Articulations of Global South: Cultural affinity, international solidarity and Iberian-America in counter-hegemonic globalization

Abstract

In this paper we aim to shed some light on networks of international solidarity that are willing to accept convergence with the voiceless subaltern groups of the Global South without trying to teach them a path to salvation (in this respect, they differ from the old “proletariat internationalism” that ultimately served the state) or intervening in their activities in order to lead them to a “revolutionary haven”. We shall also reflect on the transnational networks that bridge the gap between social organizations of the Global North and South more directly. At the present time, however, the Global South has not been constituted as such; in our opinion, there are only processes of articulation. We shall attempt to explore the lines of regional articulation of the Global South in the globalization processes. We consider that in many ways these do not happen fortuitously or in the abstract, but are shaped around fields of geographical proximity and/or cultural affinity. Along these same lines, we shall examine how Iberian-American geopolitical representation, promoted by the governments of the Spanish-speaking Latin American republics, plus Portugal and Spain – especially the latter – could become a space of counter-representation thanks to the work of “translation” of social activists in the field of cultural affinity; indeed, it is a space that links two countries from the Global North (once again, Spain in particular) and their social organizations, with one of the political articulations of the Global South.