Mutual Aid

Solidarity not charity

-

Solidarity not charity -

  • UChicago has long been a colonial force in the South Side, using UCPD to patrol the borders of its ever-expanding campus— and beyond. Among other offenses, the University has expanded south of 60th street, (a previously agreed upon border) and gentrified the Arts Block on Garfield, while heavily contributing to narratives that paint Chicago’s South Side as dangerous and not worthy of investment.

    In an effort to both bridge the deep divide between UChicago’s campus and surrounding neighborhoods and redistribute some of its enormous wealth, members of UChicago United and the Graduate Student Union (GSU) began a mutual aid project during February of 2021, then called HP/Woodlawn Solidarity Not Charity (SNC). Approximately every other Saturday, they set up a table outside of the Jewel Osco on 61st and Cottage Grove and provide coffee, snacks, masks, zines, clothes, sanitary items, and conversation.

    Mutual aid is not charity — mutual aid is about building relationships within our community and supporting one another. It is about investing in existing survival networks, and destigmatizing “need” as a set of systemic problems rather than as an individual failing. It is about building solidarity with one another within the isolation of capitalism, and uniting people against the various systems that uphold the inequity it creates.

    In practice, this meant that we tailored what’s on our table to what’s needed by the community. We make weekly calls to our growing base to ask both what is needed and what is available to give. It also meant that our tabling work was innately intertwined with our organizing work— we centered conversations about University’s dominating presence in Woodlawn, and we distributed zines about this history, tenant’s rights, police abolition, and more.

  • Dean Spade’s book “Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And the Next)”

    Article on the People’s Grab-n-Go

  • Financial assistance:

    Networks:

Four people stand behind a table outside of Jewel Osco. One of the people is holding up a zine. All of them are wearing masks. There is a sign on the ground that says "UCU Mutual Aid".
Three people stand behind a table. There are various supplies on the table including masks and coffee. Two of the people are holding up zines to the camera.