“caretaking is revolutionary. actually, i think that caretaking must be apart of our post-revolutionary vision. as in ok, after the political revolution is over and we have achieved political freedom…then what? the skills and art of being able to take care of each other, of the earth, of ourselves is primary throughout the process of creating community” -maia
it sounds silly but i’m just starting to understand that organizing doesn’t happen w/ a bunch of activists or social justice-minded people sitting around talking about infrastructure and investments. mobilization really begins when everyday folks care enough about the people around them that one person’s pain is another’s or when your babies do well, it makes everyone else feel as though they have succeeded at life
the word family/familia has been popping up over and over… so in terms of what we are building, what could a family model of organizing—or even just existing—- look like? (v. one of community, agency, networks?) what would that encompass? could this be a way to combat the individualism that still exists in the other models? would we carry the promise that there will be times we can’t stand each other, that we will need space from each other, but in the end, we will always be fundamentally tied together, because we share blood?
so many other thoughts on this… like how this model relates to things like personal care & disability, what there is to learn from queers who have always created their own families, what motherhood means, if this is even possible/understandable to folks within white/dominant culture framework, is this what the darts mean by the power of love? etc etc etc but just had to jot down these for now.
I had a smaller version of this realization today, when I was thinking about books I’m trying to get donated to Internationalist — I was listing activism, queer & gender theory, animal rights, anarchy, community organizing, civil rights movements … and then I realized, wait, we also need books about how to fix our bikes and cook food for big groups of people and be aware & supportive of each other in every way. So I added to the list–crafts, diy, education…all just as important.
Posted by susan on December 18th, 2008.
YES! exactly, that’s awesome, how to look at our work holistically
Posted by cripchick on December 18th, 2008.