Theorizing for Resistance: Reading Union Leaders of the Global South

This paper is driven by the following question: how do we, as political theorists, build a theoretical groundwork from which transnational resistance and activism can grow? I wager that if political theory is to theorize for resistance, it ought to look to the thought of those who have resisted; and argue that our discipline should take seriously the thought of leaders of movements in the global south in order to build a theoretical environment fit for forging transnational solidarities. As such, this project begins to develop a theory of democracy for the oppressed by drawing on the experiences of global unions and mass labor organizations. I reject the theory of liberal democracy and look to unions – organizations which already bring together and mobilize the interest of millions of global workers – in order to re-theorize democracy in the name of the oppressed. This presentation reports progress on this project – and highlights preliminary fieldwork I have just conducted in India with large national labor unions, especially farmers unions – about how they democratically organized a farmers’ uprising in India from 2020-2021 and won big. I present on how these unions coordinated a nationwide movement of poor agricultural workers – and, drawing on interviews and archival research, I highlight the democratic ethics they practiced: which includes upholding commitment to an ideology, to unity, and to mass participation.