Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care

by Kelly Hayes

Organizers are not machines. We are living beings who experience stages of energetic growth, periods of exhaustion, and various stages of healing, reconfiguration, and renewal. The same is true of movements and communities.

under capitalism, our value is measured in terms of our productivity. When our capacity wanes due to illness, exhaustion, or duress, workers are largely expected to remain productive anyway and to continue to contribute to the economy.

the idea that we must remain “productive” at all costs leads to frustration, resentment, burnout, and collapse.

Sometimes when we feel burned out or confused about how to move forward with our group, it may be because our project, container, or organization has simply run its course.

Sometimes we must release a current project in order to pursue new visions.

In a world that is breaking down our connections, isolating us, and sub-siloing us to death, life-giving relationships are our best hope. The

the work of doing justice transforms people, relationships, and the dynamics between people over time.

It’s a short-term palliative reflex with long-term consequences, and a great many people are navigating these times through justification, rationalization, and attempts to replicate what we have often already lost.

The work before us is the work of our ancestors and the work of those who will come after: to relentlessly build new worlds, even on the edge of oblivion, and live in them anyway—together.

That work, which sounds epic in scope and scale, begins with human connection, human relationships, and reciprocity in struggle. It begins with care.

Despair is a thief. It saps your energy, depletes your time, and robs you of your ability to dream. And we need lots of dreamers and doers right now.

Experiencing the incompetence of—and in some cases intentional abandonment by—our governments (including our local ones) during this pandemic has left many of us feeling despondent, increased our fears, and made us feel like passive consumers of news and information. All of these can fuel a sense of helplessness. All can erode our sense of Ubuntu.

Ram Dass: “We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another.”

Unitarian Universalist minister Victoria Safford’s admonition that “we cannot do this all at once. But every day offers every one of us little invitations for resistance, and you make your own responses.”

It isn’t realistic or sustainable to never take a break from the relentlessness of injustice. The struggle is eternal, but our energies are limited.