Solidarity is the essential and too often missing ingredient of today's most important political project: not just saving democracy but creating an egalitarian, multiracial society that can guarantee each of us a dignified life.
Plenty of books about democracy, equality, freedom and justice line the shelves of bookstores and libraries. But there are strikingly few titles focused on solidarity. As longtime organizers dedicated to building and supporting robust movements for social and economic change, we couldn't help noticing this gap. And so we decided to try to fill it ourselves. Our guest essay this week, based on our new book, "Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea," is born of years in the activist and electoral trenches, dating back to the global justice and antiwar movements at the turn of the millennium. One thing we've learned is that solidarity is an intentional practice. It is not just a given but something built, person by person, relationship by relationship. We invent and cultivate new collective identities that tie us together. We've seen this up close in our organizing through the Debt Collective, an experimental union of debtors, and through working to transform the practices of philanthropy by organizing progressive donors. Solidarity, we've come to understand, is a motor of personal and political transformation, at once holding people together and advancing social change — and often inspiring ferocious pushback from those who understand solidarity as a threat to their interests. We see recent attacks on D.E.I., socially responsible investing, gender equity and reproductive rights, and "wokeness" more generally as part of a coordinated effort to undermine solidarity, and one that must be actively resisted. Our guest essay explores these ideas and developments and argues that solidarity needs to be a priority at the individual, organizational and policy levels. We offer an original theory of solidarity while also asking what it might take to institutionalize this value through the creation of what we call a "solidarity state." Where the welfare state aims to provide a safety net for all, a solidarity state would prioritize policies that remind us of our fundamental interdependence while finding innovative ways to strengthen those connections. The idea that policy can play a role in building solidarity among citizens is one worth reviving for reasons both moral and strategic. A positive vision worth fighting for — an inspiring and constructive governing agenda to rally around — is essential to building the solidarity and collective power that might, one day, be able to win the political changes we urgently need.
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Saturday, March 23, 2024
Opinion Today: The one idea that could save American democracy
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