Solidarity

Almost everyone claims solidarity and almost no one interrogates it. The word does important work when it names a commitment to act alongside others at cost to oneself - not sympathy from a distance, but shared risk.The trouble is that 'Solidarity' increasingly functions as a speech act that substitutes for action: posting, declaring, standing with. Genuine solidarity requires accountability to those with whom you claim to stand. Worth asking: does the person invoking solidarity have skin in the game or is it awy of claiming moral proximity without material consequence.

In labour and social-movement traditions, solidarity is foundational: the refusal to be divided, the willingness to sacrifice for collective benefit. In international development, it can mark a shift from charity to partnership -- or rebranding for the same paternalism. Philanthropic solidarity raises pointed questions: can you be in solidarity with people whose material conditions you could change but choose not to?In right-wing populism, solidarity is mobilised as ethnic or national cohesion - closing ranks against outsiders.

Standing together, Having each other’s backs