Take Care of Yourself
Before we jump into our more formal business for the day, a word for you, our activism leaders, as we slog through this long and frequently depressing winter: Please take care of yourself. Activism is exhausting and frequently frustrating work, with lots of moments of feeling like nothing is working and nothing is enough. Many of us are doing this work in addition to our jobs, while caring for families, and as we confront our own challenges on lots of fronts. We want to be in this for the long haul, which means we need to care for ourselves while we also work for the good of others. One small tip which I hope might help: https://youtu.be/OzZM-pPM0mk
It’s a 13 minute restorative yoga sequence- no experience needed, and I (almost) promise you’ll feel better after.
New Collaboration
Moving on, we want to update you about Swing Left Boston’s plans to collaborate with other local activist groups as we go through this momentous year. Michael Ansara of Indivisible-MA envisions our collaboration like this:
…a common calendar, a newsletter that allows people to understand how they can be active, a set of tool kits to help them be effective and if possible a common approach to the year so that our different efforts (with some different focus) synergistically build rather that disperse and overwhelm.
Sounds good, right? And it has worked in the past, specifically in Southern California, where our fellow resisters at SoCalBlue flipped five congressional seats in (typically conservative) Orange County in the midterms. Take a look at this inspiring 3-minute video about their approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYtA-KJw-w4&feature=youtu.be
One thing you can do right now: If you are not collecting RSVPs via an event platform like Action Network or Mobilize America, please contact Susan Labandibar to discuss your options. Creating a link to your event is essential to enable our collaboration and it will make your life easier, too!
In other news…
MA Leaders Call for Maine:
Our next call will be Wednesday, 1/29 at 7:30 pm. Sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/swingleftboston/event/208908/.
This is a monthly call for all leaders who are interested in working in Maine. The goal is to keep everyone up to date on what’s happening in Maine for 2020 activism field work. We’ll hear about what’s working and what’s not, share information and coordinate, and suggest ideas and approaches as we begin to move closer to the heart of the campaign season.
Any questions, reach out to Paula Joseph at paula@josephemail.net.
Please feel free to send us updates about your own, and others, activist activities, so we can share them and pass the word. Do you or someone in your organization have skills to share or something you need help with? Let us know, and we’ll try to connect people as needed.
More next week, and, please, take care of yourself as well as others.
And, as always, many, many thanks for all your work.
Susan Labandibar and Lisa Greenberg