A while ago someone asked in the email list weather it was ever considered to do some of the fundraising through selling merch.
That brought me to think about how this could be done for Tails.
With the following I'll share my thoughts:
While Tails needs a solution that won't take resources that could actually used to make Tails better, outsourcing should be part of the solution.
While Tails aims to protect its personas, it should take those values also in consideration while selling merch. (example: Tails aims to help people to escape domestic violence. Selling t-shirts produced by forced labor is against this value) While capitalism makes it difficult to produce under fair and environmental friendly conditions, we should at least work towards that goal.
In short what needs to be taken into account:
- only very little effort for Tails
- respectful to values Tails tries to protect and represent
There are collectives/companies that offer "selling merch as a service". Some more respectful to values Tails tries to protect and represent, others less.
How could this look like?
That's what I asked somewhere else and someone pointed me to the artist behind Pepper&Carrot (a comic series that is purely created with free software).
They start their merch selling page with a short intro how everything works, and then listening their products and a link where one can get it. That link guides you then to the webpage of the company/collective that offers "selling merch as a service".
To better understand what I'm speaking about, take a look here:
https://www.davidrevoy.com/static9/shop
Just to get this discussion more concrete I reached out to few collectives (wait did I actually sent out all the emails, or just to one, cause I only got reply by one...I'll find that out) so that shipping can be closer to the spot something is ordered to.
The one that replied back (unfortunate their focus is german market, but not limited to that) did so with positive feedback.
They state to be happy to list Tails among their "soli projects", meaning they can do printing and distribution of merch and donate parts of that back to Tails. Just to know a bit about their political affiliation, here some other soli projects that they support:
- systemli (tech collective to provide activists and anyone that needs it with online tools to help them organize)
- Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê (similiar to what you might know as red cross, to support people and communities living around a country known as Kurdistan. Heyva Sor operates also where every other similar organization drops out for fear of their safety)
- Internationalist Commune (an umbrella for "internationalists" from all over the world to organize together in support of countering terrorism and to struggle for environmental protection, feminism, democratic confederalism...
...and more. Just to give an impression.
Their webpage is this:
https://black-mosquito.org/
Their clothes are from different manufactures, coming with different "eco-lables". Some are in closer relation and support with the workers others not. Thought some have complete transparent production chain. I haven't looked much into it, thought there are anyway not really any better option offered anywhere else. It's either the same/similar or much worse.
Question:
You want me to dick deeper into this topic, reaching out to more collectives and document my findings? I can help to make the idea of selling merch more concrete, thought I only continue furthering my investigation if there is general interest in the approach I'm taking and if it seems likely that Tails will offer merch, if the result of the research is positive (whatever that means).
