Justice Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show · Burt Cohen

Avi Chomsky: 21st Century Colonialism and Extractivism

·57 min·3 clips

Tabaco was bulldozed by the company and Colombian riot police on August 9, 2001.

1. Justice Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show centers on Avi Chomsky and the episode topic “21st Century Colonialism and Extractivism.” 2. Bert Cohen hosts the conversation, and Avi Chomsky appears as a historian and coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State University in Massachusetts. 3. The episode asks how colonialism persists through fossil fuels, mining, and “green energy” projects in the 21st century. 4. Chomsky distinguishes franchise colonialism from settler colonialism and says the difference matters for how land and labor are controlled. 5. She describes franchise colonialism as a model associated with Spanish Latin America, where a foreign power rules a large population and extracts resources. 6. She defines settler colonialism as a project that eliminates native populations and replaces them with a white European immigrant population. 7. She names the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and Israel as classic settler-colonial examples. 8. Chomsky says settler colonialism is “a structure, not an event,” because the land-taking and displacement continue after formal independence. 9. She says one myth of settler colonialism is that the land was empty, even though indigenous survival shows the opposite. 10. She argues that indigenous people are often treated as if they must remain frozen in the past, while non-Indigenous societies are allowed to change. 11. Chomsky returns to Serbia and says the lithium mine story matters because “there’s no green transition in Europe without this lithium.” 12. She says La Guajira in Colombia is a more classic example, with foreign multinationals extracting coal and now targeting copper, solar, and wind projects. 13. She describes Tabaco as a small community displaced on August 9, 2001 when the company and Colombian riot police arrived with bulldozers. 14. She says Tabaco residents were dragged from their houses and their homes were bulldozed in front of them. 15. She explains that many people from Tabaco remain displaced, with some living in shantytowns on the outskirts of towns and cities. 16. Chomsky says indigeneity is a political category shaped by colonialism, and she ties it to UN and scholarly definitions about states created without the people’s participation. 17. She argues that Palestinians fit that definition because the state in which they live was created over them and continues to marginalize them. 18. The tone is analytic and interview-based, with Cohen pressing for definitions, examples, and historical comparisons across Colombia, Appalachia, and Gaza. 19. Listeners interested in colonial history, land rights, climate justice, and Latin America will get the most from it. 20. Listeners looking for light banter or a short entertainment segment will probably skip it.

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