What is Mutual Aid?

Mutual Aid is a radical concept that humans have practised across millennia, but these days, its exact purpose and potential remains vague in the minds of many. What is it? What is it not? What challenges will we face? How can we use it to build towards revolution?

The list of artists used is in the outro.

Introduction - 0:00
What is Mutual Aid? - 1:21
The Potential of Mutual Aid - 4:19
The Challenges of Mutual Aid - 7:47
Final Thoughts - 15:19
Outro - 19:10

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Music:
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Sources & Resources:
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Peter Kropotkin
Solidarity, Not Charity by Dean Spade
Let's Talk Mutual Aid by Regan de Loggans

[rowanjohnson]

What’s interesting about mutual aid in relation to the point you mentioned about human nature is that it always shines through in times of crisis. Humans have evolved to recognize the fact that collaboration is a more effective way to survive and prosper than competition, and not even late-stage neoliberalism can suppress that instinct. Wherever you see hardship, you almost always see people banding together to meet the needs of the entire struggling population rather than fighting over resources. Apes together strong!!! 💖

[Chairkicker]

solid video. still a little abstract, but i think that's because some of us still find concepts of mutual aid alien, especially in the US. an unfortunate testament to how effective individualism has been in suppressing liberatory struggle.

[Holobrine]

Whenever I bring up consensus, my dad says “what if someone is just a contrarian”? and I want to tell him to be realistic for once, because no one whose needs depend on arriving at a consensus would actually be a contrarian just for the fun of it.

If I’m being perfectly honest, when it comes to your final thoughts at the end, I love the sound of them on paper, but I am also scared of what would happen to me if I actually engaged at that level. I would be tossing every privilege I have into the wastebasket, never to be obtained again. I would place a target on my own back and become a victim of the system at a much greater level. There is an event horizon here; a point of no return.

[bexkirlew]

thanks for this video!! unlike a lot of anti-capitalist content which feeds into feeling doomed by capitalism, this legitimately got me off my ass looking for mutual aid to participate in my area. I've felt like...not good enough, not intellectual enough, not knowledgeable enough to participate in socialist orgs or a lot of activist efforts, but mutual aid seems much more approachable. I'm looking forward to it!

[Waitwhat]

It's amazing how so straightforward of an idea of actively cooperating with your community is, while still seem so alien today.

Like, even in my short time, it's weird to go from even simply things like block parties to now living in places where people don't even wave at each other.
I feel pretty resigned to just helping my small group of friends because we are comfortable just sharing what we need between each other, but I'm not sure how to even try to expand that anymore.

[hedgehog]

Mutual aid is the first step in a revolution and is both part of the revolution itself and also laying the groundwork for an anarchist world. An anarchist society would be mutual aid expanded to all areas of society and human life.

[meepcity]

2:38 that remove me of when I went to El Salvador with my family, and we visited one of my dad’s aunts. We harvested bean plants and were all shelling the beans, removing the leaves and whatnot, talking and laughing. It was great, we were all helping out and got to eat delicious soup afterwards. I really miss the sense of community there, something I see lacking here in the US.

[azure]

Your videos are fantastic and I regret not really having spare income to throw at you or I'd already be a patron. Am trying to find and/or create mutual aid opportunities near me but it gets a little overwhelming for a chronically anxious autistic leftist in the middle of nowhere in a red state to figure out what to do and where to look when frankly I do not have the skillset for organizing. Your videos help keep me motivated not to give up, because rediscovering our natural tendency toward mutual aid as a species is the only way we're going to survive this hell.

[spoonikle]

I wish. I have to work 60 hours a week, not the most but still means I basically save my free time for chores and preparing meals… or crying in a corner.

even going to a meeting once a month is to much, let alone participating in any kind of aid or receiving any for that matter.

[hellaballooba]

This is a wonderful explanation. I was co-author on an article for The Commoner on mutual aid (the article is "Mutual Aid Does Nothing Alone") where we spend some time explaining what mutual aid is, why it isn't charity, and why the liberal and rightwing usage of this language to describe their projects is definitionally, foundationally incorrect.

I did have a question, following from your Black anarchism video and this one. I completely agree with you that mutual aid is radical and generative and poses a direct challenge to State and Capital. We make the same argument in our article. What do you make, then, of Ervin's description of mutual aid as a survival program? He has said on several episodes of the Black Autonomy podcast that mutual aid isn't revolutionary in and of itself, that it's more of a survival initiative pending revolutionary action.

[mattijoypuccio]

Sharing with the homies, good stuff and even better questions.

[asher]

not gonna lie I almost shat myself when you said "skillshare" followed by the logo appearing onscreen

[JasonMcCarrell]

Ok, this was really good. Thank you for the tools. It was a lot to consume, but I think i get the idea. I may re-watch later after trying to be more involved with mutual aid.

My first quick evaluation makes me realize that my queer group is the best mutual aid organization. The union i protest with, and the community association, miss some things, or are somewhat co-opted. They definitely don't lead to thriving. However my queer group, which is technically also funded by government grants, has many folks all trying organize mutual aid.

It's really really difficult to not play within the system though... ie. if the queer group didn't have government funding, and the people donating, weren't able to donate, then would the folks have a location to gather, for example? I don't know a single queer person who could afford rent downtown, I'm not even sure if we could collectively afford to rent a space downtown.

I dunno... people are so poor now a days, it feels very difficult to support a group without support from a system of oppression.

Then again... perhaps I'm thinking about this too beautcratically. It's not that we can't take support from such places, it's that we mustn't be influenced by that support. We must maintain mindfulness. This is akin to stealing supplies from a warehouse during Hurricane Katrina. We may just take funding, without providing anything in return.

I'm nitpicking. Most things in life don't cost very much money. So we can at least practice mutual aid for those things. [skill sharing, mental health support, gardening, etc.]

Sorry for the ramble, you've really got me thinking this evening.

[MrMarkT]

The first 5 seconds made me subscribe lmao. Better explanation of mutual aid than 99% of theory

[one_secular_sparrow]

My brother offhandedly had mentioned the concept of mutual aid to me a few weeks ago and I'm shocked I never found it before. I have not done enough in my community and I have so much to learn - but I want to do something to directly support my community. I was so happy to find that my town does have a mutual aid group underway so I am in the process of getting involved to discover where I can best offer my support. I see some of my doubts echoed in the comments here; not being intellectual enough, not knowing exactly how to help. But everyone starts somewhere and I'm used to being a student. I will learn what I can while getting involved how I can; I will hold myself accountable for my mistakes and hope my peers will recognize the ones I do not; and in the meantime, hopefully we can actually help some people wuth immediate concerns

[qwertyqwerty-jyfc]

Oh my God that hand meme was a video??

[lucacolouredin]

I decided to put this here :)
After finding your channel through OCC (You had a collaboration on Solar punk I believe ), I watched many of your videos, which inspired a more advanced vision of something I wanted to do since over a year (I’m still in school and underage so it’s hard to make it happen, I do try and do the small things I can though)
That idea first started out as a camp for teens and young adults as an escape place (for example because there is domestic violence in their home etc)with the concept of teaching them things they want to learn and giving them opportunities to explore creativity and other things that they wanna explore. When I got more into gardening I added the idea of having a garden there where people can try gardening and eat fresh produce, also making it a place open for other groups to host meetings or courses and through al I have learned the past few months about permaculture and sustainability I want to incorporate as many of those things as possible :)

[matthewrenn]

Algorithm feeding. Keep spreading good messages. Thank you.

[thedistinguished]

* Sharing is caring
* Apes together strong
* Cooperation over competition

[scroogles]

Your videos give me real hope in a time where it's hard to find. Thank you.