Internationalisms: Editorial

‘Internationalisms’ – as a set of diverse concepts, histories and practices with emancipatory, egalitarian potential, has shaped L’Internationale since its formation. The confederation takes its name from the 19th century anthem that called for workers across the world to unite for a more equitable world; inscribing internationalism into its self understanding and many of the programmes, publications and initiatives of the last fifteen years.

Rich in historical resonance related to emancipatory movements in the 19th and 20th century - the workers movement, Non-Aligned Movement, anti-imperial solidarities, internationalist feminisms to name a few – the need to revisit and revise modes of internationalism has never been more urgent. The present moment is defined by ongoing imperial wars, genocide and new forms of technofascism in global politics. This looks set to intensify, rather than diminish, amidst an ever growing trajectory of militarisation and state violence. An internationalist project requires reimagining and rearticulating practices of solidarity, non-alignment and allyship today.

The publishing strand ‘Internationalisms’ brings together contributions that speak from and to the present reality. Processing and formulating a response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine and its repercussions in the cultural field, has shaped much of the thinking and work of this strand since October 2023. Indeed the work of Collective Study in Times of Emergency, which took inspiration from Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s proposition for a ‘study without end’ has been formative for our approach to research and publishing across different contexts and registers. The publication, also named Collective Study inTimes of Emergency, assembled contributions across writing, music, poetry and fiction is available for download here. Following the publication, thinking with Palestine, or ‘Palestine as the centre of the World’ as decolonial feminist thinker Françoise Verges says, remains central to the Internationalisms strand.

At the same time we, the editors, recognise the necessity of articulating current violences, including Palestine, with other struggles and realities, both past and present. Within this strand, therefore, readers will find contributions that look back across the 20th and 21st centuries to diverse intellectual, artistic and cultural formations of internationalism such as Tania Safura Adam’s three part series on Black Archives in the context of Spain, or the current student led protest in Serbia as explored by Marijana Cvetković and Vida Knežević. These contexts are not presented as exemplary, or exceptional, but rather serve as prompts and tools to consider the types of alliances and practices required in the present conjuncture.