Time For Action...
NOW
Not everyone can resist in the streets. But there are many things you *can* do, that *need* to be done, to support those who can:
MONEY: Bail costs money. Hospital bills from protest injuries cost money. (In the kafkaesque American health care system, boy howdy does getting treated for injury cost money). Lawyers to defend your arrested neighbors - to make sure your arrested neighbors get food and water in custody: that costs money. Sustaining resistance costs money - costs a *lot* of money. Little contributions, given to your friends and neighbors, add up. Little contributions to national organizations rallying defense - like the ACLU - add up. Money matters. Especially among us financially privileged, it's a key role we can play.
VOICE: You have a voice - right here on Facebook. On BlueSky. On Twitter. At the workplace lunch room. Everywhere else. I've written this over and over again - every place people gather, online or in person, is a debate form and a battleground for hearts and minds. Every time you speak up, you shift minds on the fence. You make things more comfortable for those on our side to also speak up. You make the hesitant on their side more hesitant to act out. Peer pressure is a thing. Use your own voice to *be* the pressure - the moral force - that changes the local mental lay of the land. If you're reading this right now, you have a social media platform and a voice. Use it. Make sure everyone knows where you stand, who you stand with, who you stand against.
AMPLIFICATION: Even if corporate algorithms try to deprioritize the "wrong" kind of messages, they're still greedy for clicks and eyeballs. The more we share marginalized voices, the more we share eye-witness reports and videos, the more we share urgent donation links and safety information and calls to action, the more the message gets out. That's the power - that's the whole *point* of the Internet and social media. Going viral is a thing. So help the marginalized voices, the ones that don't have a government or corporate megaphone, to go viral.
PRACTICAL SUPPORT: Street resisters need someone to watch their kids. Street resisters need car rides. Street resisters need crash spaces if they're coming in from out of town. Supporting those on the front line with food and shelter and help is crucial to helping those who can resist in the streets, accomplish our mission.
JAIL SUPPORT: Beyond bail money, protesters once arrested need friends and family to find them when they are disappeared. They need someone to come support them at their arrest hearings. They need their cases publicized, the abuse they suffer publicized. They need their stories told, and if we do win their freedom, they need someone to come pick them up from whatever distant camp they were sent to. They'll need a change of clothes and food and someone to collapse on. Political prisoners need supporters.
POLITICAL PRESSURE: Call your legislators. Every day. 5calls dot org. Participate in phone campaigns, in petitions, everything else. Everything you can do from your desk, to put pressure on our legislators for as long as they continue to be relevant.
ART: If you have the talent (I don't) - flyers, zines, memes, protest art - visual media changes attitudes, changes ideas, shifts the emotional and morale landscape. Symbols matter. Art matters. Not everyone has that talent. For those who do: that talent is a weapon. Remember Woodie Guthrie's guitar: "This machine kills fascists." So can your brush. So can your pen. So can your lightpad.
WITNESS: Most everyone has a cell phone camera. Almost everyone has eyes or ears. Record what you see - abuses and courage alike. Make it go viral, with your clips or your words. Eyewitness reports take eyewitnesses. Telling your story, your neighbors story, makes the abstract personal. We remember Anne Frank and Sophie Scholl for what they wrote, the stories they told. We know what happened to George Floyd because of Darnella Fraizer's video. We know what happened - from multiple angles - to Renee Good, because of bystander video. And we know who lied - from your fellows on Facebook all the way to the very top - because of that video. Eyewitness reports take eyewitnesses. Be a witness - for your fellow Americans, and for history.
Jeffrey Huo
.
MONEY: Bail costs money. Hospital bills from protest injuries cost money. (In the kafkaesque American health care system, boy howdy does getting treated for injury cost money). Lawyers to defend your arrested neighbors - to make sure your arrested neighbors get food and water in custody: that costs money. Sustaining resistance costs money - costs a *lot* of money. Little contributions, given to your friends and neighbors, add up. Little contributions to national organizations rallying defense - like the ACLU - add up. Money matters. Especially among us financially privileged, it's a key role we can play.
VOICE: You have a voice - right here on Facebook. On BlueSky. On Twitter. At the workplace lunch room. Everywhere else. I've written this over and over again - every place people gather, online or in person, is a debate form and a battleground for hearts and minds. Every time you speak up, you shift minds on the fence. You make things more comfortable for those on our side to also speak up. You make the hesitant on their side more hesitant to act out. Peer pressure is a thing. Use your own voice to *be* the pressure - the moral force - that changes the local mental lay of the land. If you're reading this right now, you have a social media platform and a voice. Use it. Make sure everyone knows where you stand, who you stand with, who you stand against.
AMPLIFICATION: Even if corporate algorithms try to deprioritize the "wrong" kind of messages, they're still greedy for clicks and eyeballs. The more we share marginalized voices, the more we share eye-witness reports and videos, the more we share urgent donation links and safety information and calls to action, the more the message gets out. That's the power - that's the whole *point* of the Internet and social media. Going viral is a thing. So help the marginalized voices, the ones that don't have a government or corporate megaphone, to go viral.
PRACTICAL SUPPORT: Street resisters need someone to watch their kids. Street resisters need car rides. Street resisters need crash spaces if they're coming in from out of town. Supporting those on the front line with food and shelter and help is crucial to helping those who can resist in the streets, accomplish our mission.
JAIL SUPPORT: Beyond bail money, protesters once arrested need friends and family to find them when they are disappeared. They need someone to come support them at their arrest hearings. They need their cases publicized, the abuse they suffer publicized. They need their stories told, and if we do win their freedom, they need someone to come pick them up from whatever distant camp they were sent to. They'll need a change of clothes and food and someone to collapse on. Political prisoners need supporters.
POLITICAL PRESSURE: Call your legislators. Every day. 5calls dot org. Participate in phone campaigns, in petitions, everything else. Everything you can do from your desk, to put pressure on our legislators for as long as they continue to be relevant.
ART: If you have the talent (I don't) - flyers, zines, memes, protest art - visual media changes attitudes, changes ideas, shifts the emotional and morale landscape. Symbols matter. Art matters. Not everyone has that talent. For those who do: that talent is a weapon. Remember Woodie Guthrie's guitar: "This machine kills fascists." So can your brush. So can your pen. So can your lightpad.
WITNESS: Most everyone has a cell phone camera. Almost everyone has eyes or ears. Record what you see - abuses and courage alike. Make it go viral, with your clips or your words. Eyewitness reports take eyewitnesses. Telling your story, your neighbors story, makes the abstract personal. We remember Anne Frank and Sophie Scholl for what they wrote, the stories they told. We know what happened to George Floyd because of Darnella Fraizer's video. We know what happened - from multiple angles - to Renee Good, because of bystander video. And we know who lied - from your fellows on Facebook all the way to the very top - because of that video. Eyewitness reports take eyewitnesses. Be a witness - for your fellow Americans, and for history.
Jeffrey Huo
.
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