I have dedicated a lot of my time and mind to activism and direct action against the forces of colonialism, racism, and capitalism. This has manifested itself in multiple forms, including my participation in a renter’s union, mere Instagram activism, or my organization of a BLM protest of 5,000 people in a privileged community of 12,000 in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

I work with an organization of about 15 people who are all college age, and we come together to organize and execute direct action in communities of the East Bay in an area known as the Diablo Valley. Many of the communities here are either poor, Latino communities or rich, white communities, and we work to bring awareness of the overarching consequences of their position and to uplift those who deserve more.

On Saturday, that activism manifested itself in a gathering and march in the name of oppressed Palestinians and various Israeli minorities, who suffer under state-sanctioned persecution and apartheid. Me and one other organizer worked together alone to make the event happen. The same day, there were planned protests in San Francisco and Oakland, but we felt bringing the issues directly to a privileged community versus preaching to the choir would be much more effective

We started with a speaking stage that allowed for attendees to let their grievances known and for people such as a member of the dock workers’ union that represents the entire west coast to give their story regarding Israeli oppression and their fight against it. The dock worker himself gave a story of how his union shut down every port on the west coast after the deaths of Oscar Grant and George Floyd, and how they’ve turned away every Israeli ship since the start of the month. We had facts, poems, stories of childhoods in the Gaza, and much more.

Once we had all our speakers had come up, we began a march through the downtown of the most busy community in the Diablo Valley, at lunchtime on a Saturday. We walked down the two main roads and through the main marketplace walkways. It was amazing. We had cheers from a ton of people going through there day and we even had people join the march!!!!!

All in all a success.

My organization’s post: instagram.com/p/CPMi8_sHtcL/?utm_medium=copy_link

My itinerary for the event: docs.google.com/document/d/1pah0zjQDazFAeB8kNGiJhe_il4Mw6eqtuCYNlWIcM3s/edit

Me speaking for three minutes regarding other forms of racism that occur within Israel: instagram.com/tv/CPMmXtHH-yo/?utm_medium=copy_link

wtf is this doing in politics this is about what i do with my life

something in the title must’ve triggered an auto-move

kingggg

This is so awesome to see, love when people take power into their hands and fight for their beliefs. Wish you the best of luck

legend

Hows it feel being a chad

Respect for standing up for what you believe irl OP

Bro actually went and did it

likely “protest”

i’m just doing what i believe other people should be doing, and that is doing the right thing materially. Money talks, and people are fast to defend their money going to places that fund Israel, or the Republican Party, or whatever

been at it! check out the turnout at this event that i mentioned

instagram.com/p/CBJ-xxZHu6q/?utm_medium=copy_link

thousands

Don't know how long you've been at it but definitely keep it up. Organizing work can be hard af and can be discouraging with things you learn about society while leading and speaking at protests, rallies, etc. Led a few marches myself at school and was always disappointed at the black turnout when the protests I was organizing were specifically about black students being mistreated at school.

My advice to you is keep at it and don't worry about who does and doesn't show up. End of the day it's not what you can control, only thing you can control is your message...and where the protest marches of course since you're leading it. If you even are marching that is.

This is dope as hell, since when and how did all of you come together for the group's inception?

thank you for the love brother

this was actually the first protest that I was lead organizer for. It was also my first time public speaking to a crowd bigger than 30-40 people so it was invigorating

we formed in May 2020 in immediate response to the George Floyd murder as a number of college aged mutual friends who organized under another woman who performed a lot of direct work. Our very first march was met with tear gas and rubber bullets which got us national coverage. After that we’ve peacefully organized over 15 protests with regular turnouts ranging from 500-4000

this was our first to be below it, but it still exceeded expectations because we didn’t estimate how many family-age attendees would come while all the youth were in SF/OAK

Straight king s***
Much respect to you OP

tldr

congrats

Salute, did a great job speaking

Love reading your posts and it's incredible to know that you're living that fire and fight with others organizing

Don't stop!

Fantastic work, I'm highly impressed. I'm sorry for the brutality that you faced and I pray no one was badly injured. Like kuro said keep doing what you're doing, spreading the message and taking control of the narrative. You did a fine job speaking as well so keep at it, major respect.

real

I organized a 300 person protest in a privileged white community which far exceeded expectations. it was my first time being lead organizer and public speaking

Proud of you man. Youre making the world a better place ❤