19 quotes found
"I think the most probably visible historical example of mutual aid in the U.S. that people talk about a lot is, of course, the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast programs and health programs, which were a vital part of the party’s work. And it’s a good example of how social movements often, pretty much always, centrally organize mutual aid, because people come into social movements to get immediate needs met, and they also desperately want to help others facing what they’re facing. And when they’re there, they can build a shared analysis: Hey, why don’t we have food? Why don’t we have shelter? What systems are in place that we all actually want to get to the root causes of?"
"we’re going to do something right now to build the world we want to live in. So it’s a very empowering, participatory kind of work that tends to build people’s ability to mobilize generally."
"At its best, mutual aid actually produces new ways of living where people get to create systems of care and generosity that address harm and foster well-being."
"Left social movements have two big jobs right now. First, we need to organize to help people survive the devastating conditions unfolding every day. Second, we need to mobilize hundreds of millions of people for resistance so we can tackle the underlying causes of these crises."
"In this pivotal moment, movements can strengthen, mobilizing new people to fight back against cops, immigration enforcement, welfare authorities, landlords, budget cuts, polluters, the defense industry, prison profiteers, and right-wing groups. The way to tackle these two big tasks—meeting people’s needs and mobilizing them for resistance—is to create mutual aid projects and get lots of people to participate in them. Social movements that have built power and won major change have all included mutual aid, yet it is often a part of movement work that is less visible and less valued. In this moment, our ability to build mutual aid will determine whether we win the world we long for or dive further into crisis."
"Mutual aid helps people survive disasters of all kinds, mobilizes and politicizes new people, and builds the new systems and ways of being together that we need. The stronger we build our mutual aid projects, the more lasting our mobilizations can be."
"We must imagine and build ways of eating, communicating, sheltering, moving, healing, and caring for each other that are not profit-centered, hierarchical, and destructive to our planet. We must practice co-governing, creating participatory, consent-based ways of cooperating that are not based in militarism."
"Mutual aid work plays an immediate role in helping us get through crises, but it also has the potential to build the skills and capacities we need for an entirely new way of living at a moment when we must transform our society or face intensive, uneven suffering followed by species extinction. As we deliver groceries, participate in meetings, sew masks, write letters to prisoners, apply bandages, facilitate relationship skills classes, learn how to protect our work from surveillance, plant gardens, and change diapers, we are strengthening our ability to outnumber the police and military, protect our communities, and build systems that make sure everyone can have food, housing, medicine, dignity, connection, belonging, and creativity in their lives. That is the world we are fighting for. That is the world we can win."
"The systems we live under are focused on keeping us in our places and keeping the status quo going strong. That means that our resistance, frustration or sense of injustice needs to be channeled in ways that will make it minimally disruptive. Our sense that things are not right, that it is unjust for some people to have so much more than they need while others die of malnutrition and exposure, could be threatening if we got together to overturn a system that keeps concentrating wealth. That system would prefer that we go back to jobs that keep churning out that wealth for the top 1%, and volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, and feel like we have satisfied our concerns about poverty."
"Charity is system-affirming. It does nothing about the root causes of poverty, criminalization, and racism. It just treats a few of the symptoms selectively. Social justice work is about making it so that no one is poor, homeless, targeted by police, deportable, or exploited."
"Thin notions of volunteerism are about “feeling good” by “giving back.” I would argue that we need to feel more of the feelings that are labeled negative, like grief, sadness, anger, rage, and despair. ... Many of us feel so overwhelmed that we can’t imagine how we would begin to do anything effective. It can feel like the safest bet is to not even try. Or it can feel like we should go with a prescribed recipe for participating in charity or social services—volunteering at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, or attending one march or rally a year. Often these are efforts to quell the guilt and concern that plague us, rather than providing real opportunities for connection where we feel like we were part of meaningful change."
"I want to lift up the book Mutual Aid by Dean Spade"
"We hope, most fervently, that such better understanding may ultimately mean that the transvestite and the transsexual can walk freely abroad in Society, offending no-one, better understood by some, and, we hope, tolerated by all."
"For many who attended the conference it was a weekend of "firsts" - the first meeting with others of the same type, the first opportunity to be dressed outside one's own bedroom and for a whole day, the first meal in a public restaurant, the first time one could discuss the state with others and to find out what sort of people we were. And all of this we owed to June."
"I don't think it represented the entire gamut of the conflict between transgender people and a few confused groups. There are millions of Kenyan Christians who respect me and the entire transgender struggle."
"We have managed to break barriers or limits that no one thought transgender people would do on their own. It wasn't just about human rights but a desire to prove ourselves capable and doing the best we could. We were also able to redefine the word 'courage'."
"The government is not responsive to the needs of transgender people and some of our families are hostile because "we embarrass" them with our gender change. Sexual exploitation is common. Poor and economically disadvantaged trans women are most vulnerable to sexual exploitation and violence."
"I like people for who they are, not because of their gender. I am not interested in the gender of my sex partners. I don't identify as bisexual, gay or lesbian. i just think sexual labels complicate matters of love and sex."
"Despite that, I am now a very happy woman. All my struggles have finally paid off, not only for me but I am able to assist tens of other ladyboys who are struggling with a similar predicament. i am their mother; they call me Mama T (Transgender)."