Whose Side Are We On?

WITH LABOR DAY approaching and November elections weighing down on us, it is a good time to reflect on the economic predicament of the working majority—those of us who work for a living to support our families. But if both voters and candidates do not clearly understand how the current economic situation impacts them, who benefits, and what alternatives are possible, then voting will not create much change.

Every day it becomes clearer that our current political-economic system, called neoliberal capitalism, enriches the wealthiest few while the proverbial “99 percent” struggles with four decades of stagnant wages, never-shrinking college and credit card debt, a scarcity of affordable housing and accessible public transportation, a lack of comprehensive health care, unpredictable, on-demand work schedules, failing and systematically defunded public education and infrastructure systems, and the exclusion of large sections of the population through incarceration, racism, impoverishment, illness, disability, and inadequate education.

We need serious discussions in our churches, communities, workplaces, and union halls about the U.S. economy. Is the system working for us? Does it have to be this way? As we build awareness about the economic situation based on an analysis of power for people who have to work for a living, we can start to ask: “Whose side am I on?” and “Whose self-interest aligns with mine?” This is the beginning of practicing solidarity. If we want change, then we need each other. As the Apostle Paul writes in Corinthians, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it.” In the labor movement we say, “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

Analyzing privilege and power involves mapping out who wields power—asking what social structures are created to divide us, what social structures are created to make it easier to support the status quo, and who is pitted against whom for division and control.

Our analysis must make clear that not everyone is affected to the same degree. People of color, women, migrants, and LGBTQ communities are impacted to a much greater extent than are white and middle-class people. Those most impacted need to be at the center of the analysis, the struggle, and the solutions.

Faith groups have the advantage of already being organized for mobilization. They can leverage a good amount of social capital in our society. They have a biblical mandate to work for justice. They want to do good. Most important, people of faith have the moral authority to offer critiques of capitalism. Often they can criticize it more effectively than can a union leader, politician, or celebrity.

Let’s have the tough conversations about what is happening to workers, to the 99 percent who are benefiting less and less from the economic gains they help to create. Let’s deepen our solidarity with those injured by out-of-control capitalism.

Starting with an analysis of power and privilege is like building on rock—all the following steps and actions will have a solid foundation. We can build power to resist and replace unjust systems, but we must ask first: Whose side are we on?