What is Mutual Aid? 

Resources providing broad overviews of theories, concepts, or history:

• What is Mutual Aid? from Tyesha Maddox PhD [slides]
  This presentation provides an introduction to mutual aid and several examples of historic and current mutual aid efforts across a variety of cultures. 

• Shit's Totally FUCKED! What Can We Do?: A Mutual Aid Explainer from Dean Spade [video, 8 minutes]
  Dean Spade describes mutual aid as an avenue for taking direct action in response to systemic injustice. He offers an explanation of how mutual aid works as a form of solidarity, not charity, and the many possibilities for mutual aid due to many unmet needs.

• Mutual Aid Chart [website] from Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) Dean Spade [book]
  An introduction to the differences between mutual aid and social service or charity projects, this chart defines mutual aid as horizontalist and participatory while charitable non-profits and social service programs are hierarchical. Dean Spade directly contrasts mutual aid with charities and social service projects, such as the type of membership, how work is distributed, and how decisions are made. 

• Mutual Aid Toolbox from Big Door Brigade [website]
  Based on the premise that communities cannot rely on the government, this resource list posits that mutual aid projects "materially support people facing some of the worst dangers like eviction, deportation, criminalization, poverty, isolation and violence" and mobilize people who want to participate in social justice work. The list offers models and tools for starting mutual aid projects and is still in progress, including resources about topics such as food distribution, bystander intervention, and legal support. Dean Spade created and maintains the Big Door Brigade website to highlight the importance of mutual aid projects, out of discussions and mobilizations with Seattle-based organizers. 

• Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade [paperback or Ebook]
  "This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid has been a part of all larger, powerful social movements, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout. Mutual aid isn't charity: it’s a form of organizing where people get to create new systems of care and generosity so we can survive."

• Introduction to Mutual Aid from Mariame Kaba [video, 1 hour and 48 minutes] ASL interpretation provided; closed captioning optional.
  This video is a recording of a July 2020 panel conversation of the The Janine Soleil Abolitionist Youth Organizing Institute, a series of programs around the interwoven questions of abolition, justice, equity, transformation, and reparation. The panelists offer a definition of mutual aid, historical and present examples of mutual aid, and suggest how to start a mutual aid project. Kaba addresses the direct action of abolitionist vigilance committees of the 19th century and what mutual aid workers can learn from them today. The recording also includes a clip written by Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next).

• 2020 Janine Soleil Abolitionist Institute Padlet [resources list] Specifically, the "Mini Institute - Introduction to Mutual Aid" section.
  This list includes a variety of media including graphic notes, PDF slide decks, and shared Google docs as part of the Janine Soleil Abolitionist Youth Organizing Institute's July 2020 online program. Refer to this list for further introductory reading and videos about the meaning of mutual aid and present-day examples. The list references abolitionist and disability justice frameworks for mutual aid. In addition, the list offers resources for how to address burnout in mutual aid and to resolve conflict in mutual aid spaces. 

• Revolting Librarians [book]

This book is a collection of stories, essays, and poems by librarians, addressing the following topics: the image of librarians, library rules, outreach, administration and organization, library literature, and future directions for libraries. Of particular interest for the subject of mutual aid is the chapter "We Lost it at the Library" about whether or not a library is a participatory democracy. 

Covid 19/Pandemic and Mutual Aid

• COVID19 Crisis Issue from Academe [online magazine]
  The American Association of University Professors promotes the economic security of those engaged in teaching and research at higher education institutions, among other core values. Their magazine addresses topics such as unions, student debt, collective bargaining, as well as inequities exposed by the pandemic. 

BLM, divestment, ACAB and Mutual Aid

• This is Not a Riot!: This Unrest Came out of Nowhere [website]
  This is Not a Riot!'s website offers a reading list for those seeking to get informed in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. The reading list contextualizes the protests and demonstrations demanding justice in the wake of police and vigilante violence against Black people, framed as a handbook for difficult conversations about race and social justice. In particular, the page "This Unrest Came out of Nowhere" contradicts the narrative that the uprisings in 2020 were in response to one event alone, but rather in response to chronic injustices. The ten resources on this page, including videos, essays, a map, and poetry, provide the reader with data and context in order to have a conversation about social justice uprisings.

Other Resources that Inspire

• Anthropozine: a bibliography for archivists and activists by Jen Hoyer and Nora Almeida [bibliography, PDF]
  Published by Interference Archive, Anthropozine is an annotated bibliography that interprets archival literature through the lens of the anthropocene, and literature about the anthropocene through the lens of archival work. In their analysis, Hoyer and Almedia examine the power of archives to influence social movements. This resource addresses broad social movements with which mutual aid might be associated in the future. 

• Hit & Run: The impact of anti trafficking policy and practice on Sex Workers' Human Rights in Thailand by RATS-W Team [PDF]
  Empower Foundation does not identify as mutual aid but demonstrates how an empowered community can save lives. The foundation promotes the human rights of sex workers, studied the impact of anti trafficking law and policy on sex workers' human rights in Thailand. They concluded that the implementation of anti trafficking policies effectively hindered the human rights of sex workers in Thailand. The foundation also makes recommendations to the Thai government and entertainment industry in order to safeguard the human rights of sex workers, and provides detailed context to human rights abuses.

Being able to talk across and within the greater community of organizers can be a helpful skill set. Here are some pieces that can help articulate the nuance of organizing mutual aid in a language that other organizers will understand and respect.

• • On Community from Alicia Kennedy [article]
    Alicia Kennedy breaks down the complexities of using the term community to describe a group of people when organizing. Kennedy gives some context into how the "halo of goodness" assumed by the term posing a bit of a challenge for organizers working in the period of late-capitalism and goes into detail on how the term has been appropriated for virtue washing. 

  • "Community" from Sarah Lamble in the book Keywords for Radicals [article]
    An excerpt from Lamble's article appears in Kennedy's work above and it speaks for itself: "Tensions between inclusion and exclusion, sameness and difference, persist in part because the very notion of 'community' is predicated on the establishment of an inside/outside boundary. Establishing the 'we' of community inevitably generates a corresponding 'they' or 'other.' For this reason, many activists remain wary of appeals to community and highlight how seemingly benign efforts to forge collective identities can simultaneously reinforce marginalization and exclusion."

  • Against the Romance of Community from Miranda Joseph [book]

  • The Concept of Community from David B. Clark [article

  • Solidarity Not Charity from Dean Spade [article]
    Charity can be a dirty word in the mutual aid organizing community. Dean Spade's article on the differences between charity and mutual aid is a great resource for understanding why, when, and how to evoke charity in a mutual aid context. 

Defining Community

• • Pods and Pod Mapping Worksheet from Mia Mingus, Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective [website]

  • Who is My Community? from Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) Hub [Google doc]

  • Neighborhood Pods How-To from Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville (MAMAS) [Google doc]

  • What is a Mutual Aid Map? And how do you make one? from Collaborative Zine Library's Abolition in the time of COVID-19 [Google doc]

  • The Resilience We Want from The Response Project [PDF]

  • "Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves"  from Fobazi Ettarh [article]

Identifying Community Needs

• • "One-on-One Conversations" and "Choosing an Issue" in Secrets of a Successful Organizer by Alexandra Bradbury, Mark Brenner, and Jane Slaughter. Labor Notes, 2016.

    • How to Be a Good Listener

    • An Organizing Conversation

    • A.H.U.Y.

    • Exercise: Write Your Own Organizing Conversation

    • Exercise: Practice the Organizing Conversation

    • A Good Organizing Issue

    • Why Grievances Are Not Enough

Organizers learn from one another. Sometimes the most helpful resources for mutual aid organizing come in the form of guides, models, case studies, and exercises from other organizers working across different spaces. For organizers in the LAM community, there is so much that can be learned from work happening elsewhere. 

• • Exercises on Mutual Aid Mapping from Collaborative Zine Library's Abolition in the time of COVID-19 [Google doc]

  • The Resilience We Want: A Guide to Making Your Community Space into a Hub for Local Resilience and Mutual Aid from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief [pdf]

  • Secrets of a Successful Organizer from Alexandra Bradbury, Mark Brenner, and Jane Slaughter [book]

  • Guide to Options for Handling Money in Mutual Aid Groups from Barnard [PDF]. For more examples: http://bit.ly/mutualaidmoney. [webisite]

  • List of Existing Mutual Aid Efforts in LAM [Google sheet] 

  • Legal Issues in Mutual Aid Operations: A Preliminary Guide from Michael Haber [article]

  • A Moment to Learn From - Building Community Accountability from Mutual Aid NYC [Google doc]

  • Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Lessons Learned from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief [PDF]

  • Queens Letter to elected officials/candidates January 2021 from Various Queens Community Members [Google doc]

  • Pods and Pod Mapping Worksheet from Transform Harm [website]

  • Who is My Community? from YPAR [Google doc]

  • Neighborhood Pods How-To from Mutual Aid Mamas [Google doc]

  • "No Masters, No Flakes," in Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) , Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books, 2020. [book]

  • STL Mutual Aid, an example that uses Airtable to manage contributions. [website]