It is becoming increasingly clear that people will have to rely on and care for each other more and more after years of purposeful abandonment from those in power. Care is political. Who we care for and how we go about practicing care shapes our world. Care is an expression of economics. Collective care disrupts our dependency on exploitative, extractive institutions and reminds us of our humanity and power.  Ultimately, care is a prerequisite for solidarity. 

If we take a more radical approach to community care we will find strategies for sovereignty, self-determination, communal health, safety and building power. One of the key impacts of fascism is alienation — making care and the connection it creates an important counterforce. 

This list explores the contributions from decolonial feminist, disabled, Black, Indigenous and radical scholars and organizers to sharpen our strategies around care work. It also offers some tangible resources for how to reshape our organizational cultures and policies in line with these values. There’s no other way to build a world where we prioritize meeting the needs of the people.

List published June 2025. To suggest an edit or additional resources for this list, please email info@nec.palantetech.coop.

Politics of Care & Healing Work

• Care Must be a Collective Practice – Premilla Nadasen & Kelly Hayes – Podcast 
• Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice –  Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha – Book 
• Entrevista a Susana Draper en “Esa violencia que no es una” – Susana Draper – Video
• Everything Worthwhile is Done with Other People – Mariame Kaba – Article
• Healing Justice Lineages – Cara Page and Erica Woodland – Book & Resource Portal  
• ​​Healing Justice: A Black Panther legacy – Mansa Musa – Article
• Household Workers Unite: The Untold History of African American Women Who Built a Movement  – Premilla Nadasen – Book
• Justice as a Labor of Care: Self-Care, Collective Entanglement, and Feminist Activism in Caribbean Spaces –  Honor Ford-Smith & Beverly Hanson  – Article
• Patriarchy of the Wage: Notes on Marx, Gender, and Feminism –  Silvia Federici – Book
• Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction – Shira Hassan – Book
• The Point is to Change the World: The Selected Writings of Andaiye – Alissa Trotz – Book

Community Care is Community Defense

• Community Defense Resource Hub – Muslims for Just Future 
• Statement of Non-Cooperation & Community Commitments – Fireweed Cooperative 
• On Building a Culture of Refusal – Kelly Hayes

Mapping Our Networks of Care

• Mapping Community Ecosystems of Collective Care – Interrupting Criminalization 
• Pods and Pod Mapping Worksheet – Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective
• Madness & Oppression: Paths to Personal Transformation and Collective Liberation – Fireweed Collective

On Rest and Burnout

• Rest is Resistance – Trisha Hersey – book
• Rest is Not Resistance, and That is OK – Trey Washington
• On slowing down in urgent times – Bayo Akomolafe
• Burn out prevention – Frontline AIDS – Worksheet

Trauma & Somatics

• My Grandmother’s Hands – book 
• The Body is not an Apology – book 
• The Politics of Trauma – book 
• What it Takes to Heal – book
• The 4 R’s of the Trauma-Informed Approach

Download the PDF for the complete resource list!