So, a lot of new followers, wow.
Maybe now is a good time to officially do my Mastodon #introduction?
Hopefully I'm doing it right, I'm excited to be here!
My name is Gwen, I'm a direct action organizer and antifascist researcher.
I'm also a Democratic committeeperson in Philadelphia.
I was a labor organizer for about a decade, running a community/labor coalition in Philadelphia. More recently (past 5 years) I've focused on combatting online patriarchal white supremacy.
I've done economic justice organizing for a long time, starting in college.
Got really into labor when I started working at a "liberal" canvassing operation that was horrible to workers.
My now-husband and I led a unionization drive there and we got 100% shop participation, which is still one of my proudest moments so I'm gonna brag. =)
After that, I was Executive Director at Philadelphia Jobs With Justice, a coalition of labor unions, faith groups, community orgs, and students.
We successfully fought on the campaign for paid sick days, fiscally sponsored Occupy Philly, fought to force mega-nonprofits to pay their fair share towards public services (still fighting!), and made the CEO of Sunoco cry on a stage in front of everyone when she was trying to cut retiree health benefits.
That was also the period when I was spokesperson for Occupy Philly and got a lot of first hand experience with political arrests, mass ground organizing, etc.
And also with the toxicity of grifters who come into burgeoning movement space and try to get rich/famous telling people they can be leftist while still being racist, misogynist pricks.
Accountability around that sort of intra-movement reactionary bullshit has been a priority of mine since.
While I was at JwJ, it became pretty clear to me that involvement in electoral politics can be really helpful in creating relationships that advance the kind of social/economic justice campaigns I was working on.
So I became a Dem committeeperson, started getting involved, went to the DNC in 2012 as a delegate for Obama and again in 2016 as a delegate for Bernie.
Another Bernie delegate sexually assaulted me there, I pressed charges.
We ended up having to run a community campaign to force the then-DA to act on my case.
The judge let the guy off based on character testimony.
A lot of party folks felt I was hurting party unity by raising hell around the assault, so my political career was pretty much dead in the water before it started.
I've been doing sexual misconduct accountability work ever since.
It worked.
We got the state party chair kicked out for the work he did covering for and enabling bad actors.
An accused senator we campaigned against lost his seat (and then sued us-- unsuccessfully-- for defamation).
We got the handsy Philly Sheriff voted out, too.
Meanwhile ,Trump got elected.
I did a bunch of organizing with Abolish Ice, Unite the Right happened, I worked for a period as a Organizing Director for an anti-racist faith org (bad fit), and ended up sort of by accident identifying some Proud Boys and ending up in their crosshairs.
I got more into writing about the rising far right and outing Nazis (and getting them fired).
Spent a lot of time monitoring 8chan, spearheaded the #unTwitter8chan campaign that was part of getting them shut down, then spent a lot of time monitoring Telegram after the 8chan shutdown.
Oh, and I co-founded Tax March with @mauraquint and some other folks!
When the pandemic first happened, I worked locally to start a mutual aid project called Philly Abolish COVID. We coordinated DIY hand sanitizer manufacture (in the shortage days), food assistance, DIY mask making, some other cool stuff.
It ended up being a hub of decentralized projects, some of which spun off, and it was pretty cool!
After j6 I ran a campaign to get some of the worst terrorist Nazi channels kicked off Telegram, which was surprisingly successful (I say surprising because the guy behind Telegram almost never acts on this stuff, so it was a surprise to win).
That put me in Nazi crosshairs like never before. It's the reason I tend to be a target for Nazi Telegram chuds now.
The day after Nazis started sending people to our home for that, I got pregnant!
And bring pregnant/a new mom in this pandemic has radicalized me like almost nothing else.
I firmly believe that we're in an era of accelerating eugenic public health practice. So, there will be a lot of angry toots about COVID.
Anyway, I realize that is a LOT and that it may sound like I am, ahem, tooting my own horn.
I've just experienced a lot of sexist nonsense with folks questioning my legitimacy on Twitter, and I've already recieved my fair share of mansplaining on here.
So yeah, I know it may look a little like fart-sniffing, but honestly I'm just trying to forestall some of that frustration by basically posting my resume.
If you made it this far, thank you!
I'm looking forward to making this place more and more of a new home.
@gwensnyder
Fuck yeah #pooptoots
This sounded better in my head
@Shermestes Why did you feel a need to tell someone relating a sexual assault they experienced that you don't believe them?
What do you feel you gained by that interaction?
@Shermestes It's not her responsibility to make their arguments for them, creepy harasser.
Leave people alone.
Gwen Snyder is uncivil
SusanBee 
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Randy, not an actual bot
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okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin
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lovely, honey (she/her)