"Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government, but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable."–Big Door Brigade
Mutual aid can take on many forms, and is not a new concept: it has been woven into and has stood at the root of most civil rights and social movements. Some examples include mutual benefit societies of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Black Panther survival programs in the 1960s and 1970s that provided free breakfasts for school-aged children, community schools developed amid liberation struggle against the Portuguese colonial regime in Guinea Bissau, the Underground Railroad and Black-led abolition movements, and recent resistance actions by protesters in Hong Kong. A list of mutual aid examples are spoken about extensively by several of the creators and authors of the mutual aid resources enumerated in this guide's resources list, as well as cited within the sections throughout this resource.
For further resources on understanding Mutual Aid, go to Resources on Mutual Aid.