Reflections On Solidarity

Reflections on Solidarity!
!
Before I moved to Chicago, 33 years ago, I spent 12 years in Spain. Those were the years of transition
from the Fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco to democracy, and also the years when I met my future
wife, a young political activist. We reflected on those years in thinking about our current situation in this
country. I want to share a few of our observations with you.!
!
First of all, an admonishment on the careless use of this term "Fascism." In this country we fortunately do
not know the full weight of its meaning: the militarism, the repression of all other political options, of
unions, of languages, of the right to attend school, even of the naming of children. Of course our election
was "rigged" as all our elections are, by the paucity of choices given to us and by the manipulation of
information--but the institutions of democracy are intact and we should all realize that however flawed,
they are worth defending. !
!
This brings me to my second point. The change in Spain came from decades of forging solidarity among
diverse political options, among people who would be political adversaries within a democracy but were
natural allies within a dictatorship. If you value democracy and you think that it is in danger, you will need
the help not just of people who share your politics, but of everyone who has a fundamental belief in
democracy. Some of those people voted for Trump. Though Trump himself is most likely a fraud and not a
Fascist, there are those in his camp who will look to consolidate their power permanently: those are the
enemies of democracy.!
!
And this brings me to my last point, the matter of categories. It is easy to blame Hillary Clinton's loss on
misogyny and racism--they were certainly factors among many others in an overdetermined event. Over
many years of struggle, we have come to understand racism and sexism as something other than
personal flaws, though this is how they are most often treated in our country. Only recently has an
understanding of institutional and implicit racism and sexism entered into public discourse. I think we all
understand the value of that discourse. It will be buried, as the right wing in this country would like it to be,
if we enter into a period of categorizing individuals instead of exposing institutions and attitudes. We must
not let that happen, even when there are some individuals emerging who do deserve the epithets,
precisely because they would be happy to make a great noise about name-calling.!
!
Finally, let me extend this question of categories further. It came as quite a shock for my wife to realize
that in this country she is "non-white." "Don't tell my father," she said. Blame that on the category
"Hispanic," that conceals all the diversity of people who speak Spanish in America and generalizes our
ignorance of them. The same is true of all the other categories that have been noised about, "black" and
"white" being no less false than "Hispanic." But I would single out for particular wariness the category
"without a college education," as education is the sector of the economy we are involved in. What is really
meant is "working class," but it reads as “uneducated” or "stupid." "Working class" is the buried category,
that cuts across all the others, as Bernie Sanders realized. "Working class" is the economic truth that
overshadows identity politics as it has so far been practiced. We need to come to grips not with
categories, but with histories. Speaking the truth to power will consist not of defending categories, but of
never ceasing to recover and reinstate histories. That is one of the tasks of art in a time of repression. Art
is a demand on the future, as Walter Benjamin said—but we can realize the future simply by learning to
listen to those people whose histories we do not know, whose histories need to be heard if we are to
forge an idea of what is to be Americans in a democratic society. !
!
Protest, yes, but organize. Organize, yes, but listen. !
!
Paul Hertz!
Chicago, November 21, 2016

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