The mutual-aid networks that have defined the COVID-19 pandemic are looking to the long term. Maryam Shariat Mudrick and her husband, Ross, formed the Astoria Mutual Aid Network in March by passing out thousands of flyers to let their neighbors know they were there to help with groceries, transportation, and deliveries. In early June, some members of the aid network were passing out flyers again, but this time it was at a Queens protest against racism and police brutality, and the flyers included information on what to do if you get tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed and how to contact the National Lawyers Guild.
?In addition to ensuring that people have what they need at their most basic level, we need to ensure that people don?t just ignore everything else when the health threat is gone,? Mudrick says about the Astoria Mutual Aid Network?s organizing around the protest. ?I think before this moment, the rest of the community might not have been ready to talk about what else needs to happen in our neighborhood.? The mass uncertainty surrounding a virus scientists know little about, record-shattering unemployment, and insufficient government response has made the lack of an adequate social safety net abundantly clear. Over the past few months, mutual-aid networks stepped in. Neighbors volunteered their time and money and recognized that supporting each other was a matter of survival. Now that reopening is under way, organizers want to look beyond emergency rapid response a...