{"id":1435,"date":"2020-09-17T14:41:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/?p=1435"},"modified":"2020-09-17T14:41:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:41:46","slug":"love-and-mutual-aid-in-the-time-of-corona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/2020\/09\/17\/love-and-mutual-aid-in-the-time-of-corona\/","title":{"rendered":"Love and Mutual Aid in the Time of Corona"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Monica Trinidad<\/a>, “We Need Each Other”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Cite this article as: Daniel Lees Fryer, “Love and Mutual Aid in the Time of Corona,” in\u00a0PanMeMic<\/em>, 05\/06\/2020,\u00a0https:\/\/panmemic.hypotheses.org\/326<\/a>.<\/div>\n

With the growth and increasing visibility of mutual aid during the coronavirus pandemic,\u00a0Daniel Lees Fryer<\/a>\u00a0looks at how mutual aid groups and the individuals involved in them are represented in the media.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amidst the chaos and tragedy of the coronavirus, one of the things that has impressed me most has been the emergence and response of mutual aid groups and networks. For those not familiar with the concept, mutual aid is basically about people getting together to help each other out, sharing skills and resources for the benefit of all. Mutual aid groups are typically small, grassroots, community-based organizations or affiliations that help provide essential goods and services to local residents, especially in times of crisis. Right now, in the current pandemic, that includes providing or distributing food and medicine, stopping housing evictions, offering a point of contact for those in isolation, or helping out kids with their homework when schools are closed. Some mutual aid groups also organize\u00a0solidarity funds<\/a>\u00a0for those whose often precarious livelihoods are most heavily affected by the pandemic (health or care workers, restaurant workers, sex workers, etc.).<\/p>\n

The idea of mutual aid isn\u2019t new\u2014as long as there\u2019s been community, there\u2019s been mutual aid, some might say\u2014but the concept or its popularization is usually attributed to Peter Kropotkin.\u00a0Writing in the late 1800s and early 1900s<\/a>, Kropotkin argued that humans and other living organisms flourish best when they cooperate, both within and across species, and that cooperation or mutual aid is key to their survival and evolutionary development. Kropotkin was a scientist, activist, and anarchist thinker, and his concept of mutual aid is one of the tenets of modern\u00a0social anarchism<\/a>. Although not all mutual aid groups (or the individuals involved in those groups) identify as anarchist, they\u2019re usually leaderless, nonhierarchically organized, and directly democratic, sharing a sense of social justice and the need for direct action. That\u2019s part of what makes them so interesting when they catch the attention of conservative and liberal media.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking primarily of digital media here, the kinds of texts we might find in online newspapers and other news outlets, but much of what I\u2019ve noticed likely applies to print media too. (Note that most of the articles I refer to here are in English. I\u2019d be interested to know how mutual aid groups are represented in other languages and in other places where they\u2019re actively responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Sorry for being so Anglo- and Euro-centric.)<\/p>\n

The typical \u201cmutual aid in the time of coronavirus\u201d article (examples\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>) contains most of what you\u2019d expect. There\u2019s the personal perspective, featuring an activist, an activist group, and\/or someone from the local community in need of aid. There\u2019s also a broader social and political narrative: what impact coronavirus has had on the local community, how that compares to other communities, how mutual aid addresses the problem, and what potential challenges it faces; and, of course, a brief account of what mutual aid is and how it works\u2014like the one I gave above. There are also articles that are more like public service announcements, providing details of local groups and networks and how to get involved (examples\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Activists in these news stories are typically portrayed up close and personal (examples\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>): eyes front, stern face, maybe a smile or a mask. Sometimes they\u2019re shown at greater distance, turned away, in a state of activity, carrying boxes or bags of food or medicine (example\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0as well as previous examples). They\u2019re generally described as creative or innovative (particularly with regard to digital technologies), often selfless and enthusiastic, generous and supportive, caring and compassionate, and sometimes exhausted and overwhelmed by the amount of help needed. One article refers to mutual aid groups as providing \u201cmeaning, purpose, and connection<\/a>\u201d. Others argue that, while necessary and important, such groups can\u2019t or shouldn\u2019t replace the kinds of services governments and local authorities should be providing but aren\u2019t (examples\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Those in need of aid\u2014the sick and the elderly, for example\u2014are often represented in similar ways: up close and personal, stern-faced or smiling; or anonymous, at a distance, in profile, face covered by a mask. They\u2019re variously described as scared, desperate, and forgotten or neglected (by the state), but also grateful and relieved for the help they get and the \u201ccommunity spirit<\/a>\u201d they experience. One article describes their predicament as \u201cheart-wrenching<\/a>\u201d, another as \u201clife-threatening [existenzbedrohend<\/em>]<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In addition to the sources mentioned above, I had a quick look at the\u00a0Coronavirus Corpus<\/a>. \u201cMutual aid\u201d occurs there at a relative frequency of 2.30 instances per million words. In comparison, the Corpus of Contemporary American English,\u00a0COCA<\/a>, contains just 0.34 instances per million words. In the Coronavirus Corpus, \u201cmutual aid\u201d collocates with \u201cgroups\u201d and \u201cnetworks\u201d, as well as \u201clocal\u201d, \u201csolidarity\u201d, \u201ctogether\u201d, \u201cgrassroots\u201d, \u201cvolunteers\u201d, \u201cresources\u201d, and \u201corganizing\u201d, to name a few. Not since the Occupy movement of 2011-2012 has reference to mutual aid been so frequent in the media, at least according to the corpora I\u2019ve looked at.<\/p>\n

Which kind of brings me back to part of what interested me about mutual aid in the media in the first place. Mutual aid can challenge existing forms of social and political organization (or the lack thereof). Yet the idea of mutual aid seems so simple, so everyday or commonplace, so natural maybe, that its radical or revolutionary potential might be overlooked. When\u00a0The Telegraph<\/a><\/em>, the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>\u00a0(I\u2019d rather not link to the Mail), or\u00a0Conservative councillors<\/a>\u00a0write about or promote mutual aid, are they aware of that potential, or do they see a different kind of potential, perhaps one in which volunteerism replaces waged labour and poorly funded public services?<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

Mutual aid groups do things that governments or local authorities can\u2019t, won\u2019t, or shouldn\u2019t do. They meet people\u2019s immediate needs, offer care and support, and help (re)build and maintain communities. Think of the Black Panther Party\u2019s free breakfast programmes, or the legal, financial, and physical aid offered to people threatened with eviction from their homes. While it might be easy to suggest that these are all services a well-functioning state or local authority should or could be taking care of, and maybe some already do, it misses part of the point of mutual aid as formulated by Kropotkin; namely that, given the right conditions, people don\u2019t really need the government or local authorities in order to thrive (and, historically, generally haven\u2019t had much use for them either). Indeed, the state might be the very reason they\u2019re not able to thrive in the first place if it helps maintain inequality and threatens certain people\u2019s lives or livelihoods. That\u2019s not to say that all activities and services funded and organised by the state are bad, or that they aren\u2019t important or essential; just that maybe they don\u2019t need to be run by the state and can be more effectively done at a local community level, coordinated through wider networks or federations. This is of course part of what mutual aid is all about, and something many of the current mutual aid groups and networks talk about too (see example\u00a0here<\/a>). Very few of the \u201cmutual aid in the time of coronavirus\u201d articles make this connection, however, even though several make reference to Kropotkin. That seems a shame, but perhaps isn\u2019t surprising given the political or ideological positions of different media and those who write for them. Still, it\u2019s nice, among all the other coronavirus news, to see masked activists get such positive media coverage for a change and to see how effective and wide-ranging mutual aid groups can be.<\/p>\n

Denne kronikken er skrevet av AreaS medlem Daniel Lees Fryer og er publisert p\u00e5 PanMeMic\u00a0 5. juni 2020. Kronikken kan hentes der<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monica Trinidad, “We Need Each Other” Cite this article as: Daniel Lees Fryer, “Love and Mutual Aid in the Time of Corona,” in\u00a0PanMeMic, 05\/06\/2020,\u00a0https:\/\/panmemic.hypotheses.org\/326. With the growth and increasing visibility of mutual aid during the coronavirus pandemic,\u00a0Daniel Lees Fryer\u00a0looks at how mutual aid groups and the individuals involved in them are represented in the media. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Love and Mutual Aid in the Time of Corona”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1435"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1437,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435\/revisions\/1437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.hiof.no\/areas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}