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If you're ever looking for a place to start in community organizing, a good thing to do is look for ways to bridge these gaps for people. Be the person who fills out forms for your friends. Give somebody a ride who is stuck in a rural area. Make phone calls with/for people. If you can help people make things happen and get them to a point of stability and autonomy, that's how you build a network. Be a helper.
hi!! over the past year or so, i’ve been radicalizing leftwards (does that make sense?), and while i do like to say that i have a pretty good understanding of things like socialism and communism and such, one thing i haven’t really been able to figure out is what anarchism is and how it works. like, i get the basic idea, but what with google being google and most people on breadtube not being anarchist, it’s definitely not as easy to research as socialism.
anyways, tl;dr: what defines anarchism and how does it work?
thanks in advance! have a cookie 🍪
"Anarchism asserts the possibility of an organization without discipline, fear, or punishment, and without the pressure of poverty: a new social organism which will make an end to the terrible struggle for the means of existence,—the savage struggle which undermines the finest qualities in man, and ever widens the social abyss. In short, Anarchism strives towards a social organization which will establish well-being for all."
black anarchism reading list
guides for protesting safely and other opsec
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief resource list masterpost
So I just found https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/resources/ And it is AMAZING.
I could share it as a link but many of you won’t click it and realize the abundance of things behind it that might be relevant to you right now. So Instead I’m gonna copy-paste the lot so you can all share in its glory. No part of this list was my work, I take no credit, I’m just the copy-paster.
The hotlines and specific services are US centric. If people wanna add less US-centric sources, please do.
Disaster Response
A Window Propped Open A Window Propped Open Issue 2: Lessons Learned Organizing After Hurricane Harvey A Love Letter to the Future Mutual Fire Brigade Basic Rescue Skills Trauma and Therapeutic Art: Information for Children, Families and Volunteers Transition is Inevitable; Justice is Not: A Critical Framework for Just Recovery Staying Above Water: Global Migration in the Face of the Climate Crisis Mutual Aid Disaster Relief: Navigating Trauma Citizen’s Guide for Readiness for Climate Extremes in the Desert Southwest Inhabit: Instructions for Autonomy Solidarity for Survival: A Graphic Illustration The Resilience We Want – A Guide to Making Your Community Space into a Hub for Resilience and Mutual Aid When We Got Handed Gatorade We Danced in the Street: A Survivor’s Survival Guide Prisoners in Disaster: The Legacy of Abuse, Exploitation and Endangerment of Prisoners in Disaster A People’s Framework for Disaster Response: Rewriting the Rules of Recovery after Climate Disasters
Disaster Disability Hotline
The Partnership For Inclusive Disaster Strategy’s Disaster Disability Hotline provides information, referrals, guidance, technical assistance and resources to people with disabilities, their families, allies, organizations assisting disaster impacted individuals with disabilities and others seeking assistance with immediate and urgent disaster-related needs.
The Disaster Hotline is always available for intake calls, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year at (800) 626-4959 and [email protected]. They will have their knowledgeable team respond to your call as soon as possible, often immediately, and intend to respond to all callers within 24 hours.
Safety and DIY Cleanup
Repairing Your Flooded Home EPA Flood Cleanup Booklet DIY Field Guide For Clean-up Of Flooded Homes Safety Notice For Unskilled Or Nontrade Volunteers House Gutting Manual Muckout Safety Guidelines Toxic Chemicals and Staying Safe Mold Cleaning and Prevention Mold Cleaning and Prevention (Spanish) Black Mold Flyer
Wellness/Community Care
An Activists Guide to Basic First Aid Peer Counseling and Active Listening Alternatives to EMS Home Remedies for Common Maladies Traveling Companions Information on Heat and Related Illnesses Hypothermia Responding to Critical Incident Stress Class Struggle and Mental Health Zine Madness and Oppression Guide A Call for Prefigurative Mental Health Support and Communal Care for Radical Orgs
Emergency Prescription Assistance Program
The Emergency Prescription Assistance Program, or EPAP, was created to help people in a disaster who don’t have health insurance so they have access to: prescription medicine, medical equipment, medical supplies, and vaccinations. Hotline: 1-855-793-7470.
Trauma and Burnout
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief: Navigating Trauma Trauma_Overview Preventing Burnout Understanding and Coping with Traumatic Stress Understanding and Addressing Vicarious Trauma Grounding and Centering for Activists Rising Up Without Burning Out Sustainable Activism and Avoiding Burnout Psychological First Aid Activist Trauma and Recovery Trauma and Therapeutic Art: Information for Children, Families and Volunteers Community Trauma Toolkit Coping With_Climate_Change_Distress
Disaster Distress Helpline
The Disaster Distress Helpline, 1-800-985-5990, is a 24/7, 365-day-a–year, national hotline dedicated to providing immediate crisis counseling for people who are experiencing emotional distress related to any natural or human-caused disaster. This toll-free, multilingual, and confidential crisis support service is available to all residents in the United States and its territories. Stress, anxiety, and other depression-like symptoms are common reactions after a disaster.
Call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 to connect with a trained crisis counselor.
Legal/Security
Security Culture – A Handbook For Activists Ruckus Security Culture For Activists Know Your Rights: Immigration and Disaster Relief Council on American Islamic Relations Know Your Rights Guide National Lawyers Guild Know Your Rights Guide Why Misogynists Make Great Informants
Disaster Legal Hotlines
Legal Aid of North Carolina: 1 866 219 5262 Florida Legal Services’ Disaster Recovery: 888 780 0443 State Bar of Texas Disaster Hotline: 800 504 7030 California Disaster Legal Services For More Legal Aid Disaster Hotlines go to: American Bar Association
Anti Oppression
Accomplices Not Allies Why Misogynists Make Great Informants Who Is Oakland: Anti Oppression Activism, The Politics of Safety, and State Co-optation Anti-Oppression Reader With Allies Like These Challenging Capitalism And Patriarchy Confronting Classism Contextualizing Katrina and Confronting Racism Guidelines For Being A Strong White Ally Overcoming Discrimination Patterns of Patriarchy Commonly Observed within Social Justice Movements Readings on Racism and Resistance for Solidarity Activists Ten Things To Remember – AntiRacist Strategies For White Student Radicals The Revolution Starts At Home – Confronting Partner Abuse In Radical Communities Towards A Perspective On Unlearning Racism
Kitchen and Food Handling
Popular Education and Direct Action
You Have Skills: Evaluating What Skills You Can Bring to Radical Organizing From Banks and Tanks to Cooperation and Caring Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns Handbook For Direct Action Affinity Groups Affinity Groups 2 On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict Participating In Direct Actions -A Guide For Transgender People Planning An Action Rising Tide Climate Change Popular Education Ruckus Action Planning Manual Ruckus Action Strategy Guide Ruckus Scouting Manual For Activists Social Change Vision Questions Core Curriculum – A Guide To Effective Nonviolent Struggle What Do We Mean by Mutual Aid? Metodo de Trabajo y Organizacion Popular Manual de Planificación Para Organizaciones Sociales
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Also for even more resources, check out this Mutual Aid Toolbox from Big Door Brigade and these How To guides from Shareable.
At the height of the Greek crash in 2011, staff at Viome clocked in to confront an existential quandary. The owners of their parent company had gone bust and abandoned the site, in the second city of Thessaloniki. From here, the script practically wrote itself: their plant, which manufactured chemicals for the construction industry, would be shut. There would be immediate layoffs, and dozens of families would be plunged into poverty. And seeing as Greece was in the midst of the greatest economic depression ever seen in the EU, the workers’ chances of getting another job were close to nil. So they decided to occupy their own plant. Not only that, they turned it upside down. For a start, no one is boss. There is no hierarchy, and everyone is on the same wage. Factories traditionally work according to a production-line model, where each person does one- or two-minute tasks all day, every day: you fit the screen, I fix the protector, she boxes up the iPhone. Here, everyone gathers at 7am for a mud-black Greek coffee and a chat about what needs to be done. Only then are the day’s tasks divvied up. And, yes, they each take turns to clean the toilets. When the workers consulted the local community about what they should start to produce, one request was to stop making building chemicals. They now largely manufacture soap and eco-friendly household detergents: cleaner, greener and easier on their neighbours’ noses. Staff use the building as an assembly point for local refugees, and I saw the offices being turned over to medics for a weekly free neighbourhood clinic for workers and locals. The Greek healthcare system has been shredded by spending cuts, its handling of refugees sometimes atrocious; yet in both cases, the workers at Viome are doing their best to offer substitutes. Where the state has collapsed, the market has come up short and the boss class has literally fled, these 26 workers are attempting to fill the gaps. These are people who have been failed by capitalism; now they reject capitalism itself as a failure.
“The last time I checked my textbooks, the specific therapy for malnutrition was food”
—
Dr. Jack Geiger, quoted in Rebecca Onie’s Ted Talk What if our healthcare system kept us healthy?
“In 1965 Dr. Geiger founded one of the first two community health centers in this country, in a brutally poor area in the Mississippi Delta. And so many of his patients came in presenting with malnutrition that be began prescribing food for them. And they would take these prescriptions to the local supermarket, which would fill them and then charge the pharmacy budget of the clinic. And when the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. – which was funding Geiger’s clinic – found out about this, they were furious. And they sent this bureaucrat down to tell Geiger that he was expected to use their dollars for medical care – to which Geiger famously and logically responded, “The last time I checked my textbooks, the specific therapy for malnutrition was food.“”
(via mdintraining)
How To Get Active And Get Organized!
you know i don’t think we often talk about how difficult it actually is to suddenly realize that a belief you thought was good and moral and correct was actually really fucking toxic. how you have to look at something and go ‘oh shit, oh i fucked up. oh this is going to take probably years at minimum to deprogram from my brain because of all the little ways this shit pervaded the rest of my beliefs’
so. to all the people picking up all the pieces of a recently shattered world-view and trying to figure out what is safe to keep and what has to be thrown away and started over
to all the people having to relearn how to even listen to other people
to all the people putting in the work to do better while struggling with the guilt that comes from finding out you were the asshole
i’m proud of y’all.
it’s hard to admit being wrong and even harder to change in the aftermath. just keep doing the best you can and just know that the effort is appreciated. everyone can change. everyone can do better. keep fighting.
I was raised with some horrendously ableist and fatphobic views and god it’s fucking difficult to uproot those. Be patient with people who are trying to change
I saw a post the other day trying to dunk on someone by saying "You will never see anarchy during your lifetime."
At the risk of sounding trite, I think we all see anarchy during our lifetimes, in those (admittedly and increasingly rare) moments when we're free from coercion and drudgery and can enjoy freedom and comradeship. I would almost go as far as to say that seeing anarchy in our lifetimes and wanting to see more of it is what makes people become anarchists
- Build an affinity group. An affinity group is a small group of 5 to 20 people who work together autonomously on direct actions or other projects. Affinity groups generally consist of like minded people who come together to get something done. If you already have an affinity group, link and cluster those groups!
- Skill up. Delinking from capitalism and colonial apparatuses requires us to learn how to do things for ourselves and each other beyond buying, selling, working, or asking the state to help us. From self and collective defense, to gardening, building bikes, unschooling, and caring for each other- we can learn a skill and share a skill. We can change how we value skills and dismantle hierarchies of class and ableism.
- Establish and practice good security culture. Security culture is necessary to survive state repression. We can stop a lot of infiltration and disinformation in its tracks by improving our ways of communicating and navigating conflict. We can still be horizontal and transparent without sacrificing security and safety.
- Practice transformative and restorative justice. Strong communities make police and prisons obsolete. We can change our culture to prevent violence and abuse. We can build up our capacities to confront and resolve conflicts. We can strengthen our ties and detoxify our relationships so harm has no space to grow in our communities.
- Mutual Aid. Start a mutual aid group and provide necessary support to those who are in need. Mutual aid organizing can ensure our communities are not dependent on corporations and the state. Shift your use of resources to things you can grow and make or procure from others in resistance. Build networks of aid and resources beyond capitalism.
- Mutual defense. From arms training to street tactics to bystander interventions and safety teams, we need to have the skills and resources to defend our communities from fascist attacks on our people, non-human beings, and lands.
- Build and sustain conflict infrastructure. Conflict Infrastructure is any structure we organize helps us be more effective in our fights. This is infrastructure that goes beyond solely providing awareness and services and instead builds our capacity to wage actual resistance. From community gardens and collectively coordinated farms to infoshops and independent media/communications.
- Open squats for unsheltered folx. Rent is theft. Private property is colonial violence upon the land. Abolish rent and private property. Rematriate lands to original caretakers. Create spaces to live beyond landlords.
- Defend and reclaim ancestral lands. Because #landback means ending colonial occupation and restoring Indigenous stewardship of our ancestral lands. Regenerate our sacred relations, and all that entails spiritually and materially, with our original homelands. Liberate the sacred.
- Reparations. Seize what has been stolen from Black and Indigenous Peoples and liberate it back. Radical redistribution is necessary.
- Shut shit down. Intervene in critical infrastructure at the points where capitalism and colonialism are at their most vulnerable. Seize the streets, factories, ports, fracking pads, pipelines, power stations, smash the borders, be smart and be creative! It’s also an effective way to target those industries perpetuating climate change.
- Be fiercely intersectional. ‘Cause we’re not taking those old shitty behaviors with us. Fuck anti-blackness, fuck orientalism, fuck islamaphobia, fuck anti-semitism, fuck transphobia, fuck heteropatriarchy, fuck white supremacy, fuck imperialism, fuck ableism, fuck hierarchy, fuck racism, fuck citizenship, fuck privilege, fuck everything fucked up!
- Practice Radical Self & Collective Care. To remain dangerous to power we must care for ourselves and each other. Learn common triggers and how to communicate without being fucked up. Learn to communicate your needs, boundaries, and wants effectively and nontoxicly – remember that folks in the struggle and resistance have the hardest time accessing resources for mental and spiritual care. Movement work can be unsustainable to those with many experiences of settler policing and violence triggers – find ways to communicate and negotiate group norms and boundaries that accommodate peoples’ needs if reasonable. Identify toxic communication patterns and learn / create ways to dismantle them and communicate in more healthy and less harmful ways.Be honest about your limitations and care for yourself and each other. The christianized, capitalized colonial state has taught us to never rest or heal. Reject any attempts at coercing people to go beyond their limits. Radical self-care keeps us safe and invulnerable when consistently engaging in agitating governability by the state.
- Make everything accessible for everyone. Reject ableism and objectification of our bodies and lives, establish community care networks with people equipped to provide first aid and care support to a full spectrum of needs. Challenge ableism in our language, how we organize, and how we value each other. We are all enough.
- Abolish Rape Culture. Study rape and rape culture and how it relates to the desecration of sacred lands. Transform our culture and practices around dating, humor, relationships, sexuality, consent, parties, sex labor, and play to abolish rape culture. Hold mactivists, rapists, abusers, opportunists, and creeps accountable. Center consent and healthy relationships in everything we do everywhere.
- Spread radical and militant joy. We can fuck shit up while we dance, sing, party, laugh, play, wonder, have deep conversations, tell stories, make art, make love, make magic, make brilliance, make awesomeness, and have fun.
With all the talk about telling people to start planting and growing crops to feed themselves and their communities during this time of crisis, I’m surprised I haven’t seen much about HOW MUCH to plant to feed people. Here’s a good article to serve as a jumping-off point, to give people an idea of when to plant and how much to plant to keep people fed. Keep in mind that unless you live on a fairly sizeable plot of land that has ideal growing conditions, you probably won’t be able to completely feed a family of four, at least with traditional gardening methods. However, you can still heavily supplement your diet with homegrown food if you plot your garden carefully.
Some things you can do to save space include growing plants in stackable towers rather than flat rows. Not everything can grow this way, but growing herbs or even strawberries or some kinds of tomatoes in them can save a lot of space. Bonus points if you can get some vertical vining plants like beans or tomatoes to grow up the sides of them to maximize the space used.
Hanging planters can also be used for things like tomatoes, herbs, some berries, etc. The people who grew up watching TV in the 2000s may remember ads for the topsy-turvy tomato planter. I can’t vouch for the effectiveness of them, but it may be good inspiration for creative DIY hanging planters.
Many people don’t seem to know this (to be fair, it’s not very intuitive), but small melons and gourds can be grown vertically on a trellis. You will need pantyhose or something else that can act like a sling for when the fruit gets large enough, and you’ll also want to make sure the trellis is very sturdy. Here is an example of a watermelon growing on a trellis, with squash growing in the background:
Other good options that require a bit more DIY are hydroponics towers and walls. It’s basically just a series of pipes with holes for plants to grow out of. The only downside is they will require very regular fertilization and supplementation with other micronutrients that are essential for plant growth, because the plants are typically grown in either a non-nutritious medium like coconut coir or nothing at all.
Planter walls are the next step down, basically just building shelves with pots in them to fill with soil. Put these on a wall that gets good morning sun and some afternoon sunlight for best results. These and hydroponics both also have the advantage of being able to hook up to your gutters so that rainwater will go towards watering your plants rather than just being wasted.
If you want to get really fancy, aquaponics is the next step up. With aquaponics, you create a system that circulates water between plants and a tank full of fish. The fish waste provides fertilizer for the plants, and the plants help filter out the waste so the water stays cleaner. I’ve heard they’re a bit tricky to establish, but once you find the right balance, all you’ll need to do is feed the fish. This has the added bonus of providing a source of fish for people who can’t eat things like nuts and legumes but need protein. Here is a link to an article explaining what aquaponics is, how it works, and how it differs from hydroponics.
I also want to add that if you don’t have the space or ability to maintain a large garden, there are other options. Find or create a group with access to enough food to supplement or completely fulfill your diet, and offer another service. If you have space for a vermicompost bin or tower, that can still help contribute to the garden. Learning other skills like soap making, cooking, sewing/knitting/crocheting, electrical skills like wiring and soldering, welding, woodworking/carpentry, etc. means you will still have valuable skills to contribute towards the group, and this will set up the basis for a larger mutual aid network within your community.
Unless you have a huge amount of land, resources, a shitload of free time and a lot of gardening skills, trying to live completely off your own garden within a year is a ridiculous idea.
Most of us can’t do it ever even if we use all our space perfectly. Some of us can do it after years of building those skills, and we might still have bad years. And in the end, what does it get us? Self-reliance is a right-wing preppers dream but it isn’t what we should be aiming for.
If we’re thinking about collective survival and we’re looking at food as part of that survival, there’s two things that work:
- Start a community garden. Bring together the resources, time and skills by getting together in a big group.
- Or learn to grow a few crops really well and share them with all your friends.
The last one is what I’m going for and it works great. You can chose a few crops that are perfect for your soil, shade/sun conditions, skill level, amount of time, etc. Perfect those crops so you’ll have a huge harvest, and share share share. With a couple of friends doing the same, it’s much easier to get to a point where you’re no longer relying on stores for your fruit and veg.
If you have permanent long term space but limited time? Fruit trees and berry bushes.
If you have a lot of nice soil and can do physically exhausting work? Potatoes, pumpkins, zucchini.
If you have a green house? SOOOO many tomatoes. Fruits that require warmth. etc.
Are you a gardening nerd with time and an interest in learning complicated plants? Take on the challenges like broccoli, cauliflower and depending on your needs, location and options, maybe cannabis? Or build a permaculture garden if that’s your thing.
If you have a balcony or window sill or prefer to do light work in high mobile planters due to limited space or mobility? Leafy greens, herbs, radishes, carrots, maybe a small tomato plant.
Together, we have complementary needs and abilities.