"The idea that those giving aid need to “fix” people who are in need is based on the notion that people’s poverty and marginalization is not a systemic problem but is caused by their own personal shortcomings. This also implies that those who provide aid are superior".

"The charity model encourages us to feel good about ourselves by “giving back.” Convincing us that we have done enough if we do a little volunteering or posting online is a great way to keep us in our place. Keeping people numb to the suffering in the world-and their own suffering—is essential to keeping things as they are. In fact, things are really terrifying and enraging...and feeling more rage, fear, sadness, grief, and despair may be appropriate. Those feelings may help us be less appeased by false solutions".

"In the context of professionalized nonprofit organizations, groups are urged to be single-issue oriented, framing their message around "deserving" people within the population they serve, and using tactics palatable to elites".

"Some people doing social movement work would articulate their goal as having governments provide relief. That is not my approach. I think that we should celebrate government concessions as an indicator of our movements building influence and capacity, but as someone who has spent my life studying poor relief and disaster relief programs...it is clear to me that government relief will always exclude stigmatized populations, be distributed through racialized-gendered hierarchies of deservingness, and be inadequate.

Additionally, the government can withdraw relief, and will do so, as soon as possible. This is the history of welfare in the US—it expands during crisis when people are organized and there is a real threat that people will topple the machine of extraction and wealth concentration, and then it contracts as quickly as possible after."

"Mutu­al aid isn’t just about helping each oth­er. We help each oth­er based on a shared recog­ni­tion that the sys­tems aren’t deliv­er­ing and are actu­al­ly mak­ing things worse".

"Solidarity is disincentivized, yet solidarity is what builds and connects large-scale movements. Mutual aid projects, by creating spaces where people come together based on some shared need or concern but encounter and work closely with people whose lives and experiences differ from their own, cultivate solidarity.

Mutual aid projects also build skills for collaboration, participation, and decision making".

"Of course, we bring our learned practices of hierarchy and (de)valuation with us even when no paycheck or punishment enforces our participation. However, experiences of being in groups voluntarily motivated by shared transformative principles and a sincere effort to practice them can build new skills and capacities."

dean spade