IGD December: Big Growth and Big Plans

Originally published to It’s Going Down 

In the face of the selection of Trump by the electoral college of the United States, IGD saw a massive growth spurt in terms of traffic, social media reach, and also continued support from those that see IGD as an important resource for the revolutionary movement. While some journalists and pundits have attempted to mark the massive wave of disruption and revolt that hit cities and towns across the United States against the election as a “new” phenomenon, if you’ve been paying attention to anything happening on this site you know that these forces have been building for quite some time. While our detractors on both the Left and the Right like to downplay the growing grassroots movements and struggles propping up across so-called North America, the reality is that many people are once again getting involved in taking action against the disaster that is capitalist civilization and the systems of power and policing which are desperately trying to protect it. As we enter into a new period, we hope that this project can continue to be an evolving, growing, combative, and expansive resource for a wide variety of people.

Getting Big Around the Holidays

This was a big month for us. Our average for the month of individual people visiting the website climbed to about 1,500 while our hits began to top out at around 2,300 during certain periods. This is a new high for us and we hope that December is even better. Our social media reach has also continued to climb, as we reached about 3,500 likes on Facebook, got lots of new followers on Instagram, and our Twitter account has grown to include over 50 new followers per day, and is currently now at 5,650.

Our most popular articles this month included a piece that discussed anti-fascism and its role in wider revolutionary movements, various articles about the unfolding situation at Standing Rock and the brutal police repression against it, communiques from anti-gentrification actions and against DAPL, a call to disrupt #J20, and also a report on #NoDAPL actions in Olympia.

This month saw a flurry of activity from our columns and podcasts, as we presented offerings from All the News You Didn’t Even Know Was Going Down, Bloc Party, and Insumision. 

We also released a grand total of 6 podcasts this month. These included an interview with Mississippi Stand fighting DAPL in Iowa, interviews with frontline water protectors at Standing Rock, discussions with participants at the anti-fascist Torch Conference, a dialog with two participants with the African People’s Caucus (APC) of the IWW on peace police and Trump’s win, a conversation with a group of people in Olympia who discussed a blockade of fracking equipment, and finally a high quality audio documentary on the #NoDAPL encampment and ongoing clashes with police at Standing Rock in late November. We’re are currently in the process of trying to get on iTunes so hang tight! Until then stay up on the podcast action here or get our RSS feed here and never miss a show!

Shirts, Mexico, Standing Rock!

Demand for our t-shirts was so high throughout November that we had to make another shirt run! If you ordered a shirt and it hasn’t arrived yet, please get a hold of us at: info [at] itsgoingdown [dot] org. We have shirts in sizes Small, Medium, Large, XL, XXL, and XXXL. If you still want a shirt and haven’t got one, simply go here to paypal and pay $20 or more and we will send you a shirt! For orders in Mexico and Canada, please donate $25 and for orders outside of North America, please donate $30 or more.

Be sure to clearly put in the paypal note what size you want and your address. Also, if you volunteer at an infoshop, community space, or radical bookstore and want some shirts to sell in your store, get at us! We are more than willing to work out a discounted price. More info here.

Big thanks to everyone that contributed to the IGD wishlist for media equipment for Standing Rock. There are still 5 items left, each averaging about only $20, so if you want to send us a helmet or recording equipment, please do! Check out the Amazon list here. If you haven’t already, check out our brand new audio documentary from Standing Rock that was produced thanks to your help!

Also, our Mexico trip has been pushed back until February, which will allow us more time to fundraise and get ready. Please support the trip here and stay tuned for more info on upcoming events that will help build for it.

Year in Review

As we get closer to the end of the year, we’d like to put out to everyone that we are looking for people to interview for an episode of the IGDCAST that will look back on 2016 and offer some much needed reflection, thoughts, and analysis. Whether you want to look back on the year and talk critically about the anarchist movement and what went well and what didn’t, or you want to offer some analysis as to where we need to go, we are all ears. If you are interested in writing something, we encourage you to do so.

Some possible topics would include:

• Community, housing, and labor organizing. From fast-food workers signing with the IWW to attacks on gentrification in Canada.
• The growth of a newly empowered anti-fascist movement. From Sacramento, to Anaheim, to Harrisburg and beyond.
• The buildup to and explosion of the #PrisonStrike across the US from May Day to September 9th, to now.
• The spread of Native pipeline blockades to the US from Canada and the growth of solidarity actions and blockades from Olympia to Iowa.
• Rising opposition to Trump and the failure of the Democrats to mount any meaningful opposition.
• Continued fierce social struggles in Mexico from land reclamations in Chiapas to fierce streets battles with police in Oaxaca.

If you are interested in talking with us for a year in review, shoot us an email at: info [at] itsgoingdown [dot] org

Building in December

This month we here at IGD want to continue to grow in the same trajectory that we have been. This means continuing to meet our monthly goal. We thank and salute everyone that has stood up to the plate for us in recent months. By the end of the year we hope to have a functioning email newsletter and also a way you can get on it through the website. We are also hoping to add some better functionality to the site such as a search bar, and hopefully soon, a open posting calendar.

In closing, with visitors to the site now reaching around 2 thousand a day, we ask everyone that uses and reads IGD to please sign up to become a monthly sustainer of our project. If everyone that uses and reads IGD everyday donated just $1, we would have met our monthly goal. If everyone donated $3, there is no telling what we could do with those resources.

Please, sign up to donate every month. When you click on this link here, it will take you to paypal and you have the option to make a recurring payment.

Support us, help us grow.

We’re just getting started!

It’s Going Down
info [at] itsgoingdown [dot] org

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