eyestrain bifauxnen

On twitter I’m seeing dozens of threads from Black activists warning people against burnout, giving all sorts of useful tips about preventing and managing it for the sake of a long-term, sustainable effort.

On tumblr I’m seeing a hell of a lot of young white kids yelling at anyone who actually follows those steps, and acting like burnout is a moral falling rather than a well-proven psychological phenomenon.

Be careful who you get your information from. Don’t let guilt lead you to make choices that will harm both you and the movement.

I’m going to reblog this again since I see more individuals are inquiring about burnout prevention tips in the notes and it’s why I sought out this resource. I hope it helps you!

source

Police may also feign kettles in order to cause a protest to disperse.

Protests that move quickly are harder to kettle (but are easier to split up as people get left behind). Something important to note is that kettles are used by police to gather intelligence. Police may tell you that you will be allowed to leave if you provide your name and your address, if you give information about other protestors etc. Police can and will lie to you, do not trust them. Never talk to cops. Being trapped in a kettle is stressful. Police may decide to arrest a few of you or all of you. Their goal is to gather information and to demoralize you. They might threaten or harass you. Your goal should be to remain calm and to help the people around you remain calm. Remember if nobody talks, everyone walks.

Fourth in a series I of comics about protesting safety tips I made with @this.is.ysabel . This one is about the dangers of police surveillance and how to avoid it if possible. Keep being safe when you go out. Don’t get snatched!

for gods sake please if you were involved in a riot or a violent protest or any kind of illegal direct action do NOT post about it on tumblr! especially not with pictures! you are putting yourself and your comrades at risk! if you intend to discuss your experience for the purpose of educating others, be as vague as possible about where you were and what the situation was. again, NO PICTURES!

really the best form of pro-palestine protest in the US is blocking weapons shipments to israel. iirc this happened recently but I think the ship is so far delayed

the US government is not changing its foreign policy based on public opinion, at most biden has tried to do damage control by politely requesting israel be less obvious about the war crimes, but explicitly still supports the genocide.

Currently the shipment was blocked in Oakland California and will attempt to be unloaded today in Tacoma, Washington I can pretty much guarantee it'll have to give up on Tacoma too because this isn't the first time the PNW has said "fuck this and fuck you" to Israeli weapons shipments It took a couple weeks extra in 2021 for the merchant ship the Zim to find a port to finally offload its deadly shipment Port blockades are extremely effective direct action and cost the companies involved millions, sometimes millions per hour In 2021 they had to go to some fairly remote port because people were so determined to show up wherever that merchant of death did and refute it Fascists turned out at almost every port attempting attacks, ranging from fist fights to vehicular assaults to attempted mass shootings and the expected police repression

It's dangerous and extremely vital work to hold the line whenever and wherever we can to keep the materiel necessary for war and genocide from reaching its intended destinations.

Deleted all the stupid comments. Here’s some practical advice from a actual street medic who spent a chunk of 2020-2021 in jail for protesting:

1 never use plywood or anything so heavy/splinterable for signs or protest shields. Invest time in making a battlejacket, arm shields, and shin shields.

2 you cannot stop a police horse by pressing on its chest. Get out the way. I don’t care what that pink haired rich white kid on tiktok said. Those things are trained to bowl you over and trample you; get out the way.

3 if you wanna trash the cop shields and masks, mix sand, finely crushed (used up) light bulbs, and paint and fill heavy duty water balloons with them (or condoms). If you’re good, these projectiles can be launched from a t shirt gun. When the cops go to clean their gear, the sand and finely crushed glass gouges the face shields/riot shields beyond repair. They must now spend money and time getting new ones, and meanwhile, they’re in short supply for the next riot. Be warned that if you get caught with these (in the USA), they will likely try to charge you with domestic terrorism. Be smart.

4 cover your face and all distinctive tattoos/birthmarks/scars. Don’t post pictures of yourself or others at the protest. It’s not a block party. They arrested a woman who set a cop car on fire because they had a pic of her tattoo and traced her unique shirt from an etsy purchase. Read “In Defense Of Smashing Cameras” and tell photojornos to fuck off; break their cameras if you have to. They will get people killed

5 cops lie. If you get bagged (again us centric advice), keep your mouth shut. It’s “I invoke the 5th” and “I invoke my right to legal counsel” on repeat no matter what they say or do.

6 stop dumping milk in people’s fucking eyes for tear gas. Not only do this mark darker skinned people for arrest, it’s inviting infection. Use only sterile water or saline solution on the face and in the eyes. (Likewise do not dump baking soda solutions in people’s eyes; while this is good for skin below the neck that has been affected by tear gas, it can scratch the cornea of the eye)

7 DO NO HARM. if you are not trained in CPR, how to use a tourniquet, how to intubate someone, tal tal tal, don’t try. Never try to treat people above your skill level because you could seriously injure them instead.

8 riots are often outpourings of grief, anger, built up resentment at oppressive systems. They are truly the language of the unheard but the riot is not where the majority of the work happens; don’t wait until people are rioting in the streets of your town. Plug in to your local outreach; find something to get passionate about, whether it’s feeding people, gardening for sustainability, legal aid for immigrants, housing and rent relief, etc.

y’all realize you can riot and organize AND vote right? like it’s not either or

i’m so sick of this “give up on voting and just riot” mindset like y’know you can vote to try and stop more of these chucklefucks from gaining power AND ALSO riot and protest and organize in fact it’s ENCOURAGED that you do BOTH

Agree.. ppl are all upset that voting makes them ~complicit in the system~ but like it or not we are all In the Fucking System right now with people actively using it to make our lives materially worse. So we can try to vote for harm reduction within the system, instead of letting the system steamroll our human rights without any resistance. And once you’ve voted to keep Transphobe McAntisemite out of your local office, you can still protest and do mutual aid and build a strong community that is capable of existing outside the system.

whoever the fuck i saw saying “i can’t stand english bitching because they’re so complacent” and whoever else thinks we’re not doing enough i’d like to invite you to DO SOME FUCKING RESEARCH.

a law was recently passed that deemed any kind of protesting as disruptive and able to be punished by the police, alongside giving the police more power.

we all watched the police storm the PEACEFUL VIGIL for sarah everard - a woman raped and murdered by a police officer.

PEOPLE ARE CURRENTLY BEING ARRESTED FOR OUTWARDLY EXPRESSING ANY SORT OF DISPLEASURE WITH THE MONARCHY.

A WOMAN WAS ARRESTED FOR HOLDING UP A SIGN. JUST HOLDING IT.

PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED FOR BOOING.

everything in britain has been put to a standstill. hospital appointments have been cancelled. funerals have been cancelled. we can’t do anything about it.

many of us will be unable to pay our energy bills this winter. we will freeze. we will starve.

it has been demonstrated to us time and time and time again that protests simply make people talk about how we were protesting and never why. and now the police has increased power to punish us for any public opinion that they don’t like.

we have been under tory rule for 12 years. 12 years of the same people - hey americans, can you imagine that?

we are tired, no, we are exhausted. we are struggling. we are scared. and it has been made clear to us that our government does not care.

so fucking forgive us if we’re putting our own survival over the opinions of americans (and other non-brits but americans are the worst) online who expect us to learn everything about their politics and their country and don’t put in an ounce of effort to learn about ours.

The World Of Becca Blake

Art by Dan Schkade

not to be an old cranky leftist but going forward i think those of us who live in the us need to remember a protest is not a group powerwalk to register polite disapproval with those in power

a protest is an implied threat. a protest says there are a lot of us, and we do not like what you’re doing. we are giving you a chance to course correct before we take things to the next level.

if there’s no shared commitment to the potential of moving to that next level: a protest is useless and essentially just public performance art.

don’t sign up for protests, don’t talk about going to protests on social media, don’t text people about going to protests, leave your phone at home. wear a mask. leave no personally identifiable information.

and watch out for undercover cops

read this https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/black-flag-catalyst-the-black-flag-catalyst-protest-guide-v1-2

and here’s some more basic information

(don’t take your phone period, unless it’s a burner)

ive been to a lot of protests in my life and a thing that a lot of people dont understand is that a protest is a threat. its a large group of people saying “we are being nice now, but you must understand that if we stop being nice we have the power to cause you Problems”.

so everyone saying that protests have to be more polite or follow accepted rules is missing the entire point. the point of a protest is not to say “we disagree with you”, they already know that. the point of a protest is to make it clear that if they continue to do things you disagree with, you will burn down their house.

now this wont stop them because theyre stupid and arrogant and believe themselves to be beyond consequence. so here’s the really important thing and that’s that after they do it anyway, you have to burn down their house

reminder in the coming days and weeks to not take pictures of protesters, do not reblog pictures of protesters, particularly Black protesters

…and, at the time of his death, he was one of the most hated people in the USA.

The FBI sent him a letter trying to convince him to commit suicide. Don’t let this revisionist bullshit slide. The things they say now about protests, kneeling, etc, are the same things they said about the sit-ins and marches.

respectability politics is a trap.

respectability politics is a trap.

respectability politics is a trap.

Look at this vintage political cartoon. Reactions to MLK and BLM are near identical.

Yes this is still a thing we need to continue taking action