SCIENCE FICTION
MEMBER STORY
Solidarity isn’t science fiction It’s the core foundation of the Academy
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s ground-breaking novel The Dispossessed, anarchists have set-up an 'ambiguous utopia' on their moon, Anarres. However, this utopia is no land of milk and honey. It is a place of hard labour, famine, and political tension. Not so utopic you might say? Well, that depends on your perspective. This is a place where mutual aid is the only capital, and solidarity the only currency. Where there is no property, no hierarchy, and no bigotry, people are defined solely by how they contribute to the collective good of their society. Of course, all work is voluntary, and there is neither scarcity nor excess. Yet despite the arduousness of life on Anarres, the people of this planet are satisfied and content. They are both free to pursue their own passions and fields of enquiry and comforted in the knowledge that their collective labour is never wasted. In this way, Le Guin’s anarchist utopia is similar to another work of science fiction, Gene Roddenberry’s United Federation of Planets. Throughout Roddenberry’s Star Trek, scarcity has been eliminated, and the coalition of species and worlds that command the Federation are free to peacefully explore and research the galaxy.
Dr Sam Whiting University of South Australia
Both societies champion the pursuit and sharing of knowledge as ends in themselves, and both do so through acts of solidarity and mutual respect between both individuals and groups. Remind you of anything?
To tell your story to the NTEU member community, please contact Helena Spyrou
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MAY 2021
