Solidarity – Author Talk with Leah Hunt-Hendrix & Astra Taylor | New Labor Book Series #19

Solidarity is often invoked, but it is rarely analyzed and poorly understood. Leah and Astra together developed the first in-depth examination and intellectual history of solidarity. We will discuss 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? We’ll also explore how solidarity is built and sustained, and how it has been suppressed. 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.

About the guests

Leah Hunt – Hendrix was born and raised in New York City. She has a PhD in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Princeton University where she wrote her dissertation on the Ethics of Solidarity. Leah has founded multiple organizations that have impacted the American political landscape. In 2012, she co-founded Solidaire, a national network of philanthropists dedicated to funding progressive movements, and in 2017, she co-founded Way to Win, a network with a similar structure, this time dedicated to electoral strategy. Both organizations are grounded in building solidarity between major donors and grassroots organizing.

Astra Taylor is cofounder of the Debt Collective, a union of debtors. She is the director of numerous documentaries and the author of The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, Democracy May Not Exist But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone, and The People’s Platform (winner of an American Book Award), among other works. Her writing has appeared in periodicals including The New Yorker, The New York Times, n+1, and The Baffler. She is an advisor to Lux Magazine and is on the editorial board of Hammer & Hope. She was the 2023 CBC Massey Lecturer.

“While the labor movement taught us to sing, ‘Solidarity Forever,’ working people who struggle to make ends meet have rightly asked, ‘Solidarity for what?’ This book’s vision of ‘transformative solidarity’ is an answer to that question informed by history, aware of the forces we’re up against, and engaged with some of the most encouraging movement-building of our time. It’s a gift for all of us who want to build a world where everyone can thrive.”
—William J. Barber, II, President of Repairers of the Breach and Founding Director of Yale’s Center for Public Theology and Public Policy

“Solidarity is a rich and deep examination of the way everyday people can come together to save ourselves. Through academic research and real-world experience, the authors have built a lesson plan and a call to action for anyone who wishes to build a future where we all thrive.”
—Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA