With the COVID-19 pandemic’s exacerbation of unemployment, evictions, and food insecurity—as well as an encroaching authoritarian state—mutual aid must be a vital part of DSA’s strategy. Mutual aid is often defined by the slogan, “solidarity, not charity,” eschewing the hierarchical power dynamics and gatekeeping of large charities and, instead, encouraging folks to work as a community to ensure everyone’s needs are met with dignity. Within the past few months, it has been used as a conduit for disaster relief. However, mutual aid programs have deep philosophical roots in socialist and anarchist thought and a rich history as a survival tactic used by oppressed groups.
In the southern U.S., a coalition of mutual aid and advocacy groups has created the Southern Movement Assembly (SMA). The SMA’s membership includes the historic Highlander Center—an institution pivotal in forming union relations in the South and facilitating the work of many civil rights projects. Groups participating in the SMA operate with the shared goals of creating a new social economy, protecting and defending communities, and working towards a people’s democracy. Many SMA groups have a long history of mutual aid projects, extending the concept beyond survival and pushing to create a parallel economy. Project South, for example, provides mutual aid in the form of popular education, organization building, and legal advocacy. While others, such as Cooperation Jackson, form a network of worker cooperatives, encouraging the creation of a solidarity economy. A solidarity economy exists as a parallel economy to our current capitalist system. Those building a solidarity economy form worker co-operatives, community land trusts, and transformative justice alternatives to the current criminal justice system. The coalition of groups in the SMA is inspiring to say the least.
DSA would benefit from a similar strategy. Although some chapters are already using mutual aid to build community power, prioritizing mutual aid as a national strategy has many benefits. As an outreach strategy, mutual aid and solidarity economies demonstrate the daily work of socialists, detaching it from often toxic political discourse. With education and class consciousness, mutual aid makes the cause of socialism more local and personalized. In a country that propagated the Red Scare for decades, mutual aid counters the narrative of socialism as a failed, authoritarian system. Rather, mutual aid displays the failures and callousness of capitalism and showcases the radically democratic nature of people-powered institutions advocated by many socialists. There is much to battle, as the working class—especially in the South and rural areas—have not been exposed to socialism outside of a media bogeyman. However, mutual aid can challenge this perspective by building concrete relationships with the poor and working class. These relationships reinforce the ethics and justice of socialism. When people are given agency rather than dependency, they are more prone to recognize that charities—and purposefully inadequate social systems—are perpetrators of oppressive, capitalist structures. The community that mutual aid builds helps transform the American cultural standard of rugged individualism into collective responsibility.
As another strategy, DSA could focus on mutual aid to create dual power. Lenin coined the term “dual power” to describe the dynamic between the counter-governmental institutions of the Russian soviets and the provisional liberal government of 1917. He saw counter-governmental institutions as a force of revolutionary transition. Lenin and Trotsky perceived dual power as a necessary contradiction, two forces competing for the same power. They argued, however, that counter-governments built the infrastructure for a successful revolution. After the revolution, power would then transfer from the counter-governments to the new state. In modern usage, dual power has been used by libertarian socialists to describe a strategy that creates counter institutions while challenging the structures of capitalism. For DSA, this could be building mutual aid and solidarity economies while also influencing electoral politics. A DSA chapter with a solid mutual aid infrastructure also has the advantage of greater influence on local governments. We know historically that local and grassroots movements in the United States have succeeded in influencing social and economic change. Additionally, in our current political climate, building socialist counter-institutions is more important than ever. Regardless of the election outcome, U.S. politics continues its shift toward the right. The Democratic Party is openly courting Republicans, further solidifying the single rule of the capitalist class and corporate oligarchy. Therefore, DSA must build power outside of electoral politics.
I am happy to see a national Mutual Aid Working Group, but DSA is missing opportunities if building community power is not prioritized as highly as its legislative efforts. Mutual aid is not mere charity, but an opportunity to build actionable, localized socialist communities. As an outreach tool, mutual aid demonstrates the power of ordinary people to make change—channeling into the predominant cultural milieu of volunteerism and self-agency. As its primary strategy, however, DSA must embrace dual power, focusing on mutual aid to become a more powerful political force. Currently, the National Political Committee (NPC) has prioritized legislative initiatives—such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. While these initiatives deserve their priority, DSA lacks the counter-institutions that will serve us in the interim and build grassroots power. The Mutual Aid Working Group is a start, but it is insufficient. Rather, DSA must prioritize a national Mutual Aid Committee alongside its legislative efforts. A prioritized Mutual Aid Committee would encourage localized action and provide resources for building a solidarity economy. If we are to be successful, we must build from the ground up.
Daniel Parker