Allies matter in times of struggle
Deep in the depths of 2020, when viruses, politicians and general randomness conspire to make a thorough mess of the year, it is the bonds existing between us that help weather this cyclone. Being an ally, to your friends, family, neighbours, in trying times builds up those bonds, empathy in motion. One of the remarkable aspects of the recent protests has been the outpouring of that empathy for complete strangers, pulling together as a global community demanding change. At fracture points in history global solidarity has brought people and issues closer together, and whereas before it was television, the press, and word-of-mouth, now it is social media and digital apps that are driving local issues into the global consciousness.
From Hong Kong to Milwaukee, London to Tehran, issues that would take days and months to percolate need spread at the speed of clicks. Viral messages, hot topics, hashtags. We can all be allies adding to the weight of individual voices. How much use this weight is depends on the situation, for change comes at its own pace. Oft times the pricking of a social bubble into rage and tumult is cathartic, but without deep-rooted allies these movements truly remain moments. It takes concerted allieship to ensure movements become permanent change.
This is why in the struggle for rights, and the defence of newly won rights, being an ally to those is need is so critical. You are your person, intersectional in identity and culture. No matter your background you will have common ground with others; your rights are their rights, their rights need protecting as much as yours. Feminists, pride marchers, suffragettes, levellers, black emancipators, democracy protestors, anti-apartheid demonstrators, eco champions all understand this. In solidarity, working in concert, they can achieve amazing things. Being an ally to their cause is in reality an ally to your own cause, because in lifting up those without equal rights you affirm your own rights. Rights are not a cake which is sliced up; rather the are an expanding buffet from which all can eat in equity.
Allies stand and provide succour, shelter, safe harbours from the maelstrom. Allies embolden and strengthen a cause. Trans rights matter because gender is a core part of everyone, and once gender is defined in a narrowly confined way it abrogates all rights, not just those the law chooses to afflict. Racism the same; by dehumanising and demonising anyone with different hued skin the law others and excludes — those exclusions are easily expanded once those in power see that the majority is indifferent. Women’s rights matter, because if being a woman is weak and bound in bondage to some greater ideal, then it brutalises and shackles men just as much.
Power is always at the heart of stripping away rights; the majority will always trend towards group harmony at the expense of the ‘other’. By being an ally to those without power, you stand your ground and say no more — my power is their power, and by uplifting them we become stronger as a result. Allies cannot be the persecuted, cannot inhabit a place of weakness from the perspective of those they support. Yes, it is possible to be a minority and ally with another minority, and granted you may be in a lesser position than others in society; this is not about comparing who has less power than others. Rather, it is about understanding your map of the world is not theirs, their lived experiences are not your own. Your alliance with them is forged in a desire to lift each other up, not be them.
Pride, Black History Month, Trans Day of Remembrance, Holocaust Memorial Day and the myriad of other moments of celebration and reflection matter. They help allies and oppressed come to build up and affirm rights, ensure there is no back sliding, and that all rights are furthered in lockstep. Your voice counts, be it from oppression or as an ally. Your voices in unison swell and beat back those who say there this group or that are unworthy. For once one party loses their rights, it is easier for the next group and the next to lose theirs until there is a city on the hill filled with an elite few who have all the rights at the expense of the many.
Being an ally is not easy. You must look at yourself and understand what you can bring to the conversation without overlapping and drowning out the voices of the oppressed. Understanding takes patience, takes time to listen to oppressed needs, and sometimes just requires you to be the shelter in the storm so the ship of rights can repair and sail ever onwards. You, ally, have the power to uplift and enjoin, to stand shoulder to shoulder, ensuring all voices are heard. For in hearing the world changes for the better once action is taken.
Is the conclusion that being an ally is selfish, then? Yes, potentially, as all of society benefits is all members live in equity. If you defend your rights by enabling those same rights to others, then by merit it is a selfish act. Yet, your inherent desire to defend what you have by uplifting others is not controversial. Your solidary is equanimity, for the ideal is all have equal rights in perfect balance to every other person. By being an ally, you lift up those oppressed, and your empathy is never squandered.
It took centuries for universal suffrage to be attained across the democratic world. Today voting rights are being stripped back that dispossess the poor, disenfranchising minorities who cannot afford the identification required at the polls. In the late 1980s the British government tried the same and there were poll tax riots because British citizens saw it for the erosion of rights it was. Yet, under the same government LGBTQI+ rights were stripped back, single mothers were demonised, and the European Union went from partner to the new enemy. Rights have to be fought for and fought to defend. Allies are essential in building movements, are needed at protests, write in campaigns, online conversations, writing opinion pieces, signing petitions, voting out those who strip rights, and standing up to those in power who demonise the weak. Alone, oppressed voices are crushed and beaten; together we stand in unity and have more power than we realise.
This is why 2020 is more than Covid-19. It is the year Hong Kong flamed out under Chinese oppression, the year America cried out in spasms of protests against systemic racial violence, and Britain is conflicted over gender. 2020 is a year of allies speaking up, lifting up the voices of the oppressed, and using lockdown to fight back against entrenched systemic abuse. 2020 may be a year of chaos personified, but together oppressed and allies march against abuses and the rolling back of rights. We stand on the picket line, in the protests, and on social media. Together.
