Space City AO

 

Space City Anarchist Organization first began as a book club for a few folks in December 2021; within a month, an organization was established for like-minded people dedicated and committed to building a movement in support of the people, and all who are oppressed, marginalized, and left-behind. We live in a world where we are increasingly isolated from each other and our communities. 

At the same time, there are ongoing struggles for climate, racial, and housing justice. To best address these pressing issues in our society, we feel that it is important to build strong, resilient communities, where people can support each other and determine their destiny. We feel that by building a platform with anarchist values, people are empowered to take on issues in their communities and build the solidarity needed to create a just and lasting peace that addresses the roots of oppression and marginalization.

We aim to achieve this just and lasting peace by building solidarity programs. One such example is our unhoused distribution. Despite Houston being upheld as an example of a city with a "humane approach" to the Housing crisis, there are still increasing amounts of people living on the streets. The city has opted to sweep encampments and place people in unreliable housing. Many of the volunteers within SCAO in response have opted to support the Unhoused population by delivering over 100 meals, water, sanitary supplies, batteries, and other items to make life on the streets of Houston a bit more bearable. Since January of 2022, you can find us every week supporting our unhoused neighbors. 

We also have other solidarity programs such as our Free Store, where we re-distribute clothes and other donated items to people who want them, as a statement against consumerism and waste. We do our Free Store every two weeks in conjunction with other organizations feeding unhoused folks like Food Not Bombs. Another example of our solidarity program is our prisoner solidarity program where we write letters to incarcerated prisoners, learn about abolition, conduct Know Your Rights trainings, and organize support campaigns for political prisoners. 

Our guiding principles involve mutual aid and solidarity. Mutual aid is the voluntary giving, lending, or receiving of time, labor, or resources, with the expectation that the entire community will benefit. Solidarity is recognizing that we all have an interest in building a society where everyone is taken care of and that we all have a shared goal in realizing this. We aim to build this solidarity through consistent initiatives that will connect communities such as resource distribution, community health training, liberatory literature, and horizontalism.