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Day 38 of 100 days of community

Mutual Aid Examples for a Liberated Future

Mutual aid is not charity. It is the foundation of liberation. It is how we create systems that allow us to thrive outside of capitalism.

Yesterday, we discussed why mutual aid must be seen as a long-term commitment to collective survival, not a one-time act of generosity. Today, we are moving beyond theory and into tangible models that create real, sustainable alternatives to capitalist exploitation.

Because mutual aid is not just about responding to emergencies. It is about building community-controlled infrastructure that makes us less dependent on systems designed to fail us.

If we are serious about divesting from capitalism, we have to stop thinking about mutual aid as something extra—something we do when we have “extra” time or “extra” money—and start treating it as essential. Just like rent, just like food, just like the bills we budget for every month.

Liberation will not be handed to us. We have to build it. And that means funding it, sustaining it, and committing to it long-term.


Building Sustainable Mutual Aid Systems

Rather than waiting for institutions to collapse under their own weight, we must take active steps to create alternatives.Alternatives that are not controlled by the state, corporate interests, or non-profit bureaucracy.

Mutual aid is only as strong as our ability to structure it in ways that last.

These models offer a blueprint for how we build sustainable mutual aid systems that actually work.

Three Key Takeaways

  1. Mutual aid is about shifting from scarcity to abundance. Every resource already exists—we just need to reclaim, redistribute, and share it outside of capitalism.

  2. Multi-generational and cooperative housing models must be normalized again. White supremacy forced nuclear family structures, but historically, all communities lived collectively. It is time to return to that.

  3. We must reject the individualist mindset of ownership. Capitalism teaches us to accumulate wealth alone, but real wealth is in community resources, shared labor, and collective survival.

If you believe in this work, if you want to help sustain it, I invite you to invest.

Subscribe for $8/month and help ensure that liberation education remains accessible.

No money? No problem. Email me at scholarships@desireebstephens.com, and I’ll comp your subscription.

But if you do have the means, I am asking you to commit today.

Because this is about more than my work—it is about building the future we need.

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