Solidarity not charity is a mutual-aid phrase for forms of support organized through shared struggle, horizontal participation, and collective power rather than through donor-recipient hierarchy [@spade2020article].
Within emergent disaster response, the phrase matters because it names a difference in method, not only in tone. People affected by crisis are not treated as passive beneficiaries. They participate in identifying needs, distributing resources, and shaping the political meaning of the response [@spade2020article; @huff2008].
Patrick Huff’s ethnography of post-Katrina volunteerism argues that the principle of solidarity not charity helped volunteers in the Lower Ninth Ward produce material aid together with a social-justice orientation [@huff2008]. Common Ground itself used the phrase prominently enough to name a promotional video about its work [@katrinareader2005].
Related terms
- Mutual aid - the broader practice this phrase distinguishes from charity
- Direct action - meeting needs without waiting for permission from dominant institutions
- Common Ground Collective after Katrina - a case study where the phrase became an organizing principle