Memories can be kept alive for three generations; after that, they become the subject of historical research and political interpretations. This edited volume on the history of international solidarity in the Low Countries illustrates the shift from collective memories toward academic analysis. According to the editors, this history has so far been written from the inside, by activists who have focused on international perspectives, contacts, and emotions as driving forces for the development of international solidarity. The contributors in this volume want to add to the earlier limited and fragmented field of research on international solidarity and cover some of the most well-known solidarity movements of the twentieth century.
The thirteen chapters deal with the peace movements since the end of World War I, the Spanish Civil War, decolonization and Apartheid in Southern Africa, the conflict between Palestine and Israel, and the struggle for a free trade union movement in Poland. Most of these topics are well-known in the historiography of Western European solidarity movements. Still, two chapters cover new ground, one on pro-Apartheid activism and the other on the critical teachers’ movement in the Netherlands. What can this volume contribute to the history of solidarity movements? What can this book teach former activists, their children, and grandchildren in the Low Countries and receiving countries? And how does it contribute to the history of transnational activism?
There is good reason to investigate the transnational history of international solidarity in the Low Countries. Brussels, The Hague, and Amsterdam have been significant sites for global encounters as seats of the headquarters of many international organizations. Especially in the 1930s, many of these organizations, such as the Labour and Socialist International, moved from Geneva and London to Brussels when Geneva became too expensive. Places such as The Hague are essential in the geography of the peace movement, as are Amsterdam and Brussels in the history of the trade union movement. The importance of having headquarters in Brussels is mentioned in a few cases – in Nicolas Lépine's chapter on the solidarity of the Belgian Workers’ Party with Spain, Charel Roemer's chapter on the meetings of activists in the liberation movement, or Solidarność coming to the ICFTU headquarters after World War II in Idesbald Goddeeris's chapter, for example.
Another aspect of the geography of international solidarity is the importance of political refugees who lived in Belgium, as shown in Victor Fernández Soriano's chapter on the political refugees from Franco-Spain, who were essential for forming the solidarity movement for the people of Spain in Belgium. Direct contact with the victims of political oppression and wars can have a mobilizing effect on solidarity movements. Some of the contributions in the volume highlight the importance of visitors from abroad in organizing local and national initiatives for solidarity. This says something about the importance of emotions and close contact for international solidarity.
Most importantly, the chapters analyse the politicization of mobilization for foreign grievances in the local and national historical contexts of the Low Countries. Publishing these studies in English is therefore an opportunity for future comparisons. Theoretically, this could also interest readers and scholars in the countries that were the recipients of support. The problem is that most chapters focus entirely on the Low Countries and cut off the historical development when they reach the national borders. Can we write a history of solidarity movements without looking at the connections and disconnections with the original protest movements, their aims, strategies, and interests in international solidarity, and the outcome of foreign support for these movements?
The chapters show how political and cultural structures in the Low Countries have formed solidarity movements and action. First, there is the role of pillarization in Belgian society and of how actions and actors could connect different pillars of society for international solidarity, not least through individuals active in other groups and organizations. Second, the experience of German occupation during World War II shaped these movements differently, supporting the struggle for the liberation of occupied countries. For example, the case of solidarity with the Namibian liberation movement is interpreted as a natural consequence of the experience of the German occupation of Belgium. In contrast, in the Dutch case, the collaboration with the Germans, especially in the deportation of Jews, is interpreted as the Dutch making up for their earlier mistakes. And this argument is partly also pursued in the decolonization of Dutch colonies, which was described as a traumatic experience for the Dutch. Belgium's colonial past is mentioned only in passing as non-traumatic. This interpretation leaves the knowledge of the colonized not only outside Belgium's borders but also outside the historiography. The differences between Belgium and the Netherlands are discussed in Wouter Goedertier's chapter on the pro-Apartheid movement. The historical comparison in these chapters with the experiences of these two nations ironically shows the importance of the knowledge of the receiving countries.
Investigations on how this support was experienced by receiving groups and whether they had any opportunities to articulate their needs have been due for a long time. The editors consciously refer to this need as a future task for historians but still exclude it without further explanation or reflection on the consequences of this volume and its results. And while domestic activists have names and pasts, foreign activists remain anonymous, except those who later became political leaders in free countries or were well-known writers. This makes it a history of the Low Countries still caught in methodological nationalism. The transnational aspect, and even to a lesser extent the Histoire croisée, remains a red thread cut off at the national borders, which is opposed to the original idea of international solidarity. The anonymity of foreign activists makes it even more challenging for future investigations to follow this thread to the receiving movements.
Other contributions in this volume take on the methodological challenges of a transnational perspective. Histories of solidarity, mainly those about the labour and peace movement, have for a long time dealt with international organizations of the labour movement and with the role of key figures in global networks. Several of the contributions in this volume show that these approaches are still valid. Two of the chapters analyse groups excluded earlier. University students have long been an essential group in studies of international solidarity, especially through their protests against the war in Vietnam. High school students have not received the same attention from scholars. The chapter by Wim de Jong shows the role of the critical teachers’ movement in mobilizing high school students to support the grievances of people in other parts of the world. The high school student movement in the Netherlands – as in other countries – was influenced by Dan Andersen, Søren Hansen, and Jesper Jensen's Den lille rode bog for skolelever (The Little Red School Book), translated and adapted for a Dutch context. This part of social movement mobilization previously overlooked is worth further investigation. De Jong shows how the grievances in the world abroad were transferred from one generation to another but also translated and adapted from one historical context to another.
Most of the solidarity movements dealt with people's grievances on the left – Solidarność was a highly complex exception of a union that received support from many different political and religious groups. Wouter Goedertier's chapter on the Flemish and Dutch engagement with South Africa highlights another exception. Goedertier investigates the pro-Apartheid movements in the Dutch-speaking regions and refers to the connections of language and shared history of Afrikaners and the Dutch-speaking population in the Low Countries. Similar trends have existed elsewhere, in Germany for example. But can we speak of solidarity when it concerns solidarity with the people in power, not the oppressed? A thorough discussion of “international solidarity” and whether it can include support for a group of oppressors in power would have been helpful. In addition, a debate about what contemporaries meant with solidarity and what it meant for those who were the receivers of this support could help us to understand the historical development of international solidarity in two countries that have been the homes of international organizations and could have added to the debate on international solidarity at a global level.
The examples all refer to the period after World War I – and most are concerned with the period after World War II. Still, analysing how international solidarity developed from a long-term perspective is something that remains to be done. Even if this project cuts off the historical development at national borders and uses a time frame that could have been longer, it generates new questions. It shows that there is still a lot more research to be done, and maybe more importantly not only about those who showed solidarity but also about those who were the goal of support; only when we start to decentralize such an analysis can we begin to analyse the outcome and maybe the importance of international solidarity.
