Liberation Movements, Exile, and International Solidarity: An Introduction

The publication of a special issue of this journal devoted to the entwined histories of the Southern African liberation struggles and international solidarity has been turned to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement. The largest and most sustained international solidarity movement ever mounted in the United Kingdom, it was a key constituent of a worldwide mobilisation of solidarity with Southern African liberation struggles that traversed national boundaries, bridged domestic divides and gathered mass support from ordinary people on political and moral grounds. The anniversary provides an apposite moment to reflect upon its history, and to showcase the most recent scholarship on international solidarity movements and the subcontinent's freedom struggles which they championed.