Navigating power and privilege: Examining activist solidarity in resistance to the 2010 Olympics

This project considers how solidarity is being conceptualized and navigated by activists in resistance to the 2010 Olympic Games. Resistance efforts are being led by native activists and an anti-colonial analysis is being used to link the struggles of diverse groups of native and non-native activists. This is representative of a shift in notions of solidarity beyond those based narrowly on either class or identity, and holds the potential to more substantively challenge the exclusions of other radical movements. Instead, solidarity is being conceptualized as shared anti-oppressive commitments that speak to the principles of groundless solidarity and infinite responsibility. Navigating these commitments in practice is a complex and challenging undertaking that is being explored in anti-Olympics organizing through relationships between native and non-native activists and involving a consideration of both identity and political affinity. These developments are being facilitated by the locally-rooted nature of the anti-Olympics struggles, and as are building on the strengths and challenging the weaknesses of the alter-globalization movement. The negotiation of solidarity within the context of anti-Olympics struggles is indicative of both the challenges and opportunities facing current radical movements.