A Marxist Glossary for the Study of Anti-imperialism

From left to right: “A Small Poli­ti­cal Diction­ary”, “Diction­ary of Marxist-Leni­­nist Socio­logy”, “Diction­ary of Scien­ti­fic Commu­nism”, “Diction­ary of Foreign Policy and Inter­na­tio­nal Law”, and “Basic ques­ti­ons of the anti-impe­ria­­list struggle of the peop­les of Asia, Africa and Latin America in the present day”. The follo­wing glos­sary is a coll­ec­tion of concepts and terms rela­ted to … Read more

Friendship through Ether Waves: Radio Berlin International and its Listening Publics in India

Dr. Anan­dita Bajpai 4 Octo­ber 2023 Down­load as PDF Intro­duc­tion Radio was a promi­nent tool of the ‘Cultu­ral Cold War’ for reaching out to people in ‘far away’ spaces, commu­ni­ca­ting world­views that prescri­bed to Cold War-divi­­des, and in forging ideo­lo­gi­cal affi­ni­ties and animo­si­ties alike. Seve­ral foreign broad­cas­ting stati­ons based in Europe, USA, and the Soviet Union were … Read more

Hope, Fear, and Solidarity

A Chilean emigrant and a former GDR citi­zen recount the victory of Salva­dor Allende and the Unidad Popu­lar in Chile, the 1973 coup d’état, and the escape from Chile to the GDR. 25 Septem­ber 2023 Espa­ñol The film poster for “I was, I am, I shall be” by the DDR-film­­ma­kers Heynow­ski & Scheu­mann (1974) Intro­duc­tion 53 years … Read more

Chile and Germany: Between Solidarity and Dependence

Over 50 years ago, Chile broke free from impe­ria­list domi­nance and plun­der. Germany too has a long history of exploi­ting Chile, but this tradi­tion was broken by the GDR’s exten­sive support for the sove­reig­nty of the Chilean people. The 1973 coup against Allende made these two oppo­sing histo­ri­cal tenden­cies clear.

50th Anniversary: X. World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin, DDR

In July 1973, exactly 50 years ago, the 10th edition of the World Festi­val began in Berlin, the capi­tal of the German Demo­cra­tic Repu­blic (GDR). From 28 July to 5 August, 8 million parti­ci­pants, inclu­ding 25,600 guests from 140 count­ries, took part in a broad programme of over 200 poli­ti­cal and 1,000 cultu­ral events under the slogan “For anti-impe­ria­list Soli­da­rity, Peace, and Friendship”.

“L’option socialiste”: Mali’s non-capitalist development and the international communist movement

From 1960 to 1968, the Repu­blic of Mali was at the fore­front of social revo­lu­tion in Africa. The country’s gover­ning party, the Union Souda­naise, had refu­sed to settle for formal poli­ti­cal sove­reig­nty and declared in 1960 that the repu­blic would opt for “l’op­tion socia­liste” to secure econo­mic inde­pen­dence from impe­ria­lism and social libe­ra­tion for the Malian people. This brief episode of revo­lu­tio­nary uphe­aval in Mali offers insights into seve­ral central aspects of anti-impe­ria­lism in the 20th century.

“On the ideological front, there was no peaceful coexistence”: Interview with Ulrich Kolbe

As part of our rese­arch into the Medi­cal College, we conduc­ted an inter­view with former German teacher Ulrich Kolbe in July 2021. In this first part, he descri­bes the GDR’s anti-impe­ria­list stra­tegy in gene­ral and discus­ses the deve­lo­p­ment of the poli­ti­cal conscious­ness of GDR citizens. 

“Solidarity is a two-way street”: Interview with anti-apartheid militant Ronnie Kasrils

Ronnie Kasrils, born 1938 in Johan­nes­burg, joined the South Afri­can Commu­nist Party at the age of 23. He was a foun­ding member of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the para­mi­li­tary wing of the Afri­can Natio­nal Congress (ANC). After recei­ving mili­tary and intel­li­gence trai­ning in the Soviet Union and the GDR, Kasrils helped to estab­lish a sophisti­ca­ted under­ground network of anti-apart­heid figh­ters from the mid-1960s onwards. Follo­wing the victory over apart­heid, Kasrils served as Minis­ter of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999–2004) and Minis­ter of Intel­li­gence Services (2004–2008) in the ANC governments.