[TEASER] Third Worldism and the Bandung Spirit w/ Pranay Somayajula

Upstream

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a free preview of the episode "Third Worldism and the Bandung Spirit w/ Pranay Somayajula" You can listen to the full episode by subscribing to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/upstreampodcast

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Third Worldism—a term that might feel outdated but which is anything but—is on the rise. When we talk about the Third World, or the Global South, we are talking about the nations of the world which have been subjugated and exploited by the global imperialist order over the past several centuries. Colonialism, far from ever being abolished, is alive and well in these countries in a new and even more insidious way. And in order to help us understand exactly what this means, and what Third Worldism is, we’re going to take you back to 1955—the year that the Bandung Conference was held in Indonesia—to look at a view of colonialism and imperialism, and the resistance to it‚ from within the Third World.

Pranay Somayajula is a writer, organizer, political educator, researcher, and host of the podcast Return to Bandung. He’s the author of several pieces that we’ll be discussing today, including most recently a piece from his Substack titled "this is the human race speaking..." reviving the bandung spirit in a multipolar world."

In this conversation, we talk about the Bandung Conference—a groundbreaking and pivotal meeting of many newly decolonized—and we’ll unpack this term much more as we go along—states in Asia and Africa. We’ll explore what was so significant about the Bandung Conference, the global context in which it occurred, the fight by the imperialist powers to keep the Third World subjugated all throughout the 20th century, how the spirit of Bandung lives on, and much, much more.

Further resources:

Return to Bandung podcast
Pranay's Substack
"this is the human race speaking..." reviving the bandung spirit in a multipolar world, Culture Shock
Bandung's Ghosts, Protean Magazine
Decolonization and Its Discontents, Monthly Review

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that Robbie and I will be taking the first two weeks of August off.
0:05.2	So our next Patreon release will be published on August 18th.
0:09.1	We've got some really great episodes planned, and we're really looking forward to sharing them with you once we're back.
0:48.4	Oh! Part of why these governments and these countries posed a threat to American empire such that they had to be overthrown was because they were also part of an international project of third world solidarity. That, you know, the leaders who were there in their capital city, they're signing the papers to nationalize the oil industry or the mining industry in their country. And then the next day they get on a plane, they fly to Algiers, they fly to Havana, they fly to Bandung, right, to give a speech where they're talking about the need to stand together with other countries who are going through the same thing. I mean, if you're a bureaucrat in the State Department in Washington, if you are an American business executive from a company that might have interest in those countries,
1:14.6	you're watching that happen.
1:15.9	You're reading about it in the papers.
1:17.2	And you are probably quaking in your seat because if they're allowed to do that
1:21.6	and realize the project that these leaders and these countries are talking about,
1:25.1	that is going to fundamentally challenge your standing
1:27.7	in the world. You're listening to Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. A show about political
1:35.3	economy and society that invites you to unlearn everything you thought you knew about the world around
1:41.6	you. I'm Della Duncan. And I'm Robert Raymond.
1:46.0	Third worldism, a term which might feel outdated but which is anything but, is on the rise.
1:53.0	When we talk about the third world, or the global south, we are talking about the nations
1:58.0	of the world which have been subjugated and exploited by the global imperialist order over the past several centuries.
2:05.6	Colonialism, far from ever being abolished, is alive and well in these countries in a new and even more insidious way.
2:13.6	And in order to help us understand exactly what this means and what third worldism is,
2:19.3	we're going to take you back to 1955, the year that the Bandung conference was held in Indonesia
2:26.3	to look at a view of imperialism and colonialism and the resistance to it from within the third world.
2:42.3	Pernay Somadula is a writer, organizer, political educator, researcher, and the host of the podcast,
2:43.7	Return to Bandung.
2:49.7	He's also the author of several pieces that we'll be discussing today, including most recently a piece from his substack titled,
	...

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