The current discourse between leftists on Twitter is that mutual aid is useless and ineffective. This "analysis" is often made by white people and those with privilege who have not had to rely on the support of a community to survive, or lack the understanding that the concept of "mutual aid" is the natural state of humanity that has been practiced since time immemorial. It's wild to consider that ensuring those around you have their basic needs met could not have an impact on how we can organize people on a larger scale. If your neighbour is in a constant state of survival mode, how do you expect them to have time to organize with you? How can you expect something like a general strike to happen when you cannot ensure people (at the bare minimum, those directly within your own circles) will have their basic needs met? A lot of people want to skip the most crucial piece in movement building which is the building of community, which translates into the building of power. People equals power.
"Power anywhere where there's people." - Fred Hampton
What does "power" mean to you?
In a recent community discussion on the topic of mutual aid, the following question was posed by a participant: “How do we use mutual aid to take back power for the people?” It’s a great question we should ask ourselves regularly to avoid our work becoming replicas of the systems we seek to dismantle. If what we call mutual aid is not addressing and challenging the systems that keep us in a constant state of need in the first place, then our “mutual aid” is simply charity, even if it is on a grassroots level. However, to lump all mutual aid organizing as problematic and ineffective is disingenuous and lacks understanding of its history.
"Mutual aid is Indigenous lifeways and sovereignty; it is Black thrivance and power. Both will outlive anarcho-communist theory and non-profit co-option. It is not simply a theory, but a practice which many people of colour have been acting on, and which predates colonialism and capitalism." - Regan de Loggans
First, I would like us to acknowledge that there is a difference between BUILDING power and TAKING power. The power these systems rely on involves things like hierarchies and exploitation in order to be maintained, neither of which we should wish to "take back." Instead, the work we do should be focused on building our power so radical transformation is possible, because there is life beyond these structures. In relation, we could think of it as Restorative Justice vs. Transformative Justice: restorative justice seeks to return the victim to their initial state before the harm occurred, transformative justice is more concerned with questioning whether the conditions in place before the harm are themselves equitable and just, and looks to redress them in order to prevent further harm. If our goal is to "take power back," then I fear we will simply end up restoring the same cycles of oppression under the guise of radical talking points.
Mutual Aid: an Act of Disruption
Many still view mutual aid as “small scale” actions rather than something that can create impact and is a threat to the state. In particular, actions such a food distribution or the raising of funds isn't seen as much of a priority to many "leftists." But if taking care of each other wasn’t a threat, we wouldn’t see groups who organize for things like bail funds or access to free food being arrested and charged for their work. Building community and taking care of our needs is exactly what this capitalist system does not want; separation and isolation has always been a tactic, and mutual aid creates the opportunity to disrupt that.
"The creative power of the oppressed will always exceed that of the oppressor, because it is the oppressed who must exercise creativity to navigate and survive a world that is set against them." - Kelly Hayes
Public schools receive a certain amount of funding based on how many children are enrolled, which is roughly $11,601 per student based on the 2020/21 school year. Similarly, places like the Drop-in Centre (DI) receive a certain amount of funding based on how many people come through their doors and use their services, often using a per diem model: the compensation on a per person, per night, per bed basis. As less and less people choose to use the DI and its services, the DI loses their ability to make money. This is why we'll see mass actions led by the City, especially so around extreme weather events, that seeks to push as many people through their doors as possible - a desperate attempt to reach a higher lever of occupancy in order to report for more funding. As a response, our team works night and day to transport people where they would like to go, raises funds for hotel stays and works with people to create long-term plans towards housing security. The mutual aid (building community) part is ensuring people have a warm place to stay while receiving support long after a cold snap. The disruption (building power) comes from removing people from the system and creating our own solutions that do not rely on government "resources." In other words, we are taking "clients" away from them. What happens when a business no longer makes money? They go out of business.
Another example is our Community Care & Crisis Phone Line, which is a way to lessen the interactions local police have on vulnerable populations, and addressing matters with a care-first response free of criminalization. The Calgary Police receive over 1500 calls a day. What might it mean if they received 500-1000 less calls? Certainly it would effect their funding based on the lack of need for their "services." Certainly it would challenge the need for their existence at all. The mutual aid (building community) part here is ensuring people's safety and teaching people new ways of caring for one another, even in the moments we've been taught are "too dangerous" to interfere. The disruption (building power) comes from taking work away from the policing institution itself: less calls to police means less people impacted by police violence, less people being arrested and jailed, less opportunities for police to justify their funding needs.
The point is, the less we rely on these systems, whether that's police, shelters or other non-profit agencies, the more we build our power and agency. The intent of this work is to care for the People, and the impact is showing others what is possible through practice and eliminating the state's access to our time, money and bodies. These actions and desired outcomes may seem like slow burns, and that's because they are. There is no quick fix to the changes we need to ensure our survival. It's taken 500 years to build the capitalist structures we know today and it would be ignorant to assume changing it will happen overnight. That's why we practice, putting our ideas and desires into actions. Our future requires us to do more than just think about, talk about, or read about what we will or might do when these systems no longer exist; we must practice for that world now, and acts of mutual aid (community building) allows us the space to do just that.
"Taylor McNallie dedicates her time to seeking racial justice and collective liberation through education and hands-on work with both marginalized communities and accomplices alike. As the co-creator of Inclusive Canada, she provides education on anti-racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness. She is also a member of the Walls Down Collective which provides access to no-barrier resources and care such as Harm Reduction, free food programs and an alternative to local policing."
Pay Black people for their time, energy and labor.
Etransfer & PayPal: tmcnallie@gmail.com
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