Category: Organizer Essays

This culture is wedded to binaries: good/evil, left/right, with us/against us, make your choice. And this society wants things to stay in whatever either/or box they get put into, we don’t like mixes or gray areas. Gender and sex is one place where ambiguity is particularly not tolerated; parents, doctors, and the State all want to know your sex and gender, preferably at birth. Further, having ambiguous gender or transitioning from one perceived gender to another can cause some people to react violently. In most places, transgender people are not protected from discrimination.

In this society, this is the usual scenario: a baby is born and one of the very first things done is sexing the child. Everyone wants to know—boy or girl?

Some folks don’t like this binary from the start; their genitals don’t seem to match either male or female completely. These folks are called intersexed. Unfortunately, because of the anxiety of doctors, parents, or society around sex/gender, panic ensues and intersexed individuals are more often than not subjected to surgeries they do not need and may not want, and which can be damaging to a pleasurable adult sexuality. 

More often, we are born with genitals that do look like either male or female and so we are assigned a gender at birth to match either “boy” or “girl.” For some, the sex they are assigned at birth does not match the gender they feel inside. They are girls in male bodies and boys in female bodies or somewhere in between, because not all trans folks see themselves as being one or the other, but rather on a continuum of gender.

The main thing to remember about trans folk is that they are people just like everyone else. Having respect for what pronouns trans folk want to use is a good start. For instance, FTMs (Female-to-Male) usually want to be called he or him. MTFs (Male-to-Female) prefer to be referred to as she or her. And some trans folks use they/them, ze or hir, or make up pronouns to fit them. These can be hard to get used to, particularly when someone is transitioning, but trying to use their preferred pronoun is only respectful. It is true that some trans folk don’t “pass,” but gender is not about what you see from the outside, but what the person feels inside. Transwomen and transmen struggle enough with their own body dysphoria and internalized transphobia that getting called out on their looks can be devastating. So if you see someone who might be trans, don’t ask them in front of a bunch of people; in fact, don’t ask at all. If they want you to know, if it is relevant to your relationship, they will let you know. This can also be an issue of safety for a trans person. Violence against trans folk is frequent and often deadly, so outing a trans person is never a good idea.

Another huge issue is bathrooms, and for trans folk using the “wrong” bathroom can get them beat up or worse. Until gender neutral bathrooms are the norm, chances are that you will see an ambiguously gendered person use a bathroom now and again. DON’T PANIC! Adults usually know what bathrooms to use, and being trans does not alter this ability. Not panicking just might keep someone from getting beaten, and since a lot of violence against trans folk is perpetuated by police and other authority figures, alertingthem is not wise either. (Not that anyone would ever call cops anyway, right?)

Increasingly, trans identity is being seen as an individual matter: who we are is our business and not the prerogative of doctors or the larger society. No matter how comfortable we are in our bodies, trans or not, we are all affected by binary gender roles, though this is most blatant and violent with transgenders. Gay men, no matter how butch; femmy men, no matter how straight; butch women, straight and lesbians; nerdy guys, the list goes on of people oppressed or confined by binary gender norms. Trans folk cross these gendered lines and forge a way beyond just this or that, man or woman, male or female. By listening to and celebrating trans folk, we too can free ourselves from the yoke of conforming to roles we may not want.

Some books on transgender issues:

-Beyond the Gender Binary—Alok V Menon

-Trans Liberation: Beyond pink or Blue—Leslie Feinberg

-Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us—Kate Bornstein

-Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism—Patrick Califia

-The Testosterone Files—Max Wolf Valerio

-Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender Conformity—Mattilda ed.

In this political and historical climate, great sex can be a subversive, expansive, and radical mode of dismantling socializations and creating alternatives to mainstream drone culture. More and more, the Christian right’s morals are seeping into the larger culture. This nauseating wave of puritanism and conservative values hangs in the air, like the stale salty grease cloud you smell when passing a McDonald’s. Subtle, toxic, bland, unhealthy, normative. 

Comfort in one’s skin and sexuality, consent, and self-care are an essential backdrop. There is no way to have freeing sex without actively checking in with all partners about emotional and physical comfort and openness. If folks are shutting down, disassociating, or not that into it, then how the fuck can it be any good? Knowing what one wants is not easy, as we are taught very boring and limited sexualities in this culture. Part of what can make sex so revolutionary is discovering what we like and pushing ourselves (consensually of course) to and beyond our limits. 

Role Switching

Many of us get stuck in sex roles or sex acts — butch or femme or active or passive or daddy or slave. Switching up roles is exactly as it sounds; allowing oneself the opportunity to receive when previously being the provider; taking turns sucking and being sucked, biting and being bitten, slapping and being slapped, holding and being held, fucking and being fucked. 

Gender-queerness

Sex can be a stage to play with the fluidity of gender and go beyond binary-gender or sex determined by gendered bodies. This may mean re-learning how to have sex and switching your focus away from genitals and genital contact. There is so much to play with and destroy, pervert, let go of, re-name. It is respectful and sexy as hell to ask people what they call their body parts and how they want them touched. When opening-up what we consider erogenous zones, more conversations about re-imagining bodies, gender, society may become possible. This can mean less focus on genitals and orgasms and more focus on nerve endings and what turns them on, and what works on an emotional level for a person. Expansion, re-defining and being aware of people’s boundaries are key in this realm and essential to sex.

Laughter and sounds

Try laughing during sex. It can be diverse; from a coy giggle, to a belly laugh, to laughing at oneself at an awkward moment or just as a way to communicate joy. Laughter is contagious and can put folks more at ease. One may laugh solo or in unison sex partners. Laughing can help relieve tension – so you don’t get get so caught up in your “performance”. Doing sex is goofy and silly and in fact hilarious. There is a myth that we should act a certain way during sex: virile, coquettish, animalistic, blasé, submissive, dominant, alluring etc. Laughing helps hush those “you should be ____” voices. Noise in general during sex is a fabulous added layer to events. Sounds can act as a reflection of what is going on and also act as a release for the sensations we are feeling; crying, screaming, moaning, gasping are all marvelous additions to this sex symphony. Laughing enhances the intimacy and the experience in general.

Role Play

Adding some drama to the scenario can provide many things: lessen other social/psycho/dramas that folks tend to drum up when the issue of sex arises, keep things interesting and creative, help explore different identities, help approach taboo subject matter, and healing from past traumas. Role-play can be a great way to challenge one’s rigidities and discover hidden kinks in a safe context. 

This can include working up characters in a setting with a plot. It can get intricate with scripts or songs, drag, props or outfits, even a dance routine. Here is where many taboos can be explored. The more the merrier, sillier, nastier. These games could challenge political and social norms in positive and smarty-pantsed ways. Role-play scenarios set up safe consensual spaces for folks to go there consciously, critically, humbly and with an open mind. The important thing here is that everyone is okay with where the story goes. Why should remarkable people have boring sex?

Everyone deserves access to abortion care when and where they need it — without judgment, stigma, or shame. Because of abortion stigma and the ongoing threat to abortion access, it is difficult to find reliable and clear information on abortion, a common medical medical process that one in four individuals will have. There is no “right” or “wrong” reason to choose to have an abortion and it’s okay to have several. You are trusted with understanding your life and your needs. 

“An unintended pregnancy is not a weakness or a moral failing but an inevitable occurrence in a society hell-bent on keeping you as vulnerable and unprotected as possible. You didn’t fuck up. You’re not irresponsible. You don’t need to bear any ‘consequences’ or be punished.” — Hannah Matthews (@hannahmsays)

These resources can help you get started determining what type of abortion might work best for you, where to find an appointment, and organizations that can support with appointment costs or practical support for travel if you need to leave your home state to receive care. 

Types of Abortion

Medication Abortion: Mifepristone, a pill, is usually taken with an abortion provider while at the clinic, while Misoprostol, another type of pill, is taken 24-48 hours later inside your own home — or, Misoprostol pills can be taken on their own in a higher dosage. 

Procedural Abortion: In pregnancies less than ~14 weeks, a pregnancy can be removed through dilation, opening the cervix, and suction to remove the pregnancy, in a process called vacuum aspiration. In pregnancies between 14-24 weeks, the procedure is called Dilation & Evacuation (D&E) where similarly to a vacuum aspiration, the cervix is dilated—often using laminaria (medical grade seaweed), a dilation tool, and/or Misoprostol—and the pregnancy is removed through suction. (See wetestify.org/abortion-explained)

Self-Managed Abortion (SMA): The process of inducing an abortion on one’s own, usually without medical supervision or guidance from a doctor. 

Abortion Access

(How to Find Available Appointments or Receive Medication Abortion Pills By Mail)

• I Need An A (ineedana.com)
• Plan C (plancpills.org)

Abortion Funds (Financial & Practical Assistance)

• National Network of Abortion Funds (abortionfunds.org)
• National Abortion Federation Hotline (1-800-772-9100)
• Indigenous Women Rising (iwrising.org)
• Jane’s Due Process | For minors living in Texas (call or text 1-866-999-5263)

Legal Resources

• Repro Legal Hotline (reprolegalhelpline.org)

Other Resources

• Abortion On Our Own Terms | Self-managing abortion with pills (abortiononourownterms.org)
• M+A Hotline | Clinicians with information & support about self-managing an abortion or miscarriage (mahotline.org)
• We Testify | Abortion 101 (wetestify.org/abortion101)
• We Testify | Abortion Storytellers (wetestify.org/stories)
• SisterSong | Reproductive Justice (sistersong.net/reproductive-justice)
• All Options Talk Line | Peer-based counseling & support (all-options.org/find-support/talkline)

Calling the cops often makes situations worse, puts people at risk and leads to violence and incarceration. We can cultivate networks of mutual aid to take care of each other and foster transformative justice. Here’s alternatives: 

-If your neighbor is having a noisy party, go over and talk to them

-Find a restorative justice mediator to resolve conflicts

-Develop a safety plan with your community

-Offer people experiencing domestic violence a place to stay or a ride
-Reach out to community resources like suicide hotlines and safe houses

How to help deescalate someone having a crisis

If you think back to a time when you were really angry and upset, maybe you said or did things you regret, maybe not. What did you need? What did someone do that was helpful? What did someone do that was not helpful? 

When someone is freaking out, the part of the brain responsible for logical thinking isn’t always functioning, while the parts of the brain responsible for emotion and instinct stay turned on. Before someone can make sense of the situation, people need to find their way back to themselves. 

When deescalating a situation, it’s important to use an anti-oppression framework as much as possible and recognize that there are interpersonal and systemic power imbalances based on differences in class, gender, race, physical ability, age, etc. You may be in a better position to de-escalate certain situations, or not, based on your positionality. Healing cannot happen in isolation. It happens in the context of supportive and caring relationships.

Tips:

• Are you the best person to respond? If you can’t respond, it’s okay — find someone else who can. If you intervene, introduce yourself by telling the person your name, who you are and that you’re there to help. 

• What is the person telling you about their needs through their behavior, words and body language? Ask what they need. Can you meet these needs? If not, what options can you offer? 

• While talking, take an open stance, maintain eye contact, and be aware of the volume and tone of your voice.  Slow down. Repeat yourself.  Keep your voice calm and soft, yet firm and direct. Your voice will have an immediate effect upon the person you are talking to.

• Ask the person to help you understand why they’re upset. Reflect back what they’re saying so they feel heard. Use brief, simple, direct statements. Affirm the person’s right to their feelings. 

• Create rapport that helps them feel like you’re on their team. Respect personal space. 

• Will they sit down with you and talk? Will they walk to somewhere safer with you, away from the conflict? 

• Don’t try to argue against voices or delusions. A person’s perception is their reality. 

• Don’t try to use logic to convince the person they are wrong. Affirm their feelings: “That sounds like it would be disorienting / frustrating / scary / overwhelming.” Narrate what actions you’re taking if you call for help, talk to someone else, or are even reaching into your bag. Be predictable. Avoid getting into a confrontation or triggered by the person’s “negative energy.” 

• Avoid labeling people or causing them to feel guilty.

• Set boundaries for what is and is not appropriate. Keep those boundaries.

• Sometimes humor and redirection work well. 

• Be aware and cautious of how you are affecting the situation. Leave or enlist additional support if a person you are talking to becomes increasingly agitated or behaviorally inappropriate. 

• Check on immediate physical health and safety. An intoxicated person may be physically ill or injured but unaware of it. Offer immediate, concrete help like detox, medical attention, etc.

• You can build rapport by offering water, food, coffee, or cigarettes. 

If Someone is Armed… 
• Identify the exits • Maintain eye contact • Keep your hands visible • Slowly back away 

When possible, debrief with the person after things cool down and a reasonable amount of time has passed.

Written with help from Open Table Nashville, a community group in TN

February 29, 2024 is Leap Day — how come it is not a holiday with the day off? Since it’s an extra day and only comes along every four years, shouldn’t we get to do something special and exciting — better than all the other days? The answer is yes — you can do something exceptional for Leap Day, but strictly on a DIY basis. The bosses, the government and other forces of wretchedness hope you won’t hear that since 2000, Slingshot has declared a universal general strike, jamboree, street party and be-in each Leap Day everywhere. If you’re reading this, you’re part of the organizing committee / conspiracy and all you have to do between now and Leap Day is talk with your friends and community, figure out a time and place to meet and what you want to do with your extra day — be it carouse, rebel, redecorate, enhance, promenade, engage, shindig, dissent or soirée.

The system is unsustainable — it’s crumbling around us while the environment teeters on the brink of collapse. It’s easy to feel gloomy and fearful. A lot of people are wallowing in doom, denial or resignation — which only decreases our chances for survival. Some of us yearn for a different world based on cooperation, pleasure, love, and harmony with the Earth, but it’s hard to know how to fight back or how to make a difference. You can’t revolt alone — the structures of oppression and destruction are designed to feel inevitable, unavoidable and overwhelmingly powerful. 

Someone or a small group of people has to take the first terrifying step off the sidewalk and into the streets to create change.  The right time to revolt is right now, but the precise day is arbitrary. Revolt transforms those who make it. We weren’t put here to passively go along with the end of the world nor aid and abet those who profit from murdering the Earth. 

We refuse to be consumers, viewers and objects to be managed. Let’s build a world that’s awake and engaged —shifting the focus from things and entertainment to firsthand experience. Life is too short and the world too beautiful to waste more time muddling through tedious jobs, polluted air, swaggering billionaires and endless wars.

Leap day offers an extra day and invites us to shake off our routine. The capitalist system, its technology and its distractions are fragile. Alternatives exist. February 29 offers an invitation. How do you really want to live? What would you do if you were living life like it really mattered? What will you do with your extra day? Plan ahead. Leap for it!

Non-fiction

Close to the Knives by David Wojnarowicz

The Invention of Women by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism by Murray Bookchin

Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh

The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye

Building the Population Bomb by Emily Klancher Merchant

The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas

Side-Show: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia by William Shawcross

Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising and Its Legacy by Ann Thompson

It Came From The Closet: Queer Reflections On Horror by Joe Vallese

Fight Like Hell by Kim Kelly

Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records by Jim Ruland

DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US by David Verbuc

Hungry for Peace by Keith McHenry

The Left Bank: Writers, Artists, and Politics from the Popular Front to the Cold War by Herbert R. Lottman

A Punk House in the Deep South: The Oral History of 309 by Aaron Cometbus & Scott Satterwhite

I Hate this Part of Texas by John Gerkin

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliot

Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia by David Graeber

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric Stanley & Nat Smithers

Fiction

No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow by Margaret Killjoy

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Ruin by Cara Hoffman

Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh

Poetry

Bread and Circus by Airea D. Matthews

Oh, you thought this was a date? by C. Russell Price

Cruel Fiction by Wendy Trevino

The Book of the Dead by Muriel Rukeyser

Patriarchy Blues by Rena Priest

Salutations – you light up the room and you’re lovable. We’ve created this organizer for a world where caring about ourselves and the Earth matters. Let’s build collaborative, decentralized communities that unite people from different backgounds. Doing so can bring us abundant meaning, passion and beauty. We’re so grateful that you’re reading thisand that we’ve found each other. 

Capitalism and its computers make more and more stuff, faster and faster — clueless as to why. It’s time to slow down so we can notice stuff — right now what are you feeling, hearing, smelling and seeing? Along with grief for those being steamrolled, there’s also energy and determination to forge something better.

You are not alone. Generations of freaks and renegades have created ongoing communities of resistance and liberation. Grassroots networks are organizing to advance freedom, kindness, pluralism, cooperation, health, environmental sustainability — plus fun and pleasure. With funky cooperatives, underground venues, bicycle kitchens and even this organizer, we’re nurturing DIY alternatives to cruelty, conformity, hierarchy, loneliness, violence and greed. Shall we live in hiding and fear — waiting for our lives to begin?  There are more of us than our tormentors.  In a world that has lost its way and is out of balance, we need each other. Let’s share our courage, loyalty, mutual aid and tolerance. 

This is the 30th year we amused ourselves by publishing the Slingshot Organizer. Its sales raise funds to print the radical, independent Slingshot newspaper. We distribute the newspaper for free everywhere in the US, often at the places listed in the radical contact list. Let us know if you can be a local newspaper distributor in your area. All the content for both the paper and this organizer are made by people like you. Thanks to the volunteers who created this year’s organizer: Ana, Avi, Andee, Antonio, Ashley, Bill, Cara, Dakota, Donna, Eggplant, Eliana, Elke, Gale, Georgia, Giz, Harlan/Hayley, Henry, Henry, Imani, Isaac, Isabella, Jacinthe, Jacquelynn, Jasmine, Jesse, Jhesú, Joe, K. Malia, KJ, Kai, Kangs, Katie, Katie, Kermit, Korvin, Leslie, Lew, Lily, Lucie, Marie, Matteo, Matthew, Max, Mimi, Nadja, Nina, Rachel, Rachel, Ren, Robin, San, Sean, Seandunn, Shinya, Silver, Sirdavid, Sirkka, Skye, Søren, Soren, Stephanie, Talia, Tamara, Tessa, Thaddius, Tracey, Trinity, Yasha, Yifan & those we forgot.

Slingshot Collective

A project of Long Haul

Physical office at least until mid-2025*: 3124 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

* our landlord is threatening to tear down our building – check back for details

Mail: PO box 3051, Berkeley, CA 94703

510-540-0751 • slingshotcollective.org 

slingshotcollective@protonmail.com

@slingshotnews • @slingshotcollective

Printed in Berkeley, CA on recycled paper

Anti-copyright.

All volunteer collective – no bosses, no workers, no pay.

• duckduckgo.com – Search engine
• yewtu.be & invidious.weblibre.org – Fully-functional YouTube without ads or trackers
• Firefox – open-source, privacy focused non-profit browser (instead of Chrome, Safari, Edge)
• pad.riseup.net – Basic Google Docs equivalent
• cryptpad.fr – Encrypted forms, docs, etc.
• libgen.fun – free books
• search.openverse.engineering – search Creative Commons-licensed images and sounds

If you’re tired of going to work every day and not getting the respect and treatment you deserve, maybe you need a union. It’s not as hard as you think to organize. Here are some tips:

• Start by talking to just one or two coworkers about unionizing. If you already have a close relationship with your coworkers, and you trust them to not say anything to management, then you can ask them what they think about forming a union.

• If you don’t know your coworkers well, then start by getting to know them. Talk with them, hang out with them, help them out with the day-to-day difficulties on the job. When you’re ready, start talking to them about work. Ask them what they like about the job and what they don’t like. A lot of people want to avoid being a complainer, so they might not want to say anything negative about work. Go ahead and share some of your frustrations about the job — this gives them permission to go there, and gets them thinking about their own personal complaints.

• Make sure to listen. Ask questions and listen to your coworkers more than you talk. You will accomplish a lot more by listening than by talking. You have two ears and one mouth — listen twice as much as you talk.

• After you hear what they want to change, then ask how they think you can accomplish that? Can one of you make that change on your own, by just going and asking management to change? What about if all the workers together combine their power to make change happen? Well, that is a union. Once you have a few coworkers who want to unionize, you can get started.

• Keep your organizing secret until you and your coworkers are ready to be public with your union. Once the company finds out you are organizing, it is much harder to talk with your coworkers.

• Contacting an experienced Union Organizer can make a tremendous difference in coaching you how to inspire your coworkers and in taking the right steps to build a strong union. Being connected to an established union brings you a lot more power than you will have on your own.

• Don’t rush the process. It is a common mistake to try to move faster and get to the next step as soon as possible. You have to build up your power to create an effective union, and if you try to move forward before you have the power you need, you will lose.

• The company will fight your union — they always do. No boss wants to give up all the control they have over you, over the money, and over the workplace. You need to talk with all your coworkers about what to expect when the company starts to fight you. You all need to “inoculate” yourself so you are prepared when they start their campaign of fear tactics, misinformation, or manipulation.

• The company will say a union is a “third party” intruding on the work place. They will ask you to give them another chance to fix all their mistakes before you decide to unionize. They will use legal maneuvers and NLRB hearings to slow down the process in the hope that you lose your spirit and quit your job. It’s illegal for them to punish anyone or even ask anyone about their support for a union, but they will do it anyway because the law is stacked in their favor. Don’t be surprised if your supervisor starts crying in front of you about how they feel betrayed and they just didn’t know about all the problems and they promise they’ll work on making it better. The way to overcome all the employer’s tactics is to have strong relationships in place 

There is much more to the process, but once you join with your coworkers and begin to form an organizing committee, you are on your way. Organizing a powerful union will require you to develop your own individual power, and that alone makes it worth it. Multiply that for your coworkers, and you can make change that lasts the rest of your lives.