Weaving Solidarity: Decolonial Perspectives on Transnational Advocacy of and with the Mapuche (Mapudzungun)

Description

With this historical framework in mind, the present study is based on the idea that decolonial movements, especially of groups in Latin America, such as the Zapatistas or the Mapuche,6 serve as key reference points for contemporary expressions of international solidarity in the Global North. Nevertheless, the struggle of the Mapuche in particular is largely overlooked and internationally unrecognised. For that purpose, the present study provides a detailed account of how the struggle of the Mapuche became transnationalised since the 1970s (chapter four) and explains the reasons for transnational Mapuche advocacy transcending the domestic context in Chile, as well as its framework and strategies (chapter five). Notwithstanding, using Indigenous movements as reference points for struggles for liberation and emancipation is not without its difficulties. On the one hand, such decolonial movements outside of Eurocentric constraints are often conceptualised as historical alternatives outside of the left-wing melancholia (Traverso 2017) in the Global North—that is, a state of mind to mourn and self-reflect upon the failed and defeated left-wing political projects throughout the twentieth century, that nevertheless continue to inspire future political action. As such, they carry the burden of representing a historical horizon for humankind beyond late capitalism and the climate crisis. Put in drastic terms, the Global North needs to “forget the socialist mumbo-jumbo and play the Indian card” (Oppenheimer 2002, 54).The present research will engage in that debate and discuss the complicated relationship between the Mapuche and the non-Indigenous Left, as well as the consequences and opportunities arising thereof. On the other hand, and taking the insights from postcolonial critique to the context of the Americas, there is a long-lasting tradition in the Global North of stereotyping and romanticising American Indigenous and Native people (Berkhofer 1979). Particularly, the German-speaking context has been analysed as overly enthusiastically engaging with and referring to Indigenous people and Native Americans. Here, the term “Indianthusiasm” intends to describe the particular German racial gaze through which Indigenous people and Native Americans are racially stereotyped, idealised, and romanticised (Calloway, Gemunden, and Zantop 2002; Usbeck 2015). In addition to these debates, the present study seeks to critically discuss the relevance of a Maputhusiasm within the expressions and experiences of international solidarity and advocacy with and of the Mapuche. Cover Contents Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Still Loving Solidarity? 2. Theorising Solidarity and New Transnational Social Movements Historical and Conceptual Approaches to Solidarity and their Controversies Critical Approaches to Solidarity across and beyond Differences New Social Movements and the Transnationalisation of Indigenous Resistance Challenging Eurocentrism in New Transnational Social Movement Research 3. An Ethnography of and in Solidarity Epistemological and Methodological Foundations A Networked Activist Ethnography of and in Solidarity (2014–2017) Reflection and Redistribution 4. Solidarity and the Transnational Cultural Politics of Autonomy Autonomy as Mapuche Cultural Politics Transnationalising Wallmapu: Solidarity and the Mapuche Diaspora since the 1970s Weaving International Solidarity 5. Transnational Mapuche Advocacy The Domestic Blockage and Transnational Framing of Mapuche Advocacy Informational Politics and Digital Mapuche Media/Activism Transnational Pressure: Symbolic, Leverage, and Accountability Politics Fortifying Wallmapu: Against Handouts and Towards Economic Solidarity Mapuchising Advocacy: Transcultural Dialogues and Translations 6. A Critique of Whiteness and Maputhusiasm in Solidarity Researching Whiteness in Solidarity From Left-Wing Melancholia Towards an Ecological Cosmopolitanism from Below A Critique of Maputhusiasm in Solidarity 7. Critical Practices and Assemblages of Solidarity Solidarity as Compromiso: Towards a Critical Praxis of Solidarity Solidarity as Compartir: (Critical) Practices of Sharing in Solidarity Solidarity as keyuwvn/mingako: The Assemblages of Solidarity 8. Conclusion Epilogue – Towards a Reconstitution References Appendix A: Glossary B: Words in Mapuzugun C: List of Personal Interviews List of Figures List of Tables