how-to-do-activism

[how-to-do-activism]

I’ve already reblogged a link to this entire article by @crimethinc, but I wanted to highlight the excellent ‘resources’ section on its own as we approach the election. For an anarchist take on the current climate, a list of upcoming actions, and a dope-ass poster to print and distribute, please do check out the full article as well

Trump’s term is ending as it began, with a likelihood of street conflict. The following guides offer a great deal of information about how to participate in effective protests while protecting yourself and your community.

Getting Connected

How to Form an Affinity Group

Find a Local Mutual Aid Network

Where to Find Your Local Medic Collective—This is not comprehensive, but offers a good starting point.

Security Culture

What Is Security Culture?

Bounty Hunters and Child Predators: Inside the FBI Entrapment Strategy

When the Police Knock on Your Door—Your rights and options: a legal guide

If the FBI Approaches You to Become an Informant—An FAQ

You can find a lot of important information about general security in protest situations here.

Digital Communications and Security

Your Phone Is a Cop—An OpSec/InfoSec primer for the dystopian present.

Communications Equipment for Rebels

Burner Phone Best Practices—A user’s guide

Doxcare—Prevention and aftercare for those targeted by doxxing and political harassment

This thread spells out how to protect your privacy via proper phone safety at demonstrations—before, during, and after the protest.

Dressing for Success and Security

Fashion Tips for the Brave

The Femme’s Guide to Riot Fashion—This season’s hottest looks for the discerning femme.

Staying Safe in the Streets

Blocs, Black and Otherwise

Safety Gear

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Helmets

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Gas Masks and Goggles—Everything you need to know to protect your eyes and lungs from gas and projectiles.

You can read some more tips about protest gear from protesters in Hong Kong here.

Strategy, Planning, and Tactics

A Step-by-Step Guide to Direct Action—What It Is, What It’s Good for, How It Works

Tools and Tactics in the Portland Protests—This text offers an overview of a wide range of options from leaf blowers and umbrellas to shields and lasers.

Creative Direct Action Visuals—Making banners and more.

Blockade Tactics—courtesy of the Ruckus Society

Tips about Blockading—from Beautiful Trouble

Lock Boxes—How to blockade with

Jail Support

Jail Support

Jail Support form from Rosehip Collective—Fill this out in advance of any event at which you might be arrested and leave it with your attorney or a support contact.

NLG National Support Hotlines and Other Resources

When Things Go Badly

Making the Best of Mass Arrests

How to Survive a Felony Trial—Keeping your head up through the worst of it

I Was a J20 Street Medic and Defendant—How we survived the first J20 trial and what we learned along the way.

Basic First Aid in the Streets

First Aid for Protestors

Eye safety at protests—You can read more on how to do an eye flush here

How to Protect Yourself from Audio Attacks—LRAD, sirens, etc.

COVID-19 Safety at Protests

You can obtain more graphics on this subject here.

For Experienced Medics

Protocols for Common Injuries from Police Weapons—For street medics and medical professionals treating demonstrators.

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Responding to Gunshot Wounds—It can also be useful to read these accounts from people who have experienced gunfire at demonstrations.

These four zines from the Rosehip Medic Collective include a range of useful information.

This collection of resources that appeared shortly before Trump took office includes more topical material, addressing non-violence, solidarity, white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and more.

[how-to-do-activism]

[how-to-do-activism]

I really think we need to stop looking at /solidarity/ as an innate process where oppressed communities NATURALLY align with other oppressed communities and instead look at solidarity as an OVERTLY coalitionary tactic, one that is borne through learning and compassion

[how-to-do-activism]

Here are 26 ways to join the fight against police violence if showing up at a protest isn’t an option.

https://echolaliachamber.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/beyond-the-streets-accessible-version/

[how-to-do-activism]

girl we don't "believe in electoralism" that's just the system we live in!!!

Look I saved all my cynicism about this for after the election so that nobody could complain that I was discouraging people from voting.

You're right. This is the system that we live in. I absolutely do not have to be happy about that, I do not have to suggest that voting is the bare minimum that you should do in that system, and I do not have to suggest that the existence of that system precludes other systems within it.

I'm living in America but I don't believe in that either, so why should I act like a bicameral legislature that is nearly ineffectual even when one party controls both houses, a captured supreme court, and what is functionally a royal without a fancy hat are good things to try to square into a functional system?

This shit sucks but I cannot hit the bricks and so I will be complaining about it while offering suggestions for improvements both within and outside the system.

When I don't offer any suggestions people say that I'm not offering any suggestions. When I offer only anarchist suggestions people say I'm discouraging voting. When I say "research judges and pay attention to local elections because city council members become mayors become governors" you're saying "well that's the system."

Yeah! And it sucks! It should be fixed (or at least marginally improved) instead of accepted and that's why I made suggestions to that end!

[how-to-do-activism]

You act like California voters just love electoralism and the current system. Yes, I voted to reelect him because if I didn't (as in voted for literally any other candidate because of the way reelection works) a Republican would have been put in office. I actually do jail support because much of my family has been jailed so its a central part of my life, but why Newsom was reelected is so abundantly obvious. You can't be a single-issue voter and ideological purity is a fool's errand.

I voted for Newsom yesterday too, and literally most of the words on that post are about voting.

I'm not sure how it's ideological purity to say "if you're going to whine that you had no choice and all you can do is vote you are overlooking a significant amount of work that needs to be done to make electoralism even mildly functional" then give MANY suggestions for how to improve your individual participation in an electoral system as well as suggestions for how to do things outside of an electoral system if you don't think electoralism works.

I literally offered both options.

I'm going to go ahead and quote myself here:

So yeah if you want electoralism to work you have to actually *get deeply and viscerally involved at a local level in a way that requires a significant investment of time and effort* instead of just saying that there was no one else to vote for.

What about this makes you think that I'm saying both parties are the same, or that I'm saying not to vote?

Here's the thing: at this point I'm not even voting because I think it works, I'm voting because my unbroken 18-year streak of participating in literally every primary, state election, national election, recall election, and city council runoff means that none of you can claim I'm acting like voting doesn't matter.

If you are being criticized for the candidates you elect and then are getting defensive and claiming that you voted for the candidate who was your only choice then I'm not the one saying electoralism doesn't work, you are.

If you are saying that you had to vote for the lesser of two evils and there was nothing you could do to prevent that then I'm not the one claiming that your system doesn't allow for change or diverse opinions, you are.

You voted for a shitty candidate because a shitty candidate was what you had. You are now mad that people are calling your candidate shitty. I am telling you what options your system has to improve the candidates that are available for you vote for, and you are accusing me of being too ideologically precious to cast a ballot.

Look bud, I don't get defensive about voting for shitty candidates. I don't throw up my hands and go "well what was I supposed to do?!?" It's harm reduction. Acknowledge that it sucks and figure out how to improve your local politics so that maybe we'll stop electing state governors who claim to be helping the homeless after criminalizing sitting on the street.

Either that or accept that it probably doesn't matter, vote for the shitty candidate who is least shitty, and get back to doing actual work, which it sounds like you're already doing so it shouldn't be that big of an effort.

But don't expect people to be happy and proud of voting for someone who sicced the san francisco PD on panhandlers as the democratic hope to end the "housing crisis."

[how-to-do-activism]

Ugh, hate that people can turn of reblogs (fully understand it, you do you, but i'm going to jump off of this regardless). Anyway:

Hi, I'm bitching from inside your state. What you can do is jail support. What you can do is write to prisoners. What you can do is donate to, volunteer with, and support prison library programs. What you can do is materially make an effort to improve the lives of people who are being legally enslaved by our state's laws.

If you believe in electoralism what you can do is research the judges on the ballot and vote for the ones who have a history as public defenders, not as prosecutors. You can learn about prison abolition and talk about it to your more mainstream friends and relatives. You can talk to your representatives about universally ending cash bail, not just means-testing it. You can talk to your normie relatives about why liberal DAs like George Gascon don't cause spikes in crime. You can examine your local city council budget, go to city council meetings, and ask that money currently being spent on police instead be spent on things like permanent housing solutions for the unhoused or a city social worker who can help connect people struggling with poverty to support services. Become a grind about it. Get really, really annoying about it. It turns out it's really easy to harass small city councils. You can vote in primaries, and research candidates WELL before primaries because before Newsom was governor he was Lieutenant Governor, and before he was Lieutenant Governor, and before he was Lieutenant Governor he was Mayor, and before he was Mayor he was on the city board of supervisors, which he was first appointed to and then reelected as an incumbent four times. Did you research your city board of supervisors during the last election, or did you vote straight ticket because small offices don't matter? Who'd you vote for for school board? Were there other candidates who could have run instead? Do you know who they were? Or how you could have supported them? Was your city council entirely made up of people who own businesses in the downtown area? What would it take to help your neighbor, or a local librarian, or literally anyone who isn't going to shit blood over high density housing run instead?

Fuck it, you can go out and collect fucking signatures. It takes about a million voter signatures in six months to get a constitutional amendment on the California ballot. It was the legislative push that failed, not a voter-initiated one. Why are you leaving this up to elected officials? This is a voter issue.

So yeah if you want electoralism to work you have to actually *get deeply and viscerally involved at a local level in a way that requires a significant investment of time and effort* instead of just saying that there was no one else to vote for.

And if you don't think electoralism will work you can still do your due diligence and research candidates anyway and then go out and get a thermos of coffee, a cheap cellphone, a friend, and a bunch of small bills to go take the midnight to five am shift making calls for people getting released from jail in the middle of the night. I know in LA they cut them loose at that hour because buses aren't running and they don't have money or a phone for a cab or an uber or to call a relative so if the cops are feeling bored they'll just go cite a bunch of just-released people for loitering. You and a cellphone and a friend can prevent at least that much.

[how-to-do-activism]

[how-to-do-activism]

[how-to-do-activism]

Prison Book Programs Directory

Interested in volunteering for or donating to a prison books program? Below is a directory of US volunteer programs that send books to incarcerated persons. This list is, to my knowledge, complete & accurate as of Sep. 2022. If you know of other programs I should add to this list, please let me know.

Arizona Tucson - Arizona Read Between the Bars

California Claremont - The Prison Library Project La Jolla - Books for Prisoners San Deigo San Francisco - Prison Literature Program

Florida Gainesville - Gainesville Books for Prisoners

Illinois Chicago - Chicago Books to Women in Prison Urbana - Urbana Champaign Books to Prisoners

Indiana Bloomington - Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project

Louisiana New Orleans - Books 2 Prisoners (email books2prisoners@riseup.net)

Maryland Hyattsville - DC Prisons Book Project

Massachusetts Amherst - Prison Book Project Quincy - Prison Book Project

Minnesota Minneapolis - Womens Prison Book Project

New York Ithaca - Books Through Bars of Ithaca New York City - Books Through Bars NYC

North Carolina Asheville - Asheville Prison Books Program Chapel Hill - Internationalist Prison Books Collective

Ohio Columbus - Red Bird Books to Prisoners

Oregon Portland - Portland Books to Prisoners

Pennsylvania Philadelphia - Books Through Bars

Texas Austin - Inside Books Project

Utah Salt Lake City - Beehive Books Behind Bars

Washington Seattle - Books To Prisoners

West Virginia Morgantown - Appalachian Prison Book Project

[how-to-do-activism]

I’ve already reblogged a link to this entire article by @crimethinc, but I wanted to highlight the excellent ‘resources’ section on its own as we approach the election. For an anarchist take on the current climate, a list of upcoming actions, and a dope-ass poster to print and distribute, please do check out the full article as well

Trump’s term is ending as it began, with a likelihood of street conflict. The following guides offer a great deal of information about how to participate in effective protests while protecting yourself and your community.

Getting Connected

How to Form an Affinity Group

Find a Local Mutual Aid Network

Where to Find Your Local Medic Collective—This is not comprehensive, but offers a good starting point.

Security Culture

What Is Security Culture?

Bounty Hunters and Child Predators: Inside the FBI Entrapment Strategy

When the Police Knock on Your Door—Your rights and options: a legal guide

If the FBI Approaches You to Become an Informant—An FAQ

You can find a lot of important information about general security in protest situations here.

Digital Communications and Security

Your Phone Is a Cop—An OpSec/InfoSec primer for the dystopian present.

Communications Equipment for Rebels

Burner Phone Best Practices—A user’s guide

Doxcare—Prevention and aftercare for those targeted by doxxing and political harassment

This thread spells out how to protect your privacy via proper phone safety at demonstrations—before, during, and after the protest.

Dressing for Success and Security

Fashion Tips for the Brave

The Femme’s Guide to Riot Fashion—This season’s hottest looks for the discerning femme.

Staying Safe in the Streets

Blocs, Black and Otherwise

Safety Gear

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Helmets

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Gas Masks and Goggles—Everything you need to know to protect your eyes and lungs from gas and projectiles.

You can read some more tips about protest gear from protesters in Hong Kong here.

Strategy, Planning, and Tactics

A Step-by-Step Guide to Direct Action—What It Is, What It’s Good for, How It Works

Tools and Tactics in the Portland Protests—This text offers an overview of a wide range of options from leaf blowers and umbrellas to shields and lasers.

Creative Direct Action Visuals—Making banners and more.

Blockade Tactics—courtesy of the Ruckus Society

Tips about Blockading—from Beautiful Trouble

Lock Boxes—How to blockade with

Jail Support

Jail Support

Jail Support form from Rosehip Collective—Fill this out in advance of any event at which you might be arrested and leave it with your attorney or a support contact.

NLG National Support Hotlines and Other Resources

When Things Go Badly

Making the Best of Mass Arrests

How to Survive a Felony Trial—Keeping your head up through the worst of it

I Was a J20 Street Medic and Defendant—How we survived the first J20 trial and what we learned along the way.

Basic First Aid in the Streets

First Aid for Protestors

Eye safety at protests—You can read more on how to do an eye flush here

How to Protect Yourself from Audio Attacks—LRAD, sirens, etc.

COVID-19 Safety at Protests

You can obtain more graphics on this subject here.

For Experienced Medics

Protocols for Common Injuries from Police Weapons—For street medics and medical professionals treating demonstrators.

A Demonstrator’s Guide to Responding to Gunshot Wounds—It can also be useful to read these accounts from people who have experienced gunfire at demonstrations.

These four zines from the Rosehip Medic Collective include a range of useful information.

This collection of resources that appeared shortly before Trump took office includes more topical material, addressing non-violence, solidarity, white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and more.

[how-to-do-activism]

Posted on January 28, 2022 by J Parampathu

Case readers with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee are volunteers who assist incarcerated members of the Industrial Workers of the World with filing legal appeals and grievances against their prisons’ administrators. While case readers do not provide legal services per se, they do connect incarcerated people with information and resources by looking up relevant case law, formatting legal documents, and researching procedural requirements. Case readers may be outside supporters or incarcerated people themselves.

Incarcerated people receiving legal assistance from a lawyer may nevertheless benefit from case readers. When incarcerated people are having difficulties communicating with their lawyers, for example, case readers on the outside can follow up with attorneys to ensure that they remain accountable to their clients. Having a case reader advocating on the outside also helps keep both legal offices and prison administrators aware that incarcerated people have supportive communities, which can thereby ensure that they are not denied their rights or simply ignored. Case readers on the outside may also assist incarcerated people by hand-delivering mail and other documents, as well as covering legal fees, with IWOC providing reimbursement.

Maintaining lines of communication is a serious barrier for effective prison assistance, and the nature of IWOC’s work presents unique difficulties to organizing. Legal barriers can prevent IWOC stipends from reaching incarcerated case readers, and related correspondence is routinely subjected to search and censor. Incarcerated case readers may also face reprisal for their activities and be punished harshly.

Brianna Peril, a founding member of IWOC, notes that while incarcerated people working on appeals may not face retaliation for doing so, those who are filing cases against their prisons and administrators, or organizing to improve conditions, are often brutally suppressed. Incarcerated case readers therefore take on immense personal risk in providing assistance to fellow incarcerated people. Peril notes that, while incarcerated case readers know that their work with IWOC puts them at risk of retaliation, they nevertheless continue and persevere. 

When asked why case readers may be preferable to traditional legal assistance, Peril answers, “Well, for one, it actually exists.” In other words: Because of the long odds involved with winning appellate cases and the little chance of any monetary reward involved with prison grievances, these cases typically do not attract the attention of financially motivated legal professionals. Traditional counsel is thus often cost prohibitive, and the otherwise free legal aid available to incarcerated people is spread quite thin. Add the additional difficulties of communicating with incarcerated clients, as compared to those still awaiting trial, and case readers can be an incarcerated person’s only hope.

Interested in getting involved? Contact IWOC today.

[how-to-do-activism]

Good grief.

[how-to-do-activism]

[how-to-do-activism]

i know hearing people on this website love to pass around those posts with links to free sign language lessons but you know you need to actually put effort into learning about Deaf culture, too, right?

[how-to-do-activism]

Why do my interests in canning, couponing, and homesteading overlap so often with blogs with titles like ‘The Obedient Housewife’?