Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff CZM Book Club: Mutual Aid by Dean Spade, Part One
Feb 1, 2026
A lively reading of Dean Spade’s Mutual Aid exploring why mutual aid matters in crises. Stories range from Hong Kong direct action to Puerto Rico disaster responses. Traces historical roots in Indigenous and Black traditions. Covers how mutual aid meets survival needs, builds movements, and creates local, participatory infrastructure.
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Mutual Aid Is Survival And Movement
- Mutual aid combines survival work with social movement building during crises.
- Dean Spade argues it produces new solidarities and alternative systems of care.
Hong Kong Movement's Pandemic Response
- Hong Kong protesters combined mutual aid and direct action to suppress COVID-19's first wave.
- They made masks, sanitizer stations, tracked cases, and pressured the government to change policy.
Systems Created The Crises They Fail To Solve
- Mutual aid addresses needs knowing existing systems often created or worsen crises.
- Spade links capitalist and colonial disruptions to weakened communal care structures.
