:00] about and the air table, I think, is a great way to just you can filter by different categories.

[00:12:04] For example, you could find we’re all what are all the cultural institutions listed here? What are all the universities? The corporations or philanthropic ties, and I think it was interesting is it’s just so widespread. Like I was saying, it’s not oh, they’re all concentrated on a couple different museum boards or a couple different university boards.

[00:12:21] It’s really goes away. And again, I think goes back to our point of just is not this is just, it’s so embedded in the [00:12:30] cultural and educational life of the United States that these people are getting giving these prestigious positions. When, frankly they probably should be scrutinized more for their role in, war profiteering across the globe.

[00:12:43] And then we then featured a sample of these individuals and institutions on the website. For example, we have Jay Johnson, who is a former Secretary of Homeland Security under Obama, and currently is a Columbia University trustee and sits on the Lockheed Martin Board of Directors. And as you mentioned, [00:13:00] earlier in this segment Columbia has finally shut down student protests demanding divestment from weapons companies.

[00:13:06] such as Lockheed Martin Catherine B. Reynolds, who sits on the General Dynamics board supports a wide variety of culture and performing arts through her foundation, like the, John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, the Natural Gallery of Arts, the Wolf Trap Foundation for Performing Arts, And I don’t believe any of these institutions that are really well known cultural institutions in the U.

[00:13:29] [00:13:30] S. have said anything about the destruction of culture that’s being part of the genocide we’re seeing unfold in Gaza. And then, there’s some institutions we also highlighted. So we highlighted Citigroup which, financially facilitates the transfer of U. S. arms to Israel.

[00:13:45] James Turley sits on both the board of Citi and Northrop Grumman. So the idea being again is like making these connections and giving folks another angle to think about when they’re thinking about what are the campaigns where we can actually pressure and [00:14:00] bring about an end to U. S. support for Israeli war crimes and genocide.

[00:14:05] Cayden Mak: Yeah I think that, the example that you just gave is, seems particularly sobering to me because it I mean it sounds like That guy in particular is like playing this on both like double dipping right? Like playing this on both sides in terms of being able to make money for himself being able to make money for his corporate affiliations off of the slaughter of civilians Which is really dark and I think that the [00:14:30] thing that this really highlighted for me is also that like the way in which You these companies can manufacture consent is not just through lobbying decision makers in Washington, it’s also in this public facing way towards us as just like regular people who live in the United States who like, I love a museum.

[00:14:48] I’ve been to concerts at Wolf Trap, I as an ordinary American consumer of culture and stuff that these institutions touch my life in a much more concrete and immediate way, [00:15:00] which I think is really interesting. Um, the question I also have for both of you is what are the things that you hope that people will take away from some of this research?

[00:15:10] What are the, what’s the impact that you’re hoping to have? 

[00:15:15] Sandra Tamari: Yeah. We, one, one thing that we hope is that people have a broader understanding of what we’re up against. There, there’s a, some in some, Parts of the movement. There’s a very simplistic, understanding of why the genocide is [00:15:30] happening that it’s, Somehow, supported by the U.

[00:15:33] S. Because of the Israel lobby, and that’s just a very simplistic and frankly inaccurate explanation of what we’re facing. This is a U. S. Genocide. This is, being funded and politically supported by our government. And when you look at this research, you can see, by corporate forces who sit on cultural and educational and political, think tanks across the country.

[00:15:59] So it, [00:16:00] it’s a much deeper understanding of why this is occurring. And I think that, not to, dissuade people, but really we want to, we don’t solve a problem until we fully understand it and we get to the root of what we’re up against. So I hope that this offers at least a glimpse into, why this is occurring.

[00:16:17] And then secondly, obviously we’re hoping that people will use this data to find opportunities to leverage collective power, against these [00:16:30] targets, chip away at the influence of the genocide gentry. As you mentioned, we are consumers of culture, we go to these universities, they have diverse audiences, these, these these institutions are things that we use and it’s a way that students, families, community members can, get involved.

[00:16:49] By saying, this institution does, is not meeting, our expectations of what, an educational institution, a museum should be doing. These are [00:17:00] institutions that are perceived as being spaces for learning and ethics. And frankly, their association with weapons manufacturers, when that is made known, should be very controversial and it should be newsworthy.

[00:17:14] And so campaigns, I think have a lot of potential against these targets. 

[00:17:20] Cayden Mak: Yeah, makes a lot of sense to me. Rama, are there other things that you’re hoping folks will take away from the research? 

[00:17:27] Ramah Kuwaiti: Yeah, I do think that it also makes people think about [00:17:30] the different leverage that we have.

[00:17:32] A weapons company, again, the average person is not going to be like, I have shares and, Lockheed Martin and I can use that way as a route or even, students now what they’re facing when they come up against these demands around divestment, it’s different layers that are allowing these weapons companies to continue their profiteering.

[00:17:54] Off of war crimes and, and genocide. And so I think what we’re [00:18:00] also hoping too is that people understand that they have power beyond A vote. They have power as consumers. They have power as fans, they have powers as people who go to museums. They have power as creators. And I think that’s a very important way, especially in a moment of time where we can feel very powerless.

[00:18:18] And the reality is we have not been able to actually, bring a permanency fire. We have not been able yet. to have an arms embargo, but I think the more we understand that there’s going to have to [00:18:30] just be many different levers we pull the more opportunities we’re able to then put our, put ourselves into a better position to actually win what we want in terms of these campaigns and actually lead to, the liberation of Palestine, but also our collective liberation and our collective safety.

[00:18:47] And I think like Sandra was saying earlier it’s not just a, this is, In this moment, we’re talking about Palestine and we’re talking about the genocide there, but Palestine is just an opportunity to also bring in so many different [00:19:00] issues in this moment, too, in terms of what the repression is that folks are facing when they speak up and demand an arms embargo or divestment or boycott.

[00:19:08] And what does it mean that these weapons companies are Profiting from genocide, but a lot of times these same board members are also sitting on the boards of Corporations that are fueling the destruction of our environment What does it mean then so those connections are so important? and I think it’s again an opportunity to look beyond just [00:19:30] the one lens of Palestine when we’re talking about corporate power when we’re talking about the Those who are behind and profiting from all of this 

[00:19:40] Cayden Mak: Yeah, totally.

[00:19:41] One of the things that stood out to me just scrolling through some of the names and affiliations is also just how many of those folks then also have ties to other big business areas that we think of as anti democratic anti environment sort of actors, whether that’s the fossil fuel industry, big tech, like I [00:20:00] saw a lot of Google in the spreadsheet, but those are, like, I think there are a lot of ways in which those ties get obfuscated sometimes very intentionally, but that bringing, bringing explicitly showing the way that those things are tied together honestly made me feel a lot less nuts, we see these things play out in the way power works in this country and seeing it all tied together was very, it’s like very helpful and illuminating to just be like, yeah, you’re, [00:20:30] the thing you’re seeing is real, right?

[00:20:31] It’s there. And it’s traceable, which I think is great. Related to that, I’m curious if there’s been any direct action, any campaign wins, any work that has directly grown out of this research at this point. If you’re seeing people implement some of these lessons already, because I know the website’s been out for a little while now.

[00:20:52] Yeah, I’d be curious to know if you’ve been seeing people take it up. 

[00:20:56] Ramah Kuwaiti: Yeah, we actually just launched the website a couple weeks ago [00:21:00] and so I’m excited to see what comes out of it. I wanted to like quickly just highlight two examples that actually we’re in play before this website came out, but I think is like really showcases what is the potential in terms of what we talk about when we want people to think about cultural and university connections to war making and genocide.

[00:21:21] So earlier this year There’s, this well known festival, South by Southwest, that gets held in Austin, Texas, every single year, [00:21:30] and 80 artists had withdrawn this year because of the festival’s ties with U. S. militarism, and this Campaign actually led the festival to eventually announce that the u.

[00:21:41] s Army and companies who engage in weapons manufacturers will not be sponsors in the future Which is like a bit, you know a big win to set the tone for what others should hopefully do in the future And just last week some students MIT announced that, based on [00:22:00] pressure that they had been putting on the university that MIT announced it was going to be discontinuing a program that had been connecting its students and researchers to the Israeli offices of Lockheed Martin for opportunities around collaboration and internships.

[00:22:15] So again, another example of how It’s really important that we look at the military industrial complex and the big role that universities play in that Because of their getting money from and relationship to these weapons companies And so how [00:22:30] can again we use the data in genocide gentry for people to see?

[00:22:34] Okay what is my What is the local connections that I have that I can put pressure on to disrupt the power of the genocide gentry and inspire you. This is a very the sample size we have is small and you can do so much more, I think, also be inspired to do your own research and particularly to think about that following the money part as well in terms of who, who’s donating to these museums, Who is [00:23:00] sponsoring their events your local theater events, etc.

[00:23:02] It’s also important. And I know Sandra at an Adalah Justice Project have had this ongoing campaign also targeting HRC, if you want to share about that too. 

[00:23:11] Cayden Mak: Oh, yeah. 

[00:23:13] Sandra Tamari: Yeah, the Human Rights Campaign who, we know is not a real beacon of progressive, values for the queer community, but they claim to be.

[00:23:22] They claim to be, the largest, Civil Rights Organization that focuses on the rights of, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [00:23:30] people. It’s a very powerful organization, and they’re supported by countless number of big donors, including corporate partners like Target Microsoft.

[00:23:41] What jumped out to us is that they are sponsored by Northrop Grumman. We don’t know how much money they received from Northrop Grumman, but we know that as late as mid August Northrop Grumman appeared on their platinum partners page. Recently Northrop Grumman’s logo was taken down from [00:24:00] that page.

[00:24:00] And we, we’re investigating why that is, there have been. There are a lot of, there’s a coalition of organizations that have been leading protests outside of HRC’s headquarters in D. C. and at their galas including, Act Up New York, No Pride and Genocide, Riders Against the War on Gaza, and our own organization, Adala Justice Project.

[00:24:22] We’re demanding that they sever their ties to Northrop Grumman and that we also, want them to, align, just basically [00:24:30] align their policies and actions with stated values. They claim to represent the equality and dignity of all queer people across the globe. They are not honoring the life and dignity of Palestinian queers, certainly, and not in Palestinian lives writ large.

[00:24:47] And, this is an organization that we think can be moved because this is an organization that while it’s, very powerful, I think it’s uniquely vulnerable at the same time because of the [00:25:00] values that it exposes that it claims that it espouses and because of, the activism.

[00:25:06] And the leadership that queer communities have taken in, in organizing against the genocide. 

[00:25:13] Cayden Mak: Yeah. That’s really powerful stuff. I also imagine that this is a great tool for people who are workers at these organizations to be like, this is not cool with me. I think that that’s also a really compelling hook and I can imagine that there are probably staffers at museums [00:25:30] and at, Organizations like HRC who are not cool with the fact that they have such intimate ties and being able to educate their colleagues about what’s going on seems big too.

[00:25:40] Yeah, I’m wondering if there’s been some response from workers at some of these organizations that you’ve heard of yet. 

[00:25:46] Sandra Tamari: We’re aware, I’m sorry we’re aware that staff within the HRC have been bringing this issue up to their leadership. And, there have been some resignations over the, the lack of statement and the lack of distances [00:26:00] distancing from these weapons corporations.

[00:26:03] Ramah Kuwaiti: Yeah, I’ll add to that. I think some of the most exciting work organizing we have since you, you brought up seeing the connection to Google like we know, we have partners who have led on the no tech for apartheid campaign. And one of the reasons that campaign has, blossomed the way it is in terms of trying to push Google and Amazon to end their contracts with the Israeli [00:26:30] military and the Israeli state is because Particularly Google Walkers have taken many different action from protest to sit ins in their offices.

[00:26:39] And, have, faced backlash including getting, being fired. And I think this is like an important reminder of, again, thinking about the different positionalities we can use to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people in this moment. And how it’s important. That more of us take action collectively because that’s the only [00:27:00] way we’re going to be able to withstand then when that repression and oppression comes and again, we can take that lesson from these Google workers.

[00:27:06] We can take that lesson from the students who, face so much repression back in the spring and that’s not going to be stopping them from continuing to take action this fall. And again, urge people to really spend time on this website, genocidegentry. org, and see what you and your community members are doing.

[00:27:24] Can do collectively to, take that action locally and all of this and, all [00:27:30] of this collectively, then hopefully does put an end to this immediate genocide, but also in the longer term. We do want to see a free and liberated Palestine. 

[00:27:40] Cayden Mak: Yeah. Yeah. And also, the, despite the Biden administration’s claims to the contrary the United States is at war.

[00:27:47] We have troops all over the world and the implications of that are far reaching both in the region, but also globally. I think there’s, there’s obviously a lot of work to do on this and targeting weapons manufacturers makes a heck of a lot of [00:28:00] sense to me. Yes. So I really deeply appreciate the work and thank you so much for making the time.

[00:28:05] Is there anything else that you think our listeners should be aware of? Any other things that maybe haven’t come up in our conversation so far? 

[00:28:13] Sandra Tamari: I’ll just mention a couple of campaigns that are ongoing that relate to the research that is here. As you mentioned, there is this cross pollination among corporations, double dipping of profits The BDS movement, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, is launching [00:28:30] a campaign against Chevron.

[00:28:32] There’s going to be a week of action next week. Chevron is one of the main extractors of fossil gas in Israel. It is providing extraction permits And financing is really exploration of gas and oil even off the coast of Gaza. And, we learned in this research that Chevron’s board members, two of their board members are also on the board of Lockheed Martin.

[00:28:57] So this is really disturbing, but I [00:29:00] think that it helps us, double down on those efforts. Against Chevron as a, as a target it’s not a weapons company, but it is a facilitator. And I think that these kinds of facilitators maybe are even a little bit more vulnerable than the weapons companies because it’s not their bread and butter.

[00:29:14] Chevron can pull a lot of this and, it doesn’t affect their bottom line. And then Citibank as is one of the biggest funders of fossil fuels. And, has, Been holding up racist regimes, not only in Israel, but is, been [00:29:30] involved in the occupation of the US occupation of Haiti.

[00:29:33] And there is a ongoing campaign, a summer long campaign that’s been going on against headquarters of Citibank in New York. James Turley, who we mentioned earlier is also on the, who is a board member of Citi, is also on the board of it’s just deep pockets. We can see it and we just need to, continue to connect the dots and organize against these companies.

[00:29:57] Ramah Kuwaiti: Yeah. And I’ll shout out specifically on the [00:30:00] Citibank campaign. Acre has been supporting empower change on a campaigns That we launched a year ago before the genocide started called banking on solidarity folks can find more info bankingsonsolidarity. org with the idea being we need Citibank both owes reparations to the people of Haiti.

[00:30:24] It was. At the urging of Citi the bank that is known as Citi Bank [00:30:30] today that the U. S. invaded and occupied Haiti back in 1915 literally just took all their money and put it in their vaults in New York instead, and the fact that Citi Bank today prides itself in being the largest banking institution Foreign Banking Institute in Israel like I mentioned earlier, they do help finance the U S sales of weapons to Israel today.

[00:30:55] And so again, these connections are very important to know because [00:31:00] it gives us different angles. And while again, then an unregular person may not have a direct connect to one of these weapons companies. A lot of people may be consumers and customers. 

[00:31:13] Cayden Mak: Yeah. 

[00:31:13] Ramah Kuwaiti: To Citibank. And so to think more critically, again, about the decisions we’re making and how we can use our pressure, both individually and collectively to get, freedom, justice and equality for everyone.

[00:31:26] Cayden Mak: Great. Thank you so much for sharing this. I think that, it really makes [00:31:30] concrete. For folks how these connections work and how they show up in people’s everyday lives. I appreciate you all taking the time and it’s good to see you both. Sandra from Adala Justice Project, Rama from Acre.

[00:31:42] Thanks for coming on the show today. I hope we get to talk again soon about the important work y’all are doing. 

[00:31:47] Sandra Tamari: Thank you, Caden. Thank you for having us on.

[00:31:53] Cayden Mak: For our second segment today, earlier this week I chatted with investigative journalist Jen Byers, who is [00:32:00] covering the recent conviction and imprisonment of a Portland based movement journalist. Here is the conversation that I had with Jen. I think you’ll find it to be pretty disturbing. Last week in Portland, citizen journalist Alyssa Azar was sentenced to two weeks of jail time as well as 36 months of probation that includes a ban on her carrying, quote, weapons, and that includes ballistic vests, to protests after she was arrested and charged in connection to a protest she covered in June of 2021.[00:32:30] 

[00:32:30] Azar’s reporting has put her squarely in the sights of right wing organizations in the Pacific Northwest on top of these charges, highlighting the risk that movement reporters make in covering protests. The prosecution in the case has been using her personal political affiliations and other unrelated information to try and discredit her as a reporter, which should be very concerning to all of us committed to a free press that includes freelance and citizen journalists who have relationships with our movements.

[00:32:54] The ruling in the case is a worrying signal about the way that anti democratic backlash is expressed at the [00:33:00] local level. Investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Jen Byers joins us today from Portland. They’ve been covering Azhar’s trial and sentencing and are working to get the story out to a wider movement media audience.

[00:33:12] Jen, thank you so much for joining me today. 

[00:33:14] Jen Byers: Yeah, thank you for having me. I really appreciate the time. 

[00:33:17] Cayden Mak: Yeah, for sure. What can you tell us about Alyssa Azhar’s case and kind of What got you into covering it and what you find remarkable about it? 

[00:33:27] Jen Byers: Yeah, so I I’ve been a kind of conflict, [00:33:30] domestic conflict journalist pretty much since 2015 or 2016.

[00:33:34] That’s how I started being a reporter. I started off as a citizen journalist, a social media journalist, and then got taken in by documentary crews and then went staff and stuff. But my work starts on the ground. started on Twitter. And so I I’ve always followed Alyssa’s work.

[00:33:49] I’ve always admired her hustle. I’ve, I always thought that she was, I would always use her information when I was looking up stories in Portland and I found her to be a really truthful reporter. When [00:34:00] I moved to Portland in June, and I knew some of the community members here in town and when They found out that I was here and they told me about the trial.

[00:34:09] They were like please cover it. There’s not a lot of eyes on it. 

[00:34:12] Cayden Mak: Yeah. 

[00:34:12] Jen Byers: So that’s how I got involved. I got asked by the community to cover it. And I said, no problem. And then when I was there, I was really shocked because the only other, re reporting or ostensibly press people were the right wing tabloids.

[00:34:25] Andy knows people. These far right folks who were not always [00:34:30] telling facts, who had a very clear bias. And then the local Oregonian paper showed up, but they just did it daily. So they didn’t really get into the meat of it, didn’t really get into the heart of it. And then while I was sitting in on a case I co-own a security company for journalists.

[00:34:43] So to keep women queer marginalized journalists safe. I noticed just how much erosion of press freedom was happening in the trial and in the rhetoric of the prosecutor and how many sort of breaches of basic democracy were happening with the things they were trying to charge her with, the reasons they were trying [00:35:00] to charge her with them and just ways that they shifted her reporting to imply culpability and imply leadership In the riot.

[00:35:10] I thought that was really dangerous. So I just wanted to make sure people heard about it. 

[00:35:14] Cayden Mak: Yeah, that, that seems very concerning that somebody who’s like covering a protest action would then be like implicated in, in this way. So what are, what were the charges that were brought against her?

[00:35:25] And what was the case? 

[00:35:29] Jen Byers: Totally. [00:35:30] So there were initially three charges that she was indicted with. One was felony riot, one was misdemeanor disorderly conduct, and the third was unlawful use of pepper spray, essentially. I will say that one of the things about this is this really deals with the, we see in journalism, there’s the whole activist versus journalist debate.

[00:35:47] Are you a participant? Are you reporting it? What’s the line? Where’s the line? And in this case, I will be completely blunt. The line was blurry. There was a tweet or two of hers where it seemed as though she promoted the riot or promoted the [00:36:00] counter protest. And I can give you a little bit more details about what the counter protest was and what was going on.

[00:36:05] But there was just, so we’re very clear, like there was a couple of moments where she promoted it. There was one moment where She took ownership of some shields that the local protesters were basically like, they had gone to get their car. So she was watching the shields and the cops came and she spoke to the police and took ownership of the shields.

[00:36:24] And then there was, Then she was just wearing all black, right? She wasn’t in black block. She [00:36:30] was wearing black. So there were a number of things. And also because she identifies as an anti fascist, because she’s open about it. The cops and the state really used that against her acting as though anti fascists are this organized battalion.

[00:36:43] And she was leading them. There were some things that I feel like fall out of the realm of what a traditional journalist does, but then there were other things that were just very clearly twisted. Another example of something that was twisted was she had at one point posted a communique from an anarchist group [00:37:00] saying, they essentially sabotaged A far right demo and she posted the communique and the state was like, she wrote the communique.

[00:37:07] These are her words. Yeah. So they conflated her, they conflated some of her analysis and they conflated some of some of her reporting. With leadership and I feel like that’s a really dangerous precedent because I feel like one of the jobs of reporters is to inform the public about why things happen and what’s going on with [00:37:30] them.

[00:37:30] Cayden Mak: Yeah, could you tell us a little more about the protests that she was covering and what was happening? Because it sounds like there was. Some confrontation going on here. 

[00:37:39] Jen Byers: Yeah. In, so this trial was basically based in 6 weeks in the spring of 2021. The trial was set in Clackamas County which is a county south of Portland that is known for its white supremacy.

[00:37:51] Oregon City, the specific city that the trial was in, is known, is a former sundown town. It has histories of racial exclusion and anti [00:38:00] racist, or excuse me, extremely racist acts, not anti racist acts, quite the opposite. So basically this whole six week kind of narrative arc has, began when these far right flag waivers would have these Friday meetings, they would stand on a corner, they would raid flags, and they would try to recruit people.

[00:38:18] The local anti fascist crews heard about that decided that they wanted to disrupt it, and they started to come down to try to disrupt it. There was a couple counter protest scuffles, a couple actions. [00:38:30] Alyssa was reporting on these things. She was posting on Twitter, these things are happening.

[00:38:34] Here’s the, there was sabotage done here. Here’s the communique. And then at certain, at a certain point, the proud boys got involved to quote be security for the far right flag wavers. And then it turned into a sort of like Antifa burst, the proud boys dynamic, essentially. One of the things that when I spoke with spoke with one of my colleagues they noted that Though in the case it was portrayed as Antifa versus the Proud Boys, what is [00:39:00] notably absent was any culpability or any responsibility from the police.

[00:39:04] All of this is happening in a post January 6th world where we know what the Proud Boys are capable of. Notably absent, from, this counter demo, stress sort of situation was any police presence to try to, police action to, to stop the far right organizing, to stop the far right recruiting and to keep the community safe from hatred.

[00:39:25] So it’s there was a couple of back and forths. And then on June [00:39:30] 18th, 2020, there was a pretty significant clash in Clackamac County park that resulted That resulted, I don’t believe, I don’t know that anyone got arrested that day, but it’s since resulted in a number of indictments of people that were in the park.

[00:39:44] So this kind of all surrounds the six week phase between, it’s spring of 2021 that resulted in a major clash at this park in Clackamas County. 

[00:39:55] Cayden Mak: Yeah, that’s super, that’s, I feel like that’s super helpful context also because [00:40:00] there’s this way in which the sort of like escalation of intensity around like far right activity is, in some ways it feels like it’s being like maybe swept under the rug or like underplayed.

[00:40:18] In this context that feels pretty important. So could you tell us a little bit about the outcome of the trial? What, now about what [00:40:30] Alyssa is up against. And if you’ve heard, what kind of reaction you’ve been hearing from the community since the sentencing? 

[00:40:37] Jen Byers: Yeah, the community is devastated.

[00:40:39] Everybody’s. Sad, upset, hurt, angry people in the community are pretty clearly of the belief that this is a deliberate act of political repression and attempt to silence her. Which I think to perhaps speak to where that that feeling comes from the state prosecutor when he was basically making [00:41:00] the asks for And then later the sentencing, the prosecutor explicitly asked for a few things that me as a journalism safety advisor, like raises extremely serious red flags.

[00:41:12] Like you mentioned, there was the the inability, so his phrase is the inability to carry weapons at a public event. So the list includes But tons, it includes tear gas and includes pepper spray, but it also includes ballistic vests and tactical vests, which are two things that we know that journalists get shot at.

[00:41:29] We know [00:41:30] that a tactical vest can save a life. So she’s no longer allowed to wear those. So that’s a major safety concern, even if it’s folded up into this larger list of weapons, it’s still a major safety concern because in our job, that’s PPE. Number one. And number two, the prosecutor asked for the.

[00:41:47] For the ability to search her home and her devices and her car without a warrant whenever they felt it was necessary. So luckily, the judge did deny that, but they tried it. You know [00:42:00] what I mean? And to me, I was like, oh, this is pretty clear evidence that they want her data. This is pretty clear evidence that they want to, they want the information that she has whenever they want it.

[00:42:12] Yeah, I forgot what the question was, but 

[00:42:15] Cayden Mak: Yeah, the sort of the sentencing and the outcomes. Yeah the this thing about thankfully the judge denied this but I you know I think that it makes sense what you’re saying to read the like Asking for [00:42:30] the right to basically search her devices at any time as we want to be able to collect information on people who are involved in anti fascist organizing in Oregon, which is very concerning on a lot of levels.

[00:42:44] Jen Byers: Yeah. And she’s already had her home rated once by the PPD. Like she had her home rated. I want to say back in November of 2023. The details of the case, I’m still looking over. I still have to do all the four years for it. But essentially, from what I’ve heard, word of mouth is that there was a case where it was believed That [00:43:00] she had taken some far right guy’s cell phone and they searched her house and they didn’t just take the cell they didn’t just find and take the cell phone.

[00:43:07] They, went through all of her personal belongings. They they took her laptops. They took her USBs. They took pretty much any digital device that they could find. Yeah, this is a pattern with her where it seems very clear that the state wants access to her information. And if this was happening at a traditional newsroom, if this was happening to a journalist who was [00:43:30] reporting for the New York times on a regular basis, the journalism community would be up in arms.

[00:43:34] She was also arrested at the Palestine protests at PSU. Back in the spring. So she also has an arrest out like she was arrested for trespass there. She has a couple more sort of cases in, in the docket essentially. And this is like just the first one that’s gone to sentencing.

[00:43:52] So I think what’s also scary is she’s getting charged and not all of them are getting dropped which is quite abnormal. It’s quite normal for journalists to get cases [00:44:00] dropped. Pretty much as soon as they present their credential. 

[00:44:03] Cayden Mak: Yeah. Yeah, that is also very sobering to hear about that. Like these things are wending their way through the system.

[00:44:11] So knowing that there are these Charges still out what’s next for Azhar and how can folks who are listening follow her cases and support her? 

[00:44:23] Jen Byers: Yeah, I think I’ll say, only she can tell you that. And I think she is just Jake making [00:44:30] doing a day by day right now. The community is doing a pretty good job of supporting her.

[00:44:34] If listeners would want to support her, there is like a, there is essentially like a. Not a bail fund, but like a commissary fund and I get her back on her feet fund that folks can donate to if that’s something of interest, I can read that out. But yeah, I think. I don’t know that she knows what’s next for her because I think this was an in.

[00:44:54] A very clear attempt to intimidate her into silence. And while I don’t suspect that will be the [00:45:00] end outcome, it definitely seems like a moment fear and of sadness and of grief and of stress. But she’s really scrappy. She’s really badass. They were listing all of the things that she’s been through during the trial.

[00:45:12] And I was reading about her on the The press freedom tracker about just how many times she’s, on one, like, how many times she’s faced violence from state and far right, but also how many times she’s faced violence and stood back up and gone back out to report. So this is an extremely resilient person.[00:45:30] 

[00:45:31] Cayden Mak: Awesome. We’ll also stick a link to her commissary and get back on her feed fund in the show notes so folks can give there and I imagine that if people contribute they’ll also get updates from the folks supporting her. Of 

[00:45:47] Jen Byers: course. Yeah. Her the, basically her friends in her community are updating on her social media sites.

[00:45:53] So Instagram and mastodon and on Instagram, she’s revolution daddy with a three in the [00:46:00] revolution. So that’s been a place of updates. If folks want to go get them. Yeah. I think also one thing that I will say is I think as, journalists who are, maybe who are not. Social media journalists who are not movement journalists, who are not citizen journalists, who are not, who are more traditional journalists.

[00:46:15] I really think that this could be a moment for us to be challenged about how we are taking care of the people who are our fixers, who are our who we get our information from. Like I’ve spoken with local press out here about her and a lot of [00:46:30] them rely on her tips. I’ve spoken with a lot of national and international journalism safety organizations and they know who she is because she’s prominent.

[00:46:38] But I think there’s a lot of bias in the field of media that says, Oh, but she’s a citizen journalist. She’s not a traditional journalist. And I just want to say from where I was sitting at the trial, that crack. Is exploited. It has been so so thoroughly exploited as the justification to hurt her and if we as maybe more traditional media professionals don’t [00:47:00] understand that has a trickle effect has a trickle up effect and that’s this is a precedent that is going to continue to widen.

[00:47:06] We’re simply being foolish and shortsighted. So I think this really could be a moment where the traditional press changes how we relate and how we care for and how we support citizen journalists, because at the end of the day they break news. They’re stringers for us. We use their video all the time.

[00:47:24] And they play in a very crucial role in our news ecosystem and they’re [00:47:30] under threat. 

[00:47:31] Cayden Mak: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for that. That makes a lot of sense. And yeah, in a lot of ways they are our frontliners. We need to be there for them. and do what we can to close the gap. Jen, I appreciate so much you’re making time to come on the show and talk to us a little bit about your reporting.

[00:47:48] And we’ll be following the story for our listeners. Yeah, appreciate it. 

[00:47:54] Jen Byers: Yeah, thank you so much for your time.

[00:47:59] Cayden Mak: [00:48:00] If you are interested in learning more about Alissa Azar’s case and her reporting and supporting her through this very challenging time, we will stick the link to her link tree in the show notes so you can. Find out more about what’s going on with her and get plugged in with that. Aside from that this show is published by Convergence, a magazine for Radical Insights.

[00:48:23] I’m Caden Mock, and our producer is Josh Elstro. If you have something to say, please do drop me a line. You can send me an [00:48:30] email that we will consider running on an upcoming Mailbag episode at mailbag at convergencemag. com. And if you’d like to support the work that we do at Convergence, bringing our movement to life,

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