There are an endless number of Mutual Aid practices going on all over the world today. This page is a glimpse into just some of the projects, movements and societies which are based on these practices.
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Cooperation Town
Cooperation Town is a movement of community food co-ops, self organising on streets and estates across the UK. There are currently 21 co-ops in the network, and they are owned […]
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DOPE Magazine
DOPE is a quarterly anarchist magazine run by workers cooperative Dog Section Press. Each issue 30,000 copies are printed, paid for by crowdfunding, and are then given out to homeless […]
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Cooperation Jackson
Launched on 1 May 2014, Cooperation Jackson is a libertarian-ecosocialist and predominantly Black-led network of worker cooperatives in Jackson, Mississippi. “The broad mission of Cooperation Jackson is to advance the […]
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Rojava and bakur
In Rojava, and Bakur a model based on a matrix of autonomous neighbourhood assemblies (or ‘communes’), civil society organisations, political parties, unions, co-operatives has been built up. It works from […]
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Cherán, Mexico
In 2011, the P’urhépecha town of Cherán (in Mexico) kicked out police, politicians, cartels, and unauthorized loggers. Since then, residents have horizontally self-governed while protecting their community and forest based […]
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Workers strike funds
Strike funds are an essential component of trade union operations, designed to mitigate the financial hardships that members may face when engaging in labor strikes. These funds are typically built […]
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Abahlali baseMjondolo
Abahili baseMjondolo, meaning “people of the shacks” in Zulu, is an anti-authoritarian movement in South Africa. In 2021, they had “more than 100 000 members in 86 branches across five […]
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Migrant crossing support
For example, in the USA No More Deaths aims to end fatalities of immigrants crossing the desert on the USA-Mexico border. Volunteers provide food, water, and medicine for those crossing. […]
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Venezuelan communes
In Venezuela, hundreds of thousands of people live in (as of 2016) more than 1,500 participatory communes.[1] The communes’ locally-managed workplaces produce “millions of tons of coffee, corn, plantains, and bananas […]
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Letter writing to prisoners
Letter writing to prisoners is a poignant example of a mutual aid practice that offers support and connection to incarcerated individuals. This practice involves individuals or groups corresponding with prisoners […]
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Zapatista-run Chiapas
In Mexico’s southern-most state of Chiapas, indigenous Mayan small farmers rose up in 1994 and established an autonomous zone encompassing. In 2018, the Zapatista communities were estimated to have about […]
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Landless Workers’ Movement
Founded in 1984, Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), or Landless Workers’ Movement, unites about 1.5 million members who seize unused land to live and farm on.[1] The MST […]
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Co-counselling
Co-counselling is a peer-to-peer approach to personal growth, emotional support, and self-help. It is a cooperative and non-hierarchical form of counseling in which individuals take turns as both the counselor […]
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Food not bombs
Food not bombs is a global group that provides free vegan meals on the street. The food is collected from surplus from supermarkets and bakeries that would otherwise go to […]
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Rotating Savings and Credit Associations
Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) are informal financial cooperatives where individuals come together to regularly contribute a fixed amount of money to a common fund, with funds distributed to […]
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Community bail funds
Community bail funds are organisations that raise money to pay bail for individuals who cannot afford it, helping them avoid pretrial detention and its associated negative consequences- like higher rates […]
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Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement
Sri Lanka’s Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement is an alternative-development network that includes some 15,000 villages, with 2,000 of them self-governed and self-reliant.[1] Founded in 1958 by A.T. Ariyaratne, the movement is inspired […]
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El Alto neighborhood councils
Over a million people[1] live in the Bolivian city of El Alto, mostly indigenous Aymarans whose families have migrated from the countryside over the past few decades. With the state providing […]
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Ubuntu philosophy
Ubuntu is a profound African philosophy deeply rooted in the cultural fabric of various African societies, particularly among the Nguni Bantu-speaking peoples of southern Africa. At its core, Ubuntu encapsulates […]