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((short description|Voluntary exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit))
((Libertarian socialism sidebar))
'''Mutual aid''' is an [[Organizational theory|organizational model]] where voluntary, collaborative exchanges of resources and services for common benefit take place amongst community members to overcome social, economic, and political barriers to meeting common needs. This can include physical resources like food, clothing, or medicine, as well as services like breakfast programs or education. These groups are often built for the daily needs of their communities, but mutual aid groups are also found throughout relief efforts, such as in [[Natural disaster|natural disasters]] or [[Pandemic|pandemics]] like [[COVID-19]]. 

Resources are shared unconditionally, contrasting this model from [[Charity (practice)|charity]] where conditions for gaining access to help are often set, such as [[Means test|means testing]] or grant stipulations. These groups often go beyond material or service exchange and are set up as a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions. 

Mutual aid groups are distinct in their drive to flatten the hierarchy, searching for collective consensus decision-making across participating people rather than placing leadership within a closed executive team. With this joint decision-making, all participating members are empowered to enact change and take responsibility for the group.

== History ==
[[File:Irish-stew dinners for the poor. Wellcome L0003267.jpg|thumb|A mutual-aid [[soup kitchen]] Conder Street [[Limehouse (UK Parliament constituency)|Mission Hall]], 1881]]

The term "mutual aid" was popularized by the [[anarchist]] philosopher [[Peter Kropotkin]] in his essay collection ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'', which argued that cooperation, not competition, was the driving mechanism behind [[evolution]], through [[biological mutualism]].<ref name="KropotkinRobinson2020">((cite book |author1=Peter Kropotkin |author2=Victor Robinson |title=Mutual Aid – A Factor of Evolution: With an Excerpt from Comrade Kropotkin by Victor Robinson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CbLoDwAAQBAJ |chapter=Introduction |date=26 May 2020 |publisher=Read Books Limited |isbn=978-1-5287-9015-4))</ref><ref name="Kropotkin">((cite book |title=Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution |url=http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution |last=Kropotkin |first=Petr |date=1902 |via=The Anarchist Library |access-date=6 May 2020))</ref> Kropotkin argued that mutual aid has pragmatic advantages for the survival of humans and animals and has been promoted through [[natural selection]], and that mutual aid is arguably as ancient as human culture.<ref name="Kropotkin"/> This recognition of the widespread character and individual benefit of mutual aid stood in contrast to the theories of [[social Darwinism]] that emphasized individual competition and [[survival of the fittest]], and against the ideas of [[liberalism|liberals]] such as [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], who thought that cooperation was motivated by universal love.<ref>((Citation|last=Bertram|first=Christopher|title=Jean Jacques Rousseau|date=2020|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/rousseau/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Winter 2020|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=2020-12-11))</ref>

== Practice ==

Mutual aid participants work together to figure out strategies and resources to meet each other's needs, such as food, housing, medical care, and disaster relief while organizing themselves against the system that created the shortage in the first place.<ref name=":1">((cite web |last=H |first=Katie |date=27 April 2020 |title=From Mutual Aid To Dual Power: How Do We Build A New World In The Shell Of The Old? |url=https://www.weareplanc.org/blog/from-mutual-aid-to-dual-power-how-do-we-build-a-new-world-in-the-shell-of-the-old/ |access-date=28 July 2020 |website=Plan C))</ref>

Typically, mutual-aid groups are member-led, member-organized, and open to all to participate in. They often have [[Non-hierarchical Organization|non-hierarchical]], [[Bureaucracy|non-bureaucratic]] structures, with members controlling all resources. They are [[egalitarian]] in nature and designed to support [[participatory democracy]], [[Social equality|equality]] of member status, power-shared [[leadership]], and [[consensus-based decision-making]].<ref>((cite book |last=Turner |first=Francis J. |title=Canadian encyclopedia of social work |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacana00turn |url-access=limited |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-88920-436-5 |location=Waterloo, Ont. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediacana00turn/page/n359 337]–8))</ref>

=== Mutual aid vs. charity ===

As defined by radical activist and writer [[Dean Spade]] and explored in his University of Chicago course "Queer and Trans Mutual Aid for Survival and Mobilization", mutual aid is distinct from charity.<ref>((cite journal |last1=Spade |first1=Dean |title=Solidarity Not Charity: Mutual Aid for Mobilization and Survival |journal=Social Text |date=1 March 2020 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=131–151 |doi=10.1215/01642472-7971139 |s2cid=216351581 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/social-text/article/38/1%20(142)/131/160175/Solidarity-Not-CharityMutual-Aid-for-Mobilization |access-date=10 May 2020))</ref> Radical activist, social welfare scholar, and social worker Benjamin Shepard defines mutual aid as "people giv[ing] what they can and get[ting] what they need."<ref>((Cite book|last=Shepard|first=Benjamin|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/962305465|title=Community practice as social activism: from direct action to direct services|date=2015|isbn=978-1-4833-0937-8|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=166|oclc=962305465))</ref> Mutual aid projects are often critical of the charity model, and may use the motto "solidarity, not charity" to differentiate themselves from charities.
<!-- Spade makes the following distinctions between mutual aid and charity:<ref>((cite web |title=Mutual Aid Chart – Dean Spade |url=https://www.deanspade.net/2019/12/04/mutual-aid-chart/ |language=en-US |access-date=2020-05-06))</ref> -->

=== Challenges to mutual aid ===
((more citations needed section|date=September 2021))
* Lack of technical experts, funding, and legitimization by the public<ref>((cite journal |last1=Zola |first1=I. K. |title=The problems and prospects of mutual aid groups. |journal=Rehabilitation Psychology |date=1972 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=180–183 |doi=10.1037/h0091061 |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-06279-001 |access-date=December 17, 2020))</ref>
* Lack of full-time staff may limit the volume of work that can be completed, especially work that must be done during traditional operating hours
* Informal status may disqualify eligibility for government grants and tax benefits
* Development of concentrated social hierarchies may lead to discrimination and a movement away from mutual aid principles<ref>((Cite journal|last=Izlar|first=Joel|date=2019-11-01|title=Radical social welfare and anti-authoritarian mutual aid|url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/10.1332/204986019X15687131179624|journal=Critical and Radical Social Work|language=en|volume=7|issue=3|pages=349–366|doi=10.1332/204986019X15687131179624|s2cid=211453572|issn=2049-8608))</ref>
*[[Occupational burnout|Burnout]] by those that are able to help maintain mutual aid projects
* Participants draining resources faster than they are replenished

== Examples ==
((Globalize|section|date=August 2020))
In the 1800s and early 1900s, mutual aid organizations included unions, the [[Friendly Societies]] that were common throughout Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,<ref>((cite book |last=Sonnenstuhl |first=Samuel B. Bacharach, Peter A. Bamberger, William J. |title=Mutual aid and union renewal: cycles of logics of action |year=2001 |publisher=Cornell University |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |isbn=0-8014-8734-X |pages=173))</ref> [[medieval]] [[craft guilds]],<ref>((cite book |last=Kropotkin |first=Peter |title=Mutual aid: a factor of evolution |year=2008 |publisher=Forgotten Books |location=[Charleston, SC] |isbn=978-1-60680-071-3 |pages=117))</ref> the American "[[Fraternity#Trade guilds|fraternity societies]]" that existed during the [[Great Depression]] providing their members with [[health insurance|health]] and [[life insurance]] and [[Burial society|funeral benefits]],<ref>((cite book |last=Beito |first=David T. |title=From mutual aid to the welfare state: fraternal societies and social services, 1890–1967 |year=2000 |publisher=Univ. of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill [u.a.] |isbn=0-8078-4841-7 |pages=1–2))</ref> and the English [[working men's club]]s of the 1930s that also provided health insurance.<ref>((cite book |last=Shapely |first=Peter |title=Medicine, charity and mutual aid: the consumption of health and welfare in Britain, c. 1550–1950; [5th international conference of the European Association of Urban Historians, which was held in Berlin in summer 2000] |publisher=Ashgate |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7546-5148-2 |editor-last=Borsay |editor-first=Anne |edition=[Online-Ausg.] |location=Aldershot [u.a.] |pages=7–8))</ref> In the United States, mutual aid has been practiced extensively in marginalized communities, notably in Black communities, working-class neighborhoods, migrant groups, [[LGBT community|LGBT communities]], and others.<ref>((cite book |last=NEMBHARD |first=JESSICA GORDON |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/j.ctv14gpc5r |title=Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice |date=2014 |publisher=Penn State University Press |isbn=978-0-271-06216-7 |doi=10.5325/j.ctv14gpc5r |jstor=10.5325/j.ctv14gpc5r))</ref><ref>((cite journal |last1=Bacon |first1=Jacqueline |last2=McClish |first2=Glen |date=2000 |title=Reinventing the Master's Tools: Nineteenth-Century African-American Literary Societies of Philadelphia and Rhetorical Education |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3886116 |journal=Rhetoric Society Quarterly |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=19–47 |doi=10.1080/02773940009391187 |jstor=3886116 |s2cid=144385631 |issn=0277-3945))</ref><ref>((cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Colin C. |last2=Windebank |first2=Jan |date=2000 |title=Self-help and Mutual Aid in Deprived Urban Neighbourhoods: Some Lessons from Southampton |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43084635 |journal=Urban Studies |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=127–147 |doi=10.1080/0042098002320 |jstor=43084635 |bibcode=2000UrbSt..37..127W |s2cid=155040089 |issn=0042-0980))</ref><ref>((cite journal |last1=Hernández-Plaza |first1=Sonia |last2=Alonso-Morillejo |first2=Enrique |last3=Pozo-Muñoz |first3=Carmen |date=2006 |title=Social Support Interventions in Migrant Populations |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23721354 |journal=The British Journal of Social Work |volume=36 |issue=7 |pages=1151–1169 |doi=10.1093/bjsw/bch396 |jstor=23721354 |issn=0045-3102))</ref>

=== Disaster relief ===

====Occupy Sandy ====

In 2012 in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in the NYC area, mutual aid efforts called [[Occupy Sandy]] helped facilitate aid faster and with more efficacy than federal government efforts at the time.

==== Hurricane Katrina ====

In 2005 after [[Hurricane Katrina]], mutual aid efforts in [[New Orleans]] began through the [[Common Ground Collective]]. Efforts included aid distribution centers, opening seven medical clinics, house-gutting, roof-tarping, building neighborhood computer centers, debris removal, a tree planting service, establishing 90+ community gardens, and legal counselling services. In 2012 after [[Hurricane Sandy]], people formerly associated with [[Occupy Wall Street]] formed [[Occupy Sandy]] to provide mutual aid to those affected by the storm. Occupy Sandy distributed clothes, blankets and food through various neighborhood hubs.<ref>((cite news |last=Feuer |first=Alan |date=2012-11-09 |title=Occupy Sandy: A Movement Moves to Relief |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.html |access-date=2020-05-06 |issn=0362-4331))</ref>

[[Mutual Aid Disaster Relief]], a network of activists, has responded to flooding in [[Baton Rouge]], flooding in [[West Virginia]], [[Hurricane Matthew]], [[Hurricane Harvey]], [[Hurricane Irma]], and [[Hurricane Maria]] by building health clinics, distributing medication and medical supplies, cleaning debris, gutting buildings, building infrastructure, and distributing supplies. Their aim is to support peoples' survival, empowerment, and self-determination.<ref>((cite web |title=Home |url=https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/ |access-date=2020-12-11 |website=Mutual Aid Disaster Relief |language=en-US))</ref>

==== 2017 Puebla earthquake ====

Due to mistrust of the [[federal government of Mexico]] and its corruption, a number of organizations and volunteers were prepared to meet the needs of the people of [[Mexico City]] immediately after the [[2017 Puebla earthquake|Tuesday, 19 September 2017 earthquake]]. This included removing debris from collapsed buildings, searching for survivors, providing medical attention, disseminating news and information, donating and distributing food, etc.<ref>((cite web |last=Campoy |first=Ana |title=Photos: Mexicans show the world how to work together when an earthquake hits |url=https://qz.com/1083037/mexico-earthquake-mexicans-show-the-world-how-to-work-together-when-disaster-strikes/ |access-date=2020-06-14 |website=Quartz |date=20 September 2017 |language=en))</ref>

==== COVID-19 pandemic ====

During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], local mutual aid groups and tools were established to help share resources and run errands.<ref>((cite book |last=Sitrin |first=Marina |collaboration=Colectiva Sembrar |author-link=Marina Sitrin |date=2020 |title=Pandemic Solidarity: Mutual Aid during the Covid-19 Crisis |location=345 [[Archway Road]], [[London]] N6 5AA |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |isbn=978-0-7453-4316-7))</ref><ref>((cite web |date=2020-05-14 |title='The way we get through this is together': mutual aid under coronavirus ((!)) Rebecca Solnit |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/mutual-aid-coronavirus-pandemic-rebecca-solnit |access-date=2020-06-14 |website=the Guardian |language=en))</ref><ref>((cite news |title=Gig workers have created a tool to offer mutual aid during COVID-19 pandemic |url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/18/gig-workers-collective-covid-19/ |access-date=21 March 2020 |work=TechCrunch))</ref><ref>((cite web |title=COVID-19 Mutual Aid |url=https://itsgoingdown.org/c19-mutual-aid/ |website=[[It's Going Down (collective)|It's Going Down]] |date=16 March 2020 |language=en-US |access-date=2020-05-06))</ref><ref>((cite magazine |last=Tolentino |first=Jia |author-link=Jia Tolentino |date=11 May 2020 |title=What Mutual Aid Can Do During a Pandemic |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/what-mutual-aid-can-do-during-a-pandemic |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |location=[[United States]] |publisher=[[Condé Nast]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref>

===== In the Philippines =====
((more|Red-tagging in the Philippines))
Practical bottom–up efforts rooted in the traditional and precolonial spirit of ''[[bayanihan]]'' have been threatened with glib [[Red-tagging in the Philippines|accusations of sympathizing]] with causes condemned by the National Task Force to End [[Communist rebellion in the Philippines|Local Communist Armed Conflict]] (NTF–ELCAC).<ref name="delmundo2021">Del Mundo, R. (2021, April 21). ''[https://cpp.ph/statements/mutual-aid-community-pantries-bring-out-the-best-in-filipinos-and-the-worst-in-dutertes-inhumane-regime/ Mutual aid, community pantries bring out the best in Filipinos and the worst in Duterte's inhumane regime]''. Philippine Revolution Web Central.</ref> [[Community pantries]],<ref name="sadongdong2021">Sadongdong, M. (2021, April 20). "[https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/20/parlade-community-pantry-could-be-used-to-urge-public-to-revolt-vs-govt Parladé: Community pantry could be used to urge public to revolt vs gov't]". ''[[Manila Bulletin]]''. </ref><ref name="chúa2021">Chúa, A. (2021, April 21). [https://www.manilastandard.net/news/top-stories/352408/-communist-tag-halts-community-pantry-for-a-day.html "Communist" tag halts community pantry for a day]. ''[[Manila Standard]]''. </ref> set up in the wake of the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines|COVID-19 pandemic]],<ref name=delmundo2021/> had been denounced by state officials as being [[National Democratic Mass Organization|fronts]] for the [[Communist Party of the Philippines]].<ref name=yuvallos2021>Yuvallos, A. (2021, April 20). The [[Government of the Philippines|gov't]]'s response to the community pantry movement? [[Philippine National Police|Policing]] and [[Red tape|bureaucracy]]. ''[[Philippine Daily Inquirer]]''. https://nolisoli.ph/96642/opinion-maginhawa-community-pantry-ayuvallos-20210420/</ref> [[Military ranks of the Philippines|Lt. Gen.]] Antonio Parladé disapproved of the widely circulating narrative that the state had been inadequate in [[Philippine government response to the COVID-19 pandemic|responding]] to the effects of its own measures in containing COVID-19.<ref name=cayabyat&al2021>Cayabyab, M. J., Mateo, J., Tupas, E., Hallare, K., Macaíran, E., & Romero, A. (2021, April 21). ''[[Malacañang Palace|Palace]], [[Department of the Interior and Local Government|DILG]], [[Philippine National Police|PNP]], [[Department of Justice (Philippines)|DOJ]], mayors say community pantries should continue as NTF–ELCAC [[Red-tagging in the Philippines|red-tags]], profiles organizers''. [[One News (TV channel)|One News]]. https://www.onenews.ph/palace-dilg-pnp-doj-mayors-say-community-pantries-should-continue-as-ntf-elcac-red-tags-profiles-organizers</ref> [[Presidential Communications Operations Office|Communications Usec.]] Lorraine Badoy also slammed the [[National Democratic Front of the Philippines]] for allegedly setting up community pantries for [[Sedition|seditious]] purposes.<ref name=cayabyat&al2021/>

The [[National Democracy (Philippines)|national-democratic]] [[Human rights in the Philippines|human-rights]] network [[Karapatan]], in an official statement, hit back, stressing, "Having already been the cause of hardship in the first place, they now have the [[Hubris|gall]] to intimidate?"<ref name="karapatan2021">[[Karapatan]]. (2021, April 20). ''Karapatan hits [[Red-tagging in the Philippines|red-tagging]] of community pantries''. https://www.karapatan.org/karapatan+hits+red+tagging+of+community+pantries</ref> [[Senate of the Philippines|Senator]] [[Pánfilo Lacson]] also praised the mutual-aid efforts of pantry organizers.<ref name="torregoza2021">Torregoza, H. (2021, April 18). Community pantries a sign of people's desperation amid [[Philippine government response to the COVID-19 pandemic|COVID-19 pandemic]] —Lacson. ''[[Manila Bulletin]]''. https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/18/community-pantries-a-sign-of-peoples-desperation-amid-covid-19-pandemic-lacson/</ref>

===== In the United Kingdom =====
The first COVID-19 mutual aid groups in the [[United Kingdom]] were founded in [[Lewisham]], [[Battersea]] and [[Hackney, London|Hackney]] on Thursday, 12 March 2020. The pandemic came shortly after the [[2019 United Kingdom general election|2019 general election]], and relationships formed by young activists as well as a growing political awareness during the [[Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn]] were important to the building of these groups.<ref name="novara">((cite podcast |url=https://podcast.novaramedia.com/2020/03/the-burner-204-after-corbyn-mutual-aid/ |title=THE BURNER 204: After Corbyn + Mutual Aid |publisher=[[Novara Media]] |host=Butler, James |date=26 March 2020 |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref><ref>((cite web |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/covid19-mutual-aid-solidarity/ |title=COVID-19 mutual aid groups have the potential to increase intergroup solidarity – but can they actually do so? |last=O'Dwyer |first=Emma |date=23 June 2020 |publisher=[[London School of Economics]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref>

The UK mutual aid groups have a wide variety of politics. The first groups took inspiration from anarchistic models of community organisation. For example, the [[Battersea]] group had a core team of local activists helping residents to self-organise in a non-hierarchical manner. This also allowed the group to connect with local, grassroots organisations providing social care and mental health services. Other groups were more charity-orientated with politics around saviorism rather than a horizontalist interpretation of mutual aid. Although the proliferation of mutual aid groups in the UK brought the term into the common parlance, not everyone involved in the groups are necessarily working from the same understanding of the origins and practice of mutual aid; for example, some groups are more deferential to [[Local government in England|local authorities]] and politicians than others. Other conflicts in the early days of the groups included disputes over approaches to [[safeguarding]] and [[data protection]] (synonymous in the UK with the [[General Data Protection Regulation|EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)]]), for example over whether volunteers should be required to have a [[Disclosure and Barring Service|background check]] for simply checking in on their neighbours.<ref name="novara" /><ref>((cite web |url=https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/blog/mutual-aid-and-radical-neighbourliness |title=Mutual aid and radical neighbourliness |last=Grayson |first=Deborah |date=28 April 2020 |publisher=[[Lawrence & Wishart]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref><ref>((cite web |url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/local-councils-are-already-trying-to-sabotage-the-mutual-aid-networks/ |title=Local councils are already trying to sabotage the mutual aid networks |last=Spender |first=Carl |date=16 March 2020 |website=Freedom News |publisher=[[Freedom Press]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref><ref>((cite magazine |last=Dhillon |first=Amardeep Singh |date=4 May 2020 |title=The politics of Covid-19: the frictions and promises of mutual aid |url=https://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-politics-of-covid-19-the-frictions-and-promises-of-mutual-aid/ |magazine=[[Red Pepper (magazine)|Red Pepper]] |location=[[London]], [[England]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref>

After the first few groups were set up, a website called "Covid-19 Mutual Aid" was created to help develop an organisational model for the mutual aid groups and facilitate the sharing of resources. It was frequently misreported as coordinating the groups.<ref>((cite web |title=COVID-19 Mutual Aid UK |url=https://covidmutualaid.org/ |website=Mutual Aid UK |access-date=24 March 2020))</ref>

COVID-19 mutual aid groups in the UK undertake a broadly similar range of activities: offering support around shopping, collecting prescriptions, dog walking, and offering a chat to those who are lonely due to [[Isolation (health care)|self-isolation]]. Groups tend to organise themselves by initially setting up a [[Facebook]] group corresponding to a local authority area, and then from there linking to a [[WhatsApp]] group corresponding to a [[Ward (electoral subdivision)|council ward]]. From there the way that groups organise themselves vary greatly but they usually involve producing leaflets with the phone number of one or several volunteers and then trying to reach as many people in the neighbourhood as possible.<ref name="novara" /> Other tools commonly used for organising include [[Slack (software)|Slack]], [[Google Docs]], and [[Zoom (software)|Zoom]].<ref>((cite web |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/openmovements/creating-hyperlocal-infrastructure-care-covid-19-mutual-aid-groups/ |title=Creating a hyperlocal infrastructure of care: COVID-19 Mutual Aid Groups |last=Kavada |first=Anastasia |date=12 June 2020 |website=[[openDemocracy]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref>

In the context of the rapid growth of mutual aid groups across the UK, the government attempted to create a centralised effort with the [[NHS Volunteer Responders]] scheme. Almost 750,000 people signed up to it, although most of these people were not called upon due to organisational issues.<ref>((cite news |last=Moritz |first=Judith |date=24 April 2020 |title=Coronavirus: Volunteers 'not being called upon' to help NHS |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52418946 |work=[[BBC News]] |location=[[United Kingdom]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref>

Academics from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the [[University of Cambridge]] found that the density of COVID-19 mutual aid groups in the United Kingdom was positively correlated with [[social capital]] (that is, areas which are already wealthy are more likely to benefit from the presence of mutual aid groups).<ref>((cite web |url=https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/social-capital-and-response-covid-19/ |title=Social capital and the response to Covid-19 |last=Felici |first=Marco |date=21 April 2020 |publisher=[[University of Cambridge]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref> In deprived areas like [[Wolverhampton]], mutual aid groups were hampered by the legacy of the [[United Kingdom government austerity programme]].<ref>((cite magazine |last=Heppenstall-West |first=Luke |date=29 April 2020 |title=How Austerity Is Undermining Mutual Aid |url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/04/how-austerity-is-undermining-mutual-aid |magazine=[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]] |location=[[London]], [[England]] |publisher=[[Bhaskar Sunkara]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref>

A report by the [[New Local Government Network]] concluded that mutual aid groups are an 'indispensable' part of the United Kingdom's coronavirus response.<ref>((cite web |url=http://www.nlgn.org.uk/public/2020/mutual-aid/ |title=Communities vs. Coronavirus: The Rise of Mutual Aid |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=13 July 2020 |publisher=[[New Local Government Network]] |access-date=28 July 2020))</ref>

=== Technology ===
Academic and author [[Joseph M. Reagle Jr.]] has described contributing to [[Wikipedia]] as a form of mutual aid.<ref>((cite web |last=Reagle |first=Joseph M. |date=2005-07-28 |title=A Case of Mutual Aid: Wikipedia, Politeness, and Perspective Taking |url=https://reagle.org/joseph/2004/agree/wikip-agree.html |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2020-12-11 |website=reagle.org |language=en-US))</ref>

== See also ==
((Portal|Anarchism|Communism|Socialism|Organized Labor|Libertarianism
))
((div col))
* [[Benefit society]]
* [[Communal work]]
* [[Community fridge]]
* [[Gift economy]]
* [[Little_Free_Library#Little_Free_Pantries_and_Blessing_Boxes|Little Free Pantries]]
* ''[[Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]]'', by Peter Kropotkin
* [[Mutual credit]]
* [[Mutual organization]]
* [[Mutualism (movement)|Mutualism]]
* [[Solidarity]]
* [[Solidarity economy]]
* [[Sociability]]
((div col end))

== References ==

((reflist))

== Bibliography ==
((Refbegin|2))
* ((Cite book|last=Amaro Hernández|first=José|year=1983|title=Mutual Aid for Survival: The Case of the Mexican American|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oh1HAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Krieger|isbn=9780898745467))
* ((Cite book|editor-last=Awry|editor-first=Wren|year=2023|title=Nourishing Resistance: Stories of Food, Protest, and Mutual Aid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7QhpEAAAQBAJ|publisher=[[PM Press]]|isbn=978-1-62963-996-3|lccn=2022943234))
* ((Cite book|last1=Bacharach|first1=Samuel B.|last2=Bamberger|first2=Peter|last3=Sonnenstuhl|first3=William J.|year=2001|title=Mutual Aid and Union Renewal: Cycles of Logics of Action|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_o39enf6DsC|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|isbn=0-8014-8734-X|lccn=00-012151))
* ((cite book|last=Baylouny|first=Anne Marie|year=2010|title=Privatizing Welfare in the Middle East: Kin Mutual Aid Associations in Jordan and Lebanon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VOleUU47AmMC|publisher=[[Indiana University Press]]|isbn=978-0-253-22195-7|lccn=2009045228))
* ((cite book|last=Beito|first=David T.|year=2000|title=From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIOp0ofIwDwC|publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]|isbn=0-8078-4841-7|lccn=99-41895))
* ((cite book|last=Borkman|first=Thomasina|year=1999|title=Understanding Self-help/mutual Aid: Experiential Learning in the Commons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EaCyXL2vvWEC|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]|isbn=0-8135-2630-2|lccn=98-50649))
* ((Cite book|editor-last1=Borsay|editor-first1=Anne|editor-last2=Shapely|editor-first2=Pete|year=2016|orig-year=2007|title=Medicine, Charity and Mutual Aid: The Consumption of Health and Welfare in Britain, c.1550–1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yogWDAAAQBAJ|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-7546-5148-2|lccn=2006030263|doi=10.4324/9781315594699))
* ((Cite book|editor-last1=Bridgen|editor-first1=Paul|editor-last2=Harris|editor-first2=Bernard|year=2007|title=Charity and Mutual Aid in Europe and North America since 1800|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-203-93240-7|lccn=2007031877))
* ((cite book|last=Delalande|first=Nicolas|year=2023|title=Struggle and Mutual Aid: The Age of Worker Solidarity|publisher=[[Other Press]]|isbn=9781635420111|lccn=2022027364))
* ((Cite book|last1=Firth |first1=Rhiannon|title=Disaster Anarchy: Mutual Aid and Radical Action|year=2022|isbn=978-0-7453-4046-3|publisher=[[Pluto Press]]|oclc=1288196115)) 
* ((cite book|editor-last1=Gitterman|editor-first1=Alex|editor-last2=Shulman|editor-first2=Lawrence|year=2005|title=Mutual Aid Groups, Vulnerable and Resilient Populations, and the Life Cycle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AK6rAgAAQBAJ|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|isbn=0-231-12885-1|lccn=2005056035))
* ((cite book|last1=Grubačić|first1=Andrej|author-link1=Andrej Grubačić|last2=O'Hearn|first2=Denis|author-link2=Denis O'Hearn|year=2016|title=Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=raowDwAAQBAJ|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=9780520962484|lccn=2015036704))
* ((Cite book|editor-last1=Midgley|editor-first1=James|editor-last2=Hosaka|editor-first2=Mitsuhiko|year=2011|title=Grassroots Social Security in Asia: Mutual Aid, Microinsurance and Social Welfare|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-203-83178-6|lccn=2010031554))
* ((cite book|last=Moyse Steinberg|first=Dominique|year=2009|orig-year=2004|title=The Mutual-aid Approach to Working with Groups: Helping People Help One Another|edition=2nd|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-7890-1462-7|lccn=2004007025))
* ((Cite book|last1=Preston|first1=John|last2=Firth|first2=Rhiannon|year=2020|title=Coronavirus, Class and Mutual Aid in the United Kingdom|publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]]|isbn=9783030577131))
* ((cite book|last1=Servigne|first1=Pablo|last2=Chapelle|first2=Gauthier|year=2022|title=Mutual Aid: The Other Law of the Jungle|publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]|isbn=978-1509547920))
* ((cite book|editor-last1=Sitrin|editor-first1=Marina|editor-last2=Sembrar|editor-first2=Colectiva|year=2020|title=Pandemic Solidarity: Mutual Aid During the Covid-19 Crisis|publisher=[[Pluto Press]]|isbn=978-0-7453-4320-4|jstor=j.ctv12sdx5v|doi=10.2307/j.ctv12sdx5v|last1=Rebecca |first1=Solnit |s2cid=240768553 ))
* ((cite book|editor-last1=Swain|editor-first1=Dan|editor-last2=Urban|editor-first2=Petr|editor-last3=Malabou|editor-first3=Catherine|editor-last4=Kouba|editor-first4=Petr|year=2021|title=Unchaining Solidarity: On Mutual Aid and Anarchism with Catherine Malabou|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VQNOEAAAQBAJ|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|isbn=9781538157961|lccn=2021034081))
* ((Cite book|last=Winfield Fretz|first=Joseph|year=2020|title=Christian Mutual Aid: A Handbook of Brotherhood Economics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwUCEAAAQBAJ|publisher=[[Wipf and Stock]]|isbn=9781725283695))
((refend))

== Further reading ==
* ''[https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution]'', Peter Kropotkin, 1902
*Hossein, Caroline Shenaz. 2018. ''[https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137602787 The Black Social Economy]''. NY:Palgrave Macmillan
*[http://bigdoorbrigade.com/2019/08/29/first-draft-of-mutual-aid-syllabus/ Syllabus, "Queer and Trans Mutual Aid for Survival and Mobilization" course at University of Chicago with professor Dean Spade]
* [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3mkjv/what-is-mutual-aid-and-how-can-it-help-with-coronavirus What Is Mutual Aid, and How Can It Help With Coronavirus?]
* ''For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America'', PM Press, by John Curl, 2009
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121113230805/http://arthur-engelbert.de/publikationen/help-gegenseitig-behindern-oder-helfen-eine-skizze-zur-wahrnehmung-heute/ "Help! Gegenseitig behindern oder helfen. Eine politische Skizze zur Wahrnehmung heute", Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2012]

== External links ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lReWpkn0dU Mutual Aid Societies] (lecture by Sheldon Richman)
* [https://histphil.org/2020/03/24/mutual-aid-and-physical-distancing-are-not-new-for-black-and-racialized-minorities-in-the-americas/ Mutual aid and physical distancing is not new to the Black and racialized minorities in the Americas By Caroline S. Hossein.]

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