A series of public conversations on the topic of mutual aid and solidarity in response to crises at the intersection of racial inequality, the Covid pandemic and climate change with a focus on recent events in the Twin Cities. Potential case studies and respondents include the Twin Cities Uprising, Hurricane Katrina, insurgent Municipalist movements along the Mississippi River (including Cooperation Jackson, Carbondale Spring, Cooperation Northfield), historic flooding along the Upper Mississippi River, the BP Oil Disaster, Another Gulf is Possible, BIPOC-led food sovereignty
movements, the American Indian Movement, the Water Leaders Institute,
Workers’ Defense Alliance, Maypop Herb Shop, Southside Harm Reduction,
Common Ground Relief (Nola) and Stop Line 3.
The framing questions for these exchanges are:
> How is mutual aid and solidarity a response to the US government’s failures to respond to today’s social and environmental catastrophes, including deep structural racial inequality, environmental conditions associated with the Anthropocene, environmental inequalities, the growth of authoritarianism.
> How does mutual aid and solidarity offer new models and modes of self-governance and political autonomy necessitated by these crises.
> What can the Twin Cities learn from mutual aid, especially in conversation with organizers from other cities who have also experienced it?
Possible topics:
> Community / neighborhood / self-defense
> Health and harm reduction
> Arts and activism
> Food sovereignty
> Community education
> Municipalism
(Please note: this is a program in solidarity with Confluence Studio.)
