Casey Grippo, "The Solidary Requirement of Solidarity"
Contemporary life is plagued by the atomization of political subjects. To overcome this, thinkers often speak of the importance of community-level care. In this essay, I explicate two forms of community-level care: solidarity and allyship. Contrary to thinkers who see allyship as a form or type of solidarity, I argue that solidarity and allyship focus on different objects and should thus be classified as divergent phenomena. While solidarity and allyship both serve the similar function of bonding people together, they do so by wholly different means. In solidarity, people are united by their focus on shared concern or ideological commitment(s), and the solidary group is often denoted by first-person plural pronouns (e.g., “we are in solidarity”). When people are in solidarity with one another, the object of one’s care is not the other but the shared concern or ideological vision they hold together. On the other hand, allyship unites people by focusing on the one in need, and allyship is often denoted by the use of third-person pronouns (e.g., “I am an ally to them”). When one engages in allyship, they exhibit care for the other rather than the concerns or commitments of the other. In this way, allyship fails to produce a much-needed community-level care, substituting interpersonal care in its place. Therefore, solidarity is a more powerful tool for liberation because it enables people to overcome the hyper-individualistic commitments forced upon us in a way that allyship is unable to. Only by sharing the concerns of the other and engaging in shared commitments with each other are we able to provide one another with the community-level care so desperately needed. Moreover, by understanding this distinction between solidarity and allyship, we can better understand how elite capture effects the way we even conceive of liberation itself.
Morgan Gimblet, "Community Care, Radical Reimaginings, and Decolonial Feminist Resistance: Testimonios from a Texas Reproductive Justice Mutual Aid Collective"
This project expands on my previous research exploring the case study of my volunteer ran, queer, sex worker, and POC-lead Texas-based reproductive justice mutual aid group. I draw connections about how the organization utilizes decolonial praxes of community building, radical reimaginings, and collective care in creating survival programs for liberation and continuing the Chicana feminist tradition of mutualistas (mutual aid societies) as queer forms of resistance. Through testimonios, autohistoria, and anti-colonial methodologies, this project provides insight into contemporary decolonial queer feminist coalition-building efforts centering community care and pedagogies of social transformation that emerge out of crisis. In centering the lived experiences of the Texas organizers, the study underscores the significance of collective storytelling as a form of solidarity and a powerful tool for liberation and decolonial resistance. Specifically, I historicize the praxis of the non-hierarchal grassroots collective, emphasizing our advocacy for bodily autonomy, promoting community care through mutual aid fundraising, sharing accessible resources, and resisting the non-profit industrial complex. By foregrounding the perspectives of the collective, this research provides insight into radical possibilities for transformative decolonial feminist movements for liberation.
The purpose of this project is to explore how queer Texas organizers utilize decolonial feminist theories and praxis in our grassroots organizing through building solidarities, creating transformative connections, and providing community-created solutions despite the restrictions that limit our bodily autonomy (Spade, 2020; Luna & Luker, 2013). Grounded in reproductive justice, mutual aid, transnational, decolonial queer, and Chicana feminist theories, I provide an intersectional critique of the nonprofit industrial complex by centering mutual aid organizing as a liberatory practice in our communities (Ross & Solinger, 2017; Spade, 2020; Galván, 2014; Tambe & Thayer, 2021; Mohanty, 2003; Gomes Pereira, 2019; Morgan-Montoya, 2020). Further, incorporating testimonios from my fellow organizers and using autohistoria, these decolonial praxes are essential in solidarity movements towards collective liberation and contribute to decolonial feminist epistemologies and transformative pedagogies in the fields of Gender, Chicanx, and Ethnic Studies (Delgado Bernal et al., 2012; Hamzeh & Flores Carmona, 2019).
Joy Chrysyl Llido, "Resisting Displacement in a Climate Crisis: The Dumagat-Remondato’s Fight to Live Free"
This project analyzes the grassroots organizing efforts of the Dumagat-Remontado People’s fight against displacement through a climate justice framework. In the Philippines, the primary source of fresh water for the National Capital Region has fallen below critical levels exacerbated by severe drought conditions attributed to human-caused climate change. The Kaliwa Dam Project aims to double the region's freshwater production and alleviate the on-going crisis. The Anti-Kaliwa Dam Campaign is an Indigenous Right’s struggle in opposition to the construction of the Kaliwa Dam on the Dumagat-Remontado’s ancestral lands in the Philippines.
The paper highlights the disproportionate impact of climate change on Indigenous Peoples and their enduring quest for climate justice. This research posits that using a climate justice framework as an analytical tool and a political strategy will enable the Anti-Kaliwa Dam Campaign to navigate its socio-cultural battle against the Philippine government and waterworks providers more effectively. This framework elevates the campaign’s fight from an Indigenous and Land Rights issue in the Philippines and connects it to a global social movement. Within this framework, the community's opposition to the dam construction project becomes not only a defense of their land, but also a broader struggle against global systemic oppression.
The findings aim to contribute to the discourse on climate social justice movements, highlighting the interconnectedness of indigenous rights, environmental justice, and the larger climate justice movement. The study involves a qualitative analysis of the campaign's social media presence, particularly posts from the Stop Kaliwa Dam Facebook page, to examine how a climate justice framework fits in the campaign’s organizing strategy. The findings will underscore the expression of PeoplePower from a grassroots movement that has a real stake in a complex global problem.
