Where is mutual aid happening today?
Mutual aid used to happen mostly in churches or unions. Most of us don't belong to either. Where will it happen in the future?
This is part of a running course on mutual aid. You can read the other articles here. Most of today’s article is paywalled, but I offer 7-day free trials, and I’ll be selling the whole course in eBook form when it is completed!
In the past, regular Americans could count on community support and access to mutual aid resources in one of two places: their churches and their unions. Historically Black churches play an enormous role in the long history of mutual aid in the Black communities in America, with perhaps the most prominent Black Church, the AME, being an outgrowth not just of other churches, but out of the Free African Society, a revolutionary-era Philadelphia-based mutual aid organization.
In disasters, churches take on a natural role of being places for community organizing. The impulse in hard times is often to gather and pray, so this makes churches a natural jumping off point for mutual aid efforts — “oh, so-and-so lost her access to water, do we know anyone here who has jugs of water stored away? Does anyone know a plumber that can do her a solid?”
Unions offer a more explicitly radical alternative, in that they already exist to build solidarity and community among the workers. Their function — aside from negotiating with management — is often to help workers through the difficult parts of their daily life. Through strike funds, they help support each other during the lean times when they go on strike. They also offer free access to legal help and representation, supporting workers who are injured and need to go on leave, or even helping with basic legal documents like wills.
The problem for modern mutual aid efforts should be obvious: Most of us don’t belong to unions anymore1. And as of just this year, people who mark their religion as “none” on polls became the largest single group in the United States, at 29%2.
Where then, will we come together to help each other in the future?
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