Solidarity Is … a Practice
How often do you say, “I stand with …”, to show your support for communities and causes? We pledge to stand with people in Kashmir and New Zealand who are affected by human rights violations and hate violence. We pledge to support causes from Black Lives Matter to Abolish ICE to Repeal the Muslim Ban. Solidarity has become a buzz word to signal what our values are and how we plan to show up for people and causes.
How can solidarity be more than a word, a transaction, a state of mind? How can it be a practice that we engage in time and again, anchored by a values-based framework and political and historical analyses of oppression? How can transformative solidarity practice lead to mutual liberation and collective power?
These are the questions that I’m thinking about and addressing in a project called Solidarity Is. I hope you’ll check it out and get involved.
What is Solidarity Is?
Solidarity Is generates tools, trainings, and narratives to facilitate transformative solidarity practices for movement building organizations and activists who are invested in meaningful social change. The project is called Solidarity Is to reflect that solidarity is a verb, a practice, and an action that we do time and again, over and over, in order to build shared connections and power.
Think of Solidarity Is as a builder, a storyteller, and a connector. The project builds the capacity of organizations and individuals to articulate their solidarity values and engage in solidarity practices through workshops, trainings, facilitation, and a Solidarity School. Through a podcast called Solidarity Is This, social media conversations, and blog posts, the project is a storyteller that shares examples of how people and organizations are engaging in solidarity around the world. And, Solidarity Is serves as a connector to bring social change leaders together to deepen their relationships and hone their strategies for solidarity practice. Solidarity Is has found a home at the Building Movement Project, which develops research, tools, training materials and opportunities for partnership that bolster nonprofit organizations.
How can you be part of Solidarity Is, and how can Solidarity Is strengthen your social change work?
- Contact us for workshops, trainings, and facilitation around solidarity frameworks and practices (request here).
- Apply to be part of the 2020 Solidarity School (applications available in early 2020).
- Listen to and learn from the Solidarity Is This podcast which features people experimenting with solidarity practice to change inequitable conditions in their communities (subscribe here).
- Share your own Solidarity Story — an example, model, or experiment — of how you, your organization, school, or agency are practicing solidarity in order to bring about mutual understanding with other communities and to build power, equity, and justice. Stories may be shared on the Solidarity Is This podcast and website (submit here).
- Subscribe to the Building Movement Project’s newsletter to stay updated on Solidarity Is and other movement building initiatives (subscribe here).
- Follow @solidarity_is on Twitter to take part in social media townhalls about solidarity practice.
Please reach out to me at diyer@buildingmovement.org about how Solidarity Is can support and strengthen your movement building work. Let’s make solidarity less of a buzz word and more of a values-based practice for mutual liberation.
