Freedom News

Time for artists’ Mutual Aid?

The following is the first text contributed to Freedom’s new Art & Anarchy column. It will run each third Sunday of a month. Artists from all fields are encouraged to contribute their artwork and texts. Get in touch: editor(at)freedompress.org.uk. (zb) The COVID-19 pandemic continues to change all our lives forever. “Social distancing” suggests that people

Don’t Despair, Organise! An introduction to the (yet-unnamed) confederation of Solidarity Funds

The following text was contributed to Freedom by a person involved in Goose Green Solidarity Fund: a newly formed organisation for people who live in SE22 and are struggling financially as a result of COVID-19. What is a solidarity fund? It’s a pot of money that in our case comes from the community and sometimes

Lessons from COVID-19: How transformative justice and mutual aid can help to address harm in communities

This article was originally published on the Transforming Society blog. Download the guide ‘How to Address Harm: A Guide for COVID-19 Mutual Aid Groups’ for information, tools and practical tips to help individuals and mutual aid groups. When UK government policy swung to a police-enforced lockdown on 23 March we were told that if we

Solidarity against barbarism: The fight against coronavirus and the far-right in the USA

This interview was originally published by Brighton Antifascists. Like everyone else we’ve been in lockdown, spending a lot of time at home with our stockpile of beans in our Antifa™ bunker. But we’ve also stayed active playing our part in local organising initiatives in Brighton and further afield – food banks, food deliveries, mutual aid

“Calling us heroes just makes it ok when we die”: why we took to the streets for our keyworkers

On Wednesday, it was Workers’ Memorial Day. Today, it is International Workers’ Day. This year, we are particularly aware of the sacrifices keyworkers are making. Thousands held a minute’s silence to remember those who have died because of COVID-19. It is right to remember the dead – but a minute’s silence, and a clap on

Food, poverty, mutual aid: Reflections from Birmingham solidarity kitchen

According to a recent report by The Food Foundation, 1.5 million people have reported going an entire day without food due to poverty during the coronavirus crisis. This is as sickening as it is unsurprising. Ten years of brutal austerity had already left millions living pay-check to pay-check before the shuttering of the economy. Now,

Tug of class war: Agamben vs Zizek on the impact of Covid-19

Panos Theodoropoulos analyses a war of words which has broken out between two well-known political philosophers over the nature of State reactions to Covid-19 and the possibilities for liberatory politics, while trying to find a constructive synthesis of their key points. Turning Marx on his head, I want to focus on interpreting the recent conjuncture in terms