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Book Review: Mutual Aid by Dean Spade
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) is a down-to-earth guide for anyone interested in starting or improving grassroots support groups in times of crisis. Spade, a lawyer, educator, and trans activist, is a respected name in the mutual aid movement, and their experience shines through in this book. Spade has been working to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades.
The book has three parts:
- What is Mutual Aid — explains three elements of mutual, the differences between mutual aid and charities or federal relief agencies, and the realities of participating in mutual aid efforts
- Working Together On Purpose — a guide for how to build sustainable mutal aid networks
- Pitfalls Mutual Aid Groups Should Avoid — self-explanatory
Spade explains that mutual aid are projects that work to meet survival needs and to build a shared understanding about why people are lacking these necessities in the first place. Mutual aid projects mobilize people, expand solidarity, and build movements.
Spade also goes into detail about the ways that mutual aid is different from charities. The main difference is that mutual aid movements seek to solve problems through collective action rather than…
