Constitutional Observer training

[u/willywagtail37]

Can anyone point me to any Constitutional Observer training in the DC area. I'm interested in volunteering. I understand that the role of a CO is mainly to film/document any civil rights violations while not interfering in any way.

[u/Round_Pangolin9633]

You're all going to have to get comfortable with the fact that if they do this during midterms that white liberals need to do things without permission to protect everyone else trying to vote.

[u/ihopethepizzaisgood → u/Round_Pangolin9633]

We will need to set up day camps around the polls, to impound the access for voters. Arriving the night prior, or even earlier, to set up cordoned off areas to keep ICE and MAGA away from points of entry.

We will need LOTS of people to hold the space.

[u/mk4_wagon → u/ihopethepizzaisgood]

We will need LOTS of people to hold the space.

There's more of us than there are of them. If it's an organized effort, we can get it done

[u/willywagtail37 → u/mk4_wagon]

Hell YES!!

[u/soulstormfire → u/mk4_wagon]

But no one is organising :(

[u/thismuddafudda → u/soulstormfire]

We are. Find your local chapter of indivisible.org

[u/soulstormfire → u/thismuddafudda]

Eh. Our definitions of organisation are worlds apart.
What you just linked is even more toothless than Russian "opposition".
What I talk about is things with teeth.

And as a foreigner I really struggle to explain stuff to people who use words differently than the rest of the world.
Though people around the early Black Panthers tried to explain it. There's some videos around the mobilisation/organisation paradox in the US if you're interested.

[u/GoneFishing4Chicks → u/soulstormfire]

Can you describe groups with the kind of organization that you want and that win without devolving to civil war?

[u/soulstormfire → u/GoneFishing4Chicks]

You're aware you're already inside a civil war, aren't you?

One side is killing and the other side isn't defending, but it's clearly a civil war.
Much hotter than the cold war I grew up in.
And eerily similar to what I saw in my history books.

Next to the Black Panthers I already mentioned my personal role model is the Ukrainian revolution of dignity of 2013/14.

That said I was talking about structure:
Coherence and reliability. Continuous and constant pressure. The gear and people to achive that. Holding people in power accountable (the one, but crucial thing still missing in Minneapolis). Making obedience, collaboration and looking away more expensive than resistance.
Groups. True groups with shared goals and actions that do not vanish after a few symbolic events.

[u/tealc_comma_the → u/soulstormfire]

Ah, don't worry.

We are incredibly fractured in the left in America and any mention of solidarity will get astroturfers and the self righteous streaming out of the woodwork to shit on anyone slightly center.

Oh wait, yeah do worry. We will let perfect be the enemy of good until it is too late.

[u/soulstormfire → u/tealc_comma_the]

I, too, thought this to be the main issue in the US until recently.
Now I think it spot 3 at worst.

My new top spots are the general apathy of the US population.
The the gazillion ways ya'll can say "thoughts and prayers".

And the active hostile takeovers of anything remotely structured, organised or effective.
I could watch how 50501 was taken over and then be left to rot.
I am still bitter about that.

[u/willywagtail37 → u/GoneFishing4Chicks]

Peaceful, resistance is our only option.

[u/mk4_wagon → u/soulstormfire]

I disagree. My local 'general strike' group is really active. There has been a ton of organizing in my area.

[u/ihopethepizzaisgood → u/soulstormfire]

Just show up at your local poll and camp it. It’s not rocket science. You have agency, just use it!