#Mutual #Aid #News & a #Call-Out to Join #Agency

MARCH 2020 The world has changed since we last reached out to you. The times we are living through are daunting and often overwhelming. Even though many of us live in places that haven't yet seen the worst of COVID-19, and despite the challenges so many are already facing, we are seeing incredible mutual aid efforts being implemented in communities all over the world. Efforts to get food and essentials to the most vulnerable, crafting groups handmaking masks and gowns for frontline medical workers, and online skill sharing and free workshops are just a few examples of how people have jumped to action to support each other in these challenging times. The times we are living in are inspiring, if we look in the right places. This month our newsletter looks at some of the powerful writing about mutual aid in the age of COVID-19 that is up on the Agency Newswire, as well as sharing our Call-Out for Media Workers & Editorial Anarchists. We are looking for new collective members! Please read the call-out below and share with your networks. Call-out for Media Workers & Editorial Anarchists Agency is looking for anarchists to volunteer their time and skill in editing, writing, tracking anarchists in the media, and providing media support to anarchist projects. We are also looking for folks to volunteer as commentary editors. Agency is a volunteer-run anarchist PR project, launched in 2014 by a group of anarchists with experience in journalism, communications and public relations work for anarchist projects, activist movements, non-profits, and for our waged jobs. Our core activities involve: Engaging with the media and public in finding and accessing a multitude of anarchist perspectives. This manifests as publishing original commentary and press releases on topical issues pertinent to anarchists, providing individual journalists with background briefings and access to relevant anarchist interviewees. We also highlight mentions of anarchists in the mainstream media, and exceptional writings on topics of interest to anarchists, through the Agency Newswire.   Engaging with anarchist projects to provide media support. This can include support drafting press releases, developing media strategies, delivering media trainings, and establishing connections with interested journalists. Our aim is to promote and amplify a diversity of anarchist positions and perspectives that adhere to an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-oppression framework, working to bring them to a mass audience that seldom hears about us from the mainstream media, except in a distorted form. We acknowledge that there are many different anarchist perspectives and visions, and this project’s aim is to make the public aware of a range of anarchist ideas, in a spirit of solidarity and non-sectarianism. Read the Full Call-Out VOICES FROM THE AGENCY NEWSWIRE Surviving the Virus: An Anarchist Guide (Crimethinc) The pandemic is not going to pass in the next few weeks. Even if strict confinement measures succeed in cutting the number of infections down to what it was a month ago, the virus could begin spreading exponentially again as soon as the measures are suspended. The current situation is likely to continue for months—sudden curfews, inconsistent quarantines, increasingly desperate conditions—though it will almost certainly shift form at some point when the tensions within it boil over. Read more... Lucy Diavolo: People Are Fighting the Coronavirus With Mutual Aid Efforts to Help Each Other (Teen Vogue) The coronavirus pandemic is setting in across the United States. As the number of COVID-19 cases rise (with our collective anxiety), calls over the weekend to take the situation seriously were met with photos of busy restaurants in major metropolitan areas and logistical nightmares at airports, situations that could potentially spread the novel coronavirus in large group settings. Read more... Social distancing is a must – but many are ready to contribute even more (The Guardian) Last Tuesday morning at Middlebury College in Vermont, rumors swirled. Across North America, colleges and universities were suspending in-person classes and shuttering campuses in response to the coronavirus outbreak. An associate professor had sent an email to students in two of his classes, indicating that Middlebury classes would end that Friday, 13 March, and screenshots of the email began to spread through an increasingly anxious student body of more than 2,500 undergraduates. Read more... Natasha Lennard: After the Quarantine, the Flood (Commune) Where we avoid each other, we can find our power, too. “We are pressed, pressed on each other / We will be told at once / Of anything that happens.” In this short stanza written in 1968, the poet George Oppen spoke to our current condition, now thrown into sharp relief by a pandemic. Read more... Launch Agency Newswire Agency exists for the purpose of reflecting more purposefully on how the media covers anarchists and what we can do about it.   2020 marks seven years that we have been doing this work, and we are deeply grateful for everyone who has continued to support us along the way. We have a bunch of exciting plans for the year to come, so make sure you keep an eye on our: WEBSITE : TWITTER : FACEBOOK : PATREON  ANTIFA GRITTY STICKERS We have taken our popular Antifa Gritty t-shirt design and put it on stickers! If you would like a small pack of stickers just order them through the link below and we'll pop them straight in the mail for you. All funds raised go to covering Agency's monthly costs. You can also find us on Patreon and through our website donation page. Thank you for supporting our work!