Mutual Aid is wholesome as fuck

Check out for the list here for the Mutual Aid Initiatives in your local area!

itsgoingdown.org/autonomous-groups-are-mobilizing-mutual-aid-initiatives-to-combat-the-coronavirus/

a thread on building mutual aid programs:
twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1238266465788276736

The coup shattered the work of the most progressive government in Haiti’s history. In the period of governance by Fanmi Lavalas, the party founded by President Aristide, more schools were built than the total constructed between 1804 and 1994. Twenty percent of the country’s budget was mandated for education. Women’s groups and popular organizations helped coordinate a literacy campaign that brought over 320,000 people, mostly women, into literacy classes in over 20,000 literacy centers. The minimum wage was doubled. A powerful initiative was undertaken to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. Health clinics were established in the poorest communities. The government also launched an aggressive campaign to collect unpaid taxes owed by the wealthy elite. Aristide disbanded the notorious Haitian military, and empowered women’s and victims’ groups to bring cases against the military for its use of rape as a political weapon.

www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/12/the-final-chapter-has-still-not-been-written-remembering-the-2004-coup-in-haiti/

It would be absurd to deny that trade-offs exist. But the idea that they are a universal feature of the world – that as a rule, we are forced to choose between two economic goals; or between an economic and a social, political, or environmental goal – is often just assumed in economics with little evidence. Take the purported trade-off between equality and economic growth when an IMF study found that, if anything, the relationship goes in the opposite direction. Or, as per Mankiw’s environmental example, consider the many studies showing that reducing pollution can increase productivity and reduce health costs. Economist Anna Stansbury has listed a number of other counterexamples, such as criminal justice reforms, where efficiency and equity are complementary. Yet standard economics embodies the idea that the economy and the government cannot bear the burden of catering to human needs through its focus on scarcity.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/take-care-people-and-economy-will-take-care-itself/

Grenoble city councillor Anne-Sophie Olmos summarised her vision as follows: “For me, Europe should first give local and regional authorities independence in matters of basic needs such as food, water and energy. In these areas public authorities should be able to favour the local if they demonstrate that it allows the community to be autonomous.” This points to the need to re-assess one of the fundamental principles of the EU directives: promoting local economic development via public procurement is currently not allowed.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/how-eu-rules-are-getting-in-the-way-of-progressive-public-policy-and-how-cities-are-fighting-back/

A Guide on how to safely run a Public Blockade

anarchistnews.org/content/how-safely-run-public-blockade

Neoliberalism as Discourse, from "The Discourse of Neoliberalism", by Simon Springer

In early 2018, during a meeting at the World Health Organization in Geneva, a group of experts (the R&D Blueprint) coined the term “Disease X”: They predicted that the next pandemic would be caused by an unknown, novel pathogen that hadn’t yet entered the human population. Disease X would likely result from a virus originating in animals and would emerge somewhere on the planet where economic development drives people and wildlife together.
Disease X would probably be confused with other diseases early in the outbreak and would spread quickly and silently; exploiting networks of human travel and trade, it would reach multiple countries and thwart containment. Disease X would have a mortality rate higher than a seasonal flu but would spread as easily as the flu. It would shake financial markets even before it achieved pandemic status. In a nutshell, Covid-19 is Disease X.

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/it-was-the-virus-that-did-it/

Without laws protecting public landscapes, biodiversity and watersheds, there is no room for public interest lawyers. Government likes that, and the timber industry loves it, but don’t be fooled; the cost to citizens, our democratic process, and our environment are immense.

www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/13/we-need-environmental-lawyers-and-law/

#video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IG0Y63LkDM

Just as World War II mobilization pulled the United States and other advanced countries out of the Depression, rapid decarbonization could pull us out of today’s secular stagnation. And, as in World War II, the massive demand for labor from a true high-pressure economy might do more to equalize incomes than any more direct program of redistribution.

democracyjournal.org/magazine/56/the-gnd-is-expensive-and-thats-good/

... we strive for self-defense. Self-defense is a very broad term that implies self-care, mutual aid, solidarity, trust, community, sensitivity, and lots of other things.

itsgoingdown.org/violence-from-the-hands-of-the-violated-is-self-defense/