Volunteers offer a New Member meeting where our volunteer structure and process is outlined. We ask anyone committing to working with our group attend these events. We will announce our next scheduled meeting here and on our socials. 

WHO ARE WE?

We are community members from all walks of life coming together for a common goal: liberation for Palestine. 

We come from all political and personal perspectives and embrace diversity within our group. 

We are not a nonprofit and operate solely on the capacity of our volunteers. 

We democratically vote on items during our weekly planning meetings, taking consensus from those who are present.

Community members are welcome to engage in the events organized by PSGR at their capacity and pleasure. We do not ask for complete agreement on strategies but instead that we respect the different strategies employed to accomplish our shared goal. Any actions that violate our points of unity or the safety of our community will not be tolerated. 

We collaborate with other grassroots organizations in our community because we understand that all liberation is interconnected. While we recognize some groups may not always have the same viewpoints or tactical strategy we do, we engage in good faith that we can work together. In the event a collaboration proposed does not exemplify our points of unity or violates our mission, we will take a consensus vote on continuing. 

THINGS OUR VOLUNTEERS DO

Our volunteers offer skillsets in many areas, if you're not sure how to get involved, here are some of the things folks have done: 

• Design education materials for presentation, print, and social media 
• Printing, folding, cutting, and preparing materials 
• Button making! This is one way we raise operating funds. 
• Sign making 
• Writing: grant-writing, content for web, procedural documentation, etc. 
• Note-takers and legal observers - we work with organizations to provide legal observation but always utilize folks to take notes on our procedural meetings
• Leading teach-ins and education events 
• Hosting rallies 
• Speaking at rallies 
• Safety team 
• Office cleaning and organizing 
• Resource management 
• Liaison with national orgs 
• Bake sales
• Booth hosts/outreach at major city events

MEETING NORMS AND GENERAL CHAT GUIDELINES

Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids meetings are spearheaded by a chair person who holds the agenda and keeps meetings on track. While we appreciate robust discussion, please refrain from off topic conversation during the meeting itself. We are a diverse group of people coming together for a specific mission, and we would like to make our time together as effective as possible.

After you have attended an organizing meeting, you may join the PSGR chat group to stay updated on information relating to our actions. We ask that you commit to coming to at least one organizing meeting per month to stay active in the group, otherwise we may remove you from the chat for inactivity.

We expect people attending organizing meetings to help share the pleasure of organizing by volunteering for whatever tasks there is capacity for. We welcome new ideas about actions and will make decisions about where to best focus our efforts collectively or as the core organizing group necessitates. 

SAFETY AND DE-ESCALATION

Our marches and rallies are well attended by families and are generally low risk for police violence; however, this is subject to change with the states interests in targeting leftist activists and organizers. Assume that there may be at least one undercover officer at any event and that police or agitators may be filming you.

All of our actions will include a safety team with a designated medic and police liaison. Please do not engage with agitators or with police. The emcee or safety team lead will instruct the crowd on how and when to engage with agitators.

Historically, we have used nonviolent redirection tactics when it comes to agitators. These tactics include ignoring agitators, surrounding them with signs and facing away, chanting to drown them out, and marching away to a secondary location. Some protestors may engage with agitators against our advice, and we will do our best to redirect and de-escalate.

Always be aware of your surroundings at a protest, rally, or march. Pay attention to the people around you, as well as any potential agitators or police presence. Make sure you are staying with the group, as people on the fringes tend to be targeted by police first. If you are white, not visibly queer or disabled, be ready to place yourself in between marginalized people and agitators or police to help maintain their safety.

Dress in weather appropriate and neutral clothing, and bring water and snacks. With actions that may have police escalation, it may be helpful to bring eye goggles to prevent tear gas exposure. If you are exposed to tear gas, do not touch your face, find space to get fresh air, bend forward to let your eyes and nose run freely, tie a cloth around your hairline to catch tainted sweat and prevent re-exposure, and shower or rinse while bending forward. Other general health and safety tips include wearing a face mask and bringing hand sanitizer. 

Never leave a protest alone. Make sure you plan to leave in a large group or with a buddy just in case of police targeting or agitators.

Other safety tips for planning/organizing a march is to ensure there are vehicular safety volunteers. Both a pace and follow car, in addition to safety volunteers in high visibility vests, help contain the march and deter aggression from cars.

We do not need a permit to walk in the streets as part of a march, though there is a high likelihood police will antagonize us if we take the streets. Typically, the threshold we have used for actions is 100 people. If there are fewer than 100 people at a march, we will walk on the sidewalk. If we are in the streets and we are commanded to move to the sidewalk, we say no and continue marching. Please refer to the police liaison and safety team for decision making. 

If you see someone being arrested, be sure to collect their full name and date of birth. Record the place of the arrest and the cops badge number and name. Report this information to the safety team to help connect that person with resources. 

Do not trust the police, they will lie to manipulate you into giving them information. Even if you have done nothing wrong, invoke your right to remain silent to give them as little information to use against you as possible.

In the event that you are detained, do not talk to the police. You are required by law to give them your name, but you are not legally required to show ID. 

• Ask if you are free to leave. 

• Invoke your right to stay silent. 

• Invoke your right to an attorney. 

• Invoke your right to record public events (and record with your cell phone if possible). 

• State out loud that you do not consent to a search. 

• State out loud that you do not consent to a retinal scan.

If an officer is using force to detain you, DO NOT RESIST. Once in custody, do not give cops any information about organizers, protests, or actions. Remain silent. Do not say anything but your name and that you would like to speak to an attorney. Once in custody, do not accept water, gum, or tissues, which may be used to collect DNA without a warrant. 

If possible, do not bring your cell phone to an action, as police have technology that allows them to mimic cell phone towers and retrieve any data sent. If you must bring your cell phone, turn off location services until you are away from the protest.