Beyond Western European Idealism: A Comparative Perspective on the Transnational Scope of Belgian Solidarity Movements with Nicaragua, Poland and South Africa in the 1980s

Abstract

This article compares the mobilization of Belgian society for campaigns professing solidarity with three different issues in the 1980s: the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, the independent trade union Solidarność in the Polish People’s Republic, and the long struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It inquires into the ideological, social, and strategic similarities and differences between these movements, and does so in a broader context by connecting the 1980s with previous forms of transnational solidarity. First and foremost, it compares the differences in the forms of transnational collaboration between these three cases, regarding the actors, the different ideological frameworks in which they operated, and the relative importance of each. It highlights the active role of the political movements themselves – Sandinistas, visiting Solidarność members, and the South African ANC – who played a key role in the mobilization of activists in Western Europe – a fact which has so far largely been ignored.