Abstract

The thesis to be explored in this paper comes dangerously close to being a violation of the Marxist “prohibition of graven images.” The tendency toward that sort of apostasy is intentional. While accepting in principle the taboo Marxism has traditionally put in the way of speculative idealizations and idolizations of a post-capitalist future, I think it is justifiable, even necessary, to look at the notion of solidarity by deliberately choosing a vantage point that transcends the limits of both contemporary action and historical retrospection. Finding out what solidarity is for socialist theory and practice, requires a teleological perspective to a much greater degree than determining, say, the shape of economic production and circulation under socialist auspices.