A note on resistance. This timeline shows a range of different examples of resistance: from those incarcerated staging hunger strikes against a lack of safety protocols and protections, to workers organizing to protest the lack of economic support for people whose work has been disrupted, as well as to countless protests against incidents of anti-Black racism and anti-Asian and xenophobic violence. What isn’t as visible on this timeline are the many stories of collective and community care that showed up in local communities. In urban and rural areas, led by community organizations, mosques and churches and synagogues and spiritual collectives. They also organized as part of political groups, labor groups, and neighborhood groups, people set up food banks, phone trees, supply runs and cash-shares. Some of those flared up at the start of the pandemic and then dwindled away while others are continuing and deepening into long-term mutual aid and other manifestations. Healthcare practitioners also set up informal supply shares of masks and other protective equipment with vulnerable community members outside of insurance or other formal networks. Are you involved in something like this where you live? What other forms of resistance have you seen? Though we began long before the COVID pandemic, we came together to transform the challenge and gaps we saw in the holding of collective care and safety for our respective communities. We see our work as part of the timeline of resistance.
