Information about Mutual Aid

What is mutual aid?

Mutual aid projects are networks of volunteers who exchange resources and services for the benefit of the community. These networks historically embody a form of activism in which community members care for one another in intentional ways aimed at dismantling systems of oppression.

What does that look like locally?

Our mutual aid resources are currently sustaining local direct action, including medical support and reparations for members the Black community.

Consider participating today by contributing monetary capital, or contact us if you have the ability to contribute goods, skills, or services.

For accessing resources, please check out our catalog of local mutual aid projects that build solidarity in our communities.

Mutual Aid vs. Charity

What’s the difference?

Characteristics of Mutual Aid Projects	Characteristics of Charities
horizontalist	hierarchical
open community meetings	closed board meetings
de-professionalized	professionalized
involve participants in high-level decision making	don’t involve participants in high-level decision making
more organizational mobility and frequent training opportunities	less organizational mobility and infrequent training opportunities
rotating facilitation roles	fixed managerial roles
consensus-based voting system	majority/superiority-based voting system
amplify the voices of under-represented groups	suppress the voices of under-represented groups
rely on community engagement	rely on grants/philanthropy
center participants	center donors
collect resources at the fringes of society	collect resources at the centers of society
give resources freely	give resources conditionally (i.e. sobriety, immigration/legal status)
determine eligibility criteria by self-identified need	determine eligibility criteria by imposing label of “underprivileged”
normalize having needs	pathologize having needs
value participants’ self-determination	paternalize participants
produce a sense of solidarity	produce a sense of savior-ism
assess success based on the opinions of participants	assess success based on the opinions of social elites
reject state-sanctioned legitimacy	embrace state-sanctioned legitimacy
anti-establishment	pro-establishment
resist government regulations	follow government regulations
politicized	de-politicized
encourage broader mobilization and radicalization	discourage broader mobilization and radicalization
rooted in principles of intersectionality	isolated to addressing a single population, issue, or area of policy
connected to other tactics	disconnected from other tactics
dismantle underlying causes of oppression	maintain underlying causes of oppression

Source: Dean Spade

Why is mutual aid relevant to anti-oppression work?

The modes by which we conduct our resistance become the resistance itself and the ethics that we practice become the ethics of our society. As such, in order to build an anti-oppression society, we must engage in anti-oppression practices like mutual aid.