askchapo

B: As potential for revolution increases, so too does potential for arrest, and as a trans woman, that's a pretty horrifying prospect. I don't want to just sit around and do nothing, but at the same time... yeah.

One thing that stuck out to me from a report I read from a fairly recent militant protest movement was the perspective of the women helping run logistics, food, shit like that, all the quiet support work that actually keeps a movement pushing forward.

If and when things kick off it's just as important for people to provide safe houses, provide intelligence on their area, help with food deliveries etc. All reasonably low risk things which you can start to practice and hone your skills and evasion craft etc at whenever you're ready. All just as important as pulling triggers and laying bombs.

Lots of things that can be done that aren't "get attacked by police" as has been mentioned in other comments.

Also, its a very VERY good idea to be a lifeline for those who are out there directly confronting police/chuds in a protest/demonstration/etc. You sit back in a safe place with a short list of comrades who are supposed to check in with you periodically. Are they okay? Did anybody get arrested? Did the group get separated from each other? You being back "in the rear" with a cellphone and notepad waiting for the check-in calls or calls for help or the final call of the group to say "we've all left the area and are at our respective homes and are reasonably safe" its a huge boon that nobody talks about.

Heck, you might be able to watch live streams of the action taking place and can push out information to your comrades that would be very difficult to get on the ground when it matters.

Not USian so ymmv

I found that thankfully within groups, stuff has gotten a bit better. I genuinely felt alienated and miserable within each and every group, big tent or not, I was in before 2020 in the sense that cis women could be very cruel to trans women and if I hit verbally back, I was the aggressor and had cis dudes blow up at me. Now it had been at least not as bad. Just some people stumbling to use my pronouns.

I think an important point is to try and see if there is the possibility of becoming a fellow traveller before comitting more. A) you dont want a party that gives out full membership right away B) the group might suck

wrt B: Shit is scary but a revolutionary situation usually means things are already bad enough that there is not a lot to lose anymore for you. Doesnt really help, but it gives you some perspective. Paranoia shouldnt prevent you from joining eventually. Imo a good heuristic is that a badly run and a federally run group are functionally equivalent.

Hi I'm a trans woman in PSL. I recommend applying and seeing if there is activity near you, and even if not, you can always be the person to build it. That's what I did, at least. It's difficult, but I promise it's worth it. As far as getting arrested, you don't have to put yourself in a position to risk that. And personally, I've always justified things by assuming that if things get to the point where they just start rounding up communists, I was already going to be targeted anyway.

It's probably worth checking out the DSA if you have nothing better to do. You can get a very wide range of people in different chapters and someone there is probably also willing to help you with information on local groups (unless it's a really bad chapter).

There's a No Kings protest tomorrow (Saturday, March 28). Obviously the event itself is just a shitty Dem pep rally, but there's a high likelihood that some of the local groups active in your area will be there to recruit, so you might want to check that out if the closest one is a reasonable distance from you (or maybe even if it's not, since it's just a one-time thing, but that's your call).

Kind of like with employment you sometimes need to start in a place that isn't your ultimate career goal because it is what's available.

Volunteer for tasks and gain experience in the kinds of activities that will be required.

Many useful local groups emerge out of deficient prior organizing. They may affiliate to a larger org or not. But if you do not even know your local context and try to start the best thing possible, you could make really rudimentary errors that not only block your way, but poison the ground for even later efforts.

What i did was join the PSL, then go to an event and meet people and sign up for a bunch of email lists until i found a smaller local group near me, who I've been organizing with since

Apply to join PSL and at the very least get on your local DSA mailing list. We have zero PSL anything here and our local DSA is led by reactionary western chauvinists who I cannot work with at the present time, but their emails include flyers for smaller, more focused orgs with better politics who do direct action (not just reading groups) and I've found working with them to be much more rewarding. Perhaps you could find smaller orgs in your area in a similar way. Best of luck and stay safe!