Most leftists know the pandemic kicked up a lot of interest in mutual aid. And most of us like mutual aid, even if we hesitate on it. Not all of us, though, which raises a few issues.
When we debate mutual aid, either pro or con, we almost always start by distinguishing it from charity. Supporters say it’s better than charity, while opponents say it’s just charity wrapped in leftist rhetoric. In other words, both sides agree that mutual aid is (mostly) good and charity is (mostly) bad. They usually disagree only on which box – ‘mutual aid’ or ‘charity’ – in which we ought to place certain projects.
I’ll take a new route here. I’ll argue that the distinction between mutual aid and charity doesn’t help us decide what to do as leftists. Why? It’s a false dichotomy, and it doesn’t cleanly map onto ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ anyway. In practice, most projects flying the ‘mutual aid’ banner use both mutual aid and charity. Often they’re a mix of the two, and at other times they’re something in between. This false dichotomy, then, leads us astray when we decide what to work on.
Let’s talk details.
