A Culture of Care

The Mycelium does more than simply support protests. We believe that through caring for each other as full human beings - beings of body, mind, emotion and culture - we build a stronger movement and a richer community. We ‘do’ our cultures of care in various ways; affinity groups, buddy systems, street medics, arrestee support, community care, and mutual aid. We'll look at these in a bit more detail below.

Community care

Our Community Care team are skilled in emotional and psychological care. Some have professional backgrounds as counsellors etc., while others have acquired these skills in the course of a turbulent life. Community care is involved in a wide range of activities, including supporting the social connectedness of the movement through things like 'getting to know you' picnics, or providing training and support in basic collective care techniques. One particular skill we look for in community carers is the ability to de-escalate situations of conflict during an action. Emotions can run high at rallies, among activists, police, counter-protesters, or passers-by. We offer deescalation skills and a listening ear, knowing that conflict and distress are common human experiences. Community care is about holding the wellbeing of the movement in the forefront of our minds, and finding as many ways as we can to support this collective wellbeing.

Street medics

Street medics are local activists who may have a medical background (paramedic, doctor, nurse, etc.) or may be people with First Aid training, including mental health first aid. They stay alert during an action for anyone - activists, passers-by (and even antagonists) - who may be injured or unwell, and give them aid when they can. For example, on a day of extreme heat, they will be prepared with cold packs, and plenty of spare water, to ensure people alleviate the risk of heat stroke.

Affinity groups

Whatever your organisation, once it gets beyond a certain size it needs a way of keeping people connected and engaged. One of the traditional ways of doing this is through affinity groups. These are groups of about 6-12 people who make time to get to know each other and to build a sense of solidarity and shared commitment to whatever cause you are working on together. These can be formed in a variety of ways - people who already have existing friendships, organising geographically, or by particular interests or projects. One of the main benefits of affinity groups is to provide mutual support as well as practice in shared decision-making within a small group. They are often valuable for organisations who may be contemplating forms of civil resistance, such as non-violent direct action (NVDA). Some direct action involves risking arrest in some form, and affinity groups exist to make that process as supportive as possible, including connecting you with a buddy. The mycelium will offer training packages that include information about affinity groups, to support your group in forming these effectively.

Buddy systems

Many of our teams take advantage of working in pairs, because having a buddy is a fundamental form of mutual support. Nobody should have to work alone, whether you are being a street medic, offering arrestee support, providing community care at an action, being a legal observer, undertaking a police liaison role, or being part of a marshal team. This may be particular important for those risking arrest in a particular action, where stress levels may be high and a buddy can help you make better decisions in the heat of the moment. Ideally this buddy would be one of your affinity group members, because then you would already trust and appreciate them, and know a little about how you both might react in stressful situations. During the action you and your buddy would be looking out for each other, sharing information, workshopping decisions with your wider affinity group, and generally keeping each other safe, and even cheerful!

Arrestee support

As we noted above in the section about affinity groups, some activists risk arrest when engaging in civil disobedience. Sometimes this involves spending some hours, or overnight, in a local watch house. This can be confronting, particularly for those unfairly targeted by authorities, such as young queer people, or First Nations. Those tasked with arrestee support aim to make this process easier for those getting arrested. This has two parts. One is preparing possible arrestees in advance. The second part is supporting people as they get released from arrest, and throughout any ensuing legal proceedings. When we look after arrestees well they feel valued, and more willing to try this again in future if this seems necessary.

Mutual aid

At a broader level, we have mutual aid. This includes any practical strategies that can be found to support others in the movement. In times past, those taking strike action have been supported in basic living expenses by strike funds held by the Labour movement. In contemporary times communities have mobilised to prevent the abuses of power by organisations such as ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) in the US, who under the Trump administration have been harassing, arresting and deporting mostly people of colour, even those who are legally citizens. Their communities have been creative in finding people-at-risk safe spaces to live, escorting them to paid-work situations, buying groceries for them, and whatever is needed to keep them safe. Mutual aid can be anything that might support activists in our community.