#protest of nothing

[samanthasmfa]

Reflection on Week 5 Studio Visit

Yesterday we gathered at the Tasman Street tennis courts and stepped over a bright orange metal sign to get inside. I gave an outline of what had led me to that point and I invited participants to select signs that spoke to them and explain why.

Immediately, one participant ran towards "NO!".

One participant selected "I'm Upset" and explained that they will be talking to a group of 18 - 35 year olds and encouraging them to vote, so that we don't elect a National or ACT Party government at the end of the year.

Two participants responded by lying on the ground, one with "I'm Protesting" in their hands. An onlooker asked "Are we having a lie-in now?"

One participant selected "I don't know, I'm just scared" and spoke about the climate emergency we are facing and the fires that have devastated Maui recently.

-

I was engaged, excited and humbled at the reaction to the activation.

We reflected on how people had responded with such disparate causes that were on their minds. There was also a reflection of assumption that we may have the same political beliefs. I had aimed to have the protest signs be dynamic while non-specific and yet there still was a concept of group sameness among our feelings.

We reflected on how no site is blank, even though I selected a place that was less charged than originally thought of, such as Pigeon Park or Parliament grounds. Pukeahu has a fraught history, stolen land, prisons and the current war memorial. The chain-link fence reminisces of prisons or internment camps.

Participants commented that the last protest that they had been to were emotional and caused them to cry. Gathering in groups for a common cause can be an emotional experience.

The only sign left on the ground was "Join Us" which amused me.

[nientedal]

What progress at home has biden enacted? What policies of his show that he is making progress that prove he is actually different than trump?

I like to pretend I have faith in humanity, so I'll answer as if you're asking this in good faith.

Biden's DEA has lifted restrictions on telehealth prescriptions to make appointments and assistance more accessible.

He put a funding package into place to help unhoused people get access to mental and physical healthcare, as well as short-term and long-term housing.

He has attempted and is still attempting to get student debt relief through - this was blocked by Republican judges appointed by Trump, but he's still working on it.

Infrastructure repair - his administration has budgeted funds to actually fix some severely-damaged and frequently-traveled bridges.

Trying to expand access to healthcare to include undocumented immigrants who came to the USA as children (Dreamers) under the Affordable Care Act. Support for Navigator programs and outreach has also been increased.

He has vetoed Republican-led bills that were attempting to overturn environmental protections - one that would have forbidden investment fund managers to consider climate change in their portfolios (I have two degrees in accounting and this is actually huge), and another that would have overturned restrictions on agricultural runoff into our waterways.

He and his administration worked for ages to get rail workers paid sick days.

This is just some of what he's been doing. Meanwhile, Trump and other Republicans want to criminalize the lives of LGBT people like you and me. They want to eliminate no-fault divorce and force births that will kill parents or devastate them financially. They have stated flat out that they want to install a military dictatorship in the USA. They attempted to put that in motion on January 6th, 2021. They failed once. They will do better next time.

One party wants to house the homeless and expand social safety nets, while the other one wants to criminalize homelessness. One of them wants a future in which I might be able to vote to change how much of a war machine my country is, while the other one wants to eliminate my ability to vote entirely. Those are not the same. Those literally are opposites.

At the end of the day, all you and I can do is choose to do the least amount of harm possible. You and I cannot choose to do no harm. This is the USA, we sell war, you and I cannot choose to do no harm. I wish we could, my god do I wish we could, but that is not an option. So we grieve for the harm we couldn't eliminate and work to minimize the harm that is done. Despite all the crap they support, Democrats are the minimum amount of harm right now. Acting like they aren't is exactly what brought us to an election where our options are a future where we are either wading in blood or drowning in it.

Not voting for Biden will not help Palestine. Not voting for Biden will guarantee a Republican president who will make the situation in Palestine WORSE. AND it'll hurt a lot of other places as well, both at home and abroad, because Republicans are about business and the USA is in the business of war! And I would very much like that to change someday! I would very much like to someday be able to choose to do no harm! And I know what I have to do to try for that future, so what are YOU going to do? There is no standing off to the side in this. If you aren't helping pull, you're the dead weight we're pulling. Are you going to dig your feet into the mud and blood and drown us there? Or are you going to get the fuck off your ass, grit your teeth, and help us pull free?

[bixels]

The idea that uni protesters are "elitist ivy-league rich kids larping as revolutionaries" on Twitter and Reddit and even here is so fucking funny to me if you actually know anything about the student bodies at these unis. Take it from someone who's going to one of the biggest private unis in the US, 80% of the peers I know are either from the suburbs or an apartment somewhere in America, children of immigrants, or here on a student visa. I've heard about one-percenter students, but I've never met one in person. Like, don't get me wrong, the institution as a whole is still very privileged and white. I've talked with friends and classmates about feeling weird or dissonant being here and coming from such a different background. But in my art program, I see BIPOC, disabled, queer, lower-income students and faculty trying to deconstruct and tear that down and make space every day. So to take a cursory glance at a crowd of student protesters in coalitions that are led by BIPOC & 1st/2nd-gen immigrant students and HQ'd in ethnic housings and student organizations and say, "ah. children of the elite." Get real.

[capydoodle]

have compassion for yourself and for others. it seems hopeless but any small amount of good you can do is just that much more love in the world

[clustxr]

hi y'all. i know i don't make a lot of original posts here. however, on may 31st, i watched as my friends and peers were brutalized at the hands of cops from departments across california.

edit 6/12/24: students for justice in palestine at uc santa cruz has published a press release. it is easily the best way to understand what happened that night. please take a few minutes to read it.

uc santa cruz police made a statewide call for mutual aid in order to disband the gaza solidarity encampment located at the main entrance of the campus - initially established at the quarry in the center of campus on may 1, it moved to the entrance on may 20 in solidarity with the UAW strike. on tuesday, may 28, protesters barricaded the main entrance, cutting off the primary way of getting on campus; though the western entrance to UCSC was left unblocked (except for a few hours on tuesday), the main entrance remained obstructed until the raid began late on thursday night. this road blockage is what admin cited as the reason for the raid, along with "campus safety" and "academic freedom".

it's important to note that prior to blocking the road, students had been encamped for 28 days, and had been holding peaceful, law-abiding rallies since october. nothing worked. months of following the guidelines that admin had set, and of course student voices were dismissed and ignored by chancellor cynthia larive and cpevc lori kletzer (the latter of whom, by the way, showed up at 6 am "walking her dog" and smiled while watching her students get suffocated and beaten). the escalation would never have happened if student demands had been met at the very beginning.

hundreds of cops in riot gear from as far out as uc davis showed up to abuse students. over 115 arrests were made, including 3 ucsc professors, transported off by buses that were fifteen years past their intended end-of-use date and had also been servicing the campus prior. is this "campus safety"? is this "academic freedom"?

from just before midnight until approximately 9am on friday, cops kettled, suffocated, shoved, yanked, beat, and bruised students. one got a battery charge for writhing and bumping a cop after another slammed him in the head with a baton. another had a bag placed over their head, leading to suffocation, vomiting, and loss of consciousness. at least two protesters were confirmed to go to the ER that morning; many more have had to seek medical attention for lasting injuries.

arrestees were given a 14-day campus ban, including those who live on-campus (functionally evicting them & preventing access to their belongings), not to mention subjected to horrifyingly inhumane conditions:

you can find more information on various instagram accounts such as ucscsjp, ucscdivest, fjpucsc, ucsc_encampment, & jawsucsc. there's plenty of other organizations and people posting about this, too. please, don't let ucsc brush this under the rug. demand amnesty for the arrestees and protesters. contact any ucsc admin you can find. the uc has been utilizing police brutality to repress student voices across their institution, with ucla and uc irvine also being victims of this violence. do not let them get away with it.

free palestine, from the river to the sea. if seeing this violence sickens you, remember that this is not even a fraction of what the people of palestine have been enduring for decades. we will not let the university silence us, no matter what.

[englandsgirl18181234]

I'd say sorry for the sudden political spam but I'm really not. We finally have a good option and we need to grab it with both hands and run with it as far as we fucking can. So here's some facts that people seem to be ignoring when they say you shouldn't vote for Harris.

Harris was not a fucking cop, she was a district attorney and attorney general. Stop fucking saying otherwise, it's misinformation and you need to understand that.

Harris is documentedly pro LGBTQ+. When she was elected Attorney General, she co-sponsored legislation to ban the gay and trans panic defense which passed. She also officiated the first same-sex wedding in California after Section 8 was overturned 20 years ago.

In her entire time as District Attorney she never sought the death penalty. She also created the San Francisco Reentry Division, with the first of its kind reentry program Back On Track for first-time nonviolent offenders. 200 people graduated from it with less than 10 percent going on to commit another crime, compared to the 53 percent of California drug offenders that would do so in less than 2 years after release.

When she was elected to Attorney General of California, she introduced the Homeowner Bill of Rights, considered one of the strongest protections nationwide against aggressive foreclosure tactics.

In 2015, Harris's California Department of Justice became the first statewide agency in the US to require all of its police officers to wear body cameras.

So to reiterate:

Fucking vote for Harris.

Voting third party right now is not the fucking way. All it's gonna do is split the fucking votes that we need to keep Trump out of office. None of the third party candidates have the numbers to actually beat Trump. It's not going to fucking happen, stop saying it will because you're lying to yourself and others.

Not voting at all is even fucking worse than voting third party and you're an idiot if you think otherwise. Not voting isn't a fucking protest like some idiots are spouting. It's not making a fucking point. It is giving the fuck up and being a coward about it. It is actively choosing to not make things better when you have the fucking chance and I am disgusted that people actually think it's a good idea when we are on the verge of a second term for a literal traitor and convicted felon that actively thinks disabled and LGBTQ people should die.

Someone is still going to be President. Full stop, that is how elections fucking work. THERE IS STILL GOING TO BE A PRESIDENT. There is still going to be a president whether you vote or not. And our only real options right now are Harris or Trump. So use your fucking vote to make things better in the only way we can right now.

Yeah, there are things Harris needs to change and things she isn't on the right side on. But Trump is worse in every possible fucking way. So we need to lock this down and push for improvement, not decide shit is hopeless and fucking give the bad guy the win now that we finally have a fucking shot!

You didn't want to vote for Biden? Great, you're not! Now take the fucking miracle that just dropped into our fucking laps and run with it!

[greensaplinggrace]

the babygirlification of porsche is fucking insane btw. this is the guy that would've let kinn fucking die in an alleyway if the dude hadn't promised him money. he's got his priorities and at the top is always chay. like there's a lot of ruthlessness to be had in surviving to protect your only family

[wizzard890]

anyway I'm a leftist and here's a great articulation of voting to take and sustain transformative political power.

tl;dr - of course consistently engaging with the political process as a bloc pushes a party in more radical directions: we've seen it happen during our own lifetimes with Republicans.

[ricomola]

No peace on stolen land.

[zoey-angel]

Okay, now vote for her.

For months US pro-pals have been protesting. Now you have a presidential candidate on your side! Trump expressed his strong support of Israel, Kamala hadn't, so don't fiddle up and vote for her!!

Make no mistake, I am Israeli and I know Trump would support my country more strongly, yet I feel undoubtedly in favor of Kamala. I'm still the me who grew up leftist on tumblr with american friends, I care for the US, I care for people's lives generally, and whatever good Trump would do for me, he would ruin doubly for you. The damage he did in one run to the western world...

If hating Israel is what it takes to get dumbasses to vote for the candidate who would care about the environment, provide healthcare and promote human rights, then so be it! Just stand up for your values and fucking vote, because if trump wins this round, to me, that would be so pathetic.

[hiwataris-bitch]

Idk who watches Foundation (I don't) but apparently in the 3rd season they are going to run around naked on a rooftop.

I only know this because for months I've been hearing about the Americans going to record some film at my mum's workplace and now that they're finally shooting, apparently it's for this series.

[ilovedthestars]

joy is good actually! hope is good actually! even when (ESPECIALLY when) horrible things are happening in the world! because we need hope and joy to give us energy to keep going, and keep working towards a better world!

please try with me to be joyful and hopeful. i know it's hard right now, but it is worth the effort. you taking on the guilt of all the world's ills does absolutely nothing to make them go away. and even if you can't do anything to tangibly improve anyone else's life right now, if you don't have the means or the power or the spoons, the world will be better if you are happy than if you are miserable.

in the words of Ursula Vernon, your misery does not improve the world a single iota. in the words of Mary Oliver, you do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. in the words of Wislawa Szymborska, forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.

so please, bring flowers home. please, let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. please, stop doomscrolling because anxiety is not activism and if you don't have the spoons for activism right now then you might as well do something that doesn't make you miserable. find something joyful and try to share it with the people around you. hold on to hope. repeat after me: we're gonna get through this.

[tilbageidanmark]

I saw this sticker a few months ago.

[bicheetopuff]

Guys… what if this big announcement ends up being about the live action adaptation?

We haven’t seen anything about that in a while and now I’m paranoid

[zours025]

I am not finishing this because im fucking lazy so take this now too okay!!!

Alts and the like under here + One amputee iggy stump (???) warning IDK1!!!11!

[momett]

oh my fucking god i can't believe this has to be said again but

DO NOT FUCKING POST ABOUT PROTESTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

you could get people KILLED. posting about protests on social media HAS gotten people killed. people posting about the george floyd protests was the MAIN WAY PEOPLE GOT ARRESTED, HARMED, AND KILLED DURING PROTESTS.

don't tell people you are going to a protest. do NOT post about your protesting activities on social media. don't even TAKE your phone to a protest. you put people in REAL DANGER by doing that.