Solidarity without Borders: Gramscian Perspectives on Migration and Civil Society (Reading Gramsci)

Solidarity without Borders looks at the micropolitics of migrants as political actors by observing alliances between migrants and trade unions, worker organisations and different constituencies, all read within a Gramscian context. This book presents an argument for Gramsci’s theory of the formation of a transnational counter-hegemonic bloc, methods of modern resistance and new forms of solidarity between these forming groups. With case studies of the Gezi Park Protests in Turkey, social movements in Ireland and the Lampedusa in Hamburg among others, the argument is explored via national contexts and structured around political dimensions. Four themes are discussed: the diversity of new migrant political actors; solidarity and new alliances across borders; avoiding misplaced alliances; and spaces of resistance. Migrants are often deprived of agency and placed outside the mobilisations taking place across Europe. Solidarity without Borders will demonstrate how new solidarity relations are shaped and how these may construct a new common ground for struggle and for developing political alternatives.