Engineering Solidarity:Indonesia, Afro-Asian Networks, and Third World Anti-Imperialism 1950s-1960s

This thesis examines the history of Indonesian activists’ engagement in Afro-Asian movements to demonstrate that Third World solidarity was central to the history of national independence, anti-imperialism, and decolonial worldmaking. In the 1950s and 1960s, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist activists from Asia and Africa constructed solidarity and cooperation based on a sense of shared history of oppression and a common struggle in the interests of a free and peaceful world. They built transnational networks in response to colonialism and imperialism, which were identified as global problems across Asia and Africa. A series of Afro-Asian movements inspired by the Bandung Conference marked a brief period in the mid-20th century as the ‘Bandung Moment’ where Indonesians were actively involved in building Afro-Asian solidarity. This thesis shows that Afro-Asian movements, ranging from student, popular, cultural and literary, to feminist movements, were diverse but intrinsically connected as an emancipatory story. This thesis rethinks the history of the Bandung Moment as a narrative of grassroots collective solidarity movements that complemented and provided an alternative to high-profile Third World diplomatic meetings. Afro-Asian movements showed that worldmakers were not only nation builders or state leaders, but also lesser-known anti-imperialist activists. In the Indonesian case, they were nationalists with an internationalist agenda, who were able to formulate ideas for a vision of the world without domination based on their comprehension of global and national circumstances. Thanks to the support and assistance of the state and state leaders, these activists were able to organise various projects of Afro-Asian solidarity movements. While the integration of national struggle and intercontinental solidarity was the strength of Afro-Asian solidarity, it was also a major challenge. This thesis argues that the cooperation between anti-imperialist activists in Afro-Asian movements left a legacy of internationalism, an ongoing project of decolonisation, and a vision of a post-imperial world for the Third World