The Labor Solidarity of Pierre Leroux: Exploration of Fraternity and Friendship between the Socialist Philosophy of Pierre Leroux and the Texts of La parole ouvrière

Abstract

This paper explores the conceptualization of the experience of solidarity, that we can found in two scenes of writing, while contiguous, yet sufficiently separated and distinguishable. One of them is offered by Alain Faure and Jacque Rancière in La parole ouvrière, anthology of laborer texts of the first half of the XIX century. In there our objective is to track certain elements that configure the notion of solidarity and that are in the foundation of one of the most significant proposals of this historic moment: the Union, L’Association, as form of “praxis of resistance”. We will analyze the obstacles facing this collective enterprise, focusing on the criticism of bourgeois charity and the denunciation of selfishness as destructive elements of the labor movement. From that notion, we propose an approach to our second scene, represented by the Doctrine of the Humanity, proposed by the “labor philosopher” Pierre Leroux, where we will examine certain antecedents and projections of solidarity as the foundation of a socialist philosophical system.