Instead of blogging today, take or plan an action!!
To take an action identify these things:
1) What are you taking an action against or for?
2) What is the intent of your action? What are you trying to accomplish?
3) What is the best action to take, that will help to accomplish what I set out in #2?
4)What are the logistics? What materials do I need? Do I need companion activists? Do I need to take identity-protecting precautions? When and where will I do this action?
Ok, here are two examples:
1) I want to take an action against any piece of shit who touches me when I don't want them to.
2) I want my action to create an embarassing situation for them instead of for me.
3) Hm...couple things I can think of that would do this. a) Grabbing that piece of shit's hand and yelling: "Did anyone lose a hand?? I found this hand on my ass!! You better be careful with that; you wouldn't want to be missing a hand!" b) Yelling the simple "This man grabbed my (fill in body part here)!" c) If you're in private, not in public, saying quite directly "That is my (fill in body part here). I didn't give you permission to touch it." or sarcastic variations like "Last time I checked I got to decide who got to touch/grab my (fill in body part here) and when."
4) What I need for this: 1) Some serious bravery, and the knowledge that fuck yeah, this is my body, and I have the right to loudly and publicly shame anyone who messes with it. 2) Practice! It's so much easier when you've gotten the giggles out with friends! It makes the serious situations easier to handle.
Example 2:
1) Your school's sexual assault policy does not have wording dealing with cases of drug/alchohol impairment.
2) The goal is twofold: raise awareness on the campus and in the community as well as get the college to change the policy.
3) This is complicated. I'd do it in steps.
a) Ask nicely. Ask any prevention/intervention groups on the campus and in the community to help figure out who to ask nicely and to support you in your nice ask. Then ask away: the dean of students, the chair of judicial departments, the president, the student government, campus police, anyone and everyone.
b) Surprise! They ignored you! Now's the time to use the resources of the campus. They're just tossing money around for student organizations! Yay! You get to use it against them! Ok, find a salient recent event or public image related to drug/alcohol induced sexual assault and plaster campus (was there a recent rape in the local news? In the national news?) Make flyers, brochures, hold events, stage rallies, invite the press to everything.* Hell, make t-shirts and get a slogan! Compare your school's policy to your rival school's policy. Chalk, flyer campus, flyer classrooms, buildings, kiosks, storefronts. It only takes a little local news to get beaurocrats sweating (warning: sweating beaurocrats not pretty).
c) Take legal actions. Investigate what you can do. File a civil rights complaint with the Office for Civil Rights. File a Title IX suit (if you can get an attorney. Big if.). File a Clery Act complaint. File a civil suit (big lawyer if here again). Report them to Security on Campus. Dig down deep and reach out to any and all local and national organizations who deal with this issue. Pack a punch!
d) What? They suddenly want to talk to you like nice civilized people?! Weird, I wonder why their opinions changed! Anyway, now it's time to NOT BACK DOWN. Hey, you didn't win just because you got the meeting. Now they'll try to stall you and pacify you with pretend changes. IGNORE! Remember your initial goal! Change the policy! If they try to pacify you, keep up your efforts to shake shit up on campus and in the community (those local tv stations are still filming!).
d) What, they don't wanna play if they can't pacify you? Get ugly. Read books about direct action. They'll tell you what to do.
e) Wait, wait, we wanna talk again! OK. Negotiate. Don't back down. Keep the pressure on until you see the results of what you've done!!
4) Combined up there in #3, but you'll need companion activists, the internet, computer skills or other flyer design skills, the college's money or a fundraiser if you can't get the college's money, your wits, your bravery, persistence, serious righteous anger, time, dedication. You know, the works. You need it.
That's how you plan an action! And you gotta be flexible because things change, shitstorms happen, activists argue and disband and reform. Institutions promise change or twist your wrist to get you to back down.
But it's fun! You can do it legally and publicly, or anonymously, and that other way that's not legally, alone, together, once as a stand-alone action or constantly for months as an action campaign!
Now do it! Go! Plan a little action! Enact a big action! And then blog about it (seriously, it helps get the word out, I really do like blogs, I promise)! Or, you know, don't, depending on what the action was.
Now, Drop the F*Bomb!!
*Tip: when sending out press releases, just google press release. Find a short, hard-hitting one and use it as a template. Exploit media's hatred of feminists by using buzzwords. "Feminist" "Activist" "Rape" "Large-Scale Protest" "Rally" "Demand" "Disrupt" For instance: "Feminists activists stage large-scale protest to disrupt President's Council meeting. Radicals claim College University advocates drug-induced rape."
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