In the first pages of Mutual Aid, Dean Spade identifies the two main tasks of left-wing social movements as being “to organize to help people survive the devastating conditions unfolding every day,” and “to mobilize hundreds of millions of people for resistance so we can tackle the underlying causes of these crises” (11). Can mutual aid help to achieve these goals? Spade says yes, arguing:
“The way to tackle these two big tasks—meeting people’s needs and mobilizing them for resistance—is to create mutual aid projects and get lots of people to participate in them. Social movements that have built power and won major change have all included mutual aid, yet it is often a part of movement work that is less visible and less valued. In this moment, our ability to build mutual aid will determine whether we win the world we long for or dive further into crisis” (11).
It is important to be clear that neither Spade nor Hayes and Kaba conceive of mutual aid as the sole relevant element of leftist struggle. Spade insists that “mutual aid is only one tactic in the social movement ecosystem,” and that “it operates alongside direct action, political education, and many other tactics” (34). In both Mutual Aid and Let This Radicalize You, the authors describe various forms of collective action like strikes, protests, and sabotage that are not considered mutual aid by the modern activist conception. Hayes and Kaba even include an example of institutional state support, in which the Chicago Alliance for Waterfront Safety (CAWS) leveraged the support of a local councillor to get a law passed to install lifeboats on Chicago waterfronts.
Read the rest at All People are People
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