From A Theology of Liberation, Gustavo Gutiérrez
“If there is no friendship with them [the poor] and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals.”
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, OP is a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest, regarded as one of the founders of Latin American liberation theology.
From Qur’an 4:135 (Islamic sacred text)
“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for God can best protect both. Follow not your personal inclination, lest you not be just, and if you distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that you do.”
From Matthew 25:35-40 (Christian scripture)
“For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me; sick and you visited me; in prison and you came to see me. . . . I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”
From Dhammapada 1:5 (Collected sayings of the Buddha/Buddhist Scripture)
“In this world, hate never dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.”
From Tao-te-ching 13:4 (Classical Chinese text)
“Love the whole world as if it were yourself; then you will truly care for all things.”
By Fr. Ted Wiesner
“…In a similar way we enter into solidarity with the poor when distinction between we and they no longer applies. The distinction breaks down and we are the poor, one among them.
By Sara Ahmed
“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 Ahmed is a British-Australian writer and feminist scholar.
By Fred Hampton
“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 was deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party and founder of the multicultural Rainbow Coalition in Chicago. He was assassinated in 1969.
By Ella Baker
“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 was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist.
By Che Guevara
“We should not go to the people and say, ‘Here we are. We come to give you the charity of our presence, to teach you our science, to show you your errors, your lack of culture, your ignorance of elementary things.’ We should go instead with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn at that great source of wisdom that is the people.”
Che Guevara was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution and guerrilla leader in South America.