Warm wishes to all of you in the PSH community,
Many members of our community are finding each other at the intersection of grief and fiery hope. Our comrades across the state are reckoning with the knowledge that a few weeks ago, hundreds of people in North Carolina were kidnapped by federal immigration agents to enforce the colonial borders of a nation built on stolen land.
Like many of you, we followed and are following the wisdom and leadership of Siembra NC, SEAC Village, and Carolina Migrant Network amongst many others as we figure out next steps for this moment.
Without compiling a detail-heavy list, we want to acknowledge the breadth of the solidarity network in North Carolina and the Triangle:
Community members organized and mobilized community patrols, crisis response dispatch networks, strategy meetings, pop-up trainings, mutual aid distribution networks, and mass protests through a powerful web of interconnected movements and organizations. Organizations that have been in disciplined practice and preparation for this moment caught waves of people who were ready to be in collective resistance. Hubs (music venues, DIY spaces, churches, movement-aligned businesses, and solidarity hubs in various names) across the state activated to house a wide array of community safety response actions.
People’s Solidarity Hub was just one of the dozens of spaces that held this community defense work over the past few weeks, and it was able to offer a specific breadth of resources that were unique to this specifically historied and politicized community space. PSH was used as a meeting space, as a hub for much needed rapid response coordination equipment (like walkie talkies, speakers, and megaphones), as a printing press to help mass distribute posters and educational materials, and as a landing place for people seeking healing offerings to recalibrate their nervous systems. All this bustle of activity on campus has been a stark affirmation and reminder about the importance of building long-standing movement infrastructure. When we listen to the wisdom of long term organizers, and put our energy towards collectivizing the resources we need, we are better prepared to respond to moments of crisis.
The organizations that we mentioned before have shared powerful reflections about the past few weeks of actions already. As this struggle continues, we encourage you to read and meditate on those learnings. And as our communities prepare for the rippling impacts from this acute wave of state violence (and brace for the next one), the PSH team welcomes you to use the space and its resources to continue building the robust infrastructure of resistance that is needed for this moment and the ones to come.
artwork from @pea_tendrils on Instagram
