From the genocidal violence in Gaza to the continued plundering of the resources, labour, energy and land from the Global South, colonialism is alive and well today. At the same time, colonialism has left deep scars across the globe over 500-years of history - committing every crime known to mankind on a scale greater than ever before -, creating the very colonial structures that continue to define our present. So what do reparations mean, when colonialism has not actually passed?
In this session, Chris de Ploeg will offer a perspective from the grassroots organization Aralez, a pan-decolonial collective based in the Netherlands. Since 2023, Aralez has been organizing a yearly conference on reparations, where community organizers and activists are invited to go into dialogue, formulate demands and think of actions aimed at repairing colonial damage towards the Global South and to help break the cycle of western and Dutch neo-colonial and imperialist domination. Aralez advocates for a movement-led approach to reparations, as something to be achieved by powerful bottom-up organizing.
It is famously said that decolonization is not a metaphor. In this session, we will delve more deeply into what that means concretely, and how we strategize for overthrowing colonialism and repairing five centuries of imperialism.
Speaker
Chris Kaspar de Ploeg (1994) is a grassroots organizer, journalist and author of Ukraine in the Crossfire (2017) and The Great Colonial War (2025). He is also co-founder and core organizer at Aralez, a grassroots organization for decolonization, and at Arts of Resistance, a coalition bridging social movements and the arts. Chris is also a policy officer for the anti-colonial socialist party De Vonk.
Chris writes, speaks and organizes on various social justice topics, including (neo-)colonialism, climate justice, racism and capitalism. You can find his work on his website: www.chrisdeploeg.com.
How to attend
Date : Wednesday, 4th of June, 2025
Time : 1pm CET
Place: University of Amsterdam, Roeterseiland Campus B/C, 5th Floor, Anthropology Common Room (B5.12)
Register: You can sign up to attend here.
Join us here: [LIVESTREAM LINK FORTHCOMING]
If you have trouble joining us, please contact Hanna Horváth - h.horvath@uva.nl
The REPAIR lectures
The REPAIR lectures are an interdisciplinary lecture series on contemporary reparations demands and policies around the globe. They are given by leading reparations experts and investigate how reparations claims and policies come about, how they play out from a political, economic and moral perspective, and what they may teach us about politics and economics today. The lectures are hosted by the REPAIR project, based at the Anthropology Department of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). They are co-sponsored by the UvA’s Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS).