My labor roots run deep, and have been very much on my mind since I prepared for and celebrated Passover last month. The granddaughter of a founding member of the ILGWU, I was raised to always respect a picket line, and to look for clothing with a union label. I experience deep feelings of solidarity when I support people struggling for justice. When I give my time, my energy, and/or my money to further the cause of justice, I do so knowing that my own liberation is bound up with everyone else’s.

I am reminded of, and inspired by, a quotation I read when I first engaged in solidarity work with Latin America in the 1970s:

“Solidarity is not charity. It is the mutual aid between two peoples engaged in the same struggle.”

I am frequently uncomfortable when I hear the phrase, “I want to give back to the community,” especially when it comes from people who experience unearned privilege on a daily basis. For years, maybe decades, certainly since I have lived in Silicon Valley, I have listened to people first express gratitude for all of the riches they are “blessed with,” and then follow up with statements about how they are involved with one charity or another in order to give back. Upon hearing this talk, I find myself pondering that if they didn’t take so much in the first place, then maybe they wouldn’t feel compelled to give back. If this simply sounds like clever semantics to you, then I invite you to think about it more.