LOCAL FEATURE CREDIT: PAULA BARD throughout the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hispanic miners in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico participated in mutual aid networks. Generally, miners were characterized by solidarity and maintained a strong aversion to philanthropy. Hard-rock and silver miners created benefit societies to ensure that they did not rely on charity. The striking miners of that era were fierce and proud men who guarded their independence. With mutual mid societies, they provided assistance for themselves, preserved their dignity, and were able to fight for safe working conditions and livable wages. By providing medical care and stike benefits, they helped solidify the labor movement. Mutual aid societies provided women’s health care, and many exclusively Black organizations provided care for members, particularly in New Orleans. By the turn of the century, mutual aid provided hospitals, doctors, disability insurance, and sick leave for workers. There were explicitly Hispanic and Indigenous mutual aid networks. In Florida, Cuban and Spanish cigar workers were covered. AND NOW? Mutual aid assistance now comes in many forms, and more mutual aid societies have stepped up all over the country. Mutual aid is said to come alive, especially, when central authority begins to break down and becomes less able to sustain citizens. People tend to come together to form networks, share resources, and support each other — out of necessity. Occupy groups, in cities around the country, beginning in the fall of 2011, utilized mutual aid networks to provide themselves with what they needed: shelter, food, medical care, music, protection. Many of the participants carried these cooperative skills forward when the Occupy groups disbanded. The DC Mutual Aid network is an example of a multifaceted support network. It grew out of Black Lives Matter - DC. It has evolved to tackle gentrification issues, provide food sustenance, support for victims of domestic violence, and support for seniors, children, and the vulnerable in public housing and the unhoused. In keeping with the historic mutual aid focus, there is no centralized leadership. This movement grew out of the need to listen to the community and step up with support. They actively debate best practices. Their Facebook page describes their mission as, “Protecting each other, not policing each other.” Closer to home in Colorado, mutual aid networks have grown all over the state: Front Range Mutual Aid, Mutual Aid in Colorado Springs, Grand Junction Mutual Aid, and Western Slope Mutual Aid all see their role a bit differently but provide essential assistance to their local communities. ■ “We like to meet folks at their level, and yeah, see what they might need, right where they’re at.” — Alex CREDIT: PAULA BARD CREDIT: PAULA BARD September 2020 DENVER VOICE 9
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