Mutual Aid

Politicians Failed Us In 2020

December 27, 2020 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Educate! Abolish Police, Cancel the Rent, Mutual Aid, Rebellion2020

Even as 2020 took turns for the worst, the seeds of justice and liberation extended their roots. For decades to come, 2020 will be remembered for the failures of politicians and capitalism. In a selfish bid to “save the economy” and rally his base ahead of the election, President Trump and his allies spread disinformation about COVID-19 and threw common-sense public health measures into the meatgrinder of partisan politics. Predictably, the United States became one of the world’s worst hot spots for COVID-19, exposing every crack and fault line in society. As of this writing, the death toll is nearing 300,000. To say that the Trump administration failed to flatten the curve is a gross understatement.

COVID-19, The Climate Crisis, And Mutual Aid

December 25, 2020 Tina Gerhardt, The Progressive. Create! climate crisis, Colonialism, Imperialism, Mutual Aid

After COVID-19 struck in spring 2020, the absence of a concerted federal response prompted people across the country to begin self-organizing everything from food distribution to sewing squads to shelter. That work continues today, drawing on a long tradition. “Mutual aid,” a concept coined by the Russian naturalist and anarchist Peter Kropotkin in his 1902 Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, refers to the principles of cooperation, and of people joining together to help each other. It ran counter to the then-hegemonic Darwinian theories emphasizing competition and survival of the fittest. Kropotkin did not deny the role of competition, but he argued that the cooperative spirit has gone under-examined.

Mutual-aid Organizing For Food Security Puts Solidarity Over Charity

December 13, 2020 Jade Guthrie, Rabble.ca. Create! COVID-19, Hunger, Mutual Aid, Recession

Since May, Justice for Migrant Workers (Justicia) has delivered over 2,000 boxes of fresh produce to migrant farm workers across the province. Each of the FoodShare food boxes feed two to four people, meaning that thousands of workers have been relying on these deliveries. Co-ordinating weekly food box drop-offs to farms where workers are quarantining as a result of the massive number of COVID-19 outbreaks has become a mainstay of Justicia's work over the past eight months. Justicia's shift toward mutual aid efforts is not unique. We have seen initiatives like these cropping up across Toronto since the outset of the pandemic.

Mutual Aid Will Help Us Survive The Biden Presidency

November 30, 2020 Dean Spade, ROAR Magazine. Create! Joe Biden, Mutual Aid, Pandemic, Recession

Many people are feeling great relief that Trump has been voted out and are rightly celebrating the efforts so many people have undertaken to make that happen. But even as we celebrate, we must ensure we do not demobilize, hoping that the new administration will take care of our problems. Unfortunately, we can be certain that the Biden/Harris administration will not address the crises and disasters of climate change, worsening wealth concentration and poverty, a deadly for-profit health care system and racist law enforcement.

Mutual Aid Is Essential To Our Survival

October 28, 2020 Dean Spade, Truthout. Organize! COVID-19, Mutual Aid, Participatory Dem, Solidarity

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a crisis in the U.S. in early 2020, people all over the country started coordinating to deliver groceries and prescriptions to vulnerable people, making and distributing masks and hand sanitizer, and raising money for people who were losing jobs and ineligible for unemployment benefits. By the time the uprising against anti-Black racism and police violence brought people into the streets in early summer, the concept of “mutual aid” had gained significant traction in the media, and it was visible on the streets as people...

The Future Of Pandemic Solidarity

October 25, 2020 Colectiva Sembrar, Red Pepper. Create! Mutual Aid, Pandemic, Solidarity, Transformation

In their recent book Pandemic Solidarity, Colectiva Sembrar (Sowing Seeds Collective) collected first-hand experiences from around the world of people creating their own narratives of solidarity and mutual aid in our time of global crisis. Red Pepper interviewed members of the collective – carla bergman (she doesn’t capitalise her name), Seyma Ozdemir, Nancy Piñeiro, Emre Sahin and Marina Sitrin – to discuss what unites these diverse experiences, what can be learned, and where they might fit into a broader project of systemic change.

Health Justice And Black Liberation: Shay-Akil McLean

October 13, 2020 Gwendolyn Wallace and Roberto Sirvent, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Black Liberation, health, Mutual Aid, Systemic Racism

The way that people treat each other has biological consequences, meaning that our relationships to one another, institutions, and resources are directly linked to quality of life, life expectancy, and quality of death. State violence is a public health issue because what it does is differentially distribute morbidity and mortality to those that are deemed enemies of the state. All of forms of state violence entail the denial of basic needs and the self-determination of the people in one dimension and/or additional others.

Solidarity, Direct Action, And Self-Determination: Kasa Invisível

October 9, 2020 Meghan McGee, GEO-coop. Create! Anarchism, Brazil, COVID-19, Mutual Aid

The Zapatistas have said the best solidarity anyone can offer is to start their own social centers, projects, movements, and revolutions wherever they are based. In Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, a collective called Kasa Invisível (Portuguese for “Invisible House”) has heeded that proposal, and hopes to inspire you to do the same. The three formerly abandoned houses now occupied by this autonomous, anti-capitalist collective serve as a home for people in need, a social and cultural center for the community, and a meeting and organizing space for anti-authoritarian resistance and mutual aid.

Why Anarchism Is Dangerous

October 2, 2020 Dana Ward and Paul Messersmith-Glavin, Anarchist Agency. Strategize! Anarchism, Mutual Aid, Rebellion2020, Trump

Anarchists frighten privileged elites and their authoritarian followers not simply because the primary goals of the movement have been to abolish the sources of elite power – the state, patriarchy, and capitalism – but because anarchism offers a viable alternative form of social and political organization grounded in workplace collectives, neighborhood assemblies, bottom-up federations, child-centered free schools, and a variety of cultural organizations operating on the basis of cooperation, solidarity, mutual aid, and direct, participatory democracy.

Volunteers Mobilize In Aftermath Of Oregon Fires

September 27, 2020 Shane Burley, Al Jazeera. Organize! Mutual Aid, Oregon, Portland, Wildfires

Portland, United States - Hunter Bombadier has spent the better part of the past year protesting for an end to police violence and anti-Black racism – and supporting communities hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. That is how the 33-year-old member of Symbiosis, a network of left-wing organisations across the United States, was ready to help when massive wildfires broke out south of Portland, Oregon, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. “We were able to use the programming and infrastructure we already had,” Bombadier told Al Jazeera in a recent phone interview.

This Is America: Prisoners In The Crosshairs, Mutual Aid Fire Relief

September 25, 2020 It's Going Down. Educate! Mutual Aid, Police violence, Prisoner rights, Wildfires

On this episode, we have a special report from Perilous Chronicle, about how prisoners are directly impacted by the climate change fueled wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. This audio report is based on an article on the unfolding situation, which can be read here. Next up, we have an interview with the Portland chapter of Symbiosis, an autonomous anti-capitalist group organizing dual power programs and initiatives in the Pacific Northwest. In the wake of the spreading wildfires, the group began to organize mutual aid fire relief efforts along with a network for many other organizations.

The Black Panther Party’s Multiracial Anti-Fascism

August 30, 2020 Yoav Litvin, ROAR Magazine. Strategize! Black Panthers, Health Care, Mutual Aid, Oppression

In the late 60s and 70s, the Black Panther Party (BPP) embodied the vanguard of the revolution and anti-fascist, anti-racist action in the United States. The BPP formed an inclusionary, class-based manifesto, promoted armed self-defense and created an array of community survival programs and services, which included a sophisticated educational platform, free health clinics, breakfast for schoolchildren, teach-ins and more. Further, the BPP utilized art and music, via its newspaper and band, to spread its revolutionary agenda.

Kenosha: Officers In Unmarked Vehicles Arrest Activists Trying To Serve Free Food

August 30, 2020 Kenny Stancil, Commondreams. Educate! Kenosha, Mutual Aid, Police violence, Riot Kitchen

Soon after their Wednesday arrival in Kenosha, Wisconsin, eight volunteers from Seattle-based Riot Kitchen who planned to distribute free food to protesters were arrested by law enforcement officials who emerged from unmarked cars, the Seattle Times reported. Footage recorded by a bystander and widely shared on social media was featured in the Washington Post. The video shows law enforcement officers jump out of black SUVs and smash the window of a minivan before handcuffing both of the vehicle's occupants.

Common Ground Collective Teaches Us About Surviving Crisis Together

August 26, 2020 Shane Burley, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! COVID-19, Mutual Aid, New Orleans, Recession

It started in Malik Rahim’s kitchen, as the waters from the broken levees continued to flow through New Orleans’ lower 9th Ward. A small group of activists from the city and Austin, Texas, including former Black Panthers, began scratching down notes and trying to figure out exactly what they could do to provide support to the neighborhoods obliterated by Hurricane Katrina. This was in 2005, just days after the storm had battered the city and demolished the levees, overwhelming the surrounding blocks with a toxic water sludge.

New York City’s Newest Neighborhood: Abolition Park

August 13, 2020 Amba Guerguerian, The Indypendent. Create! Mutual Aid, New York City (NYC), Occupy, Police Abolition

At the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall Park lies in a cold-stone land where law and order rule. The area is defined by French Renaissance-style courthouses and municipal buildings. The NYPD’s headquarters is across the street and the Manhattan Detention Complex, colloquially referred to as “the Tombs” by many, is a short walk away. While the park provides one of the only green spaces in the concrete-scape of Lower Manhattan, it does not have a laid-back, community ambiance the way that many smaller New York parks do.

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