Local and Evergreen Actions for Right Now
- ffjdane
- Jun 2
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 4
Inspired by this list by Mariame Kaba, we’ve pulled together an action list for Dane County and Wisconsin that focuses on evergreen, everyday actions – things we can do in addition to voting or protesting or contacting elected representatives. We hope this might be helpful for those times when we’re feeling stuck, demoralized, alienated, or just overwhelmed.
This zine, “Making an Activist/Organizing Plan” is also a great tool for those trying to ground themselves in action.
Do you have local actions we should add here? Please email us at ffjdane@gmail.com.
Organizing/Advocacy
Share vital info online and in person. Create and distribute fliers, stickers, and zines.
Amplify calls for support from people of color, disabled people, queer and trans folks, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups.
Cultivate courage by thanking people in positions of power when they do the right thing. Organize a gathering where everyone writes thank yous together.
Gather people together for craft circles or potlucks or book clubs or park clean-up crews. Providing people a way to turn toward community is an action. (h/t Mariame Kaba)
Spend time with your people.
Keep providing a vision of the world you want. Continue to advocate for the values you hold:
Join Madison’s Free School Meals for All campaign or the statewide campaign, Healthy School Meals for All Wisconsin.
Join Madison neighborhood groups such as the Northside Action Team, which continues to organize folks, build community, and register people to vote between elections.
Join the Wisconsin chapter of the Working Families Party, a multi-racial movement organizing from the bottom up.
Participate in consumer boycotts, such as #TeslaTakeDown, which has local actions.
Join the Wisconsin Public Education Network and respond to their calls to action.
To take action in the early childcare space, follow and support Raising Wisconsin and WECAN.
Support Fair Wisconsin and respond to their calls to action for LGBTQ+ rights.
Fight for climate justice with Wisconsin 350.
Advocate for renters with Madison Tenant Power.
Join the WI Right to Boycott Campaign and work to repeal our state's anti-boycott law.
Community Defense
Become a member of Voces de la Frontera. Complete a “Know Your Rights Training.” If you’re bilingual and have capacity for deeper involvement, consider volunteering for their crisis hotline.
Help drive immigrants to USCIC or Immigration Court appointments in Milwaukee by joining the Dane Sanctuary Coalition, a project of Wisconsin Faith Voices.
Offer time and/or money to the organizations already doing the underfunded work of protecting our communities, such as:
Mutual Aid
Redistribute wealth.
Create a mutual aid network. Support Trans Medical Mutual Aid here in Dane County.
Organize a local childcare collective.
Donate time or money to food programs, or support food networks.
Offer tired people free childcare, a home-cooked meal, or other acts of care.
Organize a garage sale, bake sale, or lemonade stand with proceeds going to a group or organization engaged in advocacy or community defense.
Forge stronger bonds with your neighbors by organizing a gathering to raise money and/or provide an essential good (e.g., seed exchanges, clothing swaps, care packages).
Support Village Diaper Bank, which partners with agencies serving families to ensure access to diapers as a basic need, preserve dignity, and reduce stress for families.
As much as you’re able, support small, local businesses.
Political Education
Take Justified Anger’s “Black History for a New Day” community course.
Start a book group dedicated to learning about and navigating this moment together. Some good beginner books are “Let This Radicalize You,” which comes with a host of book club resources, or “Be A Revolution.”
Join Long Haul Solidarity for Police-Free Schools, a local group that studies and explores how we can decarcerate our schools and expand our understanding of school safety.
Listen to the podcast “Movement Memos” by Chicago-based community organizer Kelly Hayes to learn how seasoned organizers and activists are thinking about and approaching this moment.
Read this abolitionist take on fighting Right-wing, authoritarian, and fascist agendas and examine the ways criminalization works in our country.
Learn more about the Black activist analysis on Palestine, collective liberation, and matters of justice by checking out this resource guide from Hammer&Hope - including contributions from Angela Davis and Michelle Alexander.
Check out the resources from Diaspora Alliance to help understand antisemitism through a social justice lens and learn how to effectively combat it by building solidarity among all marginalized groups.
Check out Deadly Exchange, a resource from Jewish Voice for Peace, to understand how investment in militarism abroad connects to our own communities.
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