this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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How To Win - A Solarpunk Flyer for the Nationwide US Protest Tomorrow on July 17th ☀️ (Second Page inside) (slrpnk.net)
submitted 6 days ago by ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24783048

I put together a quick flyer for us to print out for tomorrow's Good Trouble Again protest. (Find events near you on the map at their website!)

It was made in Krita (Scribus probably would've been better, but I didn't have time to learn it), using graphics from old IWW pamphlets.

It recommends:

  • Collective action and Unionizing with the IWW
  • What a General Strike is
  • Building community with a link to the Food Not Bombs website (probably the weakest section)
  • A section on Solarpunk with text from the manifesto, along with a link to slrpnk.net!
  • Ends with imploring readers to talk to the people around them at the protest and form connections.

The flyer is 2 pages designed to fit on a standard US Letter in landscape orientation to enable 2 flyers per page, and intended to be printed double-sided in long-edge mode.

You can create a PDF of the 2 pages for easier printing in Libreoffice Draw (go to Page > Page Properties > Enable Landscape Orientation, and reduce margins to 0.25")

Page 1 Double Flyer:

Page 2 Double Flyer:

If the double flyers aren't working out for you, I also have a single page version. (without the section imploring reader to talk to the people around them)

Page 1 Single Page:

https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/48eb821d-c3c7-481f-8cbb-029989fb18c8.png

Page 2 Single Page:

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[–] MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

This is awesome! For anyone planning to attend protests, don't forget portable power for your phones/cameras. Having a reliable power source can be crucial during long events. I've been checking out some LFP-based options on gearscouts.com/power-stations lately - they have great $/Wh comparisons for compact options that won't weigh you down.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I'd noticed your comments advertising that site in past, but since you regularly engaged with lemmy outside of advertising your battery deals site, I didn't feel the need to step in. But astroturfing your site as though you're a random activist who 'just so happened to be looking at this cool site that's totally not mine™' is a step too far, treading into scummy territory.

I don't want to see any more links to gearscouts on slrpnk.net communities from this point forward. And if you decide to continue to advertise on other instances; for gods sake man, just own that it's yours.

[–] Szewek@slrpnk.net 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Generally, great stuff, keep ongoing.

Still, the map of the "Industrial Workers of the World" makes me go XD

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Clicking on the find a branch button brings you to a zoomed out map showing chapters around the globe, but I get what you mean where the preview is zoomed in on the US by default :p

[–] kungen@feddit.nu 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Why have a general strike planned to happen in 3 years? I don't know much about the US labor laws, but it seems weird to have such far away dates planned...? How can you exert any power if they know you're willing to be screwed over for 3 more years, and they will be able to plan in all scabs?

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 days ago

That's when the UAW's (a large union) contract ends, so the plan is for all unions to plan the ends of their contracts for the same date.

It is admittedly a long time to wait, but due to how little of the US workforce is unionized, I assume it's to give time to build up more unions and gain momentum?

[–] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

"How to win" is not "Just Do The Thing".

Building community and local organising is a pre-requisite to any sort of collective action. The idea that that somehow comes after a general strike is mad.

All resistance starts between people who know each other. Talking to your neighbours, helping each other out, sharing tools and skills, etc, are all required before you can be all "join the one big union and go on perpetual strike".

If you, as a person, cannot organise a community garden, you cannot organise a general strike.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Ah, I realize now that, at least on voyager, cross posts don't seem to show the post body contents.

If you click through, you'll be able to see the second page (that is supposed to be on the reverse side) that briefly covers community building as well.

I have the general strike as step two since it made sense to explain what it is immediately after mentioning it, and how it goes hand in hand with unionizing.

At least in my area both unions and a general strike are completely unknown concepts to most people I mention it to, so I wanted it to be clear what they are, though I wrote it while fairly sleep deprived, so I'm sure it could've been done better.

Ultimately this flyer is intended to just get people started down a good path. I could only fit so much without it likely becoming overwhelming and not read, and still fitting on a double sided page.

If you know of a pamphlet that would guide people on these topics better than this one, I would welcome changing mine out for that.

[–] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If the intent is to get people started down a good path, then it should focus on first steps, which is community organising.

The people who are already open to unions are already in them. Because of 50 years of neo-liberal shite people do not understand class consciousness and view themselves simply as isolated, powerless, consumers.

You can break that view of themselves through community efforts - like gardens, allotments, etc - because they demonstrate their own abilities to themselves, and how working together benefits us all.

And then, you can start pushing for more official efforts and organisation.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

You can break that view of themselves through community efforts - like gardens, allotments, etc

That's precisely what the second page mentions, as well as information on how to find a local Food Not Bombs chapter. These topics are also discussed often on Slrpnk.net, which I encourage readers to take a look at and join, in the hopes of exposing them to more in-depth discussion of those topics and people who they can talk to about it.

The people who are already open to unions are already in them.

Again, in my personal experience in my area, I have met an astonishing amount of people who genuinely have no concept of what a union or general strike are, so for them, the lack of knowledge is most certainly a big barrier.

[–] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Sure, I don't disagree with that.

What I'm saying is you've structured this like an instruction manual, but have the steps in the wrong order.

In my experience with local organising (I'm a trustee of the local foodbank) doing the actions in the order you've laid out would cause the vast majority to disengage immediately, and I live in an area with higher than average unionisation and left wing tendencies.

You know that for a general strike to be successful it has to be massive - 10s of millions of workers - and in effect for a very long time. For that to be possible, people need to be secure in their housing, their access to food, and to heat. If any of those fail, the strike fails.

For those to be a success, parallel power structures - mutual aid, etc - need to already be in place.

So, if you want to structure this as a 3 step instruction manual, my recommendation is that it's

  • Create local security for food and housing
  • Join One Big Union
  • Strike until you win
[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 days ago

If I had time to redo it, I do think that revised order would be more ideal.

I would be pretty surprised if the current order will render it completely ineffectual at informing people of those concepts, and any who do flip it over and read the poorly named step 3 will find that it recommends building community for a general strike to be successful.

[–] dynamoMaus@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago

Voyager shows the original post you crossposted for me.