“The Fusion of the New Society in the Shell of the Old”: A Night of Mutual Aid
What do you get when you put a Catholic Worker community, a Socialist Collective, and a variety of people of goodwill in the same room together for a common cause?
By: Michele Naar-Obed, Hildegard House Catholic Worker (Duluth, MN)
What do you get when you put a Catholic Worker community, a Socialist Collective, and a variety of people of goodwill in the same room together for a common cause?
You get Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin’s prophetic vision of “building the new community in the shell of the old.”
Only we are attempting this in 2025: we have no intention of creating this new community using the old blueprint of a society immersed in individualism, capitalism, and consumerism. Rather, we are learning from other civil societies about non-hierarchical, non-nation-state, mutual aid, democratic societies with an emphasis on the common good and with recognition of the sacredness and dignity of all creation. Okay, that’s a mouthful, but it’s the words that came into the ear of my heart, floating on a gentle breeze.
On February 22, the Hildegard House Catholic Worker partnered with the Northwoods Socialist Collective and the Palestine Solidarity Working Group of the Twin Ports Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to host a mutual aid event for our friend Yusuf in Northern Gaza. It was a night of music, poetry, and storytelling.
Donations were collected to be sent directly to Yusuf through a crowdfunding page that was set up by Catholic Workers in Ireland. There were no nonprofits involved, no professional musicians, poets, or speakers. It was all a grassroots effort through a direct relationship with Yusuf.
Yusuf was part of the lineup of artists also. Interspersed throughout the event were YouTube videos of Yusuf telling us his story of holding space, surviving, and rebuilding his neighborhood in Northern Gaza throughout the bombings, starvation, and genocidal attacks by Israel with the aid of US weaponry.
The room was filled with about 50 people. It was intergenerational—but not as intercultural as we hoped. It was an open mic event and the hope was that participants would feel empowered enough to get up and sing a song, read a poem or tell a story. That hope exceeded expectations.
The Rockin’ Rodents, a high school band dedicated to a repertoire of social justice songs inspired us and filled us with hope for our future. The DSA Band sang folk and social justice songs of the past, reminding us who we are. Some read Dan Berrigan poems, and others got up to share their personal stories.
Some had personal experiences in the Middle East with Palestinian people. They worked through the lies and misconceptions imposed upon them by our racist educational and religious institutions. They shared about the beautiful hospitality they experienced with the people of the Middle East. They spoke about how the Palestinian people protected them when it was obvious they were lost and even stranded. Their fears and rugged individualism were turned into gratitude, humility and respect.
Someone asked if Palestinians could travel freely and if the Palestinian people were aware of the genocide and racism against the Indigenous people of Turtle Island. The explanation of how Palestinian land was broken up into smaller and smaller parcels and then gated off by walls and checkpoints by their occupiers was almost exactly the way Indigenous land was broken up into checkerboard parcels by the Dawes Act, or the General Allotment Act of 1887. It made one wonder if there is a “playbook” for this kind of attack on a people and culture.
Even more, it made one aware of the need to tell our stories and view them in some kind of historical context, otherwise we are condemned to repeat the same blueprint.
When it was all said and done, we raised $2,000 for financial support and we captured video of the artists for encouragement to send to Yusuf. We realized that mutual aid is about taking and giving and giving and taking. Sometimes it’s a direct exchange, and sometimes it is passing it forward when able.
We are at a turning point in this country. An evolution of sorts. We need each other and all life in the natural world. We are all connected. We need these new kinds of community to break out of the shell of the old.
