WHAT IS �MUTUAL AID?

-TYESHA MADDOX, PHD

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WHAT DOES MUTUAL AID ACTUALLY MEAN?

• Mutual aid ideology is when a group works together to implement collective strategies and pool resources to meet the group’s needs when there is a lack of governmental assistance.
• Resources include:
• Food, Clothing, Housing, Medical Care, Monetary Assistance, & Historically, have included Burial and Sick Insurance.
• Modern Definition—mutual aid is “a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.”
• Mutual aid projects are distinguished from charity by four main principles:
• Self-organization, Egalitarianism, Direct Action, & Desire for Social Transformation

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DID YOU KNOW?

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The concept of mutual aid is not a new one! It has had a resurgence in the last few months, as we find ourselves in the midst of a global health pandemic. However, among the Black American community, the earliest mutual assistance societies were established in late 18th century.

PETER KROPOTKIN

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• Scientist and anarchist activist Peter Kropotkin is thought to have first coined the term “mutual aid” in the late 1800s
• His1902 book Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution argued that it was human cooperation and not competition which has facilitated the survival of our species
• Many erroneously, attribute the philosophy of mutual aid solely to him and anarchist theory

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THE HISTORY OF MUTUAL AID

• Historic African American Examples:
• Free African Society 1787 founded in Philadelphia by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. The society built a fund for mutual aid, to help members look after their sick and poor widows, educate orphans, and bury their dead.
• New York African Mutual Relief Society 1808 founded in New York City. Organized around the principals of mutual interest, mutual benefit, and mutual relief.
• The group’s principal objectives were “to care for the sick and the infirm, bury the dead, and protect deceased members’ families.”
• They used their HQ building as a station on the Underground Railroad.

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CHINESE FAMILY ASSOCIATIONS

• Early Chinese family associations formed in San Francisco.
• They connected immigrants to employment and provided basic social insurances, such as medicine, payment of medical bills, burial expenses, money for travel to China.
• Rotating lines of credit or lending circles: Chinese call this practice hui or ko, the Japanese—tanomoshi or mujin, Koreans—kyes, Indonesians—arisan, and Indians—chits or kuries. They were used to pay for household expenses, college tuition, and mortgage or rent payments.

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JEWISH IMMIGRANT MUTUAL AID

• Landsmans(c)haft were benefit societies or hometown societies for Jewish immigrants from the same European town or region.
• Groups pooled together resources to benefit those in need providing its members with vital material assistance:
• health and death benefits, loans, help in securing jobs and housing, learning English, locating family and friends, an introduction to the American political system, burial arrangements, poor relief, and kinship.
• Long tradition of tzedakah or charity and self-help
• As early as 1892, there were 87 Eastern European landsmanshaftn in New York City. By 1910 there were more than 2,000, representing over 100 European cities
• The landsmanshaft was a vehicle for mutual aid,

philanthropy, health services, insurance, credit, and helped

immigrants adapt to and navigate their new society.

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• 66 Anglophone West Indian mutual aid societies founded in NYC between 1884 and 1940.
• West Indian Benevolent Association of New York City (WIBANYC)—1^st known Caribbean mutual aid org in the U.S. established on April 3, 1884.
• Caribbean immigrant mutual aid societies and benevolent associations were essential in creating vital kinship networks among Caribbean immigrants in the United States.
• Functions:
• Sick and death benefits, emotional and spiritual support, made sick visits, offered educational workshops, established scholarship funds, and offered members rotating lines of credit or susus, which worked as a collective savings plan.

BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF-DEFENSE �(1966)

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• Survival Programs included:
• Free Ambulance Program
• Medical Clinics
• Drug & Alcohol Awareness Programs
• Errand Rides For Seniors
• Socially-Conscious School For Youth
• Free Clothing & Shoes
• Legal Aid Education
• Early Childhood Education Programs
• Free Breakfast Program—

served meals to 20,000

children in 19 cities every

school day.

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• Jose Cha Cha Jimenez in 1968 helped to reform the Chicago Puerto Rican street gang The Young Lords
• Created Community Projects included:
• Free Breakfasts, Health & Dental Clinics, Clothing Drives, Puerto Rican History Classes, and Testing for Tuberculosis & Lead Poisoning.
• Worked in solidarity for incarcerated Puerto Ricans and the rights of Vietnam veterans.
• Carried out direct-action occupations of vacant land, hospitals, churches, and other institutions to demand programs for the poor:
• 1970 occupation of Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx.

THE YOUNG LORDS PARTY [1968]

THANK YOU!

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