Together for Solidarity Friends

Solidarity Not Charity!!! These words, "Solidarity Not Charity" have continued to speak truth to me everyday. Howdy, I'm Amanda and I am currently in Austin, Tejas with the fabulous Workers Defense Project. So again "solidarity not charity"!?! What is that in this so-call 'real world'? I have been finding myself continuously challenged in my summer experience here in Austin, which is amazing and hard to process as well. This past week a new city run day labor center opened. However, what was the actual workers' involvement and say, let alone their power in this project - to have an opening ceremony be completely in English, to visibly see the defining lines of those who it was to be a service to and those who worked to create such a 'service'?! I write to you now with thoughts in question and to ponder, for in this struggle toward equality, justice, and peace, we must note to try to be fully conscious of race, class, gender, ethnicity, social status, perceptions, where we come from, how we think and then do, and even so much more. We are in this together and now I think more than ever, that 'together' is a challenge in and of its own. We all have the power, but it is how we use it collectively, use it together that truly makes the world of difference. And so I until we meet again friends, both new and old, I must leave you with this - "If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."