It’s 7 degrees in Minneapolis this Friday morning. My phone says it “feels like” -15. Today is day 4 of the historic Minneapolis Public School educators’ strike so while it’s very cold, it’s also white hot in our city. The energy is high; teachers, ESPs, students, and families are fired up. In my North Minneapolis neighborhood, CityView Community School educators bundled up to march onto the Lowry Bridge with their picket line, one day longer, one day stronger, regardless of the cold.
I’m not an educator, I don’t work for Minneapolis Public Schools, I don’t have a kid enrolled- hell, I don’t even have kids. I just care a lot about the collective possibility of actually investing in our schools as the touchstones of our neighborhoods and communities.
I’m also disabled and mostly homebound. I can’t march and rally the way I used to. I can’t stand on a picket line for hours. I can’t even leave the house most days. But Audre Lorde’s “politic of action” is always on my mind; you can’t just have a values system, you have to actually act in your life according to those values.
So this morning, I drove to the coffee shop over the bridge and picked up two to-go carafes of hot coffee. I set up a little coffee cart in the trunk of my battered car and I poured hot coffee for about 30 CityView teachers and ESPs to take with them out onto the windy bridges where they are picketing. My small individual action links with the much larger collective actions of my striking community members.
This is something I’ve been thinking about as “acting alone, together” and it’s a space of possibility. Even the highly effective and timely Mutual Aid primer that Dean Spade wrote doesn’t really touch on what people can do who are not already connected or who can’t connect in a group the way they might want to. Not everyone- because of disabilities, crushing poverty, childcare and transportation barriers, or their own overworked reality- can plug into a mutual aid group or attend a community meeting. Not everyone, despite the care and heat in their hearts, can march and rally and picket. But that does not mean we should not act. Acting alone but in the service of the collective is a valid and highly available tool to use in striving toward our shared liberation.
So consider honking your horn at a picket line. Consider dropping off handwarmers or hot cocoa for the educators at your neighborhood school. Beyond that, consider dropping off firewood at community sites and encampments. Consider bringing a load of needed supplies to a supply hub in your city. Consider throwing $5 or $20 or $100 at the next mutual aid fund you encounter. Consider sending an email to the superintendent of the school district who is refusing to pay his educators living wages. Acting alone, together, we can contribute to building the world we want to live in.
Minneapolis Public School educators are not being paid while they’re on strike. The last MPS district strike happened in 1970 and it lasted 20 days. Striking educators need financial support to stay strong. Consider contributing to the strike fund.