Community Care

The discussion in Organizing Upgrade on the relationship of self-care to movement-building, initiated by B. Loew, has been very exciting. Props to B for putting out a clear point of view and encouraging this level of engagement. Let me explain how I see the integration of "self-care" and "collective care." In the quote B uses, Yashna Maya Padamsee says, "Talking only about self-care when talking about healing justice is like only talking about recycling and composting when speaking of environment justice." But no one I know is only or even mainly talking about "self-care" isolated from the collective struggle—and in fact, way too often it is "self-care" that is urgently needed to keep comrades in the movement.