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Delete Your Account Podcast

Delete Your Account is a new podcast hosted by journalist Roqayah Chamseddine and her plucky sidekick Kumars Salehi. Every week they will talk about important stories from the worlds of politics and pop culture, both on and off-line, in a way that will never bore you.
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Now displaying: September, 2018
Sep 26, 2018

This week, Roqayah and Kumars talk surveillance and repression with first-time guest Kade Crockford, director of the ACLU Massachusetts Technology for Liberty program, as well as returning guest Freddy Martinez, a hacker, activist, and director of the transparency and digital rights organization Lucy Parsons Labs. Freddy fills everyone in on the circumstances surrounding his arrest at a far-right rally in Berkeley called “No to Marxism,” after which his name and mugshot were tweeted out by the Berkeley Police Department as part of what emails obtained by Lucy Parsons Labs show was a deliberate social media strategy to punish him and other leftist organizers.

Kade and Freddy touch on the historical role of surveillance in the repression of radical organizing, particularly in marginalized communities, before detailing the current landscape and latest developments in the expansion of surveillance by local, state, and federal police forces. We learn about the Preventing Emerging Threats Act and leaks showing FISA is being used to spy on journalists. The gang ends with a discussion of the longstanding, mostly unspoken alliance between law enforcement and the far-right, going beyond overlaps in membership to consider the ways state power and the supposed right-wing fringe collaborate against their common left enemy.

Follow Kade on Twitter @onekade and Freddy @b_meson. Check out Freddy’s write-up of the leaked Berkeley PD emails on the Lucy Parsons Labs blog, and keep up with Kade’s work on the ACLU Massachusetts’s blog Privacy Matters.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

Sep 12, 2018

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by game developer and cofounder of Game Workers Unite Emma Kinema and journalist and game designer Ian Williams for an in-depth discussion of the context and challenges of unionizing workers in the video games industry. The gang begins with Ian’s 2016 article laying out the case for game developers organizing. Ian and Emma describe the exploitative labor practices of major companies and how the uniqueness of the industry compounds the difficulty of organizing. Emma describes the current efforts of Game Workers Unite to create an international network of solidarity and guidance and build a unionized games industry.

Emma and Ian talk about the history of unionization efforts by game workers, refute some common arguments used to dismiss game workers' fights to win power in the workplace, and explain how the conservative leanings of the industry impact organizing campaigns.

Follow Emma on Twitter @EmmaKinema and Ian @brock_toon. You can also follow Game Workers Unite @GameWorkers, and find out how to get involved on their website.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

Sep 5, 2018

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by prisoners’ rights advocate Jared Ware. Jared is an activist, writer, producer of the prison abolitionist podcast Beyond Prisons, and co-host and co-producer of the anti-capitalist podcast Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. Ware is part of the press team for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak publicizing the ongoing nationwide prison strike. Jared gives us necessary background on the strike, which began on August 21st, the 47th anniversary of the death of Black Panther prison organizer George Jackson, and is set to continue until September 9th, the 47th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. Jared describes the important role that jailhouse lawyers are playing in organizing strike actions, and how authorities at prisons around the country are trying to suppress all participation in what is likely the largest prison strike in US history. Jared explains the different forms of resistance manifesting within prisons as part of this strike—from work stoppages and commissary boycotts to sit-ins and hunger strikes—and how detained immigrants impacted by America’s fascist border policies are participating in the strike as well.

Jared discusses his work with the press team for Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the importance of amplifying the voices of those incarcerated. We learn why prisoners themselves are drawing connections between incarceration and slavery, and how the strike is part of a broader, longer-term effort to undermine and ultimately abolish the prison system. We also discuss the importance of shows of solidarity from non-incarcerated people, and talk about ways people can get involved.

Follow Jared on Twitter @jaybeware.

A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.

If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon page for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes. We can't do this show without your support!!!

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