Advice for Turtle Islanders
Hey everyone, I’m aware that I’m very privileged to live in a country where the government are like, regular level shit instead of Trumpian, so I wanted to help out people living in the so-called USA however I could. Here’s my advice for what it’s worth - I don’t have experience living under an authoritarian state but I have studied history and been paying attention to what everyone has been saying in the past few weeks, so I thought I’d offer some of my suggestions for how to keep yourselves and your neighbours safe going forward. It’s hard to know what to go so far as to suggest, since it’s just so unpredictable what might happen over the next few years. But in the interests of predicting every eventuality, I hope you’ll overlook any particularly outlandish suggestions. Hopefully it won’t get as far as some of these actions imply, but it’s always better to be prepared than blindsided. You don’t have to do all these things. Just do what you can, and remember you aren’t alone
-Join a labour union, go to meetings, and be prepared to strike
-Attend protests even if you think they won’t do anything. But bear in mind you will increasingly risk arrest and police brutality. Dress unremarkably, don’t take photos at protests and DEFINITELY don’t share them online
-Call your senators, congresspeople, governors, state legislators, mayors and city councillors. Continually bother them and kick up a fuss about even the smallest thing you disagree with. It’s important to keep government busy so implementing evil legislation is harder
-Set up or volunteer with a community fridge/kitchen or homeless shelter
-Knock on your neighbours’ doors and start getting to know them. If they are safe people, build relationships of reciprocity and care with them
-Read. Expose yourself to as many ideas as you can, but especially political theory, queer storylines and other subversive texts. Some recommendations:
Hope in The Dark by Rebecca Solnit
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin
How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa
Anything by Marx, Kropotkin, Chomsky, Gelderloos, Freire, Fanon, Foucault, Harvey, Graeber, etc
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell
Pirate Care by Marcell Mars, Valeria Graziano and Tomislav Medak
No Ordinary Men by Elisabeth Sifton and Fritz Stern
Conspiracy of Decency by Emmy E. Werner
-Try to set up or join a local group in your community that discusses political or philosophical ideas, does consciousness-raising, builds connections between neighbours, provides stopgap services to desperate people, teaches people their legal rights, or some equivalent act of mutual aid or resistance
-Key in to existing activist networks for climate, racial, migrant or gender justice - attend their events, fund them, give your time
-Consider whether at some point you’d be willing to do things the government will tell you are forbidden, risking arrest, imprisonment and possibly more severe consequences further down the line. You will have to answer to your own conscience but it’s also important to try and keep safe. If you’re willing to hide people from ICE or the police, source ‘illegal’ HRT and other essential medication, lose or falsify records, help someone get reproductive care, spread forbidden ideas, graffiti or poster government buildings, hold sit-ins, occupations or encampments, key certain people’s cars, let people in or out at borders who you aren’t ‘supposed’ to, sabotage fossil fuel or military infrastructure, disrupt party conventions, withhold tax, film or take photos in places where it’s banned, conscientiously object should a draft come in, or other similar behaviours, do them quietly and carefully. Involve as few other people as possible and DO NOT in the coming days broadcast your willingness to do so. Also for legal reasons I’m joking 😉
-Pick a behaviour from the government which, if enacted, would result in you immediately leaving the country. Once they do this, get OUT. Don’t make it too small, but don’t wait until they’re rounding up journalists in the street, holding public executions or imposing military curfews either. (I’m not saying any of these things will happen, I’m just saying pick your line.) If you’re trans, this event might have already happened, in which case start the process of seeking work or asylum abroad. Do your due diligence - make sure the place you choose will be safe for people like you, and bear in mind that asylum seeking is a big step that will expose you to dehumanising bureaucracies and local hostility even in the most liberal countries
-Donate any money you can spare either to these advocacy groups or to people in need directly
-Be radically, aggressively kind and compassionate to everyone you meet
-If you have children or are responsible for them, talk to them about what is happening. Strike a balance between explaining to them that it’s important to stay true to our principles and making sure they know to be careful
-Take time to be with loved ones and experience moments of joy, whether this is group meals, days out, shared catharsis, birthdays, religious celebrations, making music, movie nights, whatever replenishes you and reminds you what the fight is for
-Pick an hour each day in which to engage with and respond to the news (broadcast channels, papers, social media). The rest of the time focus on your well-being, that of your family, friends and neighbours, on your job, on being kind, on your volunteering, on resisting in countless tiny ways. Unless something big and emergent is happening in which case respond and react in real time
-Seek out good news stories from your own country and the world. They are out there, I promise
-If you see an arrest or immigration raid, get your phone out and start filming. You have a right to record it
-Donate to bail and strike funds
-Spend time in nature, and learn the names of local trees, flowers, birds, mammals, fish and reptiles. Educate yourself about the natural history and ecology of your local area so you can replenish your mental health, defend your environment and remember that there is life beyond the fascist state’s delusions of total control
-Learn about and engage with your local indigenous tribes. Study their history, attend any events they put on that are open to the settler public, donate money and any supplies they might need, agitate for their rights, see if you have any land you could transfer to their stewardship, and learn some of their languages if they think that’s appropriate
-Make an effort to research and understand things that are happening abroad. The US empire thrives on isolationism, ignorance and poor education. Learn foreign languages, follow other countries’ politics, study their history, watch their films, expose yourself to their cultures and teach yourself to point them out on a map. The more you feel affinity with people across the globe, the more you are a citizen of the world and able to keep your heart safe from narratives of exceptionalism - because you’d best believe the propaganda will be targeting you too. You’re not immune to it. You have to work at resisting. Foreign news services can also help you keep a handle on what’s real if your national ones are lying to you
-Run for school board, union rep, a welfare or campaigning role on your college campus or in your place of worship, or some other small-scale local post where you can make a difference
-If you’re in a position to do so, see if you can help marginalised people receive cheaper services through your job, volunteering or advocacy (for instance offering discounted rates if you run your own business)
-Learn first aid, cooking, and basic clothing repair, and teach these skills to others. Use them to help people with relevant needs
-Pick your battles. Sometimes you might have to let smaller things slide in order to make a bigger difference later. Other times, the small things will be the thin end of the wedge and you’ll want or need to take a stand
-Wear a mask and try to keep up to date with your vaccinations
-Be ready to mobilise your community to protect vulnerable people or places from vigilante attacks, especially if there’s a mosque, immigration centre, lgbt venue or abortion clinic in your neighbourhood
-Download the Signal app and Element software. Get a VPN. Turn off ‘learn from this app’ in your phone’s Siri settings for every app. Leave your phone at home if you’re protesting or doing anything else spiky. Put it in the fridge or at the other end of the house if discussing things you don’t want overheard. Assume you are under surveillance most of the time
-Get a library card and take out as many books and DVDs there as you can, use the internet there, stay warm there, really make use of the public service. You can even offer to volunteer there if you have time
-See if you can access academic and scientific papers somehow, and make an effort to read at least one over a semi-regular period of time. This will help with the education mentioned above, as well as keeping you in touch with the truths which your government is so eager to suppress. Lots of downloads also helps an academic in their career, which will be very valuable now that so much of their funding has been cut
-Pick up your neighbours’ groceries or prescriptions for them, drop them off at/pick them up from medical appointments, watch their kids, bail them out and cook for them
-Quit twitter. Use BlueSky instead if you want but don’t assume you are unobserved there. Consider quitting Facebook and Instagram too if you can - Supernova offers a vaguely similar user interface to insta if you want to keep up with friends and continue sharing pictures
-It might help your sanity to start keeping a diary or journal, detailing your emotions and experiences and keeping an eyewitness record of your government’s behaviour. If you do this, though, consider keeping it in a secure hiding place or writing it in code. Perhaps send a copy securely to someone outside the country, but only if you can do so safely, and be ready to destroy it if you think you’re in danger from its discovery
-See if you can get involved with or start a movement for community green energy in your local area
-If you have any garden space, try to plant and grow a bit of your own fruit and veg
-Get trained in non-violent direct action and in self-defence
-Save as much money as you can. You never know when you or someone else might need it
-If it’s accessible to you, consider getting a therapist to talk through the difficult experiences and painful emotions that are going to come up in the next few years. But be careful - make sure you trust the professional you use and that your conversations are as private as possible. Even if both of these are the case, be considered as to how you phrase things
-Walk, cycle, or take public transit whenever possible
-Make art! Paint, draw, sing, play instruments, write stories or poetry or lyrics or plays, act, dance, collage, sculpt, whatever frees your heart and keeps it your own
-Donate individually or through orgs to sex workers, domestic violence survivors, Romani and Traveller individuals, and other people at risk of precarious housing and/or income
-Educate yourself about Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Paganism, Indigenous Spiritualities and other non-Christian religions
-Carry a spare scarf to offer to a hijabi whose hijab might be torn off by vigilantes
-Offer court support to friends and neighbours
-While you still can, source and distribute as many binders, packers, breast forms and pairs of tucking underwear as possible
-As much as possible shop with small local independent businesses, and follow consumer boycotts
-Consider eating less meat. Ignoring the environmental and ethical implications of the meat industry, deregulation is likely and this means many food safety standards will be scrapped
-If you can afford it, get an air filter for your house and a water filter for your tap
-See if you can file lawsuits against government bodies or big companies for violating various laws and rights
-Make sure the disabled people in your community can access spaces, services and transit, that they have enough money for necessities and for disability aids, and that there’s an evacuation plan for them in the event of flooding/fires/a tornado/vigilante violence/government violence
Stay safe out there everyone. Look after each other, keep your head high and your heart soft, and survive.
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
gummygunk
origamiaround
