Labor, Faith, and the Power of Collective Action

Adapted from Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology, Identity, Class, and Solidarity (Fortress Press, 2022), used by permission.

There is nothing more dangerous to the dominant status quo than solidarity. Yet solidarity appears to be almost impossible to conceive in progressive circles today. According to an often-repeated adage sometimes attributed to Che Guevara, “When the American left is asked to form a firing squad, it gets into a circle.” Yet while unity and solidarity can seem elusive for what might broadly be considered the progressive American left, on the other side of the spectrum, things look different. The American right has worked hard to pull together and build united fronts, a development that raises valid concerns about certain forms of unity. How might unity and solidarity be reclaimed by the progressive left in this context? And what might this mean for theology in the Capitalocene?

In the following, the term progressive left is used in a broad sense. It incorporates the adjective progressive, which is increasingly used instead of liberal in contradistinction to conservative. In theological circles, progressive refers to a wide spectrum. Talking about the Left sharpens the focus of progressive while still leaving things open-ended and affording space for diversity.

In theological categories, the difference between progressive and the progressive left is reflected in the differences between liberal and liberation theologies, manifest in the differences between theologies whose goal is to validate diversity and promote inclusion (often in terms of the dominant system) and theologies whose goal it is to engage exploitation, extraction, domination, and oppression.

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