12 October 2025, 12:00 - 18:00
Basecamp Theories with Vijay Prashad
seminar on National Liberation Marxism and Practices from the Global South, moderated by Chris de Ploeg
For our first Basecamp Theories, we are joined by historian, journalist, and Marxist intellectual Vijay Prashad to discuss National Liberation Marxism and Practices from the Global South. Basecamp Theories is a new series of intensive studies grounded in the Basecamp’s ongoing unbuilding and rebuilding of cultural infrastructures. Each seminar invites a theorist with expertise in materially-grounded, emancipatory democratic practices and models of the past, present or future. Together, we will deep dive, close read and co-theorize around their proposed practices and models. This seminar series offers tactical imaginaries, shared strategies, and tools for resisting, so that we can go beyond simply being “anti-fascist” and begin to practice and build real alternatives.
Our first intensive, with Vijay Prashad, will combine presentation, discussion, and collective reflection. There will be time for exchange with fellow organizers and activists, and the chance to deepen your approaches to movement-building together. The sessions will be moderated by the organizer, journalist and author Chris de Ploeg.
Some of the discussion points include:
Fascism as a colonial boomerang, and anti-imperialism as necessary to the anti-fascist struggle
The past century of international solidarity organized by socialist movements, and how their ongoing legacies relate to new internationalisms today
Why are material and class analyses crucial to effective anti-imperialist struggle and movements?
How can we learn from these experiences today in the Dutch context?
Basecamp Theories is open for everyone but has limited spots. To register, we ask that you submit a short written or video motivation explaining how Vijay Prashad’s work and/or the themes of this intensive relate to your current activism, organizing, research or study. This does not have to be overly formal! We are looking for engagement, curiosity and commitment.
You can find the registration form here
In the case of a video motivation, please send it to joining@bakonline.org
If you are invited to participate, we suggest a sliding scale donation:
€8 (low income) - €15 (standard) - €30 (solidarity)
or anything in between
You will also need to read at least one of Vijay Prashad’s texts from a set reading list, and write 500 words connecting this text to your current organising / activist approaches, which we will discuss together during the intensive.
Event details
11:30 – Walk-in with soup
12:00 – Welcome & agenda setting
12:15 – Session I: Learning from the Global South
14:15 – Coffee/tea break
14:45 – Session II: Collective Reflection
16:15 – Coffee/tea break
16:30 – Session III: Seminar Dialogue
17:30 – Closing reflections
17:50 – Closing drinks
18:30 – Doors close
About Vijay Prashad
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. 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 books The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power (2022) and On Cuba (2024) were written in collaboration with Noam Chomsky.
Prashad is Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Chief Correspondent for Globetrotter. He is an editor at LeftWord Books (New Delhi), at Inkani Books (Johannesburg), and at La Trocha (Chile).
He has appeared in two films – Shadow World (2016) and Two Meetings (2017).
About Chris de Ploeg
Chris Kaspar de Ploeg (1994) is a grassroots organizer, journalist and author of De Grote Koloniale Oorlog (The Great Colonial War) and Ukraine in the Crossfire. He writes, speaks and organizes on various social justice topics, including (neo-)colonialism, climate justice, racism and capitalism. As co-founder and core organizer at Aralez, a grassroots organization for decolonization, he co-initiated Arts of Resistance, a coalition bridging social movements and the arts. Next to that, he is a policy officer for the anti-colonial socialist party De Vonk.
