Mutual Aid at People’s Park
By Elaina Guerrero
As of late, People’s Park residents and defenders have had to commit to being a community. Together, they have rallied and protested against UC Berkeley to try and stop the University from building student housing on the land the community knows as People’s Park. By building on this land, the University would be displacing the houseless residents who claim People’s Park as their home.
One of the defenders of people’s park is Gabbi Sharp. She is a student at UC Berkeley and an ASUC senator.
She not only participated in the protests and rallies, but she also began curating weekly events held on Friday afternoons at the park.
Her efforts are the result of an ongoing struggle that began in the late 1960s.
Every Friday, Gabbi Sharp sets up her barbeque pit and begins cooking for the residents of People’s Park. Warm meals are provided for the residence and community is formed at these barbeques.
The short interview below discusses what People’s Park is, why the community members had to mobilize to defend it, and how these barbeques are a necessary part of mutual aid.
The barbeques are not only a form of mutual aid but they are also humanizing the houseless people residing at the park. As many students at UC Berkeley know, we are almost always warned against going near the park. It has a negative reputation and is rumored to be a hotspot for crime. Whether or not crime occurrence is prevalent at the park, the people who live there are deserving of warm food, care, and community.
Displacing the residents of People’s Park does not solve the housing crisis, it has great potential to add to the problem. Sharp is helping those residents in one of many ways, and although she worries that they will have to protest and occupy the land again next year, she seems confident that the community is strong enough to hold itself up against the University’s attempt at tearing down the park and its community.
People’s park is a result of people like Sharp rallying and protesting for a green space on campus that isn’t actively occupied by the University. Students in the 60s fought for this space and students today continue to fight for it.
It can be a bit disappointing that the fight doesn’t seem to have an end in sight, but a positive outcome has been the strengthening of a bond that UC Berkeley students have with the Berkeley community.
