Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

madr concept (2)

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:46:59 +0000

madr18 (1)

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:50:04 +0000

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https://mutualaiddisasterreliefsite.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/cropped-madr-concept-2.jpeg

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mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:56:53 +0000

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https://mutualaiddisasterreliefsite.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/cropped-madr18-1.jpg

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mutualaiddisasterrelief — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 00:13:58 +0000

https://mutualaiddisasterreliefsite.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/cropped-madr-concept-21.jpeg

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https://mutualaiddisasterreliefsite.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/cropped-cropped-madr18-1.jpg

BDwpz4d

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 15:58:40 +0000

BR1

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BR18

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BR19

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Cajun Army

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 16:02:20 +0000

MADR header

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cropped-madr-header.png

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climatehcange

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 16:55:15 +0000

climatehcange

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 16:56:56 +0000

Rising Up Without Burning Out

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:01:07 +0000

Repairing Your Flooded Home

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:05:09 +0000

EPA Flood Cleanup Booklet

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:06:38 +0000

DIY Field Guide For Clean-up Of Flooded Homes

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:08:03 +0000

Safety Notice For Unskilled Or Nontrade Volunteers

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:10:26 +0000

House Gutting Manual

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:12:12 +0000

Muckout Safety Guidelines (From the Church of Latterday Saints)

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:13:22 +0000

Toxic Chemicals and Staying Safe

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:15:29 +0000

Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:19:39 +0000

Handbook For Direct Action

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:20:06 +0000

Affinity Groups

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:21:10 +0000

Affinity Groups 2

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:21:21 +0000

On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:23:21 +0000

Participating In Direct Actions -A Guide For Transgender People

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:24:21 +0000

Planning An Action

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:25:07 +0000

Rising Tide Climate Change Popular Education

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:25:44 +0000

Ruckus Action Planning Manual

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:26:24 +0000

Ruckus Action Strategy Guide

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:27:05 +0000

Ruckus Scouting Manual For Activists

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:28:00 +0000

Social Change Vision Questions

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:29:56 +0000

NLG Know Your Rights Guide

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:30:43 +0000

Security Culture - A Handbook For Activists

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:32:41 +0000

Ruckus Security Culture For Activists

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:33:30 +0000

Know-Your-Rights-Guide

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:37:11 +0000

NOWCRJ KYR Immigration and disaster relief

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:39:01 +0000

Sustainable Activism and Avoiding Burnout

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:46:25 +0000

Activist Trauma and Recovery

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:47:43 +0000

trauma_overview

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:50:13 +0000

grounding

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:52:18 +0000

Pyschological First Aid

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:57:16 +0000

Basic_Rescue_Skills_2003

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:00:29 +0000

Food Safety First Manual

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:04:03 +0000

No More Deaths - Compost Toilet User Guide

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:07:09 +0000

preventing-burnout_edited_81785

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:15:45 +0000

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active_listening

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:28:09 +0000

Alt2EMSdigitalprintMay9

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WellnessZine11-10_fullpage

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TravelingCompanions5-23_FullPage

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information.heat

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:39:47 +0000

hypothermia

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:41:20 +0000

cis_respond

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:42:45 +0000

Core Curriculum - A Guide To Effective Nonviolent Struggle

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:47:07 +0000

Anti-Oppression Reader

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:39:05 +0000

Challenging Capitalism And Patriarchy

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:39:28 +0000

Confronting Classism

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:39:43 +0000

Contextualizing Katrina and Confronting Racism

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:40:09 +0000

Guidelines For Being A Strong White Ally

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:40:22 +0000

Overcoming Discrimination

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:40:40 +0000

Patterns of Patriarchy Commonly Observed within Social Justice Movements

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:40:53 +0000

Readings on Racism and Resistance for Solidarity Activists

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:41:08 +0000

Ten Things To Remember - AntiRacist Strategies For White Student Radicals

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:41:25 +0000

The Revolution Starts At Home - Confronting Partner Abuse In Radical Communities

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:41:41 +0000

Towards A Perspective On Unlearning Racism

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 11 May 2017 17:42:00 +0000

accomplices-not-allies-print-friendly

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Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Welcome Packet

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 14:25:48 +0000

br10

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carepackagedelivery

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Houston

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Hurricane Harvey Grassroots

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 01:27:03 +0000

2017Supplies5

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flyer irma

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2017Supplies2

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2017Supplies3

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wethepeople

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defiance_against_toxic_oppression

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Meg_Perry

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st_augustine_flooded_belongings

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bdwpz4d-e1493568313465

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solidaritywithdisastersurvivors

tnorman000 — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:30:56 +0000

key west mansion

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you loot 2

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you loot 3

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you loot we shoot

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solidarity

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takewhatyouneedgivewhatyoucan

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shambles

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shambles2

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DezerayUnloadingTruck

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allpowertothepeople

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banner

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water

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received_10210606957987139

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natashavansuppliesdistro

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truck.water.puertorico

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apoyo

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camp of the forgotten

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conventioncenter

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ladder

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puertoricodistro2

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solidario

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camp of the forgotten water

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mazaskatalks

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goteopicture

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no permission needed

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medical team puerto rico

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madr_1color

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Unarmed-Water-Defenders-were-shot-with-water-cannons-while-praying-at-frontlines-copy

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solidaritywithdisastersurvivors

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mexico

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drawing from puerto rico kids

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crabapple4-poles

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crabapple5-puntasantiago

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ricky painting

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water system 2

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solidaridad

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crop_guerrero prison

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disaster is the colony

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medical

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AgitArte-poster-11x17-page-0

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Photo Nov 30, 1 59 31 PM

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jimmy — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 20:27:16 +0000

dezwater

jimmy — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 20:27:53 +0000

dezwater

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natashavansuppliesdistro

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puertoricomedical1

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wellness1

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medical

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sanando2

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sanando3

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sanando4

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sanando3

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20171210_142421

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jimmysolar

jimmy — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 20:36:44 +0000

water system 2

jimmy — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 20:38:53 +0000

solar lanterns

jimmy — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 20:39:35 +0000

eat trash be free

deadlyvine — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 18:02:11 +0000

rlm_ej_sintxt

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calendar_icon

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HELPEACHOTHER_sethtobocman_higherres

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madr_notext

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logo_simple

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5107 n central-8135

jimmy — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 17:21:24 +0000

IMG_0270

jimmy — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 00:04:48 +0000

Trauma and Therapeutic Art

jimmy — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 18:36:55 +0000

With Allies Like These

jimmy — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 18:16:35 +0000

Window Propped Open Web

jimmy — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 18:21:16 +0000

Who Is Oakland

jimmy — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 18:34:03 +0000

Why Misognyists Make Great Informants

jimmy — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 18:48:29 +0000

Why Misogynists Make Great Informants

jimmy — Sun, 25 Mar 2018 18:49:51 +0000

Paradoxes of Privilege and Participation

jimmy — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 00:58:00 +0000

Looking for Common Ground

jimmy — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 01:01:46 +0000

Beyond Disaster Exceptionalism

jimmy — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 01:03:37 +0000

Extreme Climate Events as Opportunities for Radical Open Citizenship

jimmy — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 01:13:25 +0000

Class Struggle and Mental Health Zine

jimmy — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 11:41:27 +0000

madnessandoppressionguide

jimmy — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 11:42:35 +0000

A Love Letter to the Future

jimmy — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 16:47:33 +0000

Black Mold Flyer

jimmy — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 16:49:31 +0000

escuela_front

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:29:03 +0000

MollyC2

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:29:47 +0000

Solar-LaundryPR2

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:32:18 +0000

fistsPR

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:34:46 +0000

solar-kj

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:37:06 +0000

System_Rear

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:37:37 +0000

MollyC1

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:44:08 +0000

Twitter

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 15:56:31 +0000

Facebook

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 15:56:31 +0000

Instagram

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 15:56:31 +0000

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 20:03:57 +0000

deadlyvine — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

escuela-team

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:46:03 +0000

skyworldPR

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:46:16 +0000

PR Build 1

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:46:50 +0000

nicasasingentePR

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:51:00 +0000

BomberosPRBoxPower-5-23-18

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caguassolar

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:57:10 +0000

MarianaSolar4

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 02:58:41 +0000

Solar PR 2

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 03:00:13 +0000

training tour

jimmy — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:10:43 +0000

About

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 21:47:43 +0000

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

National network Our national network is made up of many eco-activists, social justice activists, global justice activists, permaculturalists, community organizers, and others who are actively organizing around supporting disaster survivors in a spirit of mutual aid and solidarity. It is a decentralized network, defined by the character and creativity of a multitude of communities and drawn together by our collective commitment to stand in solidarity with those impacted by disasters and turn the tide in favor of climate justice. We build our network through education and action. We are deeply moved by the Black Panther survival programs which served the aim of satisfying immediate needs while simultaneously raising people’s consciousness. Rooted in our history and experiences of social movement organizing we see our disaster relief work in the context of social struggle and believe that we must simultaneously address people’s immediate self-determined needs for survival and organize for fundamental shifts in the way we relate to each other and the earth. Steering committee The steering committee is Mutual Aid Disaster Relief’s main organizing body, comprising a dynamic group of about a dozen individuals from around the country. Many Steering Committee members have been involved in other mutual aid disaster relief projects including Common Ground Relief and Occupy Sandy. Steering committee members educate, organize, and mobilize support around Mutual Aid Disaster Relief projects in their respective communities, regions and networks. They also provide Mutual Aid Disaster Relief with long-term organizational continuity and sustainability, work to build leadership within the national network, and work closely with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief working groups to ensure continuity with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief’s campaigns, needs, and processes. Working groups Semi-autonomous working groups exist within the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network to help drive certain aspects of our work forward. Some working groups are temporary and are formed around specific needs such as campaign research or location specific organizing. Other working groups are more permanent, such as supplies distribution, medical, animal rescue, environmental/permaculture, and media/communications. Working groups communicate via conference calls, emails, listservs, and/or on the ground and are a point of access where anyone in the network can become more involved in shaping the direction of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. To get involved with a working group, or to start a new one, contact us at mutualaiddisasterrelief@gmail.com In addition, we believe in horizontalism, decentralization and that the most effective decisions and actions take place at the level of those closest to the problem or most impacted by the solution. Therefore we strongly encourage the formation of affinity groups and, if needed, spokescouncils, to promote self-organization and autonomy within the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network, especially in the event of a large disaster response mobilization. OUR HISTORY New Orleans, a few days after Hurricane Katrina. In this apocalyptic atmosphere, here and there, life was reorganizing itself. In the face of the inaction of the public authorities, who were too busy cleaning up the tourist areas of the French Quarter, protecting shops, and responding with automatic rifles to demands for help from the poorer city dwellers, forgotten forms of community solidarity were reborn. In spite of occasionally strong-armed attempts to evacuate the area, in spite of white supremacist mobs hunting and killing unarmed black community members, a lot of people refused to leave the city. For those who refused to be deported like “environmental refugees” all over the country, and for those who came from all around to join them in solidarity, responding to a call from Malik Rahim, a former Black Panther, self-organization came back to the fore. In a few weeks’ time, volunteer first aid first responders, called “street medics” for their work as first aid providers at protests, formed the Common Ground Clinic. From the very first days, this clinic provided free and effective treatment, including holistic, alternative, and western medicine to those who needed it, thanks to the constant influx of volunteers. The clinic, Malik’s house, and other newly formed Common Ground sites like the volunteer housing of those who came to clean and rebuild flooded homes became bases of daily resistance to the clean-sweep operation of government bulldozers, which were trying to turn parts of the city into a pasture for property developers. People came from global justice, anti-war, anarchist, and other movements that survived state crackdown on dissent. Individuals from Food Not Bombs, Indymedia, Veterans for Peace, street medic and housing rights collectives, all joined together to set up popular kitchens, provide free medical care, engage in building takeovers to prevent their destruction, and more. Despite the presence of at least one misogynistic agent provocateur, Common Ground created additional health clinics, a legal clinic, built community gardens, operated a women’s shelter, distributed aid, established a tool-lending library and radio station, gutted houses, cleaned up debris, documented police abuses, created community media centers, bio-remediated the soil, and replanted wetlands to build a barrier against the next storm. People’s willingness to engage in direct action found a new context in defending public housing, re-opening shuttered school doors, delivering much needed supplies past checkpoints, and helping community members maintain their historic centers of worship despite the opposition of church hierarchies. The experience and wisdom gained from mass mobilizations against globalization melded with the legacy of the Black Panthers survival programs. This practical knowledge accumulated in the course of several lifetimes of social movement practice all found a space where it could be deployed. The devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina gave the North American anarchist movement and others devoted to social transformation the opportunity to achieve an unfamiliar cohesion and unity that transcended the tired old divisions based on ideology or tactics. Street kitchens require building up provisions beforehand; emergency medical aid requires the acquisition of necessary knowledge and materials, as does the setting up of pirate radios. The political richness of such experiences is assured by the joy they contain, the way they transcend individual stoicism, and their manifestation of a tangible reality that escapes the daily ambience of order and work Whoever knew the penniless joy of these New Orleans neighborhoods before the catastrophe, their defiance towards the state and the widespread practice of making do with what’s available wouldn’t be at all surprised by what became possible there. On the other hand, anyone trapped in the anemic and atomized everyday routine of our residential deserts might doubt that such determination could be found anywhere anymore. Fast-forward several years and an earthquake has just devastated Haiti. Most of us have left New Orleans and Common Ground and focused again on building other movements like the International Solidarity Movement, No Mas Muertes, Earth First! Rain Forest Action Network, Engineers Without Borders, Mountain Justice, the Beehive Collective, what became the Occupy Movement and countless others. But finding each other through acting directly and in concert with people affected to achieve their survival and other needs, besides giving us a heightened sense of inner power and fertilized imaginations, also built bonds that survived the years. Some of us reconnected under the name Mutual Aid Disaster Relief in Haiti and sent several teams into Haiti providing medical care, supplies and assistance. Many of us helped shut down Wall Street, however briefly, as part of the Occupy Movement and participated in local encampments. Occupy Wall Street began in New York's Zuccotti Park in 2011, where a number of protesters attempted to take nonviolent direct action to shut down Wall Street and raise awareness about issues of economic injustice and inequality. Many of us also participated in Occupy Sandy, the grassroots disaster relief network that emerged out of Occupy to provide mutual aid to communities affected by Superstorm Sandy. Occupy Sandy programs included medical assistance, construction, a tool lending library, volunteer mold removal, free meals, distribution of aid, free legal help, a free store, educational services, and more. OpOK, Boulder Flood Relief, the examples are numerous and clear. Mutual aid and solidarity is far more effective and efficient than top down approaches. Even the Department of Homeland Security, ordinarily diametrically opposed to the work of anarchists, anti-authoritarians, anti-capitalists, and other dreamers of a better world, concedes the superior effectiveness of this horizontal, decentralized, network model compared to the top down command and control one. Common Ground and Occupy Sandy were not activist utopias. Despite anti-oppression trainings and other attempts at stemming oppressive behavior, racism and sexism still were present. In addition, one early leader of Common Ground Relief, Brandon Darby, who later was revealed to be an FBI informant and agent provocateur, alienated a number of female volunteers by his domineering macho tendencies, harassment, and sexual violence. There was a sense of crisis and urgency that led people to bypass their principles for expediency. Valorization of hard and constant physical labor, a crisis-laden environment both within and beyond movement encampments, militant posturing, minimization or degradation of emotion and basic human needs - these were all also red flags that painted a toxic and unsustainable organizing culture and were not appropriately addressed. It takes a constant organizational self-awareness and willingness to critically reflect in order to not fall back into the trap of colonial modes within our solidarity efforts. Common Ground can be thought of as a mediating organization linking the traditional revolutionary organizing style of the Black Panthers and the diffuse leadership or horizontalism of Occupy Sandy. All three didn't share decision-making power within their organizations equally, but all three did share power with the communities they were in support of, listening, asking, and responding to people's needs, while articulating support for radical social change. These examples of Common Ground not living up to its ideals should not be glossed over or ignored. At the same time, it does not undo the critical, groundbreaking disaster relief solidarity work that Common Ground pioneered, and Occupy Sandy extended. It is often not a matter of whether manifestations of hierarchical power arise in our social movements and organizations, but when. When this does happen, it is critical to name it for what it is, and that this power be contested. Mutual aid disaster relief is a radical approach to disaster relief and to social movement organizing. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, the organization and network, acknowledges organizational failures of Common Ground and seeks to learn from those mistakes, build on lessons learned from decades of community-led disaster response, and ensure that best practices, relationships, and resources are ready to be deployed to support communities impacted by future disasters. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief has continued the legacy of autonomous, decentralized, and liberatory disaster relief by responding to the historic floods in Baton Rouge, flooding in West Virginia, Hurricane Matthew, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, and Hurricane Maria - building wellness centers, providing life-saving medication, cleaning debris, gutting flooded homes, distributing supplies, assisting with sustainable rebuilding efforts through water purification and solar infrastructure, tarping roofs, advocating for incarcerated prisoners, amplifying other liberatory relief efforts, and many more activities to support people’s survival, empowerment, and self-determination. Reconnecting with such gestures, buried under years of normalized life, is the only practicable means of not sinking down with the world. The time has come when we take these up once more. Extreme storms are increasing in intensity and frequency. Climate change is threatening life as we know it. The time to build a permanent network to respond, from below and from the left, to these and other disasters is now, and we welcome you to help write that history with us. [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Contact

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 21:47:42 +0000

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Media

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:25:03 +0000

Guiding Principles

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:25:03 +0000

We are engaged in a horizontal, multidimensional and multidirectional process that contributes to the liberation of everyone involved, not charitable acts. This means we share resources, skills, experience, knowledge and ideas without perpetuating relationships based on hierarchical power. We seek as much as possible to break down the barriers between givers and receivers of aid. Everyone has something to teach and something to share. And we all need assistance at times. We seek to acknowledge, challenge and subvert perceived and actual power imbalances, and use any privileges we have—including access to material resources, freedom of movement, skills, knowledge, experience, and decision-making influence— to support people’s self-determination and survival in crisis and their long-term resilience afterwards, ultimately bridging the gulf between ourselves and “others”. We recognize that “natural” disasters are different in degree, but not in kind from the ongoing experiences of social inequality inherent in a capitalist, racist, colonialist, and patriarchal society. Therefore, we oppose and seek to confront and dismantle these and all other systems of domination and oppression within our society and within ourselves. We recognize disaster survivors’ rights to determine what their needs are and how best others could assist them. We therefore commit ourselves to acting humbly, asking, listening, and responding, while embodying in our current actions the future society we want to create. We believe in creative grassroots organizing and action that prioritizes and highlights the voices and power of marginalized individuals and communities and furthers their capacity to take action on their own behalf. We engage in and encourage autonomous direct action, an alternative to bureaucracy and red tape, including the creation of new, alternative projects in line with these principles to assist people’s self-determination, acquisition of additional resources, and to increase their resilience. At the same time, we believe in democratizing knowledge, sharing experience, and engaging with technical experts when needed to ensure safety and quality of work. We believe in a participatory, horizontal, decentralized movement-building model of social change from below. This requires shared leadership and decision-making in an environment that is safe and inclusive for all participants. We, therefore, strive to integrate these principles into our organizing and decision-making processes. We recognize that disasters are times of localized upheaval and suffering, but are also opportunities for the rich and powerful to consolidate power and to take advantage of shocks in order to institute economic reforms that further reinforce their privileged status. We oppose this disaster capitalism and affirm our commitment to environmental, social, economic, and climate justice. Instead, we see the sense of community and mutual aid that develops in the wake of crisis as fertile ground to merge social movement theory and praxis by supporting and enabling community members to help themselves and each other. As natural disasters increase in intensity and frequency, we recognize that our hope for a livable future rests in developing resilient preparation for and response to crisis as individuals and communities, while simultaneously opposing intensive resource extraction and other root causes of climate change. We support community resistance to resource extraction, environmental injustice, and poverty, and community-led adaptation to climate change, as governments and other large institutions have not responded to climate change with the urgency, gravity, or support required to avert climate chaos. We believe in being accountable to the communities and people we serve as well as ourselves. We therefore recognize, honor and respect the differences across cultures, traditions, and religions in regards to experiences, languages, food, clothing, personal space, relationships, and other differences even if we do not agree with them. In recognition of this, we listen and support rather than prescribe solutions based on our own personal or cultural values, while still staying honest and authentic to ourselves and our principles.

Everyone who shares the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief vision, core values, and guiding principles is welcome to be part of this movement.

Mission and Vision

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:25:03 +0000

Mission: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is a grassroots network whose mission is to provide disaster relief based on the principles of solidarity, mutual aid, and autonomous direct action. By working with, listening to, and supporting impacted communities, especially their most vulnerable members, to lead their own recovery, we build long-term, sustainable and resilient communities. Vision: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief envisions strong, vibrant, resilient, connected, and empowered individuals and communities as part of an awakened civil society that will restore hope following crisis, and turn the tide against disaster capitalism and climate chaos, in favor of a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world.

Resources

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:25:03 +0000

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] Disaster Response A Window Propped Open A Love Letter to the Future Basic_Rescue_Skills Safety and DIY Cleanup Repairing Your Flooded Home EPA Flood Cleanup Booklet DIY Field Guide For Clean-up Of Flooded Homes Safety Notice For Unskilled Or Nontrade Volunteers House Gutting Manual Muckout Safety Guidelines Toxic Chemicals and Staying Safe Mold Cleaning and Prevention Mold Cleaning and Prevention (Spanish) Black Mold Flyer Wellness/Medical An Activists Guide to Basic First Aid Peer Counseling and Active Listening Alternatives to EMS Home Remedies for Common Maladies Traveling Companions Information on Heat and Related Illnesses Hypothermia Responding to Critical Incident Stress Class Struggle and Mental Health Zine Madness and Oppression Guide Trauma and Burnout Trauma_Overview Preventing Burnout Understanding and Coping with Traumatic Stress Understanding and Addressing Vicarious Trauma Grounding and Centering for Activists Rising Up Without Burning Out Sustainable Activism and Avoiding Burnout Psychological First Aid Activist Trauma and Recovery Trauma and Therapeutic Art Legal/Security Security Culture - A Handbook For Activists Ruckus Security Culture For Activists Know Your Rights: Immigration and Disaster Relief Council on American Islamic Relations Know Your Rights Guide National Lawyers Guild Know Your Rights Guide Why Misogynists Make Great Informants Anti Oppression Accomplices Not Allies Why Misogynists Make Great Informants Who Is Oakland: Anti Oppression Activism, The Politics of Safety, and State Co-optation Anti-Oppression Reader With Allies Like These Challenging Capitalism And Patriarchy Confronting Classism Contextualizing Katrina and Confronting Racism Guidelines For Being A Strong White Ally Overcoming Discrimination Patterns of Patriarchy Commonly Observed within Social Justice Movements Readings on Racism and Resistance for Solidarity Activists Ten Things To Remember - AntiRacist Strategies For White Student Radicals The Revolution Starts At Home - Confronting Partner Abuse In Radical Communities Towards A Perspective On Unlearning Racism Kitchen and Food Handling Food Safety First Manual Popular Education and Direct Action Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns Handbook For Direct Action Affinity Groups Affinity Groups 2 On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict Participating In Direct Actions -A Guide For Transgender People Planning An Action Rising Tide Climate Change Popular Education Ruckus Action Planning Manual Ruckus Action Strategy Guide Ruckus Scouting Manual For Activists Social Change Vision Questions Core Curriculum - A Guide To Effective Nonviolent Struggle What do we mean by mutual aid? Water, Sanitation and Hygiene No More Deaths - Compost Toilet User Guide Sanitizing Water (Spanish) - Saneamiento del agua (español) [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Donate

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:25:03 +0000

Click here to keep our work going and expanding financially with a one time or monthly recurring donation through our partners at Action Network, powered and secured through Wepay. Alternatively, you can donate to our Puerto Rico Rebuilds Campaign for autonomous and sustainable infrastructure development in the form of water purification systems and photovoltaic solar arrays. To earmark funds towards Sanando Puerto Rico, donate here. To donate specifically for our Invisible Disasters Program, click here. Additionally, you can purchase personal protective equipment and other supplies we need directly via our Amazon Wishlists: Texas Amazon Wishlist

Florida Amazon Wishlist

Louisiana Amazon Wishlist Puerto Rico and Caribbean Wishlist

A COPY OF MUTUAL AID DISASTER RELIEF OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE WITHIN THE STATE AT 1-800-HELP-FLA (435-7352), OR (850) 410 3800 CALLING FROM OUTSIDE OF FLORIDA, OR THROUGH THE DEPARTMENT'S WEBSITE AT WWW.800HELPFLA.COM REGISTRATION NUMBER CH49304. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE, NEITHER DOES IT IMPLY OUR ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL OR RECOMMENDATION OF THE STATE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS OF VIOLENCE, COERCION, AND HIERARCHICAL POWER.

Interested in supporting locally-rooted Puerto Rico solidarity and mutual aid efforts directly? You are people after our own hearts. This is who we recommend:

Movimiento Agroecología Popular, MAP (Utuado, Lares, Orocovis + Camuy) GoGetFunding: https://gogetfunding.com/agricultura-salud-y-vivienda/

Brigada Solidaria del Oeste (Las Marías, Maricao, Mayagüez, Añasco, Cabo Rojo, Lajas, Sabana Grande, San Germán, Lares, Utuado, Jayuya, Aguadilla, Guánica, Guayanilla, Aguada, Orocovis, Moca y Ponce) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brigadasolidariaoeste/ PayPal: iser@isercaribe.org

Centro de Apoyo Mutuo (Comedores Sociales, Caguas, PR) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Centro-de-Apoyo-Mutuo-2033558466880656/?fref=ts PayPal: cdpecpr@gmail.com

Proyecto Apoyo Mutuo Mariana (Bo. Mariana, Humacao)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PAMHumacao/?fref=ts PayPal: lrsmusica@gmail.com

La Olla Común (Río Piedras) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/La-Olla-Común-532922697050201/?fref=ts PayPal: jornadapr@protonmail.com

Comedor Comunitario Pedro Albizu Campos (Viejo San Juan)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Comedor-Comunitario-Pedro-Albizu-Campos-125251148161007/

PayPal: juanruiz754@gmail.com

Donate via Bitcoin:

[simpay id="1321"]

Co Conspirators

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:25:03 +0000

Occupy Sandy Op OK Relief Boulder Flood Relief Common Ground Relief West Street Recovery Centro de Apoyo Mutuo Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo Lower Ninth Ward Living Museum Islamic Relief United Peace Relief Bayou Action Street Health Democratic Socialists of America Black Cap Medic Collective Rose Hips Medic Collective Appalachian Medical Solidarity River City Medic Collective Steel City Organizing for Radical Community Health Root Health Collective Power Makes Us Sick Collective North Star Health Collective Medic Healer Council Southern Peoples Initiatives Rising Tide Earth First! Common Ground Health Clinic People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture Project South Indigenous Environmental Network Climate Justice Alliance Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project Unist’ot’en Camp Beehive Collective Food Not Bombs Industrial Workers of the World No Mas Muertes Experimental Farm Network Seeds of Peace Catalyst Project Tar Sands Blockade Gulf Restoration Network Rainforest Action Network Energy Action Coalition Radical Action for Mountains’ and People’s Survival Black Mesa Water Coalition Black Lives Matter Highlander Center Just Seeds Collective Ruckus Society Veteran's For Peace Engineers Without Borders International Indigenous Youth Council Gulf Coast Herbalists Without Borders National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party - Louisiana Chapter Life for Relief and Development CrowdRescueHQ L'eau Est La Vie Camp Coalition of Immokalee Workers Black Rose Anarchist Federation

Join

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 01:39:18 +0000

We are a people-powered relief effort. If we wait on the government or other large institutions, we may not survive the flood waters that threaten to drown us all. We the people must help each other. Ready to join the frontlines of the climate justice movement? Check out our welcome packet: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Welcome Packet You can also sign up for our email updates by following this link. Got a skill or interest (graphic design, accounting, social media, carpentry, counseling, etc.) and want to use it towards grassroots solidarity-based disaster relief efforts? Tell us! You can email us at MutualAidDisasterRelief@gmail.com to let us know how you want to be involved. In solidarity, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief P.s. Disaster sites have the potential to be inherently unsafe. They may contain physical threats to health and body, emotional traumas, and strained or fragmented social relationships. We ask everyone involved in community disaster response, both local and non-local volunteers, coordinators, and participating community members-- to be proactive in creating a supportive atmosphere where both the physical and emotional safety of others is ensured and validated. In the volatile, high-stress context of disaster, where people meet outside normal social relationships, it is easy to misunderstand each other. Therefore, it is essential to be more explicit and more careful in assuring all of our relationships are consensual Volunteers and community participants work together on the basis of mutual, active consent.

All volunteers and community participants must respect the physical and sexual boundaries of other people.
Ask for explicit verbal consent before touching someone. Consent includes asking, listening, and respecting; it does not include coercion, expectations, or assumptions.
Never assume consent, especially if drug/alcohol use is involved. Highly intoxicated people are always considered non-consenting.
Perpetrators of sexual violence and harassment are not welcome in volunteer spaces and activities and will be asked to leave these spaces and activities. Sexual violence by a volunteer is grounds for immediately ending the volunteer’s relationship with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief.
A perpetrators' presence should not hinder survivors' participation in volunteer activities. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief invites survivors to contact Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Advocates Ellen Zitani (646) 600 1039 or Stephen Ostrow at (727) 452 5710 to discuss how we can support you.
Volunteers and community members have the right to leave situations where they feel threatened. We will work with people to try to find alternatives in which they feel safe.

Failure to respect these guidelines and other egregious violations of volunteer or community safety may result in “free dissociation” of the violating person from all Mutual Aid Disaster Relief spaces, including volunteer housing, distribution points, work sites, or other operating spaces activities and resources.

Survival Programs

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 00:22:29 +0000

In the words of the former chief of staff of the Black Panther Party, survival programs are meant to "meet people's immediate needs while simultaneously raising their consciousness". They are survival programs pending revolution. Rebuilding and Resilience Program: including debris clean up, the cleaning, repair and rebuilding of individual’s homes, and community buildings such as schools and churches, and educating about and providing the necessary materials for disaster survivors to safely clean up their flooded homes. [gallery ids="273,275,274" type="square"] [gallery type="rectangular" ids="120,126,43,121,44,132"] Disaster Relief Distribution Program: including the distribution of water, food, diapers, toilet paper, clothes, cleaning and other supplies directly to survivors of disaster, and setting up distribution hubs where community members can acquire needed goods without paternalistic or stigmatizing rules, regulations, bureaucracy or red tape. [gallery ids="380,395,392" type="square"] [gallery type="square" ids="1299,1302,1303"] Wellness Program: Including the setup of wellness centers and community clinics in the wake of disasters, sending mobile teams of street medics, herbal medics, massage therapists, acupuncturists, doctors, and other medical professionals to disaster zones to provide medical aid to disaster survivors and relief workers. Providing psychological first aid, trauma counseling, harm reduction, peer mental health, access to life-saving medication, and other services to promote immediate survival and long-term emotional, psychological, and physical well-being. [gallery type="rectangular" ids="1304,1305,1306"] Sustainability and Ecological Resilience Program: Let’s face it. We cannot rely on Nestle to donate water or private electric utilities to provide life-saving electricity after a disaster. With this program, we are informed by a respect for the intersectionality of all living systems, as well as community norms and practices. Here is where permaculture meets disaster response. We spread the knowledge of and access to ecologically-sound and economically viable systems designs which provide for community’s survival needs and do not exploit or pollute. We empower individuals and communities to create or regenerate diverse, resilient communities that meet immediate ecological, economic, and social needs while increasing the health of human bodies, relationships, and the ecosystems in which they are embedded. In practice, this takes the form of sustainable and autonomous infrastructure development, creating water purification systems, building photovoltaic solar arrays, and other ecologically sound response and rebuilding efforts. Sanando Puerto Rico: Sanando Puerto Rico is a small, autonomous, independent team of doctors, nurses, and street medics, some with disaster relief experience, most with family on the island, all committed to supporting Puerto Rican communities most affected both by the recent hurricanes and ongoing structural violence in Puerto Rico. Following reports from family members, friends and colleagues, this team is traveling to some of the most inaccessible areas, where many have not received any assistance and communication is incredibly difficult. This team has the flexibility, skills, and experience to go wherever the need is greatest,we are autonomous, do-no-harm and work from the mindset of mutual-aid, not charity. In each location Sanando Puerto Rico completes 3 vital tasks: 1) Free medical care: Team has set up street clinics in shelters, carports and a baseball diamond, to name just a few. 2) Network to assess communities: Team meets these needs immediately when we can and connects to other support through partnerships. And, 3) Connects trained medical volunteers: to communities in struggle, building an ongoing structure of mutual-aid. https://www.facebook.com/SanandoPuertoRico/ SanandoPuertoRico@gmail.com [gallery type="square" ids="1309,1307,1310"] Invisible Disasters Program: just because the major disasters stop doesn't mean we do. There are always ongoing disasters of social and economic inequality. When we are not responding to people's self-determined needs in the context of hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires, we are applying the same Mutual Aid Disaster Relief principles in our hometowns, creating local survival programs to strengthen our community's resilience, raise people's consciousness, and increase people's empowerment. These survival programs have included a free laundry program, free haircuts, free breakfast program, free groceries, and free field trips for children and their families in low-income apartments, and a lot more. [gallery ids="279,280,281" type="columns"]

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 20:03:57 +0000

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 20:03:58 +0000

WPForms Preview

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About MADR

deadlyvine — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 18:34:10 +0000

Events

deadlyvine — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 15:47:28 +0000

Sample Page

wpengine — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 14:47:09 +0000

This is an example page. It's different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this:

Hi there! I'm a bike messenger by day, aspiring actor by night, and this is my website. I live in Los Angeles, have a great dog named Jack, and I like piña coladas. (And gettin' caught in the rain.)

...or something like this:

The XYZ Doohickey Company was founded in 1971, and has been providing quality doohickeys to the public ever since. Located in Gotham City, XYZ employs over 2,000 people and does all kinds of awesome things for the Gotham community.

As a new WordPress user, you should go to your dashboard to delete this page and create new pages for your content. Have fun!

MAD Relief Baton Rouge Flood Response

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 15:58:51 +0000

When historic flood waters overtook Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief contacted the affected communities on the ground and within hours were setting up a communal space for volunteers to gather, putting a call out to amplify the requests of those fighting to save their homes, items wish lists were mass-circulated and volunteers on the ground began assembling crews and affinity groups to respond alongside Baton Rouge residents for gutting, mucking and cleanup efforts. Folks from across the country jumped in their cars in autonomous actions to stand with the Baton Rouge community as MAD Relief Welcome Packs were sent out to orient and convey our principles of solidarity not charity, consent and consensus based organizing and direct action.

Towards a Conscious, Collective Aid Response

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 16:57:47 +0000

The summer of 2016 has shown that the effects of climate change are not distant fears, but current realities. However, instead of changing course, those in power are stepping up efforts to exacerbate the climate chaos. But from the no new lease on the gulf movement to the Camp of the Sacred Stones, people are resisting these threats to our survival. The historic flooding in Louisiana is being called the worst disaster since Hurricane Sandy hit New York. Tens of thousands of homes have been affected and over a hundred thousand people have applied for disaster assistance. Over the weekend in Baton Rouge, 40 of our volunteers engaged in gutting five homes affected by historic and deadly floods. We were able to assist homeowners in gutting several more homes today. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief volunteers gutting a home in Baton Rouge, LA

More cars of volunteers are en route. If you are able to volunteer in Louisiana, fill out this google form or just shoot us a reply email. A Mutual Aid Disaster Relief benefit show is also being organized on the ground in New Orleans and folks wanting to act in support and solidarity with affected community residents are adding up quickly! As the floodwaters recede and people are able to return to their homes, a steady supply of materials and volunteers are needed to assist in the long road to recovery and rebuilding. Thank you to everybody who has responded and is currently responding! We couldn't have done any of this without your support! If you are unable to come volunteer, but still want to help out, you can purchase protective gear for volunteers that are on the ground by visiting our Amazon wish list. And we cannot forget our friends in West Virginia. People impacted by the floods there are still attempting to recover and are still in need of volunteer assistance. Anybody with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief wishing to volunteer in West Virginia has been invited to stay at the Radical Action for Mountains’ and Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS) collective house. You can call RAMPS at 304-854-2621 or email them at info@rampscampaign.org. For questions regarding what work is needed, you can contact Clendedin Community Cleanup, our community partners in West Virginia, at 304-545-3753 As we respond to these and other disasters, we want to do our best to ensure that there is a just recovery and historically marginalized and neglected communities are receiving the support they need to rebuild. How can people experiencing homelessness be integrated into a just recovery? The fact that people are shelter-less due to the disaster of floods or to the disaster of neoliberal economics, doesn’t take away their need for safe and affordable housing. What about Alton Sterling (may he rest in peace and power, and our communities continue to say his name and struggle in memory of him) and people like him who in addition to the floodwaters are forced to also rise above the crushing weight of police violence and the institutional racism of an incarceration state? As we come together to address another community’s self-determined needs post-flood, let’s keep our vision for fundamental change crystal clear as we work rebuilding a better world brick by brick, mucked home by mucked home.

Coming Together to Survive Climate Catastrophe

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 17:08:32 +0000

Hurricane Matthew thankfully missed major cities in South Florida and downgraded to a less powerful storm before slamming into North and South Carolina. Significant flooding still occurred throughout communities close to rivers and waterways in several locations throughout coastal areas of the U.S. southeast. Many families lost everything they owned. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief helped this family remove all their flooded belongings in St. Augustine, FL. Many lost everything due to Hurricane Matthew and in many instances the losses are not being covered by their insurance. Many more are still without electricity and water. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief coordinated carloads of supplies and volunteers to affected areas, delivering water and other needed supplies and assisting with local initiated decentralized community clean-up efforts. Small gestures of assistance involving a few hours of labor here and there were met with tears of gratitude by those impacted by Hurricane Matthew. Similar to other disasters, local community residents have initiated decentralized recovery efforts, breaking the spell of powerlessness. Neighbors are helping neighbors. And even though people have suffered losses from the disaster, these same people are assisting others, proving once again that survivors of disasters aren’t passive victims but powerful co-creators of a communal recovery. However as everyday people responding with humanity to their neighbors without much prior knowledge about cleanup, community members are not using adequate personal protective gear to help clean up homes and buildings safely. Click here if you can purchase protective gear for those involved in community clean up efforts. Although some people have lost everything in the U.S. southeast, this pales in comparison to the effects of Hurricane Matthew on the people of Haiti. Already over 1,000 people in Haiti have been killed by the Category 4 storm, making it the deadliest Atlantic Hurricane in over a decade. Our hearts are with everyone who lost loved ones, especially those in Haiti who are continuing to bear the brunt of climate change induced extreme weather caused by the industrialized, developed, fossil-fuel addicted nations like the U.S. If you are able, in lieu of sending Mutual Aid Disaster Relief monetary donations at this time, consider supporting one of these Haitian-led development-oriented organizations that are responding to Hurricane Matthew:

And here is another organization, One Hundred for Haiti, that although U.S. based, is transparent about where money donated goes and is striving to be solidarity-based. We are highlighting these organizations as an alternative to top-down charity-based groups that have a history of not effectively utilizing the large sums of money they were donated to assist disaster survivors, such as during the Haiti Earthquake relief. At the same time that disasters cause so much devastation and loss. They are also moments of possibility wherein individuals and whole communities reject the ethos of profit before people and instead spontaneously come together to care for each others' needs. Suddenly, a spell is broken, a crack in the walls that divide us widens, people connect, share, and that better world we are constantly fighting for isn’t a distant hope but a current reality, if only temporarily. This communal solidarity and concern for each other is a microcosm of the world we want to create. It is an echo from a future that we bring closer to existence through each small simple act of kindness and courage. In solidarity,

Solidarity and Cracks in History

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 00:57:06 +0000

You may have not heard from us in a while. We have been standing with Standing Rock and have been neglecting updates and other organizational planning in favor of on the ground action. As the American Red Cross reportedly denied humanitarian aid to water protectors at Standing Rock at the behest of Morton County Sheriff, we at Mutual Aid Disaster Relief brought several caravans full of food, water, propane, medical supplies, cold weather gear, additional water protectors, and dozens of respirators and other personal protective equipment to guard against the harsh North Dakota winter and even harsher police violence.

Peaceful water protectors are tear gassed and sprayed with water cannons by law enforcement in freezing temperatures at Standing Rock, NDAlthough for the moment water protectors have delayed and prevented this future disaster from taking place, we know we must stay vigilant, especially as a new administration may reverse the Army Corps of Engineers decision to deny Energy Transfer Partners the easement to drill under Lake Oahe. At Standing Rock, it was commonplace to overhear people talking about prophecies culminating in the present moment. We were reminded of this Hopi prophecy that we continue to reflect on: "You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . . Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Know your garden. It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader." Read the rest here. There is an ancient Greek word called Kairos, which means the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment, almost a time lapse, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens. The Zapatistas, similarly, speak about opening cracks in the walls of history to look in order to imagine everything that could be done tomorrow. At the same time that there is heightened anxiety about the future and uncertainty and instability in the political and other realms, now more than ever we need strategic vision and action, movements that articulate the revolution by prefiguring it, by remembering things yet to be, and embodying those potentialities in our work. This very well may be a crack in time in which more is possible, and in what direction we go, towards environmental and other catastrophes or awakening and collective liberation depends on the choices we make. In December, 11 years ago, Meg Perry died in New Orleans in an accident after bringing a vegetable oil powered bus full of supplies and volunteers from Portland Maine to New Orleans and surrounding areas where she worked tirelessly for several months gutting houses, clearing debris, planting gardens, and inspiring so many with her smile and kind heart. We know that she isn’t the only one who made the ultimate sacrifice to bring us a little bit closer to the better world we know is possible. We keep her memory, and all those we’ve lost along the way, with us as we move into 2017 and continue to struggle for climate justice and the continued survival and self-determination of front-line communities, knowing that sometimes the night is long, but it eventually gives way to the dawn.

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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Harvey: echoes of the past and future

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 19:42:52 +0000

Our hearts are breaking to see another (un)natural disaster unfolding in the Gulf. But we know that with people power we can overcome and regenerate, together. And we know that Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is ready to fill the big shoes handed down by its revolutionary prototype – together all of us will certainly play a big role in the recovery of Houston and the region, as we support locals and outsiders already working on the ground, and organize nationally to send additional people and resources to affected areas. This is a great time to make a donation of money or materials. It is a great time to give your time and energy, especially if you have valuable skills like medicine, construction, cooking, auto repairs, computer and communication tech, legal knowledge, or community organizing. Please consider a donation to Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. We know how to put it to good use. You can donate cash to Mutual Aid Disaster Relief here. You can purchase materials from this Amazon wish list and they will be shipped directly to groups on the ground in Houston. You can sign up to volunteer by emailing us at mutualaiddisasterrelief@gmail.com. Hurricane Harvey’s fury in Texas has dumped historic rainfall, swelling into unprecedented flooding. Over 50 inches of rain have fallen in the Houston area, and many at the scene are describing it as “apocalyptic.” It is just the latest in a growing chain of unprecedented disasters. The last three summers have each been historic, the hottest on record; extreme weather events, especially droughts and floods, have become common. Though 2017 is slightly cooler than 2016 globally, that did not prevent record setting temperatures in Iran (129º F) and Pakistan (128º F). And South Asia’s monsoon rains have been biblical, killing over 1200 people so far in Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh; more than one third of Bangladesh is currently under water. Howling in my ears like a hurricane wind are the echoes of another historic storm season. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina ruptured the levees of New Orleans and killed more than 1200 throughout the region, and Mumbai was drowned by 37 inches of rain in only 24 hours, killing more than 1000 in the city alone. When history repeats itself, it is telling us that we have failed to learn our lesson. I am bursting with feelings from that historic 2005 hurricane season, when I feared for old friends in India and wept with new friends in New Orleans – I spent over a year in NOLA, working with the incredible Common Ground Collective. It was a transformative experience for me, I learned much during that time. And now I am hearing many echoes… may we all listen, and learn. Houston is the nation’s fourth largest city, and its most diverse. And it is extremely vulnerable, with the metro area’s 6.3 million people occupying ten thousand square miles of low-lying coastal clay deposits with paved and poorly-planned sprawl. Catastrophic flooding is becoming the new norm – including Harvey, Houston has been hit by three “500-year flood” events in the last three years. To make matters exponentially worse, the “Petro Metro” is full of oil infrastructure. The largest oil refinery in the United States is in nearby Port Arthur; the Gulf Coast has half of the refineries in the country. Petrochemical industries not only increase the likelihood of catastrophic storms by contributing to climate change, but they also destroy the coast’s ecologically resilient ability to protect itself by slicing through protective barrier islands, mangroves, and salt marshes with pipelines and shipping corridors. Now an industry that is one of the leading contributors to climate change is being attacked by the angry sea and sky, and its neighbors, mostly poor people of color, are afflicted by the toxins released in the process. Houston is drowning in many floods. Not only a flood of rain made worse by increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and devastated coastlines, all consequences of fossil fuel extraction and burning… But also a flood of toxic petrochemicals that disproportionately affect communities of color, communities of the poor. In urban and rural locales worldwide, polluting industries are always sited at the intersections of other oppressions, leading to high rates of asthma, heavy metal poisoning, and cancer in marginalized fence-line communities. In the wake of Harvey, an estimated two million pounds of chemical pollutants have been released into the air as at least fifteen refineries have been forced into sudden shutdowns. No less toxic is a flood of racism, exemplified by SB 4, a bill which bans sanctuary cities in Texas and allows police to demand citizenship papers from anyone they detain, which was slated to go into effect on Friday (but held up in the courts for now), and by the impending repeal of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which provides status for over 85,000 Houston residents. Undocumented immigrants are afraid to go to shelters because they are hearing rumors that they will be summarily deported (the mayor and sheriff are doing all they can to counter these rumors and assure people that they are welcome). And outside the city, Border Patrol agents kept their checkpoints open to snatch anyone trying to evacuate. Meanwhile, Trump continues twating about his damned wall. Across this country we see a newly enraged flood of the poisonous politics of hate, the kind that attack black and brown and queer peoples while celebrating contemptuous racists like Joe Arpaio and murderous brutes like Dave Clarke. And let’s not be too shy to say, that if a consequence of Harvey is the further elevation of the police state, we may witness another historic repetition – that of the rise of fascism (An ideology to which both of these sheriffs are sympathetic. Arpaio once called the immigrant detention facility consisting of tents in the desert “my own concentration camp,” while Clarke railed, “Don’t try to understand the sick ideology of ‘Islamism,’ destroy it.”). The deluge is exacerbated by a flood of poverty fueled by inequality and neglect, such that “voluntary evacuation” is only available to a fraction of the population who own a car. The Harris County Jail, full of 8,000 people who broke the law and are thereby exempted by the 13^th Amendment from their right to be free from enslavement, has not been evacuated. And the media report almost nothing about rural communities, who have less resources; if historical patterns repeat, they will surely receive little attention from bumbling FEMA and disingenuous Red Cross. All of this is gleefully gambled upon by a flood of disaster capitalism with its extreme disregard for fundamental human rights coupled with legal armaments elevating “corporate rights.” Which, even in peaceful times, takes advantage of every crisis to further exploit, further displace and disinherit, those who are least powerful, while surreptitiously dismantling regulations and taxes upon corporations and the 1%. Which, if it follows the post-Katrina model in the wake of Harvey, will aggressively privatize schools, undermine unions, and rapidly gentrify historic neighborhoods in the wake of the storm while shoveling tax-payer money into the pockets of private contractors . Profiteering promoted by Mike Pence in a memo on “Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Hurricane Katrina and High Gas” has now become common practice in the “shock doctrine” so well described by Naomi Klein, and it gives clear meaning to Trump’s Corpus Christi claims that “It’s going well,” and “”We’ll congratulate each other when it’s all finished.” And as if that were not enough, contrary to all good sense, we still do not see an end to the flood of willful ignorance and bad planning, anchored by bought politicians and perpetuated by the mainstream media which seem simply incapable of using the words “climate change,” in spite of clear and present danger and the urgent need to ready ourselves for an even more uncertain future. But even while I am heart-broken by the seemingly endless stories of loss, even while I am burdened by fears of history repeating – by the post-apocalyptic post-Katrina memories that make my teeth grind, my muscles ache, and my pulse quicken – my fears are comforted by a very intentional kind of repetition. I also have memories of generosity and sharing, of empowerment, of good-old-fashioned cooperative problem-solving. Now I am seeing hundreds of ordinary people using borrowed boats to rescue stranded residents, and truckloads of donated cleaning supplies destined for local environmental and social justice organizations that have metamorphosed into grassroots hurricane relief groups overnight – visions like these make me believe that a better world is possible. The people themselves are doing what they have always done – taking care of each other. Local organizations like Bayou Action Street Health, Common Ground Relief Austin, Black Women’s Defense League, Counter Balance, and Houston Food Not Bombs, as well as thousands of ordinary folks independent of any organized effort, are already busy providing much-needed aid, as FEMA is still doddering around setting up their HQ. More help is needed, and support from a national network like Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is essential. MADR is breaking down the divide between givers and receivers of aid, extolling the principle of “Solidarity Not Charity.” Solidarity Not Charity means a radical and holistic approach, one that asks about the root causes of problems and insists that aid-workers listen and understand what is needed, one that empowers survivors to realize their own recovery by any and all means available, and to vision the organization necessary to achieve the power to build those means that are not yet available. Solidarity Not Charity transcends politics – it recognizes our common human needs and abilities – while also radically dissecting the political nature of, and the political problems implied by, unnatural disasters (those caused and encouraged by disaster capitalism). Our struggles may be diverse, but our pursuits of Freedom, Justice, and Dignity all share a common path, one which we must make by walking together. Charting this path is difficult and sometimes uncomfortable (that is why listening is so important!), but it is the path of hope. Solidarity Not Charity means recognizing that all of us are learning, teaching, growing, struggling, advancing, and opening our eyes and our hearts through this experience of radical love and compassion. Although our work may include distributing food and water or rebuilding homes when needed, we engage in many other activities, and our approach is based first in community organizing. Community organizing is the most powerful form of disaster response, as it does not merely focus on rebuilding infrastructures and economies, but visions the rebuilding of the power of the people. We understand that self-determination is the most fundamental human right. We insist that marginalized communities be centered in recovery and in resistance, because diversity is strength. Community organizing facilitates future community resiliency and better disaster preparedness. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is a standing network of local groups which will take advantage of each disaster moment to train new members, initiate new groups, and strengthen the network; continue during peaceful times to strategize, nurture communications, and provide education in disaster preparedness to the public; and then encourage and facilitate existing groups in aiding and training new groups during the next disaster moment. This way, we will be stronger and smarter and bigger and more diverse every time. Now is the time for inspired action. We will not wait for permission, we will not hand over our resources or ourselves to professionals or experts. We know that we can solve our problems through collaborative direct action. Direct action from those with privilege can open up space around those with less, can alleviate crushing oppression just long enough for communities to experience their own power, to see what they are truly capable of accomplishing together, and to give them hope. Direct action from those with less privilege can prove to those who possess more that we are all equals, that we are all strong just as we are all afraid, and that nonviolent action can open eyes, start conversations, and help to bridge perceived divides. Direct action from the grassroots is the only true solution to the crises that face us now and in the future. Join us as we create a new flood, one made of the overwhelming power of compassion and collaboration. “We The People Must Help Each Other.” Please donate money, materials, and your precious time and energy. We know how to put them to good use. You can donate cash to Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. You can purchase materials from this Amazon wish list and they will be sent directly to groups on the ground in Houston. You can sign up to volunteer by emailing MutualAidDisasterRelief@gmail.com or filling out one of these volunteer forms from our local partners at Austin Common Ground or Houston DSA. With love and solidarity,

Harvey, Irma, and Power from Below

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 16:31:13 +0000

From the moment Hurricane Harvey hit, autonomous solidarity efforts and decentralized direct action have come to the fore. From rescue efforts, to mobile kitchens, from providing medical care to cleaning up flooded homes - reconnecting with such gestures, buried under years of normalized life, is the only practicable means of not sinking down with the world. I am sitting here in Tampa, Florida with friends and comrades where we have partnered with Love Has No Borders, a radical refugee solidarity network and just finished delivering hurricane preparedness kits with information on what to expect with Hurricane Irma in over a dozen languages to recently arrived refugee families. We also emptied a couple Starbucks stores full of food to undocumented friendly shelters and drove people experiencing homelessness to welcoming and open doors to find shelter from the coming storm. Throughout Florida we have been busy creating online and real-world hubs for decentralized people-powered relief efforts. In Tampa, this hub is at 5107 N. Central Ave, right next to St. Paul Lutheran Church. The Color Block in Miami is also available as a hub and it is located on relatively high ground in Little Haiti. We have learned from our elders that the real revolution is mutual aid and survival programs that address people's immediate needs while simultaneously raising consciousness.

After battering several islands in the Caribbean, Irma rendered Barbuda and St. Martins near uninhabitable with catastrophic damage. And Hurricane Jose is on a tentative path back towards Barbuda as well– the second hurricane in three days. Here is an Amazon wishlist created by an ad hoc committee created to bring grassroots and direct relief to the islands. Meanwhile, there was a massive earthquake in Oaxaca & Chiapas. They say it is the worst one in a century, and was felt by comrades as far away as Mexico City. Interested in supporting relief efforts there? Check out Codigo DH. We know starting somewhere with disasters of this magnitude can be overwhelming, so we want to remind you that resilience isn't found in what we can purchase, but in what we can share - in the relationships of support that connect us with each other. Reach out to your neighbors. Invite someone to stay at your home if you live in a safer area. Invite someone without access to transportation to evacuate with you if you choose to evacuate. Give rides to shelters for people who are experiencing homelessness or a physical disability. Prepare to engage in rescue efforts, send in supplies, or volunteer in other ways if it becomes needed. Act without waiting for permission. Interested in responding autonomously to Hurricane Irma and connecting with others doing the same? Go over to Irma Decentralized Response, South Florida Solidarity & Relief, and Street Medic Mobilization for Irma. For those thinking about coming to volunteer from outside of Texas for the Harvey recovery efforts, read this primer written by our friends at Houston’s Anarchist Black Cross. Have medical skills and headed for Texas? Connect with Bayou Action Street Health - BASH on Facebook or by clicking here. And we can't give enough props to West Street Recovery for their amazing community work in Houston. For a continually updated clearing-house of grassroots efforts in Texas and Louisiana, visit our friends at Another Gulf is Possible. Extreme weather is only increasing in intensity and frequency, and other types of storms are on the horizon as well. Are you involved with a college campus, community center, or just a group of rad folks who want to prepare your crew to build power from below and spread decentralized, liberatory, solidarity-based disaster response? Please follow this link and get in touch about us coming to your community for popular education and movement building presentations and trainings. We see clearly the alternative from above: involuntarily committing houseless individuals in the path of Hurricane Irma under mental health pretenses, utilizing shelters as traps to fill the prisons, keeping prisoners in unsafe flooded out conditions, and of course bureaucracy and red tape. But something is growing from below. Civil society, people-powered, decentralized, network based, climate-justice focused disaster response. If you can't be on the ground, there's lots of other ways to plug in. If you have any extra or spare tools or wouldn't mind buying some to donate please email us at mutualaiddisasterrelief@gmail.com You can donate to Mutual Aid Disaster Relief here. And purchase items for the relief efforts here: Texas. Louisiana. Florida. Speaking of which, thank you so much to everybody who has donated so far. We cannot do this work without you. Items from our Amazon wishlist have already been arriving in Houston, just in time for the clean-up crews going out over the weekend. For more perspective, click here to hear Roger Benham answer the question "Why are anarchists some of the first responders during catastrophes?" Click here to hear Scott Crow on Dual Power and Revolutionary Infrastructure. Click here to hear Democracy Now! and Scott Crow discuss mutual aid and people-powered efforts in Texas. And click here to read a thoughtful analysis of mutual aid disaster relief as antifascist struggle. It's times like these when we are reminded that the capitalist ethos is not our own. We are fighting and winning by loving and supporting each other. Every disaster that comes, we remember just a little bit more - that our liberation is tied with others, that mutual aid and solidarity is our natural human inclination, that we have nothing to lose but these invisible chains, that power from below (like courage) is contagious, and that our survival depends on us not waiting for others to do what we know must be done. In remembrance of Alonso Guillen, a Mexican born hero and DACA recipient who lost his life after drowning while running autonomous first responder rescue efforts in Houston and Meg Perry who lost her life bringing relief to survivors after Katrina. Alonso. Meg. Presente. You are here with us. You are remembered. And we will continue to struggle for climate justice, survival, and collective liberation in your names. - Jimmy w/ Mutual Aid Disaster Relief https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/ https://www.facebook.com/MutualAidDisasterRelief/

Info

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 04:32:54 +0000

Co Conspirators - accomplices and allies engaged in mutual aid and direct action for a just and sustainable future; join us! Resources - we may not be experts, but we have learned a lot so far, and we are eager to share it so that you can get into action Media - articles, interviews, and videos about Common Ground, MADR, and other grassroots disaster responders Testimonials (coming soon)

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mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 18:16:34 +0000

[fusion_builder_container admin_label="" hundred_percent="yes" hundred_percent_height="no" hundred_percent_height_scroll="no" hundred_percent_height_center_content="yes" equal_height_columns="yes" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="no" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="http://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/MADRjumbo_backdrop_minimalist.jpg" background_position="center top" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="fixed" enable_mobile="yes" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" video_preview_image="" border_size="0px" border_color="" border_style="solid" margin_top="15px" margin_bottom="0" padding_top="15px" padding_right="15px" padding_bottom="15px" padding_left="15px"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_4" layout="1_4" spacing="" center_content="no" link="" target="_self" min_height="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center top" undefined="" background_repeat="no-repeat" hover_type="none" border_size="0" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="" margin_bottom="" animation_type="" animation_direction="left" animation_speed="0.2" animation_offset="" last="no"][fusion_title margin_top="" margin_bottom="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" size="1" content_align="left" style_type="none" sep_color=""] SOLIDARITY NOT CHARITY [/fusion_title][fusion_text]

Recent events have shown that the effects of climate change are not distant fears, but current realities. From historic flooding in Louisiana to Hurricanes Matthew, Harvey, Irma, and Maria we need each other more than we ever have before. Immediately after floods and other disasters, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief listens to affected community members and responds with supplies, work crews, and amplifying the grassroots community-led initiatives that blossom following disasters.

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Updates

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 18:19:59 +0000

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Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 00:47:15 +0000

Hello friends! We wanted to introduce you to an exciting new project that we have been helping create. As you may know, many of us went to New Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina and stayed for several months afterwards. I was amazed at what a small group of us were able to accomplish with very little resources or experience, but a lot of passion and compassion. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy shocked many of us around the country. We were also shocked at the inaction and inability of government and large non-profit organizations to respond effectively. We had to act. In both instances, people with experience in grassroots social movements turned to disaster relief. Using the skills and contacts we learned from decades of community organizing, together with our vision of a better world, we created health clinics, legal clinics, a roof-tarping project, tree-cutting service, community media centers, and bioremediation. We stopped house demolitions, distributed aid, documented police abuses, created a tool-lending library, gutted thousands of houses, cleaned up debris, among other things, and perhaps even more importantly we listened. Our willingness to engage in direct action found a new context in defending public housing, re-opening shuttered school doors, delivering much needed supplies past checkpoints, and helping community members maintain their historic centers of worship despite the opposition of church hierarchies. The experience and wisdom gained from mass mobilizations against global capital melded with the legacy of the Black Panther survival programs - all this practical knowledge accumulated in the course of several lifetimes of social movement organizing found a space where it could be deployed - far from the uniforms and sirens. Those experiences opened us up to what is possible. With climate change and the increasing frequency and severity of major disasters, we are coming face to face with our vulnerability. But in vulnerability there is strength too. What better place is there to come together and exemplify the kind of world we are trying to create, than the immediate aftermath of a disaster? Following in the tradition of Common Ground and Occupy Sandy, we are creating Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, a permanent network of volunteers, supplies, and coordination. Our mission is to provide effective and efficient disaster relief based on the principles of solidarity, mutual aid, and autonomous direct action. Through working with, listening and being responsive to impacted communities, especially those most marginalized, we will help build long-term, sustainable and resilient communities. We envision strong, vibrant, resilient, connected and empowered individuals and communities and an awakened civil society that restores hope and turns the tide against disaster capitalism and climate chaos, in favor of a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is a community organization that depends on a diverse network of individuals and organizations working in solidarity with the people affected in times of crisis. It is organized as an open, self-empowered, transparent structure which welcomes and encourages the participation of disaster survivors and any who wish to support them. As natural disasters increase in intensity and frequency, we recognize that our hope for a livable future rests in developing resilient preparation for and response to crisis as individuals and communities, while simultaneously opposing intensive resource extraction and other root causes of climate change. We are engaged in a horizontal, multidimensional and multidirectional process that contributes to the liberation of everyone involved, not charitable acts. This means we share resources, skills, experience, knowledge and ideas without perpetuating relationships based on hierarchical power. We have a Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram that you are welcome to like, follow, and invite your friends to. We are currently responding to a call from community members affected by the floods in West Virginia who have taken it upon themselves to respond to the needs of their neighbors. We will be driving up to the flood affected area this coming Saturday, July 16th. The exact items needed and where to drop them off (for transport from Florida) up to West Virginia can be found on this event page. Any assistance is appreciated! If you read this and your heart starts fluttering and your mind starts to race with ways that your vision, skills, knowledge, experience, interests, or passion align with this vision and could strengthen this project, we want your participation! There are conference calls and working groups that we can plug you into. Simply get in touch and we will make it happen… together. with love and solidarity, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

WV Needs Flood Relief Volunteers!

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 00:48:17 +0000

Thank you to everybody who donated supplies for people impacted by the floods in West Virginia! And everybody else who replied with messages of encouragement, support, and solidarity. In Camden-on-Gauley, WV, a small rural town largely forgotten by large disaster relief organizations, DJK, a kitchen formed to share food at Rainbow Gatherings, set up a base camp and organized collectively to send out teams to gut houses and repair damage done by the flooding. In Clendenin, Elkview, and Clay County, WV, the Roush family, who are from Clendenin, have been tirelessly organizing work crews and distributing cleanup supplies as part of a communal recovery. But residents trying to rebuild their homes and lives are facing roadblocks over code enforcement. Through your help, we were able to deliver cooking equipment, tarps, bins, bug spray, and many other requested items to these grassroots groups. In partnership with our friends at Radical Action for Mountains’ and Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS), we were able to get a box truck of requested supplies to the area, unload it, and distribute it to community residents. It's been over 6 weeks since severe flooding hit a large part of West Virginia. And although there's been an amazing volunteer response, volunteer interest is dropping as the flood has faded from the headlines. And the volunteers still on the ground are requesting backup. Both skilled and unskilled labor crews are very much still needed — especially people with experience installing drywall, replacing insulation, installing flooring, building footbridges, or inspecting buildings for other damage. And there's plenty for unskilled folks to do too! If you want to go up and volunteer, we can help you make it happen! If you need a place to stay, we can help coordinate that too. With wildfires still raging in California, sewage contaminating drinking water in Baltimore, and hurricane season coming in the Gulf of Mexico, we have our work cut out for us. But we recognize that our hope for a livable future rests in each other, in the relationships we build with each other, and in developing resilient preparation for and response to crisis as individuals and communities, while simultaneously opposing intensive resource extraction and other root causes of climate change. We know that, together, we can rise above the floodwaters that threaten to drown us all. For climate justice and the better world we carry in our hearts, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Core Values

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 01:07:46 +0000

Core Values: Mutual Aid: Voluntary, reciprocal, participatory assistance among equals and being with, not for, disaster survivors. Solidarity not charity!: Disaster survivors themselves are the first responders to crisis; the role of outside aid is to support survivors to support each other. The privileges associated with aid organizations and aid workers--which may include access to material resources, freedom of movement, skills, knowledge, experience, and influence—are leveraged in support of disaster survivor’s self-determination and survival in crisis, and their long-term resilience afterwards, ultimately redistributing these forms of power to the most marginalized. Self-determination: Individuals and communities impacted by disaster have the agency, ability, and power to make their own decisions and choices about their lives, recovery, and long-term resilience, without interference or coercion from outside forces. Mandar obedeciendo and Subsidiarity: The Zapatista principle of mander obedeciendo-- leadership from below-- teaches that those who command positions of power, wealth, and influence should obey the direction of those with the least. The Catholic principle of subsidiarity teaches that the most effective decisions and actions take place at the level of those closest to the problem or most impacted by the solution. By embracing and applying these principles, disaster responders have a responsibility to center and elevate the leadership of disaster survivors, especially those in the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. Participation and Horizontality: Decentralization and sharing of power within groups and communities reduces hierarchies and power imbalances within and between groups of people, enabling disaster survivors and responders to participate fully in rebuilding a better world together. Autonomous Direct Action: Saving lives, homes, and communities in the event and aftermath of disaster may require taking bold action without waiting for permission from authorities. Disaster survivors themselves are the most important authority on just action. Intersectionality: Historical and systemic forms of oppression and discrimination work together to make some people and groups more vulnerable to different types of disaster and during the rebuilding process. A just disaster response acknowledges, adapts to, and addresses the different needs, priorities, and perspectives of diverse disaster survivors. Sustainability: Sustainable disaster recovery encompasses a respect for the intersectionality of all living systems, community norms and practices, as well as the distribution of knowledge about ecologically-sound and economically viable systems designs, which provide for their own needs and do not exploit or pollute. Skills training and upskilling are shared within the community and people are empowered to create or regenerate diverse, resilient communities that meet immediate ecological, economic, and social needs while increasing the health of human bodies, relationships, and the ecosystems in which they are embedded. Dual Power: A strategy for the bottom-up transformation and replacement of existing institutions and mechanisms of society with self-organized counter-institutions. Disaster response that simultaneously opposes oppressive and exploitative structures while building alternative, prefigurative structures for collective liberation and resilience unites disparate elements of revolutionary and reformist movements and meets unmet needs without waiting until “after the revolution”. Collective Liberation: In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free”. All struggles are intimately connected and movements must work together and share knowledge, power, and resources in order to bring about a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world free of any kind of unjust oppression of others or the earth.

"Growing the Movement for Mutual Aid" Fund-raiser

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 14:11:30 +0000

Friends, Comrades, Accomplices and Co-Conspirators!

Tyler here, with some exciting news. I have launched a crowd-funding campaign to get the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Training Tour on the road!

The time is right, and the demand is huge. We will visit nearly 40 destinations in Spring 2018, and already we are filling up our schedule for Fall 2018. If all goes well, we hope that this work will expand our network, train new trainers, and perfect our curricula so that in 2019 and 2020 we can visit even more of the many urban and rural communities who are sending requests from all over the US and the world!

Please help to gather the start-up funds needed to buy a vehicle and other essentials, and our experienced team will bring knowledge, skills, and inspiration to diverse communities ready to take care of themselves and each other.

This tour is just the beginning - together we are Growing the Movement for Mutual Aid!

Check out the fund-raiser here!

A horizontal, multidimensional and multidirectional process

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 21:47:41 +0000

As natural disasters increase in intensity and frequency, we recognize that our hope for a livable future rests in developing resilient preparation for and response to crisis as individuals and communities, while simultaneously opposing intensive resource extraction and other root causes of climate change. We are engaged in a horizontal, multidimensional and multidirectional process that contributes to the liberation of everyone involved, not charitable acts. This means we share resources, skills, experience, knowledge and ideas without perpetuating relationships based on hierarchical power.

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Autonomy in Tampa - Solidarity in Immokalee: A Love Letter to the Future

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 02:47:12 +0000

Thankfully, Tampa did not get "punched in the face" as much as anticipated. Still, if you are in the Tampa Bay area and need medical assistance or food/water/debris cleanup, or want to act in solidarity with your neighbors, or both! you can come to 5107 N. Central Ave, right next to St. Paul Lutheran Church. We are facilitating debris cleanup crews, providing first aid, engaging in mobile supplies distribution and more. We have cut down trees, removed debris, comforted neighbors, bought life saving medications, cleaned out fridges, put a family that didn’t have one up in a safe home. No Bureaucracy. No red tape. In St Pete, community-based relief efforts are coalescing at St Pete Community Acupuncture. And similar efforts are underway throughout Florida. If you are coming from out of the area, you are welcome at these locations, but know that Tampa itself is back to “normal” for most of its residents – very far from an apocalyptic atmosphere. But we are using the Tampa convergence center to do relief efforts throughout the state focusing on harder hit, historically marginalized communities, including migrant farmworker and indigenous communities. The Mutual Aid Disaster Relief convergence center in Tampa is growing by the hour. The first aid station has grown into a wellness center, including acupuncture, trauma counseling, peer support, herbal medics, and other alternative medicine modalities. Local community members know to drop off hurricane supplies that they didn’t need. Community members also know to come here if supplies are needed. And that these supplies can be received with dignity. Here, there are no powerful givers of aid and powerless receivers of aid. We are undermining that dynamic in a process that contributes to the liberation and consciousness-raising of everybody involved. Mobile distros base out of the space, channel their inner Robin Hood, and reach across Florida with supplies, especially to historically marginalized communities. We have funneled over 10 tons of food, water, diapers, and other supplies to hard-hit Immokalee, FL. a migrant farmworker town. In Immokalee, we are working at the request of and in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a human rights, farmworker justice movement with deep roots in the community. Immokalee expects to be without power for weeks to come and food in the city is scarce. Other needs are self-standing already functional photovoltaic solar arrays, solar generators, other solar equipment, phone battery packs, large tarps, screening for windows, bug spray, mobile kitchens, and medics to staff the first aid station we constructed. In Tampa, we have partnered with Tampa Black Lives Matter, Tampa Food Not Bombs, Love Has No Borders, Islamic Relief, Suncoast Antifa, Tampa DSA, The Refuge, Tampa Bay Dream Defenders, Organize Now, POCA Clinics, Hillsborough Community Protection Coalition, and many other organizations with decades of community organizing experience in the Tampa Bay area to not only effectively and efficiently address the disaster of Irma, but also the ongoing disasters of social and economic inequality. Speaking of which, anti-refugee Floridians who crossed the border into other states to escape disaster: think about what this would be like if we weren't allowed access to safety. That is a reality for many trying to flee war, natural disaster, and poverty. Borders are violent.

As a movement that is intimated with the mechanisms of the state, it was not shocking that the Polk County sheriff was on social media dissuading people with outstanding warrants from getting to a safe space under threat of arrest upon arrival at high intensity make shift county shelters set up in the community. And as Floridians recoiled with a historic storm roaring towards us, heartbroken as we watched communities in Barbuda, Cuba and Puerto Rico struggle under the whipping live wire of climate chaos, Tampa Bay area shelters were segregating the houseless with a color-coded bracelet system. The environmental ramifications of a corporate, capitalist empire thrashed into communities in the southwest of the state while police busied themselves with involuntarily committing the houseless who refused to be jailed in segregated warehouses “for their safety,” while simultaneously their safety in regards to access to food, water, physical health care and mental health care are ignored, leaving them stranded in an altogether different kind of storm on a daily basis. We know that unnatural disasters imposed on communities are but one aspect of a unique set of disasters that, in totality, compose the invisible fabric of our social existence. There is the ongoing disaster of social and economic inequality; the disaster of atomization, precarity, rootedlessness, and the meaninglessness of selling our days just to be trampled on by the iron heels of those above. And we know that once the hurricane passes, then comes the gentrification, disaster capitalism and shock and awe vulturism as a storm surge in its wake. Unless. Unless someone like you does an awful lot. And while Anarchists and Antifascists are rooted in community rebuilding efforts, building power in debris clogged streets and creating mutual aid survival programs, neo-fascists like Augustus Invictus somehow find the time, between senate campaigns and hate rallies, to post to social media about trolling autonomous rescue hotlines with phony calls for assistance.

In Jacksonville, law enforcement threatened civilian rescuers responding to flood affected areas with trespass charges if they didn’t disperse. Not only did law enforcement refuse to adequately do the needed search and rescue work, they physically stopped civil society from doing it. The state has taught us once again its irrelevancy. Distribution of wealth too need not come from an authoritarian state. Instead, we can raise a flag of mutual aid and solidarity, do the work of love – of revolution, and defy the forces that would bring us these catastrophes. And in so doing, inspire and facilitate a more just distribution of wealth from below. At least for this moment in time, this is happening in Tampa. There is a crack in their wall. And in times like these we can see glimpses to the other side of that wall. We see the end of history there, and the end of its hierarchical power. We see people living outside of time, quitting their jobs to work for something real, recognizing that young migrant farmworker children have been without access to air conditioners or fans for almost a week, is sweating, severely dehydrated and sick under the burning south-west Florida sun. And all the FEMA’s and all the Red Cross’s continue to do what they do with nearly unlimited financial means, and walk past or maybe hand a Styrofoam tray of food. Not so with us. With tears in our eyes, we empty the shelves of every nearby Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart of their Pedialyte and drive 200 miles to those children. There are alternatives, and there are real solutions. Those solutions come from below. They come from the power of the people, which is incredibly vast, if only we have the vision and the courage to recognize it. We need radical responses to natural and unnatural disasters. We need communities that are eager to build power, eager to adapt, and eager to serve those who are neglected by a system which empowers only those who already have the most power. We saw, in post-Katrina New Orleans, the power that We The People have when we work together. We saw the efforts of ordinary people, organized, dedicated, and listening compassionately, able to rescue schools and entire neighborhoods from the gentrifying bulldozers. And we see that same power in Tampa today. We see multi-racial and intersectional groups in city after city rise to challenge the legitimacy of city and state government, FEMA, and the Red Cross. In disasters or other chaotic scenarios we can often make great strides in short time by filling vacancies left by “power vacuums” (when the government and other established authorities temporarily disappear). In more stable times, we can still steadily gain power by organizing, struggling, fighting, utilizing our strengths (moral, relational, artistic); by acting strategically, creatively, bravely, diversely; and by never giving up. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is helping the most vulnerable communities to transform their hardships, by solidarity and struggle, into movement toward such alternatives. Because in today’s world, responding to a “natural” disaster must be about more than merely providing food and water and shelter. It must be about Justice. It must be about Dignity. And it must be about Power – challenging those who have it, sharing a little bit with those who do not, and thereby aiding communities in building power of their own. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief recognizes that only people power can adequately respond to all kinds of disasters, from hurricanes to hate rallies, from mudslides to mine waste spills. That is what “Solidarity Not Charity” means – the inspiring vision of a shared destiny of justice and dignity, the power of direct action building a new world within the shell of the old, the realization of alternatives to this neoliberal hell. “Solidarity Not Charity” means learning, teaching, growing, struggling, advancing, and opening our eyes and hearts through this experience of radical love and compassion; it is an opportunity for transformative change for individuals and communities. “Solidarity Not Charity” is a real solution, a space of possibility, in which our instincts toward cooperation and community flourish as we build a sustainable future together. We have learned from those who have come before us. "Everything for everybody. Nothing for ourselves." P.S. You can find recent articles and podcasts of our movement(s) here: Solidarity After the Storms Antifa and Leftists organize mutual aid and rescue networks in Houston Crimethinc Podcast on Autonomous Hurricane Irma Relief Mutual Aid: There's no way around it; we're all in this together Leftists to the Rescue: Where the State and Big NGOs Fail, Mutual Aid Networks Step In More articles, books, and other material on decentralized, liberatory mutual aid and solidarity based disaster relief can be found here: https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/media/ P.S.S. You can also keep our work going by donating here or purchasing something from our Florida Amazon Wishlist, Texas Amazon Wishlist, or Louisiana Amazon Wishlist. Additionally, you can now donate directly to farmworkers in Immokalee. Love and solidarity. Yesterday, today, and always.

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief as Antidote to Corporate Colonialism

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 14:23:17 +0000

Today, in low moments dominated by worrying about friends in Florida and the Caribbean, I have honestly considered that maybe the world is ending. Almost immediately after Hurricane Harvey dumped unprecedented rainfall, Hurricane Irma is the largest Atlantic storm ever recorded. And when have we ever seen three hurricanes all at the same time? Hurricane Katia sweeps across Mesoamerica simultaneously with Irma’s ravaging of the Caribbean, while Hurricane Jose follows close behind. Vast expanses of western North America are engulfed in the worst wildfires we have ever seen. On the other side of the world, massive monsoon rains in South Asia have killed over 1200 people, sweeping away villages with mudslides and floods. And most recently, a massive earthquake in Mexico has devastated coastal towns in Oaxaca and Chiapas. And not only “natural” disasters (often with unnatural results due to corporate colonialism’s impulse toward hyper-urbanization and the poor planning that accompanies it), but we are currently being bombarded by manufactured disasters as well. The stories coming from the Middle East are horrifying – the civilian casualties caused by US-supported air-strikes in Syria are in the thousands, while war-induced famine and cholera epidemics in Yemen threaten the lives of millions. War continues in Afghanistan and Iraq as well – the longest war in US history, so long that we cannot even remember why we got into it in the first place, only that somewhere along the way, the chaos and carnage gave birth to nihilistic totalitarians like ISIS and now death and destruction spread like a plague everywhere they go. Meanwhile, Trump congratulates and sells weapons to Saudi tyrants who terrorize their own citizens as well as neighboring states and Israeli war criminals who bulldoze Palestinian homes and schools, a Philippino dictator whose “War on Drugs” is targeting even human rights observers and an Indian Hindu-supremacist responsible for genocide, all while trying to deny entry to refugees fleeing from the catastrophes perpetrated by these monsters. At home, we find different types of disasters. Toxic chemical spills have become regular events – recently we have seen well over 3000 spills from oil and natural gas pipelines, two significant mine waste spills in West Virginia and a huge one in Colorado, as well asthe worst environmental disaster in history in the Gulf of Mexico, and now again, thanks to Harvey, we are seeing pervasive environmental contamination in the “Petro Metro” region around Houston. In spite of abundant evidence of their incredible danger, fracking and oil and gas pipelines are being expanded all over the country. We see cultural and political disasters as well. Emboldened by the Trump presidency, white supremacy and racist hatred is rising – in regard to peace and democracy, I can think of no word better than “disaster” to qualify the violent hate rally in Charlottesville. Attacks on the most vulnerable communities abound – the DACA program has been canceled, and the repercussions will be disastrous for over 800,000 residents; and as if the current state of mass incarceration were not disastrous enough, Jeff Sessions pledges to renew the “War on Drugs” and put even more (mostly young people of color) behind bars for minor offenses. In spite of well-publicized set-backs to his legislative plans, in the shadows Trump is doing great damage to the administrative state with his anti-science and anti-public appointees, and he is also succeeding in installing numerous far-right judges who will proceed to dismantle laws that protect people and the environment long after this presidency is over. Another under-reported development is how ALEC and allied groups, shrouded by the chaos of the moment, are secretly escalating their campaign to undermine unions and workers’ rights. The cultural and political changes of 2017 are not merely reactionary backsliding, they are disasters for democracy. Scientists have been warning us about impending climate chaos for decades – now it is upon us. These other “unnatural” disasters may seem unrelated, but all of the catastrophes listed above are consequences of a single source – neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is a political theory, energetic and young (and infantile in its aggrandizement of self-centered accumulation), which has rapidly overrun the old liberal order of nation-states and human rights with a transnational and supra-legal corporate colonialism that posits unrestricted and unrepentant capitalism as progress, and this progress as unalterable fate, as “the end of history,” consequences be damned. It is responsible for many of the defining features of our contemporary world: everything from pervasive policies like Newspeak-ishly nice-sounding “globalisation” and “free trade,” to the “austerity” that ensures that the rich continue to get richer even when their dangerously risky gambles implode, and even the logic of the endless global conflict called the “War on Terror” (more correctly “War of Terror”). And ultimately, it is responsible for the backlash against all of these, which is now venting its anger on the nearest easy targets in the form of the competing violent nationalist movements erupting around the world. Neoliberalism is rarely named and explained, because so many of us are unable to see the ocean within which we are swimming (or drowning, in some cases). We have fallen for Thatcher’s lie, “There is no alternative.” But there must be an alternative, because neoliberalism is toxic. Analyzed from a dialectical perspective, I believe that it is appropriate to classify neoliberalism as the synthesis of liberalism and its antithesis, totalitarianism. It has somehow managed to cover with a mask of global liberty and fraternity (we are all equal because we are all consumers) its true face of nihilism, oppressive homogenization, and the elevation of the technocratic police-surveillance state. It sells itself as “globalization” of opportunity for all, but ultimately, neoliberalism is driven only by the pursuit of maximum profit for the 1%. Some individuals climb the class ladder as they find their place in the global pyramid scheme, but the financialization of life demands a common denominator, a singular “consumer.” Consequently, for the vast majority of communities and ecosystems, destruction of diversity and traditional lifeways and the alienation and desperation which follow are the only available destiny. As we sink deeper into the insanity of neoliberal ideology, the hypocrisy of this religion of consumerism gnaws at our souls. Paradoxically, a torpid malaise of mass culture creates a listlessly drifting mass of mediocre humanity and the loss of class and ethnic identities produces atomized, terrified and hyper-reactive individuals. The dominant narrative never tells this dark side of the story, because we must stay positive when “There is no alternative,” and it is easy to be an optimist when one is part of the global elite. And because even destruction and desperation may be fine sources of profit. Neoliberalism is also the mother of disaster capitalism, which pounces on every tragedy to further extort the peoples’ suffering. It is for these reasons that it is no surprise that Trump and his ilk are rising like scum to the top of the new global order. It is for these reasons that governments cannot respond adequately to human and ecological disasters; they will never prioritize the well-being of their land, water, and people when they are compelled to acquiesce to the needs of corporations profiteering on crisis. Even those governments who seem to be more democratically minded, even those coalitions dedicated to humanitarianism like the UN, cannot adequately respond. They expend all of their resources managing the daily chaos created by unbridled neoliberalism, by the corporate colonialism which has left no corner of the earth unmolested and deliberately shocks stable systems in order to steal even more from disoriented and vulnerable local communities. A favorite new term, “governance,” indicates precisely this management of chaos, this chastising of the most egregious offenders and delivering of declarations and empty words to the least powerful victims, but never challenging the system that is ever-more-aggressively pillaging the planet. The nation-state, also very young in the grand expanse of human cultures, is very effective at organizing violent, militaristic responses to problems, but seems unable to accomplish much when faced with other types of problems. When you are a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. When you are an industrial-military empire like the US, every problem looks like an insurrection. Send in the National Guard! Break the unions! Put millions of people in prison! Militarize the police! (And in case I have not already said it strongly enough, let us never forget that these last two “solutions” are defining tactics of totalitarianism) But there are alternatives, and there are real solutions. Those solutions come from below. They come from the power of the people, which is incredibly vast, if only we have the vision and the courage to recognize it. We need radical responses to natural and unnatural disasters. We need communities that are eager to build power, eager to adapt, and eager to serve those who are neglected by a system which empowers only those who already have the most power. I saw, in post-Katrina New Orleans, the power that We The People have when we work together. I saw the efforts of ordinary people, organized, dedicated, and listening compassionately, able to rescue schools and entire neighborhoods from the gentrifying bulldozers. And I saw groups led by poor people of color rise to challenge the legitimacy of city and state government, FEMA, and the Red Cross. In disasters or other chaotic scenarios we can often make great strides in short time by filling vacancies left by “power vaccuums” (when the government and other established authorities temporarily disappear). In more stable times, we can still steadily gain power by organizing, struggling, fighting, utilizing our strengths (moral, relational, artistic); by acting strategically, creatively, bravely, diversely; and by never giving up. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is helping the most vulnerable communities to transform their hardships, by solidarity and struggle, into movement toward such alternatives. Because in today’s world, responding to a “natural” disaster must be about more than merely providing food and water and shelter. It must be about Justice. It must be about Dignity. And it must be about Power – challenging those who have it, sharing a little bit with those who do not, and thereby aiding communities in building power of their own. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief recognizes that only people power can adequately respond to all kinds of disasters, from hurricanes to hate rallies, from mudslides to mine waste spills. That is what “Solidarity Not Charity” means – the inspiring vision of a shared destiny of justice and dignity, the power of direct action building a new world within the shell of the old, the realization of alternatives to this neoliberal hell. “Solidarity Not Charity” means learning, teaching, growing, struggling, advancing, and opening our eyes and hearts through this experience of radical love and compassion; it is an opportunity for transformative change for individuals and communities. “Solidarity Not Charity” is a real solution, a space of possibility, in which our instincts toward cooperation and community flourish as we build a sustainable future together. Please join us as we organize and build power in our communities, to prepare to respond to disasters of all kinds: Learn about our 2018 Training Tours here.

Disaster Elitism vs. Communal Solidarity

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 01:58:51 +0000

Navigating forth, there are many communities that are still in utter shambles from the hurricane. [gallery ids="572,573" type="square" columns="2"] And while FEMA guards structures of wealth, autonomous mobilizations have been getting supplies into the hands of those who truly need them sans the red tape/applications/and bureaucratic procedures that barricade skin to skin cooperation and participatory relief and rebuilding efforts. With multi-millions pouring into the Red Cross and FEMA "operating" in affected zones, we shouldn't be hearing from the most impoverished community housing projects that we've been the first ones to deliver aid there. But we are. [gallery ids="563,534,533" type="square"] There isn't much middle ground in the Florida Keys. There are mansions of the wealthy and there are impoverished communities who serve them. FEMA is on the ground in key west defending wealthy structures from "looters." Driving through the keys and being subjected to massive signs directing the poor that they'll be shot on sight if they loot properties is abusive and demonstrative of post-disaster elitism strapping itself to take down those who would dare lay claim to means of survival. [gallery ids="549,550,551" type="rectangular"] From Oaxaca to Mexico City to Immokalee to Cuba to Puerto Rico to the Keys... Solidarity.

A sense of things: Houston 09/10 – 09/15 2017

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 14:09:46 +0000

I first want to express my gratitude and love for the hospitality shown to me by the folks I met in Houston. I believe that the most important thing that those of us from outside the area can do is support ya'll in your work and build capacity through trainings and outreach and probably paying for a vacation for some of the anchors down there in about a month. My overall sense of the trajectory of Harvey relief is that the nature of the problem is insidious. The storm was characterized by water rather than wind – so the highly visible damage that wind causes is not a thing. It is easy to drive around Houston and see no visible exterior damage and see that life is going on and therefor assume that everything is fine. The problem, is that the insides of people’s homes is where the damage is, that Houston is huge, that neighborhoods can be very insular and non-english speaking, and even non-spanish speaking, and that there is a lot of over-lapping traumas that seem likely to act as (yet another) barrier to people accessing, asking for, and knowing what support they need. My biggest concern in the long run is that people will “choose” (read; have no other viable option) to live in mold ridden houses and that in 5-10 years there will be a massive health crisis related to the mold. My other big concern is about the breadth and scope of trauma associated with all of the crises taking place right now. The world is under duress, in no small way – between war and weather – things feel fucked up, multi-layered, nuanced, stark and painful. Action steps You know. The map of Houston's roadways seem like a really appropriate visual metaphor for the possible levels of support and how they interconnect. It's a ripple outwards with lines that connect those ripples. The impact ripples outwards getting more diffuse the further out it goes, the lines are pathways that intersect each of the ripples that we can travel down to offer care and support along the way. That care in turn, creates its own ripple. Well, OK. There's one other thing I have to mention. I woke up this morning to read about Hurricane Maria and its impact on Dominica, about the 1300 deaths in South Asia from flooding, about police riots in St. Louis and Georgia Tech, and we've seen in the past 3 weeks Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, forest fires all over the Northwest, and an earthquake in Mexico. Trump says he's gonna bomb the shit out of North Korea, ethnic cleansing in Burma and one of our heroes against the repressive military regimes there acting in possible collusion, and more. I mean… fuck. This shit hurts. I'm sure that some people’s lives are fine, but it is kind of hard to imagine when it seems like the scope of tragedy is so fucking huge. In light of all this and the logistical immensity of Houston alone – my thinking is kind of meta. I'm trying to think about interventions that can have the broadest reaching impacts without overlooking that there are micro individual needs that also need tending. I'm not sure how good a job I'll do – but here goes... Identify groups that we can collaborate with. For example Mt. Gilead Church in Beaumont is a location run by people who are hosting events to distribute supplies and healthcare at their location, they are collaborating with another church in the area that is going to be providing housing for volunteers. They are extremely open to any kind of care or training that our networks can provide and they know the needs of their community. Working with them magnifies the ripples of support in that area as well as provides a clear way to organize the things we offer. Such as... Trainings. The scope of this is so huge that while volunteers can be helpful in getting work done, it seems clear that the bulk of the work is going to be done by the people in their own communities. We can bolster this work by sharing the things that we have learned through our collective experiences of past disasters. Here are some trainings that I can imagine: *House gutting and the importance of safety especially as the mold increases. *Disaster Mental/Emotional health – stages of a disaster and its impacts *Emotional First Aid and Active Listening *Modified Affinity Group Medic Training *Health and Safety Trainings ***All of these trainings in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and hopefully Arabic*** Care for care providers. Medics and other wellness workers, Clergy, Core-Organizers For people further out the ripple of impact – periodic offerings of massage, acupuncture, energy work, and retreats for the above mentioned care providers and others I may not have considered. Especially as the months wear on. If you don't have time now – there will still be work to do in November, January, July. Mark your calendars. Host some people. Turn up and cook for a week. Etc. If there's a spa in your area – see if they would offer a free retreat weekend for a few folks from Houston – fund raise the flights. Networks of Hospitality. There's two parts to this. One part is hosting relief workers and volunteers if they end up leaving the impacted areas and needing a break or a safe space. It seems important not to assume that just because a person is able to support relief work – doesn't mean they have safe or supportive home places to return to. The second part of this – is given the massive geographical area that has been impacted by storms and other disasters so far this year – and the fact that hurricane season is a good ways from over – people might start to need places to go. If it doesn't happen this year. it doesn't seem like a huge leap to expect that it will happen soon. Maybe the next 5-10 years. Networks like couchsurfing.com have laid a foundation for some possibilities of how such a thing could grow and function. This could be a great project for some web nerds and designers and solid network building in your local areas. If anyone is interested in working on this – I have some ideas of how to get started and how to grow it once it is started. Holler. Pressure on the Red Cross, FEMA, and other major NGO's We already know they suck. We keep telling them they suck and they need to get it together… and yet, there they are. Doing it again. These orgs need to get more transparent about EVERYTHING. Ahh. NOW. How can they justify refusing people shelter, blankets and food? How can they justify the use of criminalizing language and the police to further traumatize impacted people living through this whirlwind? What is their legitimate reasoning for refusing care providers access to people in need of care? Why are they packaging up and sending away goods still needed in Houston? Why are their volunteers acting aggressively towards survivors? All of these questions are redundant, there aren't any good answers to these questions – these orgs just need to stop being assholes. They need to stop with the scarcity and criminalizing charity model. But what do we want from them? How could Houston and other impacted areas imagine using the massive resources of these orgs to rebuild their lives? Taking on some organizing around this could be a good project for the NNU or another union or organized group to bring attention to these problems and point to solutions. Conclusion We are in it for the long-haul, which means it is a necessity for our autonomous, decentralized, and liberatory disaster relief movement(s) to facilitate physical, psychological and emotional sustainability for those who choose to do this work. Identifying and partnering with more groups, offering trainings, more healing spaces and healing practitioners, networks of hospitality, and pressuring large, mainstream organizations is a good place to start. Despite responding to crises that very well could increase exponentially, we must unite around meeting people’s individual needs for survival and a macro/meta vision and praxis of sustainable mutual aid and solidarity-based disaster relief and recovery.

Living Autonomy: Anarchists Organize Relief Efforts in Florida

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 14:31:48 +0000

Recently we spoke with Dezeray about her organizing with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR) in the weeks since Hurricane Irma and how spaces such as the hub in Tampa are crucial sites for building solidarity and stability during times of crisis. They’ve had an overwhelming amount of support from the local community, especially those who have realized the practice of mutual aid is a part of the work of anarchist, anti-fascist, and anti-racist struggles. The Reverend Dr. Russell Meyer from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Tampa—the church that has provided the building now known as “the hub,”—noted during a sermon following Hurricane Irma, “a week ago these people were known as Black Lives Matter, Antifa, Terrorists. Have you ever seen a terrorist show up to a child with Pedialyte in their hand?” Although this has not deterred the actions of neo-Confederate groups such as Save Southern Heritage from standing outside across the street taking pictures, filming, and documenting those who enter the space. In the days following Hurricane Irma, Alt-Right 4chan users trolled the MADR hotline by making false rescue reports to take away time and resources from those actually in need. 3% Percenters have tried numerous times to call or show up in the space and say there was an emergency, state multiple people were coming to collect all of the supplies, along with a number of other faulty narratives all trying to disrupt their work because of the power that it holds. With a visit by Richard Spencer in Gainesville, Florida at the University of Florida set for October 19th, a number of Alt-Right white supremacists have already been discussing on 4chan how they are going to use “Stand Your Ground” laws as an excuse to slaughter anti-fascists and turn it into a bloodbath. It is crucial to see how we can learn from and support projects such as these, as the organizers involved are experiencing repression, threats of physical violence, and doxxing for doing this crucial work and need our solidarity now more than ever. Can you give an update on what’s happened since Irma hit and since the last interview you all did with the Ex-Worker podcast? What’s happened in the past week, especially with the 3%ers and other far-Right groups in the Tampa Bay area that have been antagonistic to your alls work? In the last week we’ve had numerous trucks go out, a couple trips to Immokalee, Riverview, Dover, Apopka and St. Pete. We’ve been helping folks get medication that doesn’t keep, like insulin and breathing treatments, because power is out and there’s no refrigeration. We’ve been doing check-ins on folks. As far as the wellness space and convergence center, we’ve had doctors volunteering and coming in to see folks who are undocumented and un- or under-insured. We have a trauma counselor on stand-by, and we’ve been doing harm reduction work. We have an acupuncturist and a Reiki practitioner in the center, and we’ve been getting the word out to the community to let folks know that this is a space of convergence that is of, for, and by the community. Meaning there are no leaders and that it’s self-organized. It’s been working beautifully. We are holding on to the space with everything we have so that we are able to continue to provide a space for mobilization in the community. We want this to be a launching point to other communities that have been hard hit like the other indigenous communities down south, the Migrant farm workers communities, down to the Keys where there is a lot damage and not adequate infrastructure to help folks. We did assessment runs to vulnerable communities, refugee and resettled communities, to see if there was structural damage and if they needed food and water. Through our already established relationships in those communities we were able to get good intel and respond in ways they wanted and get their needs meet. As far as the other shit that comes with anarchist and anti-fascist organizing and mutual aid, we had an individual who we are not sure if they are a 3%er, but they’ve come with three different stories to three different people trying to clear out the supplies we have and cause chaos and panic. We’ve had pro-Confederate folks across the street, filming and taking photos. Those kinds of disruptions we expect and it’s a social statement about fascists and pro-Confederates: their politics are white supremacy and white nationalism and they are not in the streets doing the work. It’s anarchists and comrades in movements that are in the streets doing the work, ensuring the agency and self-determination of communities is restored and respected, and that we are responding in the way these communities request. How many trucks and how many tons of food and supplies would you estimate you’ve sent out this week? We sent out an 18 ft truck loaded to the ceiling with supplies to Immokalee. I would say numerous tons of supplies: thousands of cases of water and hundreds of gallons of water. We set up a medical clinic in Immokalee. Yesterday we sent out 6 trucks to Immokalee for a second run. We sent another truck to a farm-worker association and a community center in Apopka. We’ve had cars driving around the state to meet people at their homes to provide to them. Over the last week, we’ve constantly felt at risk of not having enough supplies and then the community comes together and we have rooms that are full and ready to be sent out. Do you have updates on Immokalee, Jacksonville, or the Keys, where people are just getting back in? I think those assessments are best made by people who live there so we are waiting for assessments from people on the ground. I think in a couple days we will have a good idea from people who live there. We are reaching out to indigenous communities in the southwest and following up with areas and people with whom we’ve already had contact to see how we can continue to support. How much longer will this space be open? This space is provided by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, who sheltered people they didn’t know during the storm. We didn’t have a prior relationship with them. They opened the space and offered it to us to have the convergence center in. We are holding on with our fingernails and teeth to the space, because this is a space in which people have come just to get some time to sit with community and recover and have harm reduction work done and just have a space to rest and organize with other folks. While we are not sure how long this space will be available, I think this space will have a transformation at the end of the month because there are costs associated with it. We are going to try to meet those costs. We don’t know exactly what the transformation is going to look like but if we are not here we will be somewhere else. This organizing model comes out of your experience in Katrina and Haiti. By having this hub and space you all have helped a lot of people around the state and having a dedicated space has been key to that. How do you think other people can spread, build and work with this model? What have you all done in the years prior to make this kind of response possible? The thing that is key is our established networking community. We are involved in Food Not Bombs, radical refugee solidarity work, and disaster relief in other areas with solidarity-not-charity based groups. So having a network and being involved in the community in the first place is key, and our Black Lives Matter comrades here have been a huge part of making this space what it is. So having the network and working in the community is the first thing. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief was brought about by folks that have done the work. I was in the lower ninth for two months after Katrina. There were folks who spent a lot of time there, co-founded the Common Ground Relief collective, and saw how self-organization and leaderless anarchist-based work supported community self-determination and broke with traditional “aid” relationships and didn’t "other" people. This approach of empowering people has flourished here. Every day I come in, the space is more gorgeous, there’s new signs, art work, new stations, and I think empowering people has magical and powerful results. And this is what is beat out of us every day in a capitalist system, and that’s what we can see here, that the quality of the oil shows when the olive is pressed. I think this space could be recreated anywhere there is a community ready to empower each other and work in cooperation. The original forecast was for Tampa to be hit hard. When that didn’t happen it seems like you all turned this space into a regional or state-wide hub for support. How did that happen? How did you build those relationships? Fortunately, we have comrades that we’ve worked a lot with in the south and who have been killing themselves doing the work now. Up until the night of the hurricane we didn’t know what and where was being hit. The media plays it up so much and there’s really no independent meteorologist, as far as I know, that can give us information without hype. So all the reports were “Florida is going to be wiped off the map.” Doomsday everywhere you looked. I think that hysteria was an obstacle in knowing what to expect. But after we starting reaching out and the model is to reach out to groups who are doing grassroots, solidarity-based, empowering work in the streets, on the ground, non-bureaucratic, no red tape, where there’s no tickets, no applications, nothing. It’s like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That’s the key. So some of those structures were already in place and if we don’t have contacts we reach out and plug in in a respectful way, realizing people are dealing with trauma and post-traumatic stress. How do you think the organizing will change over the next few weeks? We’ve been super active in the Tampa bay area between Food Not Bombs, Love Has No Borders, Black Lives Matter, and Restorative Justice Coalition. All of these groups have been incredibly active and all these people have close relationships. We will continue to do the work from the spaces we have been doing the work from. But this has been a validation of how self-organization, solidarity and empowerment-based work actually plays out. You can see the mechanisms moving. It’s very healing, and in doing the work that healing occurs. And if this space is no longer available I think people will continue to organize both independently and together. How can people in the region or outside plug in and support, especially from afar? Our website is mutualaiddisasterrelief.org. You can plug in by reaching out to any of the grassroots, autonomously organizing groups on the ground that I mentioned above. Any of these groups here in Tampa doing the work on the ground can plug people in. If they want to get involved in their own areas, I would suggest looking for other groups that are self-organizing and reach out and begin that solidarity work. We also have a social media presence on Twitter, Instagram and in the Facebook group Irma Decentralized Response. We are supporting the folks working in Houston and Louisiana responding to Hurricane Harvey and want to amplify those struggles. People can donate and support from afar by sending money, via the Amazon wishlist on our site, and by organizing in their own communities. For people in the region, state and Tampa Bay area, coming to the space and helping organize and build solidarity is the best, most critical, and direct way to contribute. Originally published on September 20th, 2017 at https://itsgoingdown.org/living-autonomy-anarchists-organize-relief-efforts-florida/

The Speed of Dreams' Resonance

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 01:02:54 +0000

Our weeks, like our hearts, have been so full lately. As the phases of relief and recovery transition rapidly, we are reminded how much work is still in front of us. We ask ourselves, how can we create this new world when we are all so damaged by the old one? And the answer(s), not found in any theory, come back to us – through walking, through action, autonomous, but together. Click here to read a report on our relief trip to the Florida Keys. Instead of continuing the chain of organization to organization donations, we looked up where projects and other affordable housing facilities were, showed up and opened the doors, literally and figuratively. Here is an excerpt of the reportback:

“Rather than rationing out any items, we would climb into the truck and start passing out cases of bottled water and asking people what they wanted. Canned soup, diapers, baby wipes, paper towels, MREs, fruit snacks, bread and anything else we could dig to find in the packed truck. There was never a moment of the supposed “chaos” we were warned against, as we let people take whatever they needed and they were always the first to insist on leaving more for others.”

Another trip down to the Keys is in the works. Interested in helping make it happen? Let us know. Click here to read an interview with Dezeray Lyn, one of the many co-founders of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. We know Florida did not bear the brunt of hurricanes Irma, Maria, and other recent disasters. And geography shouldn’t dictate our humanity. Here is an overview of self-organization efforts in Mexico following the earthquake. And here is a guide made by friends and comrades at Infoshop on organizations throughout affected areas for you to consider supporting. We have continued our solidarity with Florida farmworker communities, funneling supplies, assisting with mobile kitchen operations and clean-up efforts. In the words of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers:

“Today, we are happy to report that – thanks to the tremendous generosity of people across the state and across the country – we have been able to stabilize the Immokalee community’s immediate needs through a remarkable collaboration among the CIW and several other local and national organizations… That is not to say that all is well in Immokalee – far from it. There remains much to be done to truly recover from the storm and rebuild our town in a way that can withstand the stronger and more frequent storms that are sure to come. But relief is well underway, and our thoughts can now begin to turn to the longer-term recovery process.”

Click here for an extended audio interview with the CIW about Irma relief efforts. In addition, click here to read about how Florida’s indigenous peoples predicted and survived hurricanes in the past and present. In Tampa, anti-capitalists, united with people of many persuasions have maintained a liberated zone where people can freely acquire food, water, diapers, over the counter medication, acupuncture, peer mental health support, psychological first aid, massage, first aid, herbal medics, and other items and services to make survival just a little easier. All without i.d. checks, sign ins, quantity limits or other paternalistic measures. [gallery ids="641,640,642" type="columns"] In Houston and surrounding areas, groups like West Street Recovery, Black Lives Matter Houston, Black Women’s Defense League and others have been quietly, slowly doing the paintstaking work of communal recovery despite the city’s appearance of normality. Click here to hear about West Street Recovery and one of their partners in Houston. And click here to read a reportback from Houston. Are you interested in growing the movement for mutual aid and decentralized, liberatory disaster relief? A speaking and training tour is in the works for the spring. We are locking in dates and locations now, so if your community is willing and able to host us, please email as soon as possible at tnorman000@gmail.com As always, you can donate to keep our work going here. We are an all-volunteer based network. No six-figure salaries. No salaries at all, in fact. Any funds donated goes towards large trucks and gas to transport supplies and similar expenses, as well as giving us the flexibility to respond to people’s self-determined needs at a moment’s notice. How this plays out in practice is we get a call to deliver food and water. When we arrive we realize that the individual does not have their life-saving diabetes medication due to loss of power and no refrigeration. Other organizations may give a referral or have a series of forms and hoops to jump through to get people what they need. But because one of our core values is autonomous direct action, we immediately connect with the local pharmacy, buy ice and the medication, deliver it, and clean up debris in the yard as well as the rotten items in the fridge. Another key core value is mutual aid. This person, despite their precarious financial situation, had boxes of medical supplies that they were very eager to donate for our free clinic. This is what solidarity and mutual aid looks like. And this is a window to what a future world could look like. People with wealth are daily dropping off their surplus. People without, are picking it up. There is no bureaucratic state apparatus administering it, no reliance on the violence of the state to defend it. When one strikes a chord on one violin in a room, another violin in the same room sounds a note. Through resonance, through affinity, we spread an alternative vision of a revolution of everyday life. And we can do so from below. As the Zapatistas taught us, “Don’t seize power, exercise it.” With love, - Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

¡Organizers Assemble! Call for Mutual Aid in México

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 22:56:19 +0000

Amigxs Méxicanxs y todxs que tienen conexiónes en México - ¡necesito ustedes apoyo! Trabajo con un grupo voluntario que respuesta a desastre en Jojutlan, Morelos, una ciudad devestado por el terremoto. Este grupo quiere a ser no jerárquico, y da a bienvenida a activistas anticapitalistas y anarquistas. Queremos a construir el poder del pueblo mientras reconstruiremos la ciudad. Para ese, necesitamos personas con experiencia en organizar communidades y construir proyectos voluntarios de nada. De experiencia, yo se que anarquistas son muy bien en zonas de desastre, entonces para ustedes pregunto específicamente. Pero este grupo es diverso, y da a bienvenido a diversas personas - si conoces organizar, te queremos! Conozco solo unas personas aquí, entonces te pregunto a distribuyes el siguiente mensaje: ¡Ven! ¡Ayudanos a crear un espacio de esperanza y fuerza de la tragedia! Detalles siguen en ingles, porqué mi idioma es limitado y escribo con celular, lo siento... First, they need organizers, trainers and volunteer team leaders, a focused and capable coordinator team of about 10. They want to collect info from all residents, consolidate and organize it, and help countless eager but clueless volunteers do the work that residents need most. Much organization is needed to do this efficiently and effectively. Another immediate need is internet technology and technicians. They plan to set up a computer & call center where volunteers can compile data and residents can get info. One aspect of this project is to create local, women-led businesses and sustainable natural buildings. This will begin with a community oven and some prototype "super-adobe" homes. They need materials, transportation, labor, and especially knowledge - architects and experienced builders. Another need here is therapists and empaths, as many are suffering trauma and shock. A need that can be fulfilled from afar is translation. There are so many d.i.y. guides and info packets on MADR website, but almost all are only in english. Please join us! Help us to build the power of the people, to create hope and strength, out of this tragedy. If you respond to me by sms, whatsapp, or signal at +52 55 4072 4160, then I will connect you to main organizers. Because my language is limited, I mostly help by cleaning (see photos of info center we assembled out of the rubble just yesterday). ¡Muchas gracias para comparten! -tyler.. [gallery ids="662,663,664" columns="1" link="file" size="medium"]

Where Non-Profits Fear to Go: Report From Florida

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 01:21:23 +0000

The following is a report back for a relief trip to the Florida Keys made possible by the work of numerous folks involved with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR). The immense amount of support and solidarity provided for those in need exists through the collaboration of various communities that came together in times of crisis. This represents the perspective and response of anarchist comrades, yet there are a number of different political orientations for those involved with MADR. As the predatory nature of the State continues to benefit from disasters such as these, we feel it is crucial to give space to anti-state and anti-authoritarian voices in order to continue to remind us in the storm after the storm, who the true enemy is.

“Yet, before we even entered, there were a number of other obstacles in our way constructed by the State and the non-profit industrial complex looking to take advantage of successes in autonomous organizing and the opportunities that disaster provides.”

On 9/18 Monday morning at 3 AM a group of 9 folks left “The Hub” (5107 N. Central Ave.) in Tampa to drive to the Florida Keys with a 12 ft truck loaded with food, water, and other necessities, as the U.S. Highway 1 checkpoint established in Florida City after Hurricane Irma, was to be terminated Tuesday at 7:30 AM. Although police stated that only residents, business owners, disaster workers and supply vehicles with proper identification would be allowed to enter until further notice. It had been a week since residents who were able to leave had evacuated and they were just now returning to their homes, or what was left of them. The hurricane’s last minute shift to the western coast of Florida put the Florida Keys (especially the Middle Keys such as Marathon, and Lower Keys; Big Key Pine, Little Torch Key, and Key West) directly in the storm’s path, as it made landfall on Sunday, September 10th. In order to provide much needed aid to those neglected by the Red Cross and FEMA, we drove with a van full of medical supplies and a 12 ft moving truck filled with food, water, and other necessities to the poorest areas. Yet, before we even entered, there were a number of other obstacles in our way constructed by the State and the non-profit industrial complex looking to take advantage of successes in autonomous organizing and the opportunities that disasters provide. The immense amount of supplies that have been collected at “The Hub” in the past couple weeks was made possible through the long-standing connections between various radical communities and the donation of the space from the St. Paul Lutheran Church. A non-profit organization called “Coalition of Hope” told us there were still many checkpoints throughout the keys and we would need an official invitation to do relief work in order to be allowed in. After promising us the necessary clearance, they also slowly revealed their other intentions, which was for us to come to their station in Key West and drop off our supplies at their distribution center where they could be sorted and organized. They also stated that they were feeding the police, relief workers, National Guard troops, and FEMA, along with protecting property there from looters, although they made little to no mention of the actual neighborhoods or people they were serving.

“They also stated that they were feeding the police, relief workers, National Guard troops, and FEMA, along with protecting property there from looters, although they made little to no mention of the actual neighborhoods or people they were serving.”

When we asked about where the poorest or hardest hit areas were they strongly said we should not go to those areas on our own, but should instead rely on them to distribute the goods as needed. By the State’s insistence on protecting property rather than responding to the urgency of feeding poor, hungry, and desperate people without food, water, or power, the necessity of our actions became all the more clear. It is what we saw during Hurricane Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey yet it exists on a much larger scale, as the continued neglect and impoverishment of black and brown communities who suffer the most during environmental disasters, are also those who endure the most state violence on a day-to-day basis. After re-affirming with our group that we would absolutely not cooperate with the police or military, we decided to use the credentials to get us through but then to cease any communication with that organization once in the keys. Once we easily made our way through the first and only checkpoint, this narrative of limited access seemed to be less about safety and more about controlling who provides aid to whom in order to deter mutual aid relief efforts from autonomous workers. As seen during Hurricane Katrina, organizers with the Common Ground Collective were treated as criminals or “insurgents,” and a threat to the control of militarized terror that paramilitary groups extended throughout New Orleans. Without any designated drop-points or sites to go to, we searched for affordable and section 8 housing to try to find neglected neighborhoods in need. Upon entering Key Largo, the first island in the Florida Keys, we were immediately greeted with large construction signs warning residents to boil their water in Monroe County and the curfew in place from 10 PM – 6 AM. Trees and debris were scattered everywhere, power lines were still down and much of the area seemed to be still evacuated, except for the very vocal signage warning potential trespassers of the now common, “You Loot, We Shoot” slogan. This was not the first time we would see this phrase used to support white supremacist fantasies of black greed and criminality, as its repetition re-affirmed the desire to protect property over human life, or to reassert that property is more valuable than the lives of those suffering. Since Katrina, this narrative has solidified into a matter of fact coupled with the fear of black desperation, treating those in need as if they are animals to be controlled and approached with great caution. For racist NGOs such as the Red Cross, poor black and brown neighborhoods are regarded as war-zones, while folks in these communities often remain trapped with limited resources or remain at the whim of vigilante justice from anyone who accuses them of committing crimes.

“At the first housing project we went to in Key Largo, we were met with an overwhelming sense of desperation from those living there. Many were still without power and they said that no one had come through to see if they needed anything.”

At the first housing project we went to in Key Largo, we were met with an overwhelming sense of desperation from those living there. Many were still without power and they said that no one had come through to see if they needed anything. Rather than rationing out any items, we would climb into the truck and start passing out cases of bottled water and asking people what they wanted. Canned soup, diapers, baby wipes, paper towels, MREs, fruit snacks, bread and anything else we could dig to find in the packed truck. There was never a moment of the supposed “chaos” we were warned against, as we let people take whatever they needed and they were always the first to insist on leaving more for others. Later in the afternoon as we drove further down to Marathon Key, signs of brutal devastation were everywhere. The sheer force of the hurricane had uprooted enormous trees, toppled signs, tore roofs and metal siding off of buildings, and knocked over gas station awnings. Massive storm surges left small trailers, boats, and jet skis on the side of the road as if they were driftwood. Appliances were shredded to pieces after being ripped from houses by the powerful waves. An initial estimate by FEMA reported over 90% of homes were damaged in the Florida Keys and 25% were completely destroyed, although as residents begin to go back those numbers will likely increase. In the wake of this destruction the State and Monroe County officials have done little to provide for those returning, suggesting instead they apply for emergency funds and be prepared to bring all the necessary supplies they might need to survive. Yet this supposed lack of available resources is countered by claims of Monroe County officials, who have ensured a “saturated” law enforcement presence in the hardest hit region between the Seven Mile Bridge and Key West. It is not surprising that while police respond to this disaster with strict policing and force, those who are victims of the catastrophe are left to fend for themselves. Thus the need for aid and support was felt everywhere we went, as our actions were met with immense gratitude. People saying we were a godsend and an answer to their prayers. In contradiction to the idea of lawless peril, many people who had just lost everything were always thinking about how they could help others in their community.

“It is not surprising that while police respond to this disaster with strict policing and force, those who are victims of the catastrophe are left to fend for themselves.”

Nearing the end of our trip when we had almost dispersed all the goods, we continued on to another housing project to see if folks needed water, cleaning supplies, medical attention, and to find someone who could put a brand new generator to use. We made a wrong turn in the truck and drove down a street lined by abandoned cars and decimated houses overflowing with trash. We drove by one couple living in their car, so we stopped to give them water. The man said that he only wanted water and he wanted to show me why. He brought me around to the backseat of his car to reveal a large plastic bin in the backseat filled with bubbling water. He reached in and pulled out a catfish, which he said was one of his best friends and all they really had left. They took a few cleaning supplies to try to salvage what they could from their home, but mostly they urged us to go where other folks need even more help. We went up the road to a trailer park community called Galway Bay, which was completely destroyed. We talked to a woman who had recently come back and pointed to the trailers of where all of her best friends live. She was finally in remission from breast cancer and talked about resilience and the strength she knew they all had in order to build again. After walking around the complex we finally found someone to take the generator, a group of 4 neighbors living in their partially demolished trailers, who agreed to share it with each other. A summation of the situation and reality on the ground in the Keys would be a noted lamentation that the State and the non-profit industrial complex in their post-disaster vulturism—predicated on the traumas of collective shock and awe of the citizenry—continue to position themselves as a wholly unnecessary wedge between the resources available (people power, supplies, solidarity) and the disaster affected communities. The legitimacy of this wedge is asserted through the false narrative of frenzied looters hellbent on pillage at any cost. We can write the epilogue for this story before it even ends, as “American” history has been nothing if not predictable. The storm after the storm will be one of gentrification, abandonment of the poor, and the further entrenchment of State power through disaster capitalism. In Solidarity, Anarchist Comrades of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR)

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief in Mexico

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 22:50:17 +0000

Here are the latest sights, from Jojutla, Morelos. More words follow.

I joined a group of therapists on a scouting mission

We learned a lot, primarily that the army is in charge but no one really knows the plan

Many buildings are damaged…

But there is an enormous amount of grassroots action, like these folks feeding tacos to hundreds

Some buildings are fine, others completely ruined

The main govt building. The plaza is full of tents with doctors, masseurs, engineers

This street was bad… zoom in to see a totally wrecked house and a family sitting under an umbrella waiting for army engineers to make an assessment… some day.

However, the army seems very active in clean up efforts. This platoon was marching with picks and shovels.

In this place I hope to help a small team to start a community center with maps, computers, info, empowerment. In the background you can see a truck full of students who are giving food to volunteers

[The following was published shortly after I arrived in Cuernavaca, 24 Sep] Unprecedented, unbelievable, terrifying… Another hurricane. Another earthquake. I am stunned by the chaos and calamity engulfing our world. Elsewhere, cholera epidemics in war-torn Yemen and flooded Nigeria… monsoon-inundated and desperately impoverished Bangladesh struggling to accommodate over 400,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing ethnic cleansing in Burma, and more refugees forced out by military and industrial violence all over the world. Meanwhile in the US, Trump completely ignores the needs of those most affected by recent disasters, instead spewing war-mongering nationalist rhetoric at the UN Summit (which should be an opportunity for coordinated global action, not name-calling and mud-slinging) after he has canceled the Clean Power Plan, backed out of the Paris Climate Accord, and appointed climate change deniers to head NASA, USDA, and EPA. In some moments I feel overwhelmed, but I will not allow myself to be trapped by fear, I will not give in to despair. I insist on action – even if I can only make a difference to one person, only create a tiny and temporary change, I will always be as proactive and positive as possible. This is necessary for my self, my health, my joy – it gives meaning to my life. And crucially, actions practice our power, challenge and surmount our fears, defeat depression and despair – even the small steps pushing back against huge scary forces (one might say especially those). I just arrived in Morelos to assist community-led grassroots direct action efforts in response to the recent earthquake. The destruction is terrible, but the compassion and the power of the people are inspiring! I was not able to travel to Oaxaca to help after the previous earthquake; I feel a little guilty, like I have not been adequately using my great privilege by giving everything I’ve got to these communities in need. But as a friend and founder of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief reminds me, “You can’t effectively care for others if you don’t also care for yourself.” Some unavoidable obligations and deadlines, and then a series of illnesses, kept me stuck in Querétaro for two weeks… But now I am here, and I am ready to get to work. I certainly will not claim that the organization known as Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is at work in México. I am just one little person, helping as I can (and I am not any kind of official representative – my only contribution so far has been to design their logo!). But the activities and relationships of mutual aid disaster relief are abundant here. In Oaxaca, communal traditions of Zapotecas and a dedicated movement of rebel teachers have built the power to care for each other. In México City, thousands of people have been helping with frantic rescue efforts. Still, the neglectful government provides little assistance here, and much help and solidarity is needed. While I work with so many other volunteers and survivors in Solidarity Not Charity, I will try to document a little bit too, to share examples of the inspiring organizations and projects that have grown rapidly in the tropical heat. I know from previous experience the importance of scenes of love and hope, so necessary to fuel continuing action, to lighten exhausted bodies and to alleviate despair. I will update this post occassionally, and will share via Facebook. Please spread the word, especially with others who would like to help – as I encounter groups that need financial support, I will include links.

Resistance against Colonialism and Neoliberalism; Solidarity with Puerto Rico and the Caribbean

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 18:31:54 +0000

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is organizing response teams to continually travel to Puerto Rico and surrounding areas to assist with rebuilding sustainable, modular water and energy systems to provide immediate, life-saving relief and long-term, permanent independence and autonomy of marginalized, impacted communities. Please share our Action Network donation page and campaign Wishlist! Email us to share your skills, knowledge,and time. Contact us to stand in solidarity and mutual aid with Puerto Rico as people rebuild their homes, and liberate and re-empower their communities in defiance of the United States' colonial project of dependency, debt, and austerity. The Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Puerto Rico Rebuilds Campaign/Campaign to Rebuild the Caribbean is a call to allies everywhere to stand in solidarity with people in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean who face the difficult and long-term journey to rebuild their homes and lives. SOLIDARITY STEPS IN ACTION

Raise funds for equipment and tools needed to set up modular water treatment and solar energy systems, providing immediate relief.
Response teams travel to impacted communities throughout October and November, providing immediate access to clean water and electricity.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network continues decentralized response efforts over the long-term, raising funds to construct and install permanent, community maintained water catchment and filtration systems as well as sustainable energy systems.

The Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network is currently raising money to purchase the necessary supplies, materials, and tools to install modular water treatment systems and solar arrays to provide needed and life-saving clean water and electricity to impacted communities. Each individual donation helps us get closer to providing sustainable water and energy access to residents in Puerto Rico for immediate and long-term disaster relief and community autonomy. If you would like to sign up as a matching donor, please reach out to us at mutualaiddisasterrelief@gmail.com. Currently, Puerto Rico still has no power and it is estimated that the island will not return to full power for six months, leaving 3.5 million people without electricity. The only power supply available for residents are a handful of generators, which is accompanied by a shortage of diesel fuel and gas. People are waiting in line up to six hours for fuel. Existing generators are powering essential buildings like hospitals, however, due to shortages, some hospitals have had to refuse patients and others have lost patients because there was not sufficient energy to power life-support equipment, oxygen machines, or to refrigerate some life-saving medications. The threat to health is also increased by the lack of electricity to power vital wastewater and potable water treatment plants. Raw sewage and floodwaters can contaminate drinking sources. The risk is exacerbated due to Puerto Rico’s already aging and leaking water system, which can result in bacteria and other contaminants leaking into the system as well. Without electricity, water treatment plants are unable to treat and distribute clean water. It would require 2,500 generators to get the entire system operational immediately. Approximately 60 percent of the island does not have access to clean water and 80 percent of the agriculture has been decimated, leaving millions of residents without drinking water, a stable food supply, the ability to provide sterile environments for health care, or the ability to cook, flush toilets, take showers, or grow food. The lack of electricity has also made communication difficult with barely any functioning cell phone towers and no reception. Family and friends in diaspora are challenged with raised anxiety levels as family members on the island are unable to check in. Rescue operations rely on satellite phones and response efforts are more difficult to coordinate. Despite reports of relief arriving on the island and images of military persons distributing water and non-perishables, many rural areas have yet to see or receive aid in their communities. Finance investors, bondholders, and corporate interests are more concerned about the bankrupted Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s ability to raise revenues rather than the rapid restoration of a functioning energy grid, let alone one that is affordable and powered by renewable energy systems. According to the Energy Information Administration, consumers in Puerto Rico already pay more for their power than consumers in any state except Hawaii. Residents are not receiving aid, and yet, the existing infrastructure and methods of relief distribution are making people dependent on it. For decades, residents in Puerto Rico have been subjected to failing infrastructure, crippling taxes, inflated prices, soaring debt, accompanying austerity, environmental injustice and racism. Water: As recently as 2015, 99.5% of Puerto Ricans got their water from systems that had violated the Safe Drinking Water Act, testing positive for excessive chemical toxicity, and 70 percent of residents had no alternative but to drink from water from systems that had Safe Drinking Water Act health violations. Energy: In 2016, 47% of Puerto Rico’s electricity came from predominantly non-renewable energy sources: petroleum, 34% from natural gas, 17% from coal. Only 2% of the island’s energy needs were provided by renewable energy (predominantly solar and 2 wind farms). The public power company, which buys electricity from AES PR, has allowed the company to deposit coal ash in local landfills, 29 of which are over capacity. Furthermore, and some some of these landfills are open dumps not in compliance with current regulations. Health: Puerto Rico is home to 23 Superfund sites, including on the island of Vieques, site of a former US naval test range. An aging energy grid, leaking water system, and failing landfills have also contributed to public health risks and disproportionate cancer rates due to contamination. Residents are steadily and gradually exposed to invisible, environmental toxins which harm child development and public health These conditions are disproportionately endured by vulnerable communities during capitalist expansion. In the wake of two consecutive hurricanes, Puerto Rico’s residents have had to find ways to survive without the help of their own or foreign governments. The Jones Act was only recently suspended to allow foreign aid ships to send supplies directly to Puerto Rico, and the suspension of the Jones Act is set to last only ten days. Again, the focus was on protecting the interests of global trade and banking giants while people are left to suffer without access to basic human rights: water, food, shelter, safe and secure spaces. Puerto Rico’s land and people have been exploited and made dependent on aid and limited support and services from their own government. This treatment and these health and environmental conditions are unacceptable. They violate human rights and dignity. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief believes in creative grassroots organizing and action that prioritizes and highlights the voices and power of marginalized individuals and communities and furthers their capacity to take action on their own behalf. We engage in a horizontal, multidimensional and multidirectional process that contributes to the liberation of everyone involved, not charitable acts. The Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Puerto Rico Rebuilds Campaign/Campaign to Rebuild the Caribbean provides communities with tools, equipment, and training where necessary to directly respond to self-determined needs. The campaign calls on allies to stand in solidarity with sustainable and equitable rebuilding efforts. Donations received will be used to purchase the necessary equipment and tools to implement immediate, temporary, modular water and energy systems that can be transported throughout the island to provide immediate access to clean water and electricity in as many communities as possible. A materials list with associated costs can be viewed here. Please support the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Puerto Rico Rebuilds Campaign / Campaign to Rebuild the Caribbean efforts by donating generously and sharing among your networks. Our initial fundraising goal is between $15,000 and $20,000 and will provide the equipment and tools to travel to various communities on the ground and provide immediate access to clean water and needed electricity. Our System Materials/Cost Preliminary Analysis can be found here. Help us meet this goal in ONE WEEK! Continued fundraising efforts will provide materials and equipment to build permanent, community-run sustainable water and energy systems that provide autonomy, do not further pollute communities or cause negative health and environmental hazards or consequences. Communities will have the ability and capacity to direct their own recoveries and futures through solidarity not charity. Materials will be purchased from reestablished local businesses on the ground whenever and wherever possible. We need all hands on deck! There are numerous ways for people to assist with recovery efforts, both on the ground and remotely. Two Mutual Aid Disaster Relief teams have already booked their flights to arrive in Puerto Rico over the next 10 days and provide medical and other assistance, and our first infrastructure team aims to leave after October 15th. If you would like to join us, please email us at mutualaiddisasterrelief@gmail.com so we can add you to the planning conference call. Again, please share the links attached for the Puerto Rico Rebuilds Action Network Donation Page, and the Puerto Rico and Caribbean Amazon Wishlist! Thank you for your continued solidarity in the face of disaster. In solidarity, Rain

Resistance is Disaster Relief

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 02:39:42 +0000

On this day, we must remember that for some communities, disasters have been unfolding for centuries, depriving people of life and liberty every single day. Indigenous peoples in the Americas have been attacked and oppressed for over 500 years. This continues today. Every day. Indigenous communities in the United States have exceptionally high rates of poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, infant mortality, teen suicide, high school drop-outs, homelessness, alcohol and drug abuse, diabetes and other preventable diseases, incarceration, and violent crimes committed against them - in some instances the statistics are multiple times more than any other communities. And today, in cities all over the United States, parades are held to celebrate the man who initiated this age of terror. Columbus Day is a celebration of genocide. Christopher Columbus remarked, upon meeting the Taino peoples of so-called Hispaniola (now known as Haiti & Dominican Republic), that "they are artless and generous with what they have... Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts." Columbus was a different sort, however; based on this observation he concluded that "with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." On his return trips, that is exactly what he did. He proclaimed the following: "I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us." The Taino could not understand a word of this, and did not adequately resist the tyrants who demanded that each person over 14 extract a daily quantity of gold. If they did not bring enough, their hands were chopped off; slaves who tried to escape were burned alive. Why do we celebrate this man? Because Colonization is a system that erases the history of the people and replaces it with false narratives that glorify the colonizers. Colonizers maintain their power with violence, chains, and technologies of war, but also with elaborate deceptions, including signing and then shamelessly breaking treaties, coercing conversion to religions that justify slavery, and encouraging addiction and substance abuse, deliberately breaking cultural fabrics. Colonization, by its very nature, attacks and pillages the land, water, and ecosystems. As a result, it must attack, rob, enslave, or undermine all those peoples who are of the land, water, and ecosystems, those who live in ways that protect and nurture natural cycles. In the dominant Euro-centric culture, which as a culture of colonization distorts the histories of these lands and peoples, we are taught to envision colonization as a past period of conquistadors, an age of brutality and callousness which is far behind us. But the Era of Colonization continues today. Now it is perpetrated by corporations instead of conquistadors, and methods have become more subtle and convoluted, but no less vicious. And all over the world, the land, water, ecosystems, and peoples who protect them are under attack. In the United States, oil and natural gas pipelines are being constructed in spite of ample evidence of their danger. In the last ten years, over 3000 pipeline leaks and spills have been recorded. Fracking continues in at least 22 states even after it has polluted groundwater and surface waters irrevocably, increased carbon and methane in the atmosphere, accumulated massive amounts of chemical waste, and even caused earthquakes. Canada's Alberta Tar Sands project, for every 1 barrel of oil produced, requires the equivalent of 2/3 a barrel of oil energy input and more than 6 barrels of water consumed and poisoned. Most pipeline projects seek to bring super-toxic and inefficient "bottom-of-the-barrel" fossil fuels like these to markets which would be much better served by conversion to renewable energy; new pipeline projects are climate disasters because, if completed, they "lock in" decades of additional dirty energy to justify their existence and recoup their enormous investment costs. Indigenous communities have always been on the frontlines of resistance to pipeline expansions. From Standing Rock Lakota at the center of Turtle Island, to Unist'ot'en and Mik'maq on the far western and eastern edges, native peoples and their allies are doing everything in their power to stop the rapid and extremely dangerous expansion of fracking and tar sands, and unprecedented development of pipelines that carry this gas and oil, as well as other forms of mining like those resisted by the Apache at Oak Flat, Arizona and the Ojibwe at Bad River, Wisconsin. Non-indigenous allies join the resistance, acting in solidarity. Tens of thousands joined the Standing Rock camps, and campaigns fighting against pipelines in other areas are inspired by the indigenous-led model. We see solidarity coming from diverse allies, most notably from Black Lives Matter and other growing social justice movements as well as grassroots climate and environmental activism networks like Earth First! and Rising Tide. Members of the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network are proud to have assisted in these struggles as medics, nonviolent civil disobedience trainers, educators and promoters, and humble firewood splitters (a great role for those who want to use their privilege to support indigenous-led movements, it was an unglamorous but essential job in frigid North Dakota!). We must understand that the unnaturally calamitous effects of storms and other natural disasters are caused not only by climate chaos which is the result of colonization in the form of deforestation, industrial agriculture, and fossil fuels; but also by the systematic deprivation of peoples' power to prepare and care for themselves. Hurricane Irma devastated the physical infrastructure of Cuba, but caused only 10 deaths, because communities were so well prepared and neighbors helped each other stay safe. Compare to wealthier Florida, where more than 40 people were killed by a less direct hit from Irma. Some of the worst effects of Hurricane Harvey are due to petroleum and chemical spills; residents living near these industries were already suffering ill effects on their health and longevity even before the storm. And now we see the terrible effects of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Another island ravaged by Columbus, considered by some to be "the oldest colony in the world," it is a perfect example of how systematic colonization installs dependence on the colonizers, so that self-determination and self-sufficiency become impossible. Crippled by the repercussions of debt and neoliberal "austerity," Puerto Rico's antiquated water and sewage systems, dirty fossil-fuel electrical grid, and cash-crop focused agriculture have all failed, and now disempowered communities are desperately awaiting aid from outside. This aid is coming too little too late, with offensively paltry provisions from the US government in the form of tiny and nutritionally-empty junk food rations. No longer the invasive brutality of Columbus, contemporary colonization is so well-established and pervasive that it can cause a different type of crushing violence simply by willfully neglecting those who are least responsible for the causes of climate chaos but who suffer from it the most. And as with all colonized territories, Puerto Rico is home to numerous environmental atrocities as well. A recent article about the need for Mutual Aid Disaster Relief in Puerto Rico mentions examples like Vieques and 22 other Superfund sites. Elsewhere, more environmental catastrophes are imminent. Pipelines leak. Mine waste spills and devastates rivers. These "accidents" are far too common to be anything other than callousness and negligence from corporations that consider land, water, ecosystems, and communities to be colonial property which can "be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." For most of us, we engage in disaster relief out of compassion, out of the pain caused when we witness others suffering. What if we recognized the daily disasters of colonization? The disasters of neoliberal capitalism, in the forms of land theft, dirty development, austerity, hyper-concentration of wealth in the 1%, and cultural homogenization? Pushing back against colonization opens space to breathe, to hope, to recuperate. Direct action to slow and stop the unnatural disasters caused by neoliberal capitalism ceases and prevents pain and suffering. Resistance is disaster relief. In many cities around the US, Columbus Day has been abolished and Indigenous Peoples Day is celebrated instead. This campaign to end the celebration of a greedy, genocidal perpetrator of terror is admirable. It is closely related to the campaign to remove Confederate monuments which were erected during the Jim Crow era for the express purpose of intimidating people of color, reminding them that white supremacists were still the real power-holders. Let us all stand in solidarity with these movements, just as we stand in solidarity with communities recovering from hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes. On this Indigenous Peoples Day, be a disaster responder. Show your compassion through resistance, through demands for justice. Support those who are struggling against the daily disasters of colonization and racist oppression. For those with more privilege, use it to amplify and celebrate the voices of those with less. More specifically, join or donate to movements against pipelines like Dakota Access in North Dakota and Iowa, Keystone XL in Nebraska and Oklahoma, Trans-Pecos in Texas, Line 3 in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Line 5 in Michigan, Atlantic Coast in Virginia, Sabal Trail in Florida, Trans Mountain in British Columbia, or anywhere else grassroots efforts are fighting to stop a greedy Corporate Columbus. Wherever you may be, celebrate the recent defeat of the Energy East proposal and then get ready for 3 days of global divestment action with indigenous-led coalition Mazaska Talks (really, get in on this - divestment campaigns appear to be one of the most effective tactics nowadays). Some members of the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief network are organizing direct action support in Puerto Rico - please promote and give generously to their fund-raiser! Others in our network are giving Mutual Aid Disaster Relief training tours in 2018, focused on "Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness" and combating "Disaster Capitalism" with "Solidarity Not Charity." If your community is ready to join the growing movement of daily disaster responders, we would love to visit you! Learn more here. With fierce solidarity, tyler and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Building Power While The Lights Are Out

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 03:07:08 +0000

A land abandoned is one in which no one has come to respond. That's not the case in Puerto Rico. Thousands of fema/military/ fbi/police and others have flooded the island and where, at first, we imagined an occupation, this does not qualify as such. An existing occupation would be a visible occupation. But the optics are lacking. No, Puerto Rico is flush with 'responders.' But the people have been left to fend for themselves in streets with defunct street lights, creating perilous conditions at large and busy intersections. Debris stretches across roads; collapsed walls, snapped light poles, chunks of cement, hundreds of downed power lines and what doesn't block the roads hangs precariously over them, teetering over cars and pedestrians. [gallery ids="814,813" type="rectangular"] Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is on the ground, based at a church in Guaynabo and circulating literal tons of procured food/water/hygiene and baby supplies to areas that have been cut off from aid. Going directly to people's homes with local residents in our vehicles, being welcomed into homes, listening to stories, responding to requests; that is mutual aid. That is solidarity. [gallery ids="817,818" type="rectangular"] A better world imagined is a better world manifested is a better world strengthened. So when words like 'response,' 'action' and 'relief' are used so carelessly and with such brevity as by a mass federal and military body resting in luxury hotels with power, clean water, dedicated catered buffets, air conditioning and internet service while elderly residents with cardiac conditions lie sweltering in structurally damaged homes without access to any of the above, we can destroy those misgnomers with actions rooted in community guided by principles of solidarity. [gallery ids="825,829,826" type="rectangular"] Building power from the streets. Building power while the lights are out. All power to the people. All power to the imagination. All power to the revolution of everyday life. MADR, Guaynabo, PR crew

Building A Future Based On Mutual Aid

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 22:05:19 +0000

We drove through neighborhoods in the mountains with local residents and our comrades from Guaynabo, delivered food, cases of water, water purification tablets, and provided health care to elderly residents and their families sweltering in damaged homes, surrounded by narrow, perilous roads with no power and waning supplies. We are sharing our time, access to resources, knowledge, skills and quickly beating hearts to contribute to people's survival and self-determination. It is all part of horizontal, participatory, solidarity-based, liberatory mutual aid disaster relief. Mutual aid, itself, has been here since before Hurricane Maria and embodied by self-organized groups like Sonadora En Acción and Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo Mariana. Larger, but also grassroots organizations like Taller Salud and Crowdrescuehq are also spearheading people-powered relief efforts. As wildfires blaze to the west, people in Mexico are still digging out rubble from the earthquake, Houston residents are still cleaning up flooded homes, and people impacted by Irma remain houseless in Florida, we know there is a long road ahead. This is to say nothing of the centuries old disasters of colonization. Rather than running off of a cliff and thinking we won't fall if we don't look down, we realize sustainable and autonomous energy, water, and communications is needed now more than ever if we are to avert the worst of climate chaos. We are raising funds to install modular water and solar systems in heavily impacted rural areas of Puerto Rico. To help us with this project click here. Or purchase something directly through our Amazon wishlist.In addition to our ongoing wellness survival program, we have also been partnering with Sanando Puerto Rico to set up clinics and provide free medical aid throughout Puerto Rico. To support Sanando Puerto Rico, click here. Mutual aid is a revolutionary concept whose time has come and there is so much history that we invite you to help write with us. Got skills in environmental engineering, photovoltaic solar installation, Spanish, or solidarity-based grassroots efforts? Fill out our volunteer form. Living in south Florida? Want to prepare for when another disaster strikes or 911 and the state cannot be relied upon for our emergency medical needs? Click here to register and come to an emergency medic intensive training. We will keep building power while the lights are out because we know nothing gets us closer to the better world we know is possible more than embodying it in our current actions. Elders have taught us, and we echo them - we are the ones we've been waiting for.

Growing the Movement for Mutual Aid – Invite Trainers and Prepare Your Community for Grassroots Direct Action Disaster Response

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sun, 15 Oct 2017 16:11:12 +0000

Climate Chaos is happening. Adaptation and preparation are essential. Grassroots disaster response will be more and more necessary as we see more catastrophes – infrastructure, economic, and ecological collapses – and as corporations and governments seek only to capitalize on the crises. That is why we created Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR) – an organization inspired by Common Ground, Occupy Sandy, the Standing Rock Water Protectors, and the long history of diverse grassroots direct actions seeking to make a better world possible. We are developing and training a standing network of community organizers and volunteer disaster responders, continually growing in size and efficacy, which will be at-the-ready to respond to natural and unnatural disasters – from hurricanes to hate rallies, from mudslides to mine waste spills – and to help survivors, especially those in marginalized communities to survive, to restore their homes, to build their power, and to vision a more sustainable future. We will be conducting a series of promotional and capacity-building tours, in which we will educate about how natural storms turn into unnatural disasters, and train affinity groups on subjects like “Solidarity Not Charity,” “Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness,” and “Building Power in Collaboration.” We are beginning to make plans for one tour in spring 2018, and another in fall 2018. We will choose our regions based on interest, but our strategy emphasizes covering as many locations as possible, and reaching a diverse mix of urban and rural communities. A typical visit will span 2-3 days, initiated by an entertaining illustrated story-telling (using Beehive Collective graphics, of course!) about corporate colonization, disaster capitalism, climate change, and the vibrant and diverse movements in resistance to these deadly forces (it will be similar to the innovative “ROCK BOTTOM in the Age of Extreme Resource Extraction” presentation, but using new custom illustrations!). This will be followed by intensive training in “Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness” the “Solidarity Not Charity” model, and "Building Power From Below" reinforced with a wide variety of skills. And this is just the beginning – new local branches of MADR will be supported by the growing network and future trainings. Please contact madr_training_tours@riseup.net asap if you are interested in hosting a speaking event and/or workshop. We can discuss possibilities, and then we will plan our route based on where our work is most strategic. We may not be able to visit everyone in 2018, but we will continue trainings in many regions, so please do not hesitate to get in touch just to indicate your interest or to ask a question! Please join us as we create a new flood, one made of the overwhelming power of compassion and collaboration, of vision, inspiration, and possibility.

No Longer Forgotten

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 00:04:21 +0000

As the days grind up in number, creating time and distance from the thrashing winds and surging inundation of the deluge of water hurricane Maria pulled over Puerto Rico, statistics remain alien from the view on the ground, a tangible contradiction to a popular and racially charged narrative that Puerto Ricans "need to stop relying on the trump administration for relief and rebuild themselves". A Puerto Rico which was already a decade behind in infrastructure, limping with debt and who is projected by economists to run dry of money by November cannot rebuild from this level of damage. Puerto Rico is heavily scarred with countless homes populated by home bound and bed bound elders sitting in a silence that was once occupied by the sounds of air conditioners and televisions, sheets of perspiration from the sweltering heat falling into their frustration furrowed brows. Debris clogs traverses. Telephone and Electric poles are snapped, bent, broken and either lie on people's roofs or sprawl across busy roadways. Long stretches of lush fields of trees, crowded in elbow to elbow are naked of leaves and have torn appendages scattered across the land. And rather than learn from a decentralized model of human to human, neighbor to neighbor circumvention of FEMA and military protocols which limit food resource output to 200,000 meals per day on an island of more than 3 million people needing 3 meals a day, they continue to prop up their relentless disaster occupation ethic against stacks of financial subsidization. Throwing money and resources to power structures that have proven their bottle neck relief structure to be sorely lacking, at a time where 'sorely lacking' means life or death to people not privy to catered buffets in air conditioning at the glitzy Sheraton hotel where these defective models legitimize their worth through meetings and op sec tactical strategizing while people cook to death in their living rooms. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief workers have traversed these waste models as being just as unpassable as collapsed bridges in Utuado. An assessment, supplies and medical team has been circulating through mountain villages, Refugee camps and resource-untouched communities and with tons per day of supplies to mitigate the damage that has been wreaked upon them by the crime of abandonment. We are working to reduce harm and provide access to medical care. We are supporting radical, grassroots efforts on the ground with supplies and amplification. We are countering the narrative taped over the mouths of a people with a history ripping at the seams with endured violence, colonization and exploitation from San Juan to Aguadilla. We continue short term relief as the opening scenes to a committed effort which is preparing for a systems team to come in with long term solar and water purification infrastructure. Decolonization is fueled by independence and empowered self determination. In Puerto Rico, relief efforts continue to be constructed by the determined hands of communities rooted in environmental justice and supported by the hands of comrade movements. We continue to amplify the people's struggle. This story will be told by the people of Puerto Rico.

Repression vs. Resilience

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 11:12:40 +0000

Several police vehicles, an armored tactical vehicle, and law enforcement personnel including swat team pointed their guns at relief workers while surrounding and then entering our base of operations in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in the early hours before dawn of October 16th, 2017. Law enforcement communicated that they were acting from a call that Mutual Aid Disaster Relief volunteers were engaged in "kidnapping". After checking everybody's belongings without consent, they forced volunteers out of what was the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Puerto Rico hub at gunpoint and the threat of arrest. Law enforcement intimidation also included aggressive questioning of our purpose there and whether or not we were protestors or Antifa, had we ever used the raised fist, if we were distributing propaganda, and if we were planning to overthrow the government. The state used similar intimidation and disruption tactics against revolutionary disaster relief workers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Brandon Darby being just one example. We know that repression from the state intensifies when our organizing is perceived by those in power as effective. Rather than be intimidated into silence and passivity, this just furthers our resolve to continue organizing from below to support people's survival and self-determination. And to answer the question, no. We are not planning on seizing state power and overthrowing the government. We do not need to. The state is decaying and will fall by its own weight. We are building relationships of support that can withstand every crisis and give people fertile imaginations full of the possibilities of what can be built in the power vacuums for when the inevitable does happen.

The Future of Resistance and Resilience

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:06:35 +0000

The 23rd of October 2017 is a big day for movements of resistance and resilience! Today the indigenous-led coalition Mazaska Talks kicks off their "Divest the Globe" campaign, with world-wide mass actions against the banks that fund pipeline developments and tar sands extraction. These 3 days of action are so important, not only because indigenous communities are standing up for themselves and all the inhabitants of the earth with bigger and bolder actions to protect land and water, but also because divestment really works. Gone are the days when rallies and marches and clever visuals at symbolic civil disobedience actions could effect change. If those days ever existed... as we near the 50-year anniversary of May '68 and so many other landmarks of the hippy counter-culture, it is important to recall that insurgency among the troops did more to convince the government to end the Vietnam War than flower-power protest movements, which the most privileged and self-congratulatory baby-boomers will surely replay ad nauseam during the next few years. And it is shameful that we minimize the thwarted Black Power revolution as mere "Civil Rights Movement" at a time when conditions for poor people of color are worsening and white supremacy is on the rise - what was accomplished during the 60's that we can celebrate today? Yeah, sure, the 60's were cool, an illuminating spark of a historic moment, and they deserve to be remembered with pride. But most of the positive changes that began during that period have been rolled back during my lifetime; and rather than unquestioningly celebrating an aging generation's coolness, we all need to recognize the dire situation presented to our youngest generation. Today's world feels like the 60's in reverse, with a century's gains in human rights and democracy eroding as rapidly as a hurricane-pounded coastline. 2017 is the 40-year anniversary of the punk counter-culture's cry, "No Future." Today the millenial generation, so often unfairly maligned by their self-righteous elders, actually are faced with the existentially crippling prospect of no future. But many are rising with a fierceness, eager to face the challenges presented. Every day I am impressed by those who bravely refuse to accept the system that they have inherited. And this newest generation of resisters do not just march around! Shouting "NO!" in the street is never enough - the 1% have no need to listen to us. Instead, we must act strategically to force them to listen. The only thing they care about is their profits, and with massive coordinated disruptions, we can block their sources of income and create mounting costs, compelling them to change their destructive behaviors. This is why divestment campaigns have been effective at slowing dirty development and at escalating public awareness and engagement too. Now is a time of crisis - a time of great danger but also a time of opportunity, of possibility. It is the right time to try to grow our movements as big and as fast as we can, and divestment campaigns are an excellent first step for many. I urge you to join a Divest the Globe action nearby, or at least to divest yourself from the offending financiers. Especially if you are new to this kind of thing, this is the perfect place to start. Our new movements are gaining momentum, and fighting for deep and lasting change. In 50 years I hope that we can look back on this historic moment with pride. [caption id="attachment_1003" align="alignnone" width="1000"] This beautiful illustration for the Masazka Talks campaign was illustrated by the amazing Jackie Fawn! Check out more of her work here: https://www.facebook.com/jackiefawnillustrations/[/caption] Also, we must say "YES!" to visions that inspire us to build a new world together. On this day I am kicking off a crowd-funding campaign to get our Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Training Tour on the road. After you have checked out Mazaska Talks, help our team to do the essential base-building work that will connect grassroots direct action networks and increase skills for community resilience, collaborative power, and inspirational vision in diverse communities all over the US and beyond. Because in today's world, disaster response is not only about hurricanes and earthquakes - our compassionate emergency hearts need to respond to the all-too-frequent unnatural disasters like hate rallies, for-profit prisons and criminalization of the poor, endless genocidal wars, mine waste spills and pipeline developments. Neoliberal Capitalism is a daily disaster. The history of Colonization has been a 500-year disaster. Enough already! It is time for a new model. We are proving the power of mutual aid and inspiring hope and resiliency through our actions; we are going beyond words and symbols and demonstrations to proactively construct collective power from the bottom up, the kind of power that is ready to respond to community needs when the government does not show up. We are building bridges between the most vulnerable and disempowered communities, working as hard and as smart as we can to facilitate countless nodes of people power, infinite overlapping communities of resistance and resilience, and strategy that maximizes the effectiveness of all of our collective actions. Because we are learning from our elders, but caring for our descendants. Looking forward, always. Our Training Tour is just the beginning. We intend to spark a new kind of movement - a Movement for Mutual Aid. Please help us get our show on the road! With love and solidarity, tyler. P.S. If you like, you can read my other essays about the need for Mutual Aid here: The Need for Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Mutual Aid Disaster Relief as Antidote to Corporate Colonialism Resistance is Disaster Relief And please check out the fund-raising campaign, and please share widely! Thanks!

Courage, Hope, and the Revolution of Everyday Life

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 15:22:17 +0000

In a battle between the forces of repression and the forces of resilience, a swat team raided the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief base of operations in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in the early hours before dawn of October 16th, 2017. Citing absurd and patently false contentions such as “kidnapping” “bombs” and “guns” and after aggressively questioning relief workers about their political affiliations, they were forced out of the hub at gunpoint and the threat of arrest. Despite the efforts of the state to intimidate us into paralysis and passivity, and running on no sleep, we decided the best way to cope and to fight back against the repression was to be back in the streets, contributing to people's survival and self-determination by continuing to acquire needed resources and hand them over to the people. Watch video coverage of the incident here. For more coverage of the raid, check out WMNF’s coverage here. And local news wtsp here. Other recent media coverage of mutual aid disaster relief can be accessed here: Scalawag Magazine: Imagining another world in post-Irma Florida KBOO: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief: Houston, Mexico and Puerto Rico Barricade News: Volunteer Disaster Responders Fundraise For Puerto Rico Wildhunt: Column: California Wildfires Sputnik News Imagine a Puerto Rico Recovery Designed by Puerto Ricans Past media coverage of mutual aid disaster relief efforts, can be found on our website: https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/media/ After distributing more than 120,000 pounds of food, water, water purification tablets, batteries, and other much needed supplies to the people in the heretofore "inaccessible" mountain terrain of Puerto Rico, our initial teams of relief workers have made it home. The supplies and people-connections we established were turned over to grassroots Puerto Rican organizers to continue the work. Another medical team and a sustainable and autonomous infrastructure team will be arriving in Puerto Rico in November. If you are interested in joining it, fill out this volunteer form. In a different type of disaster, every bit as threatening to our collective survival as mudslides, fires, earthquakes, and hurricanes, neonazis assembled in Gainesville, Florida recently and created a hit-list of Gainesville establishments to target including a synagogue. Thankfully, a repeat of Charlottesville did not happen. And the University of Florida and Gainesville community unequivocally sent a message to Richard Spencer and the far-right that fascist organizing will now be met by bold, popular, mass anti-fascist organizing. Today marks the Indigenous led Mazaska Talks “Divest the Globe” campaign, with global actions against the banks that fund pipelines and tar sands. If you still have your money in a bank that finances attacks on people's water and indigenous sovereignty, now is the time to take it out. A year ago, as the American Red Cross reportedly denied humanitarian aid to water protectors at Standing Rock at the behest of Morton County Sheriff, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief brought several caravans full of food, water, propane, medical supplies, cold weather gear, additional water protectors, and dozens of respirators and other personal protective equipment to guard against the harsh North Dakota winter and even harsher police violence. Read more about our solidarity with Standing Rock here. We are committed to continuing to prevent future cataclysmic disasters from occurring by supporting and amplifying the Indigenous-led resistance to intensive resource extraction. Also on this day one of our core volunteers is kicking off a crowd-funding campaign to get our Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Training Tour on the road. After you have checked out Mazaska Talks, help our team to do the essential base-building work that will connect grassroots direct action networks and increase skills for community resilience, collaborative power, and inspirational vision in diverse communities all over the US and beyond. Although this crowd-funding campaign isn’t technically a Mutual Aid Disaster Relief fundraising effort (because we promise that all donations to MADR support volunteer programs in solidarity with communities in recovery), it will go a long way towards building bridges between vulnerable and disempowered communities, increase our ability to work as hard and as smart as we can to facilitate countless nodes of people power, infinite overlapping communities of resistance and resilience, and strengthen a strategy that maximizes the effectiveness of all of our collective actions. For additional ways to financially support the movement for mutual aid and solidarity-based, decentralized, and liberatory disaster relief, go to MutualAidDisasterRelief.org/donate There are cracks that open up when disasters happen, and we can see each other through those cracks. Finding, recognizing, respecting, and listening to each other are all revolutionary acts. We expect push-back from the forces of white-supremacy and the state. We know that we cannot depend on the powerful to save us. We have to save ourselves; we all have to play our part. And with the economic, political, ecological and other storm clouds that are moving closer by the hour, we have come to understand that humanity’s best chance at survival is through mutual aid survival programs, pooling our skills, networks, and resources together and meeting immediate needs while simultaneously raising consciousness. Hope is not naïve optimism. It is envisioning a future into being, against all odds, making a better world more probable through small, everyday actions. All power to the imagination for a revolution of everyday life -Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Jayuya: Remembering the Past, Demanding a Future

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 22:33:47 +0000

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is a movement decentralized throughout civil society linking and contextualizing the intersectional struggles of climate/social/environmental and economic justice, rooted and steeped in a power-from-below solidarity not charity ethos. Throughout 2016/2017, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief volunteers have responded autonomously from the floods in Baton Rouge and West Virginia to the earthquakes in Mexico to hurricanes Matthew, Irma, and Maria listening and responding with affected communities. Today, marks the anniversary of the Jayuya Uprising in Puerto Rico. On October 30, 1950, Puerto Rican Nationalists in several towns rose up in armed rebellion. They burned police stations, liberated prisons, and blocked roads. In Jayuya, Nationalist activist Blanca Canales raised the outlawed Puerto Rican flag and declared an independent republic. The uprising was the result of a long struggle against abuses by the U.S. colonial administration. By 1950, a half century of U.S. rule had put most of the island's land into the hands of the Domino Sugar Company, and led to the dispossession of many in rural areas. Several massacres of unarmed demonstrators, chief among them the Ponce Massacre of 1937, where seventeen people were gunned down by Tommy gun wielding police, had shown that peaceful protest would be met with violence. In 1947 The Gag Law, "La Ley de la mordaza," was passed, making Nationalist organizing illegal in many cases. Emigration was the only real escape valve, and there was then, as now, no voting representation of the island in the U.S. Congress. The 1950 revolution was quickly crushed. Puerto Rican National Guard moved into the liberated towns, supported by machine guns and field artillery. While there was some shooting back by Nationalists, armed resistance was actually minimal, because of the mismatch in armament. Nevertheless, P-47 Thunderbolts of the U.S. Air Force flew combat sorties against Jayuya and Utuado, strafing both towns with .50 caliber machine guns and reportedly 5 inch rockets. (Despite aerial bombing from biplanes and helicopters by militias and state police in isolated incidents like the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain and the 1985 MOVE conflagration in Philadelphia, this is the only time the Federal military has bombed U.S. citizens on U.S. territory). A near total news blackout, and the fact that Americans were transfixed by the four month old war in Korea, meant that the news from Puerto Rico did not resonate very far outside the Diaspora. Today, when we're seeing the very real and continuing effects of Puerto Rico's ongoing status as a U.S. colony, it would be worthwhile to remember this history, and the legacy from it which is still playing out. The island's crisis did not start with Hurricane Maria. It did not start with 2008 and the debt. Already there are over Nine Hundred deaths in Puerto Rico (and counting) as bodies are burned with zero forensic analysis for attribution to hurricane maria and the tragic, provisional failure of the warring 'united states' in the storm's aftermath. A hedge of global and national politics is skirting the growing crisis in Puerto Rico where the weather beaten populous, if not in exodus or cooking alive in living rooms without power to run air conditioning, nebulizers or oxygen concentrators, are filling hospitals and funeral homes. This is one story of Hurricane Maria. Another is one of people-power, self-organization, and autonomous grassroots organizing for survival spearheaded by Puerto Ricans themselves, and supported by accomplices and allies far and wide. Our last Puerto Rico team held daily pick up and distributions throughout the island from Caguas to Barrio Amelia to Barrio Mariana to San Lorenzo to Utuado to Isla Verdes and was able to arrive at the Camp of the Forgotten, a 29 home community stranded by a three story tall collapsed bridge in Utuado where we transferred several pallet loads of food and water through a camp-set-up pulley system in which a grocery cart on a steel cable carried supplies across the chasm to the people on the wrecked bridge. A team of medics and relief workers climbed down into the chasm and crossed the valley to a two wooden ladder structure and climbed up to provide medical care to the people of the camp, which had self-organized intake/organization and redistribution for their community. Our team ventured twice to centrally located, mountainous Humacao where we brought truck/van/and car loads full of water/meal kits/water purification tablets and medical supplies and treated people on-site on a mountain summit daily food share autonomously organized by anti racists and anti colonialists. Our medical team saw patients every single day, mostly in their sweltering living rooms where elderly people were suffering from exacerbated chronic conditions and dehydration. We treated for these issues and on one occasion personally drove a dangerously ill man from Caguas to the hospital with two of our medics staying with him through triage and initial examination until he was admitted. We handed off solar and water systems to individuals and communities throughout the island. And our sustainable infrastructure team is waiting on the arrival of a recently ordered large scale water purification modular system and solar equipment to take to the island. The most recent Puerto Rico team held reportbacks, radio, television and podcast interviews and are most recently featured in a documentary series called Trouble on Submedia for an episode termed "No Permission Needed." The crew estimates their distro while in Puerto Rico at 2 to 4 tons of food, water, and other supplies daily, medical provisions and care for dozens of people a day, all despite police repression. Our next team of street medics, nurses, and other medical professionals leaves for Puerto Rico this week. What we do, you can do too. We are, water filter by water filter, workshop by workshop, building a movement for mutual aid and direct action in response to climate chaos. And there is so much history yet to be written. We invite you to join in the making of it. There truly is, no permission needed, not the state’s, not the financial elite, and not ours, for you to go out and support people’s survival and self-determination. Our collective survival depends on it.

Solidarity and Friendship

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 15:58:57 +0000

Hi Friends, another message from Tyler here...

I am returning to the states tomorrow (!)... and I am happy that my last week in México has been so full and so meaningful. I want to share this important story:

I am just barely rested from 12 hours on a series of buses that carried me away from Jojutla, Morelos, a place which was devastated by the most recent earthquake. I had returned for 3 days because I wanted to visit once more some dear friends and compañeros in that small city where I had spent most of October helping with post-earthquake recovery efforts, and also because I wanted to take a peek at traditional Festival of the Dead activities - everyone told me that Morelos has some of the most elaborate and beautiful celebrations.

I did not actually see much of the festivities, as I was caught up in the daily struggle in Jojutla, helping my new friends with necesities like repairing furniture, loading up a truckload of food waste to feed some cows, recycling rebar for a little cash...

I handed over all the extra pesos I had when I left, too little to last more than a few days, but in that ongoing disaster zone where so many have lost their work and now have no income in addition to having destroyed or damaged homes, every little bit of support is needed.

I intend to stay in touch with these compas - tough, smart, ambitious, and strategic, my favorite kind of people! - and I hope that in the future some of the fruits of my fund-raising effort can be re-directed to Morelos, to support the alternative education and art studios of Casa Comunitaria Julio Chávez López, the local economy vision of Brigada Hormiga Jojutla, and the many other glimmers of hope among the rubble. I will make a personal commitment to act in solidarity with these new friends in Jojutla, in whatever ways are possible from afar. In fact, I have had an important realization about the meaning of the "Solidarity Not Charity" motto that we talk about so often. Really, it is this simple: in most cases, Solidarity looks like Friendship. Solidarity means building lasting relationships of love, trust, and camaraderie.

I highly encourage everyone to take a moment to send a message of solidarity and hope (and if possible, to share a little money) to these compassionate and brave people who are doing everything they can to lift up their communities - every little bit of support is needed.

As I reflect on the struggles of others who need assistance and solidarity, it feels inappropriate to pitch my fund-raiser today (if you pay any attention to my fb posts, you will see lots of mentions about the upcoming training tour). But I will make an ask on behalf of another Mutual Aid Disaster Relief team who are raising funds to send water filters and other critical needs to Puerto Rico. Another team is traveling to the island right now. Please read about the Solidarity with Puerto Rico Fund-Raiser, and then share and contribute. You can also contribute directly to the projects in Jojutla, you will just have to ask them how to do it (follow links to Facebook pages above).

A Thank You from Manuel: dispatches from Puerto Rico

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 18:28:34 +0000

Our current Mutual Aid Disaster Relief team in Puerto Rico has concentrated efforts mostly on HIV/AIDS prevention, safe water outreach/education, breastfeeding in disasters and also is addressing other health needs with our team of nurses, a lab chemist, lactation counselors and a medic. We provided health education materials, triage, screening, and assisted 100 patients one of the first days we were here, based out of a little church 1/2 way up a mountain in a little community called Quebrada Prieta. This community lacks potable water: one woman was using the water from her pool to wash and clean, most are drinking from the river that drains from the rain forest. We were able to provide lab testing, exams, and assist a home bound, double amputee diabetic patient with a host of diabetes supplies. Another day we were in Vega Baja, close to the ocean. We saw 89 patients in a pop-up clinic inside of a restaurant called El Right Field de Tommy. Since the storm, this restaurant has been providing free rice and beans every Tuesday to residents of this severely affected neighborhood. Yet another example of mutual aid in practice. Many of the folks seen had just got water back in their homes, but were unsure if it was safe to drink and some only had a steady drip coming out of the tap, insufficient for a day’s water needs. And yet others noted that some days the water worked and other days nothing came out of the taps. So we discussed ways to make water more potable. With so many people saving rainwater, we also talked about ways to safely store it and how to prevent mosquitoes. Very few in this community had generators. However we did do a home visit with a bedridden, oxygen dependent patient in which the generator was running outside of her bedroom windows. When we walked in we could smell it in her bedroom. We talked about the impact of carbon monoxide on her lungs and helped her husband move the generator to a safer spot, further away from his wife’s windows. We also got to do some more breastfeeding education as there were a lot of moms with babies and toddlers. Many of the moms were happily breastfeeding their babies. We were able to answer their questions and provide support and encouragement that they were doing the right thing. Still another day, we saw 54 patients at a community Center in Los Naranjos, a community that saw flooding up to peoples necks during the storm. Most lost a lot, some lost everything, most have no potable water, none have electricity. All are helping each other: one woman had 70 people on her roof during the floods. The last 6 patients of the day were home bound. All of them are strong men women and kids. The oldest was 102 years old, the youngest was still in her moms belly! There is a much wider context, including socioeconomic status and availability of resources that factor into health and food access. First, Puerto Rico had above 40% poverty before the storm; Unemployment was above 12%. Staying healthy and eating healthy costs more money, in the form of direct costs (for example: $4 for milk) and indirect costs (taking the day off work to care for a sick family member). Second, going to the doctor or store implies that you have a car, which implies you are driving, which implies that your car didn’t flood or get blown to pieces in the storm. Then we must assume that you bought gas, which implies that you may have stood in line for 0 minutes to 2 hours (depending on the city, it’s short in the metro area), and all of this implies that you have money, which brings me to… Returning to your job. Many people’s jobs are too damaged to even exist anymore or they cannot work the way they once did. For example, yesterday we saw a school that was destroyed, covered in mud, windows shattered to pieces, metal cables sticking out of cracked cement, no running water, bathroom walls crumbled. These children are not in school anymore. If their parents both used to work, someone now needs to stay home or adjust their schedule to take care of the kids during the work day or they can find someone else to care for their kids, which costs money. Their days are spent collecting water for washing and cleaning from the river; arriving early at the store or the water truck to stand in line for water that’s sold out within 20 minutes; cleaning up mud from every surface of their home; caring for sick or injured family and friends and neighbors; looking for accessible/cheap food; removing every piece of furniture that was submerged in water including the children’s mattresses which are now on the curb growing mold.... and the list goes on and on and on and on. It’s not always possible to just go to the doctor. Sometimes the doctor is the one living the scenarios described above. Sometimes the traditional organizations tasked with assistance don’t have the people-power to maintain their services. Sometimes the closest store is miles away and the land you were living off is now a bare pile of sticks. Here is a quote from Dr. Diana Negron, the director of the SILO Treatment Center, with whom we have been working alongside, “He who was poor before the storm is 1000 times more poor now. And if he wasn’t poor before the storm, he is becoming poorer each day.” We brought down and distributed notes of support and solidarity from preschoolers and kindergardners in Florida. [gallery ids="1152,1153" type="rectangular"] The kids at the community center, El Ojo de Agua, made drawings for us thanking us for our work. Of course it made me cry, I cannot express how grateful I am to serve the community day after day. It’s hard work and sometimes sad and sometimes one feels as if they’re not making a dent in all the needs in every town. But we’ve had people tell us that the storm brought them together, men have cried telling us about how they’ve lost everything yet they feel strong, elderly women living alone have declined supplies because they know someone else needs them more, neighbors have invited neighbors to live in their homes, and they share hugs with us, share drawings and offer us delicious rice and beans as a thank you. Our gratitude for these folks and for our ability to do this work is a bottomless well. Truly, it is us who should be thanking the people of Puerto Rico for their humbly and nobly navigating the worst, and still showing us humanity at its best.

Puerto Rico’s DIY Disaster Relief

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 02:29:24 +0000

A woman relaxes in the Centro de Apoyo Mutuo in Caguas, which feeds hundreds of people every day. The black and white Puerto Rican flag behind her symbolizes opposition to US-government imposed austerity.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, Luisa Capetillo walked through the mountains of Puerto Rico’s Cordillera Central. The “red amazon,” as one friend called her, had already earned a reputation for being the island’s own Emma Goldman. Capetillo was an anarchist, a feminist, an advocate of free love. From her start as a lector, hired by cigar rollers to read them books as they worked, Capetillo had grown into a prominent labor organizer in the Free Federation of Workers. In Havana, she became the first Puerto Rican woman to be arrested for wearing pants. In 1909, Capetillo travelled the length and breadth of Puerto Rico, on foot, train, and horseback, organizing and agitating workers as part of an FLT campaign called Crusade of the Ideal. During these travels, she was shaken by the poverty she saw. Of the exploited workers, Capetillo wrote: “You are the eternal mine from which the bourgeoisie and the religions extract enormous treasures… You are the immense building blocks on which the governments rest their suffering backs and tyrants rise to power. You are the rungs upon which kings and emperors, ministers and priests, confidently rest their feet.” In November 2017, Puerto Rico both is and is not a country Capetillo would recognize. There are still the fragile wooden houses in the campo, still the intense domino games, the close-knit families, the poverty and Catholicism-infused espiritismo that Capetillo herself practiced. But Puerto Rico is also a captive market for US products. The island has more Walmart stores per square mile than any place on earth; its concrete suburbs are packed with fast-food outlets and strip malls. Pharmaceuticals and hedge fund debt have replaced coffee, tobacco, and cane. Two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit, aid remained a bureaucratic quagmire, mismanaged by FEMA, the FBI, the US military, the laughably corrupt local government. The island looked as if it were stuck somewhere between the nineteenth century and the apocalypse. But leftists, nationalists, socialists—Louisa Capetillo’s sons and daughters—were stepping up to rebuild their communities. Natural disasters have a way of clarifying things. They sweep away once-sturdy delusions, to reveal old treasures and scars.

I flew to San Juan at this moment, on a plane filled with other Puerto Ricans, their bags, like mine, entirely packed with aid items. I had not visited the island since I was eight, a reluctant visitor to mis abuelos house in Bayamon. For years I had told myself I would return, but I put it off, convinced, like so many solipsists in so many diasporas, that the place would always be there waiting for me. My friends Luis Rodriguez Sanchez and Christine Nieves lived in Barrio Mariana, a small town in the same mountains where Capetillo once walked. I was staying with them, documenting their efforts to build a community soup kitchen. They had neither power nor water nor cellphone signal; just heat, an old community organization called ARECMA, friends in the US, a mountain spring, and the generous, fast-healing earth.

Over the next month, Luis, Christine, and ARECMA, took over the group’s storm-ravaged hilltop center and set up the Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo (Project for Mutual Aid). I flew back home to New York before I could see it open. They began by feeding hundreds of people a day, with rice, pork and beans, rather than the MREs and tropical-flavored skittles provided by FEMA and the military. Then they added a weekly health clinic. Classes in chess and bomba dance for bored kids (the vast majority of schools remain closed). A free meal delivery service for the elderly. Potable water. Even Wi-Fi. Their Proyecto is one of a rapidly growing network of autonomous, self-managed Centros de Apoyo Mutuos (CAMs), which now also exist in Caguas, Río Piedras, La Perla, Mayagüez, Utuado, Lares, Naranjito, and Yabucoa. Each offers a communal dining room, with delicious free food. They distribute goods donated both by locals and those abroad, and they organize brigades to clear roads with machetes and axes. The CAMs are established by and for their communities, and in the course of providing aid, they create spaces for discussion and political organization. In theory and in practice, they resemble the solidarity networks that left-wing Greek activists used to survive their country’s financial crisis. In the words of AgitArte, a radical San Juan art collective deeply involved in the CAMs, they don’t exist just to address urgent needs, but “to combat the onslaught of disaster capitalism and its henchmen."

People line up for food at the Centro de Apoyo Mutuo in Caguas. Many of the CAMs are steeped in the ideas and symbols of Puerto Rican nationalism that the US government has fought for over a century to suppress. Puerto Rican independence has never been popular at the polls (in the widely boycotted 2017 plebiscite on Puerto Rico’s status, it received 1.5 percent of the vote, of the 23 percent of the island’s voters that cast a ballot). But independence fighters remain symbols of autonomy and dignity for many Puerto Ricans—and Donald Trump might be the strongest argument for their ideas. Perhaps Puerto Rico’s most famous nationalist is Pedro Albizu Campos, the charismatic, uncompromising founder of Puerto Rico’s Partido Nacionalista. who spent twenty-six years in US prisons before his death in 1965. His party’s efforts so frightened the US government that Puerto Rico’s governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, signed the Ley de la Mordaza, or gag law, which, from 1948 to 1957, punished with lengthy prison terms all expressions of pro-independence sentiment, including songs, advocacy, and any display of the now-omnipresent Puerto Rican flag, even in one’s own home. Asked how her project relates to the man whom my father sometimes respectfully calls Don Pedro, Christine Nieves said, “Proyecto Apoyo Mutuo and other similar Mutual Aid efforts are born from the acknowledgment that we matter and we can solve our own problems as Puerto Ricans—is about dignity and self-respect—and so was Albizu’s vision. We have one and the same core: self-love and a strong conviction in our capacity to build community.”

After hurricane Maria, Luis Rodríguez Sanchez and Christine Nieves raised a Puerto Rican flag in their home in Barrio Mariana, Humacao. Though Puerto Rican flags are now ubiquitous, they were banned from 1947 to 1956 under the Ley de la Mordaza, or gag law, along with all other expressions of nationalist sentiment. One of those dedicated to realizing Albizu’s vision today is Oscar López Rivera, the independence fighter who was pardoned by Obama after decades of imprisonment for his involvement in a paramilitary organization that carried out bombing attacks on the US. López Rivera was back in the news earlier this year after New York’s Puerto Rican Day Parade chose him as an honoree. But after some of the parade’s sponsors threatened to withdraw, he decided to march as a private individual. Today, he is working as a volunteer serving food at the CAM in Caguas. The Centros de Apoyo Mutuo are only some examples of the countless grassroots projects that reflect the spirit of Luisa Capetillo. Taller Salud, a radical feminist clinic in the largely black city of Loíza, has been rebuilding the homes that Irma destroyed. There is also the Colectiva Feminista en Construcción, founded in 2014, which now delivers food, supplies, and money for tarps. Lawyers teach Puerto Ricans how to fill out FEMA forms in their squatted building in San Juan. The Santurce punk club, El Local, whose sweat-soaked, cigarette-blurred nights I sketched, operates a community kitchen that feeds six hundred people a day. Many of these groups honed their activist skills fighting the punishing austerity cuts that the US imposed to address Puerto Rico’s debt crisis.

Molly Crabapple, 2017

Downed telephone poles block off streets in Punta Santiago, a beachfront community on the island’s east that was devastated by Maria.

Farmers like Daniella Rodríguez Besosa, who owns a farm called Siembra Tres Vidas, will also play an essential part in returning the island to normal. Puerto Rico imports about 85 percent of its food even though its land is so fertile that both the American and Spanish colonial governments once feared that peasants, so well fed by the abundance of fruit, would not be induced to toil in a sufficiently profitable fashion. Because of the economic crisis, young city people began returning to the land years before Maria, but the hurricane has now made agriculture a matter of both autonomy and survival. And there are the innumerable Puerto Ricans, of all philosophies and backgrounds, who drove into the mountains to help however they could. They may never have heard of Capetillo, but their determination, independence, and grit are of the same type.

The efforts of the islanders are matched by help from the diaspora of which I am part. In the Bronx, a Puerto Rican boxing gym and cultural center named El Maestrohas collected and distributed a hundred tons of aid. On one of the gym’s walls is a mural celebrating the independence fighters, Lolita Lebrón, the Macheteros, Ramón Emeterio Betances, Pedro Albizu Campos. Organizers for the New York arts collective DefendPR have toured the island with solar-powered movie screenings, and are helping rebuild the Paloma Abajo neighborhood in Comerio.

A woman walks past battered buildings in Punta Santiago.

Many Puerto Ricans told me that they believe the poor response from the federal government and the slow pace of the recovery are deliberate, part of a strategy to depopulate the island, so that it can be remade as a luxury hotel-filled playground for the rich. More than 139,000 Puerto Ricans have arrived in Florida since Maria—so many that Orange County is considering making a displaced persons’ camp near the airport to house them. And many of the people I spoke to while in Puerto Rico had plans to leave. While San Juan and a few other cities are starting to recover, the countryside is not. It is now estimated that as many as nine hundred people may have died as a result of the hurricane. The federal government is offering Puerto Rico an aid package that contains over $4 billion of loans, while local officials of both major parties demonstrate egregious corruption, incompetence, and sloth. A viral video showed alleged FEMA officials partying at a hotel bar, while a much-shared post by an aid worker accused Unidos—the charity run by Puerto Rico’s first lady, which received millions of dollars from celebrities—of hoarding donations in the convention center and then distributing them to municipalities they hoped would support the incumbent governor in the next election. In Arecibo, a domestic violence shelter named for Luisa Capetillo remains closed because it lacks fuel for its generator. With each day that the lights remain off, the taps remain dry, the schools remain closed, the leptospirosis remains swimming in the water, staying in one’s home becomes more of an act of will. Across an overpass in San Juan, a graffiti artist asks: “Puerto Ricans, when will we realize they are lying to us?”

This is Caguas

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 23:36:56 +0000

The rest is Puerto Rico. Centro de Apoyo Mutuo, Centers for Mutual Aid, exist as raised fists across the island landscape of post hurricane Irma, post hurricane Maria Puerto Rico. In the narrow, colorful streets of Caguas, a building seized and defended by community is being painted by Centro organizers and a Mutual Aid Disaster Relief medical and systems crew from the main land. Outside, a tuff tank 400 gallon buffalo awaits the systems teams' erection of the high volume modular water filtration system and pump which will fill it with potable water for the community, creating a resource on lands reclaimed by autonomous Apoyo Mutuo community members. By 2pm it is pumping heavily, spilling treated water from the mouth of a hose until long after sunset. Apoyo Mutuo seized the space a month and a half ago. A month ago they defended it from policia who demanded to know their individual names. "We just kept responding that our name is Centro de Apoyo Mutuo." At 8, a crowd fills the parking lot sharing donuts cut in halves with the opening scenes of a documentary on a history of direct action occupations in Puerto Rico playing on the concrete wall of the lot in front of the building. Community members spend the following two hours taking turns at the pump and watching the buffalo fill. An Apoyo Mutuo comrade laid out their mission for us at the community kitchen where solidarity work and mutual aid feeds 300 people every day. "We are changing the way we relate to each other. Thats what we want. To change the behaviors we have learned through capitalism." We parted with the crew of community members from Centro de Apoyo Mutuo late in the night after helping paint the new community kitchen space, building a compost toilet and pumping hundreds of gallons of potable drinking water into a common tank. This is the work of actualization. This is the dream of a new Puerto Rico being manifested by autonomous direct action.

The Disaster is the Colony

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 22:25:46 +0000

Rolling through the gates of west end Aquadilla's Medium/Minimum security prison Institución Correccional de Guerrero, our view widens to capture barbed wire buildings, a generator screaming a guttural something off stage left and the furious reality of captives of the state existing on the other side of liberation, scraping elbows with the humid air. "These perimeter fences fell down during the storm and we had to position a line of armed special forces to guard the prisoners," offers a sleepy guard in the final 3 hours of a double shift. "They are still guarding the back end 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." "The warden is here, she's coming," a prison guard tells us. We are in this space continuing our post-hurricane jail support of ensuring captives of the state have access to clean water, calls to family and lovers, proper ventilation and correctional facility meted out "privileges.” Outside the prison, the weather is sweltering. Inside the prison, an entire building full of prisoners have been merged with another building full of prisoners and now overcrowding is the new hurricane to survive. When asked, FEMA higher-ups on the ground said directly to MAD Relief volunteers that they have no idea what the status of Puerto Rico captives of the state are. Not stunning given their steep red tape speed bump approach to 'relief work’ barely encompasses the island as is. In a sit-down meeting with Mike, one of FEMA's operations directors, he repeatedly referred to the resources people need as 'commodities.' And as we attempted to work out the liberation of one of FEMA's IRC water storage tanks, collecting dust in their warehouse since the day we arrived (and who knows how long before that) to use in conjunction with our system teams’ water filtration device for storage, Mike pointedly told us “If FEMA helps NGO’s then we're making the NGO’s look good instead of FEMA looking good. Do you see how that is a problem for us?” While we very much understand the actual problem, it’s clear that Mike and other FEMA entities collecting paychecks on Puerto Rican soil do not. The problem is a landmine of protocols that make getting any kind of aid out to the people of Puerto Rico feel more like a jailbreak then a transfer of goods that are supposedly intended to be circulated to the people who need them. Again and again Mike referred to Puerto Rico's debt, resting his elbows on the narrative that Puerto Rico expects the US government to do everything for them. Just don't try to point out to him that Donald Trump owns millions in Puerto Rico's debt- to a government that has colonized, brutalized and traumatized them for hundreds of years. “Because you can't lay all of Puerto Rico's problems on Trump.” After all, he did throw paper towels at hurricane survivors in those critical days after the second historic storm trampled the island. And as Mike pointed out to us, “There’s no free lunch.” Across the island in Las Marias people line up at the Centro de Apoyo Mutual Bucarabones Unido (CAMBU) space for Mutual Aid disaster relief guerilla field medics as we prepared to hold community-requested clinics out of two classrooms. For the next 2 hours, under the light of solar lanterns held in the air above us by community members, we provide auriculotherapy, wellness checks, care for people suffering dehydration, exacerbation of chronic medical conditions, trauma and anxiety, blood sugar issues and colds and flus. The Centro is a space providing Aid and solidarity in the community by the community. Autonomous Centro de Apoyo Mutuo spaces are up and operating as community kitchens and gathering spaces where gardening, cooking, workshops, film screenings and sustainable infrastructure projects are conceptualized, are built, are installed, are open sourced as a liberated means of survival. In Rio Riedras, we walk through inspired streets heavily decorated with street art explicitly claiming their liberation from the state in spurts, “El Desastre es la Colonia” and “Ilegales Bienvenidos.” We enter La Olla Comun, another mutual aid centro where a crowd are cleaning up from a daily community breakfast share. Another autonomous space, another vibrant and visceral exhibit of community seized opportunity in the face of a capitalism exacerbated climate catastrophe created power vacuum. We talked with, and handed over all of our remaining medical supplies to, a crew who was preparing to leave for one of Puerto Rico’s Superfund sites to provide medical access and relief, Vieques. From Mayaguez to Humacao, autonomy and solidarity is taking foothold and gaining steam. The process of liberation itself is liberating. The people want to be free. The people will be free.

2017 Reflection: Unafraid of Ruins

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 20:37:15 +0000

2017 has been a busy year for us. We saw unprecedented disasters, both climate related and political. The storms are increasing in intensity and frequency, but so is our diverse movement’s power from below, our capacity to bend reality to will and to present viable alternatives. In the face of growing fascist threats, we know a simple return to the politics of economic austerity, endless war, and the slow breakdown of authentic social relationships is not enough to stem the tide against authoritarianism. What we need is a radical restructuring of our social ties, based on mutual aid and our shared vision of the future. In addition to meeting people’s immediate needs for survival post-disasters, this is what we are building. Every hurricane, every fire, every earthquake, mudslide, flood, and every other disaster, is a space of profound suffering, but in these ruins, there is an opportunity to rebuild a better world in the shadow of the old. In the words of the revolutionary Buenaventura Durruti: “We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts.” If we are to survive the coming storms, it will be through mutual aid, through manifesting into reality this new world we carry in our hearts. In 2017, we created a clearinghouse of resources available for free at MutualAidDisasterRelief.org for people engaged in people-powered relief efforts to safely clean up flooded homes, provide psychological first aid, and engage in every aspect of relief and recovery safely and sustainably. We activated thousands of new volunteers who became involved in debris clean up, prisoner advocacy, mobile kitchens, providing medical assistance, building autonomous/sustainable energy and water systems, and distributing hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, water, and other supplies, as well as countless other acts of solidarity. As we write this, many of our volunteers are in Puerto Rico assisting the centros de apoyo mutuo that operate as beacons of sustainability and communal solidarity. Many more volunteers will continue to trickle in over the coming weeks as they have over the last couple months. The people of Puerto Rico knew as we know too, if we wait on the state or the large institutions to save us, we would not survive. There comes a time when compassion, mutual aid, solidarity, and taking initiative are not luxuries but necessities of survival. In the words of a friend at Centro de Apoyo Mutuo in Mariana, "This is it. Or there is no future." We look ahead to 2018 and building the movement for mutual aid through a speaking and training tour, spreading the diy disaster relief ethic, and carving out a future through mutual aid, solidarity, and direct action. As a new year approaches, we look forward to continuing to build and support civil society alternatives, prefigurative movements for humanity, for survival, and against neoliberalism, fascism, and climate chaos. Thank you for walking this path with us.

Dreaming With Our Hands: On Autonomy, In(ter)dependence, and the Regaining of the Commons

mutualaiddisasterrelief — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 17:17:44 +0000

"It was like an atomic bomb went off" a local Boricua, as people born in Puerto Rico are often called, is saying about the view of the mountains the day after Maria passed. "Every branch, and every tree, was torn apart and broken, and scattered everywhere. Every green area was gray and brown." The view now, almost three months after las tormentas, is eerie. The greenery is back, but the forests are very bare compared to how they were. Things can appear to be normal, except for the 60 foot telephone pole hanging over the edge of a cliff here, or leaned over at 45 degree angles onto a building there. As long as they still carry power to their destinations they're left alone, even doubled over, to triage the other downed poles that are actually causing disruptions in the grid. These remnants of devastation can be seen everywhere, and everywhere there are people getting by and adapting to the changes Irma and Maria left behind with whatever limited tools are at their disposal. [caption id="attachment_1237" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Car pushed off the road by winds and abandoned in Las Piedras, PR.[/caption] I, a Brooklyn born Puerto Rican, arrive in Puerto Rico, or as the native Taíno people call it, Boriké, and meet up with a small team of two traveling partners. Our visits to Caguas on my first week were breathtaking, getting to know people, and watching the amazing projects that communities here are putting together. The town itself is very old, largely abandoned and magnificently beautiful. The streets in the pueblo are narrow and the buildings made of cement, painted bright pastel colors, with old Spanish architectures. Everywhere lay murals with sayings of hope, independence and resistance. In our short visits, we were able to glimpse how people here have begun rebuilding their lives, coming together to reimagine the kind of world they want to create. [caption id="attachment_1238" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Mural and poem in Urbe Apie's community gallery.[/caption] Since before the hurricanes, the downtown neighborhoods were losing their small shops and local markets to the incurring large chain stores that sprouted up less than a mile away. Still, one immediately gets the sense that this town is full of cultural life and spirit much different from that felt in wealthier neighborhoods, like the gated community in Guaynabo we stayed in. In traveling to different parts of the island, we can see houses on the coast of Aguadilla that were cut in half by mini landslides, and traffic lights and highway signs stashed beside the roads with the piles of detritus and branches. We’re on the northwestern part of the main highway that encircles the island now, and traffic comes to a halt for a half hour. It was raining for only 20 minutes, but it left a 4 foot deep puddle along a large stretch of the often overcrowded road. As we finally reach the end of the bottleneck, we see the flooding is being manually fixed by a single worker in swamp boots unclogging the drainage holes with a broomstick. I get the sense this is an example of how the municipalities in Puerto Rico aren’t equipped to properly handle the crisis. In speaking with people, it comes as no surprise to them either that the government isn’t doing much to resolve the problems here. As many non-Boricuas are only now discovering, the island’s government has been suffocated with public debts, issued and purchased by predatory Wall Street hedge funds. Aligning with what has now become a global custom with these kinds of debts, Puerto Rico’s creditors are forcing the island’s government to enact austerity measures on the population, with help from the US and its Fiscal Oversight and Management Board. This Board is an unelected entity established by the US Congress to decide how Puerto Rico spends the tax revenue collected from its people. "They don’t serve the interests of Puerto Ricans," Maritza, a local community organizer says, "They serve the interests of Wall Street.” She explains how the Board members assign themselves their own salaries. “The chair of the Board decided to make $625k this year, and overall the Board costs $300 million to operate, paid for by Puerto Rican tax dollars.” It’s their job to make sure Wall Street hedge funds can keep getting payments from Puerto Rico’s unquenchable debt, and in the process, ensure that Puerto Rico never has a prosperous and self-sufficient economy. By gutting funding for healthcare, education, food assistance, public sector jobs and critical infrastructure development, this policy instead ensures a continually collapsing economy. Maritza describes the Board as wanting "to keep us like a banana republic, a place with only low-wage jobs for corporations to profit off of,” and I believe her. FEMA and the Puerto Rican government failed in meeting people’s basic needs after the storms, but in their absence, I’m told old and new community organizations took the lead and saved many lives. Our first week in Puerto Rico we stayed in that gated community in Guaynabo. The way the area is handling the disaster speaks volumes to the effects of class on local relationships and the impulse to innovate. Our host doesn't have power, but comparably he has plenty of food in his kitchen. Though by the looks of it, the food is not eaten at all from the beginning to the end of our weeklong stay. The story of that uneaten food is that going out to eat is a luxury of the wealthy. There is a noise pervading the entire neighborhood, it’s humming at night with the whir and smell of gas generators. There are full and empty 12oz water bottles everywhere and, a Brita filter jug in the back of the fridge. I rescue it from disuse and fill my gallon water bottles from the tap. Our host doesn't have his own generator, he's renting use of one from a neighbor with stipulations: only at night, and only a single extension cord for $100 a week. That's quite a steep energy bill. These days, he’s a busy guy working for the utilities. On one of those rare occasions that we run into him during our stay, he gets to telling us about how the ocean waters around San Juan are being dumped with sewage overflows from the city. He says there are videos of people finding streams of completely black water flowing down and out towards the ocean. He warns us against swimming anywhere near San Juan because, the first two months after Maria, people got viral infections and other illnesses from swimming in the contamination. I swam in the waters anyway, and now I’ve developed skin rashes across my body. A doctor I consulted says my symptoms don’t seem severe. Not the wisest choice, but I have no regrets. The beauty of watching the sunrise over the ocean on that morning I swam in the San Juan waters, is like my experience our first night in Caguas. It is a welcome change from the buzzing of Guaynabo. Locals from an art collective, called Urbe Apie, guide us through a store they've reclaimed that has nothing but soil and vines growing on the ground, and hanging from the gaping holes in the roof. Out back, there's a field of several dozen rows of soil and plants. This garden was started some eight months ago, but just three months ago Maria’s winds turned it back into a pile of rubble, with scattered bricks dropped from the crumbling abandoned buildings that surround it. [caption id="attachment_1298" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Urbe Apie volunteers signing locals up for their art auction.[/caption] The space is being called Huerto Feliz, or Happy Garden, and I’m told it’s everybody’s garden, and anyone can work in and eat from it. Corn, beans, squash and herbs, banana and coconut trees are growing, a compost heap is being turned, and there's lines of little starts, peeking out of recycled plastic cups along the edges of the garden. I ask a local gardener how I can help, and he says, "take a look at the plants, where they're growing, and plant these starts anywhere you feel would be best." As I look around at the landscaped rows and growing things I overhear another gardener say, "It's important for us to connect and live together with Mother Nature." I find starts for squash and beans, and I till up little holes for them to live in next to the corn stalks. I listen to the rustling of leaves and look up to see the sun break just over the empty buildings. I am in awe of the beautiful thing they’re creating here. [caption id="attachment_1240" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Volunteers at Huerto Feliz partaking in a seed starting workshop put on in collaboration with a local farmer from Fresas y Uvas Rose farm.[/caption] Night falls and the locals show us to a large abandoned building. We climb up a handmade ladder to a landing where we enter in through a window. We are surrounded by dust, broken concrete and drywall; it could've been a decade since this place was last taken care of. Using flashlights, we make it to the roof, and from there we can see the mountains and city lights. A local med student points out into the distance, showing me where a new Walmart supermarket opened, and then over to where the neighborhood grocery store sits, out of business. This building we’re standing on might be the site of a nascent project called Casa Diaspora. Like many other abandoned buildings here, it has long been in use as a place to sleep by houseless people in the city. Negotiations for space are in the works. If not this one there are still many abandoned and broken buildings in Caguas, any one of which could be used to create the project. They'd need to be cleaned, and fixed up, but the aim is eventually to house Puerto Ricans from the diaspora, and allies, to engage with resiliency and self-sufficiency through the many community projects Urbe Apie, and other groups, have started here. A soccer ball is being kicked around on the roof, and we decide to climb out of the building and make our way to the main Plaza. There's people up socializing all around, police patrolling constantly, young folks are riding bicycles, popping wheelies, and food vendors stand chatting over their perches. We play for hours in the Plaza. I join a group of young kids playing volleyball, then I and a traveling partner climb one of the two gigantic trees in the center of the Plaza. All of the branches of these ancient trees were broken off during Maria. They've been cut cleanly so they could hopefully grow again in the Caribbean sun. The sights and feelings of that night couldn't be more clear: Puerto Rico, Boriké, is alive, living vibrantly and surviving in brilliant, myriad ways, not only in the aftermath of two disastrous storms, but centuries of colonization, and decades of neoliberal economic policy. [caption id="attachment_1297" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Stunning mural in Caguas, PR.[/caption] Many activists and news agencies in the US tend to remind people that Puerto Rico is part of the US, calling the 50 States the mainland, and calling the island a territory. I’ve also done this. “Puerto Ricans are US citizens!” some say, as part of their plea to engage the non-Puerto Rican’s empathy with the struggles of Boricuas. Yet other times, the association comes from an ignorance and denial to Puerto Rico’s status as a modern day colony. This ignorance and denial is not held by locals I’ve met here. They refer to the 50 States as the US – they recognize it as a separate entity, which has more of an abusive relationship with the island than anything else. The US Jones Act for instance, is an almost century-old law which has set in place an awful economic relationship between the US and the island. It’s primarily protecting the US’s shipbuilding industry, and the corporate monopoly on trade for the island, making it so Boricuas pay double shipping costs for the goods they need. In some cases, like with the infamous pharmaceutical industry, products that are manufactured in Puerto Rico get shipped to Jacksonville, Florida first, only to get shipped back to the island for locals to buy. Plainly, it bars Boricuas from accessing goods at competitive prices, and mandates that US ships and companies are employed to service all of the island’s trade. Almost everything costs more, and, almost every job pays less here than the same would in the US. “It should be [seen as] a moral imperative of the United States to not have colonies, it's like slavery or child labor. It should be a moral imperative for the United States to recognize its responsibility to Puerto Rico, because yes the storms devastated the island, but what they did has only exacerbated the harm the US has been doing here since its colonization of Puerto Rico,” says Maritza. And during a very late night turned early morning car ride with another local, I'm told "the total yearly value of jobs, and price reductions in goods, that could benefit the island's economy with the Jones Act removed is billions of dollars per year. We could wipe out the entire debt with that alone." Just ball-parking the numbers, he’s right. Studies done by the University of Puerto Rico and other organizations have said just that. They found that the island is worse off with the Jones Act in effect, and that without the law the enormous debt wouldn’t have developed. In other words, the debt is being manufactured. Creditors tend to blame debtors for being in debt, but the reality is that savvy debt obligations that never go away are big business, and these creditors are in that very business. Boricuas are not alone in bearing this kind of imprisoning weight. Puerto Rico is just one economy, in a vast global sea of economies, that are put into the red by inequitable economic relationships. It's one part of the general economic practice of turning people themselves into commodities. As only pieces in a labor force, people can be managed over in exploitative ways because access to their basic needs are controlled through the need to make money first. Money is a human need in the same way that a window in a prison cell is. And people can be forced to do all sorts of things against their will and interests, if offered a breath of fresh air in suffocating conditions. When money is scarce, and food, water and other human needs are only available at a price, then money can be that breath of fresh air. But this is called coercion, and it turns whole communities into markets, used to cheaply produce for a global demand without regard to local needs or sustainable development. After the storms, the regular flow of imports and exports was put on halt. With global supply being largely inaccessible, people here started doing what makes sense: meeting local needs with local supply. We meet up with another local through our friends in Caguas. He’s part of a group called Coconut Revolution. He teaches a class about just that: how people can use the abundant coconut plants on the island to meet almost every basic human need: Food from its meat, water from its juices, shelter under its leaves and woody trunks, and fire with its husks. His class is called “Cuando los barcos no vienen,” or “When the ships don’t come.” From talking with people here, the same skills he teaches were used just after the storms, when water and food were suddenly in short supply everywhere. He tells us, “you can survive a pretty long time just eating coconut meat, and drinking the water. But eventually, you'll need some other proteins and vitamins.” After showing us around to wild edibles, and medicinal plants, we come to the edge of a mangrove forest and a river. Along the bank of the river, an endless stream of crabs emerge from the water and then crawl into the roots. He tells us how important these mangroves are to the ecology of the region, but also that much of them were killed after Maria. “The effects of their deaths are being studied now. We know it's because of their protection that our neighborhood survived the storms.” We say goodbye and make our way back to town. As we bike down a main avenue in Caguas, we meet a lady chillin' in her front yard with her dogs and husband. We get to talking about how people on the island socialize more than in the US. She says, “Even so, before the storm we didn't know our neighbors, but now we do. We don't have power here but they do across the street," pointing to one of two houses on the block with lights on, "and I have gas for my stove. I'd cook for maybe 18, 20 people, the guys in the autoshop over there too, and they'd bring over ice and we'd eat together," with a big smile across her face. The crisis is really forging a vigorous sense of community, and it’s a recurring sentiment we've heard in our conversations here, in smaller, poorer towns especially. There’s also an excited support here for the spontaneous social centers being put together and operated by locals all over the island. Neighbors are collectivizing the means of survival and building for future resiliency. Many of these community centers are known as Centros de Apoyo Mutuo (CAMs), or Mutual-Aid Centers. The CAM in Caguas has reclaimed an abandoned Social Security office just around the block from Huerto Feliz, and they’ve begun major renovations. Almost every day, people from Caguas, people from across the island, and visitors, are seen fixing holes in walls, painting, and reinstalling water and electric systems to the building. When finished, community members will serve breakfast and lunch at least three times a week, run a wellness clinic for the whole neighborhood, and there are even plans for a radio station to be started there. This network of projects is truly inspiring and vital. [caption id="attachment_1242" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Banner announcing how neighbors in Caguas, PR can engage with the local CAM.[/caption] All of this is being done still with major shortages of supplies. There’s this one staple Puerto Rican dish made with fried platanos. They are squished along with pork or chicken, then formed into a cake shape. It’s called mofongo. "We can't make mofongo because there's no platanos. No platanos, no mofongo," a restaurant owner in Caguas says to a patron. Many local supply chains were cut by the hurricanes, and 80% of crops on the island were destroyed. That’s why a small, locally-sourced restaurant might not have access to these bananas, but the Walmart a mile away is fully stocked and back to normal. Much like the other problems on the island, those with money might not feel the differences left behind by the storms in the way those without do. The water from people's faucets is contaminated, or not flowing at all, but those who can afford the daily tax of buying water, might not feel the fear of dehydration. They might not feel the fear of hunger from not being able to cook rice and beans, because there is no water or it isn’t clean. No one seems to think drinking from the tap without filters is safe, especially since the water from the faucets was completely black in many places just several weeks ago. But still people need to drink water, and in Guaynabo, I saw people filling up their water bottles from an exposed spigot in the space left behind by a fallen building. The reality is that for many poor communities and mountain towns away from city centers, the only water available to drink, is questionable at best. [caption id="attachment_1243" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Exposed spigot in Guaynabo, PR where people are filling up their water bottles.[/caption] I'm told, the scene here in Caguas just days after Maria passed was surreal and scary. Hundreds of people without food and water lining up outside of a hastily constructed community kitchen to eat. The CAMs, many other organizations, like Urbe Apie, and community members throughout the island, have taken on the work of cooking, or offering their spaces for large meals to be made for neighbors several days a week, sometimes several times a day. Those who can, when they can, seem to have made bringing food, clean water and tools to each other a regular part of everyday life. The organizing of these Boricuas is essential for so many in the vacuum of care and ability from the government. But still, huge gaps are left for people to fill in order to figure out a new normal that meets all their basic needs. [caption id="attachment_1244" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Rocket stove donated to Huerto Feliz by volunteers from the CAM in Arecibo, PR.[/caption] One such gap is power. Within three days after both Irma and Maria, most of the perishable food in people's fridges was rotten. The municipal pumps that move water from reservoirs to people even slightly uphill were useless, as was most of the Internet and telephone service infrastructure. Authorities were assuring people that the outages and breaks in the grid would only take six months to fix. There is a mass of people who don't think that's acceptable, and who don't want to remain dependent on the dilapidated service of the island's primary energy company, it’s growing, and we got to meet some of them. In early December, our team of three arrives at an office building, in Guaynabo, where a conference on DIY solar power generators is about to be held. The conference was announced just 36 hours prior, but there is an astounding one hundred people who show up and pack themselves into a small room. The presenter is Jehu Garcia, a person who's responded to Maria by making instructional videos on YouTube describing how people can use new, and recycled, materials to construct their own battery packs and solar generators. Many at the conference seem well on their way to building their own DIY solar devices, to power their homes, workplaces, and even local schools. There is so much desire to work cooperatively in this space. Spontaneously people bring food and water to share, and exchange contact information and resources. The event lasts for five hours, and a healthy mix of people ask a slew of exhaustively technical questions. The network remains connected via a Facebook group with dozens of questions being asked, problems being solved, and group purchases being made. The sense is that this network is motivated and excited about DIY solutions for off-grid solar, and for good reason. [caption id="attachment_1245" align="alignnone" width="3024"] Battery pack made from 18650 li-ion cells, and a UPS inverter at a DIY, off-grid solar power conference in Guaynabo, PR.[/caption] The island receives powerful, near constant sunshine. With the complete blackout situation as it was, not being able to utilize the abundant power all around was, and still is, a deadly injustice. Power to hospitals, clinics and other critical infrastructure were downed across the island in one day. With this, solar combined with off-grid storage may be the most viable option for decentralized power generation. Connecting solar panels to the power grid of municipalities comes with drawbacks that some do not anticipate. Many who had already purchased solar panels for their homes and businesses here, were connected to the grid. In normal conditions, this can be a benefit, because residents could sell their excess power back to the energy company. But what the disasters have revealed is that, many of these systems that companies offer aren't designed to continue working if the rest of the grid goes offline. And that’s exactly what happened. Grid-tie systems like these might be quite common, but they should be seen as another example of how standard infrastructure isn’t up to the task of viability in unstable times. Dependence on corporations and the government, despite their inability to ensure access to life-critical services to most Boricuas, has proven to be a risky and deadly reality here. Even people with fully functioning solar panels on their roofs, still aren't able to power their houses or businesses. And there’s a growing movement looking to DIY, off-grid solar as the way forward for Puerto Ricans to meet their power needs. How are people able to go off-grid? With powerwalls. The systems consist of a piece of recycled hardware called an Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS), which serves as an inverter, connected to huge collections of recycled 18650 lithium-ion cells, which are in almost every portable battery device these days, then to a solar charge controller, which then can be hooked up to their solar panels. This is a promising part of the island's growing DIY attitude that this small, but enthusiastic, group of Boricuas is innovating in the context of resilience and disaster recovery. The shortcomings of dependence we are witnessing here brings up questions of independence. There is plenty of talk, and symbolism, of Puerto Rican independence scattered across much of the island, in graffiti, in poetry, and in philosophical proclamations at the end of rowdy celebrations. The conversations about independence are complicated and complex though. I can feel the trauma of the repression of the Puerto Rican independence movement in our conversations with people here. After the Spanish rule of the island was repelled in 1898, Puerto Rico was autonomous for only six months before the US claimed the island as part of the Treaty of Paris, which concluded the Spanish-American War. Activists here share the stories of leaders and participants in the movement for independence being assassinated, in the 19th century, and throughout the 20th century. I got to visit the grave of Pedro Albizu Campos, head of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, who uncovered deadly, premeditated medical experiments being done on Puerto Ricans by US doctors, but specifically a physician working with the Rockefeller Institute, named Dr. Cornelius P. Rhoads. Albizu uncovered Rhoads’ letter to a colleague then published and sent it to many representatives in the United Nations. The letter described, how by transplanting cancer cells into and killing patients, he was playing his role to "further the process of extermination" of the population, and making the island "livable." Albizu was arrested many times for his participation in the movement for independence. But the final time he was arrested, he had the misfortune of having Rhoads as his medical examiner while in prison. He, and other prisoners, reported being exposed to intense radiation while serving time. Their stories were corroborated by an outside medical examiner who diagnosed his sores and other symptoms as consistent with extreme radiation exposure. He was released and pardoned by the Governor, in very ill health, shortly before his death. Independence can mean many things. It seems the host of problems being faced by people on the island after the storms, are being solved locally, by Boricuas working together in community, and allies from all over listening to their leadership and requests. The amount of work getting done everyday, to rebuild, and to survive, is testament to locals’ ability to handle the challenges facing the island, even with very little to work with. Given access to the right tools, resources, and autonomy, there's no doubt that Boricuas can rebuild the island, and account for any hardships, even without “help” from the island’s government. That’s exactly what many communities were doing directly after the storms, before the storms, and it’s what they continue to do. The Puerto Rican government can't properly fund programs to provide access to basic needs, let alone sustainably rebuilding in ways that plan for the island’s prosperity, and resiliency to future climate-change fueled disasters. It is largely bound by the decisions of the US, and its Fiscal Oversight and Management Board. But independent communities in Boriké are not bound by those same restrictions. They do the work they view as necessary with the resources they have available. It’s as difficult, and as simple, as that. I’d say the crisis has reawakened the importance of the commons within many Boricuas, an idea already not too unfamiliar to Puerto Rican culture as I've experienced it. In the sudden absence of basic supplies, people have found their means of survival in each other, and in the resources and land at their disposal. Many are seeing unused and abandoned spaces as potential community centers; food, water and shelter as human rights, to be shared to anyone in need, from anyone in possession. As well, people are expressing reenergized relationships with time and labor, ones that view them as most importantly shared in mutual service, and as part of the well-being of the collective: themselves, their families, their neighbors, and the island as a whole. "I know that I need a job, but I'm spending all of my time taking care of my friends," a local artist in Caguas tells me. There are many things that money can’t buy, especially in the midst of a regional crisis, when resources themselves are scarce, and not just money. Despite the US's abusive and extractive treatment of Puerto Rico as a financial and military colony, people don't seem focused so much on the island’s government declaring independence. Instead, they seem to be focused on building their own independence, through interdependence within their communities. Autonomy is what I see the people here practicing; autonomy from the control, inequity, and corruption of governments and corporations alike. And in these chaotic months, it doesn’t seem like the government, or corporations, are exercising their prerogative to take it away from these Boricuas by force. The real, tangible, and inevitable truths about life as a colony, have only been made more clear by these storms, particularly to outsiders. The infrastructure here, and across the globe, is intimately tied to the petrol world. But the petrol world is dying, its infrastructure is crumbling, and so too is the world's current system of societal organization. This decay of modern capitalism has turned people's lives here into a daily toil, that is at the same time imaginative and full of energy. We are all grappling with these chains of the past, and they still violently attach themselves to the body and minds of many Puerto Ricans. But a growing minority here is aiming to inspire people to remove those chains; and, they’re collectively self-managing the kinds of local decisions necessary to care for their fellow Boricuas. And this may be one of the most salient truths about the legacy of the old world: it’s not that people in revolutionary struggles need to be fighting for their own flag, as much as, they find their emancipation in the compassion and dignity of self-determination and collective direct action. Boricuas, and communities worldwide, should absolutely be free from the burdens of producing resources, and wealth, for the empires of the world. Being free from life as a colony does require taking risks, though. The resistance struggles we’ve seen here are taking risks. They're acting imaginatively. They’re showing us what it's like to experience the freedom of constructing new ways of life, ones that aim to provide for the dreams and aspirations of all people, and at the very least, for their survival and health. In my time here, I often recall a motto for resistance – “If they don’t let us dream, then we won’t let them sleep,” – which has been passed around between movements, generations, and regions. Although Boricuas in struggle aren’t getting much sleep these days either, in this moment, for them, I don’t think it’s about bringing the alarm bells of revolution to the doorsteps of the powerful. It looks like people have decided to dream with their hands, with everything they have, towards the immediate and tangible goals of activated, empowered and resilient communities. They’re doing so by organizing for their self-determination, and overtaking organized coercion with collective disobedience when necessary. We can all learn a great deal by their examples of survival and recovery from this modern mix of natural and human-made disasters. Being here, I feel a sense of wonder and magic, like I've returned, but to a place I've never been. This is the island of my ancestors. I come after a most powerful series of storms, to learn both my history and my future, in this moment of recovery. It is, after all, from the native Taíno word huracán that the word Hurricane is derived. Here, I am reminded of the cycling of the flows of time, and the cycling winds of the hurricanes Irma and Maria. Those storms have swept by, and they’ve destroyed many things. By knocking out the energy grid, and cutting access to food and water, they left the island of Boriké dark. But in that darkness countless Boricuas have awoke, and they stay awake late and get up early again, doing the work of reproducing life. -Ricchi w/ Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Donation

jimmy — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 03:24:25 +0000

jimmy — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 03:20:40 +0000

Memphis, TN: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:55:53 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Memphis, TN: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:17:08 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Knoxville, TN: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:21:49 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Knoxville, TN: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:22:59 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Asheville, NC: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:40:24 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Boone, NC: Part 1, Class Visits

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:42:14 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Building the Movement for Mutual Aid - SPRING TOUR 2018

tnorman000 — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 02:53:07 +0000

Friends, I am so excited and grateful for this opportunity to organize our first "Building the Movement for Mutual Aid" Training Tour! This is a critical moment for developing a skilled and empowered standing network of organizers and volunteers who can help communities respond to climate chaos as well as “unnatural disasters” brought about by exploitation, violence, and extreme resource extraction. We are still confirming dates on this far-ranging Spring Tour, but we can tell you now that we will be on the road March-May in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. In each of the 30 locations on our route, we will explain how natural storms turn into unnatural disasters through dangerous new forms of disaster capitalism and how everyday people are using principles of “Solidarity, Not Charity” to engage in d.i.y. disaster recovery. A two-day workshop will include both an easy introduction accessible to the general public, and a deeper participatory training for those who are ready to get involved. Check out the schedule! It just went live, moments ago, on our shiny new website! If you have not seen it yet, please check out the front page and read some of the many excellent articles written by members who are bringing direct action humanitarian aid to communities in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. This tour is the first step in a strategic capacity-building training campaign. Due to an outpouring of requests (over 100 so far!), plans are developing for a Fall 2018 Tour in the West, additional regional tours in 2019-2020, and a variety of follow-up trainings that will strategically and progressively build necessary skills and shared knowledge in local groups that are a part of the rapidly-growing MADRelief network. If you would like to invite us to your community, please place a request. MADRelief envisions a new, participatory and empowering form of humanitarian aid that can become a big tent under which many diverse movements can find common ground and shared experience. One that can overcome natural and unnatural disasters – from hurricanes to hate rallies, from mudslides to mine waste spills - and transform tragedies into opportunities for collective liberation. One that we build in collaboration with all of you. This tour seeks to strengthen our network, diversify our base, and increase our skills and knowledge, together. Please join us! With love and solidarity, - tyler.

Wise, VA: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:13:49 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Wise, VA: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:18:03 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Temporary Autonomous Zones

jimmy — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 17:25:06 +0000

Last week marked the end of our Tampa Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Post-Irma Convergence Center, the space was generously offered to us by St. Paul Lutheran Church. This space was artful, accessible, warm and creative. Like larger social experiments where collectives have free reign to create, projects zipped in and out, ideas flourished and plans were encouraged to fruition. From prisoner letter writing nights, to documentary screenings, to food prep, to the hundreds of care packages sent out from on site, to reportbacks, to workshops, to skillshares, to group meetings, to open mics, to radical caroling practice, and of course, the launching of relief teams doing disaster mutual aid to Puerto Rico, Immokalee, the Keys, Apopka, Jacksonville, and even refugee solidarity work in Belgium and France. We used those four walls to break down other walls and it worked. The space was opened for houseless friends to shower, do laundry and even for a houseless couple to have a romantic anniversary dinner. We shared the space with Tampa Food Not Bombs, Love Has No Borders, Tampa Bay DSA, Restorative Justice Coalition, Black Lives Matter Tampa, Tampa Anarchist Black Cross and other liberatory movements. The space held a free clinic, a free library, a children's playroom, a community kitchen, and an open space for people to share art and literature. The walls held revolutionary Zapatista quotes, portrait-stories, other messages of support and solidarity, and photos in memory of Andrew Joseph III, Meg Perry and Alonso Guillen – people we have lost along the way. The clinic treated emotional and physical trauma, provided acupuncture, reiki, massage, herbal teas and tinctures, diabetes care, treated dehydration and launched many, many mobile clinics. Hakim Bey, the originator of the term temporary autonomous zone says they are “like an uprising which does not engage directly with the state, a guerrilla operation which liberates an area (of land, of time, of imagination) and then dissolves itself, to re-form elsewhere/elsewhen, before the state can crush it.” The goal of these zones is not permanence or confrontation, and its lapse is not defeat, but a seed planted that will be carried to another time and place to be recreated again. The aim is to spread these autonomous zones far and wide, so that everywhere and every-when, not just in disasters, people share goods and services freely, connect deeply and authentically with one another, have agency, self-determination and meaning in their chosen work, live in the moment, and are free to imagine with minds, but also with hands and feet, the better world we know is possible. These moments, when our bodies are sung electric by the possibilities taking wing inside and all around us, need not be fleeting. Most of human history has been spent in communities whose foundation was mutual aid, and our future can be likewise if we have the strength and courage to follow our vision through to where it leads. Another example of temporary autonomous zones are the 12 Centros de Apoyo Mutuo (CAMs) located throughout Puerto Rico. These constitute an intricate web of people-powered, locally rooted recovery efforts that are proving revolutionary self-governance is not a utopian dream, but can actually be a natural response to the absence of authoritarian, statist means of control. We are currently raising funds to get the CAM in Caguas its own micro-grid solar photovoltaic system – an autonomous alternative to the bankrupt and perhaps, soon to be privatized, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. You can donate to this project here. Some of us are still in Puerto Rico assisting with projects whenever and wherever we are needed and plan to continue doing so for the forseeable future. Some of us are busy preparing for a multi-state tour. And look forward to seeing many of you in person over the coming weeks and months and strategizing on how to build the movement for mutual aid together. To check out locations, visit our website. If we aren’t making it to your town yet, we apologize and thank you in advance for your patience. We have had far too many requests to meet them all at once, but we will continue booking spots for the Fall. Dandelions lose their minds in the wind, and spread their seeds in a thousand directions. We are a result of one of those seeds. And we know that every end is a beginning. Wherever you go, may you carry a piece of a liberated zone with you. Wherever you stand, may you be the heart and soul of that place. Until next time,

(Solar) Power to the People

jimmy — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 03:07:29 +0000

On May 23, 2018, 3 days after the 8-month anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s landfall in Puerto Rico, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief’s #PRRebuilds Sustainability and Ecological Resilience team arrived for the third time in Barrio Mariana, a small mountain community resting above Humacao, high in breadfruit (pana) and moonshine (cañita) country. The purpose of this trip was to implement the first community owned and operated solar micro-grid in the area. This microgrid will provide reliable power to el Centro de Imaginación (the Imagination Center) which now houses a solar laundromat, provides spaces for community meetings and workshops, includes a library, a tool library, and offices for local student social workers currently developing and providing solutions for the community’s more elderly population. Rooms have been gutted and have been furnished with beds for volunteers, and there are plans developing for a hostel. There are also plans to allow for small business incubation and equipment sharing, such as a community run coffee shop idea that is brewing. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief partnered with BoxPower, Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo and other Centros de Apoyo Mutuo to purchase this solar micro-grid system and strengthen the resiliency and ability of autonomous mutual aid centers and communities to support each other when responding to future storm events. The system can be dismantled and packed back into the shipping container on which it rests to protect the photovoltaic panels from being damaged during a storm. This ensures energy can be reinstalled immediately after a storm. The system also includes a generator as a backup power supply as added insurance. The BoxPower solar photovoltaic micro-grid system was installed at a nearby, abandoned school, taken over and repurposed by our movement friends to provide community needs and training, as well as house volunteers through the new Imagination Center (el Centro de Imaginación). The school was previously closed and vacated, another victim of one of Puerto Rico’s rounds of mass school closures -- yet another front on which the larger fight against disaster capitalism on the island must be challenged and fought. Renovation of the magical and underutilized space at the school began in November. Essential to the renovation of the school and the rebuilding of the community center, kitchen, and playground are long-term volunteers, now residents of el barrio Mariana. First arriving by bike, these allies, and those that first arrived with them, worked tirelessly to help residents rebuild the center as well as gut homes, clear debris, assist with kitchen duties, and help restart plantings from seeds. They are now helping residents as they develop a food forest at La Loma, and are helping form a local screen-printing cooperative at the renovated space. It is this type of long-term solidarity that we seek to continue to facilitate post-disaster, and throughout the long process of rebuilding communities and lives. Having returned for a third time, the MADR #PRRebuilds Sustainability and Ecological Resilience team joined local residents and organizers from Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo as the BowPower team guided residents through a hands-on installation training of the system over 2 days. Community members and collaborators did the bulk of the labor while training on construction of the microgrid frame, photovoltaic panel mounting and installation, system wiring, long-term operation and maintenance, as well as how to disassemble and repack solar panels safely back into the shipping container on which they are mounted in the event of another storm. None of this would have been possible or happened on schedule had it not been for the collective effort, solidarity, and determination of: dedicated allies; a network of decentralized and reliable disaster responders; the grit and solidarity of boricua laborers: road construction workers, electrical workers; and the amazing bomberos (firefighters) of Puerto Rico. Together, with only 24 hours until the start of the grid installation, they overcame delayed transportation from the port to Mariana of the solar system, an inappropriately sized crane needed to safely and securely transfer the storage container from one truck to another to the basketball court of the school for placement; the lack of and rapid construction of a dirt road to drive the system onto the basketball court, and the removal of two, heavy tow-trucks from the muddy indentations of the newly developed road, and towards the end of the 5 hour process, a final placement of the storage container facing south-southwest without any remaining daylight. All of this was also possible because of solidarity shown by countless regular folx, through the giving of their time, labor, knowledge, resources, funds, and a collective vision for a better world built on mutual aid and solidarity, autonomy and accountability, sustainability and resilience. It was an unbelievable and amazing achievement and a rollercoaster of a day, which ended appropriately with tostonachos and a drink! Though, los bomberos still did not drink, not even to celebrate! They have serious dedication to their job and work ethic. #BomberosdePuertoRicoSolidaridad You can listen to Christine of Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo speak about the solar installation, by clicking here (interview in Spanish). The aim of the Mariana community, of the projects at el Centro de Imaginación, and of the mutual aid movement is to empower communities to become more autonomous and more self-sustaining. From food sovereignty to modular energy generation systems and other appropriate, sustainable technologies and processes, MADR sustainable design and engineering working groups seek to develop adaptive designs for unique solutions during disaster response and rebuilding. It is with that aim that Mutual Aid Disaster Relief stands in solidarity with the community of el barrio Mariana, Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo, and other mutual aid movement allies to bring sustainable, community owned and operated solar microgrid systems to Puerto Rico. Installing solar microgrids at as many of the the mutual aid centers as possible, empowers these collectives with improved resilience and self-sustainability to respond during future storm events and provides a platform for energy transparency and accountability, allowing for a better understanding of individual and collective use and impacts, and a type of guide for better self-governance. MADR is now supporting el Centro de Apoyo Mutuo in Caguas in developing a second community owned and operated solar micro-grid, in collaboration with allies at Huerto Feliz and Urbe Apie. As part of the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief sustainable design and engineering working group, encouraging and supporting community-directed reconstruction that emphasizes sustainable, appropriate technology and systems for critical needs and infrastructure, like water and energy, is imperative. Mutual aid teams and working groups share knowledge and skills in solidarity with community members, learning and developing new solutions and approaches to problem solving alongside community members. Resiliency depends on adaptability and autonomy. Puerto Rico stands at a crossroads of colonialism, disaster capitalism and climate chaos. Now is a critical opportunity to build the world we want to see and live in together. Puerto Rico is and has been a battleground - between people and profit; health and profit; environmental justice and profit. We must resist and rebuild together. Self-sustainability, resilience/y, mutual aid and solidarity ARE acts of resistance. We can replace existing oppressive institutions and mechanisms of society with self-organized counter-institutions. And there is no need to wait to create them until “after the revolution”. Mariana’s community developed solutions, embodied by the work and vision of the Proyecto de Apoyo Mutuo and the movement of Centros de Apoyo Mutuo throughout the island, is the tangible example of the vision we collectively hold, and is the seed of our solidarity. This will hopefully be just the beginning of more sustainable and autonomous solar micro-grids and solar arrays to strengthen the movement for mutual aid throughout Puerto Rico. To support this and other similar Mutual Aid Disaster Relief projects and programs, you can donate here. All power to the people, - Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Finishing One Training Tour, & Beginning The Next!

jimmy — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:11:43 +0000

We are so happy to announce that our pilot-project, Building the Movement for Mutual Aid Training Tour, was a great success in spring 2018 - so much so that we are hustling to put together another in FALL 2018! If you are interested in hosting a training, see links below. This spring we visited over 30 communities, rural and urban, in 12 states traversing diverse bioregions, and we learned so much about disasters as varied as hurricanes, blizzards, and chemical accidents to pipelines, white-supremacy, and gentrification. We encountered daunting challenges, but we persevered and worked together to find solutions - that’s what we do, right? - we are so grateful to everyone who fed, housed, and cared for us along this epic journey! It was a powerful experience to connect more intentionally with our network. We went deeper with existing relationships, began to create exciting new possibilities, and we made a practical impact on local projects too, utilizing our resources and free time to haul housing structures into a pipeline blockade camp in Minnesota, to fetch drywall for an elder in need of house repairs in New Orleans, and to provide start-up medic kits to the Wolfpack Gunshot Response Team in Cleveland. We also assisted Water Protectors fighting the Bayou Bridge Pipeline at L’eau Est La Vie Camp in Louisiana, and rallied with Flint residents demonstrating against the state’s closing of free bottled water distribution while allowing Nestle to double their theft of water resources in Michigan. We are currently working on a curriculum packet to empower you all to train yourselves - keep your eyes open for the next announcement! Along the way, we have received even more requests for trainings, and tons of good ideas for follow-ups and continuing skill-sharing. So we are not only booking a FALL TOUR in the West, but also gradually escalating our capacity and preparing our network for an ongoing STRATEGIC TRAINING CAMPAIGN - we all have skills to share, and so much more to learn from one another! If you would like to request a visit from our “pilot-project” training team, or volunteer to give trainings in whatever skills you like to share, use these links: ** To request a visit to your community, use this form. [we intend to visit about 10 states west of the Mississippi, but our exact route is still open to wherever we find interest - if we don’t make it to your community this time, we are planning multiple regional tours in 2019] ** To share your skills with other communities, use this form. [we don’t yet have a plan to execute follow-up trainings, just a lot of interest and excitement - please be patient... or better yet, volunteer to join the training working group and help us make this exciting vision a reality!] ** If you have training or facilitation skills, a love of travel, and free time in Aug-Nov, we may need more trainers for this tour, and definitely for future regional tours. Please write directly to madr_training_tours@riseup.net for more info. Or, to connect with others who are wrestling with these same subjects right now, there is a “Crisis Convening” in Newark, New Jersey, July 13-15. Folks involved with Occupy Sandy and many other local orgs from all around the country will share skills and lessons learned, consider ways to more intentionally promote equity and justice through modern crisis response, and build resources to support this work. ** To register for the Crisis Convening, use this form. [deadline approaching - Do it! Right now! It’s going to be great :) ] We hope to connect with you soon, as we continue to build powerful relationships and connections between our strong, resilient, and sustainable communities. With love and solidarity, Tyler and the MADRelief Training Team

Boone, NC: Part 2, Public Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:44:04 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Richmond, VA: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:10:08 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Richmond, VA: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:11:17 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Brooklyn, NY: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:15:30 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Brooklyn, NY: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:16:37 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Storrs, CT: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:19:12 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Kalamazoo, MI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:20:42 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Storrs, CT: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:22:32 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Kalamazoo, MI: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:26:47 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Land O' Lakes, WI: Class Visits

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:32:33 +0000

school - not open to the public

Pittsburgh, PA: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:41:45 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Cleveland, OH: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:42:36 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Lansing, MI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:43:27 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Bloomington, IN: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:44:23 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Minneapolis, MN: Part 1, Presentation (North Side)

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:45:09 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism UROC, Room 105

Viroqua, WI: Class Visit

tnorman000 — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 19:10:17 +0000

Menomonie, WI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 18:23:18 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Janesville, WI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 20:35:50 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Caledonia, IL: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:10:39 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Elmira, NY: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:59:26 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Ypsilanti, MI: Participatory Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:02:59 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Ashland, WI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:14:37 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Wausau, WI: Participatory Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:15:39 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

St. Paul, MN: Class Visits

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:20:27 +0000

school - not open to the public

Appleton, WI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:23:40 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Appleton, WI: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:26:27 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Milwaukee, WI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:27:32 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Madison, WI: Participatory Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:28:41 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Chicago, IL: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:31:06 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Asheville, NC: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 19:48:36 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Pittsburgh, PA: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 20:00:57 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Pittsburgh, PA: Part 3, Workshop Continued

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 20:02:18 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Charlottesville, VA: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 16:31:26 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Bloomington, IN: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 20:08:15 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Elmira, NY: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:21:23 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Charlottesville, VA: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:27:26 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Milwaukee, WI: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:34:13 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Minneapolis, MN: Part 1, Presentation (South Side)

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:09:21 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism Walker Church

Menomonie, WI: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:22:06 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Cloquet, MN: Land Defense Gathering

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:28:11 +0000

This will be a special event with those blockading the Line 3 pipeline project

NYC General Defense Committee

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:55:54 +0000

Coalition of Concerned Citizens

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:10:19 +0000

River City Medic Collective

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:10:10 +0000

Mutual Aid in Michigan

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:24:54 +0000

Will Hooper

tnorman000 — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:34:42 +0000

Appalachia State University

tnorman000 — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 01:00:01 +0000

Forest City 350

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 20:35:51 +0000

Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:13:50 +0000

Great River School

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:20:29 +0000

Minneapolis, MN: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 20:24:30 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Cleveland, OH: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 15:42:05 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Ashland, WI: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 17:57:58 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Lansing, MI: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 18:13:30 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Viroqua, WI: Part 1, Presentation

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:11:31 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Viroqua, WI: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:14:53 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Viroqua, WI: Part 3, Workshop Continued

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:17:21 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Viroqua, WI: Class Visit

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:19:39 +0000

Chicago, IL: Part 2, Workshop

tnorman000 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:05:32 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Gainesville, FL - Part 1, Presentation

jimmy — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:24:35 +0000

Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism

Gainesville, FL: Part 2, Workshop

jimmy — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:27:43 +0000

Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:55:54 +0000

The Train Station

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:23:42 +0000

Firestorm Books & Cafe

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 19:48:36 +0000

SCORCH

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 19:57:59 +0000

Bloomington MADR

tnorman000 — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 20:05:13 +0000

Mathew Louis-Rosenberg

tnorman000 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 19:28:28 +0000

Mothers Out Front

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:19:27 +0000

Rivanna Medics Collective

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:25:40 +0000

Solidarity & Defense, Huron Valley

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 20:30:11 +0000

North Star Health Collective

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:09:22 +0000

Makwa Initiative - Line 3 Frontline Resistance

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:28:12 +0000

Guide to Kulchur

tnorman000 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 15:36:54 +0000

UW - Milwaukee Student Association

tnorman000 — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 23:52:17 +0000

Root Health Collective

tnorman000 — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 18:13:32 +0000

Red Cedar Resilience

tnorman000 — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 14:37:39 +0000

Conserve School

tnorman000 — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 20:24:19 +0000

Youth Initiative High School

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:05:12 +0000

Crawford Stewardship Project

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:11:32 +0000

Madison Mutual Aid Network

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:27:38 +0000

Breakaway Social Center

tnorman000 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:03:23 +0000

First Congregational Church (Fight For 15 office)

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:10:18 +0000

The Birdhouse

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:21:49 +0000

TBA

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:27:14 +0000

Firestorm Books & Cafe

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:36:01 +0000

Soft Web Collective

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:10:09 +0000

The Base

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:15:31 +0000

St. Mark's Episcopal Church

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:19:13 +0000

First Congregational Church

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:24:53 +0000

Viterbo College

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:29:15 +0000

Conserve School

tnorman000 — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 20:32:34 +0000

UW Rock County

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 20:35:51 +0000

Angelic Organics Learning Center

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:10:40 +0000

SAMS Community Center

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 21:16:36 +0000

Great River School

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:20:28 +0000

The Train Station

tnorman000 — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:23:41 +0000

Kairos West

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 19:53:37 +0000

Pittsburgh Public Library

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 19:57:59 +0000

Glitter Box Theater

tnorman000 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 20:00:57 +0000

Girls, Inc

tnorman000 — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 20:05:12 +0000

The Park Church

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:19:26 +0000

Friends Meeting House

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:25:39 +0000

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:34:14 +0000

Off Center

tnorman000 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 20:30:10 +0000

Walker Community Church

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:09:22 +0000

Family & Learning Center

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:20:09 +0000

Fond Du Lac Community Center

tnorman000 — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:28:12 +0000

Guide to Kulchur

tnorman000 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 15:36:53 +0000

First Presbyterian Church

tnorman000 — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 18:13:31 +0000

Capital Area District Library - Downtown

tnorman000 — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 18:18:59 +0000

The Boiling Point

tnorman000 — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 18:37:11 +0000

The Boiling Point

tnorman000 — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 18:37:17 +0000

Menomonie Market Food Co-op

tnorman000 — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 20:08:16 +0000

UROC

tnorman000 — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 17:12:44 +0000

Youth Initiative High School

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:05:11 +0000

Art In

tnorman000 — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 14:27:37 +0000

Breakaway Social Center

tnorman000 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:03:22 +0000

Bad River Dept of Social & Family Services

tnorman000 — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 15:12:10 +0000

YWCA Wausau

tnorman000 — Tue, 01 May 2018 20:36:58 +0000

Bohemian Hall

tnorman000 — Thu, 10 May 2018 19:31:46 +0000

Civic Media Center

jimmy — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:24:35 +0000

Civic Media Center

jimmy — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:24:35 +0000