#HIEA114 Week 6 Check-in
Write and publish a post reflecting on the forms of mutual aid that you have read about/thought about thus far and discuss how one of these examples might be effectively adopted to alleviate the precarity that some communities are living through today.
Throughout this course, we have focused on mutual aid as a central theme demonstrated in the experiences of Zainichi Koreans, the Japanese after the Archipelago Disaster, and the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Displayed throughout the articles of Zainichi Koreans, mutual aid was formed through the common struggle that the Koreans understood between each other. The fact that they were oppressed and discriminated under the government strengthened the bond they had together as Koreans. This empathy and shared understanding led to the formation of the black markets and other forms of kindness in order to survive under the same enemy. In Choi’s memoirs, he shows how strong the bond became among the Zainichi Korean’s as they helped each other out in anyway due their common origins as Koreans in Japan. This was exemplified further in the Korean War when the Korean leftist united with anti-war japanese to fight against a similar enemy. Because the anti-war sentiments of some Japanese aligned with the anti-imperialist views of the leftist Koreans, they were able to bond and unite under their similarities leading to the birth of mutual aid between them.
In the article “How to help people during the pandemic, one Google spreadsheet at a time” by Sigal Samuel, the use of mutual aid in today’s situation is explained and exemplified. It explains recent activity of people helping those around them with a focus on “solidarity, not charity.” They explain further that the framing of this is the importance of mutual aid in the fact that it is a community working together to help those within the community that are especially at risk or in need in the face of the current struggle. Rather than having paid outsiders come and provide charity and assistance, it is more about people working together more closely and with more understanding for one another as they all work together to survive against a similar problem.
I believe that the aspect of common understanding and empathy is something that would be super effective in the communities facing precarity from disasters and disease today. It is the empathy and understanding of the similarities of struggles among people that is a powerful vehicle for developing mutual aid. If we can inform communities and influence people to acknowledge the situations of their neighbors in their communities, then the bond within the communities would strengthen. As well as that, the adoption of a community market with fair distribution, especially to people at risk and in need, would be an effective measure similar to that of Zainichi Koreans that would be effective in today’s world. In our current situation where supplies are constantly running low and it is dangerous to go outside, a means of a community market would be helpful in serving the elderly and impoverished amongst the community who do not have the same privileges and ability to survive themselves under these conditions.
