For all of humanity’s many, many flaws, one of our most redeeming characteristics as a species is an almost-universal desire to connect with one another. When terrible things happen and communities find themselves under threat, people invariably step up and offer to help. Beloved children’s television star Fred Rogers famously told us to “Look for the helpers” after a tragedy, because he knew we’d see them.
We can go one step further, though, because it shouldn’t take a catastrophe for people to care for one another. Mutual aid—a voluntary, collaborative exchange of resources between members of a community—is a daily practice, and an act of everyday resistance.
When the Covid-19 pandemic first began, thousands of people across the country (and the world) threw themselves into mutual aid projects, joining existing groups or starting their own to meet the unique needs of the moment. 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.
As we stare down the barrel of a second Trump presidency, there’s no better time to start educating ourselves for the coming conflicts.
To make a crucial distinction, 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.
Mutual aid went mainstream, and suddenly, a concept that has long been a guiding principle for various Indigenous communities, anarchists, and like-minded activist groups was being written about in The New Yorker and on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s website. It was more than a little amusing to see a centuries-old idea being treated like a radical new development by the chattering classes, but what really mattered was that people outside of those activist circles were inspired to get involved, and start organizing, too.
As crisis after crisis has continued to hit—from the epidemic of police violence and torture in prisons, to the increasing frequency of climate crisis-fueled natural disasters, to intensifying attacks on queer and trans people, immigrants, and just about everyone who doesn’t look or think like Mitch McConnell—mutual aid networks have been there to cushion the blow, and provide care for those who the system would rather see crushed.
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—and it is an absolute necessity if we want to survive the challenges to come, and to build a better world.
As we stare down the barrel of a second Trump presidency, there’s no better time to start educating ourselves for the coming conflicts. Hopefully, you’ve already gotten a head start, but just in case, I’ve put together some advice and some important texts for those who want to learn more about mutual aid and getting involved in your own community. In the words of Joe Hill, a great labor organizer who was taken too soon, “Don’t waste any time mourning. Organize!”
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MUTUAL AID DO’S AND DON’TS
DON’T: Overcommit. It can be really exciting to jump into organizing, especially when it feels like you’ve finally found your people, but take care not to get in over your head. It’s not helpful for anyone if you immediately sign up for seven different tasks but you know you can only really complete two.
First, figure out your own capabilities and identify your strengths (for example, are you great at small talk but not much for spreadsheets? Are you a design whiz but can only spare time at night after your kids are asleep? Are you able to contribute financially but have very little time to spare for on-the-ground actions? Do you love getting your hands dirty but never check your email?). Once you know what you can realistically offer, then you’re ready to get to work!
DO: Find the people who are already doing the work, and follow their lead. A common mistake that folks make when they’re newly invested in a cause or movement is feeling as though they need to start up their own brand-new organization in order to really make an impact. Your energy is better spent identifying the people and groups who have already been doing the kind of work you’re interested in, and then finding ways to get involved. Intentionally pooling time, resources, and people-power is far more effective than spreading them thinly and hoping for the best!
DON’T: Assume that you know what people want or need. If an organization puts out a call asking folks to donate specific items—whether that’s hygiene supplies, winter coats, blankets, masks, or otherwise—those are the items you should bring. This is not a time for creativity. If the ask being made is specifically for money or other financial support, don’t show up with a bag of old clothes or a box of canned food instead. The person asking for help is the expert on their own needs; either listen and respect that, or stay away.
DO: Keep showing up. It’s okay if you only have so much time or energy to contribute—we’re all human, and we’ve all got our own struggles—but making a firm commitment to continue participating in a group or an action is how to build up a real, durable network. Mutual aid is not just a disaster response, it’s a way of caring for one another, building stronger communities, and preparing for whatever life may throw at us next. It’s a labor of love—and a way of life.
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WHAT TO READ
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Peter Kropotkin
This book is ground zero for understanding the concept of mutual aid as laid out by seminal anarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin. In this collection of essays, he urges us to embrace solidarity instead of competition, to share resources among our fellow creatures instead of hoarding them, and to look to nature for examples of mutual support and defense. It was published in 1902 and isn’t exactly a breezy read, but its impact has resonated for well over a century. As Kropotkin wrote, “Practicing mutual aid is the surest means for giving each other and to all the greatest safety, the best guarantee of existence and progress, bodily, intellectual and moral.”
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba
If you’re at all interested in liberation, you’d do well to read anything and everything that longtime activists, abolitionists, and educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes write. Let This Radicalize You is an immensely useful resource for those who seek advice, encouragement, and practical steps for building effective organizing techniques and strong bonds, written by experienced, empathetic organizers (with input from a spectrum of others) who see care as a form of “cultural rebellion” and a necessity for getting free.
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s latest book is a treatise on how to survive the brutality of civilization by drawing lessons from the natural world and Indigenous wisdom. In her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, she urged humanity to listen to our quiet green neighbors; here, like Kropotkin, she emphasizes the power of reciprocity, weaving together examples from forest and field to show what it could look like if we embraced a path that allowed us all to flourish
Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy, and the Common Ground Collective by scott crow
Mutual aid can take many, many forms; sometimes, caring for your community requires actively defending it from harm. In anarchist author and organizer scott crow’s classic chronicle of the Common Ground Collective, readers are taken inside an autonomous project formed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a means to protect and preserve working class New Orleans neighborhoods. Under the mantra of “Solidarity Not Charity,” crow and his comrades built up a grassroots political movement that provided frontline relief for those in need while fending off state violence and white supremacist militias.
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and looking for a how-to guide on how exactly to make mutual aid a part of your life, organizer, movement lawyer, and professor Dean Spade has got you covered. This slim volume is both a practical handbook and an examination of mutual aid projects around the world, from the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast program to Spade’s own work with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Spade cautions the reader against common pitfalls, from perfectionism to white saviorism, and offers solutions and support for new organizers.
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
True solidarity means leaving no one behind. The disability justice movement and disabled activists have long been experts on mutual aid practices, and this award-winning collection of essays from activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a crucial intervention. Her concept of “collective access” emphasizes a collective responsibility for access, joy, and solidarity, and centers sick and disabled queer, trans, Black, and brown people in the fight for real social justice.
Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement by Suzanne Cope
The Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast program is one of the most famous examples of mutual aid in US history, despite the government’s best efforts to smear and sabotage the party’s various community support work programs. In Power Hungry, Suzanne Cope focuses on the stories of Aylene Quin and Cleo Slivers, two powerful Black women civil rights organizers—one a Black Panther in New York City, the other a Freedom Summer activist and restaurant owner in Mississippi—who used food to fuel a movement, persevering in the face of COINTELPRO, misogynoir, and massive resistance to keep their communities strong.
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit
While it’s important to understand that mutual aid is not just an emergency measure to haul out when things go south, it is an incredibly important tool when disasters do strike. Rebecca Solnit’s now-classic book explores the 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.
Change Everything: Racial Capitalism and the Case for Abolition by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
The forthcoming book from organizer, abolitionist, geographer, educator, and guiding light Ruth Wilson Gilmore promises to deliver exactly what we need right now: the encouragement to change, well, everything. In a series of lectures, Gilmore lays out the argument against the systems of control and oppression that haunt our collective existence, reminding us that there can be no justice while some of us are locked in cages and deprived of our humanity—and that we do not have to accept a reality in which the things we need, want, and deserve are dismissed as impossible.
