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Title: Let's Talk... Mutual Aid Author: Regan de Loggans Date: May 2020 Language: en Topics: Mutual aid, anarchism, co-option Source: Retrieved September 2020 from [[https://dochub.com/rloggans/jo3xELpR3ZO8yz8wJBa7nr/loggans-mutual-aid-zine-pdf]] Notes: REGAN DE LOGGANS (they/themme) is a queer indigenous community organizer and agitator. They live on occupied Canarsie land in Lenapehoking (so-called Brooklyn). @phaggot.planet / Member of IKC @indigenouskinshipcollective
So, in the time of covid-19, we have seen so many calls to and for
“Mutual Aid”. Which is dope, great, awesome, important, but also has led
to some confusion (dare I say co-option) as to what mutual is and isn't.
This zine will attempt to explain Mutual Aid in the time of covid-19,
and also how Mutual Aid practices must be imposed for continued
surviviance.
So what is Mutual aid?
Mutual aid is simple, it's the breaking of the binary of the “Haves and
have nots” with the intention to re-allocate for equitable access to
resources, education, and needs. Seems simple enough. However, Mutual
Aid is also a legacy, and a practice. It is a commitment to
anticapitalism. Capitalists cannot practice Mutual Aid; they can
practice temporary reallocation (ie philanthropy) which is not the same.
Charity is not Mutual Aid.
Though charity and temporary reallocation are important aspects that
Mutual Aid asks us to include, it is not at the crux of the theory or
methodology. Yes, re-allocation is important, but reallocation cannot be
temporary. It must be carried into the world beyond times of panic,
emergency, or pandemic. Those who were not practicing Mutual Aid
previous to covid-19 need to understand that they must commit to
providing Mutual Aid BEYOND covid-19. And if y'all can’t make that
commitment, then y'all are practicing charity and temporary reallocation
of resources; which perpetuates the binary of wealth.
Mutual aid is a LONG TERM commitment to the community.
Mutual aid is based in community control, aiding one another to break
free from capitalism and colonial authority. It can look different in
different places. And it also demands that we use each other as
responsible and meaningful contributions, so it also demands reciprocity
and resource exchange (though not immediately or always).
We ask for folx to skill share as part of the practice. But we do not
demand of them to contribute if they cannot in the moment, or force any
ideologies of “owing” someone or something. You give an apple to a
friend, and six months later they show you how to make bread. It wasn't
an immediate share, it was not an expectation, nor a transaction. But
rather a skill share in response to your action of giving. Again, it is
not necessary, but seeing one another as meaningful and able to share
with one another is necessary. Whether all folx can exercise that same
reciprocal practice is not necessary, but we should not assume that
people do not have things to share.
Skill share is central for the sustainability of Mutual Aid.
You ask for skill share so that you can continue to skill share, and
grow a community autonomously, breaking away from the dependence on the
settler colonial state. Teach a man to fish mentality, I guess….I don't
love that example, but imagine if you teach a community to fish. You
remove the middle-men, actualize sustainability, and give everyone
equitable opportunity to learn a skill they can re-share. However, if
someone in the community cannot learn to fish, that’s also cool. We will
still provide! Accountability to the community is not based on
reciprocity, but we must also provide people with the option to
contribute. This is how we break ageist, ableist, labor hierarchy. No
matter the age, no matter the ability, no matter the education, people
can contribute. Try more creative ways to contribute; consider that
children and elders are also people within the community that may want
to share skills. Yes, their skills may be less labor related, but they
are skills nonetheless. People have value beyond labor, beyond
capitalist notions of productivity. Spending time with an elder or child
is emotional nourishment, it has value and we are obligated to offer the
exchange of knowledge cross-generationally and no matter the ability.
We also do not measure things based in equal reciprocity, we do not need
to practice payment or profit. In fact, we SHOULD NOT practice profit or
payment. Mutual aid is not done from the kindness of our hearts (though
that helps), it is done because we respect people’s autonomous lives and
want our communities to thrive. No one is expected to “pay” for
anything, and there will be many unequal knowledge shares that are
practiced, AND THAT'S OK. Stop viewing all actions as transactions or as
tit for tat. We provide for the greater good and because we can and want
to.
Mutual aid is not about productivity or labor as a measurable act. It
does not see all people as laborers or even as productive, but asks us
to provide the option for everyone to commit to community through
consensual contribution. It does advocate for consensual prior and
informed community control and cooperative acts. We do not practice
“survival of the fittest”, and advocate that all people are fit by
different definitions of the term. And if you feel that you are not able
to contribute for whatever reason, then the community will provide and
skill share with you. MUTUAL AID IS ABOUT COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE. Community
knowledge is community strength; we do not withhold.
Many white organizers will have you believe that Mutual Aid is an
anarchist-communist theory based in either autonomous independence from
the state or workers rights. Though Mutual Aid does encompass those
things, it is important that people understand that Mutual Aid has and
always will be a non-wesern tradition. Mutual Aid is Indigenous lifeways
and sovereignty; it is Black thrivance and power, which will outlive
anarcho-communist theory. It is not a theory, it is a practice that most
people of color have been practicing and predates colonialism and
capitalism. This is important to note, because the co-option of Mutual
Aid without accountability is racism. The co-option of Mutual Aid as an
anarcho-communist theory participates in the erasure of systems and
communities of color that are the authority in Mutual Aid practices.
BIPOC mutual aid practices were purposefully destroyed by white settlers
through genocide, assimilation, and a commitment to greed via
capitalism. We cannot divorce the legacies of trauma that exist due to
settler meddling. We will not allow white organizers and
anarcho-communist folx to appropriate our teachings in a time of panic.
By committing to Mutual Aid practices, you are demanding accountability
for long-term commitment to the upheaval of white supremacy. Mutual aid
demands settlers to relinquish control in order for them to contribute
at all.
We cannot allow Mutual Aid practices to be co-opted by nonprofits, white
organizers, or other “charity” based folx, who are not committed to
understanding that Mutual Aid has been a practice by people of color for
longer than they could even imagine. Mutual aid is a unifying term,
putting a name to the practice that most of us (BIPOC) folx have been
acting on all our lives. Mutual aid was not born out of survival, its
proposed purpose is for communities to THRIVE. Yes, it has been used in
times of crises to help the most targeted in our society so that they
can survive, but that is not enough. We must be committed to seeing
people thrive, not just scrape by.
BE WARY OF WHITE SAVIORS. In times of crisis, people who have access to
money, stable jobs and housing (most likely white folx) will offer these
under the guise of Mutual Aid. Unless they commit to a long-term Mutual
Aid goal beyond crisis, then it is NOT Mutual Aid. It is CHARITY or
WHITE SAVIOR COMPLEX. And we must hold them accountable for not
exercising Mutual Aid beyond an emergency situation. Use their time,
money, capital, and privilege to educate others on how and why Mutual
Aid is community commitment. It is easier than just donating to
someone's gofundme. It is more than delivering groceries to the elderly
once or twice during the convid-19 pandemic. IT IS A LONG TERM
COMMITMENT BASED IN ACTIONABLE RESULTS THAT REMOVES COMMUNITY OUT OF
THEIR DEPENDENCY ON THE CAPITALIST SETTLER STATE.
A lot of yall already practice Mutual Aid. But it is time to do MORE
right now considering pandemics trigger folx to hoard as a means of
“survival”.
Individualism is capitalism is colonialism is white supremacy.