Some Actions That Are Not Protesting or Voting
A list adapted from & inspired by Frontline Medics. Here was their original list of 25 actions. I’ve added a lot of things and edited other things. [Note: I continue to update this document as more ideas are shared with me. If there are things you want to add, email niapoetry@gmail.com]
**I created [with input from other organizers] an interactive workbook for new activists who want to create their own organizing plans. You can download it for free here. I hope it helps those who need some guidance to focus on specific things you can do in your communities.
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MUTUAL AID
Redistribute your wealth to individuals in need.
Donate to Mutual Aid Groups.
Organize fundraisers for local groups.
Knit or crochet items for your houseless neighbors.
Participate in #Warm Holidays 2024.
Organize local free stores to distribute needed items and supplies to community members. Can’t do a whole store, how about a free table?
Help with disaster relief.
Organize a childcare collective. Another example here.
Start your own automotive free clinic.
Create a tool library in your neighborhood.
Start a repair cafe.
Read about mending circles here and here. Create your own.
Set up a listening booth.
Organize or participate in community clean-ups.
Start a POD
MUTUAL AID - FOOD
Donate to food programs [for example this one and donate to them here]
Cook and bake for community group meetings.
Start or join Food Not Bombs.
Set up a Free Fridge in your community.
Start or join a local community garden. Benefits of gardening are here.
Start a Meal-Based Residency Program.
MUTUAL AID - COMMUNITY HEALTH
Organize or join a local mask bloc to distribute free masks to community groups to use for their gatherings. Search mask blocs around the world here.
Organize or join a Clean Air Club.
Create a COVID Mitigation Tools Library.
Learn to make and distribute Corsi-Rosenthal boxes (cheap, effective air-filtration devices made from household & easily-obtainable components)
Establish community pop-up clinics.
Learn psychological first aid.
A suggestion offered: “harm reduction education/building harm reduction kits (Narcan, fentanyl/xylazine testing strips, sterile supplies, etc.), and pop-up overdose prevention centers (high risk, but organizers in Denver successfully did one). Link here to a story about this.
POLITICAL/POPULAR EDUCATION
Organize or participate in political education. Here’s a helpful guide. Some study guides.
Establish ongoing study and book groups - sign up for a training on how to facilitate reading groups.
Organize a monthly community film screening & discussion.
Participate in skill-sharing and trainings.
Offer skill-sharing and trainings.
Get involved in Citizen University.
ORGANIZING/ADVOCACY
If you’re a young person interested in unions, get involved with Gen Union.
Provide tenant support and help with rent strike organizing.
Participate in consumer boycotts. Check out #TeslaTakeDown
Organize or attend neighborhood assemblies and people’s movement assemblies
Attend community board and other local meetings.
Organize response and support for survivors of violence. Sign up to be trained as a volunteer with domestic violence and sexual assault organizations/groups.
LIBRARIES and SCHOOLS
Run for or seek appointment to your local library board.
How to Fuck Up an Asshole School Board.
Organize community freedom schools (the Children’s Defense Fund offers one model but there are many others too: here and here.)
Here’s a list of 10 ways to support your local public libraries.
Request and read diverse books by BIPOC and queer authors. We Need Diverse Books is a great resource to find titles.
In the US, EveryLibrary fights censorship, supports grassroots advocacy for libraries, fights anti-library legislation and helps libraries seek necessary funding. They have more specific and timely calls to action on their site.
Push back against book bans and the groups that ban books by requesting banned and challenged titles.
Libraries can also be great places to host a book group or community support gathering, like some of the other meeting and mutual aid ideas shared elsewhere in this list.
Start a healing justice lending library
Start your own version of the Library Dads
ANTI-CRIMINALIZATION
Monitor court cases [courtwatching and participatory defense hubs]
Financially and emotionally support detained and incarcerated people
Start or join a jail support project and here’s a jail support zine.
Consider jury nullification.
Signal-boost & support prison strikes and abolition efforts.
COMMUNITY DEFENSE/MIGRANT JUSTICE
Sign the Solidarity Pledge.
Learn about and practice community self-defense.
Learn about Community Defense Zones and also check out this excellent resource Defend and Recruit for learning about creating rapid response networks.
Learn about deportation defense through this new resource by Make The Road and this one by Mijente.
REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE/GENDER AFFIRMING CARE
Donate and/or volunteer with abortion funds and practical support organizations.
Escort people to abortion clinics when needed. Also you can reach out to your local PP/indie clinic to ask if they have an escort program use this link to find them: ineedana.com.
Train to become a practical support volunteer and support people traveling to access abortion care.
For youth who want to fight for abortion rights.
What does it look like to start or join a trans youth emergency project in your community?
ACT OUT is a national network of young people fighting back against LGBTQ attacks.
I created a “steps to action: reproductive justice” guide to share with my Goddaughter and her friends. It is intended to help them as they’ve been extremely worried about how to actually take some action around an issue that they care a lot about. Perhaps it might be helpful for others too. Link is here. Make your own focused “steps to action” guide and share with your loved ones and community members.
DISABILITY JUSTICE
Ways of doing activism/ resisting fascism in a disabled/accessible way
These thinking and steps from The Revolution Will be From Bed
26 ways to be in the struggle not in the streets
A suggestion offered: “Provide caregiving help for disabled folks, help us with daily tasks so we can have more energy to organize, & if u have more cognitive & physical capacity u can volunteer to help us plan direct actions (this one’s personal, I really need someone who has done projections onto buildings)”
OTHER INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS
*** Garrett Bucks recently created a useful list of actions you can take on your own.
Volunteer your art, technology, design, legal skills to local efforts, organizations, groups.
Watch this and write letters to the elderly also here.
Make zines and pamphlets on various topics and distribute them in your communities [laundromats, cafes, public libraries, schools, etc…]
Start a community newsletter or bulletin to share information about local mutual aid.
Create or redistribute art and media to counter mainstream propaganda.
Amplify the calls for support from people of color, disabled people and others.
Uplift queer and trans voices.
Share vital info online and in person.
Support friends who are attending/planning actions/protests.
MAKE YOUR OWN LIST FOR YOUR COMMUNITIES…