A weekly guide to action.
The times may be dark, but they’re not hopeless. We have the power to join together and fight back. Now more than ever, we need to shore up our bonds of community, activate our networks, and make our voices heard. To this end, Blunderbuss will begin compiling a weekly roundup of events in our hometown of New York City that offer a chance to push back against the rising tide of hate and authoritarianism. Don’t expect this list to be exhaustive – this city is too full of energy and activism for us to be on top of everything. But if you’ve got an event you’d like to see listed, feel free to hit up Travis at tmushett@gmail.com. All descriptions are authored by event organizers, and occasionally trimmed for length.
Friday, November 25
Black Friday Tour of Shame ’16
Time: Fri. 11/25, 10am – 1pm
Location: Retail Action Project, 370 7th Ave. (b/t 30th and 31st), 14th Fl., Manhattan
[link]
In the wake of the national elections and the impending presidency of Donald Trump the concern of workers from all corners of the country is growing, especially those of us employed in the margins, in low-income, unstable fields where abuses by our corporate and/or private employers already goes unchecked. What will it look like after January?
Each year, Black Friday is a day filled with shopping mayhem and an increase in the mistreatment of retail workers. In order to take bold steps to fight against it now and the potential of how bad it could get under Trump we want to call out the worst employers and organize more retail workers into our ranks.
This Black Friday, the Retail Action Project is joining in solidarity with all retail workers and those affected by the challenges of the holiday season. We need to call out the unfairness we face as a community!
The only way to create change for retail workers and all workers is by organizing. Let’s rally on our “Tour of Shame” to highlight #ThePriceOfRetail for retail workers and their daily sacrifices! Corporate decisions keep us from our families, keep us poor, rob us of our rights; this how we take back what belongs to us, through the power of the people!
To learn more and get involved, call Member Organizer Jedidiah at 917-371-6903, or email him at jedidiah@retailactionproje
Make Westchester a Sanctuary – March & Rally
Time: Fri. 11/25, Noon – 2pm
Location: The Fountain at Main St. and Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains
[link]
This march and rally has a permit with the City of White Plains.
Organized by WESPAC Foundation, Inc. and supported by the Lower Hudson Valley Chapter of the NYCLU, the White Plains Greenburgh Chapter of the NAACP, the White Plains Religious Leaders, Ministers Fellowship Council, the Westchester MLK Institute for Nonviolence, Westchester for Change, Working Families Party (list in formation)
For more information contact wespacfoundation@gmail.com
Black Friday, the 99% vs Trump & the 1% #JusticeForEricGarner
Time: Fri. 11/25, 2pm – 5pm
Location: Barclay’s Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
[link]
Shut down Black Friday with us as we continue to demand Justice for Eric Garner!
It’s been two plus years since Eric Garner was murdered and we still have ZERO justice and NO accountabiity.
The civil rights investigation has been turned over to the DOJ in Washington and we need to keep the pressure on them to bring charges, fire and indict Pantaleo.
Meet us on November 25th at 2PM in front of the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, Atlantic Ave.
Endorsed by The Legacy Eric Garner Left Behind
#JusticeForEricGarner #SolidarityWithRamseyOrta #ShutDownBlackFriday
Any activists or organizations wishing to endorse this action please email us at siarapb2014@gmail.com or inbox us here on facebook.
Saturday, November 26
Insurgent Poets Society: House Party Wakanda
Time: Sat. 11/26, 5pm – 10pm
Location: Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker St., Manhattan
[link]
Here is what would make capitalism and white supremacy mad: If we dressed in clothes that represented our ideas of resistance and had a free party in one of their most expensive neighborhoods. Think about it, a resistance themed celebration designed to build community during these times of state sanctioned violence and gentrification. A political action, framed as a party so that we can dance all over their exclusivity, We can play spade, chess, dominoes, and video games. You know Tribeca don’t want us to show up with no black hoodies, camouflage, Kafias, and Rainbow triangles. They don’t want us to be Milly-Rocking in their galleries in the middle of the day. They need to know that they they can’t depress us into silence.
THE SPADES TABLE WILL BE THERE!!
THE DOMINOES TABLE WILL BE THERE!!
THE CHESS WILL BE THERE!!
THE NINTENDO 64 WILL BE THERE!!
THE MASSAGE CHAIR WILL BE!!
THE DANCE FLOOR WILL BE THERE!!
ADMISSION: FREE, if you dress for resistance.
#InsurgentPoetsSociety
#DecolonizeThisPlace
#BKHPOfficial
Sunday, November 27
Conversation + Workshop with Malini Subramaniam and Kamal Shukla
Time: Sun. 11/27, 2pm – 5pm
Location: Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker St., Manhattan
[link]
South Asia Solidarity Initiative (SASI) and Decolonize This Place are excited to host two journalists from India, Malini Subramaniam and Kamal Shukla, who will be visiting the United States to receive an award for their reporting from the Bastar region of Chattisgarh in India. For those who are not familiar, Bastar is a region in India with one of the highest populations of Adivasis (indigenous peoples) who have been oppressed for centuries due to their lifestyles and place within the Hindu caste system. They are currently facing harsh repression from the Indian army and state security forces that are operating in Bastar. The purpose of the workshop will be to develop ways in which the diaspora can raise awareness and internationalize the deepening human right crisis in the region.
Malini Subramaniam, a contributor to the news website Scroll.In, was among the few journalists reporting from the Bastar area in the state of Chhattisgarh–the epicenter of the conflict between Maoist and security forces–until early 2016. Subramaniam has reported on abuses by police and security forces, sexual violence against women, the jailing of minors, the shutdown of schools, extrajudicial killings, and threats against journalists in the region. She has been interrogated, surveilled, and harassed by police and members of a pro-police vigilante group in connection with her critical coverage of human rights abuses and politics. Police have attempted to malign her and label her as a Maoist agent.
Kamal Shukla writes in Hindi and brings out an online paper called Bhumkal Samachar. He has been leading the journalists’ movement for an Act to ensure the protection of journalists in conflict zones (Patrakar Suraksha Kanoon Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti).
Right to Resist: The Movement Against Empire in the Trump Era
Time: Sun. 11/27, 6pm – 8pm
Location: Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker St., Manhattan
[link]
We call on all comrades and allies in the struggle against Islamophobia, white supremacy and zionism to join us in collectivizing our insights, experiences, and resources in the consolidation of our movements into a united front against fascism.
Join us for a panel featuring Josmar Trujillo and Johanna Fernandez alongside members of NYC SJP and Anakbayan-NY followed by breakout sessions to build ties across organizations and movements and map out next steps.
Josmar Trujillo is a journalist and an organizer with the Coalition to End Broken Windows and the #SwipeItForward campaign. He has written extensively on the history of Broken Windows policing in the last 20 years and the ongoing mass surveillance and criminalization of Black and Brown youth in NYC.
Johanna Fernandez is a history professor at Baruch College and an organizer with The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home. She traveled to Palestine with the Prison, Labor and Academic Solidarity Delegation in March 2016.
Anakbayan is a comprehensive revolutionary Filipino youth organization working to advance the national democratic movement in the Philippines and supports anti-imperialist struggles globally.
Nuestra Cultura: A Latinx Diaspora Celebration (FUNDRAISER)
Time: Sun. 11/27, 7:30pm – 11:30pm
Location: Starr Bar, 214 Starr St., Brooklyn
[link]
BRUJAS & Henry the Poet have been organizing unique arts programming for the Latinx community!! This winter we want to bring an incredible group of Latinx artivists to the heart of the artistic community in the Dominican Republic. On this trip, artists from both countries will come together to create a series of workshops, conversations, and performances for the local Santo Domingo community. Through this project we hope to help unite the Latinx diaspora at a time when we are under attack, we hope to continue searching for and creating beauty in the world, and to have conversations with our Dominican kindred about antiblackness, colonialism, and patriarchy. By coming to this event you are giving necessary support to our work! We hope to see you there 🙂
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Brujas & Henry the Poet have curated a night of music, spoken word, and visual art showcasing some of the top talent and diverse aesthetics of Latinx communities. From hip-hop to cumbia, from spoken word to dj’s, we will highlight the magical world of NYC latinx artistry. At a time where our very existence is resistance, join us for a night of sharing and celebratory turn-up. All proceeds will go towards free Arts Programming for the Latinx community.
List of performers available on Facebook.
*Some art will be for sale in support of our fundraising
TIME: 7:30- 11:30pm
Cover ~ $10 online $15 at the door
https://
Monday, November 28
Immigrant Rights Teach-In and Know Your Rights Presentation
Time: Mon. 11/28, 6pm – 9pm
Location: NYU School of Law, 40 Washington Sq. South, Manhattan
[link]
Join directly affected community members, allies, organizers and lawyers as we gather to discuss how to prepare and defend immigrant communities.
An agenda for the event can be found here: http://www.law.nyu.edu/
Please RSVP at: tinyurl.com/ImmKYR-NYC
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Únase a personas afectadas directamente por las pólizas inmigratorias de los estados unidos, aliados, organizadores y abogados para hablar sobre cómo podemos prepararnos y defender a comunidades de inmigrantes.
Una agenda para el evento puede ser encontrado aqui: http://www.law.nyu.edu/
Por favor reservar con anticipacion: tinyurl.com/ImmKYR-NYC
Holiday Screening and Reception Hosted by BWA for BLM
Time: Mon. 11/28, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: The Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St., Manhattan
[link]
Join Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter for a holiday screening and reception with DJ LotusMoon. Included in the screening will be documentation of past performances and videos by their members.
Monday, November 28, 6:30–8:30pm
FREE
This program is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Sondra Perry: “Resident Evil”
Mitigation Monday: Regime Change Edition
Time: Mon. 11/28, 8pm – 11pm
Location: Cherry Tree, 65 4th Ave., Brooklyn
[link]
Since we last spoke, we’ve lost our fearless leader and gained a might-be-tyrannical would-be-overlord. But while climate/regime change sucks, we refuse to drink alone. We’re bringing back our once-frequent happy hour where we get pissed about climate change in order to get pissed about its enabling conditions.
Join us. Drink. Breathe.
Tuesday, November 29
We Won’t Back Down: FightFor15 National Day of Disruption NYC
Time: Tues. 11/29, 5:30am – 7:30am
Location: Zuccotti Park, Broadway & Liberty St., Manhattan
[link]
The fight for justice for ALL workers goes beyond one elected official or election day.
We’re ready to take to the streets, raise our voices, hold corporations accountable, and say WE WONT BACK DOWN!
We reject attempts to tear America apart by race, ethnicity, and gender. We will fight against any efforts to block wage increases, gut worker’s rights, deport immigrants, or cut our health care.
Over the last four years, the Fight for $15 has inspired workers to come together and change the politics of this country around wages. We’ve won raises for 22 million Americans, including 10 million who are on a path to $15, but we can’t stop and we won’t stop fighting until all of us win $15/hr and has union rights.
Next NYC Trump Resistance Meeting
Time: Tues. 11/29, 6pm – 8pm
Location: The Church of the Holy Trinity, 316 E. 88th St., Manhattan
[link]
Our next meeting will be this coming Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm at the Church of the Holy Trinity (316 East 88th Street- inside the main church). This is a little earlier than we had planned, but this was the space availability we were able to quickly find. Many many thanks to those who helped us in booking this location on short notice over a holiday. We will be discussing our initial plans for direct actions, travel to DC to protest the inauguration, and establishing more structure for how the group will operate going forward. We sincerely hope you can make it.
Also- please join our FB group if you haven’t already for further information and announcements: https://www.facebook.com/
Constructive White Conversations, Park Slope
Time: Tues. 11/29, 6:30pm – 8pm
Location: RSVP to Molly at msolo615@gmail.
[link]
For those of you that are new to this, CWC is a welcoming and growing community of white folks involved in an ongoing dialog about race and racism – both personal and systemic. It’s an entry point for anyone new to antiracism as well as a place for those who are already involved and want to continue to maintain a strong positive antiracist connection. We’ve found that honest, non-judgemental conversations can lead to a deeper understanding both of ourselves as white folks and of the system that we are a part of here in here in America.
CWC is not a workshop or class or lecture. We’re not experts! We’re people who share freely with each other from a place of experience regardless of where we’re at in our personal evolution. There’s no need to have anything more than a little curiosity and a willingness to contemplate our own white experience. There are many white action-based groups doing important work in NY. What we offer is a space for reflection. We’ve found that action and reflection together can form a solid antiracist foundation…And we have snacks!
Wednesday, November 30
Racism, Populism, Fascism and the Future of the Hard Right
Time: Wed. 11/30, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: CUNY Graduate Center, Sociology Lounge (Room 6112), 365 5th Ave., Manhattan
[link]
A Panel Discussion with Abby Scher, Sophie Bjork-James, Spencer Sunshine, and Chip Berlet
The white supremacist movement and self-described Alt-Right used the Trump presidential campaign to amplify its message and swell its ranks. Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and militia leaders are celebrating the Trump presidential win as a victory of their own. A panel of experts on right-wing media and movements will discuss what we can expect of the hard right after the stunning Trump victory and how to challenge it.
Crimes against immigrants and Muslims spiked and online harassment of Jewish commentators and journalists was widespread in the midst of the racist rhetoric of the campaign. A September 2016 study by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism found that white nationalist use of social media now far exceeds the online presence of the Islamic State on virtually every social metric.
Join us for this important conversation.
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This event is free and open to the public. Please note that the school will require you to present a photo ID and sign in when entering the building.
This Vast Southern Empire with Matt Karp and Eric Foner
Time: Wed. 11/30, 7pm – 9pm
Location: New School University Center, 65 5th Ave., Manhattan
[link]
A discussion with Jacobin editor Matt Karp and famed historian Eric Foner, on slavery and struggles over control of the US state.
This event will celebrate the release of Matt Karp’s first book, “This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy”
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“States’ Rights!” has long been the rallying cry of reaction. But “limited government” has not been a political principle so much as the defensive tactic of a political minority.
So long as the right is able to wield the power of the US state to its own ends, it is more than happy to do so. That seems terrifyingly true today as President-Elect Trump awaits inauguration. The more so because it is far from a new approach.
“Relative to its free population, the South held disproportionate influence in virtually every branch of the antebellum US government…
They sought with terrific ambition to command the power of the entire United States… nowhere did slaveholders wield their power with more energy or commitment than in the realm of foreign and military policy…
The master theorists of the master class did not demand rigid or slavish obedience to the principle of local sovereignty. Rather, they sought to consolidate proslavery forces for a larger struggle that spanned the Atlantic world.”
—from “This Vast Southern Empire”
* * *
About the speakers:
Matt Karp is Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and a contributing editor at Jacobin. “This Vast Southern Empire” is his first book.
Eric Foner has, over the course of a fifty-year career, acquired virtually every award, tribute, and professional honor available to a historian in the United States. Foner’s most important books have transformed the way we see — and the way we teach — the origins of the Civil War, the significance of slave emancipation, and the politics of postwar Reconstruction. These books include Reconstruction, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, and many others. No living historian has done more to shape our understanding of the American Civil War era than Eric Foner.
350 NYC General Meeting on Trump
Time: Wed. 11/30, 7pm – 9pm
Location: New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W. 64th St., Manhattan
[link]
We are all still in shock from the impact of having Trump as the next President. We have multiple issues running through our minds about the future direction of the country and people of color, immigrants, Muslims, gays and women are already experiencing direct attacks as the culture of bullying, racism, misogyny and hate is legitimized. Whatever social justice issue you can think of is now under direct threat and we face a real danger of 50 years of progress being swept away.
So, what do we do now? How do we fight the rise of fascism while we continue to combat climate change? Progressive leaders in every sector are caucusing, regrouping and considering strategies for moving forward in the coming years as we try to protect ourselves and continue to live our values. You are invited to tune into one such important conversation tomorrow — see below for the log-in information. We hope that many of you will be able to join this call and we will continue the conversation on these issues at the next 350nyc general meeting.
Comedy with Zilla Vodnas
Time: Wed. 11/30, 9pm
Location: Starr Bar, 214 Starr St., Brooklyn
[link]
Another edition of free Wednesday night comedy shows at Bushwick’s Starr Bar. Join a mix of talented comics as they discuss politics, current events, trends and whatever else they’ve got kickin’ around in their domes.
Thursday, December 1
CUNY Student Walkout for Sanctuary Campuses
Time: Thurs. 12/1, 12pm – 4pm
Location: City University of New York, 205 E. 42nd St., Manhattan
[link]
Trump has promised to deport millions of people and to end protections and assistance for undocumented students.
HE SAYS GO BACK, WE SAY FIGHT BACK!
On Thursday, December 1, CUNY students walk out and rally at CUNY Central and Trump Tower to demand Chancellor James Milliken and the presidents of the twenty-four colleges commit to the following:
1. Ban ICE and other immigration enforcement officials from all CUNY campuses
2. Refuse to share information with immigration without individuals’ consent
3. Forbid CUNY cops and security officers from collaborating with immigration officers
4. Publicly call on state and federal governments to protect students, faculty, staff, and families from deportation and to provide them a path to citizenship
Sign on to these demands here: http://bit.do/
WALK OUT
12:00pm – Gather on your campus and travel together to CUNY Central. If you’re interested in organizing this at your college, let us know: cunysanctuary@gmail.com.
MEET UP
1:00pm – Meet at CUNY Central, 205 E 42nd St between 3rd and 2nd Aves.
2:00pm – We march together to Trump Tower.
EDUCATION, NOT DEPORTATION!
Chip Berlet, “Right Woos Left in Brooklyn”
Time: Thurs. 12/1, 7pm – 9pm
Location: Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean St., Brooklyn
[link]
In September 2016, the Brooklyn Commons, which had previously advertised itself as a progressive space, hosted an antisemitic speaker. In the aftermath, the owner of the space declared it open to all political views, specifically welcoming David Duke and the KKK to use the space.
With the rising tide of fascist organizing and hate crimes, what are the social and political implications of this position?
For many decades, Far Right activists have attempted to hijack progressive spaces to spread ideas of racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and conspiratorial thinking. Sometimes, they have been successful in disseminating their ideas and have converted progressives to their side. As part of this problem, the Left’s weakness in identifying and combating antisemitism has helped to grease these wheels of cross-recruitment.
Please join us for a presentation and discussion about this subject which has a direct effect on the Brooklyn progressive community.
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Chip Berlet (www.chipberlet.net) has studied right-wing populists for four decades, and has published on issues of Far Right cross-recruitment and Left-wing antisemitism. He helped found Political Research Associates (www.politicalresearch.org), a progressive think tank that monitors right-wing activism, and is the co-author of “Right-Wing Populism in America.”
The Soapbox Gallery is a forum dedicated to promoting discussions of importance to the community-at-large.
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Illustration by Yvonne Martinez.