Not that long ago, we thought we’d have to keep a care­ful eye out for the slow, creep­ing rise of fas­cism in Amer­i­ca; now it’s com­ing on as a rapid, ter­ri­fy­ing avalanche. The mas­sive, spon­ta­neous air­port protests against Trump’s lat­est vile Exec­u­tive Order give some hope for the rise of resis­tance in the US itself, but some­times it seems as if we in New Zealand can only look on in hor­ror.

Not quite. Actions such as the glob­al gag rule and the Mus­lim ban cause harm all over the world, and New Zealand can play its part in fight­ing back or tak­ing up the slack. I’ve quick­ly put togeth­er just a few Welling­ton-spe­cif­ic ideas for how we might be able to help.

Make your voice heard

Any­one can (and should) con­tact their local MPs about New Zealand’s shame­ful­ly poor con­tri­bu­tion to help­ing refugees (both Grant Robert­son and Peter Dunne have spo­ken well on the issue already), but as res­i­dents of the Cap­i­tal, we have a few more options. We can protest at Par­lia­ment or the Amer­i­can embassy, and even the small num­bers at today’s hasti­ly-organ­ised event helped send a mes­sage that the resis­tance is glob­al.

US Embassy protest against Trump

Action Sta­tion has a peti­tion to bring some of those refugees that have been left strand­ed by this ban to New Zealand, which is some­thing direct and urgent that a coun­try that likes to think of itself as humane and car­ing could be doing right now. Both Justin Trudeau and Nico­la Stur­geon tweet­ed mes­sages that strong­ly wel­comed (to Cana­da and Scot­land respec­tive­ly) “those flee­ing per­se­cu­tion, ter­ror & war…regardless of your faith”, but at the time of writ­ing Bill Eng­lish has said absolute­ly noth­ing. You could email b.english@ministers.govt.nz or call (04) 817 6801 to let him know that he needs to do more, and per­haps glare bale­ful­ly in the direc­tion of Pre­mier House while you’re doing so.

Support refugees

One of the major goals is to Dou­ble the Quo­ta, and the Doing Our Bit web­site lists a few ways you can help that cam­paign. They have a brochure that explains the cause and ways to assist in great detail (it’s a 78-page PDF, but worth the read).

Per­haps the most direct way you can help refugees is to vol­un­teer in var­i­ous ways. Bring­ing more refugees to New Zealand is vital, but it’s only the first step, and help­ing peo­ple who have escaped hor­rif­ic cir­cum­stances adapt to a strange coun­try is not easy. If you have the time and spoons to make a major com­mit­ment, the Red Cross’s refugee sup­port pro­gramme is always look­ing for vol­un­teers. In Welling­ton, Porirua and Low­er Hutt, Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Learn­ing and Sup­port Ser­vices pro­vide lan­guage and employ­ment coach­ing, while Change­Mak­ers Refugee Forum pro­vides sup­port, research and advo­ca­cy. Both are always in need of dona­tions, and you might also have spe­cif­ic skills that could help them.

One deli­cious way to help out is by order­ing lunch from Pome­gran­ate Kitchen. They’ll deliv­er to your work­place, or pro­vide cater­ing, and in the process you’ll be help­ing new Welling­to­ni­ans gain local work expe­ri­ence, build com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions, and share their diverse cuisines.

Resist local fascism

Welling­ton’s sup­posed to be a lib­er­al bub­ble, but fas­cists are every­where. Occa­sion­al­ly the Nation­al Front will crawl out of the rot­ten wood­work and ral­ly at Par­lia­ment, and they’ll be feel­ing embold­ened right now. Even if you’re not into punch­ing nazis, there are many ways to derive them of oxy­gen and the legit­i­ma­cy they crave. If you see neo-nazi fly­ers, posters or graf­fi­ti, get rid of that crap (there are rumours that such posters over­seas some­times have razors hid­den under­neath them to pre­vent removal, which may be an urban myth, but be care­ful any­way). If you see any­one wear­ing racist mes­sages or white suprema­cist regalia in a bar, let the staff know and see whether the bounc­er can let them know in no uncer­tain terms that they and their hate are not wel­come. Free speech stops when you start advo­cat­ing geno­cide.

Take care of yourself and your friends

All of this is fright­en­ing, exhaust­ing, and in some cas­es dan­ger­ous. Use what­ev­er resources you have (time, mon­ey, ener­gy, con­nec­tions), but don’t over­do it. Keep a close eye on how your friends are hold­ing up, offer sup­port where you can, and ask for it when you need to. Some of us are more direct­ly affect­ed by this glob­al dis­as­ter than oth­ers, but togeth­er, we can fight.