Immediately after Sandy I worked in a city shelter for the homeless and displaced residents in the zone 1 evacuation area of New York City. The second week after Sandy I worked out in Far Rockaway with the Occupy Sandy relief effort. I plan to write an article comparing and contrasting state sanctioned charity with the mutual aid model of Occupy. But for now I think the following videos illustrate the point nicely. Charity is giving by an organization or government in a way that separates and insulates the giver from the receiver and places the giver on a self-appointed moral high-ground. Mutual aid is helping each other because we are all connected and your suffering is my suffering, your joy is my joy. Mutual aid is also more efficient than a hierarchical organizational model, it is a flat networked solution to the problem of inequality.
THIS IS CHARITY:
THIS IS MUTUAL AID:
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