Creating Communities of Care: Mutual Aid in the time of Covid and Climate Change

Panelists: Jeff Feng, Ry Brennan Clegg, Eugene Riordan, Thomas Franke, Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino, Jess Parfrey, Julia Fine, Rachel Torres

Description: During this teach-in, our panelists will argue that the pandemic and its attendant labor issues are linked with another political crisis--rapidly unmitigated climate change. We will situate ourselves in how we got to this dual political moment by first considering how neoliberalism and disaster capitalism create the conditions for environmental and health degradation. In the immediate context of covid lock-down, we draw the linkage between covid and climate change by interrogating the media discourses between the two issues, exemplified most controversially by such statements like "nature is healing." Our panelists will then speak to environmental and community-based organizers who are doing mutual aid political work and see their efforts as part of larger political aims. In the second half, we will transition away from a panel format and collectively brainstorm and define actionable next steps for creating communities of care and contest the impacts that covid and climate change have had on our vulnerable and marginalized communities.