Mutual aid: Difference between revisions

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'''Mutual aid '''describes ''acts of care, reciprocity, and solidarity people engage in to meet each other’s needs without support from the state or charities, particularly during times of crisis or changes in political conditions; building new social relations to create more survivable conditions.'' - Dean Spade, adapted by Michelle Xie  <ref>https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HC35f2kDXc8cgLYWc9_oUZmINoTfP3_I</ref>  
'''Mutual aid '''describes ''acts of care, reciprocity, and solidarity people engage in to meet each other’s needs without support from the state or charities, particularly during times of crisis or changes in political conditions; building new social relations to create more survivable conditions.'' - Dean Spade, adapted by Michelle Xie  <ref>https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HC35f2kDXc8cgLYWc9_oUZmINoTfP3_I</ref>  
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<p>Mutual aid is a form of political participation within communities, with the objective of better meeting the needs of everyone involved. <ref>Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival.&nbsp;Social Text,&nbsp;38(1), 131-151.</ref> Mutual aid movements allow the building of new social relations to improve conditions within underserved communities. It compliments work that pressures institutions to change political conditions, ensuring basic needs are met in in the meantime. <ref>https://ssw.uga.edu/news/article/what-is-mutual-aid-by-joel-izlar/</ref>  Mutual aid groups are usually composed of organizers and volunteers, and everyone is involved in decisions related to the group’s structure and activities. <ref>https://www.thecut.com/2020/09/what-exactly-is-mutual-aid-how-to-get-involved.html</ref> Therefore, it is often based on horizontal participatory decision-making to solve problems through collective action. <ref>Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival.&nbsp;Social Text,&nbsp;38(1), 131-151.</ref>  Members in mutual aid groups usually face different realities and are exposed to different levels of vulnerability, which often leads to multi-issues goals in these movements. <ref>Spade, D. (2020). Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next). Verso Books</ref> .&nbsp;Mutual aid is a way to empower communities and to build relations through solidarity. Mutual aid, under our current systems, is key to community resilience.</p>
<p>Mutual aid is a form of political participation within communities, with the objective of better meeting the needs of everyone involved. <ref>Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival.&nbsp;Social Text,&nbsp;38(1), 131-151.</ref> Mutual aid movements allow the building of new social relations to improve conditions within underserved communities. It compliments work that pressures institutions to change political conditions, ensuring basic needs are met in in the meantime. <ref>https://ssw.uga.edu/news/article/what-is-mutual-aid-by-joel-izlar/</ref>  Mutual aid groups are usually composed of organizers and volunteers, and everyone is involved in decisions related to the group’s structure and activities. <ref>https://www.thecut.com/2020/09/what-exactly-is-mutual-aid-how-to-get-involved.html</ref> Therefore, it is often based on horizontal participatory decision-making to solve problems through collective action. <ref>Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival.&nbsp;Social Text,&nbsp;38(1), 131-151.</ref>  Members in mutual aid groups usually face different realities and are exposed to different levels of vulnerability, which often leads to multi-issues goals in these movements. <ref>Spade, D. (2020). Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next). Verso Books</ref> .&nbsp;Mutual aid is a way to empower communities and to build relations through solidarity. Mutual aid, under our current systems, is key to community resilience.</p>

Revision as of 14:42, 27 July 2023

Mutual aid describes acts of care, reciprocity, and solidarity people engage in to meet each other’s needs without support from the state or charities, particularly during times of crisis or changes in political conditions; building new social relations to create more survivable conditions. - Dean Spade, adapted by Michelle Xie [1]

Mutual aid is a form of political participation within communities, with the objective of better meeting the needs of everyone involved. [2] Mutual aid movements allow the building of new social relations to improve conditions within underserved communities. It compliments work that pressures institutions to change political conditions, ensuring basic needs are met in in the meantime. [3] Mutual aid groups are usually composed of organizers and volunteers, and everyone is involved in decisions related to the group’s structure and activities. [4] Therefore, it is often based on horizontal participatory decision-making to solve problems through collective action. [5] Members in mutual aid groups usually face different realities and are exposed to different levels of vulnerability, which often leads to multi-issues goals in these movements. [6] . Mutual aid is a way to empower communities and to build relations through solidarity. Mutual aid, under our current systems, is key to community resilience.


How is it different from charity?

Charity is based on a one-way relationship between an organization and the recipients of the resources donated. [7] Compared to the horizontal approach of mutual aid, the approach of charity is hierarchical. Providers are often deciding who deserves charity, which perpetuates social discrimination. [8] Charity legitimizes the system that created unjust social conditions in the first place, because it addresses the effects of inequalities without working to address its root causes. [9] Mutual aid, in contrast, is based on solidarity, cooperation and direct action for transformative change. [10]  



Examples of mutual aid

Food distribution

  • Collecting food from grocery stores, restaurants, or individuals and then distributing to those who are houseless, at risk or sick. [11]
  • For example, the Black Panther Party’s used a breakfast program to provide 20,000 meals a week to Black children in nineteen cities [12]

Pandemic safety

  • Mutual aid groups in San Francisco supplied masks, sanitizer and health information to undocumented labourers [13]
  • Auntie sewing squad made more than 20,000 masks in Los Angeles for hospital workers, farmworkers, former prisoners, immigrant communities and other vulnerable groups. [14]
Disability networks
  • Lead by people with disabilities, these networks ensure disabled folks have the things they need to thrive (food, medical care, transportation, emotional support etc). [15]



If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.


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  1. ↑ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HC35f2kDXc8cgLYWc9_oUZmINoTfP3_I
  2. ↑ Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival. Social Text, 38(1), 131-151.
  3. ↑ https://ssw.uga.edu/news/article/what-is-mutual-aid-by-joel-izlar/
  4. ↑ https://www.thecut.com/2020/09/what-exactly-is-mutual-aid-how-to-get-involved.html
  5. ↑ Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival. Social Text, 38(1), 131-151.
  6. ↑ Spade, D. (2020). Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next). Verso Books
  7. ↑ https://www.thecut.com/2020/09/what-exactly-is-mutual-aid-how-to-get-involved.html
  8. ↑ https://www.publichealthdegrees.org/resources/help-community-health-with-mutual-aid/
  9. ↑ Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival. Social Text, 38(1), 131-151.
  10. ↑ https://ssw.uga.edu/news/article/what-is-mutual-aid-by-joel-izlar/
  11. ↑ https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/how-to-create-mutual-aid-network#:~:text=Examples%20include%3A,at%20high%20risk%2C%20or%20sick
  12. ↑ https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/how-to-create-mutual-aid-network#:~:text=Examples%20include%3A,at%20high%20risk%2C%20or%20sick
  13. ↑ https://ethicalunicorn.com/2021/06/02/what-is-mutual-aid-why-its-important-how-to-get-involved/
  14. ↑ https://ethicalunicorn.com/2021/06/02/what-is-mutual-aid-why-its-important-how-to-get-involved/
  15. ↑ https://mediacoop.ca/story/disabled-folks-are-supporting-each-other-through-m/36968
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