Navigating the strategic dilemmas of mutual aid: reflections on the relationality of international student organising in Sydney during the COVID-19 pandemic

Keywords: mutual aid, community organising, COVID-19, international students
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 73

Abstract

In 2020, thousands of international students found themselves stranded in Sydney with the suspension of international travel and closure of borders. Those whose livelihoods were dependent on jobs in industries like hospitality and construction found themselves out of work for several months. At the same time, the Commonwealth Government excluded international students and other temporary visa holders from all forms of income support and disaster relief – resulting in food and housing insecurity and social isolation.

This talk discusses the forms of mutual aid and support that international students generated to address their situation. In telling the story of their efforts, it will draw particular attention to the relationships that were involved: interfaces with faith, community and labour organising; confrontations with state agencies and the higher education sector, and; institutionalisation into a formalised and state-funded community organising initiative – the Oz International Student Hub. The talk will critically examine the evolution of these relationships as responses to a series of strategic dilemmas, as students sought simultaneously to care for one another and to confront the forces that produce their precarity and isolation. What lessons have they learnt in the process about how mutual aid can avoid the pitfalls of charity and state welfare, while creating more durable political spaces that do not have to be invented anew with each fresh crisis? The talk is produced in partnership with students involved in the Hub.