Fears for how Trump’s America will unfold have spurred activists to start organizing aggressively and creatively for his presidency, from starting self-defense classes for women to calling on people to move to swing states.



Trump’s campaign was always rather light on policy detail, but that hasn’t stopped progressives from preparing for the worst.

Here’s a list of the solutions citizens are coming up with:

Safe houses for undocumented immigrants

John from San Francisco, who asked for his surname not be to used, has started compiling lists of people with spare bedrooms and undocumented immigrants in need of safe houses in case mass deportations begin.

He got the idea after a friend, who is undocumented, spoke of his fears for himself, his wife, child and friends under Trump. Trump campaigned on tougher border control and deportations of undocumented immigrants. John offered to host his friend at his own apartment, but the man replied: “What about all my friends too?”

So he called out on social media to friends and acquaintances who would be willing to host an undocumented individual or family and has collected more than 100 safe houses in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Portland.

He has also got about 60 undocumented migrants who he will match with a safe house person, offering them housing but also just contact and help from outside the Latino community, in case they need a person to call for help.

“By the time we need to use this list, it’ll be too late to make one and so better start it now and hopefully it doesn’t come to this,” he told the Guardian.

Birth control: call to get IUDs

Contraception is covered for free under Obamacare, but with Trump promising the repeal it, women are being encouraged to get IUDs, which can last up to five years, as long-form birth control.

GET AN IUD TOMORROW — Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) November 9, 2016

Women: organize.



But first, get an IUD. — Elizabeth Plank (@feministabulous) November 10, 2016

A community-written document called The “Oh Shit! What Should I Do Before January?” guide, started by artist Ariel Federow, offers a plethora of health tips including encouraging people to stockpile the morning after pill and calling on medical students to get abortion training, since Trump wants to overturn Roe v Wade, the US supreme court decision that protects abortion access.



“If you have been putting off dealing with something medically or administratively, especially something that relates to intersection with the federal government, this is the moment,” reads the guide. Currently it’s on Google docs, but Federow is looking at building a Wiki site so that it can be more easily accessible.

Passports for trans people

Often official identification with correct gender markers can be a bureaucratic nightmare for trans people – and it could get worse.

“If you’re trans and you haven’t been getting around to changing your gender marker on your passport, get to it,” said Federow, 33, a Brooklyn resident. “That’s been easy to do so far because of an Obama executive order.”

Because it’s an executive order, Trump could immediately repeal it.

Self-defense classes for women

After his “grab ’em by the pussy” comments, plus at least a dozen women alleging sexual misconduct by Trump, many women are fearful of the kind of behavior that has been legitimized by Trump’s election.

Timothy Faust, a 28-year-old Austin resident, is the general manager of Party World Rasslin, a theatrical wrestling event. A woman in the PWR Facebook group mentioned that following the election of Trump, she wished she “knew a bit of self-defense”.

“My job is to be quiet and to listen to folks who say what they need and do whatever they can do get them what they need,” said Faust.

And so Faust used his networks to put a callout for a self-defense instructor and within two hours a class was organized for this Sunday with Katie Jackson, an owner and instructor at Lions Krav Maga, an Austin self-defense studio.

“2017 looms and DARKWAR seems realer than ever – we cannot promise you everything will be OK, but we promise you that your friends at PWR have your back,” reads the Facebook invite. The class costs $10, with proceeds going to the The Lilith Fund, a charity that helps fund abortions.

Protect yourself from surveillance

During the campaign Trump spoke about a register of all Muslims. Although he has backed away from that plan in recent months, having him in charge of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance, which Edward Snowden revealed in depth in 2013, means Trump can track citizens or groups.

As journalist Alex Hern wrote in the Guardian this week:

Protecting yourself from surveillance by the NSA isn’t easy, but with information security technologies it is possible. In fact, it’s possible to fit the basic guidelines in a tweet, like this from the pseudonymous security researcher the grugq:

.@snowden OPSEC guide:

- use Signal

- use Tor

- use full disk encryption

- use a password manager

- use two factor auth



Solid basics. — the grugq (@thegrugq) November 23, 2015

This article explains exactly how you go about using the best tools available to avoid NSA surveillance.

Move to swing states

Disgruntled liberals spoke about moving to Canada, Australia and New Zealand following the news of Trump’s election. But there’s another push to keep US progressive voters in the US – but in states where they could have more political impact in future elections.

I'm as guilty as anyone for a knee jerk comment about moving to Canada, but in all honesty, where we need to move is swing states. — Janis (@so_caffeinated) November 9, 2016

The midterms are just two years away.