Two important Mutual Aid opportunities this weekend in Grand Rapids

Mutual aid is collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them. Those systems, in fact, have often created the crisis, or are making things worse.

We see examples of mutual aid in every single social movement, whether it’s people raising money for workers on strike, setting up a ride-sharing system during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, putting drinking water in the desert for migrants crossing the border, training each other in emergency medicine because ambulance response time in poor neighborhoods is too slow, raising money to pay for abortions for those who can’t afford them, or coordinating letter-writing to prisoners. These are mutual aid projects. They directly meet people’s survival needs, and are based on a shared understanding that the conditions in which we are made to live are unjust.

Mutual Aid is NOT Charity

Mutual Aid is practiced by people involved in social movements, like the work that GR Rapid Response to ICE does. GR Rapid Response to ICE is committed to practicing solidarity with those most targeted by ICE, undocumented immigrants. They believe that ICE should be abolished. However, rather than waiting for politicians to abolish ICE, GR Rapid Response to ICE directly intervenes to try and prevent ICE from abducting people. They have a hotline 616-238-0081, they do patrols in areas where ICE is most active and they accompany immigrants to appointments or court dates.

When GR Rapid Response to ICE is unable to prevent ICE from abducting people they offer a variety of Mutual Aid options, such as legal support, transportation, material aid, financial aid and sanctuary to those who no longer feel safe where they are living.

For GR Rapid Response to ICE the Mutual Aid work is an extension of the direct intervention work, not separate. This is why they say that Mutual Aid is not Charity.

There are two opportunities for people to get involved and learn about Mutual Aid this weekend in Grand Rapids. On Saturday, September 15 from 9am – 4pm there is a garage sale being held where all of the money generated from that sale will go to immigrant families that have been directly impacted by ICE. See details in graphic above.

A second event is happening on Sunday, September 16th from 2 – 5pm, with a screening of a film entitled, The Elements of Mutual Aid. This film screening will also include a discussion about Mutual Aid and how you can practice this type of radical community care no matter where you live. See details in the graphic above.

Another excellent resource on Mutual Aid is a book by Dean Spade, entitled, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next). Lastly, there is this fabulous short video that provides an excellent introduction to the power of Mutual Aid.