Noted historian, journalist, political commentator and Marxist thinker Vijay Prashad will be visiting on a speaking tour from October 29 to 7 November.
Indian born Prashad will deliver public lectures, host workshops and teach-ins, and engage in political discussions at various venues in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.
View the full calendar of Prashad’s tour here.
Prashad is the author of forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. His latest book, On Cuba Reflections on 70 Years of Revolution and Struggle (published July 2024), was written with Noam Chomsky. Prashad is Executive Director of The Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Chief Correspondent for Globetrotter Media.
Ideologically a Marxist, Prashad is well known for his criticisms of capitalism, neocolonialism, American exceptionalism, and Western imperialism, while expressing support for communism and the global south.
Prior to visiting Australia, Prashad will speak at a a series of events in Aotearoa New Zealand starting October 23.
Calls for de-platforming Vijay Prashad
As Prashad prepares for his hectic tour of New Zealand and Australia, there have been calls for cancellation of his events. A group that calls itself ‘People Against All Imperialisms‘ has called on on activists and organisations in “Aotearoa and so-called Australia” hosting talks with Vijay Prashad, to rescind or cancel his invitations to these events.
In an open letter, the group that calls itself ‘a network of socialist and leftist organisers united by a conviction that workers’ self-emancipation, anti-imperialism, decolonisation, anti-authoritarianism, internationalism and feminism are integral parts of a socialist politics for the 21st century’ says “We are alarmed by the growing influence of US-centred campist politics spreading on the left. Vijay Prashad is one of the main public intellectuals spreading this ideology.”
The groups has called Prasad’s “racist and violent that is painfully hypocritical in its double standards of who is deserving or undeserving of internationalist solidarity”.
Activist groups reject boycott calls
The group Aotearoa Liberation League has said via their social media handles they ‘feel really saddened by the way a public campaign was launched by the contents of the letter’.
Prashad has denied some of the allegations made against him in the open letter. He said, “On almost all the accusations I have either been on the opposite side of the position ascribed to me or have not made a statement of any kind on the issue for lack of knowledge.”
“I have a forty year history of political work and journalism. There are a range of opinions and there is the development of my ideas. A gotcha form of assessment is hardly valuable unless your purpose is not dialogue.”, Prashad added.
Professor Mohan Dutta of Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) at Massey University, who will be hosting Vijay Prashad during his New Zealand tour, has rejected the call for not platforming Prashad. Calling the boycott call as ‘communicative inversions deployed by People Against All Imperialisms, and the whiteness of erasure’, Dutta’s planned conversation with Prashad on ‘Third World Futures’ will proceed as planned on October 25. It can be viewed live on CARE’s Facebook and Youtube platforms.
Watch out for an exclusive interview of Vijay Prashad on the NRI Affairs YouTube channel, to be published shortly.
