Why Mutual Aid? by Cde. Aaron
“[U]nderstand that fascism is already here … Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.” -George Jackson, Blood in my eye
I’m known for over-intellectualizing things. It’s a symptom of autistic tendencies, but much more than that, a life of relative ease and privilege: 3 of my 4 parents graduated from college, and one even got a doctorate in a medical field. By the time I was in high school, my parents weren’t often worried about week-to-week and month-to-month expenses. We ate at places like Chili’s sometimes, which is not a measure of enjoyment but of the capacity to waste money. I was exposed to literature about people in different places with very different cultures and values. My religious community rewarded me for achievements commonly associated with success.
The criticism is valid. Over-intellectualization, especially when we talk about liberation struggles, is indeed a symptom of being too far away from what people in our communities are experiencing. It should be uncontroversial to state that distance from the people and subsequent unfamiliarity with their material conditions disqualifies a person or organization from claiming that they are revolutionary.
The criticism simultaneously provides the fix for the tendency to make struggle appear like it is something very abstract and helplessly complicated: To be closer to what people in our communities are experiencing. It is part of why mutual aid is so very important.
With that understanding, I’ll cite Hồ Chí Minh: “To educate the masses, we must learn from them. To lead the masses, we must first serve them.”
The only way to have any idea what we are doing, and thus have the capability to begin to promote revolutionary ends, is to share company with people. And the only way we can trust each other or worthily gain the trust of people is in their service. With no adequately organized opposition to escalated repression and state violence within the state that currently wields the most imperialist power, the USA, the most oppressed and vulnerable people are exposed. The learning process for revolutionaries described by Hồ Chí Minh is necessarily practical. It must begin in service to said vulnerable masses.
“Isn’t the work of mutual aid groups just drops in a bucket?” is not an uncommon sentiment expressed by those who are skeptical about the efficacy of mutual aid work. It is based on a very short-term perspective.
Drawing further from Uncle Hồ, as he came to be known by his people, in a speech he gave at The National Congress of Mutual Aid Teams in 1955 (Ho Chi Minh Selected Works Volume IV, pages 81-87), specifically outlining a “method of organization” for mutual aid groups (modified punctuation; italics retained):
“Firstly, we should refrain from the desire to do quickly and tempestuously. Better to do little but surely than to do much, tempestuously but not surely. We should make firm but steady steps, and go forward gradually.
“Secondly, we should be realistic. The organization is intended for practical work. Its aim is not to have a name without practical content.
“Thirdly, we should organize mutual aid teams, from small ones, from 5-7 families to 9-10 families, to big ones. The teams should not be too big; otherwise their management will be difficult, the organization will get loose and easily exposed to failure.
“There are some other points which deserve our attention: experiences should be drawn to develop successes and to avoid failure...”
If we look to the Vietnamese revolution for guidance, it is so important to remember what revolutionaries in Vietnam have always stressed, that their publications and works must be contextualized to their own situation. Even so, I believe these general ideas are especially instructive and adhere to thought guided by dialectical materialism.
We see purpose in working with people who face the grinding violence of capitalism to the point that they are unhoused, or close to it, even on a small scale, those who confront the ruthless bureaucracy of the US immigration system, and those whose existence is propped up as a threat, namely trans people. Those we’re fortunate enough to meet are important. Though small in scale, we know aiding them in seeking better life conditions is an end of its own, a good use of time and resources.
It is also the best use of our time and resources because it develops us from privileged people and working class to relevant as proletarians. The practical knowledge we gain and the love we begin to feel for people dwarfs any claims to fitness for leadership that the bourgeois Democratic party may have. It also creates a basis for unity and the formation of a vanguard. To further paraphrase Uncle Hồ, we find our greatest strength in unity. And that real, practical unity contrasts with what the liberals are selling, an idealistic one that demands a willingness to disregard those who are most downtrodden by capitalism and imperialism.
There are reasons to be optimistic: Mutual aid groups are numerous in nearly every region of the USA. They do not all espouse revolutionary aims. But what many of them do have in common is practical knowledge and demonstrated desires to serve the people, which, supplemented with revolutionary education based on past successes, is a solid foundation for unifed struggle. More pertinent to the situation in the USA, many are seeing wisdom in the theoretical developments of the Black Panther Party, which, like the Vietnamese revolutionaries, drew guidance from Leninist teachings. They were incredibly successful, which is why the fascists bore down on them with such ruthless violence.
If you have a mind for confronting behemoth systems of inequality and oppression, for revolution, begin to educate yourself as revolutionaries before you have suggested. Discover, indisputably, where praxis meets joy. Base your organization’s capacity for leadership on the sincere and durable validity that the people of your communities will bestow if the work you do is worthy of it.
Check out my comrade Travis’ article on what lessons we’re already learning: HERE