“We Can’t Just Wrap Ourselves in the Flag:” Labour Nationalism, Global Solidarity, and the 2016 Fight to Save gm Oshawa

Global labour studies scholarship has increasingly recognized the importance of building global solidarity of workers and their unions in response to globalization. Despite this, the labour movement’s embrace of global solidarity as a response to globalization has been incomplete, and at times contradictory. The more common response to globalization has been labour nationalism, which has commanded far less attention in the literature. This paper considers labour nationalism from the perspective of emerging theories of global solidarity, offering a 2016 rank-and-file-driven campaign to save a General Motors plant in Ontario as a case study in labour nationalism. Although nationalism continues to be a relatively effective mobilizing device, Unifor Local 222 has had very little success ‘keeping good jobs in Canada.’ Instead, the union has entrenched a collective action frame that makes space for more xenophobic and racist expressions of nationalism and undermines the prospects of building solidarity abroad and, paradoxically, at home.

Solidarity Through Localization? Humanitarian Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

This contribution discusses whether humanitarian aid is a suitable tool for expressing global solidarity in the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the distinction between the concepts of humanitarianism and solidarity, as well as the example of the so-called “refugee crisis,” it provides a mixed answer: humanitarian aid and solidarity are, principally, different things, hardly comparable and, at times, even contradictory. However, the corona pandemic presents an opportunity for localization of humanitarian aid, which is an opportunity for greater solidarity with those most in need. To make humanitarian aid a real tool for expressing global solidarity, one would have to regard the recipients of aid as equals and strengthen their agency, as well as that of local and grassroots organizations in the most affected areas - much as the localization agenda demands.

Localizing Global Solidarity: Humanitarian Aid in Lesvos

The so-called “refugee crisis” in Lesvos, Greece provides a poignant example of situated, local suffering that has called for the coordination of global resources to provide relief. Some of the first to respond were local and international Citizen Initiatives for Global Solidarity (CIGS). While a growing role for CIGS has been interpreted as a call for more global involvement, arguments for the increased localization of relief efforts suggest the need for aid agents to maintain a reflexive awareness of the potential for an influx of outside assistance to disempower those most affected. We argue that barriers to implementing the localization of humanitarian aid can be better understood by positioning this localization alongside theories of global solidarity. This paper pairs theoretical contributions from the fields of moral and political philosophy with an analysis of interview material gathered in Lesvos between 2015 and 2019. Our goal is to use narratives of conflicting interests in Lesvos to explore conceptual distinctions concerning solidarity and emphasize the importance of the localization of global solidarity in humanitarian aid. We conclude that while global solidarity represents a demanding effort to identify with distant others and provide aid, the intensity and transformative potential of the process of “making the crisis one’s own” through solidary engagement can overshadow the importance of local ownership of crisis management.