Sad Francisco

Margaret Killjoy on coming out as an anarchist, why anarchist history is so hidden, and the importance of deescalating conflict that isn't with the enemy (and more). Margaret's Substack [https://substack.com/@margaretkilljoy] has her essay "The Sky is Falling; We've Got This" [https://margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/the-sky-is-falling-weve-got-this] Marget on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/margaret.bsky.social] | Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/margaretkilljoy] | Twitter [https://x.com/magpiekilljoy] Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Two founders of the prison abolition movement—renowned thinkers and doers Craig and Ruth Wilson Gilmore—speak on the prison industrial complex's California roots. Also discussed: Why focusing on closing private prisons is too narrow a vision, and Gavin Newsom's campaign to put a kinder, gentler face on mass incarceration via the medicalization of imprisonment (eg. increasing conservatorship, forced rehab, and slapping the words "Rehabilitation Center" on San Quentin). Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

It started when San Jose State University's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office sponsored a visit from CSU's premier Zionist. Sang Hea Kil describes the repression she experienced as the only faculty member who joined an encampment of Muslim students in solidarity with Palestine last year at the school. Later in the episode, G, a former worker at GLIDE Church (a San Francisco nonprofit where the head of "Social Justice" is a Zionist rabbi), speaks about explicit and implicit Zionist bias at progressive nonprofits. Sang's piece in Radical Teacher: "Islamophobia, Dirty Water Tactics, and Student Encampments for Gaza": https://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/radicalteacher/article/view/1310 Sang on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sangheakil/ G on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gay13/ Episodes mentioned: How South African Solidarity Encampments Worked f/ Matt Ray and Matt Wranovics (Left in the Bay): https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/YmVmZmIxY2QtYzg4Ny00OTliLWJmZGYtMjVkOTM1MjYwNWJj Can't Hide a Genocide f/ Dylan Rodriguez and Loubna Qutami: https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZmVhOGRjMDYtMmVjOS00NmM4LThmZDktN2JmYjQxMTk0Yjc4 Debt is a Threat to Liberation f/ Maddy Clifford (Debt Collective): https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/MjdhNWQzNmMtNTg4My00NDkwLWIyMmItZmE4NzkwN2RkYzAx Should Social Movement Work Be Paid? with Dean Spade: [https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZmY5YTNkMTUtOTkzNC00YTBjLTk0NDQtMzNkOTliY2EzMDdk Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco ]

A crowd of people set fire to a robotaxi last Lunar New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown. Jasmine explains how Asian American influencers and corporate media outlets used the "death" of a Waymo "self-driving" vehicle to stoke fear about anti-Asian violence. Fundraiser for Yazan in Gaza [https://chuffed.org/project/115145-yazan] Write to Casey Goonan [https://www.abcf.net/blog/update-on-casey-goonans-legal-case] LA Public Press Podcast: https://lapublicpress.org/the-tenant-association/ Episode referenced: Dylan Rodriguez on Zionists and Counterinsurgency in Stop Asian Hate [https://www.patreon.com/posts/zionists-and-in-103600189] Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Churches, nonprofits and politicians have turned the anti-sex trafficking movement into a billion-dollar industry. The lives and stories of migrant sex workers get used as an excuse to hire more cops, and criminalize a form of labor that pays better than most. Chanelle and Elene, on their new book featuring the stories of migrant sex workers from across North America. Not Your Rescue Project (Haymarket Books) [https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2258-not-your-rescue-project] Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network [https://www.butterflysw.org]

"Abolish Rent" is a new organizing bible from Leonardo Vilchis and Tracy Rosenthal, laying out the reasons why capitalism will never provide everyone with the basic human need of shelter. They discuss tactics from successful rent strikes, how California's COVID-19 eviction moratorium was both a success and failure of tenant activism, and the attempt by landlords to rebrand as "housing providers." Buy Abolish Rent [https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2443-abolish-rent] "Privatizing Public Housing: 'The Genocide of Poor People'" (Toshio in Truthout) [https://truthout.org/articles/privatizing-public-housing-the-genocide-of-poor-people/] Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Hanin, Mai and Nadina met and became friends through the Palestine solidarity movement in Tokyo a little over a year ago. We cover some of the recent successes of the movement, including Israeli defense company Elbit Systems losing contracts, and Israel being disinvited from the yearly event in Nagasaki that memorializes the day the US dropped an atomic bomb. They speak to some of the particularities of organizing against imperialism from inside Japan, and ways to sustain the organizing as the latest wave of genocide in Gaza continues. Palestinians of Japan (Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/palestinejapan Mai’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yudetamai Nadina’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nadina.mp4 Nam Nam Space (Koenji, Tokyo) https://www.instagram.com/namnam_space Support Simo in Palestine https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-relief-for-salamas-family-in-gaza

Mama Ganuush and Toshio bring you AIPAC Zombies: people in American culture who have been possessed by the worst Zionist brainrot. Our first episode: California politician Scott Wiener. More: "Scott Wiener’s Appalling Legacy as San Francisco Supervisor" (Patrick Range McDonald, Housing is a Human Right) [https://www.housingisahumanright.org/scott-wiener-appalling-legacy-san-francisco-supervisor/] "Gay Neoliberal Candidate in San Francisco Disproves Myths About LGBT Values" (Toshio, Truthout) [https://truthout.org/articles/gay-neoliberal-candidate-in-san-francisco-disproves-myths-about-lgbt-values/]

Join Tofu and Toshio on an end of the year, stream-of-consciousness check-in. New episode of Sad Francisco on January 3. AIPAC Zombies with Mama Ganuush premieres January 1. Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

A check-in with Mama Ganuush where we hear about their recent hunger strike, their visit with family who evacuated Gaza for Egypt, and discuss how US elections are bought and sold by AIPAC. SF Drag Artist Leads Hunger Strike Against US Funding of Israel (Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED) https://www.kqed.org/arts/13967427/sf-drag-artist-leads-hunger-strike-against-us-funding-of-israel Mama Ganuush on Instagram HALA Collective Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

[This episode went up back in September, but it felt OK to put it back on the feed for anyone who might've missed it. New episodes soon.] As liberation movements face intense repression from CEOs, cops, landlords, politicians, and Zionists, Dean Spade and friends put together a list of questions we can all ask ourselves, so we don't reproduce the logics of the state. Dean is author of the classics Mutual Aid and Normal Life: Administrative Violence and the Limits of the Law, and future classic Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together. "Cultivating Solidarity in Times of Escalating Repression" (Dean, with Community Justice Exchange, Jocelyn Simonson, Pilar Weiss, Atara Rich-Shea and Zohra Ahmed: http://bit.ly/cultivatesolidarity Our last episode with Dean: Should Social Movement Work Be Paid? https://www.patreon.com/posts/should-social-be-109620321?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Dean's website: http://deanspade.net Support us and watch the video version of this episode on Patreon.

Lavender Phoenix https://lavenderphoenix.org/ SF People's Budget: https://www.instagram.com/sfpeoplesbudget/ #JusticeForAkaiGurley: AAPI response to people supporting Peter Liang, the NYPD officer who killed Akai Gurley. https://caaav.org/justiceforakaigurley-national-sign-on-letter Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco *People's Budget Coalition listed for ID purposes only.

Originally from San Francisco, Brandon Lee was working as a journalist in Ifugao in the Philippines when he survived an assassination attempt–a shooting carried out by forces close to the US-backed Duterte regime. Brandon talks about surviving the attack, the US disinformation machine, and why the Bay goes so hard for liberation in the Philippines. Website: Justice4BrandonLee.org IG: Justice4BrandonLee: https://www.instagram.com/justice4brandonlee/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/Justice4BrandonLee International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines-US: https://ichrpus.wordpress.com/ BAYAN USA: https://www.bayanusa.org/ "Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders" (Brandon, In These Times): https://inthesetimes.com/article/brandon-lee-philippines-violence-environmental-activists "The U.S. Is Complicit in War Crimes in the Philippines" (Brandon, Inkstick Media): https://inkstickmedia.com/the-us-is-complicit-in-war-crimes-in-the-philippines/ "The Forces That Nearly Murdered Me Are Meeting In San Francisco Today" (Brandon, The Nation): https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/apec-summit-san-francisco/ "Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic" (Chris Bing and Joel Schectman, Reuters): https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/ "SHUTDOWN: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War": documentary about the protests in response to the Iraq war in 2003 that shut down San Francisco for: https://vimeo.com/57710595 Past episodes mentioned: Imperial War Games of RIMPAC f/ Abbey Irodistan from BAYAN USA NorCal: https://www.patreon.com/posts/video-imperial-f-108415933 SF Against APEC w/ Anakbayan CCSF: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sf-against-apec-109660245 - Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Jeremy Mack (from The Phoenix Project, which exposes dark money in Bay Area politics) is back for a discussion about upcoming elections, TogetherSF, the billionaire-funded, "pro-moderate" astroturfing group behind SF's Prop. D, and Balaji Srinivasan's plan for "The Network State," a techbro-led New World Order complete with a walled-off Hayes Valley. The Phoenix Project: https://www.phoenixprojectnow.com/ Instagram: @phoenixprojnow | Twitter: @phoenixprojnow Past episodes mentioned: -Alison Collins on being recalled from SFUSD: https://www.patreon.com/posts/project-2025-in-111973369 -Anna Kirsch on the billionaire attempt to create a billionaire's compound in Solano County, "California Forever": https://www.patreon.com/posts/video-planning-f-107097104 "The Tech Baron Seeking to Purge San Francisco of 'Blues'" (Gil Duran, The New Republic): https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat "SF Dems’ sexual-misconduct inquiry puts politico Jay Cheng back in the spotlight" (Joe Rivano Barros, Mission Local): https://missionlocal.org/2024/05/sf-dems-sexual-misconduct-committee-puts-allegations-against-politico-jay-cheng-back-in-spotlight/ Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Mama Ganuush hosts a discussion on whether people in the US actually stand a chance under American democracy, when money rules everything around us. Guests from The Phoenix Project (exposing dark money in Bay Area politics) and Pups for Palestine (what it says :) ). Salon HALA will return in 2025. Salon HALA on Instagram The Phoenix Project Zinedogs | Instagram @zinedogssf Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

It's one year since the start of the most recent wave of Israel's US-backed genocide of Palestinians. This episode was recorded last fall with Loubna Qutami (co-founder of the Palestinian Youth Movement and a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective), and one of her mentors, and ours, Dylan Rodriguez (co-founder of Critical Resistance and the Critical Ethnic Studies Association). Both organizers and professors, Loubna (UCLA) and Dylan (UC Riverside) discuss Zionist repression, and why we must continue to fight it. >> LISTEN TO ALL 14 OF OUR PALESTINE EPISODES FROM THE PAST YEAR HERE. << New episode next week. Mentioned this episode: Palestine Legal: 'Distorted Definition: Redefining Antisemitism to Silence Advocacy for Palestinian Rights' 'Professor 'un-hiring' fuels battle for academic freedom' (Toshio Meronek, Waging Nonviolence) 'Students fight smears as universities back Israel’s genocidal attacks' (Nora Barrows-Friedman, Electronic Intifada) A Communique on Sabotaging Zionist Infrastructure: Shutting Down Friends of the IDF (IndyBay) 'The Lobby' (Al Jazeera documentary on the Israel lobby, featuring UC Davis) Dylan on Instagram | Twitter | YouTube Loubna on Academia.edu | Twitter

"Brothers in recovery" Matt Dorsey (an ex-SFPD staffer turned politician) and Tom Wolf (the rightwing influencer who said the impending closure of a Macy's store was "San Francisco's 9/11") are examples of how conservatives are using their drug rehab journeys to prop up the war on drug users. With enemies like Tom Wolf, rightwing lobbyist Christopher Rufo, and conservative misinformation machine PragerU, our guest, Tenderloin-based writer Lea McGeever, must be doing something right. Lea: Substack: https://leftylea.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leftylea_in_sf/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@leftylea?lang=en Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Project 2025 soft launched in San Francisco years ago, with successful attempts to replace politicians with people who are obedient to the rightwing. Because it’s the Bay, these replacements are registered as Democrats and they virtue signal about diversity, but make no mistake, they are deeply aligned with rightwing forces like the Heritage Foundation. This episode’s guest Alison Collins is a SFUSD teacher and former school board member who was recalled in a rightwing recall campaign in 2022. Ali’s Patreon: www.patreon.com/justtalkspodcast Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Mutual aid and relationships with people we trust are gonna be key to surviving the political and climate apocalypses ahead. Brooke, Lauren and Mama Ganuush on Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid, and how to sustain connections with people living through the genocide in Palestine, as the US and Israel do everything they can to repress signals of solidarity. Bay2Gaza Benefit is 9/20 at Oakland Secret https://www.instagram.com/p/C_ggDqUyDoj/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://www.Bay2Gaza.org Thank you to LoCura for this episode’s outro track “Guerriller@s (Bang Data remix) https://www.locuramusica.org Past Sad Francisco episodes mentioned: Pinkwashing, with Brooke, Mama Ganuush and Deeg https://www.patreon.com/posts/video-genocide-f-108029780 Trans Black Palestinian Solidarities with Jemma Decristo, Lavelle Ridley and Mama Ganuush https://www.patreon.com/posts/video-trans-f-105794127 Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

"Cultivating Solidarity in Times of Escalating Repression" (Dean, with Community Justice Exchange, Jocelyn Simonson, Pilar Weiss, Atara Rich-Shea and Zohra Ahmed: http://bit.ly/cultivatesolidarity As liberation movements face intense repression from CEOs, cops, landlords, politicians, and Zionists, https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/over-60-people-indicted-on-rico-charges-in-atlanta-allegedly-promoting-anarchist-ideas/ Official Indictment: https://unicornriot.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/atlanta-rico-indicts-doc-official.pdf Dean Spade and friends put together a list of questions we can all ask ourselves, so we don't reproduce the logics of the state. Dean is author of the classics Mutual Aid and Normal Life: Administrative Violence and the Limits of the Law, and future classic Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together https://www.deanspade.net/2024/08/14/new-book-out-january-pre-order-now/ Our last episode with Dean: Should Social Movement Work Be Paid? https://www.patreon.com/posts/should-social-be-109620321?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Dean's website: http://deanspade.net Support us and find links to our past episodes: patreon.com/sadfrancisco