Monday, March 16, 2020

it's broadly difficult to speak about mutual aid in the context of a capitalist society because it really provides very few opportunities for it. when people are in the position for a reciprocal exchange, it's almost always framed in the context of a market interaction; when people require aid, it's almost always charity.

as is so often the case, the difficulty is really rooted in the existence of property. mutual aid is usually spoken of in the context of societies that existed before property was invented (where everything was shared, collectively), or in the context of a future system where property no longer exists.

trying to just do mutual aid in the middle of all of these capitalist relations around us is rarely going to make any sense, for these reasons - you're going to end up doing charity work and/or are just going to end up taken advantage of.

the issue with service workers sharing wages in an economic slowdown works precisely because it breaks the market relation. all of a sudden, there's no labour and, for the proletariat, that means that the rules of capitalism are temporarily lifted.

but, helping wealthy old people walk their dogs or delivering them food for free doesn't fall into that paradigm. it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. but, you should avoid abusing the language, please.