Room 113 of Florida Atlantic University’s education building is home to more than just college courses. By day, it is your traditional classroom, but every Tuesday night from 6 to 8 p.m., it becomes Solidarity meeting grounds.
Solidarity is a self-proclaimed “socialist and anarchist organization” at FAU that meets weekly to engage in group discussion and political activism. According to the organization’s Instagram, Solidarity aims to “build socialism and anarchy through direct action, mutual aid and education at FAU.”
“Socialism is the establishment of an economy that is based on cooperative ownership and need-driven, rather than private ownership and profit-driven, and anarchy is the abolition of power and people’s domination over people and the planet,” Ximena Dipietro, former Solidarity co-delegate said.
Dipietro shared that Solidarity promotes these ideas through discussion, reading socialist and anarchist texts, and their unique organization model, which emphasizes member participation.
The organization is currently orchestrated by lead organizer and anthropology major James Morgan and three others. It also consists of 20 to 30 members, who Solidarity classifies as anyone who has attended two or more general meetings.
Solidarity said in a presentation on Sept. 3 that they are against all hierarchical relationships between people — which is a structure dynamic in which one person possesses more power than another — and emphasize group involvement, placing no one position higher than another. They also hold intersectional, queer, feminist and anti-racist ideals at the foundation of their organization, demonstrated through the many diverse mutual aid efforts hosted by the group.
“Our structure is one really built on the idea that there are no leaders; as a club, we have abandoned formal ways of defining leadership, where we don’t have presidents or secretaries but rather just general ‘lead organizers’ who are just people that tend to do more,” Morgan said.
The group’s first meeting of the fall 2024 semester took place on Sept. 3. However, the organization was founded in January 2020. In their first Instagram post, Solidarity stated its goal is to “positively affect our surrounding communities through direct and collective action.”
“Solidarity practices socialism and anarchy in many ways in both its structure and its outward actions,” Morgan said. “As for outward stuff, solidarity is truly trying [to] do mutual aid, which is a vital part to any anarchist group, and is actively connecting FAU students to a wider network of mutual aid groups of socialists, communists and anarchists across South Florida.”
Morgan personally noted that a major goal of the organization is to create what he called a “safe space.”
“I feel like we hold the position of almost a safe place in some way, where people can have community, where we can build these social networks and build these safety networks,” he said.
The word “community” is something repeatedly heard in the groups’ meetings — another concept that lives at the root of their organization. The group defines this as “a main draw bringing the group members together… each with a shared goal to make the world a better place.”
Solidarity leads shared during their introductory meeting that each week’s meeting consists of presentations, skill workshops, social events, potlucks, game nights and more.
“To be an anarchist or a socialist or a communist is to be creative… We aren’t some crazy edgy people trying to be different and smash windows. We are all smart and talented people who are all extremely diverse, in both thought and action,” Morgan said.
The workshops, along with many other initiatives the group works on aim to provide the community — FAU and broader — with access to resources, tools and food. Some of the workshops consist of music classes, art classes and sewing.
“The workshops are a new thing that we’re implementing this year… The first workshop I will be hosting. I will be bringing in instruments, my personal instruments: guitars, pianos, whatever I can find, ukuleles, and it’ll just be a free access opportunity to instruments and paints because those things cost money,” said Jimena Machorro Swain, FAU special education major and one of Solidarity’s lead organizers elected in the spring.
“We really believe in allowing access to whatever you want to do; if you want to unlock a new skill, if you want to do something outside of your comfort zone, we want to provide the tools for that… It’s serving the community, and the community is serving us,” Machorro Swain added.
Morgan also shared the importance of ownership and mutual aid, a driving force for many of the group’s initiatives.
“Our clothing drives and swaps, we always tend to do, which are always free, as are all of the stuff we do other than every now and then book sales. The hope with any mutual aid is that it builds a wider culture to create counter-power structures,” Morgan said.
The group recently announced a clothing and toiletries donation drive in an effort to help those affected by Hurricane Helene. The drive took place on Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
At the start of a typical meeting, students are greeted at the door by diverse faces, welcoming in members and curious students alike. Inside, a group of 20 to 30 gather in discussion.
“Welcome, are you here for Solidarity?” members repeatedly echo at the entrance as the clock approaches 6 p.m.
At the front of the room is a table laden with a small but extensive library of political and historical text, each surrounding socialist, anarchist and Marxist teachings. Termed “the traveling library,” the books are transported to various event grounds and are available for members to check out. “War and Peace,” “How Fascism Works” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” are just a few of the library’s titles. Others, the works of Malcolm X and Karl Marx.
