Thread by @rafaelshimunov

I’m a slow learner, and a lot of you got here a long time ago, but I can no longer think of anything more essential to our communities (short term) surviving and (long term) changing everything than building or joining a mutual aid network.

It’s always been important in my mind, and informal ones have been around my entire life, but I always defaulted to viewing them as a band aids, or elements in a large effort, something to hold us over before achieving top down legislative power to change our world.

If you care about building actual long term power that no one can take away from a judge’s chambers, an executive order or even a right wing paramilitary, the long term relationships you build by being there for even short term needs will be an evergreen foundation for everything

Looking back at how Muslims and my Jewish families survived Soviet white supremacy in Central Asia, it was that. Looking to history with Black Panthers and Jewish communal life, it was that. Looking now at Queer and trans community, it is that. Orthodox Jews too.

So if you have a neighborhood with a network that can withstand and respond to a climate event, you also have one that can protect itself from far right violence (and recruitment), evictions, unemployment, needed labor strikes, and also a firm foundation to actually build from.