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From the Occupy protests to the Black Lives Matter movement and school strikes for climate action, the twenty-first century has been rife with activism. Although very different from one another, each of these movements has created alliances across borders, with activists stressing that their concerns are not confined to individual nation states.In this book, Daniel Laqua shows that global efforts of this kind are not a recent phenomenon, and that as long as there have been borders, activists have sought to cross them. Activism Across Borders since 1870 explores how individuals, groups and organisations have fostered bonds in their quest for political and social change, and considers the impact of national and ideological boundaries on their efforts. Focusing on Europe but with a global outlook, the book acknowledges the importance of imperial and postcolonial settings for groups and individuals that expressed far-reaching ambitions.From feminism and socialism to anti-war campaigns and green politics, this book approaches transnational activism with an emphasis on four features: connectedness, ambivalence, transience and marginality. In doing so, it demonstrates the intertwined nature of different movements, problematizes transnational action, discusses the temporary nature of some alliances, and shows how transnationalism has been used by those marginalized at the national level. With a broad chronological perspective and thematic chapters, it provides historical context, clarifies terms and concepts, and offers an alternative history of modern Europe through the lens of activists, movements and campaigns

List of Abbreviations - vii -- Acknowledgements - ix -- Preface (Daniel Laqua) - xi -- Introduction: Conceptualising Transnational Thought and Action between the Wars (Patricia Clavin) - 1 -- Part A: Infrastructures and Ideas of Internationalism - 15 -- 1. Liberal Internationalist Approaches to Science and Technology in Interwar Britain and the US (Waqar Zaidi) - 17 -- 2. Experts for Peace: Structures and Motivations of Philanthropic Internationalism in the Interwar Years (Katharina Rietzler) - 45 -- 3. In between 'Vague Theory' and 'Sound Practical Lines': Transnational Municipalism in Interwar Europe (Stefan Couperus) - 67 Part B: The League of Nations and the Efforts of Non-State Actors - 91 -- 4. 'The Breath of a New Life'? : British Anti-Slavery Activism and the League of Nations (Amalia Ribi) - 93 -- 5. Internationalism in the Economic and Financial Organisation of the League of Nations (Yann Decorzant) - 115 -- 1. 'Credit or Chaos?': The Austrian Stabilisation Programme of 1923 and the League of Nations (Frank Beyersdorf) - 134 Part C: The Transnational and National Contexts of Advocacy - 159 -- 2. 'A Real Meeting of the Women of the East and West': Women and Internationalism in the Interwar Period (Marie Sandell) - 161 -- 3. The Lifeblood of the League? Voluntary Associations and League of Nations Activism in Britain (Helen McCarthy ) - 187 -- 4. Reconciliation and the Post-War Order: The Place of the Deutsche Liga für Menschenrechte in Interwar Pacifist (Daniel Laqua) - 209 -- Notes on the Contributors - 239 -- Index - 243.

Abstract
This essay discusses different approaches to studying transnational activism in historical perspective. In doing so, it concludes a review dossier in which several historians have commented on aspects of Daniel Laqua's book Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe (London, 2023). The author responds to the preceding pieces by addressing the contributors' questions and arguments, while also noting how their pieces have applied his book's framework to different causes (e.g. anarchism, feminism, human rights, humanitarianism, labour). Moreover, this essay raises several wider points regarding the subject under consideration. For example, it stresses that activists' notions regarding the interconnectedness of different causes could generate fresh ruptures. The discussion highlights the amorphous nature of transnational activism, including its potential use by vastly different movements, and it situates the book within a broader, and developing, research agenda.

In November 1976, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) announced the expatriation of the dissident singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann, preventing his return from a concert tour in West Germany. This step attracted widespread press coverage and sparked a substantial expression of solidarity by East German intellectuals. This article proposes an alternative perspective on this well-known episode in German history by highlighting its transnational dimensions and its international contexts. Biermann's work interacted with broader cultural currents of the period, while his political engagement with events in Chile and Spain testified to the importance of transnational solidarity for left-wing mobilizations. Moreover, the article points to two important international factors that are crucial for understanding the events of 1976: the role of Eurocommunism within left-wing debate on the one hand, and the resonance of human rights discourse during the 1970s on the other.

The term "internationalism" denotes a variety of impulses and initiatives that favoured and facilitated cooperation between individuals, groups, organisations or governments. The multifarious nature of internationalism meant that it manifested itself in different places and manifold ways. Rather than being informed by a coherent political or social agenda, internationalism was deployed by a wide array of political, social and cultural actors. This essay highlights such diversity and therefore approaches internationalism from several angles: as an idea, a narrative, a set of practices and a quest for international organisation.

The article examines radical cultural politics by focusing on the West German initiative of Rock gegen Rechts ('Rock Against the Right'). This campaign involved concerts, publications and demonstrations, most notably the staging of two large-scale festivals in Frankfurt/Main in 1979 and 1980. Rock Against Racism – launched in Britain in 1976 – served as a model for the activists. Yet Rock gegen Rechts differed from its British counterpart in significant ways, both in terms of the political and musical currents that sustained the campaign and with regard to the object of protest. Through the prism of Rock gegen Rechts, the article shows how campaigners debated the nature of 'the right' – an important subject in a country whose fascist past figured prominently in public debate. The campaign occurred at a critical juncture of the German left, as the latter underwent seemingly contradictory processes of fragmentation and coalition-building during the late 1970s. The article explores a left-wing milieu that was associated with music and alternative lifestyles, but also with a nascent green movement. Moreover, the example of Rock gegen Rechts sheds fresh light on the interaction between music and politics on the one side, and between music, commerce and consumption on the other.

The aftermath of the First World War saw manifold efforts to (re-)construct an international community. One striking development of this development was the foundation of various international student organisations. This article analyses the largest of these bodies – namely the International Confederation of Students (Confédération internationale des Étudiants, CIE). The CIE forms the prism through which the article investigates four major aspects of interwar internationalism: nationalism, intellectual cooperation, mobility and radicalism. The CIE brought together the representatives of different national unions of students and thus involved activists that could cast themselves as future leaders. It portrayed its activities as 'apolitical', embracing an internationalism that sought to consolidate, rather than overthrow, the international order. To this end, the organisation cooperated with the League of Nations, particularly in the realm of student travel. Yet, despite its discourse of peace and non-partisanship, the CIE suffered from manifold national divisions and maintained an uneasy relationship with the political developments of the period. In this context, the article shows how, rather than being the domain of impractical idealists, internationalism provided an arena for the pursuit of competing national and political agendas.

AbstractThe Labour and Socialist International (LSI) was a major vehicle for transnational socialist cooperation during the interwar years and thus seemed to continue the traditions of socialist internationalism. In the realm of international relations, however, it championed key tenets of liberal internationalism. The LSI supported the idea of a League of Nations and embraced the notion of a world order based upon democratic nation-states. While it criticised some aspects of the international system, its overall emphasis was on reform rather than revolution. The article sheds light on the wider phenomenon of interwar internationalism by tracing the LSI's relationship with the League of Nations, with the politics of peace more generally and with the competing internationalism of the communists.

Actes du Séminaire doctoral du laboratoire ICT - EA 337 ; National audience ; L'exemple de la Belgique, avant et pendant la Première guerre mondiale, qu'analyse Daniel LAQUA, offre un terreau fertile à l'épanouissement d'un pacifisme internationaliste. En effet, pendant les années qui précédèrent la Grande guerre, la Belgique, malgré un nationalisme croissant, fut un carrefour international. Elle abrita des expositions universelles, de nombreux congrès de mouvements politiques internationalistes, et fut le lieu de fructueux échanges intellectuels et artistiques avec les pays voisins. Daniel LAQUA étudie comment cette coopération internationaliste s'est trouvée durement mise à l'épreuve par l'agression subie par la Belgique et les violences de l'occupation allemande. L'auteur répond à ces questions en prenant l'exemple de trois figures de pacifistes. D'abord celle de Henri La Fontaine (1854-1943), co-fondateur de la Société Belge de l'Arbitrage et de la Paix en 1889, représentant du Parti Ouvrier Belge au Sénat à partir de 1895, président du Bureau International pour la Paix de 1907 à sa mort, et lauréat du Prix Nobel de la paix en 1913. Le second personnage est Camille Huysmans (1871-1968), socialiste et secrétaire de la Deuxième Internationale. La troisième est Eugénie Hamer (1865-?), membre du cercle des dames de la Croix Rouge, activiste de l'Alliance belge pour la paix par l'éducation (ABPE), une suffragette qui entretenait des relations suivies avec les mouvements de femmes des pays voisins.