Join us for a conversation with author Chris de Ploeg about his new book, The Exterminating Empire. Which is a radical and urgent indictment of the global capitalist system and the imperial violence it unleashes upon people and planet alike. At its core, the book argues that genocide and ecocide are not tragic byproducts of capitalism – they are its fundamental features. Together with renowned climate author Jason Hickel (in person), frontline Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah (joining online) and our moderator, climate justice activist and researcher Harriët Bergman, we will dive deeper into the interconnections of the great challenges of our time. And more importantly, how to fight back. There will also be cultural performances from Chihiro Geuzebroek and brothers Chris and Max de Ploeg, tying their ancestral struggles in Bolivia and Armenia to the global struggle for liberation.
About the speakers and artists
Chris de Ploeg (he/him) is an Armenian-Dutch journalist and organiser. Prior to The Exterminating Empire, he published The Great Colonial War trilogy and Ukraine in the Crossfire. He is a co-founder of Aralez, a grassroots organisation for decolonisation and is active with the revolutionary party De Vonk in Amsterdam. Chris writes, speaks, and organises on themes including (neo)colonialism, climate justice, racism, and capitalism. You can find more about his work via his website.
Jason Hickel (he/him) is a political economist, author of the acclaimed books Less Is More and The Divide, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is an ICREA Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where his research focuses on global inequality and ecological economics. He writes regularly for global news sites, such as Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and Foreign Policy, and wrote the foreword to The Exterminating Empire.
Ghassan Abu-Sittah (he/him) is a well-known British-Palestinian war surgeon and professor who has worked in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Since the first intifada in 1989, Abu-Sittah has been a regular visitor to Gaza, treating the victims of Israeli violence. His latest visit was from October 9, 2023, where he worked for 43 days straight in Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals in Gaza, eventually leaving because there were no more medical supplies left to perform surgeries. Abu-Sittah has been an important witness documenting conditions in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond, cited by South Africa’s case at The International Court of Justice and by major news sites across the world.
Harriët Bergman (she/her) is a philosopher, writer, trainer and activist based in Amsterdam. She works as a trainer and coordinator at Stichting Stroomversnellers and is actively involved in the climate justice movement in the Netherlands, as part of Climate Obstruction NL and Fossil Free Culture NL. She holds a PhD from the University of Antwerp, where her research focused on climate activism, privilege, and political emotions. Her work examines climate justice, eco-fascism, and the ethics of resistance through anti-capitalist, feminist, and anti-racist lenses. She is currently writing Staatsgevaarlijk, a book exploring violence, non-violence, and the role of disruption in social movements.
Chihiro Geuzebroek (she/her) is a Bolivian-Dutch multidisciplinary artist working at the crossroads of climate justice, decolonization and anti-militarization since 2009. She centers Indigenous anti-imperialist struggles, is co-founder of the Aralez Foundation and winner of the Pax Vredesduif. She has been writing songs for 25 years and has performed at Occupy Beursplein, the A12 protests, as well as Paradiso, the Peace Palace, ENGAGE Biennial and De Roma. She is excited to produce her first album PEACE FICTION about multispecies peacemaking in a militarised world.
Max de Ploeg (he/him) is an Armenian-Dutch organizer and multi-instrumentalist working on decolonization. He co-founded Rooting Resistance, where he offers musical journeys for activists to ground their struggle in community and spirituality. Max is also co-founder of Aralez, coordinator of the Week Against Racism and a teacher about colonialism at IIES. For this evening, he will play the Armenian Duduk to guide poetry by his brother Chris, which will ground their ancestral struggles in the global struggle for liberation.
About the book
Taking the ongoing genocide in Palestine as a point of departure, The Exterminating Empire traces capital’s centuries-long war against life itself. From the slave plantations and scorched-earth campaigns of early colonialism, to Vietnam, Haiti, Iraq, and today’s climate apartheid, Chris Kaspar de Ploeg shows that exterminatory violence against peoples and ecosystems has been central to the imperial project. He argues that omnicidal tendencies—the drive to kill everything—have always been present, possessing the potential to annihilate even the imperial core itself.
Drawing from the revolutionary traditions of the Global South, de Ploeg offers a strategic vision of resistance rooted in class struggle, internationalism, socialism, and ecological justice. The Exterminating Empire gives a coherent worldview to those first politicized by the genocidal violence against Palestinians, and offers fresh perspectives to the seasoned reader. Whether unearthing the Roman invasions of Palestine, exhuming the invention of hell, or brandishing the weaponization of hunger and wage slavery, de Ploeg maintains a relentless clarity and momentum. This book is both an admonition against the annihilation we face and a survival guide.
The book has also been published in Dutch by EPO, under the title “De hel op aarde Genocide, ecocide en de oorlog tegen het leven.
Reviews of The Exterminating Empire:
“De Ploeg, drawing on the legacies of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist Marxism, illuminates with brilliance the connections between climate crisis, capitalism, and genocide. A must read.”
—Max Ajl, climate justice Postdoc Researcher at Tunis University, author A People’s Green New Deal
“Chris de Ploeg’s The Exterminating Empire is a punchy book that tells us how to confront the existential crisis the world is in… This book is a journey—one that begins when you get organised to change the world.”
—Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, author of Washington Bullets.
“…provides a wide-ranging account of capital and imperialism… It is a furious book, unflinching and uncompromising. It reminds us that it is fruitless to appeal to capital, to imperial power, in moral terms. Our objective must be to defeat it.”
—Jason Hickel, author of Less Is More and The Divide.
