Pandemic Solidarity: Mutual Aid during the Covid-19 Crisis (FireWorks)

Book Synopsis: “Helps us to rethink and re-imagine an egalitarian society where no one is left behind”—London School of Economics Review of Books

In times of crisis, when institutions of power are laid bare, people turn to one another. Pandemic Solidarity collects firsthand experiences from around the world of people creating their own narratives of solidarity and mutual aid in the time of the global crisis of COVID-19. The world's media was quick to weave a narrative of selfish individualism, full of empty supermarket shelves and con-men. However, if you scratch the surface, you find a different story of community and self-sacrifice.

Looking at thirteen countries and regions, including India, Rojava, China, and the US, the personal accounts in the book weave together to create a larger picture, revealing a universality of experience - a housewife in Istanbul supports her neighbor in the same way as a punk in Portland, and a grandmother in Italy does. Moving beyond the present, these stories reveal what an alternative society could look like, and reflect the skills and relationships we already have to create that society, challenging institutions of power that have already shown their fragility.

Chapters include:

• “Capitalism Kills, Solidarity Gives Life”: A Glimpse of Solidarity Networks from Turkey
• Solidarity Network in Iraq During Covid-19: This Time the Enemy is Invisible
• Sharing Spaces and Crossing Borders: Voices from Taiwan
• Rethinking Minority and Mainstream in India
• Confronting State Authoritarianism: Civil Society and Community-Based Solidarity in Southern Africa
• On Intersectional Solidarity in Portugal
• Solidarity Networks in Greece
• Argentina: Injustices Magnified; Memories of Resistance Reactivated
• On Grassroots Organizing: Excerpts from Brazil

What happens to society when we are not held back by the neoliberal narrative? What can we do, to protect ourselves and one another, when we organize and act collectively? From the stories told here, maybe more than we expect.