We're All We've Got: Mutual Aid for Survival and Resistance

As conditions worsen, we're going to need each other more than ever. Mutual aid--the work we do to help each other meet survival needs--is a core part of resistance movements that often gets ignored when historians focus on legal reforms, protests, and speeches. Most people enter our movements by participating in mutual aid projects or getting something they need from a mutual aid project. This workshop will look at how mutual aid differs from charity, how we can design projects that welcome new people, how we can make decisions together in ways that build trust, and other essentials.

Dean Spade has been working to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades. He’s the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, and Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) the director of the documentary “Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!.” His next book, Love in a Fucked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up and Raise Hell Together, is forthcoming from Algonquin Press in January, 2025.

December 4, 2024 - 6:30 to 8 pm ET/3:30 to 5 pm PT

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This workshop is part of a mini-series of workshops that offer an opportunity to answer the question that many people are asking: “How do I take action where I am?”

These five 90-minute sessions happening in December & January are intended to provide concrete ideas and steps that anyone can take. Each session is facilitated by long-time activists and organizers.

The sessions will be offered as Zoom webinars, but we will not record them. A couple of days before each session, we will email a Zoom link to all registrants. Importantly, these workshops are appropriate for people who are new to activism and organizing. They will not be useful if you are a long-time activist and organizer because you’re already taking action.

For the workshops, we will offer ASL interpretation and enable closed captions. We will have live captions for the January 8th workshop. A tech and access support person will be present throughout the event to attend to any emergent participant needs regarding Zoom and access.

Each workshop is a standalone session, but it’s a good idea to register for Mapping Your Social Change Ecosystem as an introduction so that you can assess your skills and interests in activism and organizing.

Please DO NOT register if you know you cannot attend. This is important. Space is limited. So please don’t register as a placeholder.

These sessions are being offered at no cost to participants BUT this does not mean they are free. There are costs associated with putting together such a program (labor, tech, interpretation costs etc...). If you can make a donation, please do. Funds will cover the costs of ASL. We will donate any surplus funds to REBUILD.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you make a donation, that counts as one ticket so you do not also have to register for a free ticket. It's either a free ticket OR a donation one.

Here is the list of workshops. You must register for each of them separately.

December 3 from 6:30 to 8 pm ET — Mapping Your Social Change Ecosystem facilitated by Deepa Iyer + Adaku Utah

December 4 from 6:30 to 8 pm ET - Mutual Aid - facilitated by Dean Spade

December 10 from 6:30 to 8 pm ET - Creating Change with our Kids facilitated by Zara Raven

December 11 from 6:30 to 8 pm ET - Move the Needle: Activism for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers facilitated by Shannon Downey

January 8, 2025 from 6:30 to 8 pm ET - I'm Disabled, How the Hell Do I Survive/ Resist This? To Exist Is to Resist facilitated by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha

This mini-series is organized by educator and organizer, Mariame Kaba.