How does someone come to live a life of activism, supporting the fight to abolish the death penalty in the US; to defend Indigenous peoples’ rights in the US, Central and South America; and to free prisoners of conscience in South Korea, Indonesia, Chile, Sudan, and South Africa?

Drawing on personal experience and that of towering human rights figures, such as South Korea’s Kim Dae Jung and Sudan’s Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, author David Hinkley takes us on a journey of solidarity and struggle in the cause of human rights. Stories of Solidarity and Struggle offers a unique insider look at the international struggle for human rights, told in prose and poetry by Hinkley, an activist for more than 50 years and still on the ramparts. On display are the methods and strategies used, thrilling victories, tragic defeats, lessons learned, and, poignantly, the benefits to the activist.

Drawing on themes of memory, inheritance, and justice, this book is ideal reading for activists, people fighting for human rights, and students of Activism and Social Movement Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Politics, History, and Carceral Studies.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Learning objectives
• 1 Mother in black and white: Inheritance and inspiration
  • 1925: Masked and unmasked
  • 1938: Get in the pool
  • 1961: You’d better
• 2 Highlander: Music and struggle in the American South
  • Death penalty abolitionists gather at Highlander
  • A storm in the mountains
  • Walking in the footprints of history
  • Music and community in the midst of struggle
  • Looking back, moving forward
• 3 Starke: The fight to stop an execution in Florida
  • An impending execution in Florida
  • Finding a way to help
  • Getting Ramsey Clark to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • A trip back in time
  • A reprieve, an execution
  • The work since then
  • Why this issue?
• 4 A threnody for Lilian Ngoyi: South Africa under apartheid
  • My first experience of diplomacy
  • Activism in New York City creates a lifeline and a platform
  • Lilian Ngoyi and the epoch-making changes she witnessed
  • Lilian at the crossroads of history
  • Lilian is imprisoned and subjected to banning orders
  • Enduring solidarity and the recognition of history
• 5 Rimini: Friendship, solidarity and the defense of Indigenous rights in the Americas
  • Friendship and solidarity
  • An issue that binds us still: The rights of Indigenous peoples
  • The Aché of Paraguay
  • In 1979, Amnesty was not ready to enter the struggle to defend Indigenous rights
  • Amnesty enters the fight
  • The Bribri and Brörán of Costa Rica
• 6 Carla Cristi: Pinochet threatens Chilean artists
  • Fascism comes to Chile
  • The human cost of Pinochet’s junta
  • Carla Cristi and the 77
  • Artists rise in solidarity
  • “It is everyone’s business.”
• 7 Koreatown: A dictator’s long reach
  • The power of place
  • Becoming involved
  • Diplomacy
  • The campaign
  • A dictator’s long reach
  • A victory for human rights and democracy
• 8 Buru Island: Indonesia’s monstrous secret
  • An anniversary almost nobody knows
  • Pramoedya Ananta Toer
  • Huang Wen-Hsien and the centrality of research
  • How Indonesia became the focus of my work with Amnesty in the 1970s
  • Crossroads
  • Why we choose this work
  • What we did
  • What changed
  • Amnesty’s first ever country campaign
  • The Buru Island mini-campaign
  • Timing: The impact of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Huang’s gambit
  • The tapols come home
  • We played a part
• 9 A promise to the teacher: Al-Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha of Sudan
  • A conversation in Khartoum
  • Taha is adopted by Amnesty as a prisoner of conscience
  • Taha is released, but does not fall silent
  • Keeping my promise
  • A turning point
  • A crucial boost from the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Los Angeles
  • Breakthrough!
• Glossary
• Appendix 1: Chronology of the author’s involvement in Amnesty International
• Appendix 2: Nongovernmental, intergovernmental and other organizations
• Recommended projects
• Bibliography
• Recommended further reading
• Index

David Hinkley is a founding member of Amnesty International USA and was a board member and teacher. He has lectured on Human Rights at over 30 universities in North America, and, although now retired, is still an activist.