Sharing the struggle: constructing transnational solidarity in global social movements

ABSTRACT

Struggles for peace, self-determination and demilitarization are common near military installations around the world. Increasingly, these struggles have become linked in globe-spanning assemblages of activism. Based on interviews in South Korea, Okinawa, Puerto Rico, Hawai’i, and Guåhan (Guam) this paper analyzes how activists in these locales develop a sense of shared oppression that serves as a basis for connecting geographically distant activist communities. Through visiting each other’s places – and participating in activities such as direct action protests, eating together and dancing – activists develop a recognition of shared circumstance not only through intellectual discussion, but also through the production of shared visceral and emotional states. This shared feeling of mutual oppression then serves as a basis for solidarity and mutual aid among social movements that protest militarization and challenge traditional conceptualizations of security in international relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Peace
• social movements
• military bases
• Korea
• solidarity

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Lynn Staeheli and David Marshall for inviting this paper to be part of this special issue, and for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. I am also grateful for the insightful comments from the editor, the anonymous reviewers, and Allison Hayes-Conroy. This research would not have been possible without assistance from the Human Geography Institute Grant Program. I would also like to thank my interview respondents for sharing their time and inspirational stories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sasha Davis is an Assistant Professor at Keene State College.