Check out the
Solidarity Summit online conference hosted by The HUMANs ("Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks" -
https://www.mutualaidnetwork.org ), taking place Jan 23-24, from ~8:00PST/11:00EST to ~16:00PST/19:00EST both days, plus additional open convo/expo time until late into the night Sun (times are a little eccentric to allow for as many time zones as possible... + future events will have Sat night art/music performances, but we're taking baby steps for now). Read this announcement on shareable:
Quick sketch of the event:
It's meant to be a gathering space for any and all grassroots mutual aid networks around the world. We share our successes and lessons, gradually building together, meeting seasonally as we continue scaling up and cross-pollinating our diverse movements. So far, most of the groups involved are innovating economic mutual aid and other ways of meeting daily material needs (many time banks, co-ops, etc).
We're not sure how many folks will show up, but several pretty diverse groups are already committed... only a few groups submitted descriptions in time for that article, but we know there's participants from Central America, Europe, Africa and Oceania, as well as many all across the US. Apparently there's some tool that allows real-time translation and multi-lingual work spaces, plus maybe separate rooms for language groups to gather (at least, we expect significant numbers of french and spanish speakers). This is a fledgling event, but we plan to do it quarterly and grow it as we go - one step at a time, poco a poco.
One of the best aspects of the online conferencing platform is their "digital expo booths." We'd love to see many local mutual aid groups with expo booths showing off your work. These booths do not
need to be staffed, but there are a few 1hr time slots built into the schedule when participants will focus on visiting booths, so staffing your booth might yield some good connections. Sign up for a booth here:
https://forms.gle/wxRZD3DKrbLGG1zh9
I'm very excited that the centerpiece of this gathering is a showing of documentary film The Response followed by discussion from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief and everyone. That takes place Sat, 5-7pmEST. Many of the other parts are still settling into their final shapes.... I'm helping to organize this event, so if you have good ideas or want to get involved, please talk to me asap - we need as many brains as possible to collaboratively craft this emergent possibility-space!
I hope that many of you can make it. And your friends and comrades too - please forward this info! For those who can't join, we'll all continue building together at the next gathering in April.
Because it's totally grassroots and open-source, it's a little messy and some schedule details are still not finalized - please just contact me to get squared on that, but also be sure to RSVP - very important to get login details etc! to RSVP...
Thanks for reading :) -tyler..