Building Solidarity From the Ground Up
Mutual aid is not charity. Charity flows from the powerful to the powerless, reinforcing the hierarchies it claims to address. Mutual aid is something different: a practice of solidarity in which people recognize their interdependence and support each other as equals. It has been a cornerstone of anarchist and working-class communities for generations — and it's as urgently needed today as ever.
Starting a mutual aid network doesn't require permission, funding, or formal credentials. It requires people who care about their neighbors and are willing to organize. Here's how to begin.
Step 1: Assess Your Community's Needs and Resources
Before launching anything, listen. Talk to people in your neighborhood, building, or community. What do people struggle with? What do they have to offer? Common needs include:
- Food and grocery access
- Transportation to medical appointments
- Childcare and elder care
- Translation and language support
- Emergency financial support
- Emotional support and mental health peer support
Resources are equally varied — skills, time, vehicles, tools, space, networks. A good mutual aid network maps both sides of this equation and connects them.
Step 2: Find Your Core Group
You don't need a large group to start — but you do need more than one person. Reach out to people you already trust: neighbors, friends, coworkers, fellow community members. Aim for a small founding group of four to eight people who can commit time and share the work.
Prioritize including people who are directly affected by the needs you're organizing around. Avoid replicating the dynamics of charity by centering those with lived experience of hardship.
Step 3: Establish Simple Structures
Mutual aid networks work best when they are flat and flexible. Some basics to establish early:
- A shared communication channel — a Signal group, email list, or similar tool that keeps everyone informed.
- A simple intake process — a form or contact point where people can request or offer help.
- A shared spreadsheet or tracker — to match needs with resources and avoid duplication.
- Regular check-ins — brief, structured meetings to assess what's working and what isn't.
- Clear principles — a short statement of values that guides decision-making and keeps the network focused on solidarity rather than charity.
Step 4: Spread the Word
A mutual aid network only works if people know it exists. Use whatever channels are available: flyers in laundromats and community centers, social media, word of mouth, local Facebook groups, neighborhood apps, and partnerships with existing organizations like tenant unions or faith communities.
Be clear and direct in your outreach: This is neighbors helping neighbors. No means test. No judgment. Just solidarity.
Step 5: Sustain the Network
Burnout is the most common reason mutual aid efforts collapse. Build sustainability in from the start:
- Distribute tasks widely — no single person should carry the network.
- Practice care within the group, not just toward recipients.
- Keep structures light so they don't become a burden.
- Celebrate small wins and acknowledge the work people do.
- Be honest when capacity is limited — it's better to do less well than to overpromise and fail.
Mutual Aid as Prefigurative Politics
Every mutual aid network is, in miniature, a demonstration that another way of organizing society is possible — one based on cooperation rather than competition, on care rather than profit. Building these structures now, in the cracks of the existing system, is not just about meeting immediate needs. It's about practicing the world we want to live in.