One thing about ‘just charity’ —depending on what it is and how it is done—is that it can be part of building power, or at least give people certain basics to build power. I’m sure you know that. Various emergency situations exist. If farmers lose their land or people lose their housing or they cant get a lawyer and will be deported or they can’t finish school or even if they need food to eat and so on—then they get knocked out of the running.
There’s no shame in it, either giving or receiving. It’s not going to transform things but it is needed. The good charities will give people a voice. Much organizing in the past, e.g., the Panthers or Chicanos por la Raza, included mutual aid.
Oh very much agreed. There's a lot to be said about mutual aid vs. charity, and to my mind they're fairly different. I think robust mutual aid work does something very different than charity (the way its set up within the non-profit industrial complex specifically) . And mutual aid incorporated within our organizing, within a broader framework of building power, is very important in my opinion. Thank you for teasing that out!
It’s good to make this distinction between charity and organizing though! Just thought I’d add that because some people who can be not so talented at organizing are very good at mutual aid (and vice versa).
Thank you, useful links. I’m becoming acquainted with the terrifying phrase, used by Timothy Snyder among others : “obeying in advance”. When we give up, we are obeying in advance. I’m just grieving because here in Aotearoa New Zealand we have a new right wing government that is simply destroying the environment and what happens in the US affects us all. I can’t vote for either of those chumps, but I can do my best over here
One thing about ‘just charity’ —depending on what it is and how it is done—is that it can be part of building power, or at least give people certain basics to build power. I’m sure you know that. Various emergency situations exist. If farmers lose their land or people lose their housing or they cant get a lawyer and will be deported or they can’t finish school or even if they need food to eat and so on—then they get knocked out of the running.
There’s no shame in it, either giving or receiving. It’s not going to transform things but it is needed. The good charities will give people a voice. Much organizing in the past, e.g., the Panthers or Chicanos por la Raza, included mutual aid.
Oh very much agreed. There's a lot to be said about mutual aid vs. charity, and to my mind they're fairly different. I think robust mutual aid work does something very different than charity (the way its set up within the non-profit industrial complex specifically) . And mutual aid incorporated within our organizing, within a broader framework of building power, is very important in my opinion. Thank you for teasing that out!
It’s good to make this distinction between charity and organizing though! Just thought I’d add that because some people who can be not so talented at organizing are very good at mutual aid (and vice versa).
Thank you, useful links. I’m becoming acquainted with the terrifying phrase, used by Timothy Snyder among others : “obeying in advance”. When we give up, we are obeying in advance. I’m just grieving because here in Aotearoa New Zealand we have a new right wing government that is simply destroying the environment and what happens in the US affects us all. I can’t vote for either of those chumps, but I can do my best over here