The coronavirus mutual aid response networks that have been created to care for each other through this crisis are inspiring examples of anarchism in action. I’m reworking the syllabus of my current undergraduate course on anarchism to add a unit on disaster and mutual aid which will use the coronavirus mutual aid networks as a case study. Here is a modified version of the readings and videos for the unit (almost all of which are available for free online through these links, with the exception of a few of the books).
Week 1: Introduction to Mutual Aid
- Stimulator, “What is Mutual Aid?”
- Peter Kropotkin, “Introduction” and skim the rest of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Week 2: Disaster and Its Uses
- CrimethInc., “Disaster,” from Expect Resistance: A Field Manual
- Out of the Woods, “The Uses of Disaster” in Commune Magazine
- Rebecca Solnit, “How to Survive a Disaster: On Building a Paradise in Hell: Improvised, Collaborative, Cooperative, Local”
- Seth Tobocman, Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century
Week 3: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
- scott crow, excerpts from Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy, and the Common Ground Collective
- Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, “About”
- Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, “Joy in Resistance”
- Occupy Sandy
Week 4: Coronavirus and Mutual Aid
- Lucy Diavolo, “People Are Fighting the Coronavirus With Mutual Aid Efforts to Help Each Other” in Teen Vogue
- CrimethInc., “Surviving the Virus: An Anarchist Guide”
- CrimethInc., “Surviving the Virus: An Anarchist Introduction to Pandemic Life” (Podcast)
- Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, “When Every Community is Ground Zero: Pulling Each Other Through a Pandemic. Radical Solidarity through Covid-19”
Stay safe, stay healthy, and take care of each other.
