VIA Way of Solidarity

We will reflect by sharing with each other our initial thoughts on what solidarity is/means/looks like. We think this is a good way to start, because how can we live it out if we don’t know what it means or what it looks like?

• Print and pass out quotes about solidarity. Give everone a minute to look over them.
• Give people 5 or so minutes to find their own quotes about solidarity (that they like/agree with) OR form their own definition/what comes to their mind when they hear the word.
  • This could be an artsy activity if we bring art supplies, and they can essentially make their own little art/graphic that goes with the solidarity quote/definition.
  • Or if someone resonates with one of the provided quotes, they can draw or sit with that one.
• Come back and share quotes/personal definitions in a large group.
  • (Food for thought if figuring out their own definition: Have you seen solidarity in action? What does it mean?)

Check-out/Closing: What is one commitment to solidarity that you will take with you after today?

 

Sample quotes to use:

“I don’t believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person and learns from the other. I have a lot to learn from other people.” – Eduardo Galeano

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” – Lilla Watson

“You didn’t see me on television, you didn’t see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don’t need strong leaders.” – Ella Baker

“We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity.” -Fred Hampton

“Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.” -Sara Ahme