Review of "Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)" by Dean Spade (Verso Books)

Abstract

Dean Spade’s "Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)" is an accessible guidebook meant to inspire local organizing efforts based in mutual care, generosity, and dependency. By reflecting on contemporary contexts in which people are increasingly individualized and rendered dependent on inadequate government support systems, "Mutual Aid" demonstrates that sharing and cohesion are radical steps toward liberation. On this basis, we are reminded that contemporary social crises can usher in the normalization of interdependent community engagement, inspiring lasting social movements built upon mutual aid.

Keywords

• social movements
• solidarity
• crisis
• mutual aid
• pandemic