Against bleak ghosts of familiar urban landscape and CCTV cameras labelled “for your protection” the news on the radio skits between weather forecast, rationing, raids, a special public appearance by the queen, politicians promising increased production and London quarantine zones to be avoided “for reasons of health and safety”.

- Impressions from V for Vendetta, 1982

Talking to feminists these days, you get a range of perspectives on the current crisis and where we’re headed.

The escalating panic and fear surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic is palpable across the social spectrum.

The Governor of California, the US State where I live, has ordered the entire state to “shelter in place” for the foreseeable future, meaning we can leave home only for essential tasks. Yes, the virus is yet to be fully known and controlled; yes, the incidence of infection is increasing and cannot be predicted accurately; yes this virus causes death. And yes, we must keep washing our hands and taking other precautions and maintaining physical distance.

What if we had trillions of public dollars for all people and communities hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis? Our policy brief and workshop facilitation guide can turn these "what if we had these resources" into "what we can use these resources for".

Feminists have mobilized on a massive scale to generate our own autonomous resources for daily acts of solidarity and survival and to respond politically, collectively, and powerfully to this moment. Many of these actions are coming from within communities and movements in some of the hardest hit and less privileged places, and especially amongst Black, LBTQI+, disability, migrant, land & labour movements. Some of the responses are localised, while others are global.

In recognition of this particular moment in time, and knowing that so many movements may be relying more and more on organising remotely for the next few months, APC, AWID and FRIDA share some of what we have learnt around how to organise politically in virtual worlds.

In just weeks, the spread of COVID-19 has drastically changed the landscape of our lives. Long-standing deficiencies in systems of care, We can’t predict what the short or long-term effects will be. However, funders can - and should - take stop-gap measures to support organizing now.

As we write this text, the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, growing authoritarianism and fundamentalisms along with severe economic inequalities are magnifying what has been known by many - the exploitation of people’s labor and the earth’s natural resources in the name of market-based neo-liberal economics cannot and will not save us.

It’s on everybody’s lips – Covid-19, more commonly referred to as the Coronavirus! Perhaps, like me, you have been glued to the media networks, social media channels and other news outlets trying to understand the scale and scope of one of the biggest surprise epidemics of our times.

The trans house confirms the transformative force of social movements: if no one helps nor provides for us, if the State ignores us, then we’ll do it ourselves.