How can I financially support direct action?

June 28, 2018 1:40 PM

I want to increase and refocus my charitable giving toward organizations that are funding and supporting progressive and socialist direct action. For example, I give to a local organization that directly funds abortion services for those who cannot afford it, but I'm also interested in things like meals and legal assistance for people occupying ICE facilities. What are some groups that are doing work like that and other kinds of direct action?
posted by jedicus to Law & Government (9 answers total)

I'm not sure if you mean meals for anyone or meals for people in detention facilities. Food Not Bombs is one of the direct action meals projects I support, see if there is one near you.
posted by jessamyn at 1:57 PM on June 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

Our Urban League directly funds expungement of criminal records so folks can get jobs and vote. They also provide bus passes, clothing, and housing referrals. Yours might too.
posted by songs_about_rainbows at 3:08 PM on June 28, 2018 [4 favorites]

You may be interested in the National Lawyers Guild. When I was at the Occupy ICE NWDC rally in Tacoma, they had an observer on the ground, and they provide hotline support for protests and demonstrations . See also this description of how the Seattle chapter provides hotline service.
posted by shirobara at 4:31 PM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

My local PSL chapter provides free food to people who need it every week.
They have also in recent memory organized huge protests, provided security for other organizations' protests, shut down an ICE office, provided free tutoring for kids, organized tenants' unions, provided workers resources up to and including union organizing, hosted public forums, film screenings and educational events, spearheaded fundraising drives for activists' legal defense (yes, I mean activists who aren't members).

Donate here!
posted by Krawczak at 5:14 PM on June 28, 2018

See if you have a local bail fund.
posted by praemunire at 7:03 PM on June 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

United We Dream has a DACA Renewal Fund.
The Black Love Bailout is a national bailout fund.
No More Deaths / No Más Muertes offers life-saving humanitarian aid in the US/Mexico borderlands, including leaving caches of water and food at key points at common crossing areas.
posted by duffell at 7:15 PM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Fianza Fund is bonding people out of ICE detention in El Paso.
posted by kelseyq at 7:19 PM on June 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Slate has a running list of organizations (scroll down a bit) on this page: Here’s How You Can Help Fight Family Separation at the Border. Each organization name has a little description with what it focuses on, and many of them do the type of direct action I think you're looking for. On that list, you could start from Al Otro Lado (legal and other assistance for refugees, deportees, and/or immigrants in Los Angeles and Tijuana/Baja California) and on down.

There is also a Support Kids at the Border donation page on ActBlue that makes it simple to donate to a few of these organizations at once.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 10:23 PM on June 28, 2018

Where are you located? For direct action, the action is local.
posted by latkes at 10:50 AM on June 29, 2018 [1 favorite]