海角大神

It鈥檚 a frigid afternoon at the headquarters of Mutual Aid Eastie in East Boston, a predominantly working-class, immigrant community just across the Boston Harbor from downtown. There鈥檚 a tenants鈥� association meeting going on inside. Seated around a wooden dining table, members of a local housing advocacy group are helping two neighbors who have just received eviction notices decide what to do next.听

The atmosphere is jovial; they speak rapidly in Spanish and sip Mexican hot chocolates garnished with homemade whipped cream. In the kitchen there鈥檚 coffee brewing. Someone鈥檚 grandchildren wait patiently at the table, playing mobile games on their devices.听

Scenes like these are common at Mutual Aid Eastie鈥檚 communal space, a building donated by the local Channel Fish Co. The group 鈥� which is not incorporated as a nonprofit 鈥� holds weekly 鈥渙ffice hours,鈥� where neighbors can stop by to get help with complex problems like housing or food insecurity. Out back there鈥檚 a food pantry and a free library, stocked by the group鈥檚 staff. Among other services, the group has collected and distributed relief funds, advocated for immigrants in court, connected renters with lawyers and housing advocates, delivered groceries, and provided emotional healing to the East Boston community.听

As the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic tested America鈥檚 social fabric in early 2020, an unprecedented number of groups like Mutual Aid Eastie sprang up across the country, aiming to support those who鈥檇 fallen through the gaps in traditional social safety nets. In Boston, loose coalitions of passionate people involved in grassroots, non-hierarchical projects set out to transform the way communities interact with one another, envisioning a society that rejects the power dynamics of charity in favor of solidarity.听

Three years out, many of these networks have crumbled due to limited staffing, funding constraints, and volunteer burnout.听Still, proponents and scholars see value in the lingering benefits of mutual aid in communities, and wonder if the movement might have a wider influence 鈥� perhaps toward a society in which being a neighbor means more than just living on the same street.

鈥淲e鈥檙e creating this as a space for neighbors to connect with each other again,鈥� says Leonard 鈥淟eo鈥� Olsen, Mutual Aid Eastie co-facilitator. 鈥淭o听肠辞苍惫颈惫颈谤, as we say in Spanish, to actually live alongside one another and support each other.鈥澨�

Mutual aid, liberation, and the pandemic听

In the Boston area, the pandemic saw people in nearly every neighborhood voluntarily mobilizing into grassroots groups addressing the overwhelming need they saw growing in their communities.听

Mutual Aid Eastie was formed in early 2020 by a coalition of individuals from three local nonprofits 鈥撎齅averick Landing Community Services,听Eastie Farm, and听Neighbors United for a Better East Boston 鈥� as a pandemic response.听

Each street in East Boston had a 鈥渃aptain,鈥� whose job it was to connect with neighbors, linking them with food and resources while they quarantined at home.

Across the harbor in the suburb of Somerville, a newly formed group called听Mutual Aid of Medford and Somerville听(MAMAS) had constructed a similar network, utilizing Slack messaging channels and Google docs and designating听neighborhood points of contact听to ensure everyone who鈥檇 lost work could feed and support themselves and their families.听Similar groups soon formed in Jamaica Plain, Allston, Cambridge, Dorchester, and Brookline.

In each neighborhood, the sudden mobilization of a massive, nascent volunteer force mirrored what was happening in nearly听every听city in America. The pandemic, it seemed, had awakened a deep collective urge to help one another.

But the concept of mutual aid is far older. In his 1902 book, 鈥淢utual Aid: A Factor of Evolution,鈥� Russian aristocrat-turned-anarchist Peter Kropotkin听argued that it was cooperation, not competition, that led humankind to its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. Human societies, Kropotkin writes, thrive not through the self-interest encouraged by capitalism, but through mutual support based on principles of reciprocity, which he calls 鈥渕utual aid.鈥澨�

In the United States, marginalized communities 鈥� those for whom the U.S. government was a primarily hostile entity 鈥� have historically had the most to gain from mutual aid. In the late 1700s, the听Free African Society听provided听such support听to听formerly enslaved people听in Philadelphia, and used the organization to consolidate the Black community鈥檚 power. Coupling aid with social agendas is a common thread throughout the mutual aid groups that have blossomed since, with many being explicitly associated with radical politics. In 1969, the Black Panther Party began its听Free Breakfast for Children听program, and distributed free food to urban children across the country under the assumption that Black liberation could not be realized by people with empty stomachs.听

鈥淲e hear news about mutual aid when it鈥檚 about an acute crisis,鈥� says Dean Spade, a Seattle-based lawyer, activist, and author. 鈥淎 lot of new people get involved during acute crises, but actually, it鈥檚 going on all the time in communities that live in perpetual crisis.鈥澨�

He sees the pandemic as part of a long history of disasters highlighting the inadequacies of traditional social safety nets, further catalyzing the public鈥檚 interest in radical practices.听

Similarly, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the national uprising that followed sparked a wave of anti-government sentiment that saw communities from coast to coast organizing into loose support networks, furthering mutual aid鈥檚 entry into the public consciousness, Mr. Spade says.听

Modern mutual aid practitioners vary in their connection to the ideas laid out by Kropotkin. But at its heart, mutual aid embodies the values of community and reciprocity, and rejects the power dynamics between giver and receiver imposed by philanthropy.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 the opposite of survival of the fittest,鈥� says Mr. Olsen in East Boston,听who is familiar with Kropotkin. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about thriving as a community, as opposed to trying to get ahead as an individual.鈥�

Solidarity, not charity听

A key difference between mutual aid and the work of traditional philanthropies is that those receiving aid decide how it鈥檚 used, and those providing it ask no questions. Everyone needs something, and everyone has something to give.

When a听devastating听house fire tore through a three-story East Boston home in July 2022, injuring five firefighters and forcing 30 people to evacuate, Mr. Olsen and other Mutual Aid Eastie staff hosted a dinner for the evacuees at the Channel Fish building. The group had raised about $15,000 and had to decide how to distribute the money. It was the fire survivors themselves who made the final decision, holding a candid discussion that accounted for differences in family size and socioeconomic status.听

鈥淭hey made 100% of the decisions,鈥欌�� says Deysi Gutierrez, one of Mutual Aid Eastie鈥檚 co-founders. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e doing a disservice if you don鈥檛 invite them to be part of the process.鈥澨�

In the Spring Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Crystal Huff, a co-founder of the MAMAS gardening collective, invites passersby to harvest from the tomato and lettuce plants that overflow from their front yard. Just a few houses down the street, yellow plastic crates spray-painted with MAMAS鈥� initials are filled with leafy plants. Though some had been picked clean听in November 鈥� a sign displayed on the ground next to the crates read 鈥淭ake what you want鈥� 鈥� others were still heavy with ripe cherry tomatoes and eggplants.听

A few blocks away in the Winter Hill neighborhood, home-care speech therapist Aliza Arzt spends her Friday mornings zipping around Somerville in her gray Prius, stocking the city鈥檚 community fridges. With the help of her husband, Meredith 鈥淢erit鈥� Porter, and a team of local volunteers, Ms. Arzt has been helping fight food insecurity in her neighborhood since the beginning of the pandemic. The couple are not directly affiliated with a specific organization, though by coordinating with local businesses, Ms. Arzt says Somerville community fridge volunteers move between 500 and 1,000 pounds of food per week.听

Mutual aid, as it鈥檚 practiced in Somerville and East Boston, is not meant to satisfy all community needs alone. Instead, MAMAS groceries and delivery coordinator Claire Blechman sees it as a direct challenge to local governments, highlighting the limits to their support nets by demonstrating the power of a handful of strong-willed neighbors with a fraction of the resources.听

鈥淓ven if you can鈥檛 meet everyone鈥檚 needs, you certainly can meet some of them, and that is something worth doing,鈥� Ms. Blechman says.听

A loss of momentum

Mutual Aid Eastie has a fiscal sponsor,听Resist,听a Boston-based 鈥渞adical philanthropy鈥� group that supports grassroots initiatives, which allows the group to pay its staff, part of what鈥檚 kept it going through the pandemic, Ms. Gutierrez says.听听

But maintaining a volunteer network is demanding, and other groups fared worse. In the spring of 2020, Thomas Pi帽eros Shields, a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, began attending a series of online meetings between mutual aid groups throughout Massachusetts hosted by the workers鈥� rights group听Jobs With Justice, hoping to draft a formal report on the seemingly instantaneous rise of mutual aid in Massachusetts.听

At its height, there were between 20 and 30 groups from around the state attending meetings. But that number began declining around the fall of 2020, until eventually it was just a handful. Mr. Pi帽eros Shields attributes the falloff of mutual aid in Massachusetts to a combination of volunteer burnout, college students returning to in-person school, and people returning to work. But in many communities, particularly the poorer ones, the need remained.听

Many of the hotlines and communications channels that promised immediate aid during quarantine are no longer functional. MAMAS, which once offered everything from听pet care听to translation services, has been reduced to primarily its gardening collective, grocery delivery, and a pairing system that connects Somerville residents with neighbors who can provide for specific needs. An automated email response from Allston-Brighton Mutual Aid reads, 鈥淭he pool of volunteers that we had in 2020 has since dwindled, and after months of struggling to keep ABMA afloat, we have decided to shut our operations down.鈥�

Paradigm shift?听

Still, the remnants of mutual aid networks persist through informal projects scattered throughout the city.听The MAMAS gardening collective and pairing system in Somerville remain strong, while Mutual Aid Eastie will continue serving its community with the help of Resist.听

In Boston and elsewhere, the future of mutual aid鈥檚 pandemic-related surge may be unclear. But despite its apparent trajectory, Mr. Pi帽eros Shields wonders whether mutual aid鈥檚 recent听entrance into the听American cultural mainstream has sown the seeds of something bigger.听

鈥淭here鈥檚 something that is shifting the language around our mutual responsibility to each other,鈥� he says.听鈥�Conversations have moved towards more solidarity.鈥澨�