Explain.

Well, the left was fractured thirty years ago and much of the notion that there was a commonality to all forms of exploitation got buried, in favour of single-issue campaigning that unwittingly played into the hands of exploiters by defining the self-interest of each group as a separate issue. Small wonder that the last 30 years has been characterized by success after success for the right and defeat after defeat for the left - even as superficial gains were made here and there on single issues (such as racism, sexism, etc). Often forced to jostle with one another for a spot in the public consciousness.

The duty of solidarity defies division by race and unites under common interest. Workers of all races (including whites) must unite to combat it - it is the interest of not just those suffering racial oppression, but all those suffering any form of capitalist oppression.

Exploitation actually unites all these groups with a common, mutual concern. Exploiters attempt to mask that commonality to prevent united action and prevent victims of one form of exploitation from understanding that it is in their direct self-interest to oppose exploitation in all its manifestations, even those particular manifestations that do not appear to directly target them. The "us" is all of the exploited.

This defies a 'special interest' approach to exploitation which, while it might campaign on this or that issue, does so separately and fails to recognize that workers of all walks of life share the same mutual self-interest. There is only one issue: exploitation. A male who is black, or a male who is a worker, share the common cause of exploitation with the prostitute - they are one and that is why they should oppose it; not because they should feel guilty for belonging to a group that isn't exploited by prostitution in particular, but because she and they are exploited (whatever form that exploitation may happen to take is irrelevant - it will always vary in form or severity from individual to individual). The root problem is exploitation, and they all share it as a going concern. Prostitution or racism or what have you is just a particular expression of it. Labels like 'racism' 'sexism' 'classism' and so on are arbitrary distinctions.

To give a different example: is a white prostitute guilty of supporting racism, because she is white and she does nothing to end it? Do you think that's a very appealing motivation for her to actively oppose racism? Or - is it in her self-interest to simply oppose exploitation, regardless of how it might manifest, and therefore oppose racism because it is a manifestation of precisely the same phenomena which is in her self-interest to oppose?

I am not interested in perspectives which attempt to find a role for exploiters in ending exploitation by appealing to their guilt or empathy or whatnot. I am interested in perspectives that unite the exploited in mutual self-interest to oppose the singular phenomena of exploitation, regardless of what mask it wears.