Last Friday there was a pretty successful general strike in Minneapolis (with businesses from other cities participating too), and in response to the additional horrors that have occurred since, there has been a call for a nationwide general strike on Friday, January 30th.
Tomorrow's general strike has been developed very quickly and so did not have the planning that is typically needed to be successful, but I think at least talking about a general strike is important. Of course, if you can reasonably not go to work, not go to school, and not make any purchases tomorrow, do so, but not everyone can.
For example, personally, I am a cat sitter, and tomorrow I have some cat sitting scheduled, and I'm not going to abandon the kitties because of the strike, BUT I will continue my spend-nothing Jan and will even walk to and from cat sitting so I am not even spending money on public transport.
Monetary Actions:
If you do need to make a purchase, only shop at small minority-owned businesses. Also continue to shop at small businesses throughout the weekend, especially ones that are choosing to close for the strike, because for many they are already running on tight margins and we need to support them for supporting the strike. If you must make a purchase, you might also consider making an equal donation to an immigrant-focused nonprofit, organization, or community group.
Governmental Actions:
Contact your elected officials (especially if they are Republicans) and tell them that unless they stand up to ICE and DHS, they will not get reelected. There are multiple platforms to do so, and while they tend to say that calls are the best, any contact is better than none, so send the email, send the message on social media, etc. if that is what will allow you to actually contact your elected representatives. And remember that our elected representatives work for us, so we are simply asking them to do their job.
Community Actions:
Check if there are community groups protecting children when school is let out, and if so, consider joining tomorrow (no children should be afraid they will be disappeared on the way to or from school), or join or host a whistle kit making event because it has been shown that whistles can successfully be used to bring community members out so we can have footage of what is really happening.
Keeping Record:
As we all have seen, it is vital that we keep records of what is happening in our communities because without documentation, without our videos, without record keeping, others will try to spin what is happening and who it is happening to. The names we know are because of videos and photos that others took showing what was really happening. For example, for every Liam Conejo Ramos, there are hundreds of unnamed, unknown, and all-too-likely-to-be-forgotten others.
Creative Actions:
Tomorrow's general strike has been developed very quickly and so did not have the planning that is typically needed to be successful, but I think at least talking about a general strike is important. Of course, if you can reasonably not go to work, not go to school, and not make any purchases tomorrow, do so, but not everyone can.
For example, personally, I am a cat sitter, and tomorrow I have some cat sitting scheduled, and I'm not going to abandon the kitties because of the strike, BUT I will continue my spend-nothing Jan and will even walk to and from cat sitting so I am not even spending money on public transport.
So What Can You Do If You Can't Strike?
Monetary Actions:
If you do need to make a purchase, only shop at small minority-owned businesses. Also continue to shop at small businesses throughout the weekend, especially ones that are choosing to close for the strike, because for many they are already running on tight margins and we need to support them for supporting the strike. If you must make a purchase, you might also consider making an equal donation to an immigrant-focused nonprofit, organization, or community group.
Governmental Actions:
Contact your elected officials (especially if they are Republicans) and tell them that unless they stand up to ICE and DHS, they will not get reelected. There are multiple platforms to do so, and while they tend to say that calls are the best, any contact is better than none, so send the email, send the message on social media, etc. if that is what will allow you to actually contact your elected representatives. And remember that our elected representatives work for us, so we are simply asking them to do their job.
Community Actions:
Check if there are community groups protecting children when school is let out, and if so, consider joining tomorrow (no children should be afraid they will be disappeared on the way to or from school), or join or host a whistle kit making event because it has been shown that whistles can successfully be used to bring community members out so we can have footage of what is really happening.
Keeping Record:
As we all have seen, it is vital that we keep records of what is happening in our communities because without documentation, without our videos, without record keeping, others will try to spin what is happening and who it is happening to. The names we know are because of videos and photos that others took showing what was really happening. For example, for every Liam Conejo Ramos, there are hundreds of unnamed, unknown, and all-too-likely-to-be-forgotten others.
Creative Actions:
Create art!!! Art is an important part of protest and liberation movements. Do what you can. Bruce Springsteen wrote a powerful song, "Streets of Minneapolis," , but creating posters or poems or even memes are also ways that art can be used to keep us all energized to stop what is happening.
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