Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next)

by Dean Spade

The contemporary political moment is defined by emergency.

At its best, mutual aid actually produces new ways of living where people get to create systems of care and generosity that address harm and foster well-being.

There is nothing new about mutual aid—people have worked together to survive for all of human history. But capitalism and colonialism created structures that have disrupted how people have historically connected with each other and shared everything they needed to survive.

Under capitalism, social problems resulting from exploitation and the maldistribution of resources are understood as individual moral failings, not systemic problems.