Mapping socialist solidarities: SWAPO, the Namibian liberation struggle, and the Global Cold War

This thesis addresses the entanglements between the Namibian liberation struggle and the global Cold War, focusing on the socialist support provided to the South West African People Organization (SWAPO), the liberation movement that fought for the independence of the country from the South African regime. This thesis aims at analyzing three socialist models of solidarity with the SWAPO’s struggle that developed especially from the late 1970s. Combining archival sources and biographical accounts, it examines the politics of solidarity with SWAPO implemented by East Germany, Cuba, and the Italian Communist Party. The interest lies in understanding how solidarity was declined and received by internal promoters and external addressees. Thus, I explore how these three actors constructed their concept of solidarity with SWAPO according to their national and ideological contexts and how this was received by the SWAPO members who experienced it in various ways. Each socialist actor promoted solidarity with SWAPO by using varying narratives, pursuing their own objectives, and employing diverse instruments, thus carrying out different and sometimes competing visions of socialism and solidarity. On its side, SWAPO was able to take advantage from such visions, as each of them could serve its different needs in diverse ways. In providing a general overview of these three solidarity policies, this thesis has the objective of highlighting the internal pluralization of the “socialist solidarity regime” while at the same time contributing to the debate on the extent of SWAPO’s commitment to socialism during the Namibian liberation struggle. It argues that, while pragmatism has always guided SWAPO during the liberation struggle and the post-independence period, and non-alignment has always been its international stance, socialism has to some extent been a model for the revolution in Namibia, to the point that it is still influencing the SWAPO party today.

Egemonia, socialismo e democrazia nell’occidente periferico. Gli studi gramsciani di Aricó e Portantiero tra Argentina e Messico.

La ricerca si propone di mostrare come il pensiero gramsciano sia stato riferimento prioritario di due intellettuali argentini in esilio in Messico dal 1976 al 1983: Juan Carlos Portantiero e José Maria Aricó. In quel periodo incentrarono le loro elaborazioni teorico-politiche sull’analisi della relazione tra Stato, società civile, democrazia e socialismo, partendo da una prospettiva gramsciana. Il fallimento della guerra di movimento in Argentina nei primi anni settanta li condusse a riflettere su strategie alternative di transizione al socialismo, il cui punto focale fu il concetto di "Egemonia". A partire dal 1975 indirizzarono la ripresa del pensiero di Gramsci alla creazione di un progetto politico adatto ad un contesto sempre più "occidentale", caratterizzato dalla presenza di una "società civile complessa", in cui risultava necessario combattere "guerre di posizione" e non "guerre di movimento". La prospettiva che connotò questo approccio alle riflessioni gramsciane rappresenta il culmine di un percorso che iniziarono negli anni ’50, quando sorsero i primi studi del pensiero gramsciano in Argentina. Sin da allora, Aricó e Portantiero si occuparono di Gramsci insieme al dirigente del PC argentino Agosti e continuarono a farlo anche durante gli anni sessanta e i primi anni settanta sulla rivista Pasado y Presente. Fu, però, nel periodo dell’esilio che ne ripresero il pensiero considerandolo nella sua totalità, a partire dagli scritti giovanili sino ai Quaderni del Carcere, rielaborandolo in maniera originale e costruendo una propria proposta di cammino verso socialismo nell' "occidente periferico" dell'Argentina, influenzati dall'azione del Partito Comunista Italiano.

Development discourse in Romania: from Socialism to EU Membership

With their accession to the European Union, twelve new countries - Romania among them - (re)entered the international community of international donors. In the history of development aid this can be seen as a unique event: it is for the first time in history that such a large number of countries become international donors, with such short notice and in such a particular context that sees some scholars announcing the ‘death’ of development. But in spite of what might be claimed regarding the ‘end’ of the development era, development discourse seems to be rather vigorous and in good health: it is able to extert an undeniable force of attraction over the twelve countries that, in a matter of years, have already convinced themselves of its validity and adhered to its main tenets. This thesis collects evidence for improving our understanding of this process that sees the co-optation of twelve new countries to the dominant theory and practice of development cooperation. The evidence collected seems to show that one of the tools employed by the promoters of this co-optation process is that of constructing the ‘new’ Member States as ‘new’, inexpert donors that need to learn from the ‘old’ ones. By taking a case-study approach, this thesis gathers data that suggests that conceiving of the ‘twelve’ as ‘new’ donors is both historically inaccurate and value-ladden. On one hand, Romania’s case-study illustrates how in the (socialist) past at least one in the group of the twelve was particularly conversant in the discourse of international development. On the other hand, the process of co-optation, while being presented as a knowledgeproducing process, can also be seen as an ignorance-producing procedure: Romania, along with its fellow new Member States, takes the opportunity of ‘building its capacity’ and ‘raising its awareness’ of development cooperation along the line drawn by the European Union, but at the same time it seems to un-learn and ‘lower’ its awareness of development experience in the (socialist) past. This is one possible reading of this thesis. At a different level, this thesis can also be seen as an attempt to account of almost five decades of international development discourse in one specific country – Romania – in three different socio-political contexts: the socialist years (up to the year 1989), the ‘transition years’ (from 1989 to the pre-accession years) and the membership to the European Union. In this second reading, the thesis seeks to illustrate how – contrary to widespread beliefs – before 1989 Romania’s international development discourse was particularly vivid: in the most varied national and international settings President Ceausescu unfolded an extensive discursive activity on issues pertaining to international development; generous media coverage of affairs concerning the developing countries and their fight for development was the rule rather than the exception; the political leadership wanted the Romanians not only to be familiarized with (or ‘aware of’ to use current terminology) matters of underdevelopment, but also to prove a sense of solidarity with these countries, as well as a sense of pride for the relations of ‘mutual help’ that were being built with them; finally, international development was object of academic attention and the Romanian scholars were able not only to reflect on major developments, but could also formulate critical positions towards the practices of development aid. Very little remains of all this during the transition years, while in the present those who are engaged in matters pertaining to international development do so with a view of building Romania as an EU-compliant donor.

The Polemic Construction of Judaism at the origins of Christianity: from Paul to Justin Martyr

This research aims to identify the guidelines that are opposed to Judaism in the body of the work Dialogue with Trypho of Justin Martyr, using the methodology engendered by Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson in their work, The Established and the Outsiders. As a result, our research intends to contribute to unveil another aspect of Justin’s work, considered by many scholars as a proselytistic tool; by taking it as a document builder of the Christian identity trough its dissociation from Judaism. For this reason, this thesis investigates and reviews the socio-cultural and political environment that gave rise to Roman Christianity, taking into consideration Christian internal conflicts and the resulting dichotomies within the Roman Christian community, as a result of its departure from its Jewish matrix.