I think a show on DIY Community Activism would be a nice change of pace for Higherside. All of us Brother and Sisters and Other would love an episode that inspires hope in changing our community and world, by seeing the work of various individuals, groups, and communities, and giving us a taste on HOW to make those changes. Wouldn't it be great to see positive, meaningful work being done all around us?
We don’t have to agree with the politics or worldview of an organization/group/individual in order to learn HOW they helped create a movement, HOW they created change, HOW they structured their movement. You don’t want to start your food shelter that is full of radical anarchist politics, crusty punks, and smelly squatters? Start your own (just be prepared to learn from them since they've been doing it for 30 years).
So, I guess what I am proposing is a show that gives the audience
1) Success stories of organizations, groups, individuals that have used alternative building and community organizing to create the future they wish to see AND to positively change the community around them. This would provide the uplifting portion of the show. We would also get:
2) Nuts and bolts "how tos" in navigating the corporate and state terrain intent on crushing you. These success stories not only show their success but HOW they did it. How did they find like-minded people? How did they organize around an issue? Did they incorporate? Are they a loose affiliation? A neighborhood group? Are they operating under the radar? How do they deal with police, with city ordinances, codes, snoopy neighbors? Do they have a governing board or nothing so concrete? What advice can they give to help someone else that wished to either do something similar or wanted to use a similar operating structure (but instead of helping feed the homeless, they wished to use the same structure as an anti-gov't libertarian lending library)?
My thought would be this could be an episode with a series of clips that would make up a whole as each interview might provide another piece of the puzzle to help us make a difference in this world.
THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST
For instance -- there could be a guest on to discuss how they started and successfully run a Food Not Bombs chapter that helps feed homeless populations without having to go through state involvement. Lots of nuts and bolts could be discussed along with how the organization has dealt with the cops, zoning, health laws, etc.
* Food Not Bombs website http://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/
There could be a guest on that talks about their quest and success in starting a community garden or community food forest in a low income, grocery-scarce area (or any area). Land issues, money issues, water issues, city government issues, etc.
* Basic how to start community garden: https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Community-Garden
* Community permaculture food forest in Seattle: https://beaconfoodforest.org/
You could bring an (anarchist) activist like Scott Crow (Austin, TX) or Lisa Fithian (Houston, TX) to talk about the founding of the Common Ground Relief (later Common Ground Collective), originally a DIY group that formed in the immediate aftermath of Hurrican Katrina, that provided basic supplies, homeowner assistance, and even startup DIY medical clinics, as the US government showed its incompetence and unconcern during this humanitarian crisis. Topics could center around the importance of working with the people in those communities, and the necessity of citizens' involvement and leadership (as opposed to you coming in and imposing your ideas and will). Common Ground had a government informant in their midst (Brandon Darby -- now a Fox and Breitbart pundit) and Scott could talk about mistakes made in dealing with infiltration, the necessity of strong security culture, etc.
* Scott Crow on founding Common Grounds: https://www.thedailyliberator.com/scott-crow-common-ground-collective-leftright-alliances/
Shit, you could have a quick 15 minute "Know Your Rights" training in dealing with the police. What are your rights when they knock on your door, stop you in the street, pull you over in your car? What is the protocol for when you do go through something like this? What common mistakes do people make in these situations? What are the tactics of the police? What are they allowed to do and what are they not? What happens if you are arrested? -- ALL of this knowledge can really help make a community stronger and healthier.
* This is a know your rights pamphlet (catered more towards activism -- but building alternatives, which we should all be doing, is a form of activism) from the National Lawyer’s Guild -- https://www.nlg.org/know-your-rights/
There could be a clip with someone talking about their activism around changing/ending the drug laws -- working within policy part, on the streets action, even lobbying action. How they got rural white and inner-city blacks to give a stronger voice to the necessary changes, etc.
* 2010 article about legalization activists in Colorado -- https://www.thenation.com/article/budding-prospects-youth-activists-push-marijuana-reform/
Someone like Lucas Benitez who cofounded the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which helped end some of the more egregious working conditions and mistreatment among workers in the tomato fields of Florida. He also significantly helped increased workers' pay in the process. He later helped improve the relationships between farmworkers and corporations (through mass boycotts), including fast food industries, and getting worker much higher pay (Fuck Wendy's). He could talk about he dealt with the corporate elites and local franchise owners. He could discuss how bad things had to get, how low people had to sink, before that change was possible, and what was done to awaken others.
How to start a cooperative. Jackson, Mississippi has sort of reinvented itself through all kind of grassroots community activism, including the startup of dozens of cooperative that are actually democratically run. * https://cooperationjackson.org/
Groups that help to stop human trafficking. How did they start their group/organization, get funding, legality issues, etc.
How to start a community intention and prayer group for a neighborhood. Or people could join Gordon White on Rune Soup for his intention experiments, they could join Mitch Horowitz for his daily intentions or they could sign up an participate in Lynne McTaggart's experiments. It would be cool if neighborhoods started holding daily or weekly intention experiments for their own communities. Has that been done in the West?
Creating EMF-free zones (or as close as possible)
Farming and permaculture activists to talk about their growing movement, land issues, food issues, marketing and distribution issues, farmer's markets, etc. how to get involved.
Union activists. I know the listening audience may be divided upon this issue. And I know the bigger unions often sell out its people, but as the power of the elites get more concentrated and as fewer and fewer decent-paying jobs are available, union activism will end up becoming a person's only real ability for change and agency among the workplace. There are plenty of activists that can speak on this (and how fun and fulfilling it is to start a union that gets you better pay, along with the difficulties from the state and corporations). Even if some sort of universal income comes about, we will still be underpaid for our work and still need unions to increase that pay.
Community barter systems --
* This is a pretty big (maybe too big) and successful barter system in Maryland/Virginia – this is just an example. http://bartersystemsinc.com/
* How to start a neighborhood barter group -- http://www.grassrootsgrantmakers.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Neighborhood_Bartering_Club.pdf
Community bike project and collective:
* Austin Texas Yellow Bikes Project -- https://austinyellowbike.org/
* Columbus Ohio used bike collective - https://www.bikeco-op.org/
FREE 40 PLUS HOUR PERMACULTURE COURSE -- in classroom setting from North Carolina State
https://mediasite.online.ncsu.edu/online/Catalog/Full/f5a893e74b7c4b7980fd52dcd1ced71521
MORE GREAT potential for community activism 101:
GMO food activists
Internet security culture and protocols for anonymity-- how to be as under the radar as possible
Alternative health practices and clinics
Under the radar farmer's markets that barter and sell all kinds of alternative health medicines and even illegal drugs (for medicinal and other)
Free speech activists,
the radical doula movement,
home birth movement,
inner-city breakfast programs
how to start a community lend/lease program (so we don't buy shit we rarely use)
how to start a skill share space
how to stop a pipeline or a fracking site
Homeschool movement
Wikileaks and related sites used for whistleblowers/insiders
Sex work activism
Local election work (local elections can be very important for local communities)
How to start a school that teaches ancestral language and culture (like we see popping up all over various indigenous reservations). https://www.stjo.org/
We don’t have to agree with the politics or worldview of an organization/group/individual in order to learn HOW they helped create a movement, HOW they created change, HOW they structured their movement. You don’t want to start your food shelter that is full of radical anarchist politics, crusty punks, and smelly squatters? Start your own (just be prepared to learn from them since they've been doing it for 30 years).
So, I guess what I am proposing is a show that gives the audience
1) Success stories of organizations, groups, individuals that have used alternative building and community organizing to create the future they wish to see AND to positively change the community around them. This would provide the uplifting portion of the show. We would also get:
2) Nuts and bolts "how tos" in navigating the corporate and state terrain intent on crushing you. These success stories not only show their success but HOW they did it. How did they find like-minded people? How did they organize around an issue? Did they incorporate? Are they a loose affiliation? A neighborhood group? Are they operating under the radar? How do they deal with police, with city ordinances, codes, snoopy neighbors? Do they have a governing board or nothing so concrete? What advice can they give to help someone else that wished to either do something similar or wanted to use a similar operating structure (but instead of helping feed the homeless, they wished to use the same structure as an anti-gov't libertarian lending library)?
My thought would be this could be an episode with a series of clips that would make up a whole as each interview might provide another piece of the puzzle to help us make a difference in this world.
THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST
For instance -- there could be a guest on to discuss how they started and successfully run a Food Not Bombs chapter that helps feed homeless populations without having to go through state involvement. Lots of nuts and bolts could be discussed along with how the organization has dealt with the cops, zoning, health laws, etc.
* Food Not Bombs website http://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/
There could be a guest on that talks about their quest and success in starting a community garden or community food forest in a low income, grocery-scarce area (or any area). Land issues, money issues, water issues, city government issues, etc.
* Basic how to start community garden: https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Community-Garden
* Community permaculture food forest in Seattle: https://beaconfoodforest.org/
You could bring an (anarchist) activist like Scott Crow (Austin, TX) or Lisa Fithian (Houston, TX) to talk about the founding of the Common Ground Relief (later Common Ground Collective), originally a DIY group that formed in the immediate aftermath of Hurrican Katrina, that provided basic supplies, homeowner assistance, and even startup DIY medical clinics, as the US government showed its incompetence and unconcern during this humanitarian crisis. Topics could center around the importance of working with the people in those communities, and the necessity of citizens' involvement and leadership (as opposed to you coming in and imposing your ideas and will). Common Ground had a government informant in their midst (Brandon Darby -- now a Fox and Breitbart pundit) and Scott could talk about mistakes made in dealing with infiltration, the necessity of strong security culture, etc.
* Scott Crow on founding Common Grounds: https://www.thedailyliberator.com/scott-crow-common-ground-collective-leftright-alliances/
Shit, you could have a quick 15 minute "Know Your Rights" training in dealing with the police. What are your rights when they knock on your door, stop you in the street, pull you over in your car? What is the protocol for when you do go through something like this? What common mistakes do people make in these situations? What are the tactics of the police? What are they allowed to do and what are they not? What happens if you are arrested? -- ALL of this knowledge can really help make a community stronger and healthier.
* This is a know your rights pamphlet (catered more towards activism -- but building alternatives, which we should all be doing, is a form of activism) from the National Lawyer’s Guild -- https://www.nlg.org/know-your-rights/
There could be a clip with someone talking about their activism around changing/ending the drug laws -- working within policy part, on the streets action, even lobbying action. How they got rural white and inner-city blacks to give a stronger voice to the necessary changes, etc.
* 2010 article about legalization activists in Colorado -- https://www.thenation.com/article/budding-prospects-youth-activists-push-marijuana-reform/
Someone like Lucas Benitez who cofounded the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which helped end some of the more egregious working conditions and mistreatment among workers in the tomato fields of Florida. He also significantly helped increased workers' pay in the process. He later helped improve the relationships between farmworkers and corporations (through mass boycotts), including fast food industries, and getting worker much higher pay (Fuck Wendy's). He could talk about he dealt with the corporate elites and local franchise owners. He could discuss how bad things had to get, how low people had to sink, before that change was possible, and what was done to awaken others.
How to start a cooperative. Jackson, Mississippi has sort of reinvented itself through all kind of grassroots community activism, including the startup of dozens of cooperative that are actually democratically run. * https://cooperationjackson.org/
Groups that help to stop human trafficking. How did they start their group/organization, get funding, legality issues, etc.
How to start a community intention and prayer group for a neighborhood. Or people could join Gordon White on Rune Soup for his intention experiments, they could join Mitch Horowitz for his daily intentions or they could sign up an participate in Lynne McTaggart's experiments. It would be cool if neighborhoods started holding daily or weekly intention experiments for their own communities. Has that been done in the West?
Creating EMF-free zones (or as close as possible)
Farming and permaculture activists to talk about their growing movement, land issues, food issues, marketing and distribution issues, farmer's markets, etc. how to get involved.
Union activists. I know the listening audience may be divided upon this issue. And I know the bigger unions often sell out its people, but as the power of the elites get more concentrated and as fewer and fewer decent-paying jobs are available, union activism will end up becoming a person's only real ability for change and agency among the workplace. There are plenty of activists that can speak on this (and how fun and fulfilling it is to start a union that gets you better pay, along with the difficulties from the state and corporations). Even if some sort of universal income comes about, we will still be underpaid for our work and still need unions to increase that pay.
Community barter systems --
* This is a pretty big (maybe too big) and successful barter system in Maryland/Virginia – this is just an example. http://bartersystemsinc.com/
* How to start a neighborhood barter group -- http://www.grassrootsgrantmakers.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Neighborhood_Bartering_Club.pdf
Community bike project and collective:
* Austin Texas Yellow Bikes Project -- https://austinyellowbike.org/
* Columbus Ohio used bike collective - https://www.bikeco-op.org/
FREE 40 PLUS HOUR PERMACULTURE COURSE -- in classroom setting from North Carolina State
https://mediasite.online.ncsu.edu/online/Catalog/Full/f5a893e74b7c4b7980fd52dcd1ced71521
MORE GREAT potential for community activism 101:
GMO food activists
Internet security culture and protocols for anonymity-- how to be as under the radar as possible
Alternative health practices and clinics
Under the radar farmer's markets that barter and sell all kinds of alternative health medicines and even illegal drugs (for medicinal and other)
Free speech activists,
the radical doula movement,
home birth movement,
inner-city breakfast programs
how to start a community lend/lease program (so we don't buy shit we rarely use)
how to start a skill share space
how to stop a pipeline or a fracking site
Homeschool movement
Wikileaks and related sites used for whistleblowers/insiders
Sex work activism
Local election work (local elections can be very important for local communities)
How to start a school that teaches ancestral language and culture (like we see popping up all over various indigenous reservations). https://www.stjo.org/
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