On June 19th, I had the privilege of delivering a talk titled ‘Genocide and Organized Abandonment’ at the Alison Richard Building in Cambridge. This event was jointly organized by the Palestine Culture Series, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the CRASH group (Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities) at Cambridge.
The concept of ‘organized abandonment’, coined by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, formed the cornerstone of my presentation. This term describes the primary mechanism of structural violence in our current era, where vast populations have been rendered surplus to the needs of capital. Gilmore argues that organized abandonment necessitates organized violence to manage this surplus population, exemplified by the prison system where unemployed guards are needed to contain prisoners.
Mohammed Elnaiem, the director of the Decolonial Centre, was invited to speak at his alma mater Cambridge to explore about colonialism and genocide.
I posited that genocide occurs when organized abandonment becomes unsustainable. To support this argument, I drew upon case studies from Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Haiti. These examples illustrated how various regimes of violence are employed to contain the desperation of the dispossessed and, in Gilmore’s words, ‘protect capitalism from capitalism’.
The main talk was scheduled from 2:30 to 4:00 PM at the Alison Richard Building. However, I also had the opportunity to present at noon to students participating in the occupation for Palestine at the university. This impromptu session proved to be a particularly engaging and thought-provoking experience.
Both presentations sparked interesting conversations and debates. The juxtaposition of the formal academic setting and the more grassroots student occupation provided unique perspectives on these critical issues. It was a day of meaningful discourse that I found both challenging and rewarding.
This has been Mohammed Elnaiem. You can watch the video down here.
