This guide is not Granddaddy Kropotkin's guide to mutual aid, this is Pragmatic and centering Marginalized folk & the ones at mercy of the power dynamics of Capitalism-Colonialism.
(Disclaimer: statements in this Notion page are made not as absolutes or certainties and are written with trust that the reader will interpret this with nuance where appropriate as it relates to their experience and identity) TW mentions of police brutality, and abstract poverty.
Mutual aid is a form of cooperation and solidarity among people who share a common goal or interest, without relying on the state or other hierarchical institutions. Solidarity not Charity. This term was first coined by Kropotkin, but like much of theory it was just white people’s observations of indigenous lifestyles, and a guidebook for transforming society into something similar but with industrialization.
Added June 2024: 3 videos on the topic for you to watch that are amazing and far better than my ADHD ass could ever explain.
https://youtu.be/JJ9rbSFmX2w?si=M28r5xqyGP8h61k9
https://youtu.be/ZfJNbCBqYV8?si=fV5Y07PliXvhulxE
https://youtu.be/jEVkVVhI_B0?si=gbMmYeOVd9qy1VWh
As we can see in the 3rd video, an interview of Revo Blackout Network co-founder, Socialists currently do not put enough emphasis on mutual aid, mutual aid is how we do real harm reduction to ensure that during revolution the most vulnerable populations can survive and ultimately reduced suffering for all of us!
NEW: Exciting news that soon there will be a major new solution to help Cooperatives to fundraise without Capitalistic shareholders. Co-ops have always been able to issue bonds to sell debt and to create investment opportunities with returns in the form of dividends. However, these have never been mainstream. Virtually every Organization with a pension fund especially unions are invested in reinforcing Capitalist institutions. Imagine if those funds were instead invested in Worker Cooperatives? Maybe even an equivalent product similar to an ETF (Exchange traded fund) with a basket of Cooperatives and/or their issued bonds.
Since Charles Schwab invented the ETF investing has never been more simple for average folks, and it has to be mentioned that these products have given over even more money from the poor to corporations who spit on us everyday. Not to mention that the ETF product is so convoluted that there's so many hundreds and even thousands of investments within the basket of funds, this is very confusing for working folks and means if they wanted to buy into multiple ETFs they're often investing in the same stocks multiple times over. That's the nature of speculative investments, to fool the average person.
However, while being low barrier to entry, not requiring being Marxist, Anarchist, or well versed in theory. There are big differences in mutual aid that determine its effectiveness.
The most simplistic mutual aid without structure relies on working folk's wages, savings, skills, free time, and is a very finite source considering we’re kept on rationing under capitalism. Whereas structural mutual aid is where workers come together to form some type of ‘business’ for the purposes of mutual aid weather it is a Nonprofit, Co-op, Union, LandTrust, etc…
This is a clear différance from an institution founded by and catering to the Bourgeoisie. Workers then get the legitimacy of structure, bylaws, operating governance, but also access to Re-appropriating resources accessible only from the B2B world and distribute those resources to the community. There also stands the fact of raising mutual aid funds in a personal bank account will result in that money being considered income by the Social insecurity administration & IRS. Surprise tax bills and audits don’t do us any good. However, tax refunds for mutual aid orgs is money to be redistributed to the masses again and again.