From Phenomenal World China’s class politics after 1989 In April 1989, a series of explosive pro-democracy movements erupted across China. These movements and their political
Tag: History
From Equator Generations of organisers and dissidents have kept the Iranian struggle alive A few hours after I was born, my mother and I were
Freedom of Choice The oppression of women in Iran remains one of the clearest expressions of the theocratic order established in 1979. The nationwide “Woman,
For generations, Jewish-Israeli children have been brought up in an education system where Palestinians rarely appear as Palestinians. Instead, they are “Arabs”, “enemies”, and a
Even as formal recognition of gender equality has progressed over the 24 years since Timor-Leste’s independence, the legacy of the resistance against Indonesian occupation still
Toward the Divine State From the beginning, anarchists suspected that Iran’s revolution might end not in freedom, but in clerical rule. Today, with the benefit
On the occasion of May 8th, Franziska Davies spoke to Vasyl Korotkyi about the changes in German memory culture with regard to Ukraine and the
From Equator Gavin Jacobson: To what extent is the current offensive in Mali unprecedented? Rahmane Idrissa: The violence itself isn’t unprecedented by the standards of
From royal court legends to a 17th-century deity, gay people have been part of Chinese life and literature for millennia. Since the 1990s, legal reforms
Eight weeks into Trump’s war with Iran, the origins of the Islamic Republic are worth revisiting. The regime now confronting Washington was born in the
The Caste Pod is a podcast hosted by Ajantha Subramanian, historical anthropologist whose work addresses the historicity and political economy of caste. Ajantha is Professor
The near-exclusive focus of international opinion and the media on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict conceals a far broader and more systemic reality: a forest of internal
00:00:00 Introduction of the speakers 00:02:38 Introduction to today’s webinar 00:04:20 Germany, racism, colonialism 00:09:27 Extermination and extraction 00:12:04 German-Russian inter-imperiality 00:16:20 The “German-ness Contract”
Ho-fung Hung, The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), 336 pp. “The contempt and naive idealization of China
From Liberal Currents Toby Buckle’s “It Wasn’t Fascism All Along” is exactly the kind of argument worth engaging directly. It is a serious argument that
To start, please give a brief overview of your findings in your book Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade. What
Toward the end of Netflix’s “Into the Manosphere,” documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux chats in Marbella, Spain, with British influencer Ed Matthews. “The people who run
On March 9, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the State Department was “designating the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global
This month, China’s National People’s Congress held its annual meeting and passed a new law on ‘promoting ethnic unity and progress’. The legislation further codifies
A month ago, many articles appeared to remind the Western public of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This wave of articles
On Wednesday, 11th March, 2026, along with 135 other nations, India co-sponsored a resolution of the United Nations Security Council which condemned Iran for attacking
Solidarity Collectives: Who are you, and how would you describe yourself? What role do you play in Solidarity Collectives? Mira: My name is Mira, and
00:00:00 Webinar series intro 00:04:46 Speaker introduction 00:06:55 Bill’s political biography 00:11:30 African Americans and the US labour movement 00:15:53 Race and class in the
The phrase “conservative revolution” made its first appearance in a 1927 speech delivered by the Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. After World War II, it
South Asian states have obscured longstanding cross-border ties in order to consolidate national control. This history shows that dominant national identities crystallised only in the
Is India’s role in Kashmir “settler colonial” or part of a shared legacy of internal colonialism across South Asia? India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit
From Sidecar On 1 February, Laura Fernández of the ruling Partido Pueblo Soberano won the national elections in Costa Rica by a landslide. With 48
As early as 1864, Europe’s left was split by a Russian war of aggression against a democratic neighbour — namely Poland. For Karl Marx, the
From Boston Review Alex Shams: You have written extensively on sociopolitical transformations in the Middle East in recent decades, including the Arab Spring revolutions that
The rise of Donald Trump’s extreme right-wing authoritarianism, particularly during his second presidential term, has given rise to a multitude of interpretations of the social
Last October, the war in Sudan took a new turn with the capture of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces. The city in western
On 21 February, a protest took place outside the British Museum in central London. The catalyst was a Daily Telegraph story which claimed (misleadingly, as
In the summer of 2019, a new polemic emerged around the seemingly inexhaustible topic of Islam in France. During a meeting of the summer school
From JTA Only about one-third of American Jews are Zionists, according to a recent survey conducted by the Jewish Federations of North America — the
A New Age of Protest in Iran. Interview with Chowra Makaremi and Amir Ahmadi Arian – 28 January 2026
The protests that began in Iran last month have been suppressed with a level of state violence not seen since the 1980s, when the Islamic
In 1970, the French third-worldist magazine Partisans – launched by the famous anticolonialist François Maspero (1932-2015) – released a special edition titled “The Palestinian people
In this special episode of Saffron Siege: The RSS at 100, Harsh Mander speaks to Felix Pal, a lecturer on political science and international relations
The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation—one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and
00:00:00 Intro to the series 00:02:30 Intro to the webinar 00:03:31 Anna Hájková‘s research and public interventions 00:10:23 Blind spots 00:14:10 Epistemic frames 00:18:13 The
Popular histories tend to locate capitalism’s origins in Europe, only later moving outward to other parts of the globe. Not so, says historian Sven Beckert.
From n+1 Magazine […] The basic provocation of Wages for Housework is that capitalism relies on the invisible and uncompensated labor of women, and that
Welcome to our Israel/Palestine Podcast – a project by graduating high school students from Berlin-Neukölln. Home to Germany’s largest Palestinian diaspora and a second home to
How can we shift the focus from discussing state gender policy to seeking alternatives? Why does this matter now, in the third year of the
Why has Eastern Europe been absent from studies of decolonial history? Historians Oksana Dudko and Anna Hájková discuss.
Chenchen Zhang is associate professor in international relations at Durham University, where she is also director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies. This article
00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:58 Recap of the main themes of Jacob’s article Violence and the Left 00:23:15 Q&A intro 00:24:03 How did settler colonialism become an
Over the past few years, industrial policy and manufacturing capacity, especially in the high-tech sector, have been at the centre of great power rivalry between
In an affidavit before the Supreme Court, the [BJP-controlled, editor’s note] Madhya Pradesh government claimed India’s caste system was founded on “social harmony, equality, and
From Inside Indonesia This special issue of Inside Indonesia commemorates the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the 1965–1966 genocide, when an estimated half a
The denial of the genocide which took place in Indonesia after 1 October 1965 has cultural, legal, discursive and affective dimensions. This genocide was one
In this episode of “Saffron Siege: The RSS at 100”, Apoorvanand Jha discusses how Hindu and Hindutva common sense kept the RSS popular even though
Three Uses of the Concept of Generic Fascism for Understanding Russia’s War Against Ukraine For already two decades and initially unnoted among the wider public,
Taiwan is a flashpoint for US-China rivalry, so radicals internationally need to be able to see through the misleading views about Taiwan spread by both
In the global reckoning with slavery, Ethiopia occupies an ambiguous space. Often romanticized as the lone African polity to successfully resist European colonization and celebrated
Historian David Roediger discusses some of the people who’ve influenced him,white workers and Black struggles in the U.S., and some aspects of anti-racisttheory and politics
What does the work of late Marx tell us about anti-colonial and indigenous struggles’ role in overcoming capitalism? What are the revolutionary trajectories of our
Episode Description What comes to mind when we think about the Sahara? Rippling sand dunes, sun-blasted expanses, camel drivers and their caravans perhaps. Or famine,
On 25 June this year, India marks 50 years since former prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in India. This was the third time that
The political left is (potentially) a force to counter right-wing politics, resist nationalist tendencies, and help coordinate social movements that fight against capitalism. But recently,
Today, Tehran, Pyongyang and Beijing support the Kremlin’s war effort while it poses as anti-imperialist — but Iran, China, and Korea were once the prey
What do the lessons of WWII mean today? What stance should the international left take towards its legacy? And is it possible to resist the
This article first appeared in History Workshop Journal.
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, we were taught that the kings gave us everything we needed. That oil was a blessing from God. That obedience
From Himal Southasian How one Dalit woman’s courage in 1841 challenged a centuries-old system of caste-based slavery and hastened the promise of freedom for millions
The 1970s marked a turning point in the history of the peasantry of the Sahel, the arid and semi-arid band immediately south of the Sahara
Saima Desai interviews David Camfield about his new book, Red Flags. Increasingly, people are responding to the contemporary crises underwritten by capitalism by exploring the
In 2016 and then again four years later, something unprecedented almost happened in American politics. Bernie Sanders, an outsider hailing from the left, came close
Current geopolitical competition has deepened into a Second Cold War between the US and China, but this is no longer a fight over territory but
Abstract The concept of social reproduction (SR) has gained renewed interest in the past decade. Discussed and elaborated by generations of feminists, the concept offers
In our view, Sina Arnold and Juliane Karakayali make a compelling argument that research on antisemitism and racism need to be interconnected. We agree with
Soon after the Hamas atrocity of 7 October 2023, while Israel was bombing Gaza in retaliation but before it invaded, Aaron Bastani of Novara Media
Julian Go is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University. His research explores the social logics, forms and impact of empires and colonialism; postcolonial/decolonial thought
This article analyzes the crimes committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7th through a comparison with other historical massacres. This can give us a
For Hong Kong and Taiwan, neoliberalism’s falling tides made political repression inevitable. On October 1, China’s National Day, president Xi Jinping will have much to
The ‘In Bed with the Right’ podcast, hosted by Adrian Daub and Moira Donegan, examines right-wing ideas about sex and gender. In this episode of In
Sidney Lu’s The Making of Japanese Settler Colonialism: Malthusianism and Trans-Pacific Migration, 1868-1961 (Cambridge 2019) places the concept of “Malthusian expansionism” at the center of Japanese settler
Saul Dubow is a South African historian specialising in the history of South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article first appeared in
The current Israel–Hamas war is one horrific outcome of a century-long Zionist settler colonial project, which continues to violently shape the political geography of Israel/Palestine.
Gita Ramaswamy, Land, Guns, Caste, Woman: The Memoir of a Lapsed Revolutionary (New Delhi: Navayana Publishing, 2022), 432 pp. Ammel Sharon is Assistant Professor of
From the Jewish diaspora to the Palestinians, R. Binyamin’s ideas show how alternatives to mainstream Zionism were imagined even in its earliest days. I spend
The killing of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in Iran a year ago ignited massive protests by Iranians against the Islamic regime. But civil unrest has been
This paper asks how whether and how caste fits into a global history of racial capitalism? The misidentification of caste as custom has long misled
In the immediate post-war era the struggle against antisemitism was central to anti-racist politics. Leading scholars writing at the time, among them W.E.B. Du Bois
Summary Post-slavery is an academic analytical concept that signifies the fragmented legacies and continuities of past slavery and slave trade in contemporary societies after its
The Chinese model of state-directed capitalism is coming apart — and it’s unleashing a new authoritarianism. In 2008, before his first serious bid for the
From Jadaliyya Muriam Haleh Davis, Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria (Durham: Duke University Press, 2022), 264 pp. Jadaliyya (J): What made you
After February 24 [2022], when Putin’s Russia started a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the world faced more than a challenge to Western geopolitical hegemony. Behind
Germany has a long history of colonialism and racism in Eastern Europe. To this day, people who are perceived as “Eastern” face discrimination and exclusion.
From The London Review of Books The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics, by Mae Ngai. Norton, 440 pp., £21.99, September 2021, 978 0 393 63416 7 In 1852,
For decades, historians have debated the question of whether concepts equivalent to race and racism existed in premodern Chinese ethnic discourse. Unfortunately, this discussion has
A new book uncovers letters by Jewish and Arab fighters from the 1948 war, highlighting the personal lives of those who fought to establish Israel
Axel T. Paul is Professor of Sociology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Matthias Leanza is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at
Robert Hoyland is Professor of Late Antique and Early Islamic Middle Eastern History at New York University, NY, USA. This article first appeared in Comparativ
James A. Reilly is Professor Emeritus of modern Middle East history at the University of Toronto (Canada). This article first appeared in Comparativ Vol. 30
Michael Khodarkovsky is Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago (USA). He specializes in the history of Russia’s imperial expansion into the Eurasian borderlands. This
Matthew W. Mosca is Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington (USA). His teaching and research interests center on Chinese and Inner Asian
Andrew B. Liu is an associate professor in the Department of History at Villanova University (Pennsylvania, USA). His research interests include modern China, South and
Apologists for capitalism like to point to its historically progressive aspects, like its supposed use of “free labor” rather than older forms of labor compulsion.
“Race and Racism in Africa and the Middle East” was part of the nationwide #ScholarStrike to halt academic business as usual and to instead host
Laura Menin is an Italian anthropologist based at the University of Sussex, UK, whose research explores love, intimacy, political violence, racialisation, and the legacies of