This thesis provides an account of the work of Canadian organizations that took part in the global anti-apartheid movement and then continued political advocacy work in South Africa post-1994. My central research question is: What explains the rise and fall of international solidarity movements? I answer this question by exploring the factors that allowed the Canadian anti-apartheid network to grow into an international solidarity movement and explaining how a change in these factors sent the network into a period of decline post-1994. I use two organizations, the United Church of Canada and CUSO, as case studies for my analysis. I argue that four factors were behind the growth of the Canadian solidarity network: the presence of large CSOs in Canada willing to become involved in solidarity work, the presence of radical spaces in these organizations from which activists could advocate for and carry out solidarity work, the frame resonance of the apartheid issue in Canada and the political incentives the apartheid state provided for South African activists to encourage Northern support. Post-1994 all of these factors shifted in ways that restricted the continuation of international solidarity work with South Africa. Accordingly I argue that the decline of the Canadian network was driven in part by specific South African factors, but was also connected to a more general stifling of the activist work of progressive Canadian CSOs over the 1990s. This reduction of capacity was driven by the ascent of neo-liberal policy in Canada and worldwide. Using examples from a wide swath of cases I outline this process and explain how all four factors drove the growth and decline of Canadian solidarity work towards South Africa.

The thesis explores how European social movements have actively contested that there is no alternative to capitalism by constructing alternative trading practices in solidarity with marginalized peoples in the global South. The study adopts the example of the European Zapatista solidarity network (Redprozapa) to examine the nature of organizations involved in radical political practices. One organization Ya Basta-Milano is focused on to examine in detail the operation of, and challenges faced by, an autonomous political group that engages in solidarity trade. Solidarity and autonomy are the key conceptual themes, which the investigation revolves around. The research dwells upon the potential importance as well as the limitations of solidarity trade as an emerging form of constructive resistance. It concentrates upon the subject of autonomous spaces that embodies the physical and political context in which autonomous social movements promote their practices. It questions the contradictions met in this environment despite the romanticized idea promoted by some academic literature. Finally, it provides methodological insights about solidarity action research and personal implications of working with radical groups as an activist academic.