130 x 190mm, 306 pages, Black & white printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, 2025

In this nuanced analysis, Schulman challenges the traditional notion of solidarity as a simple union of equals, arguing that in today’s world of globalized power structures, true solidarity requires the collaboration of bystanders and conflicted perpetrators with the excluded and oppressed. Schulman examines a range of case studies, from the fight for abortion rights in post-Franco Spain, to NYC’s AIDS activism in the 1990s, to the current wave of protest movements against Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people, and her own experience growing up as a queer female artist in male dominated culture industries. Reckoning with the successes and failures of these movements, she argues that action always comes at a cost, despite not always being effective. But without solidarity we are stuck with the status quo, and we lose any hope of progressive change.

By turns challenging, inspiring, pragmatic, and poetic, The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity provides a much-needed path for how we can work together towards justice now and for the future.

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