Activist New Year's Resolutions

[sabotabby]

I don't make New Year's resolutions because I am already a delight. But I am also not the best activist I can be in these rather bleak times, and the movement, such that it is (which is to say it isn't), globally but in particular in my city, is not what it could be either.

Accordingly, here are some New Year's resolutions for all of us committed to the struggle.

• Show up to other groups’ events. So you do Palestine stuff? Show up to a First Nations thing, or a Black Lives Matter thing. You’re antifa? Do some picket line support. Talk to at least one person you don’t know while you’re there.

 

• Bring a new person into your movement. A relative, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbour. Make it your goal to recruit one person.

 

• Organize off Facebook. Let’s build more resilient networks.

 

• Think beyond the demo in particular and symbols in general. Figure out what needs to be done and which action is best suited to accomplishing a win in that scenario. No one cares if there are 1000 of us protesting in front of the US Consulate on a Saturday when it’s closed.

 

• Bring back the reading group. In person. Invite someone in who is not already part of your movement.

 

• More fuckin’ giant puppets because I miss them.

 

• Assume good intentions when it comes to your fellow activists. Did you get called out and feel it’s unfair? Maybe the other person is right and you can learn a thing. Maybe they’re not and they just had a bad day, or were hurt by an interpretation of your words and actions based on their own history of trauma. Did someone else screw up their terminology? Assume first they don’t know and weren’t trying to be offensive. People act out of malice all the time but if you can talk it out and avoid misunderstandings, that will be better. I guarantee you will find out in like five minutes if it’s a misunderstanding or the person is actually being a dick on purpose.

 

• Likewise, stop slagging off other people’s genuine efforts. We all do as much or as little as we can. No one’s politics are pure.

 

• If you’re in a position of privilege, do something that makes activism more accessible to someone else. Volunteer to do childcare. Hold meetings in accessible spaces. Go out to marginalized communities rather than expecting them to come to you.

 

• Spend time with someone older than you and someone younger than you, and listen to what they have to say. Old activists have experience of what's worked and what hasn't; young activists have new ideas that we should hear.

 

• Bring joy back into political action. Being dour never changed anyone’s mind. Make actions creative and inspiring rather than repeating rote slogans with the same signs all the time. We’re angry and sad but that comes from a place of love and empathy; our activism should carry with it the seed of a better world.

That’s all I can think of. Feel free to add more of your own. Happy New Year, punch a Nazi, liberate a detention centre. Be fierce, be kind, and go forth and make the world a less fucked up place.