Charles River Mutual Aid Program (CRMAP) is a group of activists from across the Boston area who are mobilizing to provide mutual aid to residents in the area in need of resources. We are pooling funds in a Mutual Aid Fund to purchase food, medical supplies, and other necessities for people who request them, and organizing to provide these resources to the community. In addition, we seek to bring people together and partner with other organizations to help fight back against capitalism’s injustices during this crisis, injustices such as the predatory collection of unpayable rents at a time when tenants are losing their sources of income.

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spreads like wildfire in the US, millions of people are being left out to dry. University students are being told to “think creatively” to find housing as they get evicted en masse. Businesses are shutting down and laying off their workers, meaning millions of working families are losing part or all of their income. Many businesses that remain open are putting their workers in hazardous conditions. Our profit-driven economy, which in normal times already fails to meet people’s basic needs, is proving to be especially catastrophic for the people in this time of crisis.

The current pandemic is something that we in the United States have never had to deal with before, and the times ahead will be difficult for millions of people. While our culture encourages us to withdraw from society and “look out for number one”, we must fight back against the tendency to isolate ourselves. Now more than ever, we must come together to support each other—students, workers, tenants, and everyone committed to justice—as the government becomes increasingly unable to provide basic resources.

We know the virus is going to affect some people more than others. The rich and the powerful will catch it too, but at much lower rates due to their ability to protect themselves, and they will have access to medical care and resources that tens millions of people in the U.S. do not have. . We know how the U.S. government handles similar situations - we saw hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where white residents were evacuated and the majority-Black Ninth Ward was devastated. The hurricane itself was a natural disaster, but the effects it had on people were man-made.

Join us in our Mutual Aid Program, by volunteering or donating, to serve the people and fight back against COVID-19! If we want to help each other survive this disaster, we must urgently organize, and we must assert and address the needs of the people in opposition to the interests of the landlords, the bosses, and their government.