Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
Publisher Verso Books
Author Dean Spade
Around the world, people are faced with crisis after crisis, from the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support vulnerable members of their communities. This survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid. This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid has been a part of all larger, powerful social movements, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout. Mutual aid isn’t charity: it’s a form of organizing where people get to create new systems of care and generosity so we can survive.
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Author Dean Spade
Around the world, people are faced with crisis after crisis, from the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support vulnerable members of their communities. This survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid. This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid has been a part of all larger, powerful social movements, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout. Mutual aid isn’t charity: it’s a form of organizing where people get to create new systems of care and generosity so we can survive.
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DEFUND THE POLICE
DEFUND THE POLICE
Publisher Drum Machine Editions
Author Erik Pedersen
Police reform doesn't work. That's why all profits from the sale of these broadsides will be redirected to Critical Resistance (criticalresistance.org) to support their ongoing abolition work. DIMENSIONS: 11”x17” PROCESS: risography INK COLORS: black, medium blue PAPER: Domtar Cougar Natural Smooth, 65# cover Illustration, design, and printing by Erik Pedersen. Typeset in Martin by Vocal Type / Tré Seals. "CRITICAL RESISTANCE seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness. The success of the movement requires that it reflect communities most affected by the PIC. Because we seek to abolish the PIC, we cannot support any work that extends its life or scope." —criticalresistance.org
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Author Erik Pedersen
Police reform doesn't work. That's why all profits from the sale of these broadsides will be redirected to Critical Resistance (criticalresistance.org) to support their ongoing abolition work. DIMENSIONS: 11”x17” PROCESS: risography INK COLORS: black, medium blue PAPER: Domtar Cougar Natural Smooth, 65# cover Illustration, design, and printing by Erik Pedersen. Typeset in Martin by Vocal Type / Tré Seals. "CRITICAL RESISTANCE seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. We believe that basic necessities such as food, shelter, and freedom are what really make our communities secure. As such, our work is part of global struggles against inequality and powerlessness. The success of the movement requires that it reflect communities most affected by the PIC. Because we seek to abolish the PIC, we cannot support any work that extends its life or scope." —criticalresistance.org
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America is Invading Itself
America is Invading Itself
Publisher Dale Zine
Author Bobuq Sayed
Friends and family who are confused about what's going on in America right now, especially non-Black folks and those of you abroad, I want to spell it out: After the murder of George Floyd by a racist white police officer, protestors took to the streets to demand justice for Black folks, who have been systemically disempowered by the political system and murdered without repercussions by police since the conception of this country (modern policing here begun with patrols to recapture runaway slaves); The ensuing demonstrations gained steam because the violent inequality that Floyd's death represents is part of the racist bedrock of America, which continues to keep Black folks down through housing policies like redlining, through education, through income inequality, through access to public services and healthcare, through prisons filled with Black folks, and even with deaths from covid-19 in America so disproportionately affecting Black folks; What we are seeing now is the military being mobilized against protestors who are demanding equality. These are tactics dictators use to quell rebellion. Please do not let the media convince you that looting is the important narrative at play here. Black folks have spent 400 years trying to appeal to the moral sense of dominant culture for equality and it hasn't worked, property can be replaced
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Author Bobuq Sayed
Friends and family who are confused about what's going on in America right now, especially non-Black folks and those of you abroad, I want to spell it out: After the murder of George Floyd by a racist white police officer, protestors took to the streets to demand justice for Black folks, who have been systemically disempowered by the political system and murdered without repercussions by police since the conception of this country (modern policing here begun with patrols to recapture runaway slaves); The ensuing demonstrations gained steam because the violent inequality that Floyd's death represents is part of the racist bedrock of America, which continues to keep Black folks down through housing policies like redlining, through education, through income inequality, through access to public services and healthcare, through prisons filled with Black folks, and even with deaths from covid-19 in America so disproportionately affecting Black folks; What we are seeing now is the military being mobilized against protestors who are demanding equality. These are tactics dictators use to quell rebellion. Please do not let the media convince you that looting is the important narrative at play here. Black folks have spent 400 years trying to appeal to the moral sense of dominant culture for equality and it hasn't worked, property can be replaced
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Abolition: How We Keep Us Safe
Abolition: How We Keep Us Safe
Publisher Abolition Action
Author Abolition Action
In the spring of 2020, prison and policing abolitionist organizing collective, Abolition Action, worked with various contributors to collect, create and contextualize tools for strengthening relationships with our neighbors and local friends, meeting each others needs, and responding to crises without cops. This work culminated in a zine, available in its first edition online and in print.
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Author Abolition Action
In the spring of 2020, prison and policing abolitionist organizing collective, Abolition Action, worked with various contributors to collect, create and contextualize tools for strengthening relationships with our neighbors and local friends, meeting each others needs, and responding to crises without cops. This work culminated in a zine, available in its first edition online and in print.
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Abolish the Police for Breonna Taylor
Abolish the Police for Breonna Taylor
Publisher Groundwork Zine
Author Kimberly Enjoli
Groundwork Zine is a love note from Black abolitionist grassroots organizers to our communities. We've produced three issues a year since 2017. Usually zines are printed and disseminated at protests but this year's summer issue was primarily shared digitally.
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Author Kimberly Enjoli
Groundwork Zine is a love note from Black abolitionist grassroots organizers to our communities. We've produced three issues a year since 2017. Usually zines are printed and disseminated at protests but this year's summer issue was primarily shared digitally.
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Care Not Cops
Care Not Cops
Publisher Lucky Risograph
Author Julia Schaefer and Mark Anthony Hernandez Motaghy
Crown Heights Mutual Aid (CHMA) was formed in March 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. We are a network of neighbors supporting one another and the most vulnerable in our community, mobilizing against the COVID-19 health crisis and the ongoing crises of state violence, food injustice, and housing inequality. CHMA is also a tool for building connections and reciprocal relationships: we all have something to offer, and we all have something we need as we struggle towards justice. This poster is intended to both spread awareness of how to get involved with Crown Heights Mutual Aid and fundraise for our neighbors’ groceries. “Care Not Cops” makes explicit that CHMA is a long-term project, and we are committed to building processes and finding sustainable solutions. Operating in the spirit of collective care and responsibility, we refuse to collaborate with law enforcement in our aid work; much of what we do is necessitated by the violence and oppression carried out by the police and America’s carceral apparatus. Lucky Risograph, who continues to offer free printing services for activists and movement organizers, printed all of our posters. All money raised went toward getting groceries to our neighbors.
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Author Julia Schaefer and Mark Anthony Hernandez Motaghy
Crown Heights Mutual Aid (CHMA) was formed in March 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. We are a network of neighbors supporting one another and the most vulnerable in our community, mobilizing against the COVID-19 health crisis and the ongoing crises of state violence, food injustice, and housing inequality. CHMA is also a tool for building connections and reciprocal relationships: we all have something to offer, and we all have something we need as we struggle towards justice. This poster is intended to both spread awareness of how to get involved with Crown Heights Mutual Aid and fundraise for our neighbors’ groceries. “Care Not Cops” makes explicit that CHMA is a long-term project, and we are committed to building processes and finding sustainable solutions. Operating in the spirit of collective care and responsibility, we refuse to collaborate with law enforcement in our aid work; much of what we do is necessitated by the violence and oppression carried out by the police and America’s carceral apparatus. Lucky Risograph, who continues to offer free printing services for activists and movement organizers, printed all of our posters. All money raised went toward getting groceries to our neighbors.
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Defund the Police
Defund the Police
Publisher Irrelevant Press
Author Irrelevant Press
What it means to defund the police and abolish prisons, and why the time is now.
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Author Irrelevant Press
What it means to defund the police and abolish prisons, and why the time is now.
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Black Lives Matter ABC's
Black Lives Matter ABC's
Publisher Cabrón James
Author Cabrón James
This free zine features an A-Z list of 318 Black Americans who were killed by the hands of police since Eric Garner’s death in 2014.
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Author Cabrón James
This free zine features an A-Z list of 318 Black Americans who were killed by the hands of police since Eric Garner’s death in 2014.
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Safer in the Streets
Safer in the Streets
Publisher Safer in the Streets Collective
Author Safer in the Streets Collective
A zine on best practices for dealing with the police from a cartoonist collective. As people hit the streets across America to protest the murder of George Floyd and stand for Black lives, we’ve all seen authorities respond to our protests against police brutality with more police brutality. Now no one can plausibly deny that the police are violent, regardless of whether demonstrators are breaking windows or just exercising their alleged freedoms. And yet, we cannot allow the cops to beat the resistance out of us. Safer in the Streets is a tool for protesters that illustrates best practices for dealing with the police. In the series, seven different cartoonists interpret a basic principle of street tactics, from snake marches to how to make sure you don’t break your fingers. It’s free to read and share for everyone, and it’s formatted to print as a two-sheet zine for passing out. Compliance won’t protect us out there, so we need to be smart, careful, and brave if we’re going to be safer in the streets.
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Author Safer in the Streets Collective
A zine on best practices for dealing with the police from a cartoonist collective. As people hit the streets across America to protest the murder of George Floyd and stand for Black lives, we’ve all seen authorities respond to our protests against police brutality with more police brutality. Now no one can plausibly deny that the police are violent, regardless of whether demonstrators are breaking windows or just exercising their alleged freedoms. And yet, we cannot allow the cops to beat the resistance out of us. Safer in the Streets is a tool for protesters that illustrates best practices for dealing with the police. In the series, seven different cartoonists interpret a basic principle of street tactics, from snake marches to how to make sure you don’t break your fingers. It’s free to read and share for everyone, and it’s formatted to print as a two-sheet zine for passing out. Compliance won’t protect us out there, so we need to be smart, careful, and brave if we’re going to be safer in the streets.
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