Over its 28-year history, NACLA has been absorbed by the question
of how progressive activists in North America can act in solidarity
with their counterparts in Latin America and the Caribbean. From
its inception, NACLA has been pursuing the kinds of investigative
questions useful to solidarity activists: What kinds of relations and institu-
tions shape the contours of exploitation and oppression in the Americas?
Why are U.S.-Latin American relations structured the way they are? How
can we intervene to change those structures and relations? In this report, we
decided to step back and examine the question of solidarity itself. At this moment when the global-
ization of capital has given North-South solidarity such special urgency, we thought it was time to
critically examine the nature and history of progressive solidarity, and to look toward its future.
Solidarity-the fellowship arising from shared struggle-is as old as the human community. Soli-
darity across national borders is probably as old as those borders. People of similar backgrounds, reli-
gions or political ideals-or simply in similar circumstances-have long made common cause with
one another across borders. In the most genuine kinds of solidarity, groups have respected one anoth-
er’s differences and autonomy. In other cases, groups have followed vanguards, or dominated weaker
groups thought less able to chart their own course. While all human beings are deserving of protec-
tion and support, solidarity is neither charity nor the formal protection of rights. As Margaret Keck
elucidates, solidarity-whether among trade unionists in a common industry, or sanctuary activists in
the U.S. Southwest sheltering Central American refugees-involves a sense of common struggle and,
to some degree, common risk. It is based on the conviction that an injury to one is an injury to all. International solidarity has always had to contend with difficulties of a logistical nature-how to make common cause with people who speak a different language, who are physically far away, and who might not share the same cultural references or values. In the case of pan-American solidarity, activists must also contend with North-South asymmetries. Some have claimed soli- darity between activists in the United States and Latin America is solidarity in name only, disguis- ing an inherently unequal relationship. Others have chastised Northern activists for diverting atten- tion from the problems of oppression and injustice within their own societies. But in today’s age of instantly mobile capital and the global division of labor, North-South asym- metries have been offset by important convergences. Just as a variety of “superhighways” are mak-
ing North-South interaction more practicable, it is now absolutely essential. International solidarity
has become a necessary extension of national solidarity. Never has it been so clear that urban and
rural workers, the marginal poor, microentrepreneurs, and even many professionals-whether in
California or Peru-are being pummelled by the very same economic forces.
Not that it is always easy to identify allies. A decade ago, Central America solidarity activists
only had to make contact with the revolutionary fronts. But the organized left in Latin America is in
disarray, as many parties and movements have split into factions or shifted to the right. Nor is it a
given that factory workers will always line up with factory workers, environmentalists with environ-
mentalists, and so on. As this Report illustrates, the actual on-the-ground alliances have become
more complicated. Because maquiladora plants can be shut down and relocated at the first hint of
union organizing, and because more and more people work in the informal economy, Northern labor
activists have discovered that they must work with people not just within factory walls but also in
the larger community. Likewise, Northern environmental activists have forged links with poor peo-
ples’ movements such as rubber tappers, indigenous people and communities displaced by dams-
movements more likely to raise political than strictly environmental demands.
Solidarity is constantly reinventing itself. This report hopes to move the process forward.
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