Three ingredients for solidarity at this moment in time

What does solidarity mean in a world of growing inequalities, autocratisation, genocide, and planetary breakdown? What does it look like and what can we learn from where it is happening, and where it isn’t, in fostering more of this ‘feeling’ so many of us long for?

We have held two years of conversations in our global community, both in-person and online, in groups and one-on-one. Starting with Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, we reached out across time and space to connect with Fellows from other Atlantic Fellows programmes too. Our reflections are captured in this solidarity booklet and four podcast episodes. We learned that solidarity cannot be bottled. It is a feeling and people recognise when they have it, and when they don’t. Solidarity can mean different things to different people in different places and at different times, and it even changes over time. For some, it is a mere abstraction, as their community has been long neglected by others. 

It is clear that many people feel very deeply about solidarity, and there are key ingredients to fostering and practicing meaningful solidarity that we can all work on.

So what are they?

1) The heart

For everyone we spoke to, solidarity is a very personal, emotional, and for some, spiritual topic. It is what keeps people going, knowing there are others out there who care. In practical terms, it is about sharing the burden and being able to take a rest, supporting each other’s wellbeing. It is about community, about building relations and about trust—elements that kept coming up in our conversations.

Solidarity is also political, pushing against the power dynamics around what is deemed respectable, unfulfilled expectations, and tone policing. Sometimes it is understanding that we got things wrong, hurt each other, or just didn’t know what was happening, and working to address that.

There is pain and fear and joy in solidarity, and it is important to hold space for all of this. To be able to discuss doubts, frustrations, and desires. This is something we tried to do in this project and have experienced the power of, in holding each other up, and helping each other find direction and meaning at this moment in time.

2) The head

A first step often mentioned in solidarity practice is informing oneself to ensure we understand the issues and the history of those who have long been fighting for them, and listening to the concerns and arguments of those we want to be in solidarity with. Solidarity also requires space for joint reflection, analysis, and building of shared, pluralist agendas, especially for people in the Majority World.

This links to the importance of political education to understand the interconnections of struggles, the history of colonialism, of capitalism, and of extraction, and where your place in that struggle may be—something that came up very clearly in our conversation on climate justice. Why this is important is well illustrated by this quote and piece by Madhuresh Kumar reflecting on the continued push for certain ‘green’ energies in the West at the cost of people elsewhere:

Ergo: we also need our brains in solidarity.

3) The body

Thirdly, there is the body. What do you actually do, where are you present, and what are the visible gestures that come with being in solidarity?

There are the protests, of course. Speaking out and the use of symbols and visual politics can be very meaningful. But so is cooking for someone who could use help, just being with them, or supporting them to rest when they need to. The power of ‘smaller’ and ‘everyday’ expressions of solidarity, especially in sustained ways, being in community, and sharing spaces, came up a lot in our conversations. In that regard, we can learn a lot from communities across the globe where sharing food and safe spaces is an everyday practice, especially in times of great need.

Privilege was another important topic, and is particularly clear in the ‘body ingredient’. Who can take risks and use their body and voice in ways that others cannot? Who can stand between those who oppress and those being oppressed?

So what’s next?

Solidarity is both very personal and inherently political. Making decisions about who to be in solidarity with and who not to is a choice. Nothing is neutral. These choices that we make are grounded in our experiences of privilege and oppression. Our solidarity actions can feel constrained. We also constrain ourselves due to the power dynamics and insecurities around what works or our role. Sometimes it can feel scary, but also necessary, to speak up alongside others and to call others in.

 Can we experiment and keep finding new, creative ways of being together and practicing solidarity? Can we reimagine what solidarity looks like and how we broaden movements in ways that build power for real change? These were some of the questions that emerged more recently, as we realise that we need to keep showing up, keep persisting, to sit with our discomfort and find joy and inspiration when power tells us that we’re wrong.

Remember that there are beautiful examples of local initiatives, neighbours standing up for each other, and artists using their talent to remind us of other, better worlds. From community farming in Baltimore, to Palestinian embroidery resisting erasure through ‘Memory Stitches’ and an amazing comic by a granddaughter of genocide survivors who dreams of ‘never again’. There are many different roles one can take, and we are not starting from scratch.

We hope to continue building on this work and invite others to join in. We also invite anyone reading this to ask themselves: Who is currently at risk or could use my solidarity? What is one action I can take today, whether big or small?

More about the project and the podcast:

‘Let’s talk about Solidarity’ is an Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) project trying to understand, critique, and reimagine solidarity in these challenging times. A digital publication about the project is available to view here. The project is supported by Barbara van Paassen, Amanda Segnini, Ruby Hembrom, and Lyla Adwan-Kamara. 

The People vs Inequality Podcast is a co-production between Barbara van Paassen (host, creator) and Elizabeth Maina (producer). This series was edited by Charles Righa. It is available on all podcast channels.

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, the International Inequalities Institute, or the London School of Economics and Political Science.