Solidarity — Make Justice Normal

WHAT IS SOLIDARITY?

The large systems that we operate in today use hierarchy, compensation, and scarcity to promote individualism and competition. But, as Heather McGhee reminds us, cross-racial solidarity yields “dividends,” from higher wages to cleaner air.

We think solidarity & mutuality can be designed into our systems and guide us to a future in which solidarity is a default cultural norm.

The tenets of my cultural teachings are rooted in our commitment to lift up every community member so that no one is left behind... Through our commitment to community, we care about children, even when they aren't ours, and we want our old folks, and yours, to live their last days in dignity and comfort.

—Deb Haaland
“Divide and conquer must become define and empower.”

— Audre Lorde
“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, we can walk together.”

— Lilla Watson
“We must demand changes to the rules in order to disrupt the very notion that those who have more money are worth more in our democracy and our economy. Since this country’s founding, we have not allowed our diversity to be our superpower and the result is that the United States is not more than the sum of its disparate parts. But it could be. And if it were, all of us would prosper.”

― Heather McGhee

TOWARDS DEFINITION

According to Emerson College, solidarity is a practice of connecting meaningfully across groups and silos and working intersectionally to unravel intertwined oppressions

We think of solidarity as the capacity of people and groups to come together, work together, and support one another quickly and trustfully when anyone of their members is in need, experiencing harm, or at risk. Solidarity is also resistance to divide & conquer strategies intended to play on our individual fears of loss and scarcity.

We’re working toward designing systems that enable and inspire individuals to act, share, take risks, and give things up in service to the well-being of a collective.

CHARACTERISTICS

We think systems in which solidarity becomes a norm might have these characteristics. However, for people to come together in mutual support, capacities for loving care and justice may also need to also be implicit. We’re looking closely at where values intersect.

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