Tip: If you can physically attend a protest, creative methods have been utilised by disabled activists in the past, such as1:

  • Using mobility aids as barricades
  • Using Sign languages to communicate to prevent police from understanding.

Preparing for a Protest #

What To Wear #

  • Cover your body - long sleeves, long pants, and a hat to protect against OC spray and tear gas.

  • Nondescript, layered clothing may also assist with resisting surveillance by covering identifiable features like tattoos

  • Write emergency contacts on your body, including contacts for lawyers or legal aid details from protest organisers.

  • Use a buddy system and note the full name and DOB of your buddies in case of arrest.

  • Wear a mask to protect your face and respiratory system from irritants, reduce the spread of COVID-19 (and other viruses) and resist police surveillance/doxing.

    • Note: wear a well-fitted, K/N95/equivalent face mask to reduce the risk of viral transmission including COVID-19.

  • Wear sturdy, comfortable shoes.

  • Tying your hair up stops it from obstructing your vision, protects against spreading OC spray contamination, and won’t get caught or pulled in tight crowds.

  • Shatterproof goggles protect against chemical and physical irritants.

  • Avoid wearing contacts as they can trap OC spray etc.

  • If you are wearing a hijab2:

    • The less fabric, the better - If you wear a rectangle hijab, tuck in the long ends. Squares are preferred as they’re smaller.
    • Tuck in your hijab - Wear a top you can tuck your hijab into like a funnel-neck, high collar, or hoodie.
    • Do not wear pins - Use a magnet if you have one or wear jersey or another hijab that does not require pins.
    • Bring an extra hijab to change into in case you get tear gassed. It can linger on the fabric and get reactivated, so it’s best to change.

What To Bring #

  • Water for drinking and treating OC spray and tear gas contamination.
  • Snacks.
  • Spare battery pack to keep your phone charged.
  • Spare shirt in case your clothes are contaminated with OC spray.
  • Earplugs to protect against loud noises, e.g. an LRAD.
  • A small first aid kid to treat minor injuries, including bandaids, bandages, and saline eye drops.
  • Gloves to protect yourself and others from OC spray when decontaminating.
  • Medication you will need for 24 hours (and Rx for scheduled drugs like hormones or ADHD meds)
  • OC Decontamination Tips (final two slides) by @legal_observers_nsw

What NOT To Bring #

  • Flares or flammable items.
  • Weapons or items that could be used as a weapon.
  • Avoid wearing contact lenses as they can trap OC spray and other chemical irritants in your eyes.
  • Anything you wouldn’t want to be arrested with.

Decontamination Kit #

More info coming.

Accessibility #

COVID Safety #

australia is currently experiencing a COVID wave. We’ve seen hints of this for a while, but a consistent pattern is emerging across Australia.3

The following is quoted and paraphrased from a statement on Palestine by COVID Solidarity NYC, a disabled-led autonomous collective organising to fight COVID. They speak to a U.S. context, but these words are also equally applicable to an Australian one – COVID is currently the 3rd leading cause of death in Australia.4

As disabled organizers, we cannot ignore how settler-colonial occupation violently disables people and leaves them to die. “Israel” is working to manifest the end which all white supremacist colonization seeks: starving, traumatizing, injuring, disabling, displacing, dispossessing, and killing an oppressed people until they succumb by force.

Consider “Israel”’s choice to withhold access to healthcare, medical supplies, and COVID-19 vaccines from Palestinians following the vaccine rollout.

[Here], that same organized abandonment takes the form of propaganda claiming COVID-19 is not as dangerous and disabling as it really is (yes, even to the average “healthy” person), that its spread no longer needs to be mitigated by the state, and that medically vulnerable people will simply “fall by the wayside” as acceptable collateral damage.

This is genocidal and eugenicist logic that we must all reject.

Remember: COVID-19 is an airborne disease, and despite misinformation, it still transmits outdoors.

  • Wear a mask, ideally a well-fitted, K/N95/equivalent, to protect your face and respiratory system from irritants, reduce the spread of COVID-19 (and other viruses), and resist surveillance.
    • Fix the flexible band to the bridge of your nose to ensure a good fit.
  • Access free rapid antigen test (RAT) kits, provided by most local councils. They can also be purchased from pharmacies. Take a test:
    • if you have symptoms of COVID-19 infection, no matter how mild. The most common symptoms are:
      • Fever (37 degrees Celsius or higher)
      • Dry cough
      • Sore throat
      • Runny nose
      • Fatigue
      • Shortness of breath (difficulty breathing)5
    • if you are a household, social, or close contact of someone who has COVID-19
    • before attending a crowded gathering. This is to protect others by checking that you are COVID-negative. 6
  • If in doubt and feeling unwell, stay at home.
  • If you’re unable to access/afford masks and/or other COVID supplies, check to see if your local area has a COVID mutual aid group. If one doesn’t exist and you’re in a position to organise such a group, consider doing so!
  • Further resources:

Safety And Accessibility Plan 7 #

If you have friends who are disabled, chronically ill, have varying mobility, etc., who want to participate in street actions, offer to create a safety plan for them. Here are some suggestions for what to consider in the plan:

  • Note down any needs for before and after the protest
  • Note down any medications to bring for the next 24 hours
  • Familiarise each other with the route.
  • Support them to have 2-3 emergency contact people.
  • Include self-care boundaries such as:
    • Pre-determining the amount of time spent on the street
    • What might help prevent or delay pain or anxiety
    • Note down potential triggers for onset of pain or mental health challenges
    • Agreeing ahead of time to give themselves permission to exit early upon first signs of onset
    • What to do and where to go if triggered or hurt
    • Comforting things and activities post-march that could be set up beforehand

DA Planning for Sick/Disabled Comrades #

Andrea Alakran (@thecomradecloset) has created a 8-page toolkit for people navigating chronic pain, illness, or disability - but is widely useful in planning personal capacity for direct action. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list or followed strictly; it’s a starting point.

l’ve been sitting a lot with the idea that disabled people/crips only (can) engage in direct action or support with escalation from our beds. Although many of us are bed-bound a lot of the time, I thought it might be helpful to have a matrix of actions to refer to when our bodies are in certain places.

Rally Accessibility (Naarm / Melbourne) #

The Rally Access Handbook is a resource created by Deaf and Disabled activists in Naarm, to help make navigating the Weekly Free Palestine Rallies that have been happening there every Sunday since the 8th of October more accessible.

This Handbook covers the following:

  • Right to Participate
  • Rally Route and Schedule
  • March Structure
  • Toilet Locations throughout the March
  • Marshall, Medic and Legal Observer Teams and how to identify them
  • Navigating Police Presence
  • Navigating Aggressive Behaviour from Counter-Protesters

Sensory Guide for Kids #

So You Made It To a Protest! a sensory guide for kids

This zine/guidebook is meant to support adult comrades in preparing their little comrades for protests by taking them on a protest journey through the senses. It’s also great to have while you’re at a protest!

Check out Woke Kindergarten (@wokekindergarten on Instagram) for more.

Risk Assessment #

INFO COMING.

Notes #

  1. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Disability Visibility Project. <https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2020/08/24/cripping-the-resistance-no-revolution-without-us/> Accessed 27/12/23. ↩︎

  2. Haute Hijab. <https://www.instagram.com/p/CBDk0AND33-/|Tips> Accessed 27/12/23. ↩︎

  3. James Wood, Bette Liu, Katie Louise Flanagan, Stuart Turville. ABC News. <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-12/new-covid-wave-what-to-expect-pirola/103090628> Accessed 27/12/23. ↩︎

  4. Leonie Thorne. ABC News. <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-27/covid-in-abs-leading-causes-of-death-data-heart-disease-/102906350> Accessed 27/12/23. ↩︎

  5. Hanan Dervisevic. ABC News. <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-01/covid-cases-rise-updated-facts/103044762> Accessed 27/12/23. ↩︎

  6. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. <https://www.health.gov.au/topics/covid-19/protect-yourself-and-others> Accessed 27/12/23. ↩︎

  7. Disability Visibility Project (contributors listed in source). <https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2020/06/06/26-ways-to-be-in-the-struggle-beyond-the-streets-june-2020-update/> Accessed 27/12/23. ↩︎