“The impulse behind this zine came from the shock, heartache,and sense of powerlessness that I felt on June 23, 2026, when two federal judges in Texas imposed sadistic sentences in the Prairieland case, ranging from thirty to a hundred years. So many of us felt frozen. Decades — for going to a noise demo outside an ICE detention center, removing someone from a Signal chat, having a printer at home, or simply moving a box of anarchist-oriented zines. Yet we somehow instantly sprang into the best kind of motion that day: checking in on each other, sending messages of solidarity and love, especially to the defendants’ families and friends. We then leaped tirelessly and voluntarily back into the many tasks of doing anti-repression “work” that we anarchists do so well…

[This zine] is intended as an inspirational anarchist compass, guiding you, via a sampling of lived experiences, toward what it means to pro-actively participate with integrity in the messy beautiful, meaningful, critical task of solidarity. Indeed, holding to solidarity — taking a side and then sticking side by side — will be among the messiest things you’ll ever do. It demands that we be humble and curious, move
with trust and assent, and prioritize tenderness and empathy. It necessitates that we go through the worst with each other while striving to bring out the best in ourselves and others, such as being there for those facing the wrath of the state even if we are not friends or don’t like them, or even if we disagree with the actions they got charged, tried, or imprisoned for. It tests how serious we are about journeying together through anxiety, fear, exhaustion, impossible choices, conflict, trauma, and so much more, and in the process, modeling the social transformation we want to see beyond this prison of a current world — vulnerably, steadfastly, ethically.”

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Side By Side: 16 Insights into Doing Solid Anti-Repression Work, ed. Cindy Barukh Milstein (digital)