Excerpts from a notice to the Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 
RC Communities about setting up a support group for frontline workers


Dear Regional leaders:


We are rapidly organizing a Regional support group of frontline workers who are at greater risk of exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please “reply all” in the next twenty-four hours with the contact information for frontline workers (other than health care workers—they are being organized separately) in your Community. 


Let’s quickly collect the names and e-mail addresses of frontline workers—including people who are currently working in jobs where they are face-to-face with members of the public and/or risk contact with COVID-19 on the job (grocery store workers, clerks, baristas, people working in restaurants doing takeout, sanitation workers, firefighters, public safety workers, security guards, personal care workers, child care workers, elder care workers, and so on). 


We also need to put together a list of people in our Region whose jobs and ability to earn a living has been heavily impacted by COVID-19 (daycare workers, domestic workers, hairdressers, workers in nail salons, artists, and so on). 


Let’s keep discharging on how COVID-19 is affecting us, the feelings it brings up, how our government and societies are currently responding to this crisis, and how we continue to live and limit the spread. Let’s continue to think about the disparate and particular impacts on different groups and communities. Let’s rapidly organize and agitate to ensure that as a state and nation we are doing everything possible to reduce risk, protect public health, and prioritize each human life. I am pleased with how we are staying connected, discharging, and thinking.


LATER

There is now a support group for the nine frontline workers. The three who are RC leaders are supporting each other as they take turns leading the group. 


It is important for people to connect with similarly situated workers and discharge together on the following: 


• Asking, “Does it make sense for me to go to work?”
• Finding ways to free up the attention of those who are risking exposure and are not properly protected on the job so they can protect themselves and each other
• Holding back the crush of capitalism and creating something new that is no longer based on exploitation and oppression
• Thinking about and leading, organizing, and agitating for workers’ rights to safe working conditions and to change everything.