In Person Activism

Solarcamp Freiburg: Lerne deinen Beitrag zur Energiewende zu leisten
https://solarcamp-freiburg.de/was-ist-das-solarcamp/
@inperson

Der Klimaschutz stockt – es fehlen die Hände für die Energiewende. Das müssen wir ändern! Das @solarcamp_freiburg bietet für 50 Menschen die Möglichkeit, ins Klimahandwerk reinzuschnuppern.

Die Bewerbungen für Sommer 2024 sind noch offen. Es kann zwischen zwei Zeiträumen gewählt werden. 29.07.-02.08. / 05.08.-09.08 und 05.08.-09.08. / 12.08.-16.08.

I was thinking a lot about how design patterns are useful solutions to certain classes of problems. I went spelunking online and found this from a Wikipedia page lol. Hope it proves helpful for community activists!

A great breakdown of concrete actions, sorted by time commitment (all the way from 5 minutes up to "I want to go to Italy and train with Al Gore").

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8560856

This seems like a great technology to build resiliency and redundancy in a community, especially for places where cell service is spotty, or in the odd event where normal lines of communication are blocked.

The LoRa boards can be easily powered with a small solar panel for continuous use, and if put in a high enough place with a good antenna, they can have a surprisingly long range!

In addition to being genuinely useful, they also seem like they'd be a lot of fun to experiment and play around with, printing cool 3D cases for them, or designing a better antenna or repeater setup.

If and of you already have experience with LoRa, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts! :D

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/4687232

I’ve boycotted Coca-Cola & Pepsi products for over a decade. All the non-alcoholic drinks at my workplace cafeteria were Coke products. Even the orange juice (Minute Maid is Coke).

So I complained… saying directly¹ to the outsourced catering company that Coke is contrary to local values and that we should have at least one ethical option, while at the same time stressing that bringing in Pepsi products would not solve the problem. I said I’m currently limited to water, beer, and wine. And obviously when I choose tap water they make nothing on that then they have to wash my glass.

They replied to say they’ve decided to bring in more drink options. Couple weeks later they had Arizona iced tea and various coconut water kinds with aloe vera. And I noticed lots of people buying them. There’s still the problem of plastic waste from the containers but getting some people off Coke was a bigger stride to make IMO.

Coke’s wrong-doings are only fractionally environmental, but I wanted to mention it here because the story demonstrates how a simple 1-person action can sometimes scale beyond just one individual. AFAIK, I was the only one to complain about the Coke monopoly.

Note that only the few colleagues I mentioned this to know it was boycott-driven. People buying non-Coke drinks were simply taking what they wanted with no idea that an anti-Coke boycott action lead to more options. The ease of it is notable. I did not have to undertake the big effort of rallying a crowd.

1. indeed I took the liberty to contact the catering company directly, bypassing my employer who actually had the contract with the catering company. It caused no issue. I guess it was clear enough that I was just an employee and not acting on behalf of the employer.

So I decided to share these with my neighbours! 😊

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8354304

Karrot is a free and open-source tool for grassroots initiatives and groups of people that want to coordinate face-to-face activities on a local, autonomous and voluntary basis.

It is designed in ways to enable community-building and support a more transparent, democratic and participatory governance of your group.

Archived Version

Anti-apartheid price tags for supermarket shelves for products covered by the BDS boycott.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/15814967

This is a friendly reminder to show up at your public meetings and advocate for the positive change that you want to see in your community. Because morons like this will be there and in some places they're the only voice your municipality hears on active transportation.

A group of friends is currently planning to approach the local council about getting to rent or being ceded some kind of facility to use as community space and find out about other support options that might be available for such a project.

While working with local government (or depending on them) has its risks and might turn out to be the wrong approach, we will at least consider it in the beginning - it might be surprisingly easy to get a space in this way, considering the many empty and abandoned properties where we live. Stepping in with a project the council deems support-worthy could really get us started.

So for that, I would like to design a small brochure or presentation with our ideas and find that rather hard. I have a list with what we would possibly include in such a space, but could do with some inspiration as to how to present it so it highlights how the community will profit from this project.

Has anyone ever designed such a document, or knows of one they could share? Or has any ideas to share? Successful recipes could and should be copied, documented, passed on.

So far, imagining loads of space and a factory-sized building, the ideal community space could have:

Space for Community, Collaboration, Cooperation

Compost and growing

Outdoor event space

Metal/vehicle workshop

Community Kitchen

Office and collaboration space

Wood/Electronics workshop

CNC/3D printing/Hacker space

Indoor event space

Storage

Mushroom lab

Good Work Strike

One of the biggest problems for service industry workers is that many forms of direct action, such as Slowdowns, end up hurting the consumer (mostly fellow workers) more than the boss. One way around this is to provide better or cheaper service -- at the boss' expense, of course.

Workers at Mercy Hospital in France, who were afraid that patients would go untreated if they went on strike, instead refused to file the billing slips for drugs, lab tests, treatments, and therapy. As a result, the patients got better care (since time was being spent caring for them instead of doing paperwork), for free. The hospital's income was cut in half, and panic-stricken administrators gave in to all of the workers' demands after three days.

In 1968, Lisbon bus and train workers gave free rides to all passengers to protest a denial of wage increases. Conductors and drivers arrived for work as usual, but the conductors did not pick up their money satchels. Needless to say, public support was solidly behind these take-no-fare strikers.

In New York City, USA, IWW restaurant workers, after losing a strike, won some of their demands by heeding the advice of IWW organizers to "pile up the plates, give 'em double helpings, and figure the checks on the low side."

Never heard of that type of action. Sounds very effective.

Archived Version

This zine provides suggestions on how to defend pride eventsin an era of increased attacks against queer people in the United States. It looks at potential far right threats (Proud Boys, Neo-Nazis, far right media), how to organize (using affinity groups), the logistics of how to protect events, and how to look out for each others safety.

Archived Version

Documented actions that shared the spirit of of the zine (Archived Version)

Event in the Netherlands.

...non-profit organization with a mission: to repurpose technology and discover sustainable solutions while providing educational resources. Our ultimate aim is to foster a vibrant community where individuals are empowered to unlock their full potential. Through our dedicated efforts, we strive to transform the world by leveraging technology, sustainability, and education to create a brighter, more inclusive future, where every individual has the opportunity to thrive and make a meaningful impact.

Free Geek’s goal is to divert technology that would otherwise be recycled or thrown away, refurbish it, and give it back to our community at no or low cost.

Free Geek has created a unique circular model which points two existing societal problems - excess electronic waste in need of sustainable reuse and recycling, and lack of access to basic technology among vulnerable populations - back at each other to reveal innovative solutions.