The top question I am asked by Thelemites Against Injustice is “what can I do?” Here are ten ideas to get us all started.
One: Liber Oz selfie.
Take a pic of yourself with a sign saying “Liber Oz inspires me to…” End the sentence with an action you are taking. Bonus: add the relevant Liber Oz line at the bottom of the sign. Make a bunch of these and post them everywhere!
Two: Read about human rights.
If you follow my Facebook account you know that I serialize these. Just now I’m doing Olympe de Gouges.
- Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, 1791-1792
- Mary Wollestoncraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1791
- Olympe de Gouges, “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen”, 1791
- Bill of Rights, 1791
- United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights, 1948
Three: Get out in the streets.
Meet your neighbors! There are human rights events everywhere. Web searches and Facebook will almost certainly turn up something in your neighborhood. Here are some of the local events I’ve attended/organized since January:
- Kitsap County Council for Human Rights – council meetings, Immigrant Forum, LGBTQ Forum, annual conference
- Showing Up for Racial Justice Kitsap – meetings, training
- Black Lives Matter – standing on street with sign when they call for direct action. Knit a black beanie (the Seattle march in April asked us to wear black beanies)
- Womens March – marched in Seattle, attend local group meetings, knit pussy hats (a dozen so far in many colors)
- “Build Bridges Not Walls” community march on local bridge
I have met with groups in taverns, in churches, at events and on the street. It is inspiring and hopeful to connect with other people in real life. It grounds us in the humanity of the work.
Four: Donate.
Donate $1 or $5 or $500, whatever amount you can afford and you choose, to whatever cause you like. Here are some ideas:
- Candidates you support for political office
- Planned Parenthood
- ACLU
- Local immigrant rights group
- Food banks and homeless shelters
Whenever I drive by the local Planned Parenthood and see fundamentalist “protesters” outside I drop in and give them money. In Washington state the initiative “Great Give” sets up web sites and makes it easy to donate to dozens of organizations. For the Kitsap Great Give I gave small amounts to every county organization feeding and housing people, especially kids.
Five: Prank the autocrats.
Thelemites are well known for our acerbic wit. Put your waggishness to good use! Humor deflates oppressors.
- Call the ICE line (1-855-48-VOICE (6423) hotline and report a space alien.
- Reproductive rights pranks: Attacking Oppression with Laughter
- This group of budding comedians calls itself “In Laughing Color”Learning to Fight Oppression One Joke at a Time
- Ideas from activist wags around the world: Why Dictators Don’t Like Jokes
Six: Become an ally.
We can educate ourselves and listen to people who are experiencing injustice speak in their own voices. Here are some places to start.
- 11 Simple Things Men Can Do For Feminism
- Why Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional (And 3 Ways to Practice It)
- How to support the black lives matter movement as a white ally
- Showing Up for Racial Justice
- 10 Steps for Becoming an Effective Ally to the LGBTQ Community
- 6 ways to be a better ally to people living with disabilities
- The Mistakes We Make Communicating with Elders (and How to Fix Them)
Seven: Already an ally? Be a better ally!
Eight: Get really smart about one thing.
Pick one topic and drill down into it. Learn everything you can. Write a paper and post it somewhere – ping Thelemites Against Injustice if you don’t have your own web site. Here are some ideas.
- Healthcare (systems around the world, US single payer ideas)
- U.S. school to prison pipeline
- U.S. gerrymandering and vote suppression
- Poland’s slide into an authoritarian regime
- Turkey’s slide into an authoritarian regime
- How colonialism generates refugees
- Tell us what you know!
Here are three essential books to start our education.
- The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness
- Enrique’s Journey, The story of a boy’s dangerous odyssey to reunite with his mother
- Queer America: A GLBT History of the 20th Century
Nine: Start a local Thelemites Against Injustice chapter
Are there other Thelemites in your area who also resist tyranny? Get ’em together for coffee. Go as a group to marches. Contact the local immigrant assistance center and ask how you can help. Join the NAACP chapter, or Showing Up for Racial Justice chapter, or both. Attend fundraisers for food banks and homeless shelters. Most importantly share your own stories, pool your information and resources, and support each other in the work.
Ten. Live free.
Work, play and rest as you will.
Write, draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build, dress as you will.
Love as you will.
Our freedom of thought and action stands against tyranny and manifests Thelema in the world.
