Appeals to ‘solidarity’ abound in political discourse today. Where public health officials formerly touted ‘pandemic solidarity’, politicians are increasingly decrying a ‘crisis of solidarity’ with Ukraine and criminalizing acts of ‘solidarity with Palestine’. At the same time, engaged citizens and activists demonstrate ‘solidarity’ to contest injustices rooted in global structures of imperialism and the legacies of European colonialism: from the so-called Mediterranean ‘refugee crisis’ to state-corporate invasion of indigenous territory globally. But in contemporary political theory, precisely a global and anticolonial perspective on solidarity is lacking. This research programme was designed to address this gap in our thinking about the politics of solidarity.
The overall objective of this research programme was to develop an account of anticolonial solidarity grounded in the global history of political thought and, thereby, to clarify anticolonial solidarity’s contribution to a burgeoning discussion in contemporary political theory. The case studies were provided by the political thought and practice of anticolonial leaders Anténor Firmin, José Martí, and W.E.B. Du Bois.
Three specific research objectives were combined to support the overall objective. (a) The first objective developed an account of asymmetrical interdependence in anticolonial solidarity through a comparative reading of anticolonial leadership in Firmin, Martí and Du Bois. (b) The second objective developed an account of the relation between ideals and practices in anticolonial solidarity by comparing their respective critiques of European civilization. (c) The third objective developed an account of the relation between local economic development and global solidarity by comparing their pan-political projects.
Each specific objective corresponds to a central debate in contemporary political theories of solidarity. By developing these objectives through the history of political thought, the researcher provided both historical and theoretical insights. As to the former, the researcher demonstrated that the conceptual history of ‘solidarity’ has always been a global and anticolonial one: since solidarity’s rise to prominence in the 19th-century, anticolonial thinkers have always criticized European models of solidarity, just as they have always developed alternative models in anticolonial movements. From this historical insight, the research developed an account of anticolonial solidarity as a distinct type of solidarity for the first time. Thus, the global history of political thought emerged as the means through which the full potential of anticolonial solidarity’s contribution to political theory can be grasped. At the same time, the researcher explored the practices of solidarity in contemporary anticolonial social movements.
