What is Mutual Aid?

Engagement

Curiosity, willingness to see harm, taking thoughtful, committed action for justice.

Separation of Politics and Injustice

Demobilizing, hiding root causes, keeping us passive and complicit.

Root Causes

Greed of bosses, landlords, health insurance companies, white supremacy, colonialism, wars, and forced migrations.

Stigmatizing Help

Humiliation, degradation, required work, small benefits, personal questions, treating recipients like frauds and crooks.

Numbing Out

Keeping people unaware of suffering, maintaining the status quo.

Activism

Living in alignment with hopes for the world, pursuing collective action for change.

Solidarity

Mobilizing people, expanding solidarity, and building movements.

Mutual Aid Projects

Mobilizing people, resisting eligibility criteria, integrating into daily life, addressing root causes.

Nonprofits

Privatized charity, replicating and legitimizing unjust systems, controlled by elite donors.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)

Programs with 'family caps' restricting benefits for new children.

Mutual Aid

Projects that meet survival needs and build shared understanding.

Racist and Sexist Tropes

Promoting stereotypes about poor women of color, immigrant women, Black families, Indigenous children, and drug use.

Charity

Rich people or government deciding who gets help and what limits are attached.

Eligibility Requirements

Sobriety, piety, curfews, job training, parenting courses, cooperation with police, lawful immigration status, or identifying paternity of children.

Nonprofit Sector

Tax shelter for rich people, directing money to pet projects, replicating inequality and exploitation.

Mass Mutual Aid Work

Threat to unjust systems, demobilized by nonprofitization and hierarchical models.