Friday 11 September 2026, 13:00–15:00 EEST
Main Stage, Think Corner, Yliopistonkatu 4, Helsinki
Public event | Online participation available
What do fascism and colonialism have to do with each other? Could they be understood not as separate histories, but as interconnected forms of power?
This public panel revisits a provocative question that was widely discussed in the 1930s but later faded from mainstream scholarship. Many anti-colonial and anti-fascist thinkers—particularly in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean—understood fascism as closely connected to colonial rule. They described it as an extension or intensification of imperial violence and racial hierarchy.
After the Second World War, these connections were largely set aside. Fascism and colonialism came to be studied separately, often within different academic traditions and geographical frameworks.
At this event, Kasper Braskén, Moshumee Dewoo and Shane Little, together with Teivo Teivainen and Oula Silvennoinen, return to these earlier perspectives. Drawing on sources from the 1930s to the 1950s, they will examine the connections and differences between colonial and fascist systems, as well as the global networks of resistance that linked struggles against them.
Short presentations will be followed by an open, moderated conversation:
What new insights emerge when these histories are thought together—and why might that matter today?
The event is open to all. Those unable to attend in person will be able to join online. A Zoom link will be published before the event.
The event is organised by the Locating Global Protest project at the University of Helsinki in collaboration with Historians without Borders in Finland.
Further information and online participation:
https://kalenteri.helsinki.fi/en-FI/page/6a92c8d5e97780000752269e/fascism-and-colonialism-one-history
Read the background article in The Helsinki Notebooks:
https://helsinkinotebooks.com/2026/09/01/public-panel-fascism-as-colonialism-colonialism-as-fascism-entanglements-transfers-and-interpretations-1930s-1950s/