Webinar: Marx and Lenin in Africa and Asia – The enduring relevance of socialism(s), yesterday and today

WEBINAR

Hosted by US-Vietnam Research Center, University of Oregon

MARX AND LENIN IN AFRICA AND ASIA: THE ENDURING RELEVANCE OF SOCIALISM(S), YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Registration Link: please visit here.

Abstract:

Throughout the twentieth century, the ideas of Marx and Lenin were fervently listened to, adopted, modified, and confronted in Africa and Asia. What socialism has meant, and still means, in theory and in practice has always been highly heterogeneous. African and Asian movements have not simply mimicked the blueprints and dogmas of Soviet or European Marxists, but have built and contextualized their own. Above all, what has set socialists in African and Asian societies apart from their comrades in Europe have been three great challenges they have had to simultaneously contend with in their articulations of liberation: how to build up empirical and juridical statehood, how to forge a nation after colonial divide-and-rule, and how to position themselves in a world order not of their making. In a postcolonial world, this then begs a key question: what can African and Asian imaginaries, institutions and practices tell us about socialism as a global phenomenon? This panel presents a broad discussion of the question and a special focus on the case of Indonesian socialism whose complex legacies remain today despite the complete destruction of the Indonesian Communist Party in the mid-1960s.

Chair:

Tuong Vu, Professor and Department Head, Department of Political Science, University of Oregon

Panelists & Titles of Presentation:

Dr. Harry Verhoeven, Convenor, Oxford University China-Africa Network

“What is to be done? Rethinking socialism(s) and socialist legacies in the postcolonial world”

Dr. Kevin Fogg, Associate Director, Carolina Asia Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Indonesian Socialism of the 1950s: From Ideology to Rhetoric”

Dr. Vedi Hadiz, Director and Professor of Asian Studies, Asia Institute, University of Melbourne

“Indonesia’s Missing Left and the Islamisation of Dissent”