Authors

Tanja Petrović¹;  ¹ ZRC SAZU, Slovenia

Discussion

This paper discusses three diverse instances of collective solidarity that emerged in the framework of the 20th century state socialisms: the massive humanitarian campaign which took place between 1990 and 2011 in which 26,000 children from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine were medically treated in Cuba for consequences of radiation after Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986; youth voluntary labour campaigns in socialist Yugoslavia through which several important infrastructural projects were completed; and international solidarity in the framework of the Non-aligned movement. Looking at the ways these instances of collective solidarity were understood, interpreted and historicized, this paper reflects upon interpretational limits we face looking back at the collective and collectivist political projects of state socialism from the point of view of their aftermath. The paper outlines main discursive frames and underlying affective economies that have prevailed in the post-Cold War world and which make it difficult, if not impossible, to understand the collective socialist solidarity as authentic, sincere, and driven not by pragmatism, but by a future-oriented, shared belief in possibilities of creating alternatives through political being and acting.