In the past several years, we have seen dramatic popular uprisings across the globe: FromOccupy Wall Street, to the anti-austerity movements in Europe, to the more recent protests against police violence, for climate justice and for migrant rights, people have come together to fight for a better world. In 2012, a small group of donors and activists came together to discuss how best to resource these efforts in ways that strengthen underlying infrastructure and capacity.
With an eye toward the future, we draw on history. Today’s challenges are unique, but we have inspirational ancestors who inform our work. Movements that bent the arc of history toward justice in the past – women’s suffrage in the late 1800s, the labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s, the civil rights movement of the 1960s – each had quiet individuals behind the scenes, providing support. These donors funded organizing, demonstrations, marches, and sit-ins. They wrote checks to assist with training, political education, and legal defense for unjustly prosecuted political prisoners. Ultimately, they saw their role as bringing financial resources to movements that were larger than any one organization or initiative, movements that changed history and shaped the world in which we now live.
Solidaire, the French root of the English word “solidarity,” originally meant “to be bound together.” This community was created to bring donors of courage and conscience together to increase the power and impact of today’s most vibrant and important social movements. Our collective work acknowledges an important truth: that we are indeed bound together, and that the liberation of each requires the liberation of all.