#GivingTuesday

Let’s see. Yesterday was Cyber Monday, and I’m not quite sure what that meant, but none of y’all submitted naughty comments, so. Before that was Sunday, and I don’t even know what capitalism has decreed that day to be. Saturday was for shopping local, and one of my high school acquaintances reminded us not to forget the underground economy (read: call your dealer). Counting backwards from that was fucking Black Friday, a greasy stain on our already pretty grimey national identity; but I hear that sales receipts were down 11% for the day compared to last year, in no small part probably due to the push by Black organizers and their allies, who pushed #BlackOutBlackFriday, which capped off a week of movement after the non-indictment in Ferguson.

Anyhow, today has been deemed Giving Tuesday. If you have any money leftover after all those other days (who has any in the first place? certainly not librarians), I have some relevant suggestions for what to do with it.

The burial fund for Tanisha Anderson, killed by cops in Cleveland.
The Marissa Alexander Freedom Fundraiser. Because she’s still imprisoned for defending herself from domestic violence.
Grace Lee Boggs, who is 99 fucking years old and in hospice care.
Our friends at Urban Librarians Unite are raising funds. Even better, Cabot Orton of the Vermont Country Store has offered a matching gift if they can raise $800 by December 7.
The Anarchist Black Cross Federation Warchest, which supports political prisoners who are otherwise un/der supported while they are in US prisons.
Your local public library.
The Ferguson Public Library, a small library that has been doing amazing things, including taking the place of public schools when the schools had emergency closures.
The St. Louis Area Food Bank, because as friend of the library Amanda says, “One way to support the community in Ferguson is contributing to the Food Bank – a lot of school cancellations means that many students on Free and Reduced Price lunches are not getting the food they need.”
Your local food banks.
Bluestockings, which is one of NYC’s best rad spaces.
Ferguson bail fund. Because that shit ain’t cheap.
Your local activist bail fund. (IN NYC this is the old OWS bail fund. Or, ya know, go do some jail support & just bail people out.)
ALA’s LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, for “the support, maintenance, medical care, and welfare of librarians who, in the Trustees’ opinion, are: Denied employment rights or discriminated against on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, religion, age, disability, or place of national origin; or Denied employment rights because of defense of intellectual freedom; that is, threatened with loss of employment or discharged because of their stand for the cause of intellectual freedom, including promotion of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, the freedom of librarians to select items for their collections from all the world’s written and recorded information, and defense of privacy rights.”
Electronic Frontier Foundation, protecting your civil liberties in the digital realm.
Books Through Bars NYC or Books Through Bars Philly.
The Lesbian Herstory Archives.
The GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.
The Base, an anarchist space in Brooklyn (which houses a large portion of the People’s Library’s original collection.)
Interference Archive, a volunteer run movement archive in Brooklyn.
Pink and Black, which supports LGBTQ prisoners.
Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Because, duh.
Critical Resistance, fighting against the prison-industrial complex.
Your local abortion fund. Or any abortion fund. Here’s the one for NY. Here’s one for Western Mass.
Janet Mock’s Trans Book Drive. Getting books by trans authors to trans prisoners.
riseup.net, which provides political folks with relatively secure email (most email is basically a love letter to state & corporate surveillance).
Bridget Bittman, a librarian who is striking back against defamation by this shitty dude who calls himself “safe libraries” but is really a conservative douchebag who wants to lock down free information, especially on the internet, and is not afraid to use some disgusting tactics to do so. Yours truly has seen this guy before, when he tried to heckle the People’s Library’s policies of freely available information,