Standing with Sacco and Sandino. Anti-imperialist solidarity campaigns in 1920s Mexico City

Abstract

ABSTRACT How were solidarity campaigns transnationally organized and locally performed? To answer this question, this paper examines anti-imperialist solidarity campaigns and their role in the politics of Mexico City in the 1920s. The paper analyzes two political movements: the campaign against the conviction of the Italian-American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti in the United States and the campaign in solidarity with rebel general Augusto César Sandino who fought against US troops in his native Nicaragua. Transnational solidarity campaigns, it is argued, were an important link between local radical activism and global movements as solidarity had to be performed locally and envisioned globally. Demonstrations, economic boycotts, and public fundraising campaigns were means to perform solidarity in the city, linking local activism to the global anti-imperialist movement. With the example of activism in Mexico City in the post-revolutionary 1920s, this paper analyzes performative and ideological change over time and how the asymmetric potential of localization and globalization affect transnational solidarity campaigns.