There's leadership all over the place rn in #PoorPeoplesCampaign & @50501movement & @indivisibleteam
Actions are building momentum & critical mass already. A graph I saw from an org that's set up to measure engagement shows a much steeper curve of number of actions & people participating than in 2017. That gave me some real joy
Major actions coming up 4/5 & 5/1
From MorePerfectUnion IG. Had to share this as #valeriecosta proves each and everyone of us can make a huge difference. #teslatakedown #TeslaProtests #muskrat #trumpcoup #TrumpFascism #AOC #grassroots #unionstrong #usa2025 #TrumpPurge #trump2
Sign up for the #TeslaTakeDown Mass Mobilizing Call!
When: Wed 3/19, 8:30pm ETRegister: fftf.link/march19What: Experts, leaders, #grassroots #protest organizers discuss the campaign & a major day of action!Who: We’ll be joined by Rep. #JasmineCrockett (TX-D)…but that’s not all!
“Rep. #Crockett isn’t our only special guest…We aren’t supposed to Say Anything just yet, but this call is going to be an Excellent Adventure that you won’t want to miss.”
https://www.newsletter.peoplepowerunited.org/p/the-power-of-the-people-does-not
The #Power of the #People Does Not Reside in #DC
People Power United is a #grassroots group of over 200,000+ members in all 50 states
..."So, how do we fight back?
We organize. We mobilize. We build people's Power in every city and every state. If DC will not stand up for democracy, then we, the people, must. We need 10 million+ people in the streets—protesting, rallying, shutting down business as usual with work stoppages, boycotts, an"...
Search for a candidate (or two, or ten!) that inspires you and get involved with their campaign.
https://runforsomething.net
#grassroots #grasstoorsorg #runforsomething #supportlocal #uspol
I'm gonna list out my interests, and there's a ton of 'em. Classic autism move, getting obsessed with weird topics that stick with you forever.
Heads up, #Fediverse, you might lose it when I drop 100+ hashtags in one post. That's just how autism rolls I guess.
## Interests and Obsessions
Substances and Legalization:
#Drugs #LSD #Shrooms #Psychedelics #THC #Psilocybin
Tech and Privacy:
#Linux #Debian #QubesOS #GrapheneOS #GooglePixel #Auxio #AntennaPod #PGP #Obtainium #PeerTube #FreeTube #Privacy #Security #Thunderbird #CapyReader #RSS #AtomFeeds #NewPipe #Mastodon #Pixelfed #Openreads #Signal #LocalSend #ThinkPad #FreeSoftware #FSF #ElementaryOS #Elementary #PaldoLinux #GNOME #i3wm #Monero #Mullvad #iVPN #LinusTorvald #Fairphone #DivestOS #Tor #TailsOS #Whonix
Politics and Activism:
#AnarchoSyndicalism #Anarchism #Syndicalism #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #LGBT #TransRights #HumanRights #WorkersRights #Unions #Decentralization #Organizing #GrassRoots #DirectAction #AntiCapitalism #FuckSpotify #Piratpartiet #PirateParty #Piracy #ThePirateBay #EdwardSnowden #Wikileaks #JulianAssange #MeredithWhittaker #RichardStallman #RightToRepair
Music and Artists:
#ZoëStraub #Bandcamp #ShadowOfIntent #Alestorm #AlisonSudol #CœurDePirate #RussianPop #YuliaSavicheva #SavichevaMusic #Music
Content Creators:
#DougDoug #DistroTube #MattRose #TheHatedOne #EricParker #The8BitGuy #BernadetteBanner #LynnSaga #LukeSmith #UndineAlmani #DarkViperAU
History and Tragic Events:
#NorthKorea #WW2 #ColdWar #KoreanWar #Unit731 #NuclearWeapons #USSR
Fashion and Identity:
#GenderFluidity #Dresses #Lingerie #Pins #Buttons #Statues
Culture and Media:
#Buddhism #Warframe #Moomin #Books #Joker2019 #SocialIssues #AlternativeSocialStructures
#Traveling and Destinations:
#Austria #Vienna #Salzburg #Idlib #Pyongyang #Moscow #Bergen
Miscellaneous:
#AntiReactionContentCreators #ReactionContentBad #Crying
Yeah, I know it's a lot. But that's the beauty of an autistic brain I guess, we go deep on what fascinates us.
For the past month, I’ve watched in horror the unrelenting attacks on science and scientific institutions in the US: grants frozen, databases deleted, basic words banned, decades of progress undone overnight. And while the US is by far an extreme case, research budgets in other countries are also being reduced (or they weren’t that high to begin with). Plus, the rise of far-right extremism seems to be happening almost everywhere.
But what I’ve also seen during this time are incredible community efforts to back up data, to build decentralized infrastructure, to push back against these attacks wherever possible. And in the context of human health, it got me thinking: medical research already neglects portions of the population, so if traditional institutions won’t prioritize our health anyway, why don’t we?
What if we built a decentralized, citizen-driven research initiative, an open-source database to track and analyze health data from diverse populations across borders? A kind of bootleg science, resilient against institutional neglect and political suppression.
This is a very unbaked, maybe desperate and idealistic thought more than a plan. I have no clue where to start from, or if something similar already exists. But I’d love to hear what people think. Does this sound stupid/impossible/doable? All of the above?
How to #Organize Our Way Out of the #Trump #Musk #Putsch A plan to harness #grassroots energy—and to hold #Democratic leaders #accountable https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/how-to-organize-our-way-out-of-the-trump-musk-putsch/ #politics #government #congress #democracy
"Folks can gain #knowledge, #hope, and #inspiration from lots of prior democracy and/or anti-colonial movements."
Rebecca Solnit in conversation with political scientist Erica Chenoweth about the power of people in dark times: https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-nature-of-our-power-a-conversation-with-political-scientist-erica-chenoweth/
Chenoweth is leader of the Nonviolent Action Lab https://ash.harvard.edu/programs/nonviolent-action-lab/
"How can we foster emotional resilience in the face of ecological overshoot and the death of modernity? What role do art and storytelling play alongside science and data in responding to our collective human predicament? And how can we strengthen our communities and plant the seeds for a different way of life, starting in our own small corners of the world?"
We're a #GrassRoots movement.
This sentence describes the speed of our movements.
My old book blog has been defunct for years. But tonight, I've brought it back to life, because I needed a place to write about a book that has fired my spirits lately.
The book is "A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster" by Rebecca Solnit. Since I just spent a couple of hours writing about it at length - (maybe at too much length!) - I won't repeat the whole effort here. I'll just give a couple excerpts from my blog post here:
"It was average people, pooling resources and talents, banding together, improvising creatively, ad-libbing solutions, coordinating with each other, and building practical systems for themselves, which made the biggest impact. ...Over and over, the record shows neighbors, co-workers, and complete strangers rescuing each other, feeding and sheltering each other, organizing themselves before any officially designated authorities stepped in to take over."
"Maybe the real reason this book has affected me so profoundly is because I feel as though we are living in a cataclysmic disaster right now. Vandals and thugs are gutting every one of our normal community functions. We are shielding our heads from an avalanche of falling rubble, with nothing but destruction any way we look. Now, if ever, we need mutual aid, on-the-spot solutions, grassroots communities of care."
Link to my blog post:
https://mariasbooks.wordpress.com/2025/02/16/a-paradise-built-in-hell/
Publisher's info about the book:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301070/a-paradise-built-in-hell-by-rebecca-solnit/
"Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace."
— Rudolf Rocker
https://www.newsletter.peoplepowerunited.org/p/action-the-key-to-people-power
#Action: The Key to #People #Power
People Power United is a #grassroots group of over 200,000+ members in all 50 states-powered by people like YOU. We champion progress and power to the people.
Laurie Woodward Garcia and People Power United
https://www.newsletter.peoplepowerunited.org/p/action-the-key-to-people-power
#Action: The Key to #People #Power
a #grassroots group of over 200,000+ members in all 50 states-powered by people like YOU. We champion progress and power to the people.
Laurie Woodward Garcia and People Power United
..."Join us for "Rapid Response for Our Freedoms: Stop Project 2025", a crucial event where we stand as one to defend democracy, uphold the rule of law, and safeguard the rights and freedoms we all hold dear.
The power is in your hands."...
This year, I'm also working on launching my own "Boots for the People" donations drive. To get workboots donated to marginalized, newly housed folks who are trying to make a living from new job & for longtime housed folks living under poverty line who can't afford quality work boots.
I'll need some local volunteers in #Saanich & #VictoriaBC #VancouverIsland areas to help me with picking up/dropping off donations, help with spreading the good word out & help with obtaining free or discounted printed promo materials for the donations drive.
We are soon resuming our regular meetings. We are inviting the everyone who would like to form a part of the organizing staff for our 13th edition of SeaGL. We are a 100% volunteer run organization that provides a completely FREE conference based on Free-Libre-Open principles.
Nguyễn Thị Bình is a granddaughter of the Nationalist leader Phan Chu Trinh. She grew up in a land that had been under French rule since 1858. The country’s resources were plundered, & the people exploited as cheap labour & reduced to grinding poverty. So determined were the French to maintain their colonial hold at any cost, they collaborated in power-sharing with Japanese #fascist #occupiers who brought horror & starvation from 1940-1945.
Despite this, led by the #VietMinh Front, people of Vietnam triumphed in the #AugustRevolution of 1945 & the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (DRV) was declared on September 2nd. Democratic elections took place in January 1946 but French troops, with the open support of the US & Britain, attacked the new Viet Minh administration in the south of the country & the #WarOfResistance against #France began.
Binh studied French at Lycée Sisowath in Cambodia & worked as a teacher during the #French #colonisation of Vietnam. She joined #VietnamCommunistParty in 1948. Upon joining, she immediately began work as a #grassroots #AntiColonial organiser. From 1945-1951, she took part in intellectual protest movements against French #colonists. She was arrested & jailed between 1951-1953 in #Saigon by the French #colonial authority in Vietnam. She was repeatedly interrogated under torture & sentenced to death but was reprieved & released in very poor health in 1954.
Upon release from prison, Binh went north to work in #Hanoi for the National #WomensUnion. Her job took her to many localities where she witnessed first-hand the impact of #colonialism & the French War on ordinary people & especially women & children.
1954 was a year of victory for the Vietnamese army. The defeated French were forced to sign the #GenevaAccords recognising the independence, sovereignty & unity of Vietnam. The country was temporarily split in two at the 17th parallel, with the French moving to the south from which they would withdraw, while the Viet Minh went to the north. A general election for the government of a united country was to follow within 2 years.
But it never happened. The #USA came centre stage to ensure that the Accords were never implemented. Driven by strategic interests in the region, it made sure that Vietnam stayed divided – preventing an election that would have swept Ho Chi Minh to power with 80% support, while bankrolling & controlling the reactionary #regime of Diem-Nhu south of the 17th parallel. This regime violently suppressed all opposition, executing of thousands of Viet Minh supporters & condemning hundreds of thousands to concentration camps and prisons.
In response, the NLF (for liberation of South Vietnam & unification) was formed in 1960. Nguyen Thi Chau Sa was assigned to the Foreign Affairs Section of its Re-unification Committee & given the name Nguyen Thi Binh (Peace). From 1962 onwards, her high-profile diplomatic work, took her across the world. She represented the aspirations of the people of Vietnam in every country & forum she visited, while the world’s strongest #imperialist power made all-out war on her small country.
During the #VietnamWar, she became a member of the #Vietcong Central Committee and a vice-chairperson of the South Vietnamese #WomensLiberation Association. In 1969 she was appointed foreign minister of the Provisional #Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. A fluent French speaker, Bình played a major role in the #ParisPeaceAccords - an agreement that was supposed to end the war & restore peace in Vietnam.
She was expected to be replaced by a male Vietcong representative after preliminary talks, but became one of the group's most visible international public figures. During this time, she was famous for representing Vietnamese women with her elegant & gracious style, and was referred to by the media as "Madame Bình". She was also referred to as the "Viet Cong Queen" by Western media.
After the war, she was appointed Minister of Education of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1982-1986; the first female minister ever in the history of Vietnam. Binh was a member of the Central Committee of Vietnam's Communist Party from 1987-1992. She was the Deputy Chair of the Party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission & Chair of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee. The National Assembly elected her twice to position of Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for the terms 1992–1997 & 1997–2002.
Bình has authored several op-eds, including a one on the state newspaper Nhân Dân in which she voiced concerns that the current personnel policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam have allowed some "incompetent and opportunistic" individuals to enter the party's apparatus. She also criticized the Party's focus on increasing membership at the expense of "quality."
From March 2009-2014, she served as a member of the support committee of #RussellTribunal on #Palestine.
Madame Bình became a source of inspiration & namesake for Madame Binh Graphics Collective, a #RadicalLeft all-women poster, printmaking, & street art collective based in NYC from 1970s-1980s.
Many Americans in the #AntiWar movement were proud to wear T-shirts printed with the portrait of "Madame Binh". By then, she had become a symbol for female soldiers of the legitimacy of Vietnam's efforts.
Madame Bình has been awarded many prestigious awards & honours, including the Order of Ho Chi Minh & Resistance Order (First Class). In 2021, President of Vietnam Nguyễn Xuân Phúc awarded her the 75-year Party Membership Commemorative Medal.
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, the Government of Vietnam commissioned the official portraits for 12 former foreign ministers from 1945-2020. Nguyễn Thị Bình was included among them as the only South Vietnamese foreign minister & the only woman.
Ref: Nguyen Thi Binh". Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography (3rd ed.). Boston: Northeastern University Press. 1999. ISBN 978-1-55553-421-9
Ref: Triantafillou, Eric (3 May 2012). "Graphic Uprising". The Brooklyn Rail.
Ref: https://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/about-rtop/patrons.html
Ref: Hy V. Luong (2003), Postwar Vietnam: dynamics of a transforming society, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0847698653
Did you know that by being part of the Free Software movement (not the foundation), you are joining a grassroots effort?
The Free Software movement supports your right to use, change, and share software freely. It focuses on working together, being open, and helping communities take charge of their technology.
When you support Free Software, you’re not just freeing yourself; you’re also helping to make technology fairer for everyone. This movement pushes back against corporate control and encourages freedom and cooperation in the tech world!
https://grassrootsconnector.substack.com/p/what-is-the-grassroots
What is “the #Grassroots?”
..."Grassroots, n., Individuals acting alone or in action-oriented groups outside the political machinery in order to make change. Such actions include such time-tested means as protesting, canvassing, phone banking, letters-to-the-editor, and postcarding but should also include teaching a myth-free history, challenging disinformation, helping others interpret media bias, a
...
In the comments below, we invite you to share your definition."...
