“Ain’t Gonna Study War No More”

There is a sense of hopelessness, helplessness, and despair in the face of the horrors of the Israeli-Hamas war.

Coming of age in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War, I witnessed and was part of the massive antiwar movement in this country. But for the past several decades I’ve wondered what happened to the antiwar movement. A movement sorely needed in these times. I’m beginning to understand that the antiwar movement has morphed into the movement to build resilient, Mutual Aid communities.

As I’ve been writing about resilience and Mutual Aid recently, I see more clearly that resilience is not only a way to prepare for the future but also a way to build better communities now. That Includes the way to break the cycle of war.

I’m having difficulty explaining to people that Mutual Aid is radically different from the current society in this country. Most White people refuse to recognize and comprehend imperialism and White supremacy. Those are just words, and they tune them out.

I urge you to stop and think about this now. What is imperialism? What does White supremacy mean?

Our world, that has been colonized by imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, runs because of the oppressive and exploitative forms of power
Thus, to liberate ourselves and each other from this system, one of our main tasks is to confront hierarchy and hierarchical forms of power.
Mutual aid is a form of prefigurative politics, aimed at abolishing hierarchy and hierarchical forms of power in the world by first living out these principles ourselves, bringing new ways of relating to each other into being

Mutual Aid: Non-Hierarchy in Practice by Tammy Gan, Bad Activist

Rather than feeling helpless in the face of these ongoing wars, we should be creating our own communities of Mutual Aid, peace, and resilience. That will take us out of imperialism and White supremacy, so we will not be contributing to the conditions for war. “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More”.

mutual aid aims to: form the structure of a new society within the shell of the old; embody the forms of social relations, decision-making, culture and human experience that are its ultimate goal
Mutual Aid: Non-Hierarchy in Practice by Tammy Gan, Bad Activist

It might seem counterintuitive to work locally in the face of global war and disaster, but that is the only effective thing we can do now. I speak from nearly four years of experience with Des Moines Mutual Aid.

In January 2020, Des Moines Mutual Aid participated in a march protesting the potential for war or increased hostilities with Iran that followed the fallout of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani by drone strike in Baghdad.

This Love Letter to Y’all below tells how our Mutual Aid community has evolved. DMMA has grown further since this was written in 2021.

A Love Letter to Y’all

One year ago yesterday Des Moines Mutual Aid participated in a march protesting the potential for war or increased hostilities with Iran that followed the fallout of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani by drone strike in Baghdad.

This was our first “public” event since adopting the name Des Moines Mutual Aid, a name we gave our crew during our growing work with our relatives at the houseless camps throughout the city and our help with coordinating a weekly free grocery store that has a 50 year history, founded by the Des Moines Chapter of The Black Panther Party For Self Defense.

A year ago we started laying the foundation for work we had no idea what was coming.

As we were adjusting our work with the camps and grocery re-distribution in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, both that continued to grow in need and importance, the police continued their jobs and legacy of brutality and murder.

This nation exploded in righteous rage in response to the pig murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

DMMA realized we were in a position to organize a bail fund to keep our fighters out of jail, both to keep the streets alive as a new phase of The Movement was being born, and because jails are a hotspot of Covid-19 spread.

Not to mention the racial and economic oppression that is the cash bail system.

In the past year DMMA has expanded it’s work in multiple directions and gained many partners and allies.

We partnered with the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement (@DesMoinesBLM) to create the DSM BLM Rent Relief initiative to help keep families in their homes in the midst of a pandemic and the winter.

The camp work has grown exponentially, but is being managed with our collaboration with Edna Griffin Mutual Aid (@egma_dsm), DSM Black Liberation Movement (@DesMoinesBLM), and The Great Plains Action Society (@PlainsAction).

The bail fund remains successful because of desire from the public and a partnership with Prairielands Freedom Fund (@prairielandsff) (formerly The Eastern Iowa Community Bond Project).

The weekly free food store has maintained itself, carrying on the legacy it inherited.

Every one of our accomplishments are directly tied to the support of so many people donating time, talent, and funds to the work. We are overwhelmed with all of your support and hope you feel we are honoring what we promised.

All of these Mutual Aid projects are just a few of many that this city has created in the last year in response to the many crises we face, not only confronting the problems and fulfilling the needs directly in front of us, but creating a sustainable movement that will be capable of responding to what’s next and shaping our collective futures as we replace the systems that fail us.

These last 12 months have been wild and a real test of all of our capabilities to collectively organize.

But it is clear that we as a city have what it takes to do what is needed in 2021, no matter what crisis is next.

Much gratitude to you all.
In love and rage,
Des Moines Mutual Aid
January 6, 2021