Plantation Memories, Episodes of Everyday Racism

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by Grada Kilomba

In her book, Grada Kilomba combines both academic writing and lyrical narrative creating a strong new literary style, which is as political and political (scholastic) as it is poetic and emotionally expressive. The book is based on a compilation of episodes of everyday racism written in the form of short psychoanalytical stories.

“‘Plantation Memories’ is a fervent, strong, and elaborated piece, which deconstructs the normality of racism, making visible what is often made invisible. From the question “Where do you come from?” to “How do you wash your hair?”, to the use of the N-word, the author exposes the violence of always being placed as the Other. The book is essential to anyone interested in Black studies, Post-colonial studies, Critical Whiteness, Gender studies and Psychoanalysis.” (Unrast Verlag)

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Decolonizing European Sociology . Transdisciplinary Approaches

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Edited by Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, University of Manchester, UK, Manuela Boatca, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany and Sérgio Costa, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Decolonizing European Sociology builds on the work challenging the androcentric, colonial and ethnocentric perspectives eminent in mainstream European sociology by identifying and describing the processes at work in its current critical transformation. Divided into sections organized around themes like modernity, border epistemology, migration and ‘the South’, this book considers the self-definition and basic concepts of social sciences through an assessment of the new theoretical developments, such as postcolonial theory and subaltern studies, and whether they can be described as the decolonization of the discipline.

With contributions from a truly international team of leading social scientists, this volume constitutes a unique and tightly focused exploration of the challenges presented by the decolonization of the discipline of sociology.

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The Emergence of the Political Subject

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by Marina Grzinic, March, 2013, Skopje / http://emancipationofresistance.wordpress.com/grzinic/

I took part in the conference in Skopje entitled Emancipation of the resistance, organized by NGO Kontrapunkt in collaboration with many partners in the region. The point of departure at the conference regarding resistance made me think what is the concept of the resistance today? I connected this question with memory and history, and as well with the specific context of Macedonia that was part of the space of former Yugoslavia.

On such a basis memory and history have to be re-thought in connection to the wars in the Balkan, former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and in relation to the aftermath of the wars’ “monumentalizations” in the time of global capitalism and of the construction of the EU as “Fortress Europe.” My thesis is that the ways of monumentalization or de-monumentalization of the war in the 1990s in the Balkan, former Yugoslavia (Macedonia is not excluded from this process, as we have to think of the 2001 events in Macedonia), have several paradoxical, pathological and tragic faces in the political and social realm of global capitalism.

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I Write What I Like

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SELECTED WRITINGS
by Steve Biko

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Like all of Steve Biko’s writings, those words testify to the passion, courage, and keen insight that made him one of the most powerful figures in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid. They also reflect his conviction that black people in South Africa could not be liberated until they united to break their chains of servitude, a key tenet of the Black Consciousness movement that he helped found […]

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17 D’ABRIL JORNADA DE LLUITA

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Aquest dimecres 17 d’abril es convoca un JORNADA DE LLUITA, en què coincideixen tres accions en defensa de les Universitats Públiques Catalanes, i és necessària la màxima participació de totes en la pràctica del suport mutu per aconseguir victòries sobre els nostres llocs de treball. Us convidem a participar de les següents convocatòries i a persistir en la lluita durant les properes setmanes i mesos, fins a construir una Universitat realment Pública, Popular i Democràtica.

8h- Concentració a Plaça Universitat en el moment de celebració del Consell de Govern de la Universitat de Barcelona.

12.30h- Concentració a la plaça Cívica de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona per exigir que el rectorat faci efectives les mesures aprovades pel claustre en el marc dels dos dies de vaga estudiantil.

Aturem els acomiadaments, desobeïm el règim.

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Roma Media Archive

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Roma Media Archive is an ongoing participatory media project to which the Roma and non-Roma artists, activist organisations and communities are invited to contribute various documentary and art materials that reflect the contemporary Roma situation today. The contributions vary from photography series, video documentaries, art performances, research projects and other digital materials that reflect on certain urgent issues related to specific events or to the general situation in regard various Roma communities in Europe or in other parts of the world.

This project was originally initiated by Suzana Milevska, a theorist and curator, who is based in Skopje, Macedonia. She has invited a worldwide range of participating artists, to share their archives, as testimonials of their research endeavours, in solidarity with the Roma people.

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Decolonize Berlin, a lecture and discussion with Noa Ha & Nika Zablotsky

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Contemporary Berlin fashions itself to be a “European metropolis”. In 1884, Berlin was host to the so called “Berlin Africa conference”. Colonialism is over? Coloniality is deeply engrained in Berlin. Informed by their experience as co-organizers of the “Decolonize the City!” conference in Berlin in September 2012 Noa Ha and Nika Zablotsky will discuss processes of Decolonization as a sustained political practice. Departing from the position that discussions of the city have so far only insufficiently addressed who is being displaced, controlled and marginalized, they foreground an queer anti-racist analysis which emphasizes the everyday struggles and resistance of postcolonial immigrants and people of color who are most affected by racist police violence, deportation, exploitation and discrimination in the education system, which they fight back since many years. This lecture will point to prospects of Decolonization of and in Berlin.

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