Yeah. I’m not talking about engaging in solidarity with others — that’s part and parcel of being a socialist — but mutual aid doesn’t aid in struggle, it just eases the conscience of those doing it and, if you’re lucky, makes suffering more bearable. Every dollar that’s spent in mutual aid is a dollar not spent on bail support or a strike fund. We need to be clear-minded about our priorities.
Yeah, mutual aid groups regularly earmark money for bail/strike funds. And like you’ve implied here, building community, which is integral to all effective organizing, can’t be done with purely transactional arrangements.
There’s a lot of mutual aid that isn’t called that by name. But from personal experience, there are indeed mutual aid groups who work closely with local unions or focus on bail for protestors. There’s a lot of “gift economy” type stuff in some areas that would constitute mutual aid being done by people who aren’t even leftists
I know it isn’t, that’s why I listed both of them
You still put them in the same category. Is it counterproductive for a socialist to give money to mutual aid organizations?
Yeah. I’m not talking about engaging in solidarity with others — that’s part and parcel of being a socialist — but mutual aid doesn’t aid in struggle, it just eases the conscience of those doing it and, if you’re lucky, makes suffering more bearable. Every dollar that’s spent in mutual aid is a dollar not spent on bail support or a strike fund. We need to be clear-minded about our priorities.
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Yeah, mutual aid groups regularly earmark money for bail/strike funds. And like you’ve implied here, building community, which is integral to all effective organizing, can’t be done with purely transactional arrangements.
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If you don’t consider strike funds to be a form of mutual aid, then we’re not talking about the same thing
Yeah, I’ve never heard that called mutual aid. I’m talking about the anarchist concept
There’s a lot of mutual aid that isn’t called that by name. But from personal experience, there are indeed mutual aid groups who work closely with local unions or focus on bail for protestors. There’s a lot of “gift economy” type stuff in some areas that would constitute mutual aid being done by people who aren’t even leftists