We Take Care of Us! The Unity & Survival Program
Philly members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation along with Philly Liberation Center volunteers and local block captains have been building the Unity and Survival grocery delivery program for over a year.
Over 100,000 meals have been delivered to working class families throughout Philadelphia and volunteers help other organizations carry out their own serve the people programs.
This important Serve the People program has not only allowed us to help meet the basic needs of our neighbors during a difficult year, but has allowed us to make important connections with local organizers in our neighborhoods.
The success and sustainability of the US Program is founded on the caring and trusting relationships that volunteers and community members have built. The US Program also brings together many organizations for the common goal of addressing hunger—Society Roses in Grays Ferry, the congregation of La Vid Verdadera in Elmwood Park, and NSCAN in Norris Square. In the first days of the Unity and Survival program, we were bringing food to a few dozen neighbors in the Norris Square area of Kensington exclusively. Since then, we have been able to mobilize deliveries to many additional neighborhoods and over 200 families each week. This growth has only been sustainable thanks to our many partnerships with various local groups.
A survival program must have two goals. First and foremost, the program must meet the needs of the people. Secondly, the program must build organization with the working class so that workers can take control of the resources that are rightfully theirs. While we cannot solve the problem of hunger or address every need of the working class, we can show our neighbors the power that we have when we come together and build organization. We are capable of fighting problems like hunger, which is created by the capitalist system, only through the power and organization of the people.
