Power and solidarity in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology

This contribution explores power and solidarity in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, bringing together his reflections on the social world in Phenomenology of Perception with his appraisal of sociology and Marxism in Signs and Adventures of the Dialectic . I argue that Merleau-Ponty reconfigures power as the crystallization of social interest that connects individuals and groups despite the differences in their social and political membership. This paves the way for a reconsideration of solidarity as the power to institute a different sense of reality from the shared experience of work and oppression. I conclude with an illustration of the contingency of solidarity in connection with the social struggle that led to the Italian law 199/2016 against the exploitation of undocumented workers.