How To Resist
Mutual Aid Resources
Resistance is an individual act, but you need people around you for support, empowerment, and to recharge each other. Reach out to your friends and family and maybe a stranger or two:
Have daily/weekly contact to check in with each other.
Consider and discuss how much risk you’re willing to endure to resist. There are so many ways to participate: writing letters/postcards, calling representatives/voters, knocking on doors, protesting, etc. It’s important to know how far you are willing to go.
Make a meet-up plan after major events.
https://www.kiva.org/ - Kiva allows you to give money as a loan to individuals and small businesses that need it. You can filter on the location and specify who you'd like to help. This includes fellow USians
https://food.uslowcosthousing.com/ - A free resource to find free food resources. A state-by-state listing of places you can donate to to help with food or finances.
https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank - Another website to find your local food bank and options to donate.
https://www.findhelp.org/ - enter your zip code and find resources for housing, food, finances, care, education, etc.
Backup Communication
When the lights go out or there is a mobile phone blackout, how will you contact your friends and loved ones?
Memorize at least one phone number as an emergency contact. If anything happens to your phone or device where contacts are stored, you’ll need to know who to call.
Designate a meeting place to gather should there be a communication blackout.
Consider alternative communication methods: Ham Radio, Walkie-Talkies for short distance, Mesh network, etc.
Travel Safety
Carrying your citizenship documentation depends on your status. Guidelines and laws are available here from Legal Aid NYC.
Sign up or renew your U.S. passport ASAP.
Let someone you trust know where you are going, how you’re getting there, and approximate travel times in case of an encounter.
Keep contact info of an ACLU affiliate (find affiliate by state you’re in: https://www.aclu.org/affiliates)
Resist with your Wallet
https://www.buycott.com/ - look up products using a search or barcode scanner, then find out who their parent company supports.
https://www.goodsuniteus.com/ - group of analysts have created a scoring system for companies based on their political contributions.
https://www.boycottbuddy.app/ - great resource to look up companies to get a summary of their global impact on the environment, politics, and social issues.
https://bookshop.org/ - if you're a book lover, check out Bookshop.org to buy your ebooks, physical books, and even games & puzzles.
Organizations that Guide Us
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/ - This website focuses on gathering people around the nation to peacefully protest. “50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement.” Good for those wanting to organize or to attend an existing protest.
https://indivisible.org/ - an organization created to help spread the word about protests all around the U.S. Creators of the "No Kings" protests. Click the link to find an event near you
https://resist.bot/ - Send messages via the website or send RESIST via TXT to 50409. The “bot” in the name means your inputs will automatically generate a response from the system. Keywords are used to guide you to sending letters, faxes and/or emails to the current Administration, Senators, and US Representatives.
https://postcardstovoters.org/ - This website is for volunteers who want to add a personal touch when reaching out to voters using hand written postcards. Sign up, send in a practice postcard for approval (they have to be able to read your handwriting), and they send addresses for specific campaigns.
NOTE: While I don’t believe it’s required to have an account, they started as a Facebook group and may have a lot of info on campaigns there. The text to add on the postcard and the addresses are delivered via e-mail.https://generalstrikeus.com/ - This website is looking to get 11 million people (3.5% of the U.S. population) to sign up for a General Strike. With 11 million people, their demands for equal rights, pay, healthcare, climate change and other necessities will have the most impact.
https://5calls.org/ - This website is for constituents to find their representatives’ phone numbers (based on zip code) and offers a script to say once you call their office(s). Great if you’re not sure where to start or are unsure of what to say.
https://www.signsofjustice.com/ - This site was created to help inspire others via visual art displays. Their shop has yard signs, bumper stickers, cardstock prints, shirts, etc. The best part is The Majority Project – to send 500k postcards to Congress. They offer a downloadable design for free to print out and send to join their campaign.
https://www.eff.org – The Electronic Frontier Foundation is looking out for safety of our digital space, innovation and free speech.
Some Actions That Are Not Protesting or Voting - this is a collection of actions to take based on Frontline Medics links. It's an easy to read, text list of actions that can be done... instead of or in addition to protesting and voting. Note this may be catered to the locale of the original creator, but the ideas are evergreen, just localize them.
https://www.wehaverights.us/ - animated visuals to help understand what can be done when witnessing ICE encounters. Listen closely as you may recognize some of the narrated voices.
Progressive Orgs for a QUICK START with Immediate Action & Real Impact - The Vote is the Antidote has an impressive list of Calls to Action that you can take, along with organizations that can help you out.
The Uprising Tide - a positive group of progressive Americans that want to also help give people direction of what they can do beyond voting. They have a fantastic mailing list.