﻿SOME STAR! 
 
(The Solidarity of Desperation) 
 
Solidarity, after all, means something. It means everything that is worth while. And that is all it does mean. 
Everything worth while. 
It means biscuits for our babies; lunches for our ladies; oysters for ourselves; frycakes for our friends; epilepsy for our enemies; burdens for our bosses; mischief for our masters; millwork for our millionaires— that is: OUR solidarity means that.— His, the employees, solidarity and our lack of it means: Manna for him and misery for us; money for him. microbes for us — 
Here is about the way it lines up: 
 
(For Him) (For Us) 
Ambition — Alms 
Bonus— Bones 
Cavair — Caves 
Diamonds—Die-mounds 
Emancipation — Ends and Odds 
Friends— Fiends 
Gold— Gall 
 
Yes that is what old Sol does 
—”Solidarity admits of no debate 
But fancy figures are cut 
With a single skate.”— Moore. 
And so it brings the bacon home to them that has it and strips the simoleons from those that have it not. 
His solidarity and our luck of it means: 
 
(For Him) (For Us) 
Goodthings— Gods 
Homes— Holes 
Industries — Ills 
Joy —Jaundice 
Kingdoms— Klans 
Love— Lice 
Milk — Morgues 
Melons— Muzzles 
Nuts— Nothing 
Opinions— Opium 
Palaces, Pensions— Padded cells, Poverty 
Queens— Quinces 
Roses— Ruin 
Rest— Rack 
Songs — Sorrow 
Twin-sixes— Two-bits 
Unction — Underpay 
Virgins— Vinegar 
Worlds— Woe 
Xmas— Xantippe 
Youth — Yeast 
Zest — Zebrine-suit 
— Zalsparilla 
— Zoup 
The whole damn alphabet of alimony for him and a alphabet of agony for us—that’s what solidarity and the lack of it brings. Choose You’ll stick together or be “stuck” together— choose! 
 
Solidarity means something. 
It is the difference between emancipation and slavery. 
Education without solidarity is ENVY. 
Organization without solidarity— ain’t! 
Emancipation without solidarity will never be — there you are — some “Star” — Soli-DAR-ity. 
A solid front is good — a record of achievement. But a solid front with a hollow rear leaves much to be desired — Solidarity. No matter how stolid or stoic we may become, solidarity is the all important quality and it has made industrial unionism the outstanding world movement it is. No amount of capitalist maneuvering has been “able to wreck it,” its solidarity — which is one and the same thing. (T-Bone Slim).