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Mutual Aid

Amid Economic Uncertainty, A ‘Solidarity Economy’ Grows In DC

As tariffs threaten to drive up prices on everything from bananas to backpacks, and fears of a recession loom, many Americans wonder how they’ll continue to afford necessities. According to the Huffington Post, major retailers are already warning that shoppers will see emptier shelves and higher prices, especially for essentials like clothing and school supplies.  ABC News also reported that items such as laptops, toys and coffee could see price hikes. But amid this economic uncertainty, a different system is quietly taking root—one built not on profit but on cooperation.

Feeling Abandoned, Community Contaminated By Toxic Train Decides ‘We Only Have Ourselves’

What happens to people in the months and years after a corporation worth billions creates an environmental catastrophe that disfigures their community? Myriad answers emerged a few weeks ago in a hotel conference room in Columbiana, Ohio, where eight people from the East Palestine, Ohio, area met with a Pittsburgh psychiatrist experienced in treating people who’ve endured traumatic events. One of the first to speak up was Lonnie Miller. She’s been open about discussing her family’s struggles since a Norfolk Southern train tumbled off a set of railroad tracks 1,200 feet from her home on Feb. 3, 2023.

Uhuru Movement Organizes Tornado Response In St. Louis

The Uhuru Movement’s Black Power Blueprint project is mobilizing black community recovery efforts in areas of North St. Louis that were devastated by at least one severe tornado on Friday, May 16, 2025. The National Weather Service (NWS) said they believe the tornado was an EF-3 with winds between 100-165 mph and was up to a mile wide at times. More than 80,000 buildings remain without power. Immediately after the storm, activists with the Uhuru Movement began to mobilize support and resources for neighbors in need. From the Uhuru House black community center at 4101 W. Florissant Avenue, they organized a drive for tools and supplies. On Sunday, they set-up a charging station, as well as a grill and gave away hot food.

The Many Innovative Spheres Of Organized Sharing

Fifteen years ago, the American group Shareable filled a huge void in public consciousness when it began reporting about creative forms of sharing. Its web magazine introduced people to tool libraries, mutual aid networks, food-sharing systems, “sharing cities,” social co-operatives, tiny houses, and other neglected forms of collaboration. Based in the Bay Area, Shareable is a worker-directed “news and action hub” that, in its words, “promotes people-powered solutions for the common good.” Despite a fairly small staff, the nonprofit has been a catalytic force nationally in promoting commoning and progressive change.

Surveillance, Cybersecurity, And Financial Tech For Mutual Aid

Long before October 7, 2023, Israel has weaponized surveillance and advanced targeting technology against Palestinians. This includes snuffing out dissent and preemptively arresting Palestinians before holding them for years without formal charges, access to legal representation, or sentencing. Similar technologies are now being used in the United States to criminalize dissent, target marginalized communities, and suppress mutual aid efforts. This brings us to the theme of this week’s episode. Today, we’re sharing excerpts from Shareable’s Mutual Aid 101 Learning Series‘ third session.

What The World Can Learn From Radical Queer Aid Collectives

One of the 26 executive orders Donald Trump signed on the first day of his presidency was a 90-day pause on foreign aid, which he said is often “not aligned with American interests”. The subsequent suspension of overseas aid programmes has hit vulnerable communities around the world, with LGBTIQ+ organisations in the Global South among the worst affected. But three East African queer mutual aid groups were well-prepared for this scenario, and have a model that could help organisations reeling from Trump’s actions. Since their inception, The Trans and Queer Fund and UmaUma Buy Nothing group, both based in Kenya, and an untitled queer collective in Uganda have organised themselves to be independent from foreign donors, which they say do not understand the realities of the communities they serve.

Indigenous Food Reciprocity As A Model For Mutual Aid

In the Arctic and Far North, where a successful hunt can mean the difference between feeding the village or scrounging to make ends meet, one might assume a scarcity mindset would take hold. Instead, reciprocity prevails. Examples of this sharing-focused approach abound. A recent documentary, One With the Whale, follows the hunting practices of an island community in the Bering Sea. In one scene, after a long period without finding game, a hunting crew harpoons a seal, which will allow them to feed some of the community. “It’s always a blessing to receive any animal that you catch,” Siberian Yupik hunter Daniel Apassingok tells the filmmakers. “As small as the game is, the game is dispersed with four or five other boats."

Entrepreneur’s Eviction Leads To Community Model For The World

Kiyomi Rollins can smell the coffee even before she walks through the door at The Ke’nekt Cooperative in Atlanta’s Westview neighborhood. Sunshine fills the space with energy; every seat is full. She smiles at the neighborhood aunties sitting next to the entrepreneurs from Atlanta University Center and the community resident teaching a small group about social media content creation for neighborhood startups. She watches as a middle-schooler from down the street fundraises for his school trip and each person around the table helps out however they can.

The New Yorkers Standing Behind Migrants

Flatbush, New York — Shelves of weathered shoes line the purple basement walls of the Bridge, a nonprofit, on Dec. 14, 2024. Used coats hang from rolling racks. Residents of Floyd Bennett Field, a remote former airport-turned-migrant-shelter in Brooklyn, queue up with slips of paper in their hands, listing the ages and genders of their children. Kids weave among parents’ legs before moving to the second floor for childcare. Waiting is part of the ordeal for migrant families in shelters. But now the stakes have increased. The 2,000 Floyd Bennett Field residents will soon be moved to other shelters, and questions loom: Do other shelters have space?

Dispatch: Through The Fire

Unprecedented January wildfires devastate Los Angeles, as communities face both natural disaster and militarized state response. The Eaton Fire displaces numerous families in the Pasadena-Altadena area, including multigenerational Black households who have built lives in these neighborhoods for decades. Among them, the Edwards family stands displaced from their home of 32 years. For those seeking to support impacted community members, the Edwards family’s GoFundMe, provides direct aid to one of many displaced households fighting to survive. A broader directory of displaced Black families seeking support can be found here.

Mutual Aid Networks Are Mobilizing Amid Los Angeles Fires

I’ve always said that Los Angeles is a mirror: Whatever you’re seeking, you’ll find it reflected back to you. Sure, the city has its ugly parts — celebrity worship and diet fads and smog that blots out the sky — but Los Angeles’ true core is multitudinous. Home to about 13 million people, the sprawling metropolis brims with countless communities and enclaves, neighborhoods and histories. If the ugly is all you see, then you’re not looking hard enough. Since the Palisades and Eaton fires roared to life last week, Los Angeles residents have shown how much strength and solidarity lies in their communities.

Grassroots Disaster Relief In Asheville

“We were pretty aware that the storm was going to be significant, but we had no idea it would be as significant as it was,” says Libertie Valance, a co-owner of Firestorm Books, the worker-owned bookstore in Asheville, NC that transformed overnight into a mutual aid hub following Hurricane Helene. After causing fatalities and catastrophic damage across the Southeast, Helene reached the Western North Carolina mountain city of Asheville in the early hours of Friday Sept. 27. Floodwaters cut off access to the city via Interstate 26, severely damaged the local water system, and left residents isolated without power or cell service.

In Hurricane Ruins, North Carolina Food Workers Organize And Fight

Twenty-one days without running water. A week before any cell service or internet. Hospitals closed, and thousands of houses swept away. Not long after developers started trumpeting the city of Asheville, North Carolina, as a “climate haven” from coastal storms, the area experienced catastrophic flooding. Upland Tennessee and North Carolina were the hardest hit by Hurricane Helene on September 27. For restaurant workers, the crisis is still getting worse, says Miranda Escalante, a hotel bartender and co-chair of Asheville Food & Beverage United, an organization of restaurant workers. At least three-quarters have been laid off since the storm, she said, in what would have been peak season.

What Mutual Aid Groups Are Doing To Help Hurricane Survivors

Hurricane Helene, which was a Category 4 hurricane, hit on September 26 and claimed around 227 lives as of October 5, 2024. The hurricane is now considered one of the deadliest “of the modern era.” Besides destroying homes, businesses, roads, and bridges, it caused power outages for millions and left countless survivors without food and water. The hurricane has become a source of conflict and division, particularly concerning the federal government’s response to the catastrophe. Media outlets like PBS, U.S. News & World Report, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Hurricane Rumor Response page have addressed what National Public Radio (NPR) called, “[r]umors, misinformation and lies” about this issue on October 7.

Mutual Aid And Mosh Pits

Chicago — On the Fourth of July, a group of punks and appreciators gather around the canal on the South Side for a mutual aid benefit show. They’re raising funds for Comedor Comunitario (“Community Dining Room”), a weekly Tuesday dinner run by Venezuelan migrants at a community church. With keffiyehs and Palestinian flags throughout the space, curious holiday revelers watched from their passing boats as folks slammed to the bands Hide and Stress Positions, their lyrics decrying American settler-colonialism and nationalism in a defiant take on the holiday. All told, we raised over $3,000to support the comedor.
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