STEM fields, at present, tend to be extremely gauged towards capitalist desires (silicon valley, pharmaceutical industry, "defense" industry, etc). Much of what STEM professionals work on are not particularly useful to the material needs of our communities, especially when compared to trade skills workers like electricians, plumbers, mechanics, or farmers.
So, what are some useful things that we can contribute to?
hermit_dragon wrote
Maybe I don't adequately understand material vs other needs, but education about, and protection from, predatory and oppressive uses of sciences and technologies is one area where STEM folks can really fill a community need (imo)
Another is via skill and knowledge sharing of all kinds. Barriers to STEM knowledge and skills are high in most countries (that I can think of).
A few examples -
Medical skills = anarchist medics/black cross. Pharmaceutical knowledge = anarchist pharmacists, helping people access medicines
With regard to computer technology professionals - I don't know how on earth I'd be coping with the world as it is right now without the tech person who helps keep my use of technology safe and informed, who taught me good OpSec and who runs our home systems.
They have worked in Silicon Valley, and the work they did was (they say with loathing) 'meta-capitalism' - but they also have volunteered endless hours keeping activists connected and safer, created tooling for radical communities, and now plan to poke at Postmill.
So I guess basically - I think most STEM knowledge is useful to anarchist organizing and movements, even if a lot of the people with that knowledge are sequestered in awful capitalist walled garden hellholes. I think we need STEM folk who are willing and able to risk transcending those boundaries, and freely share what they have with others.