Seeking Solidarity: Defining Self-Interest in the Context of Capitalism as a Global Social System

Keynote Address given at AATC Annual Conference October 6, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois

Seeking solidarity, the conference theme, means being mindful of how direct and indirect effects of individual and collective efforts help create a more just, equal, humane world. In that regard I begin my remarks by noting your invitation to speak on this theme has helped me rethink ideas I have addressed in Chapters 1 and 2 of my new book, and Chapter 3, on occupational identity, forthcoming (Weiner, 2022a, 2022b). Thanks for the invitation and the spark.

I think we need to start any discussion of solidarity to create and nurture alliances for social justice by acknowledging the complicity of the labor movement and the entire education establishment, including teachers’ unions, higher education, and teacher education in sustaining a socially and racially segregated, unequal, unjust system of public education (Rothstein, 2014). There is no “golden age” to which we can return, so our task is to envision and make real a future with just, equal, democratic schools (Couture et al., 2020).