Jacob Abolafia on Emancipation and Decolonisation – 16 November 2025

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 important paradigm on the Left?

00:35:10 Please comment on subtler justifications of indiscriminate violence; discuss questions of political coalition-building.

00:45:30 How would you describe Kirsch’s politics in general? In what way do your politics differ from his?

00:48:20 What is Kirsch’s take on settler colonial theory? What’s yours?

00:52:36 Is there some overlap between your argument and Raef Zreik’s in Settler Colonialism and Decolonization?

00:53:37 What is the “postcolonial Left”? Should we not distinguish carefully between anticolonialism, “postcolonialism” and “decolonial studies“? Please comment on the origins of settler colonial theory.

00:57:40 What are the links between the question of settler colonialism and the question of violence?

01:01:17 What are some key concepts and debates about political violence by leftists in general?

01:07:00 How does the question of antisemitism (on/of the left) relate to the question of (left) violence?

01:10:18 Challenge to Jacob’s remarks on the relationship of Lenin and the early Bolsheviks to democracy and violence.

01:13:27 Comment on the question of ends and means.

01:15:30 Comment on reductive conceptions of the political subjectivity of the colonised.

01:19:30 How to reaffirm a universalist anticolonialism?

01:23:50 How do you (do we) justify making left discourse the target of critique? And is it possible to combine it with a critique of centrist, liberal discourse on violence (and if so how)?

01:32:36 What repair for the damages of colonialism should leftists propose? Please discuss this also in terms of “recognition” and “redistribution”.

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