[UK politics] shit happened
Dec. 13th, 2019 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
montfeliskyI am not going to write specifically about the election right now (or, perhaps, ever). Yesterday, I drank a bit too much wine at our office Christmas party and then I went through an emotional journey which went (1) drank slightly too much to train Krav Maga safely and (2) I am vibrating out of my skin with anxiety about the election and (3) I am feeling slightly too emotional to want to doorknock in my own new constituency with a bunch of strangers. And thus I ended up getting the Central Line (so warm, so very warm, even in winter) out to a constituency which is not my own to doorknock with happydork. Which, despite the results today, was a good way to spend an evening. The right way to spend my evening.
One day, I would love not to dread an election. I still love the process of voting. I wish it meant more than it does under our electoral system.
I have been thinking a lot today about how not to give in to despair. I am not galvanised by feeling sad or angry, I think in part because I still tend to experience most kinds of anger first as panic, which costs me more than it gives. ETA: And I am realising now that actually I do need to hold space for how sad I feel over the results and Labour's beautiful and deeply hopeful manifesto, rather than just tamping that sadness down inside me under productivity; but to hold that sadness in one hand and what I can do to help in the other.
Generally what works best for me is a combination of rigorous list-making determination AND deep pettiness.
So here is a list of things which I can and will do to help contravene this current government:
Short term:
- Set up/increase direct debit donations to the following:
- Be present and supportive for my friends who are struggling with the election results; be present and supportive for my family
- Take care of my own mental health by making sure I'm exercising regularly, trying to stick to good sleep practices, and not getting sucked into other people's Twitter despair cycles (we all process differently and there is no judgment here about other people's coping mechanisms - but I've realised how ill it makes me feel to bear witness to other people's "everything is fucked we're fucked the world is ending England deserves this" cycles on Twitter. On blog posts, in articles, it's different. I don't know why.).
Medium term:
- Look into volunteering I can do in legal areas while I am studying the GDL. A friend suggested the Public Law Project. I do not have an abundance of free time (working full time and doing a law degree is... fairly life-consuming) so whatever I do will likely need to be flexible and possible to do at weekends/evenings. Open to suggestions here too.
- Work out what I need to have in place to be able to attend protests and demonstrations more regularly, including outside London. Physical HP is an issue here: Krav Maga has done a lot for my joint pain but standing still for ages followed by slow march/demonstration ambling still wrecks my knees, hips and back and leaves me tired for a good few days afterwards. So I think this will be about prioritising events, making sure I'm doing it with friends, and having a stretching/physio plan in place for afterwards. Honestly finding out about the events is also a problem for me - I wish I had more notice of them, but of course they're often arranged on the ground and in response to something, so difficult to plan for in advance and thus difficult for me to manage HP.
- Find and join a group (groups?) of other Jewish activists. I'm so lucky to have the Jewish friends I have already, and making that group even bigger will enrich my life, my heart, and my values. And it will make the work of being a left-wing Jew feel less lonely.
- Find what I can do around specifically supporting the demand for accountability and reform over Grenfell and Windrush.
- Budget for and set up a donation to Netpol. Again, if anyone has better suggestions for a similarly purposed organisation, I would love to hear them!
- Ensure that I encompass resistance to climate change in some way. This is sort of a placeholder - I still need to work out what is both effective and viable for me.
Long term:
- One of my Labour friends said that the next step is fighting for reform of how the media and technology are used in our democratic process (and also for reform of our democratic process). I agree. Obviously a bit of a big topic! So I need to educate myself about it and find organisations who are working on this. I have a feeling Liberty do a lot around this, but again I am very open to suggestions.
- Work out a way to engage with and campaign for Labour that doesn't leave me feeling the way I often did when engaging with my then-CLP in 2017. I share a lot of the party's values and I really believe that a Labour government (of pretty much any stripe tbh, I am not wedded to factionalism over Blairites and Momentum) would be better for this country and so I think I need to find a way to work for that. When I was campaigning in 2017 for my CLP, I met some truly brilliant people (and made a few friends I'm still in touch with) and a lot of people were really welcoming. But there was also a small but prominent subset of people whose way of interacting and encouraging activism was (I now realise) fairly triggering for me and I ended up feeling very anxious about engaging in person with any Labour events. Their fault, not mine, but something I want to work on over the next few years so that I can actually do consistent work for the party that represents my politics, instead of only donating regularly and voting for them. And if that involves needing to aggressively set boundaries instead of trying to gently set them, I'll get to a place where I can do that.
... this is just what I have thought of so far. I would love suggestions, with the caveat that, as already stated, I have a full-time job and I'm doing a law degree and I'm not able to stand around or walk slowly for long stints at a time without a fair amount of joint pain. I would also love to hear what is on other people's lists, especially around climate change action.
I am grateful, as ever, for my incredible friends. Solidarity made today more bearable than it would otherwise have been.
happydork. Which, despite the results today, was a good way to spend an evening. The right way to spend my evening. One day, I would love not to dread an election. I still love the process of voting. I wish it meant more than it does under our electoral system.
I have been thinking a lot today about how not to give in to despair. I am not galvanised by feeling sad or angry, I think in part because I still tend to experience most kinds of anger first as panic, which costs me more than it gives. ETA: And I am realising now that actually I do need to hold space for how sad I feel over the results and Labour's beautiful and deeply hopeful manifesto, rather than just tamping that sadness down inside me under productivity; but to hold that sadness in one hand and what I can do to help in the other.
Generally what works best for me is a combination of rigorous list-making determination AND deep pettiness.
So here is a list of things which I can and will do to help contravene this current government:
Short term:
- Set up/increase direct debit donations to the following:
- Trussell Trust - I would prefer a foodbank organisation with no religious affiliation, but I think they're the largest foodbank network in the UK. If anyone has any alternative suggestions, I am open to them.
- Liberty
- Shelter from the Storm - My brother volunteered for this homeless charity for a year and a half. They do good work.
- Friends Families and Travellers - The Conservative manifesto is massively discriminatory against Roma and Travellers; this organisation was recommended to me by a friend with Roma and Traveller heritage.
- Be present and supportive for my friends who are struggling with the election results; be present and supportive for my family
- Take care of my own mental health by making sure I'm exercising regularly, trying to stick to good sleep practices, and not getting sucked into other people's Twitter despair cycles (we all process differently and there is no judgment here about other people's coping mechanisms - but I've realised how ill it makes me feel to bear witness to other people's "everything is fucked we're fucked the world is ending England deserves this" cycles on Twitter. On blog posts, in articles, it's different. I don't know why.).
Medium term:
- Look into volunteering I can do in legal areas while I am studying the GDL. A friend suggested the Public Law Project. I do not have an abundance of free time (working full time and doing a law degree is... fairly life-consuming) so whatever I do will likely need to be flexible and possible to do at weekends/evenings. Open to suggestions here too.
- Work out what I need to have in place to be able to attend protests and demonstrations more regularly, including outside London. Physical HP is an issue here: Krav Maga has done a lot for my joint pain but standing still for ages followed by slow march/demonstration ambling still wrecks my knees, hips and back and leaves me tired for a good few days afterwards. So I think this will be about prioritising events, making sure I'm doing it with friends, and having a stretching/physio plan in place for afterwards. Honestly finding out about the events is also a problem for me - I wish I had more notice of them, but of course they're often arranged on the ground and in response to something, so difficult to plan for in advance and thus difficult for me to manage HP.
- Find and join a group (groups?) of other Jewish activists. I'm so lucky to have the Jewish friends I have already, and making that group even bigger will enrich my life, my heart, and my values. And it will make the work of being a left-wing Jew feel less lonely.
- Find what I can do around specifically supporting the demand for accountability and reform over Grenfell and Windrush.
- Budget for and set up a donation to Netpol. Again, if anyone has better suggestions for a similarly purposed organisation, I would love to hear them!
- Ensure that I encompass resistance to climate change in some way. This is sort of a placeholder - I still need to work out what is both effective and viable for me.
Long term:
- One of my Labour friends said that the next step is fighting for reform of how the media and technology are used in our democratic process (and also for reform of our democratic process). I agree. Obviously a bit of a big topic! So I need to educate myself about it and find organisations who are working on this. I have a feeling Liberty do a lot around this, but again I am very open to suggestions.
- Work out a way to engage with and campaign for Labour that doesn't leave me feeling the way I often did when engaging with my then-CLP in 2017. I share a lot of the party's values and I really believe that a Labour government (of pretty much any stripe tbh, I am not wedded to factionalism over Blairites and Momentum) would be better for this country and so I think I need to find a way to work for that. When I was campaigning in 2017 for my CLP, I met some truly brilliant people (and made a few friends I'm still in touch with) and a lot of people were really welcoming. But there was also a small but prominent subset of people whose way of interacting and encouraging activism was (I now realise) fairly triggering for me and I ended up feeling very anxious about engaging in person with any Labour events. Their fault, not mine, but something I want to work on over the next few years so that I can actually do consistent work for the party that represents my politics, instead of only donating regularly and voting for them. And if that involves needing to aggressively set boundaries instead of trying to gently set them, I'll get to a place where I can do that.
... this is just what I have thought of so far. I would love suggestions, with the caveat that, as already stated, I have a full-time job and I'm doing a law degree and I'm not able to stand around or walk slowly for long stints at a time without a fair amount of joint pain. I would also love to hear what is on other people's lists, especially around climate change action.
I am grateful, as ever, for my incredible friends. Solidarity made today more bearable than it would otherwise have been.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-13 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-14 07:05 am (UTC)I'll also make a list though of Labour-specific Jewish groups. We can decide what works best for us. <3
no subject
Date: 2019-12-14 12:50 pm (UTC)This election must have been utterly horrific for you as a Jewish person: from my non-Jewish perspective it felt as if Jewish people were being used as a sort of weapon to be wielded to score political points (by people on both sides who, quite frankly, did not appear to show much concern for the Jewish community at any other time). I'm very sorry that so many politicians and campaigners did this to you.
I'll list a few more organisations to help/get involved in, not to add to your own list of activities as I think you've got enough on your plate with everything you're planning to do, but in case other people reading here are looking for ideas.
As a migrant, this election (and, really, politics in this country for the last ten years) has been really, really awful, and a lot of my fellow migrants are feeling very frightened and vulnerable right now. Here are a few groups I know about doing good work:
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), an organisation advocating for fair immigration laws, human rights for migrants and refugees, and promoting the (overwhelming evidence) of the benefits of immigration for this country. Most importantly, they provide legal advice for migrants suffering under the hostile environment.
The 3 Million, and their sister organisation British In Europe, which advocate for the rights of EU citizens in the UK and British citizens living in the rest of the EU respectively.
Women for Refugee Women, an organisation supporting refugee women in the UK with English lessons, advocating for fairer asylum policies, and so on.
Much solidarity with you.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-19 10:02 am (UTC)Thank you so much for the links about what we can do to help migrants! I've been so horrified by the way the media and the government have been speaking about people who have chosen this country as their home; I can imagine how strange and frightening and painful it must be for you and others. I'm really grateful for the links - even if I can only contribute financially at the moment, that's something, and if there's legal administrative support I can do for them too then I'll look into that.
It has definitely been a very weird time to be Jewish. I don't think I've ever had so many non-Jewish people claiming to be interested in antisemitism and yet still not listening to my opinion on it!
Solidarity with you too <3
no subject
Date: 2019-12-19 11:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-21 12:58 pm (UTC)