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API Resistance: Get Started (updated July 1, 2020)
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API Resistance

Hello friends and comrades,

Earlier in 2020 in pre-COVID days, API Resistance was gearing up to share our re-positioning in the DC movement ecosystem as a political home for radical left Asian and Pacific Islanders in the DC area focused on transformative relationship building and healing. The work we had been putting into the new mission, vision, and values - which we wanted to unveil to the world - went into a momentary pause.

The uprisings we are now witnessing across cities in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Mike Ramos, David McAtee, and more in recent weeks by police and white supremacists reignited a sense of urgency in our work. As we know, they are not the only victims of anti-Black, racist, and state-sanctioned police murders. In the U.S., Black people and Black communities have been under surveillance, occupation and targeted by the police state for decades — one of the latest manifestations of systemic and institutionalized racism central to the way this nation was founded and continues to be maintained.

We invite concerned and agitated Asians in the DMV area to not just respond to anti-Black racism and support #BlackLivesMatter as individuals, but to join us in the growing movement to defund and abolish police and prisons as a fundamental step to end white supremacy and move toward Black liberation and collective liberation. We offer this resource guide to help you get started!

If you’d like to meet with some of us to talk through where you’d like to focus your energy on, and/or learn about API Resistance, please fill out this form.

With love and in solidarity!

🌱 Who is API Resistance?

API Resistance is a multiethnic and multiracial collective of radical left Asians and Pacific Islanders engaged in organizing, healing, art and community building in the DMV area.

We envision a world free from oppression, domination, cycles of violence and ecological devastation — a world where Asian/Pacific Islander people and all people are truly liberated.

Guided by imagination and the revolutionary spirits of those before us, we organize toward a world where our people actively shape new ways of living and being by caring for each other and cultivating sustainable ecosystems rooted in solidarity, mutuality, collectivism and local self-reliance.

Another world is possible. To get there, we know we must deeply transform relationships with ourselves, with each other, and with the planet.

📢 1. TAKE ACTION IN DC

Take action! If you are looking to support existing campaigns in DC or participate in mutual aid in the DMV (or both), this is the space for you. Divesting from police and prisons, decriminalizing sex work, strengthening community self-reliance… all these efforts are important in the long-term goal of breaking from oppressive systems and building a liberated world.

DC Uprising 2020

Mutual Aid

Washington, DC

Maryland/DC Suburbs

DMV Movement Ecosystem

While this list is not exhaustive by any means and still a work in progress, please feel free to check out links to campaigns and groups that may be to your interest!

DC Campaigns

  • No New Jails - stop construction of a $700 million new jail in D.C.

DC Movement Groups

🌿 2. GET INVOLVED AND CO-BUILD APIR!

Get involved with API Resistance! We do almost all of our organizing through a Slack channel (to be added to the Slack, we generally have a 1:1 or small group conversation with you first. If you have not had a 1:1 or small group convo yet, feel free to fill out this form and we’ll get back to you on it!)

Usually starting from Slack, you can participate and/or lead gatherings, social meetups, or other self-organized convenings. This is a place to share ideas and updates, build connections and friendships, and provide or ask for support/resources/advice. Building radical spaces with each other is central to revolutionary movements; it is a way to carve out a place to dream, practice and facilitate the world we wish to see. Being in community allows us to be reflective, adaptive (and not reactive) in our organizing. There’s lots of important ways to participate in movement work internally, and some are listed below.

Monthly Convenings

Convenings, usually done over food (will be adapted virtually for COVID-19), are a great way for folks to stay connected and be in community with one another. This can also be a place for anyone to teach/facilitate political ed, games, skills or talents.

CarePods

CarePods are groups of 3-ish APIR members who commit to providing social and emotional support for each other during physical distancing measures for COVID-19. Individual CarePods exist among a system of CarePods who are going through the Pod experience together.

DIY / Self-Organize!

You can continue, get involved with, or even start:

How do I start something in APIR?

Are these convenings just for APIR members or the public? 

📚 3. SHARE RESOURCES

Again, this list is not exhaustive and is in progress, but feel free to look through, gain insight and have conversations on some of the issues communities in the DMV area organize around!

Police and Prison Abolition

Readings

Videos

Toolkits

Decriminalizing Sex Work

Solidarity, Movement Building and Revolution

On Anti-Black Racism

Radical Self-Care and Healing

Social Media

@TheComradeCloset

@TheNapMinistry

@abolish_time

@peopleskitchencollective

@jessxsnow

@therevolutionwillbeplanned

@queers4climatejustice

@black_autonomy

@shanishih

@survivepunish

@radicaltheory

@BlackRose

@tammaranopper

Asian American Feminist Collective