Book cover - Title reads 'Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea'. Illustration of birds flying in a large group (murmuration). There are two main birds in black silhouette surround by two groups of birds following them.

Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea

Introduction

Explore the concept of solidarity with this book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea, by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor published in 2024.

Solidarity is about our interconnectedness, and what we owe each other. – Astra Taylor, Source

About Book

“From renowned organizers and activists Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, comes the first in-depth examination of Solidarity—not just as a rallying cry, but as potent political movement with potential to effect lasting change.

Solidarity is often invoked, but it is rarely analyzed and poorly understood. Here, two leading activists and thinkers survey the past, present, and future of the concept across borders of nation, identity, and class to ask: how can we build solidarity in an era of staggering inequality, polarization, violence, and ecological catastrophe?

Offering a lively and lucid history of the idea—from Ancient Rome through the first European and American socialists and labor organizers, to twenty-first century social movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter—Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor trace the philosophical debates and political struggles that have shaped the modern world.

Looking forward, they argue that a clear understanding of how solidarity is built and sustained, and an awareness of how it has been suppressed, is essential to warding off the many crises of our present: right-wing backlash, irreversible climate damage, widespread alienation, loneliness, and despair. Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor insist that solidarity is both a principle and a practice, one that must be cultivated and institutionalized, so that care for the common good becomes the central aim of politics and social life.” – Penguin Random House – Publisher’s description

Access Book

But real organising is something else entirely. Every successful effort to challenge the status quo has required a multitude of people playing a wide range of roles. Allowing for this diversity is one way to grow both numbers and meaningful organisation. When we come together in an organised fashion – forging new self-conceptions, embracing radical visions and acting strategically – we can wield the power of numbers to disrupt business as usual, wrest concessions and pave the way for future victories. – Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, Source

Read Articles

Building Solidarity for Transformative Social Change, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Aaron Horvath, 9/5/2024
A conversation with Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor about building cohesion across differences and organizing transformative social movements.

I think of solidarity as closest to something like wholeness. It’s not unity. It’s not sameness. It’s something that holds different pieces together as a collective. – Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Source

Solidarity Challenges the Status Quo: A Conversation with Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, NonProfit Quarterly, Rithika Ramamurthy, 8/5/2024
“This book is an eccentric mix of intellectual history, political diagnosis, and organizing how-to. Solidarity, as a concept, calls on a person to actually try to manifest it in the world. A book like this would have helped our group as we stumbled onto many of these strategies without knowing it, without having the guide or the consciousness. A book like this can give you context and appreciation for how things came to be and invite you to be a part of changing the narrative and reshaping things.” – Source

There are many organizations that train people to organize or build campaigns. But building solidarity—expanding the idea of who is a part of the struggle and how campaigns can broaden to become more powerful—is a different thing. The result is that we organize in smaller and smaller groups—or seek out people who already think the way we do. It’s important to want to be good and right, but there’s not a conceptual counterweight pulling us in the direction of being broader and more inclusive. We hope this book helps pull our movements in that direction. – Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Source

Interview – ‘Organising is the best kind of antidepressant’: Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix on solidarity, The Guardian, Amy Fleming, 23/3/2024
The activists, who first met at Occupy Wall Street in 2011, talk about the limits of protest – and the power of connecting across difference to change the world.

Listen to Podcasts

Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor – Solidarity: A World-Changing Idea, Economics and Beyond with Rob Johnson

Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor talk to Rob about their recently released book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. The wide-ranging conversation covers the importance of solidarity in addressing the current crises of economic inequality, climate change, and democracy, emphasizing the need for collective action and social movements to bring about change, as well as the role of education and the arts in fostering a sense of community and shared identity.

Solidarity and strategy: the forgotten lessons of truly effective protest – podcast, The Guardian – The Audio Long Read
Organising is a kind of alchemy: it turns alienation into connection, despair into dedication, and oppression into strength.

Watch Videos

Solidarity: The Past, Present and Future of a World-Changing Idea, Astra Taylor & Leah Hunt-Hendrix, Free Library of Philadelphia: Author Events

In Solidarity, Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix offer a comprehensive look at not just the popular and ethereal idea of solidarity, but how it can be used by political organizing movements to affect real societal change. Also a lively history of such movements from Ancient Roman revolts to Occupy Wall Street and BLM, it reveals the nuts-and-bolts methods through which solidarity is built and sustained.

Watch authors Leah Hunt-Hendrix & Astra Taylor’s book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

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