Mutual Aid: when and by whom?

“Full spectrum community care means skill-ing up, it means radical education, it means decolonising the way we currently work. We must be able to work as a community, for the entirety of the community.” Eshe Kiama Zuri

As the UK government continues to shamelessly focus on preserving the wealth of elites, and as the lives of an increasing number of people are ruined by climate disaster, poverty and the interlinked arms of systemic oppression, what is in our power to do as members of our communities? How do we take care and survival into our own hands?

This year’s Radical Book Fair begins with a panel exploring what solidarity and community support looks like, not only in times of crisis visible to the elites, but for those who’ve been left to their own care throughout history. Passionate thinkers and organisers share insights and experiences of support in intricate networks of care on the ground, and on a broader scale across distance. Together, we will ask not only how mutual aid differs from charity, but also how we can make it a catalyst for systemic change and empowerment.

As a Radical Book Fair exclusive, this event will begin with a short video interview of the incomparable Black Trans Revolutionary Miss Major!

Our speakers:

Eshe Kiama Zuri (they/them) is a 26 year old Black uneducated non-binary disabled grassroots activist. They are the founder of UK Mutual Aid, the Black-run and activist-forward support network for marginalised people running since 2018. UK Mutual Aid has over 2,300 members and facilitates financial and non-financial support through it's Facebook group. Eshe is also an ital chef and a doula. Eshe is the creator of the term 'full spectrum community care', a concept that not just speaks on, but actively shows, the importance for building communities from the bottom up and tearing down and replacing oppressive structures with practical, supportive and sustainable alternatives that prioritise marginalised communities.

Glasgow Food Not Bombs shared its first meal in January 2021 and is currently running weekly stalls in the city’s Southside. There are an estimated 1000 Food Not Bombs chapters operating all over the world, sharing free vegan and vegetarian food as a protest against poverty, war, injustice and oppression. We are an autonomous, non hierarchical mutual aid group operating on anarchist principles. We take food that would otherwise go to waste and cook/distribute it every Sunday. We also provide non food items like tents, nappies, toiletries, and radical literature. Anyone is welcome to take what they need, we don’t ask questions or set conditions. Our members always eat at the stalls – this is a shared meal and we don’t want to stigmatise accepting freebies or reinforce power imbalances. By repurposing surplus food we want to highlight the cruelty of unequal resource distribution – tonnes and tonnes of perfectly edible food is discarded daily while the poorest are forced into degrading means testing and endless bureaucracy just to scrape by. Sharing food is only one part of the struggle for liberation, but it’s hard to riot on an empty stomach.