We Keep Each Other Safe: Mutual Aid for Survival and Solidarity
Live transcription available here.
Dean Spade in conversation with Mariame Kaba and Ejeris Dixon
Dean Spade’s new book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next) offers both a theoretical understanding of mutual aid and practical tools for sustaining this crucial movement work. Spade defines mutual aid as “collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them. Those systems, in fact, have often created the crisis.” Spade explores how mutual aid projects have been part of every powerful social movement, citing examples such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the 1950s, the Black Panther Party’s survival programs that provided free breakfasts and medical clinics in the 1960s and 70s, and the resource and skill-sharing that emerged in the Occupy encampments starting in 2011. In the contemporary moment of the widening wealth gap, a global pandemic, increasing storms, fires, and other crises resulting from climate change, as well as myriad other social inequities, Spade demonstrates how and why mutual aid is essential for meeting people’s needs and building big, transformative movements that get to the root causes of these crises.
Rather than numb out in the face of these overwhelming problems, Spade urges us to take up mutual aid work and to take part in the collective work of building the world we want.
“In my experience, it is more engagement that actually enlivens us—more curiosity, more willingness to see the harm that surrounds us, and ask how we can relate to it differently. Being more engaged with the complex and painful realities we face, and with thoughtful, committed action alongside others for justice, feels much better than numbing out or making token, self-consoling charity gestures. It feels good to let our values guide every part of our lives.” —Dean Spade
On Nov 12, Spade will be joined by anti-violence organizers Mariame Kaba and Ejeris Dixon to discuss mutual aid as an abolitionist project. Why is mutual aid key to practicing abolition? How does mutual aid relate to transformative justice and other anti-violence frameworks and practices? How can mutual aid help us to reimagine responding to harm and violence without relying on police?
Mutual aid is a key part of building a world in which we keep each other safe, a world in which we build collectively to meet each other’s needs. Join us on November 12 to celebrate the publication of Mutual Aid and for a conversation exploring its role in abolition, transformative justice, and addressing harm.
Image credit: Kate Deciccio, “Prison is no place for a pandemic.” Artwork made for the Solidarity Postcard Project, a project commissioned by Interrupting Criminalization: Research in Action, a project led by Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie.