About
You’ve reached the internet home of Horizontal Power Hour, the anarchist radio show produced by The Dream Committee, a consensus-based collective in Middletown, CT, which aired on WESU from September 2010 – May 2013.
Below is our digital archive of past programs. Within it can be found over 55 episodes of exciting programing featuring some of the most exciting thinkers and activists at work today.
Although Horizontal Power Hour (HPH) is no longer airing, our facebook group for global radical news is still active.
Please note that two members of the original collective have gone on to collaboratively produce a new program, Anarchy on Air, which launched in January 2014 and ran until May 2014. That show is on summer hiatus until September 2014.
Episode 59: Imagining Queer Justice
This episode features news updates from May Day actions across the world, and a presentation by Ryan Conrad of the Against Equality collective at the Imagining Queer Justice panel at Wesleyan University. Conrad’s talk focuses on queering prison abolition by critiquing LGBT hate crimes legislation. From their website, “Against Equality is an online archive, publishing, and arts collective focused on critiquing mainstream gay and lesbian politics. As queer thinkers, writers and artists, we are committed to dislodging the centrality of equality rhetoric and challenging the demand for inclusion in the institution of marriage, the US military, and the prison industrial complex via hate crimes legislation. \
Featuring new tracks from Lauryn Hill.
Original air date: 5/14/13
Episode 58: Homonationalism and Pinkwashing
This episode features presentations from the recent Homonationalism and Pinkwashing Conference in NYC! Homonationalism describes when sub-sectors of specific gay communities achieve legal parity with heterosexuals and then embrace racial and religious supremacy ideologies. Homonationalism is increasingly present in Nationalist ideologies across the globe, as secular right-wing forces increasingly leave anti-gay politics to organized religion. The other focus of the conference was on “Pinkwashing,” a practice by which a government or corporation points to or exaggerates gay rights in order to present itself as progressive or mask its own crimes – an example is Israel’s promotion of sexual rights to obscure its occupation of Palestine.
We hear talks from Bashar Makhay about his work organizing LGBTQ Middle Easterners in Detroit and NYC, and from Dean Spade about anti-pinkwashing campaigns and prison abolition politics. Plus news and music!
Episode 57: California Prison Hunger Stike and Lawsuit
Orginal air date: April 9 2013
This episode is a Margaret Thatcher Deathday Celebration! Featuring the usual dose of action news updates from around the world, with updates on the latest wave of police repression.
This episode features a segment on the California Prisoner Hunger Strike, with recordings and interviews from a recent rally in support of people being held in long term solitary confinement and their current lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Music from Crass, Dub Syndicate, and Flying Lotus.
Episode 56: African American stories of urban gentrification in DC
On this episode, we speak with Dr. Sabiyha Prince, a cultural anthropologist and independent scholar who resides in the Baltimore/Washington metro area. Dr. Prince discusses her work on the phenomenon of urban gentrification in Washington DC and Harlem, NY and the lives of African Americans who confront and construct this process of restructuring. Dr. Prince’s new book, African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C., sheds light on social hierarchies and standpoints unfolding over time and emerges as a portrait of a heterogeneous African American population wherein members define their identity and culture as a people informed with the knowledge of injustice’s impact on the urban landscape. This book presents oral history and ethnographic data on current and former, African American residents of D.C. Combining these findings with analyses from institutional, statistical, and scholarly reports on wealth inequality, shortages in affordable housing, and rates of unemployment, Prince contends that gentrification seizes upon and fosters uneven development, vulnerability and alienation and contributes to classed and racialized tensions in affected communities.
As usual the show features a dose of action news updates from around the world with a focus on the March 15th International Day of Action against Police (Brutality). The show also showcases Baltimore feminist punk band War on Women, a member of which, Shawna Field, recently was interviewed on HPH for her work with anti-street harrassment group
Hollaback Baltimore.
Episode 55: Anti-austerity movements in Greece
Original Air Date: March 12 2013
On this episode, we hear from Greek activist Thanasis Xirotsopanos, who along with his comrades Vangelis Nanos and Sophia Papagianaki gave a presentation at Wesleyan University about the anti-authoritarian and anti-austerity movement currently consuming Greece.The speakers focused their discussion on the rise of and resistance to the Golden Dawn, an allegedly neo-nazi and openly fascist political party that rose to prominence in Greece in 2010, and has since committed acts of violence against immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, leftists and anarchists. The activists at the talk connected the rise of fascist violence with the austerity policies currently creating an economic and social crisis in Greece.
Thanasis Xirotsopanos, an activist involved in the anarchist movement since early 90′s, has participated in the squat community, the anti-globalization movement, and the social struggle concerning ecology, immigrants and free social spaces. He is an active member of the Anti-Authoritarian Movement and its organization since the beginning, including organizations such as the free social center Nosotros, the Babylonia newspaper, and B-Fest, an international gathering of 20,000 anti-authoritarian activists each year in Athens. Plenty of anarchist hardcore punk rock from Greece, and some words from the CrimethInc Collective on the potential of crowds and the futility of representative democracy.
Episode 53: Mapuche Resistance and Hawaiian Self-Determination
Join your host J Kēhaulani Kauanui. The show will feature an interview with Karla Palma (Mapuche-Chilean), a journalist with updates on the situation in southern Chile, where the government is using anti-terrorist laws to try and crush indigenous resistance. And we’ll hear from Andre Perez, a Kanaka Maoli (indigenous Hawaiian) sovereignty activist who will offer an updates on the Hawaiian self-determination struggle, since January 17th was the 120th year anniversary of the US-backed overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Perez is traditional practitioner, grassroots community organizer with MANA (Movement for Aloha No ka ‘Āina), and upstart farmer. Original air-date: 1-22-13.
Epsiode 52: #Idle No More Interview with Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair
Join your host, J Kēhaulani Kauanui for an interview with activist and scholar Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair (originally from the St. Peter’s/Little Peguis Indian Settlement in Manitoba) about #Idle No More, an ongoing protest movement comprising the First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples (and their non-Aboriginal supporters). #Idle No More challenges Canadian political dominance and is prompted, in part, by the hunger strike of Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence and draws attention to indigenous treaty rights and abuses by the conservative federal government. It has inspired solidarity activities throughout North America and beyond as far as Aotearoa/NZ and the UK. Sinclair speak to the political context and the high stakes. His critical and creative work has been translated into several languages and can be found in The Guardian and The Winnipeg Free Press. He is the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press, 2012) and the newly released collection, Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories (Michigan State University Press, 2013). Original air-date: 1-8-13.
Episode 51: Maia Ramnath and Joshua Stephens on Anarchism and Decolonization
Tune in to WESU Middletown for a Christmas Special, featuring Maia Ramnath and Joshua Stephens – board members of the Institute for Anarchist Studies – exploring the intersection of anarchism and anti-colonialism. The conversation touches on numerous questions regarding how anarchist praxis interacts with global resistance to colonization, and explores the Occupy movement as well as anarchist organizing strategies and anarchist culture. Maia is the author of two books – The Haj to Utopia and Decolonizing Anarchism – has organized in anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements in the last two decades, and is currently involved with Adalah-NY and the South Asia Solidarity Initiative. Joshua has been active in direct action movements since the mid-90’s, working heavily in the Palestine solidarity movement, and is currently writing a book for the IAS Anarchist Intervention Series. As always, we throw a healthy dose of action news and revolutionary tunes for your listening pleasure. Merry Christmas and a revolutionary New Year! Original air date: 12-25-12.
Horizontal Power Hour 