u/Plotnikov34

Hey punks!

I’m getting back into going to live shows for the first time in some years, after spending a lot of time salting around different workplaces for the unions and playing folk music. It’s been great to get back to seeing bands live and hanging out with the community. In my years in activism, I’ve made it a habit to always bring some extra supplies to protests and actions, to the extent that some of the folks I march with consider me sort of like a “protest dad” for it.

So anyways, I was considering doing the same for shows. Having a bag or even wearing one of my carpentry aprons and having stuff that people might need. So I thought I’d brainstorm some good stuff that people might want at a show. So far I have:

- A first aid kit

- Narcan

- activated charcoal

- water and electrolyte packs

- High energy snacks

- over the counter painkillers

- a way to help people charge their phone

- A jumper box to help jump cars that won’t start (I just carry one in my truck anyways)

- extra ear plugs

- cigarettes

- menstrual products

- condoms

- zines about good consent practices, anti-racism, and other values that make the scene better

What other useful things might people find themselves needing at a show?

A song about the anarchist Pinelli, murdered by the police in Milan after the imperialist-backed Ordine Nuovo set off a bomb in the Plaza Fontana, framing the left. This was an early act of the Years of Lead.

Adapted and translated by Emmett Doyle

Mother Anarchy Loves Her Sons was written in Russian by the anarchist Nestor Makhno, in eastern Ukraine, during the Revolution. This version is the result of several years of American and former-Soviet-Union diaspora anarchists bandying versions back and forth, facilitated by Emmett Doyle, who ultimately wrote this version. Recorded by a collection of Minneapolis anarchists in the weeks after Metro Surge.

A translation and adaptation of the song by Belgrado Pedrini, an Italian anarchist and antifascist partisan. Pedrini took part in expropriations of Italian capitalists who supported the fascists, during the resistance to Mussolini's regime. After the war, the new Italian republic considered his expropriations to be criminal, not political activity, and threw him in prison. He stayed imprisoned until the early 1970s, and only enjoyed four years of freedom after his release before his death. He remained a committed anarchist, especially doing solidarity work for those imprisoned, until he passed away.

Che la terra ti sia lieve, compagno.

From Emmett Doyle and Companions' album, Mother Anarchy, featuring bouzouki, bodhran, fiddle, penny whistle, and vocal harmonies. The lead singer, Miri, is an anarchist mother, labor organizer, Metro Surge arrestee, and Jewish community self defense organizer.

I'm a carpenter in my 30s who's gained quite a bit of weight in the last few years, due mostly to a struggle with sobriety. I've committed to sobriety now, and am trying to stick to a mediterranean diet of sorts: Fruit or granola and yogurt for breakfast, a salad bowl with grains and lean proteins for lunch, and for dinner I usually make some sort of baked vegetables and chicken or a curry or some such sort. I know I should hit the gym, but between time and just being tired and sore from my shift each day, I never can manage it. What are some good ways to burn some more calories when you're already tired from carrying your bags all day? Just grit your teeth and do it until your body gets used to it? Something lower impact like swimming? Something high intensity I can do quickly after work, and then rest for the evening?

Hey, fellow divorced/divorcing dudes. Checking in to seek some perspective on the big anxiety that‘s been eating at me today.

I always knew I wanted a family, and my stbx wife always said the same. We married at 28 (me) and 24 (her… well, now them) and we were actually trying for a child within the first year or two of our marriage. However, she (now they, gonna use she in the past tense) hadn’t finished college due to a lot of anxiety and avoidant behavior she was dealing with that crashed her out during finals week, and due to an abusive relationship and then later an SA that derailed her previous attempts. So, we agreed to wait until she finished. She made two more attempts- failing at the 11th hour on one degree (just one class away), and then making the final attempt at a personalized degree. I helped her through it, coached her, checked her emails and schedules for her when she got too anxious and avoidant. She graduated, quit her night shift job as a senior care CNA, and got a good, white collar job. I continued working as a union carpenter and being the primary breadwinner. I have a BA but quit the field it’s in (environmental science and policy) after getting disillusioned with the nonprofit industry.

The years of supporting her through her college attempts (and mental health struggles- she has BPD), especially the years she worked the night shift at the nursing home, were very lonely and difficult for me, as she often didn’t seem to appreciate what I did for her or reciprocate the affection I showed her. I had hoped that when she graduated, she would become less stressed, less depressed, more self confident, and remember the affection she felt for me earlier in our relationship.

In her final months of college, she met this transmasc guy, who she started spending all of her time with. I think she basically did the BPD “new favorite person” thing with him, and this included mirroring. She had never expressed gender dysphoria before or said she didn’t want children. Within a year, though, she (now they) were reading a ton of queer theory, having a queer and trans read on literally everything we watched or read, and announced that they were now non binary and really, really wanted me to also explore my gender identity (I already have. Grew up with two queer sisters and many queer friends, and can confidently say I’m straight, and not because I’m afraid to question it). Before long, they were saying that even though it really made them sad, they were going to have to leave me, because they knew I wanted to be with a woman and have children.

So, they’re gone now. I’m now 35, childless, single, and have to start over. To make dating matters more challenging, I’m also a high functioning autistic guy and have fairly little dating experience. When my father was my age, he had a wife and four children. When his dad was my age, he had eight kids. Catholic family.

Anyways, I’ve spent a lot of today, while at work (carpentry) just feeling a ton of anxiety over the prospect of growing old as a single man, with no family. I spent the last seven years caring and providing for the person who told me they were going to be the mother of my children. It’s hard to imagine, now, how I could possibly start a family before I am 40, or how it would go starting a family so late. It feels deeply unfair; I married in my 20s to someone who said they wanted kids, and now I’m in this situation.