Review. The looting of theoretical commons: Hard and Negri Commonweath

Reseña. El saqueo de los bienes comunes teóricos: Commonweath de Hard y Negri

A few months ago a graduate student came to see me to talk about her part in postcolonial studies for her Ph.D. Speaking about the ways in which the Japanese colonial past continues to affect everyday life in South Korea, she mentioned that: "That is what Hardt and Negri call the coloniality of power." Bewildered, I said that she should have missed an appointment or two and reprimanded her subtly by telling her that "coloniality of power" was an expression that post-Eurocentric intellectuals would not identify with the European theory Antonio Negri adhered to, but with Latin American intellectuals, such as Peruvian Aníbal Quijano, Mexican Enrique Dussel and Argentine Walter Mignolo. With surprise I was outraged, explaining that much of Hardt and Negri's previous work - in his historicist way of "identifying the trend" - generally opposed the insistence of these Latin American subalternists in regard to the past Colonial continues to impact crucial aspects of our contemporary present, although in the new political arena of democratic politics and pluralistic institutions. Wondering how she had made a connection like that, I went straight to my unopened copy of Commonwealth that night when I returned home.