ALYSSA ALYSSA ANTIFASCISTA @qyliss@mastodon.social

Hello! People sometimes ask me what they can do to help Spectrum, or otherwise support my free software work.

Well, one thing you can do is give me money! I have accounts on Liberapay (https://liberapay.com/qyliss/) and GitHub Sponsors (https://github.com/sponsors/alyssais/). Until Oct 2020, GitHub will match donations through them, so please use that if you can.

Income from free software is how I pay my bills, and small donations help give me stability and security while I work towards big goals.

Thank you. <3

Saluton! Homoj foje demandas min kiel ili povas helpi Spectrum, aŭ alie subteni mian laboron pri liberaj programoj.

Unu maniero estas aldoni min mono! Mi havas Liberapay (https://liberapay.com/qyliss/) kaj GitHub Sponsors (https://github.com/sponsors/alyssais) kontajn. Ĝis Okt 2020 GH duobiligos donacojn tra ili, do bonvulu uzi tiun se vi povas.

Enspezo de liberaj programoj estas kiel mi pagas miajn kalkulojn, kaj malgrandaj donacoj helpas aldoni min stabileco kaj sekureco laborante al grandaj celoj.

Dankon. <3

🎶 I don’t believe in cops, bosses or politicians
Some call that anarchism
I call it HAVING A FUCKING HEART THAT BEATS

https://invidio.us/watch?v=YYJ5ZViYhHQ

🎶 How many more news stories
Do you need to fucking see?
Until you realize that the enemy
Is the murderous police
Sure you can turn a blind eye
'Til it happens to somebody that you love

Usually I associate this sort of extreme aversion to associating the consequences of the police’s actions with the police with US media, but this is in the Guardian.

Not sure I’ve seen anything so brazen in the UK before.

‘The livestream had earlier showed police with batons drawn at the bottom of Parliament Street, where it meets Parliament Square, striking out at people they warned to “get back or you will get hit”. At least one demonstrator’s face was bloodied during the brief exchange.’

“one demonstrator’s face was bloodied”

That passive voice. Jesus.

13:12 13/12

You can also support people after the event by writing to anybody who might have wound up in jail, showing up to support them at court dates, etc. The community will keep you informed about this stuff.

If you want to read about events like this and how they went, search for #TuMalWat or Squatting Days Freiburg (I’m sure there are lots of others too!).

They won’t always be successful, but sometimes they will be, and a new squat will be born.

Occasionally there will be people organising to make new squats. There are all sorts of roles you can play in this — you don’t have to be the one breaking into the building. The people inside won’t be able to leave until the police give up, and they’ll need a lot of outside support. There will be a demo outside, and being in that will motivate those inside.

At one I went to I went shopping and threw bananas over the heads of the cops to the people behind who were stuck behind the police line.

Read about squatting and search for your area on https://planet.squat.net/.

Find open events on https://radar.squat.net/ (not every event there is at a squat)

Go to events, talk to people, make friends, see what you can do to support.

I didn’t even touch on the ‘people get somewhere to live’ part, because even though that’s really important for those people and they will form the core of the community, the squat isn’t just for them. They are a very small fraction of everybody who will be touched by the squat, if you succeed.

I think this might be why people who haven’t been around squats don’t understand how important they are. It’s not just the 20 people who live in it that benefit from the squat.

This isn’t the direction I expected to go in when I started posting but whatever.

I will repeat:
I cannot envision meaningful resistance in the west that isn’t centred around squatting.

SQUAT THE WORLD.

The best thing about squats is that you’re probably not going to have just one for very long. Squats create more squats. Watching from afar the eviction of a squat I cared about was the saddest and angriest I’ve ever felt. But even the eviction of a squat gives people energy. Get back up and start again, and use the opportunity to start afresh and make something even better, because the last one sure as hell wasn't perfect.

So, if you’re looking at the state of the world and asking what hope we have left, what we can possibly do, I urge you to embrace the squatter movement.

Start hanging out at squats, support them when they’re being threatened with eviction. I guarantee they want to share what they have — use it and spread it! organise there. Try to live in one if you get the chance. You might have trouble, but use it to learn what the next community should do better.
And make more squats!