The Panthers did free before school breakfast and after school babysitting and all sorts of actual community building like that. The PSL does protests and craft events and that’s it. I guess providing consistent services is an order of magnitude more difficult than organizing marches but it just doesn’t seem like the marches are getting us anywhere.
This is one of those radicalizing things I came across as a teen. I remember it went something like this:
“Charities are a good thing…”
“Why don’t charities ever seem to solve problems?”
“Why do charities need to exist? Don’t we pay taxes for this kind of thing?”
“Ohhhhh! They’re pocketing the bulk of the money, and using the clout to get courtside seats at basketball games under the guise of ‘awareness’?”
Even the most well meaning charity or mutual aid is still a band aid. Don’t get me wrong, feeding, clothing and sheltering people is never bad. Grifting the families of cancer patients is. Looking at you, Susan Komen foundation
It does capitalism’s reproduction for it, so they can increase profits. Sadly many anarchist want to provide for people’s needs without “imposing” ideology upon them, which is not going to help progress.
It helps those people have their needs met in the immediate term though, people still are dying of starvation and exposure in the US. Without a recognized ideology you will be less likely to be targeted by police or political groups, so I do see the reasoning behind separating aid and ideology. People that need food aren’t trying to be lectured, I have relied on food banks in the past and if it was required I attended a lecture or something before getting help that would be some bullshit, but they could have pamphlets available like Food Not Bombs.
Sure, but if you’re serious about being anti-capitalist maybe do something about it beyond temporary bandaids?