In my varied career, one thing I’ve done is write some organizing guides. The most (in)famous is my 40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists, but I’ve done others about getting involved in activism for the first time, first responses to online harassment, and how to shut down fascist events at music and other venues.

Of course I’ve looked at other guides, and so I’ve come up with a list of over 30 that are helpful when organizing against fascists—or being threatened by them. They will walk you through how to: organize communities to oppose the Far Right; document Far Right activity; confront their beliefs in schools and libraries; utilize digital security; and provide emergency medical care. I’ve also included some very brief thoughts on each.

If you need more general guides to getting engaged in activism, see my “6 Things to Do to Get Politically Involved Right Now (If You’ve Never Been an Activist).” For a more extensive (and general) list of things to do, a more mainstream guide is “How you can protect democracy,” while you can find many other examples in “Some Actions That Are Not Protesting or Voting.” And if the guides here are too specific or just don’t fit your needs, a different, wide-ranging list of more general ones is available form the Progressive Safety Alliance (PSA).

If you know of other guides that you think are solid but I didn’t include, please drop me a line with the details!

A Guide to Guides

1. Community Responses to Far Right Organizing
2. Responding to the Far Right in Schools and Libraries
3. Documenting and Reporting Far Right Activity 
4. Opposing the Far Right in the Streets and Online
5. Taking Digital Security Measures
6. First Aid

organizational acronyms
CAHN: Canadian Anti-Hate Network
MHRN: Montana Human Rights Network
SPLC: Southern Poverty Law Center
WSC: Western States Center 

1. Community Responses to Far Right Organizing

A Community Guide for Opposing Hate (Bard Center, WSC and MHRN) 
https://bcsh.bard.edu/files/2022/05/OpposingHateGuide-single-pages-8M-5-3.pdf
This 100 page guide is more mainstream than the others; focuses on interfacing with media and police.

Community Response to White Nationalism (CO•RE Bloomington)
https://corebloomington.org
Designed for a college town, it has a focus on that setting; unlike the others, it’s designed more as a flowchart which addresses different problems.

40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists (Spencer Sunshine and PopMob)
https://spencersunshine.com/2020/08/27/fortyways
My own guide on how to counter-organize against the Far Right; this edition was created with Portland, Oregon’s PopMob and based on that city’s Trump-era demonstrations.

“Organizing for an Oregon Where Everyone Counts,” Section Three in Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement (Rural Organizing Project)
https://rop.org/uia/section-iii
Also from the pre-Trump era, it includes a nuts and bolts walk-thorough on how to oppose militia organizing in rural areas and a plethora of real world examples.

Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide (SPLC)
www.splcenter.org/20170814/ten-ways-fight-hate-community-response-guide
A solid general overview of basic approaches, but explicitly hands off (“Do Not Attend a Hate Rally”).

2. Responding to the Far RIght in Schools, Libraries, and at Home

A Parents and Caregivers Guide to Online Youth Radicalization (PERIL/SPLC)
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/peril-guide-online-youth-radicalization/
A Community Guide to Online Youth Radicalization (PERIL/SPLC)
www.splcenter.org/peril-community-guide
Not Just a Joke: Understanding & Preventing Gender- & Sexuality-Based Bigotry (PERIL)
https://perilresearch.com/resource/not-just-a-joke-understanding-preventing-gender-sexuality-based-bigotry/
Short guides to recognize and respond to young people who have become involved in the more radical end of the Far Right; the second one is an extension of the first. The third addresses gender-based bigotry.

Confronting Conspiracy Theories and Organized Bigotry at Home: A Guide for Parents and Caregivers (WSC)
www.westernstatescenter.org/caregivers
More politically specific than the other guides, gives pros and cons about how to engage with different kinds of political strains.

Confronting and Preventing Hate in Canadian Schools: A Toolkit (CAHN)
www.antihate.school
Illustrated guide with material specifically oriented toward Canada. Also notable for a section on Far Right ideas held by staff members, as well as by students who are people of color, women, and trans/non-binary.

Confronting White Nationalism in Libraries (WSC) 
www.westernstatescenter.org/libraries
A guide specifically geared toward libraries; deals in particular with issues like “free speech.”

Confronting White Nationalism in Schools, third edition (WSC)
www.westernstatescenter.org/schools
A practical and thorough guide.

Responding to Hate and Bias at School (SPLC/Learning for Justice)
www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/publications/responding-to-hate-and-bias-at-school
This one is notable because it includes dealing with school-wide crises; it also spends some time addressing administrators.

3. Documenting and Reporting Far Right Activity

Confidential Reporting of Incidents of Discrimination, Harassment, and Violence (MHRN)
https://web.archive.org/web/20190811124951/https://mhrn.org/reportingform/
Questions you should ask to collect information after an event.

Hate Incident Rapid Response Guide (poster) (MHRN)
https://web.archive.org/web/20170618191054/https://www.mhrn.org/publications/fact%20sheets%20and%20adivsories/HateIncidentRapid-ResponseGuide.pdf
This is an illustrated five-point guide for what to do immediately after an incident.

S.A.L.U.T.E.
https://salutestrategies.wordpress.com/the-salute-report
Acronym used by the military which helps track what you’ve seen. Stands for “Size / Activity / Location / Unit identification / Time / Equipment.”

Things to Consider When Evaluating Far-Right Threats
https://redflare.info/articles/consider-evaluating-far-right-threats/
Similar to SALUTE, presents is 7 things you should use to evaluate online information.

State Fact Sheets (Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection)
www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/our-work/addressing-the-rise-of-unlawful-private-militias/state-fact-sheets
You can download a PDF for each state. Each includes their super-useful list of 11 things to look for when observing militias.

Street Teams Guide: What To Do When Fascist Street Gangs Show Up (Task Force Butler)
https://www.taskforcebutler.org/streetteams
Insightful guide, originally designed for Patriot Front rallies, to non-confrontationally observe fascist events. Note that the emphasis is on documenting illegal actions for future legal action.

4. Opposing the Far Right in the Streets and Online

Action Planning/Discussion Worksheet for Antifascists (GDC Local 1) 
http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2021/12/action-planningdiscussion-worksheet-for.html
A series of questions you should ask yourself before a confrontational action. 

Exposing Fascists: Best Practices (Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists)
https://cospringsantifa.noblogs.org/best-practices
Super-solid practical advice on doxing.

Go Kits for Anti-Fascist Community Defense: Materials, Organization, Deployment, and Uses (anonymous)
https://1312press.noblogs.org/post/2021/12/13/submitted-zine-go-kits-for-anti-fascist-community-defense
What to bring to a militant demonstration.

Guide for Pride Defenders (CAHN)
www.antihate.ca/pride_defence_guide
How to do it.

How to Form an Affinity Group The Essential Building Block of Anarchist Organization (Crimethinc)
https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/06/how-to-form-an-affinity-group-the-essential-building-block-of-anarchist-organization
Short, practical advice.

Materials and Resources to Help you #DefendPride This Summer from the Far-Right (It’s Going Down)
https://itsgoingdown.org/materials-and-resources-to-defend-pride
A bit more of a quick overview than the CAHN guide.

“SHUTDOWN! what happens when you try to get a venue to refuse to host an upcoming fascist event” (Spencer Sunshine)
www.patreon.com/posts/shutdown-what-to-79380741
My guide to how to get a space to cancel a fascist event.

What is Security Culture: A Guide to Staying Safe
 
https://archive.org/download/WhatIsSecurityCultureAGuideToStayingSafe/what_is_security_culture.pdf
Introduces ways to interact with other activists which limits the ability of outsiders to collect information. 

5. Taking Digital Security Measures

NOTE: There are many digital security guides, and the tools they recommend change constantly. The Equality Labs guide has consistently been recognized as the most-user friendly of the bunch. 

Online Security Checklist (Late Night Anti-Fascists)
https://latenightafa.noblogs.org/online-security-checklist/
Solid list of things to do.

Six Things to Do If You Become the Target of Online Harassment: A Quick and Dirty Guide (Spencer Sunshine)
www.patreon.com/posts/six-things-to-do-85220523
My own six suggestions for someone who has never taken security precautions and finds themselves suddenly the focus on online harassment.

Activist Checklist
https://activistchecklist.org/
covers Signal and phone safety

Anti-Doxing Guide for Activists, (Updated 10/16/23) (Equality Labs)
https://equalitylabs.medium.com/anti-doxing-guide-for-activists-facing-attacks-from-the-alt-right-ec6c290f543c

www.equalitylabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ADVANCE-COPY_-EQUALITY-LABS-ANTI-DOXING-GUIDE-FOR-ACTIVISTS-3.0.pdf
The first is the short and sweet and the best 101 going. The second is 70 pages but still geared to covering basics.

How to Prevent Zoom Bombing and Secure Your Meetings (Panda Security)
www.pandasecurity.com/en/mediacenter/panda-security/zoom-bombing
Does what it says on the tin; great little guide.

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lists of specific digital tools you might want to use

Digital Security Resources (Front Line Defenders)
www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/digital-security-resources

Digital Security (Olivia Lawrence-Weilman)
https://olivialw.github.io/subpages/digital-security.html

Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org/pages/tools
https://sec.eff.org

6. First Aid

An Activists Guide to Basic First Aid (Black Cross Health Care Collective)
www.blackcrosscollective.org/zine.php
This is the best short guide for the kind of emergency situations you might run into at an action, and is directed at those with no medical background.

Health and Safety at Militant Actions (On the Ground)
https://archive.org/details/Health_and_Safety_at_Militant_Actions
This is more about how you should prepare for a demonstration where you might get pepper-sprayed or tear-gassed, and what to do if you or someone else is.

Riot Medicine: Field Guide(Håkan Geijer)
https://riotmedicine.net/downloads
This is an abridged guide of the classic 500 page tome, Riot Medicine. For people with existing medical knowledge.