Whenever the state fails to protect its citizens it becomes the peoples responsibility to do everything in their power to take care of their community.
Volunteers cook food for free distribution in Omdurman, Sudan, Feb. 5, 2024. Mohamed Khidir/Xinhua via Getty Images.Will: I think the situation in Sudan is the final nail in the coffin for an outdated international humanitarian system. It just clearly isn’t working in Sudan, not on the scale that it needs to be, not in the places it needs to be and not with the approaches it needs to have. But there’s a very vibrant, locally led response going on, more so than I have seen in other conflict contexts. I think the challenge ahead of us is whether and how institutions, operations and donors will adjust to this in the face of a system which is very rigid and does not necessarily reward taking risks. This is a pivotal point, not just for Sudan, but for an international humanitarian system to reform how it relates to, and ideally supports, locally led relief and mutual aid. Some of the worst things in history are happening or about to happen in Sudan, things that the whole international system was supposed to prevent—famine, genocide, state collapse—but we are seeing a weak and muted response in spite of the hard efforts of everyday people and everyday heroes in different parts of Sudan. To me, the Cairo conference was helpful for raising the profile of the local responders, but it’s also a bit like a starting pistol. Now it should be a race to who can be the best supporter of local responders and who can help transform the system to embrace these efforts. Of course, we still need international efforts, solidarity and organizations. We can’t just leave it to local responders to take all the risk and work as volunteers forever. That’s also not a great solution in the grand scheme of things. But it’s an abject failure if we continue to ignore local responders, if we do not fund them substantially and if we do not enable them in different ways. We have not done our job unless we help local people do the work that we are trying to do ourselves.
An Interview with William Carter, Sudan Country Director for the Norwegian Refugee Council
We have all the resources in the world and there are still people dying of hunger in the streets.
EVERYWHERE.
WHY??????
because it is by design
their (capitalist white supremacist patriarchal) design
i don’t have as much to say in this section, but what i will say is that it’s on us to take care of each other, we cannot wait for someone else to do it for us.
i think we have a lot to learn from the Palestinian axis of resistance, their commitment to end the occupation of their land, keeping Palestinian political prisoners at the centre of their struggle and remaining principled in the ways they provide support to their people.
Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of the Palestinian struggle for liberation on a daily basis. In the jails of occupation, Palestinian prisoners confront the oppressor and the occupier, and put their bodies and lives on the line to continue their people’s struggle to achieve justice and freedom for the land and people of Palestine. Within the prisons, the Palestinian prisoners’ movement engages in political struggle – demanding their rights, securing advances, and serving as leaders to the entire Palestinian movement, inside and outside Palestine. The Israeli occupation has criminalized all forms of Palestinian existence and Palestinian resistance – from peaceful mass demonstrations to armed struggle to simply refusing to be silent and invisible as a Palestinian. Palestinian prisoners are men and women – and children – from every part of Palestine, from every family. Their absence is keenly felt in the homes, communities, villages, towns, labour, women’s and student organizations from which they were taken by the occupation. They suffer torture, isolation, coercive interrogation, denial of family and lawyers’ visits, on a daily basis. And it is their hunger strikes, their calls to the world, their unity and solidarity, and their continued leadership in the Palestinian movement that must inspire us daily and remind us of our responsibility to take action.
Building solidarity with Palestinian prisoners is, indeed, a responsibility. Palestinian prisoners are at the center of the struggle for freedom and justice in Palestine – they represent the imprisonment of a people and a nation. The Palestinian prisoners’ movement has always been at the center of the Palestinian liberation movement and remains so today. Palestinian prisoners stand and struggle on the front lines daily for return and liberation for all of Palestine and all Palestinians. The Canadian and U.S. governments are deeply complicit and directly implicated in the ongoing occupation of Palestine and the crimes of the Israeli state. Rather than standing for human rights, they enable, fund, and support occupation, apartheid, mass imprisonment, land confiscation, dispossession and settlement-building. In response, it is our responsibility to create grassroots accountability, raise awareness, and take action to those Palestinian prisoners who daily struggle for the freedom of their homeland – and the freedom of the oppressed of the world.
About Samidoun
we have political prisoners in kkkanada and amerikkka too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AND WE NEED TO GET THEM FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
interlude – behind enemy lines by dead prez
0:00
-3:03
It is imperative that people and organizations fighting against police brutality, racism and corruption, and who are involved with advocating human rights, community development, and educating and organizing around social/political issues, and addressing various aspects of the prison industrial complex (viz. mass incarcerations, special housing units, solitary confinement, etc.) learn who these freedom fighters are, and understand their legacy and how things were done; what lessons should be learned; and above all, to render them full support. If those remaining captives who stood up and sacrificed, organized, and fought against racism, exploitation, and repression of people of color and poor communities across the U.S. are not supported, the door remains wide open for present and future soldiers/activists/revolutionaries/educators to be politically persecuted and incarcerated with impunity and with the expectation of no support from anyone. The State and status quo have the green light to continue repressing, exploiting and committing injustices unabated.
Jericho Movement Position Statement on Police Brutality in America in Context with the Ongoing Struggle for Justice
BRING MUMIA HOMEBRING ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS HOMESOLIDARITY WITH MY NEW AFRIKAN AND INDIGENOUS COMRADESFREE MUMIA ABU-JAMALFREE JAMIL ABDULLAH AL-AMINFREE LEONARD PELTIERFREE SHAKA SHAKURFREE KAMAU SADIKIFREE AHMAD SA’ADATFREE THEM ALL
there are over 1.9 million prisoners being held captive in the united snakes of amerikkka, many of them afrikan and indigenous and they do not belong there
there are about 10,000 prisoners being held captive in “israeli” detention centres and they do not belong there eitherandto all my trans, femmes, sisters and siblingswe deserve to be fought for toothey are killing us too even though our names rarely ever make the news
fuck your transphobia and misogyny
this is for Sonya Massey, for Sandra Bland, for Shannon Boswell, for Starr Brown, for Kita Bee, for Michelle Henry, África Parrilla García, Tay Dior, Breonna Taylor and everyone else who has been taken from us way too soon.
say her name
say their names
so help me God don’t leave us to keep dying alone in vein
interlude – for sonia by aja monet
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-7:04one more thing
we have so much to learn from our unhoused comrades and we must support them in their struggle to survive in these streets.
stop walking by people on the street as if they don’t exist
talk to them
acknowledge them
ask them how they are doing and if there are any ways to support them
buy them food rather than giving than just giving them some cash
get to know them and let them know they don’t deserve the conditions they live in
unhoused people need to be our comrades
they deserve better than this
and you have more to offer them and yourselves:mutual aid
what is mutual aid?
Mutual aid is collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them. Those systems, in fact, have often created the crisis, or are making things worse. We see examples of mutual aid in every single social movement, whether it’s people raising money for workers on strike, setting up a ride-sharing system during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, putting drinking water in the desert for migrants crossing the border, training each other in emergency medicine because ambulance response time in poor neighborhoods is too slow, raising money to pay for abortions for those who can’t afford them, or coordinating letter-writing to prisoners. These are mutual aid projects. They directly meet people’s survival needs, and are based on a shared understanding that the conditions in which we are made to live are unjust.
There is nothing new about mutual aid—people have worked together to survive for all of human history. But capitalism and colonialism created structures that have disrupted how people have historically connected with each other and shared everything they needed to survive. As people were forced into systems of wage labor and private property, and wealth became increasingly concentrated, our ways of caring for each other have become more and more tenuous.
Today, many of us live in the most atomized societies in human history, which makes our lives less secure and undermines our ability to organize together to change unjust conditions on a large scale. We are put in competition with each other for survival, and we are forced to rely on hostile systems—like health care systems designed around profit, not keeping people healthy, or food and transportation systems that pollute the earth and poison people—for the things we need. More and more people report that they have no one they can confide in when they are in trouble. This means many of us do not get help with mental health, drug use, family violence, or abuse until the police or courts are involved, which tends to escalate rather than resolve harm.
In this context of social isolation and forced dependency on hostile systems, mutual aid—where we choose to help each other out, share things, and put time and resources into caring for the most vulnerable—is a radical act.
Mutual Aid Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
mutual aid is more than just giving 5 bucks to an unhoused person. mutual aid requires us to get out of our comfort zones and build relationships with people like unhoused folks and political prisoners, relationships that go beyond transaction.
interlude – black joy by aja monet
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-6:16
it is the diaspora, it is the diaspora, it is the diaspora
making it overseas or making it over the mason-dixon line
joy
joy is family
is brotherhood
is sisterhood
is feeling another’s dimple in your face
is together
joy is together
it’s together unified on the frontlines
our joy
our joy will astonish the world
because joy
true joy
has always been
and will always be
justice