Material Crimes

*TW: This episode contains discussions of torture that some listeners may find disturbing*Guantanamo Bay prison leaks. Parts of it are overgrown with weeds. And yet, as of today, 36 detainees still remain imprisoned within its leaking walls.* How did the United States of America come to erect this gruesome, derelict prison on Cuban soil? In this episode, Shereen Fernandez, tells the story of how the crimes of Guantanamo Bay prison are part of a longer history of American imperialism and racial exclusion. As we’ll hear, it is also a story of the true crimes of capitalism and privatisation. We’ll learn how big corporations like Kellogg Brown & Root and Mitchell Jessen and Associates have raked in profits off of the detainees' suffering, sustaining GTMO in a state of total disrepair and piloting enhanced interrogation techniques on its prisoners’ bodies. The former detainee Moazzem Begg and the academic Lisa Hajjar paint Shereen a vivid portrait of what it is like to be within Guantanamo, making an irrefutable case for why this criminal prison must be shut down. *This episode first aired in 2022. As of 2026, the number of detainees still held in Guantanamo is 15.**This episode was executively produced by Maia Holtermann Entwistle and Sharri Plonski. Surviving Society Productions co-produced, hosted and recorded episodes. Sound mixing and design by Bronte Dow and Surviving Society creative director George “Adders” Ofori-Addo. Interview with Surviving Society’s executive producer and host, Chantelle Lewis, alongside Tissot Regis.**Useful Links:CAGE: www.cage.ngo Further Reading:Mohamedou Ould Slahi. “The Mauritanian” (originally published as Guantánamo Diary), (London: Little, Brown, 2015).Mansoor Adayfi. “Don't Forget Us Here,” (London: Hachette Books, 2021).Nikòl Payen. “Lavalas: The Flood after the Flood,” Calaloo 25: 3 (2000), pp. 759-771. Joseph Hickman. “Murder at Camp Delta,” (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016). This episode was supported by the Economics and Social Research Council and Queen Mary University of London. 

There is a road that crosses the Caucasus Mountains at an altitude of 2,379 metres. This road connects Georgia's capital Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz in the Russian Federation. Built in the 18th century, it pushed the Russian Empire’s boundaries southward. Over two centuries, it has been endlessly remade: extended, widened, cut and diverted. Today it forms a key artery of the North-South Corridor linking Iran to Russia. But beneath its geopolitical function lies something more intimate. This road has haunted the lives of everyone who lives and works along it, weaving together warfare and trade, hope and fear, and in some cases, death. In this episode, Evelina Gambino and Elisabed Gedevanishvili delve into the hauntings along this road by speaking with workers, residents, activists and researchers. The episode features conversations with Manana Kochladze, chair of environmental NGO Green Alternative, Irine Burduli, and academics Paul Manning, Hannah Knox and Manuel Moser.Special thanks to Jay Bernard for reading excerpts from "The Elder of Khevi" by Aleksandre Kazbegi and "Notes from a Traveler" by Urbneli" Additional voice-work by: Simone Coroma, Misho Gedevanishvili, Sophie Harman, Rosie Jackman, Colm Murphy, Ksenia Northmore-Ball  and Charlie Thomas.Useful Links Green Alternative: https://greenalt.org/en/Mautskebeli: https://mautskebeli.ge/JamNews Video on the Military Road: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxpH271l08Protests in Independent Georgia. https://www.geoprotests.org/enFurther Reading Penny Harvey & Hannah Knox. Roads: An Anthropology of Infrastructure and Expertise (Cornell UP, 2015). Paul Manning. Imperial and Colonial Sublime: The Aesthetics of Infrastructure. In Strangers in a Strange Land (Academic Studies Press, 2012). Manuel Moser. “East to West to South to North—and Back,” Transfers, 12:1 (2022), pp. 20-32. Lela Rekhviashvili, Luka Nakhutsrishvili, Konstantine Eristavi, Alexandra Aroshvili & Ia Eradze. “There’s more at stake in the fight against the Foreign Agents Law than liberal NGOs: Why the left should show solidarity with the protests in Georgia,” Lefteast, 28 May 2024. This episode was supported by the Independent Social Research Fund, Leverhulme Trust and Cambridge Humanities Research Grants.

*This episode first aired in 2022 before the Israeli state began committing genocide against the Palestinian people.*When Israel’s HaEmek railway reopened in 2016, it served only nine stations and stopped 4km shy of the Jordanian border. Far from more spectacular sites of violence, the train’s inauguration fell below most people’s radar. In this week’s episode, Sharri Plonski tells the story of this “train to nowhere” - of its colonial history, how its logistical future would rewrite the map of the Middle East, and how increased Israeli mobility entails increased Palestinian fragmentation and containment. But, as we’ll hear, Palestinians are powerfully resisting efforts to make their lives unliveable. On the trail of this train, Sharri speaks with Palestinian academics and activists Yara Hawari, Omar Jabary-Salamanca, and Hanna Swaid; as well as Laleh Khalili, Manu Karuka, and Katy Fox-Hoddess. Talking to them, she learns that, though logistical infrastructures are vehicles of state or corporate power, they also make possible forms of international solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom. They also tell her that to fully understand Israel’s normalisation project it is essential to look at these less visible, but no less violent, material crimes.**This episode first aired in 2022.**This episode was executively produced by Maia Holtermann Entwistle and Sharri Plonski. Surviving Society Productions co-produced, hosted and recorded episodes. Sound mixing and design by Bronte Dow and Surviving Society creative director George “Adders” Ofori-Addo. Interview with Surviving Society’s executive producer and host, Chantelle Lewis, alongside Tissot Regis.**Useful Links:Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network: al-shabaka.orgArab Center for Alternative Planning (AC-AP): www.ac-ap.orgBDS Movement: www.bdsmovement.netWho Profits: The Israeli Occupation Industry: www.whoprofits.org Further Reading:Rana Barakat, 2021. “Ramadan Does Not Come for Free”: Refusal as New and Ongoing in Palestine. Journal of Palestine Studies, 50(4), p. 90-95.Deborah Cowen. “Following the Infrastructures of Empire: Notes on Cities, Settler Colonialism, and Method,” Urban Geography, 41:4 (2020), pp. 469-486.Manu Karuka. “Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad,” (Berkeley: California University Press, 2019).Laleh Khalili. “Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula,” (London: Verso, 2020).This episode was supported by the Economics and Social Research Council and Queen Mary University of London. 

Modular housing units sit among decaying workers’ blocks on a quiet street in the remote town of Port Hedland in Western Australia. The Pilbara region where the town is located is at the centre of Australia’s booming iron ore industry yet sits at a remote edge of its territory. As Ari Jerrems discovers, distance is at the core of what makes this place work. Ari investigates how the violence of immigration detention comes together with the history of mining at this unassuming location overlooking the Indian Ocean. Speaking to Savitri Taylor, Amy Nethery, Peter Mares, Linda Briskman, Bradon Ellem and Brett Neilson, he connects the dots between the crimes of empire, extractive industries and systems of detention, in Australia and beyond. We also hear the voices of those detained who resisted and made visible the overlapping violence they were caught up in.Additional Voice-work: James Eastwood, Sumayah Rahman, Holly Ryan and Keren WeitzbergUseful linksAsylum Seeker Resource Centre: https://asrc.org.au/Australian Human Rights Commission: https://humanrights.gov.au/resource-hub/asylum-seekers-and-refugees-projects-reports/immigration-detention-reports-and-photosRefugee Action Coalition: https://refugeeaction.org.au/RISE. Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees: https://www.riserefugee.org/Further Reading Behrouz Boochani. No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Pan Macmillan: 2018).  Linda Briskman and Lathan, Susie & Goddard, Chris. Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia (Scribe Publishing: 2008). Peter Mares. Borderline: Australia’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (UNSW Press: 2001). Amy Nethery. “Incarceration, Classification and Control: Administrative Detention in Settler Colonial Australia,” Political Geography 89: 102457 (2021). Archival Materials“An Introduction to the Pilbara Region of Western Australia.” Recorded by the Premier's Department, Government of W.A [video recording] (1970). Held at the State Library of Western Australia and reproduced with their permission.Gyzele Osmani and Ann-Mari Jordens. Gyzele Osmani interviewed by Ann-Mari Jordens [sound recording] (2006). Held at the National Library of Australia and reproduced with their permission.This episode was supported by the Independent Social Research Fund and the Leverhulme Trust. 

**TW: This episode contains discussions of state violence that some people might find disturbing**On the 10th anniversary* of the massacre of 34 striking mine workers at Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, our host for this episode, Daniel Selwyn, investigates the transnational complicity of state and corporate actors, while amplifying voices from the ongoing struggles for justice and reparations. For listeners in London and the UK this episode is particularly close to home, as a massacre at a South African mine unravels into a story about the crimes of global capitalism in which we are all implicated. We’ll learn just how entangled Marikana is with the city of London, the suburbs of Germany, and corporate interests that ensnare the most powerful figure in South African politics. During the episode, Daniel speaks to community activists from Sinethemba Women’s Organisation, Thumeka Magwanqwana and Gabisile Khanyile, as well as a Marikana mine worker Bongisisa Gwiliza. He also speaks with the attorney for hundreds of incarcerated mineworkers, Andries Nkome, and Maren Grimm, who is part of the international solidarity movement with the communities in Marikana.*This episode first aired in 2022. 4 years later the families of the murdered mineworkers are still awaiting criminal accountability.**This episode was executively produced by Maia Holtermann Entwistle and Sharri Plonski. Surviving Society Productions co-produced, hosted and recorded episodes. Sound mixing and design by Bronte Dow and Surviving Society creative director George “Adders” Ofori-Addo. Interview with Surviving Society’s executive producer and host, Chantelle Lewis, alongside Tissot Regis.**Useful Links: London Mining Network: www.londonminingnetwork.orgMarikana Solidarity Collective: www.facebook.com/MarikanaSolidarityPlough Back the Fruits: www.basflonmin.comLonmin’s Wall of Shame: https://londonminingnetwork.org/lonmin-wall-of-shame/ Further Reading: Kerima Modideen and Richard Harkinson. “London’s Mining History, From Colonialism to Apartheid: Why Rhodes Must Fall,” 10 February 2016, https://londonminingnetwork.org/2016/02/londons-mining-history-from-colonialism-to-apartheid-why-rhodes-must-fall/.Hennie van Vuuren. “Apartheid, Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit,” (London: Hurst, 2018).Marinovich, Greg. “Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of the Marikana Massacre,” (London: Penguin Random House, 2016).Maren Grimm, Britta Becker and Jakob Krameritsch. “Business as Usual after Marikana: Corporate Power and Human Rights,” (South Africa: Jacana Media, 2018).This episode was supported by the Economics and Social Research Council and Queen Mary University of London. 

“But didn’t colonialism give them railways?” The “Cape-to-Cairo” railway was meant to stretch from Africa’s southern tip to Egypt in the north. It was the unrealised fantasy of an unruly cast of imperial hustlers, including most infamously Cecil Rhodes. As Dom Davies traces the legacy of this unfinished railway across Africa, he finds that tracks of colonial plunder, resource extraction, and white supremacy continue to haunt the continent. Talking to Adam Elliott-Cooper, Megan Jones, Uhuru Portia Phalafala, Sara Salem, and Jonny Steinberg, he explores the violence of the Cape-to-Cairo railway as both a symbolic and material crime. Using songs and poetry of resistance, he also unravels how fantasies of a connected Africa energised successive generations of activists, from Black Consciousness poets to Rhodes Must Fall. Additional Voice-work: Elleke Boehmer, Nic Coetzer, Simon Davies and Rodwell MakombeUseful LinksGlobal History of Capitalism Project, Case Study #31: Rhodes Must Fall: https://globalcapitalism.history.ox.ac.uk/files/case31-rhodesmustfallpdfThe Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes: https://info.publicintelligence.net/RhodesLastWill.pdfUCT Rhodes Must Fall Mission Statement: https://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/assets/documents/events/UCT-Rhodes-Must-Fall-Statement.pdfFurther ReadingDominic Davies. The Broken Promise of Infrastructure (Lawrence Wishart, 2023).Megan Jones. "The Train as Motif in Soweto Poetry," Literature, Critique, and Empire Today 53:1 (2018), pp. 21-42.Uhuru Portia Phalafala. Mine Mine Mine (University of Nebraska Press, 2023).Sara Salem. "Cape to Cairo." The Architectural Review (June 2025), pp.50-53.This episode was supported by the Independent Social Research Fund, Leverhulme Trust, and City St. George’s Department of Media, Culture, and Creative Industries. 

This season on Material Crimes...How can infrastructure be criminal? How does a road, a train or even a piece of real estate become a perpetrator of violence? Listen to Season three of material crimes as we try to answer these questions. Out 21st July!