Solidarity

And it’s absence. When someone from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers told a small gathering of us at the Sporeprint Info Shop about how little he and tomato pickers made during a long day, one of us had an impassive, perhaps even hard facial expression, saying,” I) I don’t get paid much for my work.”

Because of a lack of political consciousness some of us in our communities or in society in general may think we shouldn’t care about the mistreatment that others experience because we think we ourselves are mistreated. We may hard-heartedly say,”oh well, life isn’t fair.”

Or we might be jealous of those whose circumstances are like ours but for whom their situation becomes a little better. “Why should they get special treatment? Me and my family have it worse.”

Or we might be resentful of those who strive to organize politically. “Why do those crybabies got got to stir things up? You don’t see whining out in the streets. I’m too busy working.”

When we are divided against each other, thru religious, ethnic, racial, sexual, national, or some other form of prejudice , or when we’re cynical and overly individualistic, we further enable abuses of power. Sometimes this involves our own oppression without us knowing about it. Sometimes it involves us taking callous and cowardly comfort in believing that the abuse of power that wrongs others benefits us and ‘our kind’ or that we protect ourselves and our communities by not opposing the oppression of others.