From the website Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Movement for Mutual Aid is growing rapidly. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADRelief) is seizing this critical moment to start a grassroots training campaign, and they are coming this way! With an innovative curriculum that shows how natural storms turn into unnatural disasters through dangerous new forms of disaster capitalism and how everyday people are using principles of “Solidarity, Not Charity” to engage in d.i.y. disaster recovery, a two-day workshop will include both an easy introduction accessible to the general public, and a deeper participatory training for those who are ready to get involved. All events are free and open to the public.
The first part is an accessible & entertaining introductory presentation, “Protectors v. Profiteers: Communities in Resistance to Disaster Capitalism,” Monday, November 19, from 7-9pm. The second part is a deeper, participatory workshop for affinity groups and individuals who are ready to get involved, “Giving Our Best, Ready For The Worst: Community Organizing as Disaster Preparedness” Tuesday, November 20 from 10 am-4 pm. Both session will be located at the Flyover Social Center, 214 N Washington Street, Carbondale.
MADRelief envisions a new form of humanitarian aid that is participatory and empowering. Climate chaos is happening. Adaptation and preparation are essential. Grassroots disaster response will be more and more necessary as we see more catastrophes – infrastructure, economic, and ecological collapses – and as corporations and governments seek only to capitalize on the crises. Unlike apolitical charities such as the Red Cross, MADRelief innovates and expands their mission by tackling “unnatural disasters” as well, understanding that racist violence, dirty mines and pipelines, and the daily disasters of crushing poverty are all crises that require constructive community responses.
MADRelief has been inspired by experiences from Common Ground Relief, Occupy Sandy, the Standing Rock Water Protectors, Puerto Rico’s Centros de Apoyo Mutuo, and the long history of diverse grassroots movements seeking to make a better world possible. MADRelief is now building a new network to facilitate inter-community disaster preparation and cooperative crisis response. The time is right for developing and training a standing network of organizers and volunteers, continually growing in size and efficacy, which will be at-the-ready to respond to natural and unnatural disasters – from hurricanes to hate rallies, from mudslides to mine waste spills – and to help survivors, especially those in marginalized communities, to restore their homes, to build their power, to thrive through cooperation, and to vision a more sustainable future.
For more information, visit mutualaiddisasterrelief.org