Links to Go Fund Me at the bottom of the page.
““Mutual aid” is one term used to describe collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually stemming from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them. Those systems, in fact, have often created the crisis, or are making things worse. We see examples of mutual aid in every single social movement, whether it’s people raising money for workers on strike, setting up a car pooling system during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, putting drinking water in the desert for migrants crossing the border, training each other in emergency medicine because ambulance response time in poor neighborhoods is too slow, raising money to pay for abortions for those who can’t afford them, or coordinating letter-writing to prisoners. These are mutual aid projects. They directly meet people’s survival needs and are based on a shared understanding that the conditions in which we are made to live are unjust.
There is nothing new about mutual aid — people have worked together to survive for all of human history. But capitalism and colonialism created structures that have disrupted how people have historically connected with each other and shared everything they needed to survive. As people were forced into systems of wage labor and private property, and wealth became increasingly concentrated, our ways of caring for each other have become more and more tenuous.
Today, many of us live in the most atomized societies in human history, which makes our lives less secure and undermines our ability to organize together to change unjust conditions on a large scale. We are put in competition with each other for survival, and we are forced to rely on hostile systems — like health care systems designed around profit, not keeping people healthy, or food and transportation systems that pollute the Earth and poison people — for the things we need. More and more people report that they have no one they can confide in. This means many of us do not get help with mental health, drug use, family violence or abuse until the police or courts are involved, which tends to escalate rather than resolve harm.
In this context of social isolation and forced dependency on hostile systems, mutual aid — where we choose to help each other out, share things, and put time and resources into caring for the most vulnerable — is a radical act.” Mutual Aid by David Spade
GoFundMe for this local “bikes for community program”
Evanston resident Mike Moyer fixes donated bikes and distributes them to community members along with a new lock and helmet. Check your garage to see if you have an old bike to donate. The ideal donation is a medium-sized mountain bike that is durable and can take a beating.
To donate a bike to this project, contact Mike Moyer at MikesBikesEvanston@gmail.com.
GoFundMe for Wesley Tenants fighting to stay in Evanston
GoFundMe for Chiara’s Surgery and Recovery
Support Evanston Community Fridges
You can also support the fridges by donating food, shopping for food with donated funds, and/or cleaning the fridges. See the website for details.
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