Thread by @WritersofColour

Hi this is Samantha (founder of @WritersofColour) I founded it in 2013 by myself. Over years we added editors published lots of writers, held events, literary festival, published books, you can buy them here mediadiversified.gumroad.com I've realised I haven't told people of our plans

I've been doing activism since I was 20, I'm 42 now. So have a bit of experience in what I think it take to make a successful campaign. I'm going to tweet a list of things that we have been doing in the last 9 days & state empathically our goal is to get the WHOLE bill scrapped

First a quote I gave @AJEnglish on Friday 'Samantha Asumadu, a campaigner for representation in the media, told Al Jazeera: “I only knew about the bill on Friday through the New Statesman piece, that said that up to six million people were at risk of being deported.”

Asumadu called for cross-community action to resist the bill.
“The goal is to stop the Nationality & borders bill in its entirety. Collaboration among all groups is are only and best option. Muslims, Sikhs, Jews & more have come together in the last few days to oppose this bill.

..The opposition will only grow as it approaches its next stage in the House of Lords.”

The reason I am writing this thread is to address valid concerns raised by @Xahlimo and others such as the one expressed here

https://twitter.com/FrodoKolo/status/1470048045429661708?s=20

I don't have much capacity right now and haven't slept since Friday so I'm going to copy and paste the following which is from a presentation I have to give at a job interview tomorrow for a London based organising job

They have asked me to do a 3 minute presentation on a campaign I admire. My head is full of the borders bill so have decided just to do it on what myself and @marcusjdl have done in the past 9 days + on what @nobordersmcr do all year round

'The Nationality and Borders Bill is a hot topic right now. But the only reason for that is activism. The media were remiss in not paying it attention, the government didn't want any attention on it and the opposition are waging a long campaign to get the Prime minister fired.

..It w up to activists such as me (but certainly not limited to me) to take on the fight to first inform the public and then take them with us in this journey to get the entire bill stopped at the Lords stage.'

Step 1, Information: Data analysis in the New Statesman provided ample & easily digestible data to draw upon. Who could argue with their numbers mined form the Office For National statistics: Half of British Asians. 39%: of Black Britons eligible for deportation

..Drum the numbers into your supporters, their friends and networks heads.

An apartheid. Two tier citizenship by governmental fiat.

Step 2 Graphics - You can brand or not brand these graphics, but make them emotive, data driven and shareable. Put information on a website too. Bullet points. And an action. e.g Steps to email your MP and an action they can easily take such as signing a petition,

..sharing to their Instagram stories. Make it visual interesting, change it up, use emotive quotes. Quote well known people who are affected by this situation or nationally recognised journalists who have spoke up before.

...Make short data driven videos that can be shared on all platforms'

3. Step 3 Tell a first person story. Who does this affect? Who is driving the agenda to harm? Give historical context. Has this happened before? Did anybody resist? How did they resist? Did they win? How can we win? At no point should your goal sound unachievable.

Use a pithy hashtag. They are searchable on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Ideally coordinate your hashtag with other groups. When sharing stories make sure it doesn't get lost in all the noise. Use platform tools such as Twitter moments, Instagram story highlights

Step 4. Involve the public with a petition get them signing and sharing, give them milestones, once we hit this - this will have to happen, next goal etc Let them know the petition is not the end. It is only the beginning (People are tired of signing petitions that go no where)

Step 6. Keep them updated and give more first person stories. Amplify their stories most importantly, after all they are the ones this affects. Give them the opportunity to share their stories with each other. Solidarity.

Step 7. Involve other activist groups, some will have reached out to you already by now, if they are who share your goals, whether slightly different or not. Power in numbers. MPs certainly understand voting numbers. Have demands.

If the organisation is larger than you thus have more resources, share your expertise and enthusiasm with them. If they are smaller than you, thus have less resources, share your platform with them.

Step 8. Continue with public involvement. Keep using the hashtag that was in your first story, amplify each other. Set a point in time where you all get together and tweet for example, #tweetyourMP

Step 9. At this point you are very visible. The press will come to you or you will go to them. Your spokesperson should be someone who is affected by this. There are organisations that train marginalised people in media appearances, contact them, they'll be eager to hear from you

Be clear about your goals (you might call for resignations if appropriate - that can't be your goal though as it's beyond your control.)

Step 10. Once your first milestone is reached TELL EVERYONE. They will tell everyone they know because they were part of it. That will get even more people involved because there's always further goals.

Step 11. Announce your next steps in collaboration with others, at this point you've all shared resources and contacts. Announce your next aim especially if you failed to reach your first goal, get people involved

Step 12. Hold a public event make sure the public knows you have invited the decision makers, MPs ministers, advocates. If they don't turn up your supporters will be even more incentivised to take action and hold them to account

Step 13 Behind the scenes, lobby. Before this ask the public who they think you should contact. Ask your social media followers who has contacts for the people you need to lobby.

Step 14. Throughout keep liking and sharing your followers comments on Facebook, twitter, Instagram. Reply to comments when appropriate. Makes sure they know that they are important to you. You need them.

..N.B DO NOT inadvertently amplify, co-sign or endorse homophobic, sexist, racist, transphobic, xenophobic comments

Step 15. By now you've picked someone eloquent as a spokesperson and a back up. They should alternate interviews both TV and print. Before this you will need to put it on the press agenda. They will not care unless you make them care.

You should have already cultivated press contacts but if not it's easy to cultivate more if you have a compelling story to tell. DO NOT SEND THEM A PRESS RELEASE. They will ignore it.

It must be urgent. You should have investigated what sort of stories they do. What's their beat? what's the off shoots of their beat? Their should be an end date in mind, Say for example 'This campaign will not succeed unless we have done this by that date.'

Class over. Sam out.

“The goal is to stop the Nationality and borders bill in its entirety. Collaboration among all groups is are only and best option." ✊🏽 @nobordersmcr @SCUKofficial @MABOnline1 @SAsiaSolidarity
aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/1… #StopNABB #BordersBill #NationalityandBordersBill

⚡️ “Fightback: Why and how we resist” by @WritersofColour twitter.com/i/events/14700…

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