Conference dates: 1-3 July 2025 (virtual); 9-12 July 2025 (in Montréal)
Inclusive Solidarities: Reimagining Boundaries in Divided Times
Solidarity is a central value practiced across social and labor movements and a key principle underpinning social democracies. It is also a term with many meanings, referring to the cohesion of groups, the development of social policy and welfare states, or the goals and tactics of labor and social movement organizations. Solidarity in all its forms involves an act of political and social imagination – to identify who one is willing to act in solidarity with, or who are the members of one’s ‘imagined community’ (Anderson 1983). How community is defined, and how the boundaries around that community are drawn or imagined, have implications for who is included and excluded in collective action to redistribute power and resources, to demand rights, and to fight oppression.
The theme of this year’s SASE meeting recognizes the importance of reimagining the boundaries that define commitments to and practices of inclusive solidarity, at a time when the most visible trends are toward intensified divisions. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost in wars, invasions, and violent conflicts over the past year alone. Climate change is fueling displacement and famine, while attempts to mitigate carbon emissions encourage organizing for and against policies to reform farming, manufacturing, and energy production. Far right political parties have experienced growing support, with recent major election wins in Europe and Latin America – and a rising share of the popular vote in many countries world-wide. And multinational companies and their investors continue to adapt to a post-COVID global economy through pursuing particularistic interests within and across national boundaries, from opposing proposed regulation of AI and platform work to challenging the right to strike as a critical dimension of the ILO’s fundamental right to freedom of association.
