Leah Hunt-Hendrix

The contributors to this volume draw on a non-dogmatic Marxist approach to explain the systemic and conjunctural dynamics of crisis inherent in global capitalism. Their analysis asks what is historically specific to capitalism’s crises while avoiding catastrophic or defeatist claims. At the same time the volume situates left agency within actual patterns of resistance and class struggle to clarify the potential for transformative change. The cycle of resistance strengthened by the World social Forum and transnational activism is now punctuated by the experience of the Arab spring, the agency of antisystemic movements, left think tanks, the Occupy Wall street Movement, labour unions, left parties in europe such as syrizia and Podemos and peoples’ budgeting in Kerala, india. On the down side we are witnessing the waning of the Workers Party in Brazil and serious challenges for south Africa’s once powerful labour movement and still formative social justice activism. All these developments are assessed in this volume. This is the second volume in the Democratic Marxism series. it elaborates on crucial themes introduced in the first volume, Marxisms in the 21st Century: Crisis, Critique and Struggle (edited by Michelle Williams and vishwas satgar).

A MOST ANTICIPATED 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. "A window into what is possible when we reject the politics of division, trade individualism for interconnectedness and prioritize coming together for the greater good."--Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone 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.

An incisive treatise on solidarity, the centuries-old idea that bridges care for the individual with care for the collective -- and why we can't survive without it. 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, and 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.