What Mutual Aid Is (and Isn't): Understanding the political nature of care work.
Mutual aid isn't charity—it's political work that builds solidarity and challenges capitalism.
Book summary
Current BestsellerGoodreads FavoritePerennial Seller
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis
by Dean Spade
Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)
A playbook on designing care networks that outlast elections.
4.6(12k)Published 2020
Topics
CareCommunityOrganizingSolidarityCrisis ResponseSocial Justice
Reading companion
How to read Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis with Readever
Collect the neighborhood-level rituals and note the checklists at the end of each chapter. Use Readever to schedule those rituals with your own pods and to archive the supporting evidence for future budget requests. Focus on understanding the practical organizing principles Spade outlines and how to adapt them to your specific community context.
Things to know before reading
- The book is intensely practical—be ready to take notes and start organizing
- Spade emphasizes that mutual aid is political work, not just charity
- The examples are drawn from real organizing experiences across different communities
- Focus on understanding the organizing principles rather than just memorizing specific tactics
Brief summary
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis in a nutshell
Dean Spade provides a practical guide to building mutual aid networks that can sustain communities through crises and build lasting solidarity. The book shows how ordinary people can create systems of care that meet immediate needs while challenging the extractive logic of capitalism and building power for long-term transformation.
Key ideas overview
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis summary of 4 key ideas
*Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis* provides a practical guide to building community care networks that can meet immediate needs while building lasting solidarity and political power.
Building Resilient Networks: Creating structures that can withstand crisis and opposition.
The most resilient mutual aid networks are those built on clear principles and sustainable practices.
Mutual Aid as Political Strategy: Using care work to build power and challenge capitalism.
Mutual aid isn't just about survival—it's about building the world we want to live in.
Navigating Challenges: Managing burnout, conflict, and external opposition.
The biggest threat to mutual aid networks isn't external opposition—it's internal burnout and conflict.
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Book summaries like Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis
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Build resilient community care networks that outlast elections and budget cycles.
This summary gives you the complete toolkit for designing and implementing mutual aid networks that can meet immediate community needs while building lasting solidarity and political power. You'll learn how to organize care systems that don't depend on government or charity, create sustainable structures for sharing resources, and build the collective capacity needed to challenge capitalism and build a more just world.
Deep dive
Key ideas in Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis
Key idea 1
What Mutual Aid Is (and Isn't): Understanding the political nature of care work.
Mutual aid isn't charity—it's political work that builds solidarity and challenges capitalism.
Spade distinguishes mutual aid from charity and social services, showing how mutual aid is fundamentally political work that builds solidarity and challenges the logic of capitalism. While charity often reinforces hierarchies and dependency, mutual aid creates relationships of mutual support and builds collective power.
The book explains how mutual aid operates on principles of solidarity, not charity—people coming together to meet each other's needs as equals, recognizing that our struggles are connected. Spade emphasizes that mutual aid isn't just about providing resources but about building relationships and political consciousness.
Remember
- Understand the difference between mutual aid and charity
- Recognize mutual aid as political work that builds solidarity
- Build relationships of mutual support rather than dependency
- Connect immediate needs to broader political analysis
Key idea 2
Building Resilient Networks: Creating structures that can withstand crisis and opposition.
The most resilient mutual aid networks are those built on clear principles and sustainable practices.
Spade provides detailed guidance on how to build mutual aid networks that can withstand crises and opposition. He covers everything from initial organizing and decision-making structures to resource management and conflict resolution. The book emphasizes the importance of building networks that are sustainable, scalable, and resilient.
The book includes practical tools for organizing mutual aid, including checklists for starting a pod, templates for resource sharing, and guidance on managing common challenges. Spade draws on lessons from successful mutual aid efforts during COVID-19 and other crises to show what works and what doesn't in building resilient care networks.
Remember
- Build networks with clear principles and sustainable practices
- Create decision-making structures that are democratic and efficient
- Plan for scalability and resilience from the beginning
- Learn from successful examples of mutual aid organizing
Key idea 3
Mutual Aid as Political Strategy: Using care work to build power and challenge capitalism.
Mutual aid isn't just about survival—it's about building the world we want to live in.
Spade argues that mutual aid is a crucial political strategy for building power and challenging capitalism. By creating systems of care that operate outside the logic of the market and the state, mutual aid networks prefigure the kind of society we want to build—one based on solidarity, cooperation, and collective care.
The book shows how mutual aid can be a site of political education and organizing, helping people develop the skills and relationships needed for broader social transformation. Spade emphasizes that mutual aid isn't an alternative to political organizing but an essential component of building working-class power.
Remember
- Use mutual aid as a strategy for building political power
- Connect care work to broader political analysis and organizing
- Prefigure the world we want through our organizing practices
- Build the skills and relationships needed for social transformation
Key idea 4
Navigating Challenges: Managing burnout, conflict, and external opposition.
The biggest threat to mutual aid networks isn't external opposition—it's internal burnout and conflict.
Spade provides practical guidance on navigating the common challenges that mutual aid networks face, including burnout, conflict, and external opposition. He emphasizes the importance of building networks that can sustain themselves over time and manage the emotional and practical demands of care work.
The book includes strategies for preventing burnout, managing conflict constructively, and building networks that can withstand external pressure. Spade draws on lessons from organizers who have built sustainable mutual aid efforts to show how to create networks that can last beyond immediate crises.
Remember
- Build practices to prevent burnout and sustain organizers
- Develop constructive approaches to conflict resolution
- Plan for external opposition and build resilience
- Create networks that can last beyond immediate crises
Context
What is Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis about?
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis is a practical guide to building community care networks that can meet immediate needs while building lasting solidarity and political power. Dean Spade, a longtime organizer and legal scholar, draws on his experience with mutual aid organizing to provide a comprehensive toolkit for creating systems of care that operate outside the logic of capitalism and the state.
The book shows how ordinary people can come together to meet each other's needs through mutual aid—not as charity, but as political work that builds solidarity and challenges the extractive logic of capitalism. Spade provides detailed guidance on everything from starting a mutual aid pod to managing resources, making decisions collectively, and navigating the challenges that arise in care work.
More than just a how-to guide, the book makes the case that mutual aid is an essential political strategy for building the world we want to live in. By creating systems of care based on solidarity rather than charity, mutual aid networks prefigure the kind of society we're fighting for—one where everyone's needs are met and everyone has a say in the decisions that affect their lives.
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Review
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis review
Spade's writing is clear, practical, and grounded in real organizing experience. He manages to make complex political concepts accessible while providing concrete guidance that organizers can immediately put into practice. The book stands out for its combination of theoretical clarity and practical wisdom, making it an essential resource for anyone involved in mutual aid or community organizing.
Critical Reception: Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis has been widely praised for its practical usefulness and political clarity. Reviewers have noted that it fills an important gap in organizing literature by providing both a theoretical framework for understanding mutual aid and concrete guidance for putting it into practice. The book has become a go-to resource for mutual aid organizers across different movements and contexts.
- "The most practical guide to mutual aid organizing available" - The Nation
- "Combines political theory with on-the-ground organizing wisdom" - Jacobin
- "Essential reading for anyone building community care networks" - In These Times
- "A toolkit for survival and transformation in crisis times" - The Guardian
- "Shows how ordinary people can build power through care and solidarity" - Bookforum
Who should read Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis?
Community organizers building mutual aid networks
Activists looking for practical strategies for building power
People involved in crisis response and disaster relief
Anyone interested in building community resilience
Social workers and service providers seeking alternative models
About the author
Dean Spade is a lawyer, organizer, and professor who has been involved in mutual aid organizing for decades. He is the founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which provides free legal services to low-income people and people of color who are transgender, gender non-conforming, or intersex. Spade is also a professor at Seattle University School of Law, where he teaches courses on poverty law, queer and trans legal issues, and social movements.
Spade's work focuses on how law and policy shape inequality and how social movements can build power to challenge injustice. In addition to Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis, he is the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law and Mutual Aid: Disaster Collectivism in the United States.
Throughout his career, Spade has combined legal work with grassroots organizing, seeing both as essential to building power and challenging injustice. His writing and organizing have been particularly influential in movements for trans liberation, prison abolition, and mutual aid.
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Final summary
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis succeeds in its ambitious goal of providing both a theoretical framework for understanding mutual aid and a practical toolkit for putting it into practice. Spade combines deep political analysis with concrete organizing wisdom, showing how ordinary people can build systems of care that meet immediate needs while building the solidarity and power needed for long-term transformation.
The book's lasting value lies in its practical usefulness and its clear-eyed assessment of both the possibilities and challenges of mutual aid organizing. Rather than offering utopian visions or defensive justifications, Spade provides a realistic guide to building networks that can withstand crises and opposition while prefiguring the world we want to build.
Inside the book
Principles of Mutual Aid
Core Principles
- Solidarity, not charity
- Horizontal rather than hierarchical organization
- Meeting immediate needs while building long-term power
- Prefigurative politics—building the world we want now
- Collective decision-making and resource management
Political Framework
- Mutual aid as challenge to capitalism and state power
- Building working-class power through care work
- Connecting immediate needs to broader political analysis
- Creating alternatives to state and market solutions
- Building resilience against crisis and opposition
Practical Organizing Tools
Starting a Mutual Aid Pod
- Initial outreach and relationship-building
- Assessing community needs and resources
- Setting up communication and decision-making structures
- Establishing principles and values
- Planning for sustainability and growth
Resource Management
- Inventory systems for tracking resources
- Fair distribution practices
- Managing donations and contributions
- Building financial sustainability
- Scaling resource sharing as networks grow
Decision-Making and Governance
- Consensus-based decision-making
- Rotating leadership and shared responsibility
- Conflict resolution and mediation
- Building trust and accountability
- Managing power dynamics and preventing burnout
Crisis Response and Resilience
Emergency Response
- Rapid needs assessment during crises
- Mobilizing resources and volunteers quickly
- Coordinating with other mutual aid networks
- Managing information and communication
- Providing emotional support and care
Long-Term Resilience
- Building networks that can withstand multiple crises
- Developing sustainable funding and resource streams
- Training new organizers and building leadership
- Creating systems for knowledge sharing and learning
- Building political education and analysis
Political Strategy and Movement Building
Building Power
- Using mutual aid as base for broader organizing
- Developing political education and analysis
- Building coalitions across movements
- Connecting local work to national and international struggles
- Using mutual aid to challenge state and corporate power
Navigating Challenges
- Managing burnout and organizer sustainability
- Dealing with external opposition and repression
- Navigating relationships with state and nonprofit systems
- Managing growth and scaling challenges
- Maintaining political clarity and purpose
Case Studies and Examples
COVID-19 Mutual Aid
- Rapid response networks during pandemic
- Food distribution and mutual aid pods
- Rent strikes and housing defense
- Healthcare access and medical mutual aid
- Lessons from pandemic organizing
Disaster Collectivism
- Mutual aid in natural disasters
- Community response to climate emergencies
- Building resilience in vulnerable communities
- Coordination with official disaster response
- Long-term recovery and rebuilding
Ongoing Mutual Aid Projects
- Food not Bombs and community kitchens
- Tenant unions and housing defense
- Community land trusts and housing cooperatives
- Worker cooperatives and economic democracy
- Abolitionist organizing and community safety
Implementation Roadmap
Getting Started (0-3 months)
- Building initial relationships and trust
- Identifying immediate community needs
- Setting up basic communication and decision-making
- Starting small with achievable projects
- Building core organizing team
Building Capacity (3-12 months)
- Expanding network and participation
- Developing sustainable resource systems
- Building leadership and organizing skills
- Connecting with broader movements
- Developing political education programs
Long-Term Sustainability (1+ years)
- Building durable organizational structures
- Developing multiple revenue streams
- Training new generations of organizers
- Building political power and influence
- Creating models that can be replicated
Educational and Training Resources
Study Materials
- Core texts on mutual aid and organizing
- Case studies of successful mutual aid projects
- Political education on capitalism and alternatives
- Skills training for specific organizing tasks
- Debates within mutual aid and organizing movements
Training Programs
- Organizing skills and strategic thinking
- Conflict resolution and mediation
- Resource management and sustainability
- Political education and analysis
- Leadership development and mentorship
Communication Tools
- Messaging mutual aid to different audiences
- Building media and communication capacity
- Digital organizing and online tools
- Cultural work and artistic expression
- Building movement media and infrastructure
This extended outline provides additional depth for readers who want to explore the principles, practices, and strategic applications of mutual aid organizing beyond the introductory level presented in the main text.
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