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.
Gwen Snyder is uncivil
okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin