ENVISIONING THE FUTURE
Mutual Aid Circles
Mutual Aid Circles (or Networks) are a more democratic form of community than our present capitalist/corporate economy. Focussing broadly on exchanges within a community, MACs (or MANs) aim at
accessing unused skills and interests to meet unmet needs. PCRG, as a group initially formed to secure more democratic and equal rights within our community could explore collaboration among existing groups that represent those underutilized skills and interests to match with the unmet needs.
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"Mutual aid societies prefigure most functions of the modern state. They're at least as old as armies, but their mission is life, not death. For millennia, people have banded together to provide each other with health care, pensions, unemployment aid, investment capital, buying power, aid to the poor, disaster relief, old age care, child care, culture, entertainment, political efficacy, education, food, shelter and livelihoods. They have also leveraged their numbers to elicit some of these same benefits from those other two institutions, business and the government. Mutual aid extends the bonds of kinship and makes individuals into citizens."
(From http://realitysandwich.com/node/482)
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"What would it look like if everyone were doing the work they loved, what they felt called to do? What if everyone had the opportunity to build their skills to their maximum capabilities and then apply them to making their communities whole and beautiful?
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Mutual Aid Networks (MANs) are a new type of networked cooperative creating means for everyone to discover and succeed in work they want to do, with the support of their community. Through the HUMANs (Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks, formerly the Main MAN), a global umbrella cooperative, all pilot sites and members share their tools, experiences and resources. Together we demonstrate that the economy is what we make it."
(From ​https://www.mutualaidnetwork.org)
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For more perspectives on Mutual Aid Societies (or Circles, or Networks):
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https://progressive.org/magazine/friends-in-need-nathanson/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/what-mutual-aid-can-do-during-a-pandemic
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