Introduction

The guest editors of a special issue of Race & Class 60 no. 3 (2019), ‘Solidarity here and everywhere: the lifework of Barbara Harlow’, provide a short biography of Harlow and discuss her key works: Resistance Literature; Barred: women, writing and political detention; and After Lives: legacies of revolutionary writing. They explain the importance of her work as ‘a critic of both the world and the text’ across disciplines, in establishing new fields of study, and as a reviewer. A symposium in October 2017 of former students had commemorated her path-breaking work in terms of decolonisation, imperialism and literature. Two of Harlow’s unfinished book projects – on anti-apartheid activist Ruth First and on the challenges of drone warfare – as well as tributes from those who had been influenced by her teaching are flagged up. The authors explain why they choose the phrase ‘solidarity here and everywhere’ from Edward Said to title the issue