Your mutual aid discussion got me thinking not just about showing up in moments of crisis like ICE actions, but also about the everyday forms too: WooFridge, sharing a snowblower, lending a skill or a hand. The quiet, neighborly ways a community takes care of itself. Perfect that you gave the talk in a library.
Probably the single biggest advantage I have found to mutual aid as a basis for organizing is it's done more than anything else I've ever seen to extend the connections and resolve people have to realize that what we can do is a million small bites at a continuous collective of people who want to help. We can't win if we have to rebuild a whole new network of assistance and relationships and trust every time there is a crisis.
Also, skill-sharing and stuff-sharing is such an easy thing we can do. We don't all need a snowblower or a table saw or whatever, if we shared things in a way that really wouldn't even hold up anyone's work or access, we could all have access to a wide range of really nice useful things and toys. This is why I love libraries having Libraries of Things. I also think back to when I had my house on the East Side, and I had this great thing going with my neighbor. They needed a place to store a plow, I needed someone to plow. They needed help with their dog when they were out plowing for two straight days, I needed access to landscaping equipment they had. I needed someone who could check on my house when I was away, and so did they. We could've both been paying a lot of money to third parties for all of that, but we just figured out we could help each other out and no money need change hands.
You’re so right about this, especially the part about not having to rebuild trust from scratch every time there’s a crisis. That’s a hidden power of it.
What strikes me is how much “sleeping capacity” we already have. Worcester has 200,000+ neighbors and only two thousand city workers. 200,000: 2,000 is 100 to 1.. Even a tiny bit of shared time and skill from regular people adds up big time. A few hours here, a favor there -- suddenly it’s enormous.
And I love your examples — the plow, the dog, the tools. That’s exactly it. Not big programs. Just neighbors saying, “I’ve got this. What do you need?”
I also think about how many folks over 65 in Worcester have time, wisdom, patience — not a burden but an untapped resource. Reading to kids, helping out in schools/after-school programs, cooking. There’s untapped wealth sitting right next all our doors.
I think that together we’re richer than we think, richer than we are individually. Mutual aid helps us notice that.
A thing I meant to say during the talk but forgot to is that I think a lot of people who identify as libertarians but have a heart and a conscience are actually anarchists who just don't know it yet.
Your mutual aid discussion got me thinking not just about showing up in moments of crisis like ICE actions, but also about the everyday forms too: WooFridge, sharing a snowblower, lending a skill or a hand. The quiet, neighborly ways a community takes care of itself. Perfect that you gave the talk in a library.
Yup in crisis or out it’s all part of the same project
Probably the single biggest advantage I have found to mutual aid as a basis for organizing is it's done more than anything else I've ever seen to extend the connections and resolve people have to realize that what we can do is a million small bites at a continuous collective of people who want to help. We can't win if we have to rebuild a whole new network of assistance and relationships and trust every time there is a crisis.
Also, skill-sharing and stuff-sharing is such an easy thing we can do. We don't all need a snowblower or a table saw or whatever, if we shared things in a way that really wouldn't even hold up anyone's work or access, we could all have access to a wide range of really nice useful things and toys. This is why I love libraries having Libraries of Things. I also think back to when I had my house on the East Side, and I had this great thing going with my neighbor. They needed a place to store a plow, I needed someone to plow. They needed help with their dog when they were out plowing for two straight days, I needed access to landscaping equipment they had. I needed someone who could check on my house when I was away, and so did they. We could've both been paying a lot of money to third parties for all of that, but we just figured out we could help each other out and no money need change hands.
You’re so right about this, especially the part about not having to rebuild trust from scratch every time there’s a crisis. That’s a hidden power of it.
What strikes me is how much “sleeping capacity” we already have. Worcester has 200,000+ neighbors and only two thousand city workers. 200,000: 2,000 is 100 to 1.. Even a tiny bit of shared time and skill from regular people adds up big time. A few hours here, a favor there -- suddenly it’s enormous.
And I love your examples — the plow, the dog, the tools. That’s exactly it. Not big programs. Just neighbors saying, “I’ve got this. What do you need?”
I also think about how many folks over 65 in Worcester have time, wisdom, patience — not a burden but an untapped resource. Reading to kids, helping out in schools/after-school programs, cooking. There’s untapped wealth sitting right next all our doors.
I think that together we’re richer than we think, richer than we are individually. Mutual aid helps us notice that.
A thing I meant to say during the talk but forgot to is that I think a lot of people who identify as libertarians but have a heart and a conscience are actually anarchists who just don't know it yet.