Members of the Australian Communist Party and Community Union Defence League handing out food to vulnerable people left behind by capitalism in Sydney today.
If you’re in Australia and want to help out check out cudl.org.au, we operate in most capital cities in Australia!
Btw since this blew up a bit consider donating to us if you have a few spare bucks.
This... is what I want to be doing. Actually helping other people in a material, meaningful way, and also maybe selfishly, I know it would do me good on a personal level, mentally, emotionally. But I don't know how to go about it. I have such bad social anxiety, it's hard to reach out, but there's also not much to reach out to. All I can find in my area is DSA, and it even basically... disbanded soon after covid.
Whatever though. Solidarity and respect to those out there doing some praxis by helping others.All you need is a table and a sign. Everything follows from there. Put some peanut butter and tampons on it, say everything's free, and smile at people. It's real easy. A friend to help is very good. Eventually the police will stop you. But you'll get in some good shit in the meantime.
And believe me, no matter how small you start it’ll grow. People will see what you’re doing and want to get involved. And there’s never a shortage of mutual aid work that needs to be done in our capitalist hellscape.
That's great advice and I will see what I can do. The major obstacles though are 1) I don't have any comrades irl who would do this with me. Maybe I'm being cowardly, but doing this on my own is really intimidating. I know it isn't about me, but my severe social anxiety doesn't make it any easier. And 2) I don't have much myself. I'm unemployed and rely on foodstamps for my own food. I do have enough resources that I can still give to people though, so I'll try to just push through my own personal bullshit and try to follow the advice you (and @Abraxiel ) laid out.
Freikorps chuds are just getting a head start on volunteering to repress leftists on behalf of capitalists
Well for starters nobody that volunteers for us draws a salary, well, I should say literally nobody in the organisation does. Not the people who run it, nobody. The cooks are grannies and other people with spare time who cook using their own money and time in their own kitchens. The drivers who collect the food are volunteers who pay for their own petrol. The volunteers who hand out food are doing it for the love of their fellow human being.
We’re not a registered charity and we don’t beg for permits from the capitalist state which is why there have been attempts to repress our work all across the country. In Sydney alone we’ve received almost $1000 in fines this year because the pigs want to force us away from the area because there are bougie cafes there and it’s right in front of the federal bank building.
We also actually interact with the people who come down as human beings and not pigs to be handed the lowest form of slop and be looked down upon. Often people who come down to the kitchen end up helping the org out.
While we don’t have unlimited resources as a fully donation/volunteer based org, we try to help out wherever we can. We’ve found ways to get beds and roofs for people who approach us in crisis. We’re working on setting up a gardening program for old or disabled folks who can’t do it themselves, as well as a DV support van which can help victims move out of their abusive home.
We also show up rain, hail, or covid (with measures in place of course). Last year during the big lockdowns here most organisations stopped showing up out of fear of getting fined or catching covid, left a tonne of needy people in the lurch. We showed up every week.
