Photo copyright Molly Landreth via The Nation
Mutual Aid, by Dean Spade
Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world.
Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable.
Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.
This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.
Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.
Summary via deanspade.net.
Meeting Info
The book nerds have spoken, and the 350PDX Book Club is now meeting monthly! We will alternate between virtual and in-person meetings at the 350PDX office. Please join us for our inaugural virtual meeting to discuss Mutual Aid by Dean Spade. You can join the meeting via Google Meet here. You can access the text from the book via The Anarchist Library, or purchase a copy from your favorite local bookshop.
Our book club is a place for anyone interested in the climate justice movement to come together and talk about the most important books of our time. We meet the first Wednesday, from 6:30pm-8pm, either in the 350PDX Office or online. We alternate between fiction and non-fiction.
Sign up to our Google Group here to get on the book club mailing list, or reach out to books@350pdx.org with any questions!
