In The News

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we spoke with William C Anderson, who alongside Zoé Samudzi, is the co-author of As Black As Resistance, published by AK Press. We discuss the major themes of the book, its reception, and its growing impact in a post-rebellion world.

Every Thursday evening on a small one-acre vegetable farm in the rustic town of Jurupa Valley, Aram Ayra and other volunteers make good on an agreement with the farm’s owner.

Community fridges have been popping up all over the Bay since the pandemic began as a form of mutual aid, which has deep roots here. There's a long history of this kind of community care, especially around food insecurity.

Free-fridge projects that encourage neighbors to help each other have met with some opposition. But that hasn’t stopped them from popping up across the country.

Sharon Moore was deeply concerned when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. A senior with diabetes, she is especially vulnerable to the disease – but it wasn’t the virus that had her worried. The Van Ness resident is one of more than 100,000 in the District who rely on SNAP benefits to keep food on the table.

Students banded together in response to the Minneapolis protests to show support for their community and social justice.

Even in the direness of that moment, their approach was built from the strengths of communities rather than being fixated upon their weakness. They focused on mutual aid, rather than seeking help for the needy. The system they envisioned was one where neighbors could contribute what they were able to and could receive what they needed.

We can learn and build with generations of activists, writers, and educators who have made critical, intersectional, and narrative-shifting connections between the many manifestations of injustice we see and feel.

The People’s Fridge is currently soliciting donations of produce, non-perishable food, and PPE for people in need

As Rice students prepared to begin an unprecedented fall semester, a team of six undergraduates launched Rice Mutual Aid, a mutual aid network that compiles resources from among the Rice community for other students and offers financial support.

A joint effort from the Bronzeville/Kenwood Mutual Aid network and Sacred Keepers Sustainability Lab — assisted by a host of Chicagoans — wants to make mutual aid a "lifestyle," not just a response to the pandemic.

The charitable food system wasn’t designed to handle the pandemic—and with the number of homeless and hungry people soaring, the crisis has just begun.

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The social contract behind mutual aid is simple and elegant. It’s a system of engaging with one another rooted in the belief that survival is a communal project as opposed to an individual one.

The pandemic has channeled our collective rage and constructed new visions of what is possible, argues Colectiva Sembrar

Against this backdrop, where large swathes of the country feel abandoned by the government, the concept of mutual aid is quickly gaining mainstream recognition.

Just enough to get people through — not a gallon of bleach, but a 4-ounce mason jar of it, half a dozen diapers, a few cups of beans, a bag of potatoes, some vegetables, a pound of hamburger meat. Almost every day, Albuquerque Mutual Aid volunteers sanitize and pack items, then load them into cars. Wearing masks and gloves, they drop care packages at people’s doors and photograph them to confirm delivery.

Out of a vacant coffeeshop, the collective K’é Infoshop is dedicated to mutual aid on America’s largest reservation.

Local trans and gender-nonconforming community turns to art initiatives, community connection and grassroots fundraising during pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic’s massive economic toll has left almost 30 million Americans jobless and sent the United States into its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. One survey in June found that 42% of unemployed workers had lost half or more of their income, with those who were earning the lowest wages hit hardest.

As the United States enters its ninth month of the COVID-19 pandemic, 43 million Americans are facing eviction, 13.6 million are unemployed and over 200,000 have died. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has only passed a single stimulus package, with no further relief in sight. In the absence of government help, individuals have begun to turn to each other for support, in an action known as mutual aid.

Our rights never should have rested in RBG’s hands alone. The recent surge of mutual aid groups may help prevent that situation in the future.