Crosscut Feature about Mutual Aid

Seattle author says ‘mutual aid’ will be crucial in 2021 and beyond

In a new book, Seattle University’s Dean Spade highlights how the organizing and survival tactic could be vital for future disasters.

by Margo Vansynghel

January 7, 2021

Seattle Community Fridge is a mutual aid group that sprang up during the pandemic. From left, volunteers Beija Flor, Jordan Saibic and Marine Au Yeung install a community refrigerator offering free food in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood, Aug. 20, 2020. (Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut)

Rewinding the film of 2020, it can seem like a lifetime of events transpired in a 365-day span. A pandemic. An economic crisis. Some of the largest protests the U.S. has ever seen. A historic election. Many people are lonelier, hungrier and poorer than ever. But despite the social distance and devastation — and because of it — people also came together. 

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Mutual aid will help us survive the Biden presidency

Roar Magazine just published this adapted excerpt from my new book.

The only thing that keeps those in power in that position is the illusion of our powerlessness. A moment of freedom and connection can undo a lifetime of social conditioning and scatter seeds in a thousand directions.

 Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Many people are feeling great relief that Trump has been voted out and are rightly celebrating the efforts so many people have undertaken to make that happen. But even as we celebrate, we must ensure we do not demobilize, hoping that the new administration will take care of our problems. Unfortunately, we can be certain that the Biden/Harris administration will not address the crises and disasters of climate change, worsening wealth concentration and poverty, a deadly for-profit health care system and racist law enforcement.

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Collaboration with Colin Kaepernick on Abolition

In case you missed it, Colin Kaepernick recently invited a bunch of abolitionist activists to write essays for a collection that his publishing platform has released over the course of the last four weeks in collaboration with Medium. The essays are really really really good–the whole collection would be a great syllabus for a class or reading group. I was honored to be included.