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(snip) Unity in the end isn't democratic, it is fascist, especially if it requires uniting around oppressive or inequitable or unjust positions. The desire to feel strength in the power of numbers is, I'd suggest a cowardly one. To have everyone accept your tenets, your definitions, your values and your policies is a recipe for stagnation.
Solidarity on the other hand, provides support and the possibility for a common cause without requiring the relinqishment of differing interests. It expands the discussion, the process and the possibilities. We don't all need to agree, and we don't even help each other if we do. Solidarity is what politics and what community is about, not forcing single issues, solutions, identities or approaches, but about forging connections.
Solidarity is more than compromise, and shouldn't be mistaken as such. At its core is respect: respect for people and their experiences, respect for possibility, respect for the not-yet-known. It doesn't require assimilation (which must always contain some degree of erasure) and it belies two-dimensional (black and white) thinking.
Its a concept that's not foreign to US political history, but is certainly not familiar to contemporary politics. Its also the foundation of progressive politics. more... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/3/14456/5254
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