We’re CHC, the Common Humanity Collective
We help ordinary people come together to create and redistribute the things our communities need in the face of deprivation and disaster.
As we suffer crisis after crisis, each one more excruciating than the last, our government fails to address the inequalities that make them so devastating—particularly for people impacted by environmental racism and ableism.
While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic claims the lives of millions across the world, it has also provoked dramatic and far-reaching examples of mutual aid and cooperation. Globally, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have mobilized to better protect neighbors in their communities.
Our own group, CHC, developed a grassroots network of production and distribution through which over 60,000 N95-style nanofiber masks were assembled and distributed, along with enough hand sanitizer to supply over 100,000 people in the Bay Area within our first few years. We continue distributing masks alongside thousands of DIY air purifiers in response to the wildfires ravaging California, as well as persistent industrial pollution, which continually make our air unhealthy to breathe.
Our example demonstrates that a comparatively small group of people of different identities, backgrounds, and means can come together to produce essential tools for survival on a city-wide scale. Through CHC, our communities intervene to care for one another during times when it’s dearly needed. While our government shirks its responsibility of providing basic safety supplies to people affected by the pandemic and climate crises, we meet our own needs—working together in solidarity.
Surviving these increasingly apocalyptic circumstances will require us to cultivate, on larger scales and with more political vigor, practices of mutual aid and cooperation. We encourage everyone, including those we meet at the point of distribution, to take charge of the production and distribution processes and help build an ever-expanding community of confidence, autonomy, and self-sufficiency.
We believe that such practices around the world must be nurtured and grown alongside more traditional class struggles, such as radical labor unions and tenant councils, to ensure the possibility of a truly egalitarian future beyond capitalism.
If you’re interested in joining us or getting involved, please click here and fill out our form!