You vs imminent collapse
Urgent mutual aid prep for local food and fuel security
Hi, earthworms!
If ever there was a time to listen to autistics and ADHD folks, it’s now. Pattern recognition, a commitment to deep dives, threat scanning + black and white thinking (or a strong sense of justice if you want to call it that) = tips for you on prepping for the West’s/ White Empire’s (hat tip Indica) imminent collapse.
But don’t panic. (Well, panic enough to DO SOMETHING. But don’t do-nothing panic. That’s completely pointless).
Here are two short explainers for you to watch (don’t worry, you can watch Iranian AI LEGO comedy videos and look at Iranian embassy tweets after to cheer up). The videos are by alimcforever, who is an actual hero.
Part 1:
Part 2:
“The Iran ceasefire deal — why is the EU refusing it?
European gas prices are up 70% since 28 February.
Gas storage is at 28.4% — the lowest level since the 2022 crisis.
Qatar, which supplies 30% of Italy’s gas, has declared force majeure on all European contracts.
Fertiliser prices are up 30–40% as the Strait remains closed, directly threatening crop yields this harvest season.
Bruegel estimates that if gas prices stay at current levels, European import costs rise by €100 billion over the next year.
Iran has offered to trade energy with Europe in euros — not dollars. This would reduce European exposure to US foreign policy decisions and protect our energy supply from future conflicts in the Gulf. The European Commission has not responded to this offer.
The 37 million Europeans who could not afford to eat reliably before this war are the ones absorbing these compound shocks first. The 93 million at risk of poverty are next.”
What you can do now
Firstly, don’t stockpile toilet paper — learn how to wash your arse.
If you have time, volunteer with local groups working on growing food, distributing food and building renewable energy. If you have money, invest in these. If you have a voice, use it to raise awareness of these groups.
Get your money the hell away from war. Bank with those who do not invest in arms. Move your pension if you have one to a fund that doesn’t invest in arms but does invest in renewables.
Go on strike. Go to RAF Fairford and demand our Prime Minister, as The National reported, stops lying by omission about the fact US bombers are using our bases to go and bomb Iran.
Local food security
For your stock cupboard
Buy canned, jarred and dried foods. Aldi do cheap nuts and seeds. Your nearest pan-Asian supermarkets will sell rice in large bags and beans and pulses and spices and sauces. Your nearest Polish supermarket will sell fantastic pickled veg in jars.
Start a food group with your neighbours (you need just 5 people) and get wholesale prices for cheaper good food from Suma, a food cooperative started in the 70s.
For everyday fancy food in bulk: Biona, Clearspring
For really super fancy stuff: Souschef.com
Everyday food and drink: Shop local. Support local farm shops, greengrocers, bakeries etc.
For your community
Do a harvest festival like at school — look at mutual aid spaces near you and work out how you can invest in them with your time, money and/or voice.
Support your local farms (cities have farms too!).
Make sure your neighbours can get food in.
Local fuel security
If you can, invest in renewable energy where you live. Starting with yourself — get a heat pump and solar panels. EcoSolv Renewables were the cheapest and fastest we found. Next, invest in community energy projects or donate to organisations doing this work.
In the height of the Covid pandemic, I wrote a newsletter called Furloughed. My personal response to the pandemic was prepping and shielding. It makes me sad to revisit my pandemic diaries, as I was not wonderfully mentally well, but we are where we are.
At least most of us can go outside this time.
In these newsletters, I included a section on mutual aid. It looked something like this…
Join a union and find your local mutual aid
You can join a union to help protect yourself and others. Another thing to join is your local mutual aid group. Many of the ones set up in response to Covid are now defunct but you can use a search engine (I use DuckDuckGo) to search where you live + mutual aid. You might find something like The Bristol community food justice network.
And this is pretty cool - Solidarity Not Charity: A Visual History of Mutual Aid.
I also saw, when looking back, that furlough was refused to 71% of working mothers while schools are shut according to a Trade Unions Congress (TUC) report Working Mums: Paying the price. Let that be a warning as we approach this crisis.
If you have access to land, grow food
Today we planted tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers and sunflowers. We have a small garden, so we may not have space for them all, but anything we don’t have space for we can share with the community. The sunflowers are mostly because they make us and others happy. But we can also eat the seeds.
Peace x