Mutual Aid

Summary, part 1

What is Mutual Aid and What Does it Look Like?

According to Spade, there are three key elements of mutual aid.

ONE. Mutual aid projects work to meet survival needs and build a shared understanding about why people do not have what they need (p. 15). 

Spade asserts that people do not have basic necessities (or rights for that matter), and we can use our power of community and organization to address that injustice together. We know this is possible because we have seen mutual aid in action since it is a long-standing tradition in historically mistreated communities. According to Indigenous Media Action, mutual aid has been taught for generations across many cycles of colonialism: “[It is] both a matter of survival and a powerful form of resistance to forced dependence on settler systems” (p17). 

As early as the 1780s, there are records of mutual aid and “self-help” traditions in Black communities. Some of these include pooling resources to provide health and life insurance, aiding in burials, supporting widows and orphans, and creating Black alternatives to white exclusionary infrastructures. These efforts demonstrate how people have a long history of coming together when the government is not there to help.

TWO. Mutual aid projects mobilize people, expand solidarity, and build movements. 

Spade’s second element brings up the idea of solidarity. Solidarity is the recognition that you and the people you are helping are equals. The problems you are addressing are there because of an unfair and unjust system, not because the people are “less fortunate” or at a deficit. It is the system that is lacking, not the person. 

Solidarity empowers movements by supporting the most vulnerable, stigmatized, or “undeserving” people of that group (p. 70). For example, people may more easily support ex-convicts who were proven innocent and more hesitant towards those convicted of violent crimes. Real solidarity in a mutual aid network would mean helping even those who were convicted of violent crimes. This may not always be easy when expanding your mutual aid network, but it is important to remember the meaning of solidarity: everyone in the network is equal. 

People build movements when they contact the complex web of injustices and then decide to connect with the broader vision of social transformation. People already addressing real issues by doing mutual aid typically develop a solidarity-based approach. This is because addressing one issue, homelessness, for example, reveals more abstract issues such as racism, colonization, ableism, and much more. One way to remember the difference is to think of “solidarity” as being a “solid,” more permanent dedication to change.

THREE. Mutual aid projects are participatory, solving problems through collective action rather than waiting for saviors.

People learn valuable skills in collaboration, participation, and decision-making when taking part in mutual aid projects. In addition to that, it empowers people to do things they may not have thought possible before; the system seems more approachable when you have a whole group behind you (as in, you might not need a lawyer to work through a housing dispute!) Spade explains how mutual aid gives people a true sense of autonomy: “Mutual aid is inherently antiauthoritarian … we can do things together in ways we were told not to imagine, and ... organize human activity without coercion” (p. 23).