Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Let's say, for example, you are part of a predominantly young and white anarchist community, and a black man has just been shot dovm in cold blood by the police. You could contact his family and offer to screenprint shirts or posters for them to use for raising money and awareness {see Screenprint'mg, pg. 455), or you could use your graffiti skills to paint the town with his name, so the media can't sweep the whole thing under the rug (see Graffiti, pg. 258). Or let's say you are a tenured professor at a university, and know of a people that are being displaced from their lands by a petroleum corporation. You could offer to host speaking events for them, organize trips for students and others to visit their lands to witness what is happening, and campaign to force your university to cut any financial ties it has with the corporation. Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. 4^9

Solidarity Begins at IHome When considering your options for solidarity actions, never underestimate your powers. No life is too mundane, no skillset too limited, no gift too humble for one person to be of assistance to another. The most important forms of solidarity are the daily ones: babysitting, providing emotional support, sharing food and goods. You might not call it an Action to spend an evening babysitting your neighbor's children, but it is such modest deeds that make communities of resistance possible. The everyday affairs of being a reliable friend, a gentle lover, and a courageous ally form the bread and butter of revolution?after all, our friendships form the foundation of our affinity groups.

Many clashes between capital and community do not have glory, fame, or glamor associated with them, but that doesn't make them any less important. If everyone moved to Chiapas to take part in the Zapatistas' struggle while ignoring the struggles taking place in their own backyards, our chances of creating global change would be slim indeed. The Zapatistas probably don't need too many anarchists wandering aimlessly around their villages and getting lost in the jungle, anyway! As they've said themselves: What is required is that revolutionaries live and fight the system everywhere ?and that includes wherever it is that you live. The exotic attraction that faraway struggles exert is a relative matter, after all: for a young white college student, helping translate the demands of Hispanic janitors into English can be a whole different world, just as a jaded Zapatista soldier might find ft romantic and adventurous to help defend the century-old homesteads of Appalachian mountain families against coal companies.

There are probably opportunities for solidarity actions right down the street from where you live. You may be the only one knows about them, or the only person who might help; don't miss the chance to do so while fantasizing about aiding revolutionaries on the other side of the planet! If you take a local issue seriously enough, ft might Solidarity ^^^^ ^^^^ ^° ^e known around the world?and then perhaps others will show up from 490 far away to act in solidarity with you.

Local solidarity is important?but that being said, it can also be good to travel to share Traveling to Solidarity Actions resources with people in other lands and circumstances. From time to time, you may need to leave home, anyway, and if you're going to visit another locale you might as well make yourself useful there! Traveling to distant places to offer solidarity can give you a vidder base of experience to inform your participation in local struggles; it can also provide a welcome breath of fresh air when your struggles at home have become monotonous or seem hopeless.

Great distances and time-consuming voyages often discourage people from going to far-off places to participate in solidarity actions. However, when it comes to travel, many anarchists have options others do not. The secret weapons of unemployment, hitchhiking, and trainhopping can offer the free time and free passage to get almost anywhere. Those who possess the opportunity to use such means should apply them for the good of all. Obtaining overseas plane tickets can be more challenging, but you can look into standby fares, courier fares, and student discounts. If you have access to a car, you can pack it full of people?one of whom should have at least rudimentary knowledge of automobile repair?and take it great distances, sleeping in it when need be.