Drawing from Jacques Derrida's notion of the impossible, the paper discusses different understandings of solidarity. It questions a notion of solidarity where it is deemed possible only under conditions of similarity. To show how the similarity assumption hardens into an authoritarian, racist hermeticism of solidarity, I scrutinize the far-right's invocation of solidarity in reference to migration politics. In contrast to hermetic solidarity, the paper introduces solidarity as a praxis in difference. It conjures an understanding of solidarity as both possible and impossible among radically different peoples and groups. I elaborate this argument in conversation with different strands of critical theory—deconstruction, radical democratic theory, queer_ and Black feminist theory—to unearth solidarity's racist and androcentric residues. I argue for an intersectional reading of solidarity, through which the different theorizations are channeled into a critique of solidarity that problematizes the inequalities of solidarizability. Lastly, to connect theory with praxis, I refer to examples from civil Search and Rescue in the Mediterranean, where solidarity with the Other is urgently needed and often violently neglected.

Gebhardt, Mareike. "Un-Mögliche Solidarität: Zivile Seenotrettung zwischen radikaler Demokratie und kolonialen Kontinuitäten." Genealogy+Critique 9, no. 1 (2023): 1–26. DOI: 10.16995/gc.10500