Unequal Exchange in the Twenty-First Century
A Two-part Conference on Imperialism and Resistance Today
When: January 29-31, 2026
Where: Amsterdam, NLThis January, join Anti-Imperialist Network, the Arghiri Emmanuel Association, and scholars and activists from around the world for the inaugural convening of UE21 - Unequal Exchange in the Twenty-First Century.
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Sponsoring Organizations
AEA
AIN
IISH
JLSO
POWR
Help Support the Conference
Conference attendance is free, but putting it on is not! Please consider contributing to help us pay for conference costs and sponsor attendance for those who need help paying for travel expenses.
Site background photo: from Spring 1975 issue of LSM News, published by the Liberation Support Movement, hosted on the African Activist Archive at MSU.
Dates, Locations, & Logistics
UE21 - Unequal Exchange in the Twenty-First Century is a two part conference intended to bring together academics, activists, and organizers in order to:
Analyze the modern global system of imperialism through the framework of Unequal Exchange, the theory advanced by the anti-imperialist, Marxist economist Arghiri Emmanuel.
Strategize new modes and methods of anti-imperialist practice and solidarity, in both the Global North and Global South.
Attendance is free and open to anyone who registers in advance (space permitting). Participation in Part One, Part Two, or both parts is welcomed.
Part One: Theory
Dates:
January 29 & 30, 2026 (Thursday & Friday)Location:
International Institute of Social History
Cruquiusweg 31, 1019 AT Amsterdam, Netherlands
Part Two: Practice
Note: due to an unexpectedly high number of signups, we have changed the Saturday venue to a space that can accommodate more people - please see the new location below, it is still relatively close to the venue for the first two days.Dates:
January 31, 2026 (Saturday)Location:
Plantage Dok
Plantage Doklaan 8, 1018 CM Amsterdam, Netherlands
Remote Attendance / Conference Streaming
We will announce further details about possible remote attendance, streaming, and session recording at a later date - check back here before the conference.
Lodging Options
StayOkay Amsterdam Oost: We’ve secured a discounted rate at StayOkay Amsterdam Oost, a hostel close to both venues.Location: Timorplein 21, 1094 CC Amsterdam, Netherlands
Website for Booking/Reservations: https://www.stayokay.com/en/hostel/amsterdam-oost
Discount code (will give 10% off): STAYOKAY10Other lodging options: There are obviously many hotels, hostels, and Airbnbs available in the area, as well as public transit from other parts of the Netherlands. You can use this link to check traveling distance and directions to the primary conference venue: https://www.google.com/maps/dir//International+Institute+of+Social+History,+Cruquiusweg+31,+1019+AT+Amsterdam,+Netherlands/
Register
Update: As of Jan 26, our conference space is over capacity for Friday! You can still register for Friday, but you’ll be placed on a waitlist. Thursday and Saturday still have open spots and no waitlist.Space at venues is extremely limited, and varies by day. Conference attendance is free! To register:
Fill out the pre-registration form.
Fill out the attendance confirmation form.
Program & Speakers
Note: this program is subject to change.
Part One: Theory (Thursday & Friday)
All locations listed below are in the International Institute of Social History venue. See locations page for details.
Thursday, January 29:
| Time (24HR) | Location | Speakers | Session |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 10:00 | Registration | ||
| 10:00 – 10:15 | Conference Hall Nettlau | Torkil Lauesen | Opening and Greetings |
| 10:15 – 11:15 | Conference Hall Nettlau | Nemanja Lukic, Caterine Emmanuel, Claudio Jedlicki, Maissan Hassan | Celebrating the Arghiri Emmanuel Archive at the IISH |
| 11:15 – 12:15 | Lunch Break | ||
| 12:15 – 14:15 | Hall Nettlau | Chair: Mat Callahan | Panel 1: Historicizing Unequal Exchange |
| Andy Higginbottom | The Theory of Unequal Exchange: from Marx to Emmanuel and Back | ||
| Torkil Lauesen | A Holistic View of Emmanuel’s Perception of Capitalism and the World-system | ||
| John Brolin | The world of unequal exchange according to Emmanuel—useful and not so useful uses of his theory | ||
| Peter Korotaev | Unequal exchange and politics | ||
| 12:15 – 14:15 | Posthumus Room | Chair: Thomas Hoffland | Panel 2: Unequal Exchange and Marxist Political Economy |
| Giuseppe Quattromini | Productivity Hierarchies and Unequal Exchange: Empirical Evidence for the 'Essential Modification' of the Law of Value | ||
| Nikolaos Chatzarakis | International Prices, Unequal Exchange and the Law of Value on a Global Scale | ||
| Abhinav Surya | Value Chain Relationship and Value Capture in India's Organised Manufacturing Sector | ||
| Paulo dos Santos | Abstractions, Real Abstraction, and the Social Relations of International Capitalism | ||
| Radhika Desai | Marxist Critiques of Unequal Exchange | ||
| 12:15 – 14:15 | van Scheltema Room | Chair: TBD | Panel 3: Migration, Economy, and Discourse |
| Iker Suarez | Europe’s “frail apartheid”: late neocolonial unequal exchange in the imperial core | ||
| Julián Castro-Rea | Blaming the Victim: The Normalization of Scapegoating Immigrants in the USA and Canada. | ||
| Scott Ritchie | Pretexts of racial inferiority: How oppression facilitates exploitation through unequal exchange | ||
| Jovan Ilijev Ciric | Tourism as economic imperialism | ||
| 14:15 – 14:30 | Coffee Break | ||
| 14:30 – 16:00 | Hall Nettlau | Chair: Immanuel Ness | Panel 4: Technology, Political Economy, and Imperialism |
| Zachary Sedefian | Online Labor Platforms as Economic Imperialism: Unequal Exchange in the International Digital Economy | ||
| Diedon Elshani | Digital Appropriation and Unequal Exchange in the Age of Big Tech | ||
| Francesco Macheda | The Military Foundations of Imperialism in the Contemporary World | ||
| 14:30 – 16:00 | Posthumus Room | Chair: TBD | Panel 5: Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism |
| Caitlyn Lee-Mei-Jin Merry | Insurgency as Critique of Unequal Exchange: Anti-Colonial Struggle and Memory in North Borneo | ||
| Adrian Ortega Camara Lind | The Rise and Decline of the Imperialism Debate in Denmark 1945-1991. | ||
| Ka Jackie | Unequal Exchange, Super-Exploitation and the Mode of Production in Exploited Countries | ||
| 14:30 – 16:00 | van Scheltema Room | Chair: TBD | Panel 6: Palestine, Israel, and Settler-Colonialism |
| Hisham Bustani and Elia El Khazen | Between a Rock and Israel: How Jordan’s Water and Energy Arrangements Entrench Israeli Settler Colonialism | ||
| Thomas Hofland | Palestine as Litmus Test: Dutch Left-Wing Parties and the struggle for the liberation of Palestine | ||
| 16:00 – 16:15 | Coffee Break | ||
| 16:15 – 17:30 | Hall Nettlau | Marcel van der Linden | Keynote Address: Colonial Profits, Unequal Exchange and the Segmentation of the World Working Class |
| 18:00 – Late | Socializing and Refreshments |
Friday, January 30:
| Time (24HR) | Location | SPEAKERS | Session |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | IISH Doors Open | ||
| 09:30 – 11:30 | Hall Nettlau | Chair: Stefano Bellucci | Panel 7: Labour and Imperialism |
| Jonathan Jenner | Measuring Coercion in the Sale of Labour-Power: An Index of Unfreedom in Circuits of Social Reproduction | ||
| Austin Hicks | Realizing Empire: The Political Economy of the Labor Aristocracy and Monopoly Capitalism | ||
| Maria Giannopoulou | Unequal exchange today: The case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||
| 09:30 – 11:30 | Posthumus Room | Chair: TBD | Panel 8: Unequal Exchange and Dependency in Central & Latin America |
| Abigail Kret | Unequal Exchange and the Case of Colombia | ||
| Mike Tedesco | Unequal Exchange and the Impact of Tariffs: The Case of Mexico | ||
| Alice Niffoi | Super-Exploitation of Labour, Neo-Imperialism, and Resistance: An Analysis of the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the European Union through the Lens of Marxist Dependency Theory | ||
| Vishnu Bachani | The Digital Apartheid and its Undoing: Piracy as an Anti-Systemic Project | ||
| 11:30 – 12:30 | Lunch Break | ||
| 12:30 – 14:30 | Hall Nettlau | Chair: Torkil Lauesen | Panel 9: Unequal Exchange and Dependency Theory |
| Alan Freeman | On the Law of Worldwide Value | ||
| Pablo Idahosa & Viviana Patroni | Theorizing inequality in the Global South: Imperialism, unequal exchange and dependency | ||
| Noé Mendoza | How Much Value are We Transferring? A Framework for Measuring Value Transfers in Agrarian Commodity Chains | ||
| Pedro Mattos | Unequal Exchange, Dependency and Emergence | ||
| 12:30 – 14:30 | Posthumus Room | Chair: Vishnu Bachani | Panel 10: Ecology, Political Economy, and Politics |
| Phethani Madzivhandila | Ecological Unequal Exchange & New Forms of Accumulation | ||
| Magnus Soeholt Kjærgaard | Unequal Exchanges of Life: Culture, and the Political Imagination in the Age of South–South Transformation | ||
| Solange Manche | Arghiri Emmanuel’s Ecological Consciousness: Understanding the Rise of the Extreme Right, Climate Change Denial, and International Workers Solidarity | ||
| Andrea Rizzi | The unequal exchange of carbon: Calculating value appropriation and atmospheric colonization through carbon offsetting | ||
| Alejandro Pedregal | Anti-systemic movements amid the great systemic clash | ||
| 15:00 – 16:30 | Hall Nettlau | Chair: Adrian Ortega Lind | Panel 11: China Today |
| Ashwin Shantha | China and the Global South’s Development Imperative: A Look at the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor | ||
| William Vickery | Is There Unequal Exchange Within China? | ||
| Yan Pan | China’s path towards technological and industrial self-reliance | ||
| 15:00 – 16:30 | Posthumus Room | Chair: Magnus Soeholt | Panel 12: Theory, Philosophy, and Class |
| Chris Coolbeth | Class Suicide: Possible Philosophical Foundations and Practical Frameworks | ||
| Diego Alejandro Fernandez Toledo | The Machinery of Absences: A Political-Economic-Philosophical analysis of forced disappearances in Mexico. | ||
| Özge Güneş | Unequal Exchange, Rural Dependency and the Rise of Monopolies: The Case of Ferrero in Turkey’s Hazelnut Production | ||
| 16:45 – 17:45 | Hall Nettlau | Closing Plenary | |
| Jan Breman | On Netherland Social Democratic Program in Aftermath of Indonesian Independence | ||
| Immanuel Ness | Western Labour Aristocracy, Imperialism, and International Working-Class Solidarity | ||
| Christos Mais | Remarks on Arghiri Emmanuel’s Activism | ||
| 18:00 – Late | Socializing and Refreshments |
Part Two: Practice (Saturday)
All locations listed below are in the Plantage Dok venue (venue was changed from IIRE in order to accommodate more people). See locations page for details.
Saturday, January 31:
| Time (24HR) | SPEAKERS | Session |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:45 | Doors Open | |
| 09:45 – 10:00 | Robert S. (Anti-Imperialist Network) | Toward an International Strategy: Opening Remarks |
| 10:00 – 11:00 | Torkil Lauesen, Ole Gjerstad (video), Steve Goldfield (video). Chair: Charlie L. (AIN) | The Ones We Were: Lessons from Anti-Imperialism in the Long 70s |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 11:15 – 12:30 | Amanda (AIN), Robert S. (AIN), Paul (Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle), Palestine Prisoners' Network. Chair: Madeleine L. (AIN) | Material Solidarity and Anti-Imperialism Today |
| 12:30 – 13:15 | Lunch Break | |
| 13:15 – 14:00 | Chair: Saba S. (AIN) | Taking Anti-Imperialism from Words to Deeds: Lessons from the Palestine Direct Action Movement in Britain |
| 14:00 – 14:45 | Gabriel Kuhn, General Secretary of the Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (SAC). Chair: Robert S. (AIN) | Labor Unions and Internationalism |
| 14:45 – 15:00 | Coffee Break | |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Facing the Violence of Empire | |
| 15:15 – 15:45 | Ghali (The Hague for Palestine), Lyra (Rotterdam Front for Liberation). Chair: Nihal (The Hague for Palestine) | Reflections on the Student Intifada |
| 15:45 – 16:00 | Robert S. (Anti-Imperialist Network) | For An Anti-Imperialist Future: Closing Remarks |
Call for Papers & Presentations
Part One: Theory
We hereby make a call for papers, related to Emmanuel's work or to other relevant topics, to be presented at the conference. We invite submissions of papers covering:
Biographical articles on the life and legacy of Arghiri Emmanuel.
Unequal Exchange and Marxist economic theory.
Globalization of production and Unequal Exchange.
The future of Unequal Exchange in the changing trade pattern from North-South to South-South.
Measuring the size of Unequal Exchange.
The political consequences of Unequal Exchange.
Ecological Unequal Exchange.
Profit and Crises: the contradiction in the capitalist mode of production.
The role of technological development in the struggle against imperialism.
Settler-colonialism.
The transitional state.
The question of nationalism in the development of socialism.
The focus of the conference is South-South and North-South relations, therefore topics considering only the Global North remain out of scope. The conference organizers will consider papers on additional relevant topics. We plan to publish the material in a monograph after the conference.Deadline for papers is:Abstracts due: December 1, 2025.
Papers due: January 14, 2026.Abstracts and papers should be sent to the following email: [email protected]The objective of the conference is for academic and activist worlds to meet, share experiences, and collaborate. Therefore, papers are not a requisite for participation. Activists are welcome to present papers within the framework of their anti-imperialist struggle and North-South/South-South cooperation and solidarity.
Part Two: Practice
For this section of the conference, we are inviting attendees or potential speakers to submit their ideas for talks, paper presentations, panels, or workshops that deal with any of the following topics:
Past Anti-Imperialist Movements and Strategies
Which historical anti-imperialist movements were most successful in the context of their conditions, and what were their shortcomings? This could include both Global South movements (e.g. the anti-colonial and/or socialist movements) as well as their Global North counterparts (e.g. anti-war movements, or material solidarity efforts with Global South groups).
Anti-Imperialist Practice Today
How are modern anti-imperialist movements and groups adapting to new global conditions? What does this look like in the Global South versus the Global North? What is working, and what isn’t?
Looking Forward: Developing New Strategies and Tactics
Material Solidarity: What are our concrete strategies for fundraising and other material support of Global South movements?
Local Action: How do we develop campaigns that can be carried out in a local context but remain focused on fighting global imperialism?
Media & Propaganda: What is the role of media in shaping narratives and influencing resistance? How do we intervene?
Diasporic Solidarity Organizing: What is the role of diasporic groups (like Migrante, Anakbayan, and others) in supporting anti-imperialist struggles in the Global South? How can we encourage or further develop diasporic organizing?
Speakers are highly encouraged to be critical in analyzing the strategic weaknesses of anti-imperialist movements and practices. We’re focused on learning from our experiences – both successes and failures – to build a stronger approach.If you have a proposal for contributing on any of these topics, please let us know! Include information about the content you would like to share as well as what form you think would be best (i.e. presentation, panel, workshop, etc.).Send proposals to:
[email protected]
About the Conference
Overview
UE21 - Unequal Exchange in the Twenty-First Century is a two part conference intended to bring together academics, activists, and organizers in order to:
Analyze the modern global system of imperialism through the framework of Unequal Exchange, the theory advanced by the anti-imperialist, Marxist economist Arghiri Emmanuel.
Strategize new modes and methods of anti-imperialist practice and solidarity, in both the Global North and Global South.
We invite all attendees to participate in both parts of the conference.The conference is free and open to all guests registering in advance (space permitting). Thus, no funds are currently available for travel. Note, the conference organizers are also paying their own expenses. However, we have secured inexpensive lodging at a low rate. If individuals are short on funds for the flight to and from Amsterdam, you may wish to consider crowdfunding in your area. We are trying to secure a remote link for those who are unable to attend in person, although this is not guaranteed and may be possible for only part of the conference.
Part One: Theory
Organizers: The Arghiri Emmanuel Association and the IISG | International Institute of Social History.Why the conference:Arghiri Emmanuel (1911-2001) was one of the leading theoreticians of the political economy of imperialism from the mid-60s through the 70s, accompanying the wave of national liberation struggles against imperialism. Emmanuel put forward the idea of “Unequal Exchange,” which was the economic backbone of his theory. The concept and especially its political implications were widely discussed among academics as well as political activists at the time.When Emmanuel passed away in 2001, the world was very different. It was at the height of neoliberal globalization. The national liberation struggles had not managed to achieve an economic liberation from the grip of imperialism. Instead, transnational capital had outsourced industrial production to the Global South, taking advantage of the low wage level of hundreds of millions of new proletarians, making the concept of “Unequal Exchange” more relevant than ever. However, at the time, the discourse of “imperialism”, not to speak of “anti-imperialism,” was considered something “retro” from the 70s. Few were interested in the legacy of Emmanuel, and his archive and papers was stored in the cellar of his friend and collaborator Claudio Jedlicki.Nearly twenty-five years have passed, and the world has changed again. The globalization of production in the intervening period, in the form of transnational supply chains, have even further cemented the centrality of Unequal Exchange as the principal mechanism of imperialist exploitation. Neoliberal globalization is now in crisis, China has become the factory of the world, and the U.S has increasingly turned to military geopolitical struggle to uphold its hegemony. Today we see a new wave of resistance in the Global South against the dominance of the center. Imperialism has returned as a theme of interest, and so have the ideas of Emmanuel, reflected in many new books and articles.
Part Two: Practice
Organizers: Anti-Imperialist NetworkWhy the conference:While the economic consequences of Unequal Exchange are evident in the vastly different material conditions between North and South, the political consequences of UE have often been neglected, especially in the practices and activism of the left in the Global North. This part of the conference is intended to address questions of anti-imperialist strategy and tactics, and will be further divided into the following focuses:
Historic anti-imperialist movements and the lessons to be drawn from them, both positive and negative.
Present-day anti-imperialist practice - what's working and what isn't.
The future of anti-imperialist practice and material solidarity - a path forward for activists in the Global North and Global South.
Contact Us
For inquiries on Part One of the conference, please contact the Arghiri Emmanuel Association: [email protected]
For inquiries on Part Two of the conference, or for general inquiries, please contact Anti-Imperialist Network: [email protected]