The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity

In this new book by writer, longtime activist and outspoken critic of the Israeli War on Gaza, Sarah Schulman shows that in order reckon with solidarity, we need to understand its inherent fantasies. The book examines a range of movements the author has been involved with and moments she has lived through: from the fight for abortion rights in post-Franco Spain, to AIDS activism in New York in the 1990s, to the current wave of campus protest movements against Israel's war on Gaza. The book looks at how these movements have succeeded and where they have failed. Schulman argues that, under today's globalised power structures, solidarity can no longer function as a simple union of equals, but instead requires the collaboration of conflicted perpetrators and those that they have excluded or oppressed.