South-South Solidarity and the Latin American Left by Jessica Stites Mor (review)

Reviewed by: South-South Solidarity and the Latin American Left by Jessica Stites Mor John Thomas III South-South Solidarity and the Latin American Left. By Jessica Stites Mor. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2022, p. 280, 79. 95. In this work, Jessica Stites Mor studies transnational social movements, focusing on collaboration between the Latin American Left and various groups within the Global South. Her study is motivated by the question: how do South-South movements of solidarity influence or contribute to long-range struggles? Focusing her study on Latin America from the 1960s to 1970s, Stites Mor creates a transnational history to construct her argument. Her data consist of archival research from a breadth of locations in Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Germany, Israel, South Africa, and the United States. Equal to the breadth of locations is the types of archives consulted, ranging from university libraries, religious institutions, and government repositories. Stites Mor argues that solidarity movements of the Latin American left deserve a central place of narratives of nationalism during the 20th century instead of being viewed as ancillary to the narratives of the period that focus on great powers. She draws on literature from five broad theoretical themes to advance her work: 1) the influence of globalization on political citizenship; 2) the international human rights movement; 3) East-West dynamics during the Cold War; 4) United States Power in Latin America and 5) Civil and Minority Civil Rights Struggles. Using a cross-cultural historical approach, she seeks to shift the focus of trans-national social movements from their influence on the state to looking at how individuals transform their situations and realities. Stites Mor seeks to challenge the view that Latin American solidarity operated separately from other regions with the ultimate goal of broadening the theoretical horizons of transnational social movements. The book is organized into four substantive chapters covering a different case study with an introduction and a conclusion The introduction lays out the methodology, conceptual and theoretical frameworks of the study, and the outline for the rest of the book. Chapter 1 describes the role that the Mexico played as a haven for Latin American left exiles from various countries, focusing on Chilean exiles after the fall of Salvador Allende's government. Chapter 2 looks at the internationalist solidarity of Cuba in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (known as "tricontinentalism") through government-sponsored art and journalism. Chapter 3 shows how political parties of the Argentine left incorporated Palestine into their platforms during the 1960s and 1970s. Chapter 4 looks at the influence of Latin American liberation theology in anti-apartheid movements in South Africa focusing on the Catholic Church. The conclusion broadly summarizes her argument, gives contemporary examples, and suggests opportunities for future research. End Page 301 Stites Mor makes several contributions through this work. Even though she begins by looking at states, her desire to look at individuals influencing their reality is an important reminder and corrective for social movement scholarship that can sometimes disregard or minimize individual agency. The nuanced and thorough discussion of solidarity is useful in helping to conceptualize this phenomenon and gives a roadmap for scholarship that seeks to look at similar issues in different areas. Her discussion of the intellectual products of social movements and their lasting influence is also important and an understated phenomenon in the social movement field. Empirically, the sheer scope of the work and data collection is impressive, and the combination of the different countries and types of solidarity strengthen the argument. While the organization of the book's narrative is clear in the substantive chapters, the theoretical interventions and arguments were at times not readily apparent in the introduction and throughout. A clearer justification for case selection would make the study stronger and assist the reader in thinking about future research. Racial dynamics are only seldom mentioned in this work and their inclusion would provide fuller narratives—particularly in the tricontinental policy of Cuba and the relationship between liberation theology and anti-apartheid activism. In sum, Stites Mor's book is a well-researched and substantive work that provides a needed corrective to social movement studies by challenging scholars to look at solidarity in newer. . .