Episode 34: Embassy Protection Collective with Morgan Artyukhina

This episode we have an in-depth conversation with Morgan Artyukhina about their time with the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective. Morgan is an autistic transgender communist and journalist based in Washington, DC, Their reporting can be found on Twitter @LavenderNRed and in Liberation News. As a point of reference, we recorded this episode on May 14th. Two days after this episode was recorded, activists within the Embassy were arrested by DC police in what seems to be in clear violation of international law. The activists were charged with misdemeanor federal crime of “Interfering With a Federal Law Enforcement Agent Engaged in Protective Functions.” So it is important to understand that everything that Morgan describes in this episode is past tense, and that many of the warnings that they make will regards to the violability of embassies around the world, and the further deterioration of US international diplomacy are now very real possibilities. Nevertheless, we thought that this was an important story for people to learn more about, and get a perspective of someone who participated in the Embassy Protection Collective from the beginning, as we feel that this has been one of the strongest anti-war anti-imperialist actions that organizers have taken in the US in years, and hope that it marks the renewal of bold action against US warmongering and regime change, in a time when it is needed as much as it has ever been in our history.