Tereza Hendl

So glad he got to live to experience this ruling, wish it came faster. Long overdue justice needed, on so many levels of epistemic and material reparations. A long way to go, especially for Germany, that as studies show fails and lacks will to recognise Poles as key anti-Nazi resisters and fighters

On why accounting for foreign imperial and occupation structures matters for (epistemic) justice for the (de)occupied populations, who have been directly affected and harmed by imperial expansionist and genocidal ‘Lebensraum’ violence

“The ruling comes as part of a long-running legal battle fought by Stanisław Zalewski (pictured), a former member of the Polish underground resistance who is president of the Polish Association of Former Political Prisoners of Nazi Prisons and Concentration Camps.”

Neoliberal policies risk weakening a health care system that is already struggling amid the ongoing 11 yrs of a highly destructive and deadly Russian invasion and its attacks on the Ukrainian society and civilian infrastructure, including the systemic targeting of health care workers and facilities

Georgian regime used a WWI-era chemical agent on protesters… for this report, “Nearly 350 people got in touch, and almost half said they had suffered one or more side-effects for more than 30 days. These long-term symptoms ranged from headaches, to fatigue, coughs, shortness of breath and vomiting”

This evening in Berlin

A crucial episode in which Botakoz Kassymbekova takes a critical look at ‘imperial innocence’ and the Soviet tale of the ‘friendship among nations’, exploring how the so-called friendship served as a colonial tool, reinforcing racial hierarchies, inequality, and systemic injustice under Soviet rule

Anton Jäger, Complicities — Sidecar On Lumumba’s assassination.

More about Belgium: “Who killed Patrice Lumumba? More than six decades after the first prime minister of an independent Congolese state was put to death by a nocturnal firing squad, his ghost continues to haunt Belgian politics.”

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

African nations push for recognition of colonial crimes and reparations African leaders are pushing to have colonial-era crimes recognized, criminalized and addressed through reparations.

“At a conference in Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism.”

Colonialism still shapes our present. Colonial states need to make reparations for their harms.

Gaetha X Amir Torangan blending with the colour spectrum rather spectacularly

Back at Tehran Contemporary Sounds Festival, Zakhme: Saba Alizaneh & Farzane

It’s good to hold this monumental work in Queer Death Studies in my hands. Whole 63 chapters by critical thinkers who insist on a better world. Honoured to be among them. In awe of Nina Lykke, Tara Mehrabi and Marietta Radomska for holding this all together and writing their own life affirming words

Belgium, the country with one of the most murderous genocidal historical legacies of colonial extractivism in Congo is now allegedly extracting from Ukraine amid a Russian genocidal invasion. Why does it all sound so in character of the unresolved historical legacy

www.politico.eu/article/bart...

cc @associationruta.bsky.social

also: rec-on.org/onfemicide.h...

Last days to send us abstracts for our next conference of the RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asian Studies in Global Conversation, exploring the role of rooted and embodied knowledges as catalysts of change: apply by Nov 30

There’s a need for more work that will closely trace and analyse distinct socialist patterns and legacies of gaslighting, especially in political philosophy and social epistemology where it is particularly lacking. But some work is on the way from us with transitional justice scholar Selbi Durdiyeva

If you missed the talk, here’s a core text exploring the USSR as a colonial project and addressing the lack of critical engagement with Soviet settler colonialism and the historical interconnections of socialism and colonialism that ought to be dealt with

www.southsouthmovement.org/dialogues/ex...

Why romanticising the Soviet Union obscures its colonial past Snapshot of the Gal—Dem op ed

Aizada Arystanbek wrote an alarming text in 2022 on the many issues with the romanticizing of the USSR, eg by young Western leftists pledging allegiance to the Soviet Union on Tik Tok… here’s a copy, and it accounts for Russian-Soviet genocides across Central Asia
www.academia.edu/127025324/Wh...

Can’t wait to hear Botakoz Kassymbekova’s talk, while wishing that her analysis would be less urgent - but that tragically is not the historical momentum we’ve reached yet, especially not much of the left. And I’m hearing from US colleagues that Stalinism is gaining traction among their students 1/2

A predictably sobering report based on interviews with activists, legal and political analysis and case evidence across four pillars of repression of (solidarity with) Palestinians in Germany, including via policing, violence, censorship and economic pressure against activists and critical voices

Deadline extended until Nov 30

Last days to send us abstracts for our next conference of the RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asian Studies in Global Conversation exploring the role of rooted and embodied knowledges as catalysts of change and shifts in power

Analysis by legal scholar of transitional justice Selbi Durdiyeva. The US-RU occupation plan for Ukraine is trying to secure an amnesty and continuous impunity for Russian imperialism and its crimes, including against humanity

Accountability and justice instead

theconversation.com/any-peace-de...

The 74-yr old historian, “uncle of three political prisoners is now facing prosecution under flawed legislation outlawing comparison between the actions of the USSR and Nazi Germany. The charges are over entirely legitimate comments about Stalin’s 1944 Deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar people”

Crimean Tatar historian prosecuted by a current Russian occupier regime for speaking out about genocide against Crimean Tatars under Stalinist USSR

I think of the Executed Renaissance, murderous Soviet purges of whole generations of intellectuals from Ukraine across Belarus, Georgia and Qazaqstan… and I think of how little this epistemicidal necropolitics bothered anyone outside the affected societies, including many leading decolonial thinkers

I think of the Executed Renaissance, murderous Soviet purges of whole generations of intellectuals from Ukraine across Belarus, Georgia and Qazaqstan… and I think of how little this epistemicidal necropolitics bothered anyone outside the affected societies, including many leading decolonial thinkers

Here for it. Plus it strikes me how much work has (obviously) been done in decolonial studies and how little in philosophy, but it mirrors whose perspectives have dominated it and who was “absent.” I think of Patočka who died after years of repression during an interrogation by state socialist cops…

In her talk on ending impunity for Russian imperialism, Oleksanda Matviichuk made a distinction between freedom as self-determination and freedom as survival, which is a significant differentiation that we as philosophers haven’t though on hard enough, and I think we should. Going to take this up

About thinkers from Europe’s East whose work is visionary: it was an honour to meet @avalaina.bsky.social, hear her talk and also get to discuss the reparative work we do with @associationruta.bsky.social in research on/with Europe’s East, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and North Asia in global dialogues