Solidarity Economics — Why Mutuality and Movements Matter
by Chris Benner & Manuel Pastor
Book Review by Victor Narro
In our work for justice, we are all interwoven — ourselves, our lives, the communities we serve, and the society we are striving to achieve. As activists and changemakers, we connect through our hearts as the driving force that enables us to struggle together, strategize together, and win together. This heart-to-heart connection is true solidarity in action. It is the spiritual force of unconditional love and compassion for one another that moves us toward realizing the “Beloved Community.” It is within this framework of humanity that Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor center their new book, Solidarity Economics — Why Mutuality and Movements Matter. This powerful and transformative book taps deeply into our sense of belonging and connecting for our psychological, physical and material well-being. After all, we are motivated by love, caring and social solidarity, and this is as real as any of our desires for self-fulfillment.
Solidarity Economics is a call and challenge for us to work together in deep solidarity and movement-building to dismantle an inhumane system in place for the past 250 years. The economic and political institutions have kept in place a system built on self-individualism and neoliberalism at the expense and systemic marginalization of disenfranchised groups. As Benner and Pastor point out, we have been misled by neoliberal economics to think that people are just bundles of self-interests, and that actively promoting equity will be costly to our economic well-being, rather than generative of shared prosperity. This book calls for a new approach to replace this system of neoliberalism that have been so harmful and destructive to so many lives with one based on mutuality, solidarity, and relationships.
The book is a call to action as well. The fundamental lesson from COVID-19 is that we protect ourselves when we protect others. As Benner and Pastor point out, the pandemic was not an equal opportunity disease, it was actually a differential killer when unleashed against a pre-existing landscape of racism and inequality, and this is why we need to center racial equity as we move forward in the work for economic and social justice. Solidarity Economics embraces the important role of social movements to achieve an economy based on mutuality and our shared destiny. The book teaches us that racial inequality, wealth disparities and environmental destruction are features of an inequitable structure of domination that can only be disrupted by the efforts of social movements to enact solidarity and scale. Nothing will come to pass unless we have the vibrant social movements that can help us not just to remake our politics but restore our sense of mutuality.
Solidarity Economics takes a bold step in scrutinizing the neoliberal concept of the “safety net.” Benner and Pastor argue that we must take the safety net and turn it into one that depends on our collective inheritance of knowledge and natural resources, and so everyone contributes to our economy in some way. Ensuring that everyone in society is cared for actually helps all of us. The government can be a strong partner in creating the structures and support for people to create their own solutions. Rather than a redistributive welfare state, the goal is to create a system in which everyone has enough to live well. Furthermore, the book discusses how the truly essential work is done by those in the care economy. We need movements to protect them and represent their interests. In essence, we need to turn to each other and to community trust.
On the topic of climate change, the urgent crisis impacting us all today, Benner and Pastor create a framework of solidarity with our Mother Earth. Solidarity Economics starts from a recognition that this is our planet, not the planet. They argue that we need to commit to a deep ethos of care for the Earth, for future generations, and for the people most affected by environmental destruction. The book calls for a deeper and more soulful relationship to the environment, one that does not hold the Earth to be external to our beings or easily incorporated into our markets, but rather as something to be held with honor and preserved for future generations.
Solidarity Economics is a powerful must-read and should be part of any activist’s toolkit in the work for justice. The book centers us on love of humanity, love of Mother Earth, and love of our children and their future. The book ends with the message that we are in a moment of potential transformative change, when it is indeed possible to envision and enact a different economic and social order. The work is never done. As we move up to higher levels of justice in our journey, we will be able to get a glimpse of the “Beloved Community,” and what additional steps we need to help our movements and society move toward our imagined future.
About the authors:
Chris Benner is Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Manuel Pastor is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.
If you want a print copy of Solidarity Economics — Why Mutuality and Movements Matter, please consider ordering through independent bookstores Reparations Club or Bookshop Santa Cruz . You can also obtain a free “Open Access” e-version here . And for videos, articles, and even a comic book about Solidarity Economics, visit: https://solidarityeconomics.org/