Political Solidarity

6. The Social Justice Ends of Political Solidarity

S IX The Social Justice Ends of Political Solidarity All forms of political solidarity involve activism, but not all forms of activism constitute political solidarity. There is something special about that form of social change—even beyond the uniqueness of the relationships between members. Political solidarity is a response to injustice, oppression, or social vulnerability. That is, it is political in the broad sense of that term. Activists in solidarity seek not just any form of justice: they seek social justice. They unite their collective efforts to alleviate their own suffering or the suffering of others brought about through human action or inaction. Patricia Hill Collins tells a story about her experience teaching in an innercity parochial school just after she received her master’s degree. She ­relates the multiple unexpected connections and relationships between diverse people that formed around a common cause: to save the school from closing . The groups included individuals from every social class, widely divergent educational backgrounds, multiple racial and ethnic groups, religious and lay, parents and community members. Yet they formed a “coalition” because they united their commitments to save the school. The common cause united these various people. As Hill Collins explains, “We do not all have to do the same thing in the same way. Instead, we must support each other’s efforts, realizing that they are all part of the larger enterprise of bringing about social change” (Hill Collins 2004, 540). Hill Collins’ description of coalition building for a cause reflects the strength of political solidarity—a goal, end, aim, or cause has the power to unite ­peoples of different backgrounds and value systems, who have dissimilar motivations 190 Political Solidarity and desires, and who act in very different ways at times, into an effective movement for social change. Diverse individuals commit to some goal, and, through these commitments, bonds with others are formed and fostered, but surpassing even the bonds that form is the cause or goal. Political solidarities might be small local groups or widespread international coalitions. The shared social justice aim unites the group and maintains the movement. The goal of political solidarity, in other words, is central to the moral relationships and obligations that form. Moreover, as the previous two chapters showed, the commitment that individuals make extends beyond the goal itself to­ encompass the “support [of] each other’s efforts”—epistemologically as well as morally—that Hill Collins mentions in relation to her own experience of coalition building. A quick note about terminology might be in order here. While I use the terms “goal,” “aim,” “ends,” “cause,” and “project” interchangeably in this book, political solidarity only rarely expects a clearly defined outcome of the collective action. Instead, a more appropriate understanding allows for a certain amount of ambiguity as well as some fluid recreation of the ends as solidarity action proceeds. Each instantiation of political solidarity will seek a more or less concrete end, which we called the substantive goal, and, quite plausibly, individuals engaged in collective action will describe their project to themselves quite differently. The formative goal is easier to identify as liberation , justice, or otherwise ending the oppression or injustice. The formative goal may be more stable than the substantive goal but the two serve each other within the collective action of political solidarity. Just as a coalition to save a school works, so too a political solidarity even with a certain amount of ambiguity and fluidity in its aims, works to bring about social change and personal transformation insofar as there is some way to identify the general cause. Both the formative and the substantive goals of political solidarity are­ instrumental in defining the action and collective of solidarity, but it is also important in distinguishing political solidarity from other forms of group unity. In this chapter, I collapse the two into the single goal of the solidaristic activity and only rarely separate them. Both are implicit in any discussion of the goals of political solidarity—substantive goals are informed by a desire for liberation or justice, and formative goals require the substantive social change to achieve them. I begin by examining the individual’s commitment to the goal once again, this time emphasizing the goal itself rather than the commitment per 191 The Social Justice Ends of Political Solidarity se. Political solidarity as a normative ideal aims for social justice; social change is necessarily a part of that, but not...