Mutual Aid: When You Can't Rely On the Government, Rely On Each Other
Cooperation is our superpower
So, I got an interesting question from a family member the other day.
I had been waxing poetic about the virtues of mutual aid as a way of surviving the economic uncertainty we’ll be facing for the next few years—I heartily believe in the concept of community sustainability and cooperation. I’m sure that comes as a great shock to everyone here.
But this family member brought me up short with a very simple question.
“What is mutual aid?”
Oh. Well, then. Apparently I needed to backtrack and start from the beginning.
I’ve been talking about mutual aid on and off for a while now, but it struck me that I may never have given a comprehensive description of what exactly it is, nor how to begin setting up such a network at the grassroots level.
That’s quite an oversight on my part. Mea culpa.
The short answer is that a mutual aid network is a group of people at the ground level who agree to collaborate and share resources and skills to make up for gaps in the system.
The long answer is that mutual aid is a combination of anarchic organizing, disaster preparedness and community sustainability.
The point of mutual aid is not charity; you’re not giving things for free to help in the short term, but rather, you’re building reciprocal networks of people who have skills and resources needed to keep a community going long-term.
This allows for immediate aid and support within your own community, and lessens your reliance on outside help. There are numerous kinds of mutual aid groups, ranging from community bail funds all the way up to community kitchens.
The kind I want to focus on today is called a neighbourhood pod. This is a small organized group of people within your local area that have useful skills and agree to work together in the event of an emergency.
As an example, let’s imagine a severe storm that tears down trees and knocks out power in your neighborhood.
Usually you’re waiting for outside help to get to you, and depending on where you are that can take a while.
But if you have a neighbourhood pod set up, rather than waiting for the local government to clear your roads of fallen trees after a storm, you call up that guy you know who has experience in woodcutting and get started yourselves.
You organize and put into motion the supply chain to get food and water in, and the people on the outside of the disaster zone can run out to pick things up. You might even have set cash aside as a collective for exactly this purpose.
While they’re out, the people who have generators open their homes to help people who don’t, and anyone with first aid training starts making the rounds to check for injuries.
Hell, if your group is particularly successful, you might have already used that community pot to purchase those generators for homes spread out through your neighbourhood. That way you can ensure that there are clusters of homes with at least one available generator for when the power is down.
I’ve seen this kind of community-level help in action myself. It wasn’t an organized pod, just a bunch of people offering help to their neighbours, but the concept is the same—just expanded.
Some years ago we had a hurricane rip through our little village and totally wipe out our power for over a week. Thankfully it was during the summer, so we didn’t need to worry about heating. We did need to worry about losing frozen food and medications, though.
We didn’t need to worry for long. Our village met the moment in spectacular fashion.
Almost immediately after the storm, when it became apparent that the power would be down for some time, the local pub put out the word that anyone who needed to charge their phone could come in—they still had power, and they’d let anyone who needed it plug in.
People settled in the pub with their laptops, working remotely with free glasses of water at hand. They chatted with their neighbours, socializing freely while the community met and commiserated over the damage done by the storm.
Our neighbours who had generators opened their doors to people who needed showers, and even offered to run laundry for folks up and down the street.
People with space in their freezers helped keep food from going bad, and people spent most of their day outside talking and getting to know folks they’d never really met before.
In short, we became an actual community instead of just a collection of strangers living next door to each other.
Organizing a mutual aid network starts small, but it builds up over time.
If you can find a local group that already exists, you should absolutely sign up with them; I guarantee there is at least something you can do to help, and the more hands they’ve got, the more effective they are.
If you have no local networks, then starting one up is relatively simple.
It starts with you and your friends. And it should start small—you’re building a core group of like-minded folks with shared goals, not an army of strangers.
Identify the people around you who are interested in organizing support in the event of an emergency and start from there. Find a time and place to meet up, and bring plenty of snacks.
When you sit down together, you start by figuring out what everybody knows, what they do for work, and what hobbies they’ve got on the side. That way you’ve got a list of skills and resources you can use—make note of what kinds of tools and utilities they’re willing to share, too.
In my neighbourhood, I know there’s a nurse who lives just a few doors down from me. I know there are a couple of people nearby who know how to pickle and can food, and there are several families with gorgeous vegetable gardens that put mine to shame.
We know some people have generators and some don’t, and we know there’s one friendly retired guy who managed to jury rig a snow plow to help clear driveways after snowstorms. He’s also a dab hand with a chainsaw and he knows how to take a tree down. If you mention something needs doing on your property, he will show up and get to it on his own. He’s a sweetheart.
These are the kinds of skills and know-how you should be looking for. Practical hobbies like knitting, cooking, sewing and soap-making are fantastic. Anyone who speaks more than one language, you should make a note of that, too.
Anybody who has a job in healthcare or manufacturing is great to have, and people who work in data-collection or admin work are very helpful in organizing and figuring out logistics.
You should also make a note of the people in your neighbourhood who might need extra help. The lady next door to me is elderly and lives alone, so if a disaster breaks out, we know to run over and make sure she’s doing okay.
If ever a wildfire were to break out, it’s good to know who might need help evacuating. Likewise if you live in an area that’s prone to flooding or hurricanes.
Figure out who has what kind of car, if they’ve got extra freezers or spare tools and yard equipment, and make a list of who has basements where people can take shelter in the event of a tornado or other dangerous storm.
Everyone has something they can do to help. Once you have the basics laid out, you see where you’re falling short, and you know what you need to work on.
Signing up for first aid courses, putting together survival kits and starting a neighbourhood food pantry are all things people can do to help out.
Over time, you build. Help your friends in other neighbourhoods set up their own pods, and work with them when you need to. This is how you construct a wider network that you can draw on when you need it.
There’s this pervasive myth online about the lone survivor.
It’s the guy who thinks he’s a tough alpha male, a real Rambo-type, and he’s going to survive the apocalypse with a rifle and a backpack all on his own. He’ll fight off raiders and rampaging bears and he doesn’t need help from anybody. A real Billy Badass.
Yeah—that guy is going to die quick and early in a real life apocalypse scenario.
The simple fact is that humanity has reached this incredible pinnacle of success through the use of one single superpower: cooperation.
We are a social species. We always have been. Our ability to band together in a crisis—and we do, consistently, don’t let the sensationalized bullshit tell you otherwise—is our one true saving grace.
We have always worked together for success, from the days of living as hunter gatherers all the way up to the very first megacity. All of our modern advancements in technology and academic knowledge are the result of collaboration.
Human survival is, and always has been, a team effort.
So many of us have become disconnected from the people around us, and in a time when the future is very uncertain, that poses a huge problem. Especially in the United States, with a government slipping into authoritarianism.
Authoritarian governments love to foster division and distrust in the population, specifically because collective organizing like this robs them of power.
If you depend less on the government, you can act without their approval or their aid.
That frees you. Mutual aid networks are great foundations for resistance.
Building connections and mutual aid networks now is the smart thing to do; that way you can start setting up plans and gathering what you need before things get worse. It’ll help you identify and plug the gaps in your neighbourhood’s needs.
Rather than depending on the broken safety nets provided by the government, you can create and sustain your own.
You can rely on the friendly, familiar faces of your neighbours rather than the strangers on the other end of the television screen.
Let’s answer the question that started this article: What is mutual aid?
Simple.
It’s the way we make it through this mess alive.
Solidarity wins.
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Love this idea.