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Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis
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.
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.
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.
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.
152 pages, Paperback
First published October 7, 2020
1180 people are currently reading
23525 people want to read
About the author
Dean Spade
20 books440 followersDean Spade is an Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law. He teaches Administrative Law, Poverty Law, and Law and Social Movements. Prior to joining the faculty of Seattle University, Dean was a Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellow at UCLA Law School and Harvard Law School, teaching classes related to sexual orientation and gender identity law and law and social movements.
In 2002, Dean founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people who are low-income and/or people of color. SRLP also engages in litigation, policy reform and public education on issues affecting these communities and operates on a collective governance model, prioritizing the governance and leadership of trans, intersex, and gender non-conforming people of color. While working at SRLP, Dean taught classes focusing on sexual orientation, gender identity and law at Columbia and Harvard Law Schools.
From 1998-2006, Dean co-edited the paper and online zine, Make. Dean is currently the co-editor of the online journal, Enough, which focuses on the personal politics of wealth redistribution.
Dean is currently a fellow in the “Engaging Tradition” project at Columbia Law School. His book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law was published in 2011.
In 2002, Dean founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people who are low-income and/or people of color. SRLP also engages in litigation, policy reform and public education on issues affecting these communities and operates on a collective governance model, prioritizing the governance and leadership of trans, intersex, and gender non-conforming people of color. While working at SRLP, Dean taught classes focusing on sexual orientation, gender identity and law at Columbia and Harvard Law Schools.
From 1998-2006, Dean co-edited the paper and online zine, Make. Dean is currently the co-editor of the online journal, Enough, which focuses on the personal politics of wealth redistribution.
Dean is currently a fellow in the “Engaging Tradition” project at Columbia Law School. His book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law was published in 2011.
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May 16, 2021[No rating yet because I keep going back and forth about how many stars, as well as whether I’m “yay!” or “meh!” about it overall.] A brief political orientation and how-to guide for mutual aid and community organizing. I read this for a community political education discussion group and am interested and excited to process it with others. It includes a lot of useful tips (like consensus decision-making, how to facilitate meetings, and proactively preventing burnout) applicable not just to mutual aid organizing but also to collaborative work more broadly; they were my favorite aspect and something I’ll probably keep for referencing in my own organizing, facilitation, and collaborative work.
I think the sharp binary between unpaid mutual aid organizing and paid nonprofit work was too stark and lacking in nuance; the example of volunteer work as motivated only by purpose seemed incredibly far removed from the amount of ego in activism and movement spaces. I wish there had been more examples of mutual aid project implementation (the valorization of Hong Kong without any other historical or political context was confusing, considering the pro-policing stance of some of the loudest CCP-critical voices reaching U.S. audiences), better attributions of the labor that produced many of the concepts or tools shared (the mad mapping as one clear example), and a stronger analysis around disability, chronic illness, neurodiversity, and mental health. I keep going back and forth about whether I’m justified in my sensitivity to the “No Masters, No Flakes” chapter title, given how often disabled, sick, and neurodiverse folks are written off as lazy, flaky, and unreliable.
Like other Verso-published books I’ve read, it’s unsurprising that this one also has their curatorial tone of “capitalism is bad, getting paid for community work ruins it, if you do you’re a sellout careerist, that’s why my job is in academia instead”. I think this book could be useful to people who are new to organizing, as long as it’s well-supplemented with other materials with stronger race, gender, class, and disability analyses (chapters of Care Work and the Sins Invalid guide come to mind most readily for the survival needs in my closest circles and the oft-mentioned Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is excellent too), and the reference list at the end is great.
Goodreads Challenge: 30/60
I think the sharp binary between unpaid mutual aid organizing and paid nonprofit work was too stark and lacking in nuance; the example of volunteer work as motivated only by purpose seemed incredibly far removed from the amount of ego in activism and movement spaces. I wish there had been more examples of mutual aid project implementation (the valorization of Hong Kong without any other historical or political context was confusing, considering the pro-policing stance of some of the loudest CCP-critical voices reaching U.S. audiences), better attributions of the labor that produced many of the concepts or tools shared (the mad mapping as one clear example), and a stronger analysis around disability, chronic illness, neurodiversity, and mental health. I keep going back and forth about whether I’m justified in my sensitivity to the “No Masters, No Flakes” chapter title, given how often disabled, sick, and neurodiverse folks are written off as lazy, flaky, and unreliable.
Like other Verso-published books I’ve read, it’s unsurprising that this one also has their curatorial tone of “capitalism is bad, getting paid for community work ruins it, if you do you’re a sellout careerist, that’s why my job is in academia instead”. I think this book could be useful to people who are new to organizing, as long as it’s well-supplemented with other materials with stronger race, gender, class, and disability analyses (chapters of Care Work and the Sins Invalid guide come to mind most readily for the survival needs in my closest circles and the oft-mentioned Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is excellent too), and the reference list at the end is great.
Goodreads Challenge: 30/60
February 12, 2024
Argues in favor of de-professionalized mutual aid projects that meet "survival needs", run by consensus decision-making, operating in conjunction with a vaguely anti-capitalist "social movement."
The first half tries but fails to distinguish mutual aid from charity through a lot of radical posturing that argues mutual aid isn't charity because it doesn't have any strings attached to the government or non-profit sector. Let's of course ignore that Dean Spade is a founder of a non-profit legal aid charity called "Sylvia Rivera Law Project" that's issue focused and has eligibility requirements; let's also ignore the section in the second half of the book that features a cost-benefit analysis of the pros and cons of a mutual aid group seeking legal status as a non-profit and hiring paid staff. Occasionally there are fair but obvious criticisms of the exclusionary and means-testing nature of non-profit charity organizations and government programs, though very curiously there is little discussion on government programs like Social Security or Medicare that help meet the survival needs of human beings on a daily basis. There's the usual historical gesturing towards to the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast Program, though I found this gesturing frustrating because the BPP did NOT operate via consensus decision-making and had a strongly hierarchical structure; the exact opposite of what this book argues mutual aid structures ought to be.
The second half functions as a How To manual on building a non-hierarchical mutual aid group run by consensus decision-making, with flow-charts and tables designed to teach people how to create teams, make decisions, facilitate meetings, handle money, invite new people, resolve conflict, and prevent burnout. Some of this stuff might be useful to those who've never participated in decision-making within a "grassroots" organization before, but for those who've been around in the Left for more than a couple years it will probably come across as a generic HR manual for a progressive non-profit.
The book's definition of "survival needs" and its emphasis on de-professionalization particularly frustrated me. Survival needs are always framed in very simplistic ways, like food sharing, ride sharing, emergency first aid, or vague notions of community defense (like preventing the police from dissolving a homeless encampment). In short, basic distribution of common items or services easily done by volunteers with limited education or experience. Let me focus on healthcare specifically to make my broader point on why I am frustrated. In this book, there is absolutely no talk about other essential survival needs: The need for life-saving pharmaceuticals like insulin, the need for hospitalization and treatment by a multi-disciplinary medical team, the need for medical equipment like CTs and MRIs, the need for medical facilities that can provide short-term rehabilitative care or long-term daily nursing care, the need for procedures like dialysis, radiation, chemotherapy, and so on and so forth. I suspect Dean Spade is ignoring this realm of reality (i.e., the reality of outpatient and inpatient medicine) because providing this level of care requires a tremendous amount of capital and professionalized labor and that does not fit neatly with Spade's idealistic vision of a de-professionalized force of everyday people caring for one another.
Spade's claims about mutual aid are bold. He states:
"We need to mobilize hundreds of millions of people for resistance so we can tackle the underlying causes of these crises. In this pivotal moment, movements can strengthen, mobilizing new people to fight back against cops, immigration enforcement, welfare authorities, landlords, budget cuts, polluters, the defense industry, prison profiteers, and right-wing groups. The way to tackle these two big tasks—meeting people’s needs and mobilizing them for resistance —is to create mutual aid projects and get lots of people to participate in them."
I strongly disagree. What we need to do is build class power within labor and expropriate existing capital. We have hospitals filled with staff that are held back from meeting people's needs because they 1) Don't capture the wealth they create; and 2) Don’t have ownership over the means of production. We ought to take these hospitals over, not rebuild from the ground up an alternate "community" with extremely limited means that does NOT have the capacity to truly care for the complex needs of humanity.
The first half tries but fails to distinguish mutual aid from charity through a lot of radical posturing that argues mutual aid isn't charity because it doesn't have any strings attached to the government or non-profit sector. Let's of course ignore that Dean Spade is a founder of a non-profit legal aid charity called "Sylvia Rivera Law Project" that's issue focused and has eligibility requirements; let's also ignore the section in the second half of the book that features a cost-benefit analysis of the pros and cons of a mutual aid group seeking legal status as a non-profit and hiring paid staff. Occasionally there are fair but obvious criticisms of the exclusionary and means-testing nature of non-profit charity organizations and government programs, though very curiously there is little discussion on government programs like Social Security or Medicare that help meet the survival needs of human beings on a daily basis. There's the usual historical gesturing towards to the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast Program, though I found this gesturing frustrating because the BPP did NOT operate via consensus decision-making and had a strongly hierarchical structure; the exact opposite of what this book argues mutual aid structures ought to be.
The second half functions as a How To manual on building a non-hierarchical mutual aid group run by consensus decision-making, with flow-charts and tables designed to teach people how to create teams, make decisions, facilitate meetings, handle money, invite new people, resolve conflict, and prevent burnout. Some of this stuff might be useful to those who've never participated in decision-making within a "grassroots" organization before, but for those who've been around in the Left for more than a couple years it will probably come across as a generic HR manual for a progressive non-profit.
The book's definition of "survival needs" and its emphasis on de-professionalization particularly frustrated me. Survival needs are always framed in very simplistic ways, like food sharing, ride sharing, emergency first aid, or vague notions of community defense (like preventing the police from dissolving a homeless encampment). In short, basic distribution of common items or services easily done by volunteers with limited education or experience. Let me focus on healthcare specifically to make my broader point on why I am frustrated. In this book, there is absolutely no talk about other essential survival needs: The need for life-saving pharmaceuticals like insulin, the need for hospitalization and treatment by a multi-disciplinary medical team, the need for medical equipment like CTs and MRIs, the need for medical facilities that can provide short-term rehabilitative care or long-term daily nursing care, the need for procedures like dialysis, radiation, chemotherapy, and so on and so forth. I suspect Dean Spade is ignoring this realm of reality (i.e., the reality of outpatient and inpatient medicine) because providing this level of care requires a tremendous amount of capital and professionalized labor and that does not fit neatly with Spade's idealistic vision of a de-professionalized force of everyday people caring for one another.
Spade's claims about mutual aid are bold. He states:
"We need to mobilize hundreds of millions of people for resistance so we can tackle the underlying causes of these crises. In this pivotal moment, movements can strengthen, mobilizing new people to fight back against cops, immigration enforcement, welfare authorities, landlords, budget cuts, polluters, the defense industry, prison profiteers, and right-wing groups. The way to tackle these two big tasks—meeting people’s needs and mobilizing them for resistance —is to create mutual aid projects and get lots of people to participate in them."
I strongly disagree. What we need to do is build class power within labor and expropriate existing capital. We have hospitals filled with staff that are held back from meeting people's needs because they 1) Don't capture the wealth they create; and 2) Don’t have ownership over the means of production. We ought to take these hospitals over, not rebuild from the ground up an alternate "community" with extremely limited means that does NOT have the capacity to truly care for the complex needs of humanity.
January 12, 2022
I think this is a good book for new organizers. I found the Mad Mapping section to be really helpful and feel that I will incorporate. I was a little troubled with some of the framing regarding Hong Kong organizing, but overall think this is a good book for someone who just found their organizing/mutual aid home
November 16, 2020
Dean Spade's new book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis is an essential manual for organizers, activists, and everyone invested in changing the world whether in big ways or small. This is perhaps one of the most useful, clear, and accessible books I've ever read on the practical work of organizing. Drawing on his decades of mutual aid work - including co-founding the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in NYC - Spade explains what mutual aid is, how it differs from volunteerism, non-profits, and philanthropy, and then how to navigate the all too common highs and lows of this work. His observations about group behaviour are essential, and he has some particularly important words about the dangers of co-optation in this age of identity-based marketing (influencers).
Whether you are just thinking about getting involved in a local mutual aid project for the first time, or have organized for twenty years, this book provides a brief but very punchy set of ideas and practices to reflect upon that will strengthen both you and our movements as a whole. Honestly can't recommend this strongly enough - it's one of those books where every page made me wish everyone I know in organizing would read this.
Whether you are just thinking about getting involved in a local mutual aid project for the first time, or have organized for twenty years, this book provides a brief but very punchy set of ideas and practices to reflect upon that will strengthen both you and our movements as a whole. Honestly can't recommend this strongly enough - it's one of those books where every page made me wish everyone I know in organizing would read this.
February 21, 2021
Given that my reading-brain operates in the nitpicky "citation needed!" / "but what about [...]?" mode by default, there are a lot of ways in which Mutual Aid wasn't totally satisfying.
* What kinds of resources and necessities can realistically be delivered through Mutual Aid models?
* How are consensus decision making processes supposed to scale to the level of even a mid-sized town when the likelihood of blocking conflicts asymptotically approaches 100% certainty with increasing membership?
* If, as Spade acknowledges, resources really are constrained, how exactly are mutual aid projects supposed to triage who receives assistance without dividing people up into the "deserving" and "undeserving"?
Some questions Spade never broaches, while some he acknowledges with a nod of "Yeah, it's complicated, and also outside the scope of this book".
So yeah, it's a little hand-wavey, and more than a little ideological in the way it takes as a given that the state-administered welfare system and Nonprofit-Industrial Complex are so broken that any alternative is better than incremental reform.
It's also really short, with accessible language and a pragmatic, non-judgemental tone, and offers some valid critiques that I've found myself chewing on. Maybe most importantly for this kind of book, it made me want to read more to answer the questions it leaves unanswered, rather than throw away the whole argument for not being totally exhaustive.
Also: not sure you even have to be a leftist to get a lot out of the second half, on the nuts and bolts of organizing, running meetings, and taking care of yourself? It's good advice even in a corporate environment, like a crash course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and enlightened modern managerial theory.
In conclusion: solid, approachable and timely gateway to anarchistic thought! And definitely an improvement on the more canonical Kropotkin text, which, lets not kid ourselves, was a total snoozefest and wasted a bunch of time in zoology (when really, who cares to what extent human behaviors do or don't have precedent in the rest of the animal kingdom?)
* What kinds of resources and necessities can realistically be delivered through Mutual Aid models?
* How are consensus decision making processes supposed to scale to the level of even a mid-sized town when the likelihood of blocking conflicts asymptotically approaches 100% certainty with increasing membership?
* If, as Spade acknowledges, resources really are constrained, how exactly are mutual aid projects supposed to triage who receives assistance without dividing people up into the "deserving" and "undeserving"?
Some questions Spade never broaches, while some he acknowledges with a nod of "Yeah, it's complicated, and also outside the scope of this book".
So yeah, it's a little hand-wavey, and more than a little ideological in the way it takes as a given that the state-administered welfare system and Nonprofit-Industrial Complex are so broken that any alternative is better than incremental reform.
It's also really short, with accessible language and a pragmatic, non-judgemental tone, and offers some valid critiques that I've found myself chewing on. Maybe most importantly for this kind of book, it made me want to read more to answer the questions it leaves unanswered, rather than throw away the whole argument for not being totally exhaustive.
Also: not sure you even have to be a leftist to get a lot out of the second half, on the nuts and bolts of organizing, running meetings, and taking care of yourself? It's good advice even in a corporate environment, like a crash course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and enlightened modern managerial theory.
In conclusion: solid, approachable and timely gateway to anarchistic thought! And definitely an improvement on the more canonical Kropotkin text, which, lets not kid ourselves, was a total snoozefest and wasted a bunch of time in zoology (when really, who cares to what extent human behaviors do or don't have precedent in the rest of the animal kingdom?)
July 15, 2022
solid 4 — critiques of this being too strict on the binary of ‘charity bad mutual aid good’ are for sure fair, but i think Spade is right in that regard and does discuss nuances between the two to some regard. quick and easy to read, the charts were very straightforward. i’d feel pretty good handing this to someone trying to understand the distinction between charity and mutual aid. i have a lot of respect for Spade, but do think some of the critiques of this book are important/warranted.
May 4, 2021
Absolutely incredible primer on mutual aid and amazing guidance for getting shit done in groups in general. Very tangible information (so many great tables and lists!) and helpful examples. I recommend to anyone doing any kind of organizing!
January 15, 2025
"Mutual aid gives people a way to plug into movements based on their immediate concerns, and it produces social spaces where people grow new solidarities. At its best, mutual aid actually produces new ways of living where people get to create systems of care and generosity that address harm and foster well-being."
"Mutual aid projects, in many ways, are defined in opposition to the charity model and its current iteration in the nonprofit sector. Mutual aid projects mobilize lots of people rather than a few experts; resist the use of eligibility criteria that cut out more stigmatized people; are an integrated part of our lives rather than a pet cause; and cultivate a shared analysis of the root causes of the problem and connect people to social movements that can address these causes."
Excellent book!
Not only does it touch on mutual aid, it also talks about equitable leadership, how grassroots movements can stay true to their vision, and staying accountable to yourself and others.
I wasn't expecting a deep dive into the subject of self-healing at the end, but it was a very welcome surprise.
October 28, 2020
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next) by Dean Spade is an introduction to mutual aid. Dean Spade discusses effective ways of engaging in mutual aid, common pitfalls, and ways to manage group dynamics in order to maximize the potential for beneficial outcomes of mutual aid work. This was an interesting mix of psychology, anti-oppressive frameworks, and practical suggestions. I enjoyed it quite a lot but did skim some of the parts that covered topics I was more familiar with.
A good read!
A good read!
January 3, 2025
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
2024 was the year I finally read the *other* little colorful book that every lesbian bought in 2020 and never finished! Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis is a helpful read that will feel very special to anyone in a similar place of disgruntled community involvement.
I was surprised by how much of the book focused on the human dynamics of mutual aid, and how interpersonal conflict can often make community work difficult. This felt very “on the money” for where I am in this moment, though the rapid-fire recommendations quickly became overwhelming (I imagine others with pathological demand avoidance will feel the same.) Spade has advice for nearly every element of working in groups, so I had to begin reading the book as a “pick and choose” model. I will hope to return to Mutual Aid for various lessons across time, because I found it to be a nearly impossible list of things to strive for all at once. However, if you have more energy than I do, this could be a one-stop shop for thoughts on everything from consensus decision making to new member orientation strategies.
I’d particularly recommend Spade’s reflections on how burnout is often really about emotional exhaustion and resentment after poor conflict resolution. This helped me clarify my current situation, as I feel like I’m struggling with something deeper than just “the tasks” of an organization. This passage on page 95 is an example of this helpful framing:
Spade continues his discussion of burnout with a combined approach of group and individual solutions, addressing both the need to limit overwork, and the need to resolve personal issues in your life so they don’t spill over into organizational conflicts. I also hope to enact some of his recommendations for thoughtful, sincere offboarding practices that support the people remaining in an organization you may decide to leave.
As with many books on the Verso/Haymarket/AP Press circuit, I felt like the last quarter of Mutual Aid struggled to stick the landing. I didn’t love the conflict section—I think Spade had very specific circumstances in mind when writing this, and so his assumptions seemed too absolute. It is certainly the case that sometimes people are misunderstanding or inaccurately assigning harm to others, but this isn’t always the “real reason” for conflict. I also thought the numerous affirmation lists and checklists at the end of this story felt a bit misplaced.
Even with these slight annoyances, I think this could be a helpful resource for anyone involved with community organizations! I will be planning to return to Mutual Aid in doses, as it is chockful of advice for such a small book.
2024 was the year I finally read the *other* little colorful book that every lesbian bought in 2020 and never finished! Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis is a helpful read that will feel very special to anyone in a similar place of disgruntled community involvement.
I was surprised by how much of the book focused on the human dynamics of mutual aid, and how interpersonal conflict can often make community work difficult. This felt very “on the money” for where I am in this moment, though the rapid-fire recommendations quickly became overwhelming (I imagine others with pathological demand avoidance will feel the same.) Spade has advice for nearly every element of working in groups, so I had to begin reading the book as a “pick and choose” model. I will hope to return to Mutual Aid for various lessons across time, because I found it to be a nearly impossible list of things to strive for all at once. However, if you have more energy than I do, this could be a one-stop shop for thoughts on everything from consensus decision making to new member orientation strategies.
I’d particularly recommend Spade’s reflections on how burnout is often really about emotional exhaustion and resentment after poor conflict resolution. This helped me clarify my current situation, as I feel like I’m struggling with something deeper than just “the tasks” of an organization. This passage on page 95 is an example of this helpful framing:
“Most often, people I meet who describe themselves as burnt out have been through painful conflict in a group they were working with and quit because they were hurt and unsatisfied by how it turned out. Burnout is the combination of resentment, exhaustion, shame, and frustration that make us lose connection to pleasure and passion in the work and instead encounter difficult feelings like avoidance, compulsion, control, and anxiety. If it were just exhaustion, we could take a break and rest and go back, but people who feel burnt out often feel they cannot return to the work, or that the group or work they were part of is toxic.”
Spade continues his discussion of burnout with a combined approach of group and individual solutions, addressing both the need to limit overwork, and the need to resolve personal issues in your life so they don’t spill over into organizational conflicts. I also hope to enact some of his recommendations for thoughtful, sincere offboarding practices that support the people remaining in an organization you may decide to leave.
As with many books on the Verso/Haymarket/AP Press circuit, I felt like the last quarter of Mutual Aid struggled to stick the landing. I didn’t love the conflict section—I think Spade had very specific circumstances in mind when writing this, and so his assumptions seemed too absolute. It is certainly the case that sometimes people are misunderstanding or inaccurately assigning harm to others, but this isn’t always the “real reason” for conflict. I also thought the numerous affirmation lists and checklists at the end of this story felt a bit misplaced.
Even with these slight annoyances, I think this could be a helpful resource for anyone involved with community organizations! I will be planning to return to Mutual Aid in doses, as it is chockful of advice for such a small book.
July 24, 2025
found this through verso last year and was excited to read it (yes @ me with the lesbian allegations). ultimately not for me, but it works as a basic intro to mutual aid and horizontal organizing for those new to the terrain.
spade’s core argument—that deprofessionalized, decentralized networks of care can challenge dominant systems—is accessible but the analysis stops short of grappling with structural power. there’s no real class analysis (no mention of marxism or socialism?!) and little thought given to how the state would respond to any mutual aid network large enough to pose a threat. the nonprofit = bad / pod = liberatory binary feels reductive, and the liberatory potential of mutual aid is overstated given its reliance on unpaid labour and capitalist infrastructure.
the book also leans hard into U.S. liberal-left norms, emphasizing rigid scheduling, emotional management, and unpaid service—frameworks that often exclude disabled and neurodivergent folks, and don’t translate well beyond the west. mutual aid work in much of the global south, including asia and africa, often emerges from long-standing kinship networks, caste- or class-based solidarities, religious institutions, or political movements grounded in material anti-colonial struggle. these forms don't map neatly onto spade’s model, nor do they assume the same relationship to the state, to capitalism, or to nonprofit industrial complexes. in short, while the book may offer a useful toolkit for western beginners, its frameworks are far less relevant—or even legible—to communities elsewhere organizing under radically different conditions.
by the final chapters, it drifts toward self-help, offering more affirmation than strategy; it's thoughtful in tone, but politically toothless.
spade’s core argument—that deprofessionalized, decentralized networks of care can challenge dominant systems—is accessible but the analysis stops short of grappling with structural power. there’s no real class analysis (no mention of marxism or socialism?!) and little thought given to how the state would respond to any mutual aid network large enough to pose a threat. the nonprofit = bad / pod = liberatory binary feels reductive, and the liberatory potential of mutual aid is overstated given its reliance on unpaid labour and capitalist infrastructure.
the book also leans hard into U.S. liberal-left norms, emphasizing rigid scheduling, emotional management, and unpaid service—frameworks that often exclude disabled and neurodivergent folks, and don’t translate well beyond the west. mutual aid work in much of the global south, including asia and africa, often emerges from long-standing kinship networks, caste- or class-based solidarities, religious institutions, or political movements grounded in material anti-colonial struggle. these forms don't map neatly onto spade’s model, nor do they assume the same relationship to the state, to capitalism, or to nonprofit industrial complexes. in short, while the book may offer a useful toolkit for western beginners, its frameworks are far less relevant—or even legible—to communities elsewhere organizing under radically different conditions.
by the final chapters, it drifts toward self-help, offering more affirmation than strategy; it's thoughtful in tone, but politically toothless.
February 14, 2021
A great primer on mutual aid. In the first half, Spade clearly and succinctly differentiates mutual aid from charity/non-profit models and explains why mutual aid is so core to building sustained social movements. In the second half, Spade offers some nice tools for appraising mutual aid efforts--on both a collective and individual level--to ensure that they do not fall into the disempowering patterns of charity/non-profit work. I was particularly interested in parts of the book where Spade shared how previous mutual aid efforts throughout history have been co-opted by the powers that be in order to further legitimize the systems that have caused mutual aid to be necessary in the first place, and I would have been interested in more of an in-depth analyses of these situations. Overall, I thought this book was a helpful intro/overview of mutual aid that helped me reflect about the work that I'm doing.
August 1, 2025
Oh no, I thought I was going to give this book a "meh, 3 stars" but then I wrote my review.
The first chapter or so of Mutual Aid blew me away, with it's description of what mutual aid looks like and references to the projects in the past. And then it takes an incredible tone shift into what seems like morality-posturing from the author about a complete disintegration of the state and all state-run programs. I am a state worker and all of my mutual aid focus is on the labor movement, which is almost completely forgotten by Spade. For him, the only good and meaningful group is consensus based, privately funded, not pay its workers, have no educated professionals on the topic and of course, leaderless, with little room for nuance. A whole plethora of box ticks I don't think has ever, or will ever exist in any meaningful capacity. Especially, not in the Black Panther Party, which he commonly used as an example as community building and their food program.
I spent most of the book, confused and listening to Spade's "perfect mutual aid program", wondering how any of these committees and actions are supposed to happen without any sort of leader at all or organizing strategy. Thankfully, about halfway he delves into his idea of a rotating leadership role in a pretty solid manner and made it so I could finally understand the book again. His description of how the work is structured into teams is totally fine and useful for a group starting out, but "Robert's Rules of Order" is bleeding out in the corner. RIP.
The rest of the book is mostly focused on self-care and the difficulties of the work (fair), but not enough about what the work is and what good it can do. Why are the examples of successful movements so few and far between and with little academic merit or backing? Why am I learning about how handle my emotions instead of learning about mutual aid work?? Spade seems to be on the defensive and already preparing the reader for the worst case scenario without really making a good case for what a mutual aid network would do for their community, other than push out the evil educated elites with their charities and non-profits who are only doing good cause they saw mutual aid people doing it first and want to control the poor (not entirely wrong, but come on man).
This is also where my main issue of this book comes into play. Its hypocrisy. Especially in the goals of mutual aid. One chapter we are told not to have our scope be narrow, and then in another that we cannot help everyone and we should focus on the task at hand but also don't label people as deserving or undeserving of the help. Organizations should be leaderless, yet this book is written with the intention that the reader becomes a leader and implement all these changes on the group. It is judgmental to people who are not deemed to be the perfect ethically and moral. Giving no nuance to any sort of group structure other than the one laid out exactly the way he wants it.
"Some people just want a selfie with Angela Davis", go kick rocks, your whole book is self-aggrandizing telling uneducated people to work for free while you're a Professor at the Seattle University of Law where your salary is most likely in the SIX FIGURES. And that's a HUGE problem!! Dean Spade is an incredibly educated person who started a non-profit! Both things we were told, in Mutual Aid are selling out to the corporate elites and taking over honest work for the every-man. Now, this non-profit was founded in 2002 and his views on the work might inform his current stance but as far as I'm aware, he is still working with them so I am not too ready to listen to his views or see him as a credible source in the area of mutual aid!
In Mutual Aid, any group trying to do good that operates with government money/grants or has educated and paid staff (which would include schools, hospitals, libraries etc.), is a cog in the capitalist machine and it is up to the wider population to come together to provide services they are not trained for in a way that gives every random person who walks off the street and equal voice in the decision making. Fuck professionals who get paid for a living and doing good, I guess. (Spade is an academic professional!!!) I believe that Spade got so caught up in the idea of everyone working in harmony that he not only forgot about bad faith actors, but a lot of the time people's lives are at stake we can't live in fun kumbaya land and hope everyone has the intentions of a saint.
The first chapter or so of Mutual Aid blew me away, with it's description of what mutual aid looks like and references to the projects in the past. And then it takes an incredible tone shift into what seems like morality-posturing from the author about a complete disintegration of the state and all state-run programs. I am a state worker and all of my mutual aid focus is on the labor movement, which is almost completely forgotten by Spade. For him, the only good and meaningful group is consensus based, privately funded, not pay its workers, have no educated professionals on the topic and of course, leaderless, with little room for nuance. A whole plethora of box ticks I don't think has ever, or will ever exist in any meaningful capacity. Especially, not in the Black Panther Party, which he commonly used as an example as community building and their food program.
I spent most of the book, confused and listening to Spade's "perfect mutual aid program", wondering how any of these committees and actions are supposed to happen without any sort of leader at all or organizing strategy. Thankfully, about halfway he delves into his idea of a rotating leadership role in a pretty solid manner and made it so I could finally understand the book again. His description of how the work is structured into teams is totally fine and useful for a group starting out, but "Robert's Rules of Order" is bleeding out in the corner. RIP.
The rest of the book is mostly focused on self-care and the difficulties of the work (fair), but not enough about what the work is and what good it can do. Why are the examples of successful movements so few and far between and with little academic merit or backing? Why am I learning about how handle my emotions instead of learning about mutual aid work?? Spade seems to be on the defensive and already preparing the reader for the worst case scenario without really making a good case for what a mutual aid network would do for their community, other than push out the evil educated elites with their charities and non-profits who are only doing good cause they saw mutual aid people doing it first and want to control the poor (not entirely wrong, but come on man).
This is also where my main issue of this book comes into play. Its hypocrisy. Especially in the goals of mutual aid. One chapter we are told not to have our scope be narrow, and then in another that we cannot help everyone and we should focus on the task at hand but also don't label people as deserving or undeserving of the help. Organizations should be leaderless, yet this book is written with the intention that the reader becomes a leader and implement all these changes on the group. It is judgmental to people who are not deemed to be the perfect ethically and moral. Giving no nuance to any sort of group structure other than the one laid out exactly the way he wants it.
"Some people just want a selfie with Angela Davis", go kick rocks, your whole book is self-aggrandizing telling uneducated people to work for free while you're a Professor at the Seattle University of Law where your salary is most likely in the SIX FIGURES. And that's a HUGE problem!! Dean Spade is an incredibly educated person who started a non-profit! Both things we were told, in Mutual Aid are selling out to the corporate elites and taking over honest work for the every-man. Now, this non-profit was founded in 2002 and his views on the work might inform his current stance but as far as I'm aware, he is still working with them so I am not too ready to listen to his views or see him as a credible source in the area of mutual aid!
In Mutual Aid, any group trying to do good that operates with government money/grants or has educated and paid staff (which would include schools, hospitals, libraries etc.), is a cog in the capitalist machine and it is up to the wider population to come together to provide services they are not trained for in a way that gives every random person who walks off the street and equal voice in the decision making. Fuck professionals who get paid for a living and doing good, I guess. (Spade is an academic professional!!!) I believe that Spade got so caught up in the idea of everyone working in harmony that he not only forgot about bad faith actors, but a lot of the time people's lives are at stake we can't live in fun kumbaya land and hope everyone has the intentions of a saint.
September 29, 2022
Putting aside the apologism for HK fascist xenophobia, I am awed by the lengths people go to mystify the simple fact that mutual aid is charity (I think Spade fails to meaningfully distinguish the two, yes). There is nothing wrong with charity (in the sense of collective action and life, not the NGO-industrial complex), but charity is not politics and people should be more honest that they simply practice charity when they say they practice "mutual aid". And it’s a shame that this is the popular legacy of the BPP (i.e. Hilliard, Seale, Brown’s rightism), at least for DSA-ite and anarchist liberals.
November 8, 2022
This was a really good book for those just getting into mutual aid work or for those who are looking to take a step back and adjusting their relationship with the work. I definitely will be taking some of the pieces from this in my personal and work life as well. The only downside was it did feel a bit self help-y at times, but at least it was in a much more leftist (and frankly useful) mode of finding strength through community and compassion.
July 10, 2025
idk man this felt like a lot of words to say very obvious things repetitively. maybe i'm too cynical, or maybe this is more introductory than what i usually read. hope it helps someone!
April 14, 2025
The comments about the dangers of workaholism in organizing / downstream impacts of burnout and fixation on control. oof.
May 5, 2021
Dang! Spade has almost 500 Goodreads reviews and this book is brand new! Jesus. Despite having some really important and deep critiques, and places where I would have really appreciated more additions/the brevity was not good, I still give this book 5 stars for this reason: it was anarchist propaganda without ever using the word anarchist, it pushed for bold direct action tactics, and was a highly authentic (stark contrast to Communist, Marxist, and Socialist group ideologies) and introductory text. It pushed for anarchist ways of building cultures, means and ends, prefigurative politics, movement building, tactics, nonhierarchy, and more. Spade is an anarchist in the classical and antiracist sense and I appreciate that. My critiques include: not talking about the processes of implementing anarchist political education and revolutionary theory-building (academics dominate theory creation today), and profoundly neglecting to talk about the cultiness and toxicity that can form in groups and overly emphasizing self-responsibility in taming one’s feelings- in a way that could easily be turned into an anti-survivor politics. I know he was just trying to make an intervention on the crazy toxic world of liberal IDPOL hierarchies. Lastly, Spade very much conducts himself like a celebrity leftist, tho more accessible overall, and really networks with hardcore celebrities. I wish he would consistently pass his platform to serious mutual aid organizers on the ground who are also experts, and actively and materially dismantle his status as THE mutual aid expert. I also wish he actively redistributed his funds to mutual aid groups from this book. And also spoke publicly in support of the survivor of sexual and racist violence who worked at Verso books. This book also mentioned nothing about security culture. It was VERY introductory and needed more concrete tools on building CAPACITY for direct action and actually becoming an anarchist and revolutionary mutual aid group. Also do wish it pushed anarchism a BIT more explicitly at times.
October 7, 2025
How can we help each other, our neighbors, in times of crisis?
Mutual Aid is an accessible guide to how communities can care for one another, and I learned a lot, particularly about charities. From the start, Spade cuts through the polished veneer of charity, exposing its role in perpetuating inequality. I thought he rather methodically dismantled the myths of top-down philanthropy, as well as the dangers of for-profit, capitalist-driven "solutions" that commodify compassion and perpetuate dependence. Instead, he champions grassroots solidarity—work born from necessity, not pity. Throughout, Spade shows how charity is designed to soothe the wealthy and reinforce their control, while mutual aid is an act of defiance, rejecting systems that criminalize poverty and pathologize need. This felt like a grounded look at the everyday struggles of marginalized communities, paired with an introductory blueprint for transformative action.
The book isn't heavily cited or academic, but it doesn’t intend to be. Spade weaves history, contemporary examples, and practical advice into an engaging narrative. It reads like a on-the-ground guidebook for those seeking not just to alleviate harm, but to dismantle the systems that actually create it. What I found particularly valuable was the discussion of common pitfalls to avoid in enacting positive change, and how the book reminds us that this work is messy, relentless, and also joyful— at its heart, mutual aid is a collective effort to build something new amidst the ruins of what no longer serves us.
4.5
Mutual Aid is an accessible guide to how communities can care for one another, and I learned a lot, particularly about charities. From the start, Spade cuts through the polished veneer of charity, exposing its role in perpetuating inequality. I thought he rather methodically dismantled the myths of top-down philanthropy, as well as the dangers of for-profit, capitalist-driven "solutions" that commodify compassion and perpetuate dependence. Instead, he champions grassroots solidarity—work born from necessity, not pity. Throughout, Spade shows how charity is designed to soothe the wealthy and reinforce their control, while mutual aid is an act of defiance, rejecting systems that criminalize poverty and pathologize need. This felt like a grounded look at the everyday struggles of marginalized communities, paired with an introductory blueprint for transformative action.
The book isn't heavily cited or academic, but it doesn’t intend to be. Spade weaves history, contemporary examples, and practical advice into an engaging narrative. It reads like a on-the-ground guidebook for those seeking not just to alleviate harm, but to dismantle the systems that actually create it. What I found particularly valuable was the discussion of common pitfalls to avoid in enacting positive change, and how the book reminds us that this work is messy, relentless, and also joyful— at its heart, mutual aid is a collective effort to build something new amidst the ruins of what no longer serves us.
4.5
December 10, 2024
Amazing how this man is able to waffle on about “anti-capitalism” without providing a class analysis or even once mentioning the words “socialism” or “marxism.”
Spade argues for the creation of decentralized pods of mutual aid until we “outnumber the police and military” and ultimately create what’s essentially a classless, egalitarian society where resources are shared (aka communism). Even assuming a fraction of the working class, using its own meagre time and economic resources, was doing utopian socialism successfully en masse, this man avoids discussing how the capitalist state would respond to this, as though they wouldn’t simply crush any large enough mutual aid network—like they did with the black panthers.
And why did the second half just turn into a self-help book? More about logistical steps for starting a mutual aid network would have been helpful.
Spade argues for the creation of decentralized pods of mutual aid until we “outnumber the police and military” and ultimately create what’s essentially a classless, egalitarian society where resources are shared (aka communism). Even assuming a fraction of the working class, using its own meagre time and economic resources, was doing utopian socialism successfully en masse, this man avoids discussing how the capitalist state would respond to this, as though they wouldn’t simply crush any large enough mutual aid network—like they did with the black panthers.
And why did the second half just turn into a self-help book? More about logistical steps for starting a mutual aid network would have been helpful.
November 5, 2021
Fantastic, accessible, unpretentious (and remarkably informative for it's short length) overview of mutual aid, what it is, how to organize around it, how to sustain it, and how to sustain your own health and existence in the process. I wish I had read this decades ago. I learned a lot and for what I already knew, there are immensely helpful guidelines I never realized just how much I needed. Kropotkin taught me a lot long ago, but not like this.
November 11, 2024
There are certainly good intentions behind every page of this, but its sheer vagueness and its “anti-capitalism” without a shred of class analysis that is instead steeped in identity politics, makes for a misguided guide for social change that, unfortunately, reinforces ideas friendly to the status quo.
July 14, 2024
lots of good things here, especially loved the discussion of nonprofits at the beginning and found the step by step really helpful even jsut in the context of my 9-5; would love to buy a copy and write in it for my next reread
December 6, 2024
good intro to mutual aid and other practices for beginners! didn't get much that I didn't already know from it, but it gave me some nice reminders, and I liked the part where they ripped apart nonprofits and charity work 🫣
June 26, 2025
A short book, but dense with information on mutual aid, organizing, working with others, self care, and more. Definitely great for those new to organizing and experienced folks- lots of great reminders in here. Should be required reading right now. A great companion book to Let This Radicalize You.
December 30, 2024
Excellent blueprint for mutual aid orgs. For that it deserves 5/5. But I honestly thought I was going to learn more about starting or joining mutual aid groups. This is not really a good book for beginners imo, but it did spark an interest in me to learn more!
November 25, 2024
Ultimately a very disappointing read.
The pros:
-Encourages you to ask a lot of questions about non-profits, charity, mutual aid, community, yourself, and worklife in general. While I disagreed with many of the conclusions or implications of Spade, I am always very pro-asking questions, and this has some good prompts.
-Some very apt criticisms of "the work" as it is currently being done, including in charity, nonprofit, and mutual aid spheres
-Some good reminders/points about not burning out, qualities to look for, and some basic 101 organizing tips
The cons:
-Spade has created this binary between mutual aid work and charity and then more or less asserts that all charity work is flawed, corrupted, and should be avoided. As Spade goes on to detail his tips and tricks on how to have a successful mutual aid group I failed to see a meaningful distinction between his definition of mutual aid and a well run non-profit.
It's true that non-profits are often beholden to grantor demands on how money is used, and it is also true that there are a plethora of non-profits that are actively harming and maintaining status quo. However, the things that make a mutual aid group run well, according to Spade, are the same things that make a non-profit group run well. A non-profit truly committed to the work they signed up to do would not accept grants that require them to do work outside of that scope, and/or would find creative ways to stay true to their mission. I do not see this as meaningfully different from other groups likewise having to navigate the many directions they will be pulled through the course of their work.
-There are a lot of the hallmarks of white supremacy culture through out these pages, despite a stated desire to move away from the dominant culture. We see a heavy emphasis on well structured meetings as defined by clear agendas, strict adherence to schedules, narrow margins of time management, and how to introduce new comers to the work. In particular, I am irked by the emphasis on strict time tables and the consistent use of the word "flake/y." I think this was unintentional, but the vibe I ended up with is there is little room for disabled relation to time. There are a few lines here and there about compassion, flexibility, meeting ones own needs, of course, but it lacks a consistent understanding of how people will differently relate to time and established schedules, and how integrating into the work differs depending on such considerations. Meaning, it very much feels like Spade would consider someone with chronic fatigue to be a flake and unreliable, instead of someone who needs to link up with the group different than their able-bodied counterparts.
In line with this, I found the section on compulsory work versus joyful work to be mostly a list of characteristics that mirror dominant culture, and are entirely subjective - and potentially harmful. For example, stating that compulsory work is working on multiple things at the same time and joyful work is working one thing at a time leaves no room for neurodivergent people who struggle with under stimulation and genuinely do their best work when multitasking. Also see any of the characteristics relating to emotion; they all are prescriptive and enforce dominant culture views on emotions, instead of allowing space for people to do "the work" because they are angry, upset, etc. etc.
-I will never prescribe to a framework that insists folks should only engage in mutual aid/community work for free whilst we exist within a capitalistic society. I had a hard time with the section on avoiding burn out and all the points about making sure people are resting/connecting with loved ones/not doing too much when Spade kept asserting that people should not be engaging with this work as a way to pay the bills. It felt very off to me to give pointers on how to avoid burn out while also clearly establishing people should be showing up for this community work after they clock out of their bill-paying job.
There is more I could dive into, but I think this paints the picture well enough. I wanted more community/small group focused, too, but this deals mostly in theory. Which is fine, but not really that useful for me. I don't think this book is worth avoiding, but I would say if you don't have the capacity to read a lot of books I don't think I would recommend you taking time on this one.
The pros:
-Encourages you to ask a lot of questions about non-profits, charity, mutual aid, community, yourself, and worklife in general. While I disagreed with many of the conclusions or implications of Spade, I am always very pro-asking questions, and this has some good prompts.
-Some very apt criticisms of "the work" as it is currently being done, including in charity, nonprofit, and mutual aid spheres
-Some good reminders/points about not burning out, qualities to look for, and some basic 101 organizing tips
The cons:
-Spade has created this binary between mutual aid work and charity and then more or less asserts that all charity work is flawed, corrupted, and should be avoided. As Spade goes on to detail his tips and tricks on how to have a successful mutual aid group I failed to see a meaningful distinction between his definition of mutual aid and a well run non-profit.
It's true that non-profits are often beholden to grantor demands on how money is used, and it is also true that there are a plethora of non-profits that are actively harming and maintaining status quo. However, the things that make a mutual aid group run well, according to Spade, are the same things that make a non-profit group run well. A non-profit truly committed to the work they signed up to do would not accept grants that require them to do work outside of that scope, and/or would find creative ways to stay true to their mission. I do not see this as meaningfully different from other groups likewise having to navigate the many directions they will be pulled through the course of their work.
-There are a lot of the hallmarks of white supremacy culture through out these pages, despite a stated desire to move away from the dominant culture. We see a heavy emphasis on well structured meetings as defined by clear agendas, strict adherence to schedules, narrow margins of time management, and how to introduce new comers to the work. In particular, I am irked by the emphasis on strict time tables and the consistent use of the word "flake/y." I think this was unintentional, but the vibe I ended up with is there is little room for disabled relation to time. There are a few lines here and there about compassion, flexibility, meeting ones own needs, of course, but it lacks a consistent understanding of how people will differently relate to time and established schedules, and how integrating into the work differs depending on such considerations. Meaning, it very much feels like Spade would consider someone with chronic fatigue to be a flake and unreliable, instead of someone who needs to link up with the group different than their able-bodied counterparts.
In line with this, I found the section on compulsory work versus joyful work to be mostly a list of characteristics that mirror dominant culture, and are entirely subjective - and potentially harmful. For example, stating that compulsory work is working on multiple things at the same time and joyful work is working one thing at a time leaves no room for neurodivergent people who struggle with under stimulation and genuinely do their best work when multitasking. Also see any of the characteristics relating to emotion; they all are prescriptive and enforce dominant culture views on emotions, instead of allowing space for people to do "the work" because they are angry, upset, etc. etc.
-I will never prescribe to a framework that insists folks should only engage in mutual aid/community work for free whilst we exist within a capitalistic society. I had a hard time with the section on avoiding burn out and all the points about making sure people are resting/connecting with loved ones/not doing too much when Spade kept asserting that people should not be engaging with this work as a way to pay the bills. It felt very off to me to give pointers on how to avoid burn out while also clearly establishing people should be showing up for this community work after they clock out of their bill-paying job.
There is more I could dive into, but I think this paints the picture well enough. I wanted more community/small group focused, too, but this deals mostly in theory. Which is fine, but not really that useful for me. I don't think this book is worth avoiding, but I would say if you don't have the capacity to read a lot of books I don't think I would recommend you taking time on this one.
May 6, 2021
I found this to be a wonderful and accessible introduction to mutual aid from a practical standpoint. I learned a lot, and particularly appreciated the last portions on burnout, conflict, and mad mapping, as well as explaining the limitation of the nonprofit industrial complex and preventing cooptation or watering down of radical projects. it didn't go into step-by-step detail on how to organize a network, but rather explains the theory and practice of mutual aid from a broader perspective, including triumphs and lessons from past movement history. I agree that there wasn't much nuance to the Hong Kong framing, but overall I would 100% recommend this to anyone, new to organizing or not.
December 10, 2020
this is a very good introduction about what mutual aid is and isn’t and how to do it well. i learned a lot about the common pitfalls that happen in organizing and how to avoid them and this book has taught me skills i will bring back to groups i’m in about how to best made decisions as a group in ways that prevent conflict and deal with it productively when it arises.
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December 19, 2020Dean Spade, a foundational organizer across movements, lays out a world view for community building based on material support. Specific and valuable, MUTUAL AID provides a way into Spade's values and how to apply them to build resistance while facing people's real needs.
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