Finding and Sustaining Solidarity

Keynote Address given at AATC Conference on OCTOBER 7, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois

Thank you so much for inviting me to speak at this conference.

I am a high school history teacher, and I knew I wanted to be a high school teacher when I was a teenager. I guess I never wanted to leave high school. Somehow, I think because I was open to being a part of an educator community, I find myself now the Chief of Staff of Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and someone who has to think about solidarity a lot.

Solidarity means a very particular thing now to me in my role as a CTU leader. Today, solidarity means being a part of a democratic and fighting union that seeks to preserve and transform public education that empowers our students and that helps members enforce and protect their rights, but both as part of a greater movement to achieve racial, social, and economic justice. Prior to working in organized labor, I had a vague notion of solidarity as loyalty created by participating in a shared struggle or in shared objectives.