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Millions of people marched on Saturday against Trump and his administration. While the single-day protest has ended, there are other ways, u

#no kings #protests #resistance #social change #social movements #local action

This isnt big news but I'm starting to pull in invasive species out of my garden and the surrounding areas. It's becoming my favorite guerilla gardening activity.

That’s amazing! Good for you. I think it does count as big news, because it’s a small local action within your power - that’s very solarpunk!

"The real work of planet-saving will be small, humble, & humbling, & (insofar as it involves love) pleasing & rewarding. Its jobs will be too many to count, too many to report, too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded, too small to make anyone rich or famous."

—Wendell Berry

#solarpunk #hopepunk #cottagepunk #environmentalism #social justice #optimism #community #guerrilla gardening #local action #inbox #message #wendell berry

96 Back - Laco (Metrist Reworm)

#music #96 Back #Laco #Metrist #Local Action #Spotify

I went to an event today that I'd seen advertised on facebook, where this local lady makes onion bhajis and invites people into her home, collecting item donations for the local foodbank from visitors.

Got chatting to her and she's been doing this for SEVEN YEARS, starting as a collection for the refugee camp in Calais and then switching to Slough food bank when the Jungle was cleared. In this time she has collected over 1 tonne of goods for the food bank.

She said she started because she was so despondent at local politics- people were running as Labour candidates but didn't care about left wing policies at all. It was all about corruption and power and wasn't actually helping anyone.

Such a fabulous example of direct action.

Oh and she's got a cat called Jezza

#direct action #community #food bank #fundraiser #empowering #local action #food not bombs

I work in a small library, and we’ve split our staff into two pods so that we don’t infect everyone if when someone gets sick. When we’re open to the public, we have nine staff people in the building. On an average day, in these covid times, we get 100-150 visitors, around 12-15 of whom will get a computer and stay for the entire hour we allow them (more if they can get away with it). With the current infection rate, about 1 in 50 people in my county currently have covid. You do the math.

Want to help save a life this fine Saturday afternoon? Find your local library’s website, and if they’re still open to the public, ask them why. Call and ask for the director (don’t you dare ask the person who answers the phone about this), email the director or the board, leave a facebook comment. “I thought libraries were one of the few functioning institutions in our country, why are you exposing library workers to a deadly pandemic and setting a bad example for people who already think this isn’t something they need to take seriously?”

They may point you to someone else who actually makes the decision. If they claim this is the health department, you’re talking to a decisionmaker who doesn’t want to take responsibility for their lack of decision. If they point you to a governmental hierarchy, follow it up the chain. (For instance, the City of Chicago libraries are run by a Library Commissioner, who answers to the Mayor. Actually, if you’re in Chicago, feel free to yell directly at Mayor Lori Lightfoot about this.)

Then get your roommate to do it. And your neighbor. And your mom. They have an answer they think is good; it’s not. Make them repeat it so often that they have to think about the ways in which their answer is insufficient every single minute of the day, just like their front line staff do.

Protip: do NOT say “you can do it all online,” librarians have a kneejerk reaction to that phrase and anyway it’s not true, plenty of people still don’t have reliable internet access and especially right now, that’s a problem. Say “I know you’re talented enough to find safer ways to offer essential services to people who really need them.” (One of our essential services is printing, which is now equally used by privileged and underprivileged households, because most people don’t print often enough to own a printer any more.) If you know they do offer tech - laptops, hotspots, wifi that extends into the parking lot - point this out. Ask them how they’re protecting their workers when health departments all around the country are screaming at people not to leave their homes unless it’s absolutely necessary.

I’m terrified of going back to work next Saturday, the first normal day after Thanksgiving, when we’re usually crazy busy after being closed for two days and everyone wants to trade in their Thanksgiving travel entertainment for Christmas travel entertainment. But as of right now, I’ll be there, because no one’s forced my library to close, and we won’t until something else happens, because my director is terrified of pissing people off.

(If your library *is* closed to the public, thank them for taking care of their staff and setting a good example for the public by being safer than they are legally required to be, and then check out an ebook. We appreciate you, we really do. We just don’t want to see your face right now.)

#libraries #covid-19 #local action #please reblog

Happy Disability Pride Month!

Disability happens to people without our control or consent. Every single disabled person has strong feelings about their own situation and I would not presume to talk about anyone’s thoughts but my own. But none of us chose to do life on hardmode, so if the world could listen this month, there’s a lot to say.

Disability Pride Month Journal #3 -

+ ADVOCACY or HOW I’VE LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE LOCAL ACTION. In the before times, I was a big picture kinda person. I looked for the most efficient method of heading systemic problems off at the source. March. Protest. Call senators. Email my local reps. Educate my whole social circle. Invite people to join me for well-researched solutions to help the most people. Can I tell you how many systemic problems I’ve encountered since my health cratered? The unemployment system. The insurance system. The medical system. The chronic illness care system. The pharmaceutical system. The SSDI and SSI systems. OH MY GOD THERE ARE SO MANY PROBLEMS THAT JUST NEED A SENSIBLE APPROACH AND ALL MAKE ME WANT TO SCREAM. But fuck. I’m so tired. I don’t have energy for all that. The ‘old me’ could have rolled up her sleeves and rounded up some friends and done the research and considered the messaging and PUSHED PUSHED PUSHED on those problems because THEY ARE MY PROBLEMS. I live them. I know them. They make me miserable. I am the best person to advocate for myself! But I’m not that ‘old me’ right now, so you know the advocacy hill I climbed instead? I haven’t been able to tend my yard in months. My garden looks like the person who lives here died. The place is feral. I have rats burrowing into my little city lawn. It is not only unsightly, but a complete EMBARRASSING, DISGUSTING, HEALTH HAZARD. So I wrote an email to my local friends and explained my situation and asked for help. I am ashamed. I let it get this bad. I am worried that some of the friends who haven’t replied think less of me. But I am unable to handle this on my own. And I had to admit that. And I told people. And I asked for help. A friend is coming over tomorrow to help make a start. I hope to have it tamed before the end of July. It doesn’t change anything big or systemic, but if it keeps my neighbors from getting rats, or their kids from getting sick, or my house from getting fined... my self-advocacy will have fixed a problem right here at home. That’s gotta be good enough for now.