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In this episode, I’m joined by Julio Linares, author of ⁠Decolonizing Money: The Promise of Abolishing the US Dollar (Pluto Press, 2026), to discuss the colonial roots of the dollar system and what it would mean to envision a decolonized monetary order that prioritizes human flourishing over war, bondage, and ecological destruction. Drawing on a synthesis of anarchist, abolitionist, and Third World Marxist frameworks, this conversation takes a critical look at the current state of the international economic order, and what opportunities and contradictions this conjuncture poses for the project of articulating a democratic and abolitionist theory of money. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Julio Linares — ⁠Decolonizing Money: The Promise of Abolishing the US Dollar (Pluto Press, 2026) Karl Polanyi — The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money in The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our Time (1944) David Graeber — Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams (Palgrave 2002) David Graeber — Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2004) David Graeber — Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Melville House, 2011) Return to Bandung interview with Radhika Desai on dollar imperialism (April 2025) W.E.B. Du Bois — The African Roots of War (May 1915) David Graeber and David Wengrow — The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (Macmillan, 2021) Return to Bandung interview with Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert on defending Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution (October 2025) Emma Goldman — Patriotism, a Menace to Liberty (1908) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Basic Income Earth Network: Twitter: twitter.com/BasicIncomeOrg Website: basicincome.org/ Debt for Climate: Twitter: twitter.com/debtforclimate Instagram: instagram.com/debtforclimate/ Website: debtforclimate.org/

In this episode, I’m joined by Lara Sheehi, practicing clinical psychologist and Research Fellow at the University of South Africa's Institute for Social & Health Sciences, to discuss her new book From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures (Pluto Press, 2026). In this conversation, we explore the various ways in which empire uses psychological warfare as a weapon to sustain itself and crush resistance, and discuss how the concept of ‘psychic militancy’—informed by the experiences and practices of revolutionary struggles and resistance movements in the Global South—can help us fight back against capitalist imperialism’s psychic intrusions. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Lara Sheehi — ⁠From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures (Pluto Press, 2026) Lara Sheehi’s Psychic Militancy podcast Return to Bandung episode with Charisse Burden-Stelly on capitalist racism and state repression in the United States (September 2026) Frantz Fanon — The Wretched of the Earth (1961) Frantz Fanon — Black Skin, White Masks (1952) Frantz Fanon — Alienation and Freedom (Bloomsbury, 2018) Pranay Somayajula — Decolonization and its Discontents (Monthly Review, May 2025) Return to Bandung episode with Priyamvada Gopal on the politics of decolonization (June 2025) Gabriel Rockhill — Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? (Monthly Review Press, 2025) Return to Bandung episode with Gabriel Rockhill on Western Marxism (February 2026) Orisanmi Burton — Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt (University of California Press, 2023) Ghassan Kanafani interview with Richard Carlton (1970) Return to Bandung episode with Torkil Lauesen on the labor aristocracy (March 2026) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Lara Sheehi: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychoanalystactivist/ Website: https://www.larasheehi.com/ Psychic Militancy podcast: Twitter: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychicmilitancypod/

In this episode, I’m joined by Charisse Burden-Stelly, associate professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University and author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2023)—to discuss the connections between capitalism and racism and how the intertwined relationship between anti-Blackness and anti-communism has shaped the history of state repression in the United States. In particular, we situate the current moment of escalating state repression against activists and social movements within this longer history of what Dr. Burden-Stelly calls “the Black Scare/Red Scare longue durée.” About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Charisse Burden-Stelly — ⁠Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States (University of Chicago Press, 2023) Return to Bandung episode with Nick Estes on the federal occupation of Minneapolis (August 2026) Erik S. McDuffie — Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism (Duke University Press, 2011) Carol Boyce Davies — Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones (Duke University Press, 2008) U.S. Department of State — Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism (July 2026) Upstream episode with Charisse Burden-Stelly on the State Department Cuba report (August 2026) Charisse Burden-Stelly — Reading "Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism" through Black Scare/Red Scare, Part I (Substack, July 2026) Robin D.G. Kelley — What Did Cedric Robinson Mean by Racial Capitalism? (Boston Review, January 2017) Peter James Hudson — Racial Capitalism and the Dark Proletariat (Boston Review, February 2018) William Z. Foster — The Negro People in American History (International Publishers, 1954 Peter James Hudson — Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean (University of Chicago Press, 2017) Return to Bandung episode with Sam Klug on internal colonialism in the United States (November 2025) Lara Sheehi — From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures (Pluto Press, 2026) Minnesota 15 Anti-Repression Committee website George Jackson — Blood in My Eye (Black Classic Press, 1990) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Charisse Burden-Stelly: Twitter: https://twitter.com/drcbs_ Substack: https://drcbs.substack.com/ Website: https://www.charisseburdenstelly.com/

In this episode, I’m joined by returning guest Nick Estes—associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, cofounder of The Red Nation, and author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso Books, 2019)—to discuss last winter’s federal occupation of Minnesota during the Trump Administration’s ‘Operation Metro Surge.’ In this wide-ranging conversation, we attempt to complicate the artificial distinction between the ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ spheres, instead situating the fascist violence of Metro Surge within a larger context of both settler-colonial violence in the United States and escalating global aggression by the decaying American empire. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Nick Estes — ⁠Our History Is the Future:Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance⁠ (Verso Books, 2019) Pranay Somayajula — Fighting for the future in occupied Minneapolis (The Drift newsletter, January 2026) Return to Bandung episode with Nick Estes on Indigenous resistance in North America (February 2025)⁠⁠Minnesota 15 Anti-Repression Committee website⁠⁠Adam Serwer — Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong (The Atlantic, January 2026) The Red Nation Podcast episode with Nick Estes and Jimmy Patiño on Red, Black, and Brown Power in the Twin Cities (August 2024) Benjamin Prostine — “‘Communal Sensibility’: the Minneapolis Mass Strikes of 1934 and Today” (Labor and Working-Class History Association, March 2026) Nick Estes — Transcript of remarks at January 23 ‘ICE Out of Minnesota’ rally (January 2026) Amelia Schafer — Former Native American concentration camp lies beneath current immigration detention center (ICT News, January 2026) Nick Estes — US Imperialism is an Indian War (Middle East Critique, October 2025) Return to Bandung episode with Guillaume Long on Trump’s revival of the Monroe Doctrine (January 2026)  Return to Bandung episode with Julian Go on the imperial boomerang (February 2025) The Red Nation Podcast episode with Charisse Burden-Stelly on the imperial slingshot (February 2026) Ken Klippenstein — ICE Unloads (Substack post, January 2026) George Jackson — Blood in My Eye (Black Classic Press, 1990) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Nick Estes: Twitter: twitter.com/nickwestes Substack: nickestes.substack.com/ The Red Nation Website: www.therednation.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/The_Red_Nation Instagram: www.instagram.com/therednationmovement YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/TheRedNation

In this episode, I’m joined by returning guests Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert, both Venezuela-based scholars and Chavista activists, to provide an update from on the ground six months after the United States’ illegal invasion and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro in January. We discuss the current state of the Bolivarian Revolution, the challenges facing Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, and why it’s more important than ever for the Western left to stand in solidarity with Venezuela’s socialist project in the face of escalating U.S. imperialism. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: CODEPINK solidarity fundraiser for Venezuela earthquake relief Return to Bandung episode with Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina on defending Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution (October 2025)  Return to Bandung episode with David Ramírez Álvarez on defending the Cuban Revolution (May 2026) Chris Gilbert — Mészáros and Chávez: The Philosopher and the Llanero (Monthly Review, June 2022) Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs — Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela (Center for Economic and Policy Research, April 2019) Celina Della Croce — Communal Consults and Venezuela’s Fight for the Future (Counterpunch, May 2026) Acting President Delcy Rodríguez Calls for Wide Participation in March 8 Communal Popular Consultation (Orinoco Tribune, February 2026) Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina — A Great Leap into Reality: Venezuela Today (Counterpunch, June 2026) Domenico Losurdo — Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn (Monthly Review Press, 2024) Return to Bandung episode with Ashwin Shantha on Chinese socialism and green development (June 2026) Return to Bandung episode with Guillaume Long on Trump’s revival of the Monroe Doctrine (January 2026) Hyper-Imperialism: A Dangerous Decadent New Stage (Tricontinental: Institute for Global Research, January 2024) Hugo Chávez — Speech to the UN (September 2011) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Escuela de Cuadros: Twitter: twitter.com/escuela_cuadros Blog: escuelacuadros.blogspot.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/escuelacuadros

In this episode, I’m joined by Ashwin Shantha, PhD student in politics at York University and host of the International Solidarity Podcast, to discuss their recent article “China’s Green Development is Both Anti-Imperialist and Socialist.” We explore the history and current state of China’s green industrialization, its implications for energy sovereignty in China and across the Global South, and why such a development path is only possible because of the socialist nature of China’s political and economic system. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Ashwin Shantha — China’s Green Development is Both Anti-Imperialist and Socialist (Journal of International Solidarity, February 2026) International Solidarity Podcast episode on ecological civilization in China (May 2026) International Solidarity Podcast episode with India and Global Left on China and India’s development paths (April 2025) Return to Bandung episode with Tings Chak on China’s role in the global order (March 2025) International Solidarity Podcast episode with Ken Hammond on culture and politics in the Chinese Revolution (November 2025) Torkil Lauesen — The Long Transition Towards Socialism and the End of Capitalism (Iskra Books, 2024) International Solidarity Podcast episode with Torkil Lauesen on The Long Transition (August 2025) Return to Bandung episode with David Ramírez Álvarez on defending the Cuban Revolution (May 2026) Chen Yiwen — Marxist Ecology in China: From Marx’s Ecology to Socialist Eco-Civilization Theory (Monthly Review, October 2024) State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China — China’s Green Development in the New Era (January 2023) Xi Jinping — Speech at the Leaders’ Summit of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (October 2021) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Journal of International Solidarity: Substack: intlsolidarity.substack.com/ Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6pbGw76EukzP0xPisBS9Sj YouTube: youtube.com/@JournalofIntlSolidarity Instagram: instagram.com/journalofintlsolidarity Twitter: twitter.com/revintlist

In this episode, I’m joined by David Ramírez Álvarez, Second Secretary and cultural attaché at the Embassy of Cuba to the United States in Washington, D.C., to talk about the history of Cuba’s socialist revolution and the ongoing fight to defend it in the face of escalating imperialist aggression from the United States. We discuss the history and effects of the blockade, the current situation on the ground in Cuba, and the successes and challenges of building a revolutionary society under siege, as well as the importance of international solidarity from those of us who are located in the belly of the beast. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Mallory Memorandum (April 1960) Anna Heikkinen — US sanctions, power cuts, climate crisis: why Cuba is betting on renewables (The Guardian, February 2026) Nicole Acevedo, Carmen Sesin and Orlando Matos — Cuba’s president says ‘we would die’ to defend against U.S. invasion (NBC News, April 2026) Cheyanne M. Daniels — Cuban military is ‘prepared’ for potential US aggression, deputy foreign minister says (Politico, March 2026) Fidel Castro — speech to the Cultural Congress of Havana (January 1968) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/returntobandung Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula Website: ⁠pranaysomayajula.com Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz David Ramírez Álvarez: Twitter: twitter.com/DvidTwit Embassy of Cuba in the United States: Twitter: twitter.com/EmbaCubaUS Instagram: instagram.com/embacubaee.uu/

In this episode, I’m joined by Peter Mertens, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB), to discuss the current situation and future outlook of the European left. We discuss the PTB’s meteoric rise as one of the most prominent and fastest-growing left-wing parties in Europe today, the fight against a rising tide of militarism and far-right nationalism, and the role of parliamentary politics in revolutionary struggle, and discuss what role Europe—and in particular, the European left—has to play in a shifting international order. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Workers’ Party of Belgium website Joe Todd — Between Autonomy and Control (The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, March 2026) Marc Botenga — A Marxist in the European Parliament (interview in Jacobin, May 2019) Rosa Luxemburg — The Junius Pamphlet (1915) Grace Blakeley — Inside Die Linke’s Resurgence (Jacobin, March 2025) David Pestieau — Facing a Tilting World and the Rise of European Militarism: Why Peace and Socialism Matter Now (speech at the 2025 European Forum in Vienna) Peter Mertens — Mutiny: How Our World is Tilting (LeftWord Books, 2024) Peter Mertens — A Mutiny Against the West’s Order (interview in Jacobin, October 2024) Johan Grimonprez — Soundtrack to a Coup D’État (documentary, 2024) Rosa Luxemburg — Peace Utopias (1911) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/returntobandung Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/pranay.somayajula Website: ⁠pranaysomayajula.com Substack: ⁠culture-shock.xyz Peter Mertens: Twitter: twitter.com/peter_mertens Instagram: www.instagram.com/mertens.p Workers’ Party of Belgium: Twitter: twitter.com/pvdabelgie Instagram: instagram.com/pvdabelgie Website: https://international.pvda-ptb.be/

In this episode, I’m joined by Marxist theorist and anti-imperialist revolutionary Torkil Lauesen, author of numerous books including The Principal Contradiction (Kersplebedeb, 2020) and Unequal Exchange: Past, Present, and Future (Iskra Books, 2025), to discuss the challenges and contradictions of anti-imperialist resistance in the imperial core. We explore key concepts such as the labor aristocracy and unequal exchange and their relationship to the prospects of resistance within imperialist countries, and discuss how revolutionaries located in the heart of empire can overcome these challenges to weaken empire from within. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Arghiri Emmanuel Association Website Torkil Lauesen — Unequal Exchange: Past, Present and Future (Iskra Books, 2025) Vladimir Lenin — Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917) Hodee W. Edwards — Labor Aristocracy, Mass Base of Social Democracy (1978) Arghiri Emmanuel — Unequal Exchange: A Study of the Imperialism of Trade (Monthly Review Press, 1972) Jason Hickel, Morena Hanbury Lemos, and Felix Barbour — Unequal exchange of labour in the world economy (Nature Communications, 2024) Return to Bandung episode with Jason Hickel Jason Hickel — The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets (W.W. Norton, 2018) Katharina Buchholz — How Many Hours Of Work Pay For An iPhone 17? (Forbes, September 2025) Torkil Lauesen — The Global Perspective: Reflections on Imperialism and Resistance (Kersplebedeb, 2018) Torkil Lauesen — Anti-imperialist comeback: an interview with Torkil Lauesen (Left Wing Books, July 2018) Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen — The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism (Verso Books, 2021) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠

In this episode, I’m joined by Alexander Aviña, historian of Mexico and associate professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University, to discuss imperialism and anti-imperialist resistance in Mexico. We discuss the long history of revolutionary struggles in Mexico, the imperial origins and present-day violence of the U.S.-Mexico border, and how Mexico’s relationship with the United States has shaped the last century of American imperialism in the Western Hemisphere—as well as how all of this has been affected by recent developments in the last decade of Mexican politics. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective Website The Sun Never Sets: Making Sense of Modern Empire book announcement Pranay Somayajula — Reviving the Bandung Spirit (Socialism 2025 conference lecture) Alexander Aviña — Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside (Oxford University Press, 2014) Greg Grandin — America, América: A New History of the New World (Penguin, 2025) Kelly Lytle Hernández — Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands (W.W. Norton, 2023) Alexander Aviña — Mexico’s Long Dirty War (NACLA Report on the Americas, July 2016) Chris Gilbert — Commune Or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project (Monthly Review Press, 2023) Christina Heatherton — Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution (University of California Press, 2024) José Marti — Nuestra América (El Partido Liberal, January 1891) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Alex Aviña: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alexander_Avina Website: https://alexanderavina.com/ Substack: https://substack.com/profile/43151775-alex-avina/

In this episode, I’m joined by guest host Ashwin Shantha of the Journal of International Solidarity podcast to interview Gabriel Rockhill, professor of philosophy at Villanova University and author of Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? (Monthly Review Press, 2025) about how the ‘imperial theory industry’ has served to undermine actually-existing socialist projects and national liberation struggles while maintaining a superficial guise of ‘radical’ politics. We discuss the political economy of knowledge production, the longstanding entanglements between Western academia, the national security state, and the capitalist ruling class, and what it means to understand the cultural and intellectual spheres as sites of political struggle. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Gabriel Rockhill — Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? (Monthly Review Press, 2025) Domenico Losurdo — Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it Can be Reborn (Monthly Review Press, 2024) Frances Stonor Saunders — Who Paid the Piper?: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (Granta Books, 1999) Gabriel Rockhill and John Bellamy Foster — Western Marxism and Imperialism: A Dialogue (Monthly Review, March 2025) Return to Bandung episode with Ashwin Shantha on anti-imperialist political education (October 2025) Roberto Fernández Retamar — Caliban: Notes towards a Discussion of Culture in Our America (The Massachusetts Review, Winter/Spring 1974) Fidel Castro — Speech at the 8th Congress of the Cuban Young Communist League (December 1998) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Journal of International Solidarity: Substack: https://intlsolidarity.substack.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6pbGw76EukzP0xPisBS9Sj YouTube: https://youtube.com/@JournalofIntlSolidarity Instagram: https://instagram.com/journalofintlsolidarity Twitter: https://twitter.com/revintlist Gabriel Rockhill: Website: https://gabrielrockhill.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GabrielRockhill

In this episode, I’m joined by Guillaume Long, former Foreign Minister of Ecuador and current Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, to discuss the ‘Monroe Doctrine’ and its role in shaping the trajectory of U.S. imperialism in Latin America. We discuss the history of this foreign policy doctrine, its evolution over the last two centuries, and why it is so important for understanding the particular shape that American imperial aggression in the Western Hemisphere has taken under the Trump Administration—especially in light of the United States’ illegal invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro in the first few days of 2026. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Guillaume Long — The Trump Administration Unabashedly Embraces the Monroe Doctrine (The Nation, January 2025) National Security Strategy of the United States of America (November 2025) Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs — Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela (Center for Economic and Policy Research, April 2019) Return to Bandung episode with Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina on defending Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution (October 2025) Return to Bandung episode with Tings Chak on China’s role in the global order (March 2025) Hugo Chávez — Message to the CELAC summit (January 2013) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Guillaume Long: Twitter: https://twitter.com/GuillaumeLong Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guillaume.long/

In this episode, I’m joined once again by Ashwin Shantha, host of the Journal of International Solidarity podcast, to revisit a crucial but often-overlooked episode in international left history—the 1920 debate between Vladimir Lenin and the Indian Communist leader M.N. Roy over the national and colonial question. In this conversation, posted as a collaborative episode with the Journal of International Solidarity, we summarize the contours of this debate, situating it within the historical context of the Second World Congress of the Communist International, before tackling a wide-ranging discussion of what lessons this debate holds for contemporary internationalists as we navigate the challenges and contradictions of anti-imperialism in the 21st century. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Journal of International Solidarity Substack International Solidarity Podcast Return to Bandung episode with Ashwin on anti-imperialist political education (October 2025) Minutes of the Second Congress of the Communist International, Fourth Session (July 1920) Vladimir Lenin — Draft Theses on the National and Colonial Questions for The Second Congress Of The Communist International (June 1920) M.N. Roy — Supplementary Theses on the National and Colonial Question (July 1920) Aditya Iyer — The Indian Radical Who Helped Found the Mexican Communist Party (Jacobin, August 2021) Kris Manjapra — India’s M. N. Roy Was the Pioneer of Postcolonial Marxism (Jacobin, August 2024) Vladimir Lenin — Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917) Return to Bandung interview with Pawel Wargan on left internationalism (July 2025) Rosa Luxemburg — The National Question (1909) John P. Haithcox — The Roy-Lenin Debate on Colonial Policy: a New Interpretation (The Journal of Asian Studies, November 1963) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Journal of International Solidarity: Substack: https://intlsolidarity.substack.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6pbGw76EukzP0xPisBS9Sj YouTube: https://youtube.com/@JournalofIntlSolidarity Instagram: https://instagram.com/journalofintlsolidarity Twitter: https://twitter.com/revintlist

In this episode, I’m joined by Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and author of Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula (Verso, 2020), to discuss the incredibly important but often-overlooked role of international shipping and logistics in the capitalist-imperialist world system. We discuss how the global shipping industry relates to everything from transnational labor exploitation to environmental devastation to the genocide in Palestine, as well as the power of organized labor in this crucial industry to bring the capitalist system to a grinding halt. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: Become a paid Substack subscriber Buy Me a Coffee Sources and helpful links: Laleh Khalili — Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula (Verso, 2020) Deborah Cohen — The Deadly Life of Logistics: Mapping Violence in Global Trade (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) Johan Mathew — Margins of the Market: Trafficking and Capitalism across the Arabian Sea (University of California Press, 2016) Jatin Dua — Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean (University of California Press, 2019) Laleh Khalili — The Suez Canal Is a Lifeline for Global Capitalism (interview with Jacobin, March 2021) Peter Cole — Building Worker Power on the Docks (interview with Jacobin, December 2019) Ashok Kumar — How Yemen’s Houthis Brought Maritime Capitalism to a Halt (Jacobin, May 2025) Laura Montanari — We Said “We Will Block Everything” and We Did: Inside Italy’s Strike for Gaza (Truthout, September 2025) Peter Cole — Dockworker strikes in solidarity with Gaza have a long legacy (Waging Nonviolence, October 2025) Katie Fox-Hodess — Global Solidarity on the Docks (New Labor Forum, January 2022) Mask off Maersk campaign website Photograph of Walter Rodney Walter Rodney — How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, 1972) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠ Laleh Khalili: Twitter: https://twitter.com/LalehKhalili

In this episode, I’m joined by intellectual historian Sam Klug, author of The Internal Colony: Race and the American Politics of Global Decolonization (University of Chicago Press, 2025), to discuss the idea of ‘internal colonialism’ as it applies to the situation of African Americans and other racialized peoples in the United States. We explore how this concept developed within the Black radical tradition, how it evolved over time, and how it was taken up by an astoundingly diverse array of thinkers and activists across the ideological spectrum, and discuss what this radical way of thinking about the politics of race can offer us on the anti-racist and colonial left today. About the show: Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock. Support Return to Bandung: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution: ​Become a paid Substack subscriber​Buy Me a CoffeeSources and helpful links: ​Sam Klug — The Internal Colony: Race and the American Politics of Global Decolonization (University of Chicago Press, 2025)​Return to Bandung interview with Adom Getachew (October 2025)​Angela Davis — Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (Haymarket, 2016)​Aziz Rana — Race and the American Creed (n+1, Winter 2016)​Eugene Puryear — Harry Haywood’s contributions to the national question and the fight for class unity (Liberation School, February 2024)​Harold Cruse — Revolutionary Nationalism and the Afro-American (Studies on the Left, 1962)​Kenneth Clark — Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power (Harper and Row, 1965)​Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton — Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America (Random House, 1967)​James and Grace Lee Boggs — The City is the Black Man’s Land (Monthly Review, April 1966)​Vine Deloria, Jr. — Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (Macmillan, 1969)​Return to Bandung interview with Nick Estes (February 2025)​Huey P. Newton — Speech at Boston College on Revolutionary Intercommunalism (November 1970)​Return to Bandung interview with Julian Go (February 2025)​Sam Klug — Who’s Afraid of Frantz Fanon? (Boston Review, March 2024)​Stokely Carmichael — What We Want (New York Review of Books, September 1966)Social links: Return to Bandung: ​Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠​Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠Pranay Somayajula: ​Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/p_somayajula⁠​Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠​Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠​Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/⁠