Solidarity Statements

Arika believes the most important way to exchange solidarity is in practical, ongoing, tangible ways. We try to do this via both our local organising and public programmes. Local Organising involves long term partnerships with grassroots groups in which we co-operate to create events initiated and chosen by the groups. Our public events are always underpinned by a desire to explore processes that hold the potential to bring about an end to oppression and create a society based on love and respect.

We want to create further political clarity and solidarity with all of the people with whom we co-operate to make our public programmes and hope that the following solidarity statements will assist with this. Intersectionality is a term created by black feminist scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw that illuminates “the need to account for multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed”.  Clearly no one social identity exists in isolation from another and our identities intersect multiple social groups. This means that within any one social grouping a great variety of experience exists. Yet focusing on commonality of experience (as well as divergences) amongst social groupings has led to both fruitful analysis of oppression and empowerment for its members. We intend for the following statements to be read with this in mind. We also hope the following three definitions will be useful:

Capitalism is a global economic system where the means of production are owned by a minority (the capitalist class) and the majority (waged workers) sell their labour in order to gain means of survival. The goods and services produced by those who sell their labour are in turn sold for profit by the minority who own the means of production.

Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. It supports the tendency of fathers (or father-figures) to hold authority over women and children within the domain of the family.

White Supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples of colour by white peoples and nations of the European continent, for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege.

The following evolving statements set out some principles that structure our commitments to different groups and communities, and inform some of the ways we collaborate together. The below is also available as a PDF here.