Harry Bridges once said, “The most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity.” While the word itself is as popular as ever, the meaning is far less universal. The truth is, for some workers the word rings with the inspiration of worker-led power, and for others it is buried in the baggage of negative past union experiences.
For Wobblies, Solidarity is not a word, but a weapon. But as any dual card member, especially those fellow workers in business unions, can attest, on the shopfloor, sometimes solidarity isn’t even a word, let alone a real weapon of any note. Eugene V. Debs wrote that “Solidarity is the last and only hope of labor,” a sentiment that I believe to be as true today as it was one hundred years ago. So if it is our only hope, what will it take to reignite the term with the force it demands?
Late author Jane McAlevey once posed the question, “How is every action I’m taking today building solidarity?” This got me thinking. Why hasn’t it gotten any easier to build solidarity on the shop floor? To understand how to build solidarity we have to understand how fellow workers, both radicalized and non-radicalized, understand the concept.
Katie, a Texas-based recruiter shares, “It means that you’re not alone in your fight, and there are people that will be alongside you in challenging times. The word ‘solid’ is the prefix of ‘solidarity’, which to me means that we have to be solid in our approach to fighting together.”
California-based Folksinger Jonny Miller Jr. echoes those sentiments. “Solidarity is about survival. Lot’s of people love to throw around the phrase ‘human nature’ as if it were in our nature to be greedy, rugged individualists. Maybe the last couple thousand years saw a detour in this direction, but there’s no way humanity could have made it this far without cooperation and community. Solidarity is the only way to fight back against the greed of billionaires and the ruling elite, and it is the only way to build a just future for humanity.”
A Colorado-based postal worker and union member shared that “Solidarity means standing up for each other and knowing that other people support me and I support them. We may not agree on everything but I know the support is there and the best interest of a group is there.”
Javier, a Wisconsin-based national organizer against systemic racism, shared that “Solidarity looks like stepping the f–k up and acting on it.” But that action must be based on a real understanding of the systems and powers at play. “Solidarity means caring and paying attention to the horrors being perpetrated on people, especially those that don’t look like you and are targeted and marginalized for those differences. Caring and paying attention means doing the work to understand how systemic oppression operates, how it functions, who benefits from it, especially how you and people who share characteristics with you benefit from it. This kind of solidarity is role modeling how to use the power and privilege you’ve been given in service to those who have a right to self determination and freedom from persecution.”
Across crafts, occupations, and regions, Solidarity looks different to everyone, but from coast to coast, it never looks like silence, inaction, or absence.
“Solidarity means something. It is the difference between emancipation and slavery. Education without solidarity is ENVY. Organization without solidarity––ain’t! Emancipation without solidarity will never be…” – T Bone Slim – Industrial Worker, 06 February 1924.
Historically the concept of collective action has changed very little. From the early days of the IWW to today’s largest business unions, to be in solidarity with someone, is simply to stand with them in service of justice.
So how did it become a buzzword riddled with performative posts, demands from out-of-touch influencers to strike, and more often than not, a toothless word befitting little more than a scoff on the shop floor?
When speaking with an auto mechanic in Wisconsin the word immediately inspired a well-worn anti-union talking point, “I think unions had a time and a place to be useful. If I have a grievance with my employer or my workplace I would just talk to my supervisor about it. If they don’t address the situation in a way that I like I am free to look for work elsewhere. I learned a skill that has always been in high demand since I learned it and I could go apply at any shop that is hiring, maybe even some that aren’t necessarily hiring, and be hired almost on the spot. I don’t need to depend on whining to a third party to negotiate for me while I sit and sulk at a job that I don’t want to be at.”
Solidarity as this worker understands it, isn’t relevant because they don’t think they’ll personally need it. Or in their words, “Ultimately I don’t support unions, and I don’t feel like I need one because of my learned skill and because I think the current employment laws are good enough.”
I’ve heard anti-union workers complain that there is no solidarity on the shop floor more times than I can count, and I must admit, I’ve seen the rank and file exploit their fellow workers without remorse. Admittedly this is a bigger issue in business unions, but it begs the question, what does solidarity look like in action–and how do we create a culture of solidarity today?
In the spirit of the great wobblies before us, those who Utah Phillips said took the old hymnals and “changed the words so they made more sense,” I humbly suggest that we look to First Corinthians for the template of solidarity in action.
Solidarity suffers long and is kind; solidarity does not envy; solidarity does not parade itself, is not puffed up; it does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, it is not provoked, solidarity thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; solidarity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
The reality is that solidarity might be a word, but collective action is the concept, and that action must be standing with your fellow worker in service of justice to qualify as solidarity. So to return to Jane McAleve’s question, “How is every action I’m taking today building solidarity?”
In 2025, it is more important than ever to start with ourselves. What are we doing to build solidarity where we stand, on our shop floor, in our communities and in our neighborhood? I’ve never met a comrade by putting a flag overlay on my profile picture, but I have met many by asking “What is your experience with unions?” This year more than ever, boots on the ground, one on one conversations, and a willingness to really listen to your fellow worker, even when you don’t like what they have to say is what solidarity demands of us.
Or as Javier explains, it is also about “being open to criticism and feedback and not letting your hurt feelings become the center of attention. It can look like stepping aside and following the lead of those with lived experience when yours is academic or theoretical.”
As the Colorado-based postal worker and union member shared, “I think solidarity in 2025 needs to be more grassroots, physically being together to show support. Organizing online is fine, but people need to have constructive conversations and stand united together on various things. Online and keyboard warrior stuff is fine, but showing solidarity needs to be the physical force of seeing crowds of people together for the common good.”
Jonny Miller Jr. shared those same sentiments, that it’s time to “return to our working class roots, from joining or organizing unions in our workplace to showing up on the picket line for workers in every sector of the economy from Amazon warehouse workers to UAW, teamsters to teachers, and donating to strike funds. There are endless opportunities to build solidarity.”
There are endless opportunities, but that doesn’t make it light work. In 2025 it is on each of us to look in the mirror and ask, “What have I done today to build solidarity with my fellow workers on the shop floor and in my community?” We all have something to give, so each according to their ability, without concern for recognition but rejoicing with the truth.
Solidarity is both the beauty of community and the weapon of the worker. Together, we can wield it as such, but it can’t just be an academic concept or a nostalgic vision of yesteryear. It must find us where we are, with our boots on the ground, shoulder-to-shoulder taking a stand.
Solidarity forever.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport to represent that of the IWW or Industrial Worker as a whole.