Talking about mutual aid is so particularly compelling to me right now in a presidential election year. It feels like the presidential election demands so much passivity from us, asking us to watch celebrity drama unfold on a level we can do very little to impact, leaving many people frustrated and relatively helpless. Even if a candidate we prefer wins, our experiences show that justice and alleviation of material suffering for targeted people is unlikely to be delivered from the federal level. Mutual aid projects let us engage right now, at the most local level, to help each other with immediate needs and to mobilize us to practice politics rather than just consuming information about politics and talking about it. I think many people are craving ways to participate more fully and actively in making change.
Here is an article, just out from Social Text, I have been working on for the last couple years about mutual aid, digging into the themes that I have been exploring in recent talks, in this little animated video and in my fall 2019 class at University of Chicago. Many thanks to Hi′ilei Hobart and Tamara Kneese for co-editing this special issue on Radical Care, and to the journal’s managing editor Marie Buck, and to Roberto Sirvent for giving me feedback on a prior draft.
