Become a monthly sustainer to The Zachary Project and support radical mutual aid for Critical Resistance members and community organizers in need!
Mutual aid has long been a tenet of the work to abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC). In the past month, Critical Resistance (CR) raised over $30,000 for Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) to distribute humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza amidst apartheid-Israel’s escalated genocidal campaign. CR then raised nearly $40,000 for defense funds for protestors blocking a US military ship at the Port of Oakland on its way to Israel. Throughout November, these funds have been used to support protestors demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire as they face repressive costs, including parking tickets, impound fees for cars towed, after-care, medical and healing supplies from a few injuries, and will continue to be used to support our comrades doing direct action in solidarity with Palestine.
Through our campaign, project and solidarity organizing, CR uses mutual aid to support our communities struggling in conditions of capitalism, crisis, and war. For the past eight years, much of this work has been done through CR Oakland’s Zachary Project, a community fund named in honor of beloved former Oakland chapter member Zachary Ontiveros who passed away in 2015. A dedicated anti-capitalist who always took on the thankless roles to support our community, The Zachary Project carries on Zachary’s legacy to support community organizers in need.
2023 was one of the project’s largest years to date–CR redistributed almost $16,000 to nearly two dozen organizers in our movement ecosystem through The Zachary Project. These funds often help cover basic living expenses, mental and physical health care, and much more. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, conditions of crisis have widened and more of our people have needed support from comrades to live to fight for another day for us all. CR is grateful to be able to provide these funds for community organizers every year, as it is one of the many ways we aim to bolster the movement to abolish the PIC. The stronger our people and communities are, the stronger the movement is.
Your incredible gifts in 2023 sustained this year of many requests. This Giving Tuesday, we invite you to replenish the fund after its big year of fund redistribution! Support The Zachary Project and Critical Resistance this holiday season and give a holiday gift that makes a great impact.
- If you’ve ever received support funds through The Zachary Project, we invite you to pay it forward and help out the next person.
- If you have donated to the fund before, please donate again and invite someone to join you.
- If you can become a monthly sustainer at $15 or more, please do.
We ask you to keep supporting the fund through whatever means you can: a financial gift, a monthly commitment, or an invitation to your networks to donate. You can donate directly at bit.ly/CR2023yearend and click “Apply My Donation To – Zachary Project”.
The Zachary Project funds are but one of the many ways Critical Resistance uses mutual aid for PIC abolition and contributes to building an international movement to dismantle the PIC more broadly. This year-end season, stay tuned for our series of weekly roundups about CR’s 2023 prisoner solidarity work, campaign organizing, movement building work, and the resources we create and share with our partners and community members.
For the past 25 years, your contributions of time, effort, and funds have empowered CR to run campaigns against policing, imprisonment, and surveillance; create tools to strengthen abolitionist organizing and analysis; build and strengthen connections with movement partners across our interconnected fights; and more. Keep CR strong over the next decades of abolitionist work! We invite you to become a monthly sustainer today and continue contributing to the long-haul project of PIC abolition.
Thank you for continuing to walk with us toward abolitionist horizons!
In struggle and solidarity,
-Critical Resistance