Mutual Aid

Building Solidarity During This Crisis

by Dean Spade, Dean Spade

paperback, 128 pages

Published Oct. 27, 2020 by Verso.

ISBN:: 978-1-83976-212-3
OCLC Number:: 1198450425

(12 reviews)

Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world.

Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable.

Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.

Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world.

Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.

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 is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.

Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.

2 editions

Álvaro G. Molinero reviewed Apoyo mutuo by Dean Spade

Herramientas para autoorganizarse✅ Herramientas para bunkerizarse❌

2 stars

¿Qué es el apoyo mutuo trasladado desde su concepción original por Pitor Kropotkin, y que circunscribía numerosos comportamientos en el mundo vegetal y y animal, a una interpretación más sociológica? Dean Spade afirma que es “la coordinación colectiva dirigida a satisfacer las necesidades de cada cual, por lo general a partir del conocimiento de que los sistemas implementados no van a satisfacerlas”. En otras palabras, el apoyo mutuo es garantizar los derechos humanos desde la comunidad, por la comunidad y para la comunidad. En sociedades donde el capitalismo despiadado se ha apoderado de los individuos, lo colectivo se vuelve revolucionario: se convierte en el arma más poderosa para combatir y sobrellevar crisis. Es también autodefensa.

En el libro se contrapone este apoyo mutuo al modelo de caridad que entiende que las crisis se sobrellevan "gestionando a los pobres" y llevando "una causa"; un modelo basado en la jerarquía y la superioridad moral de los ricos. El apoyo mutuo no puede ser un mero hobbie o voluntariado, más bien al contrario: es una forma de sobrevivir y de ayudar a sobrevivir. Implicar a los afectados, haciendo que entren en dinámicas autosustentadoras del movimiento, expansivas y creativas.

La segunda parte del libro es una "guía de trabajo" lista para aplicar en las organizaciones de los movimientos sociales. Es una guía que busca evitar que estas organizaciones caigan en dinámicas negativas desde el punto de vista de la horizontalidad como el paternalismo, la cooptación de liderazgos o la meritocracia mal entendida. Se presentan unas tablas que funcionan a modo de "solucionador de problemas", presentando aquellas tendencias negativas más frecuentes de una organización y la alternativa óptima. También hay plantillas para el órden del día de una asamblea o "checklists" sobre el estado de la militancia.

La parte más negativa del libro es que se presenta desde un purismo ideológico que, en ocasiones, es poco práctico. Algunas de la dinámicas presentadas como negativas son condición "sine qua non" para el crecimiento del movimiento social. Las dinámicas expansivas de un movimiento son esenciales para que cumplan con el verdadero objetivo del apoyo mutuo: la igualdad social. Si esto no ocurre, lo que están haciendo estos movimiento sociales es simplemente parchear el capitalismo y proporcionar un mecanismo de defensa limitado a las personas que participan en dicho movimiento, lo cual no deja de ser bastante egoísta.

Tilde Lowengrimm reviewed Mutual Aid by Dean Spade

Easy to understand, a lifetime to achieve

4 stars

A compassionate recipe for improving the lives of people around you without reconstructing the frameworks and thought processes which make inequality and deprivation so easy. I especially appreciated how much time was spent on noticing & unlearning one's own habits & norms which can obstruct this work. A short book, which makes it that much easier to reread every so often.

Librarian Socialism reviewed Mutual Aid by Dean Spade

Mutual Aid by Dean Spade does not live up to my expectations.

2 stars

Mutual Aid by Dean Spade does not live up to my expectations.

Most could be said in a few paragraphs and it is too much focused on short-term mutual aid, and catastrophic environments and does not talk enough about maintaining mutual aid and guiding structures. The permanent MA in form of Co-Ops or economical MA is not touched enough.

sarah reviewed Mutual Aid by Dean Spade

great on why mutual aid matters & how to make it work

4 stars

I love the first half of this book as a primer on what mutual aid is and how it’s different from the world of charity (although as an intro to the concept it will play better for lefty readers who already have some inkling of those problems). And I love the second half as a really practical guide to leadership and management, which is key for mutual aid group dynamics but also full of good material to use for reflecting on this in all sorts of dynamics. The book is short, sweet, and I now have a habit of giving it away to mutual aid friends

Tod Robbins reviewed Mutual Aid by Dean Spade

Succinct, instructive, and empowering

5 stars

As I've struggled as a mutual aid organizer, I will sometimes wonder if I've done any good. But this book is the kind of manual and manifesto that will keep the fire alive while providing guidance to grow and refine the social movements this time of crises demands.

callan reviewed Mutual Aid by Dean Spade

good & good on management, too

4 stars

I picked this up looking to learn more about the concept of mutual aid but honestly (and this is NOT a criticism), it’s much more about managing people. Lots of good advice in here; the chapters/sections on leadership qualities that support collaboration & identifying burnout were especially great.