organizing

Call to Action: April 19th

/ Tracy Abell / 13 Comments

Hello, friends. I just had a change of heart regarding tomorrow’s Day of Action and want to share some thoughts. Zippy and I attended our local Hands Off! action on April 5th but because there was no clear “call to action” or visible (to me) organizing happening around it, I told Zippy I didn’t feel compelled to join future protests.

 

I’ve changed my mind and have journalist Laura Jedeed to thank because when I popped into Bluesky, this was at the top of my feed:

I felt called-out. I also knew in my gut that Laura was correct. And that feeling was cemented after reading her entire thread which also points out that optics do matter and how it’s imperative crowd sizes are even larger tomorrow than on the 5th in order to present a visual refutation of Trump’s so-called mandate.  (Go here to read a more fleshed-out version of Laura’s points via her newsletter.) Also? There was nothing stopping me on April 5th from doing some organizing of my own and it’s totally on me that I didn’t come prepared. Tomorrow, I will be prepared!

I’ll have the #TeslaTakedown flyers I didn’t think to bring on April 5th. (By the way, this campaign is having a huge impact and creating real pain for Nazi DOGE-bro Elon Musk: Tesla dealerships are no longer accepting Cybertruck trade-ins)

I’ll have Know Your Rights  With ICE flyers. From the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) site: These flyers explain what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) comes to your door or you have an encounter with immigration officials, what to do if you witness immigration activity by ICE or CBP, and examples of judicial warrants and ICE warrants.

I’m also trying to figure out how to also insert a QR code to the pdf flyer that links to an upcoming online KNOW YOUR RIGHTS / RAPID RESPONSE TRAINING led by WAISN. Doing so is a challenge for this low-tech person, so please share if you have ideas!

Anyway, I hope you’ll consider joining an action near you tomorrow, Saturday April 19th. I’ll be there and promise there will be no eye rolling!

Solidarity! ✊🏾

You should have joy and pleasure

/ Tracy Abell / 7 Comments

When reading this week’s newsletter “Organizing My Thoughts” from Kelly Hayes this morning, a quote jumped out at me. It came via the linked piece from Lewis Raven Wallace “The Right Wants Us to Submit to Nihilism. Here Is Where I’m Searching for Hope.”

“You should have joy and pleasure from being on the right side of history,” [ . . ], “not anguish and despair. Let the other people have that.”

My first yellow leaves of the season. Golden Gate Canyon State Park. August 30, 2024

Wallace continues with this:
Joy is not just icing on the cake or the purview of the privileged. It is an exercise in hope that has always been rigorously practiced by people facing impossible situations of oppression. Laughter, pleasure and small acts of connection are precisely where we find our power — and the soul fuel that makes it possible to go on.

Anyway, that sentiment helped me a lot today–helped me remember who and what I am–and I wanted to share in case it could help someone here. Let’s hold onto our shared humanity and refuse to let the horrors and ugliness turn us into shells of ourselves. Let’s rejoice in nature and each other, and laugh as much as possible.

The fear-based, mean-spirited people can keep all that ugly for themselves.

Barnraisers Project

/ Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

This is last-minute, but I wanted to share this here. I’ve signed up with Barnraisers Project and thought maybe someone reading this might want to join in.

From  their site: “The Barnraisers Project coaches and trains white people to organize their friends, neighbors and colleagues for racial justice and the collective good. We’re nobody’s saviors, but we’re committed to doing our part to help build a better, more just world.”

Registration for the Winter/Spring Cohort closes tomorrow. Click here for information and participant commitments. In summary, there are five 90-minute virtual sessions, beginning the week of January 30th (so, one 90 minute class each on the weeks of January 30th, February 13th, February 27th, March 13th and March 27th).

Image by giografiche from Pixabay

There’s so much going wrong in the world (I just read that North Dakota is considering legislation that would imprison librarians up to 30 days if they don’t remove certain books from their libraries!) and it’s truly an all-hands-on-deck moment. I hope you can join the effort. Solidarity!