Solidarities Across: Borders, Belongings, Movements

Abstract

AbstractWhat is the role of affinity, friendship, and care, as well as of conflict and dissonance, in creating possibilities of and hindrances to transnational solidarities? Building on an emergent literature on everyday and affective practices of solidarity, this chapter offers a set of diverse ethnographic accounts of activist work oriented to recognizing and challenging inequalities and relations of oppression based on race, ethnicity, religion, and class, alongside gender and sexuality. Engaging a variety of material from feminist and LGBTI+ activisms, the chapter highlights ambivalences inscribed in the making of collective resilience, resistance, and repair by: First, problematizing activist efforts to build solidarity across geographic and contextual divides; second, highlighting the importance of solidarity as shared labor in challenging state actors and institutions and reversing colonial processes; and third, unpacking the implications of transnational solidarity campaigns in different locales. The chapter ends with reflections on how feminist scholarship can advance conceptualizations of solidarity across difference.