Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Document Notes
People help people.
Highlights
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Mutual aid—a voluntary, collaborative exchange of resources between members of a community—is a daily practice, and an act of everyday resistance.
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Actions like making and distributing masks or delivering meals and groceries to especially vulnerable neighbors made a material difference in peoples’ lives, and provided concrete examples of what it looks like to keep our communities safe without having to depend on government or nonprofit resources.
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mutual aid is not charity; there is no means testing, no judgement, no quid pro quo or paternalistic notions about “saving” people. It’s about giving what you can to someone who needs it, and knowing that, if the roles were reversed, someone else would step in to help you.
✏️ A key thing to remember when you approach helping. It’s not about charity, which has a connotation of judgement or paternal “saving” or most of all, power differential. Aid is people helping people… period. 🔗 View Highlight
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From the South Philadelphia Community Fridge folks keeping my neighborhood fed to the sprawling network of community groups that sprang into action after Hurricane Helene battered Asheville, NC to Mask Bloc LA’s lifesaving work getting thousands of masks out to vulnerable residents during the Los Angeles fires, mutual aid takes many shapes and forms
✏️ Examples of mutual aid… whenever a crisis happens, people help. xref with the floods in spain article too. 🔗 View Highlight
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aftermath of major crises—earthquakes, floods, explosions, the September 11th attacks—and the way people reacted. Invariably, most people reached for one another, banding together to heal, rebuild, and weather the storm. Once again, we see how solidarity is the way forward, and the line between altruism and anarchism blurs into nothing.