Inspired to depend less on international supply chains, more on community

When Trump began announcing tariffs on imported goods, I wondered if consumers would notice the perilous nature of depending on international supply chains. I wondered if the tariffs might inspire us to move away from engaging the global super-factory, toward living by local resources.

I know: Trump would like to build up manufacturing in the U.S. (even though the U.S. lacks the manufacturing expertise, industrial centers and population density to mass-produce computers, mobile phones, batteries, solar panels, e-vehicles and TVs). I know that manufacturing cannot happen anywhere without guzzling energy, extracting ores, guzzling water, generating toxic waste.

While Trump recently curtailed tariffs on transistors, and telecoms have us upgrading computers to make them compatible with upgraded infrastructure, most people cannot afford a new iPhone: more than 25% of U.S. Americans have less than $1000 in savings.

Once we recognize that no industrial manufacturing is local or clean, that manufacturing anything (including solar PVs, wind turbines, batteries, vehicles of all kinds…and their infrastructures) involves huge amounts of energy, extractions, water, worker hazards and toxic waste, we can ask: How do we reduce dependence on international supply chains? How do we reduce dependence on telecommunications? How do we protect wildlife and public health? Asking questions opens us up to answers.

I’m inspired to reduce dependence on international supply chains. To go local.

A friend clarified that while you can be rich alone, going local makes you depend on community. It requires sharing resources.

LIBRARIES

The Trump Administration has moved to shutter the Institute of Museum and Library Services. With an annual budget of about $290 million, it’s the largest source of federal funding for state museums and libraries. Grants to States, its largest program, delivers $160 million annualy to cover one-third to one-half of state library budgets. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/arts/design/library-agency-trump-museums.html?searchResultPosition=1

The option here is to offer books, seed exchanges, tool-lending and repair cafes—at health clinics, grocery stores, farmers’ markets. Teach classes in gardening, food preservation, identifying edible weeds, restoring watershed ecosystems and building shelter. Teach self-help health care, burial practices and breastfeeding. (The most important ingredient in a successful breastfeeding relationship means starting within the first 30 minutes after birth.)

During COVID, in one mutual aid group in New York, thousands of dollars went from those of financial means to neighbors who were struggling. People stayed in their homes, children didn’t go hungry.

EXPLORE BUYING LESS And LIVING WITH LESS MONEY

Meet Jo Nemeth, who lives without money.

Tap into the gift economy. Give without expecting anything in return. Receive without any sense of obligation.

Form a tenant union.

Unionize your workplace.

Sponsor Repair Cafés where strangers help each other repair electronics, appliances and chairs. Hold repair clinics at schools.

Check out ifixit.com, which offers 117,892 free repair manuals.

CONSIDER DIGITAL DISOBEDIENCE

In her April 8, 2025 TED talk, “This is What a Digital Coup Looks Like,” investigative British journalist Carole Cadwalladr says, “We are watching the collapse of the international order in real time, and this is just the start.” She illuminates a fast-moving technological coup and the rise of an unprecedentedly powerful class of tech executives who dismantle democracy and enable authoritarian, international control through runaway corporate power, data harvesting and mass surveillance. Then, she introduces digital disobediance.

Resist upgrades as long as possible—and then, if you must, buy used equipment.

Avoid cryptocurrency. If you have cryptocurrency, expect no protections. (The Trump administration is disbanding a Justice Department unit that investigated cryptocurrency crimes; it criticizes the Biden administration as too aggressive against the fast-growing industry.)

Share cars, housing, gardens, child care and elder care.

Backup your contact lists on paper.

Backup any writing you’re working on…on paper.

Essential Services Must Be Accessible—even offline A group of Belgian and French sociology professors and a Spanish doctor have drafted an open letter to the European Commission, Council and Parliament. They call for human, non-digitized access to civil, postal and other services since 40% of the European population lack digital skills. They call for a democratic debate to decide to what extent and to what degree digitalisation should be used.

CONSIDER BUYING IN TO A CORPORATION

Corporate shareholders (including those of privately-owned utilities) have rights that customers may not have. An individual who owns one share of a corporation is considered a shareholder and can influence corporate decisions. In 2013, an AT&T shareholder got telecom corporations to stop exporting used lead batteries from the U.S. to other countries with weaker environmental controls; to conduct third party audits of lead battery manufacturing facilities; to track shipments of used lead batteries and obtain receipts from smelters showing receipt at the recycling facility.

AIM TO LIVE WITHIN YOUR BIOREGION’S OFFERINGS

Survey your community for skills in growing, cooking and preserving food; in practicing self-help health care, midwifery and burial practices; in identifying edible weeds; in restoring watershed ecosystems; in repairing tools; in building shelter. Aim to live within your watershed’s offerings of fuel, ores, water and food.

In Kentucky, activists bought a prison site to rewild the land.

OTHER NEWS

AB 305 has been introduced in the California state Assembly to construct “small” nuclear reactors (SMNRs) in the state. This California bill is part of the national and international push for maximum nuclear tech and weapons. It would block the wise 1976 Nuclear Safeguard Act, which prohibits new nuclear reactors until the technology exists for dealing with the high level waste along with a permanent repository.

The Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee will vote on AB 305 on April 21. Letters are due by close of business day next Tuesday April 15. Here’s a sample letter—and my apologies for sending this out with such short notice.

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CHANGE YOUR NARRATIVE

Consider that there’s nothing to do now but help each other.