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13 November 2025 @ Roodkapje Centraal
talk | Which side are you on? Archives as a weapon for activism, and ideological struggle
Which side are you on?
Archives as a weapon for activism, and ideological struggle
a talk by community organizer and archivist Lilah V from the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation
language: English
In the first of two anarchival talks, Lilah V, the archivist of the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation will offer a brief history of archiving as a science given life through revolutions of the past. She will discuss how contemporary understandings of archival practice have departed (or not) from that history, and how archives can be used to advance revolutionary aspirations today.
Since the “archival turn” questions of what the archive is (as well as what it isn’t yet and what it should be) have flourished in creative and cultural spaces. Roodkapje's anarchive is an attempt to deal with these questions, focused on the practice of anarchiving through artistic perspectives, media and methods. We are in the middle of the second cycle of anarchival experiments that transform the Happenings organized by the Hamburger Community into anarchival pieces. Meanwhile, we are busy developing the new exhibition space that will hold these anarchival pieces at Roodkapje West. While an exhibition is one form to approach the anarchive, there are more layers to its potential. The anarchive appears in decolonial thought as a way to talk about absence and silences in the archive. We learned more about its possible forms from artist and researcher Carine Zaayman during her talk about anarchival practices in South Africa at last year's summer school Art, Life, Anarchive. It's made one wonder what other silences are left within the archives.
We see how both historically and also today, fascism in power strategizes to erase histories and criminalize dissident and -god forbid- revolutionary voices. From the point of view of activist and revolutionary archivists, the more important questions about the archive revolve not around what the archive is or should be, but about who the archive is for and how it can be of use to the people, communities, and organizations who are its primary audience. Understanding archives in this context means grasping the history, development and practice of archives as a tool like any other – and one that can be wielded as a weapon in the field of ideological struggle if we so choose.
About Lilah V
Lilah is a community archivist and organizer in the Filipino diaspora in the Netherlands. She is the archivist for the JMS Legacy Foundation.
About the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation
The Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation’s mission is to preserve JMS’ legacy for current and future generations to learn from in the struggle of humankind to build a new and better world. Through research, publications, exhibits, events, and public education, the Foundation aims to promote and share the legacy of Jose Maria Sison for all revolutionaries, activists, scholars, and seekers of a just society.
About Jose Maria Sison
Jose Maria Sison, popularly known as JMS or Ka Joma (Ka is short for kasama, the Filipino word for comrade), was a revolutionary leader, a political theorist, an internationalist, and a poet, whose writings have guided the resurgence and development of the Filipino people’s revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation. Over the course of his lifetime he was prolific in authoring many of the documents that have today become essential reading not only for activists in the Philippines but for activists the world over who are struggling for a more just and free society.
poster design by Droom.iris
next anarchival talk
Thursday 15 January, 19:30 - 22:00
Eccentric (an-) archives
Histories of experimental, fantastic, and anarchic archives
with Florian Cramer
Archives as a weapon for activism, and ideological struggle
a talk by community organizer and archivist Lilah V from the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation
language: English
In the first of two anarchival talks, Lilah V, the archivist of the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation will offer a brief history of archiving as a science given life through revolutions of the past. She will discuss how contemporary understandings of archival practice have departed (or not) from that history, and how archives can be used to advance revolutionary aspirations today.
Since the “archival turn” questions of what the archive is (as well as what it isn’t yet and what it should be) have flourished in creative and cultural spaces. Roodkapje's anarchive is an attempt to deal with these questions, focused on the practice of anarchiving through artistic perspectives, media and methods. We are in the middle of the second cycle of anarchival experiments that transform the Happenings organized by the Hamburger Community into anarchival pieces. Meanwhile, we are busy developing the new exhibition space that will hold these anarchival pieces at Roodkapje West. While an exhibition is one form to approach the anarchive, there are more layers to its potential. The anarchive appears in decolonial thought as a way to talk about absence and silences in the archive. We learned more about its possible forms from artist and researcher Carine Zaayman during her talk about anarchival practices in South Africa at last year's summer school Art, Life, Anarchive. It's made one wonder what other silences are left within the archives.
We see how both historically and also today, fascism in power strategizes to erase histories and criminalize dissident and -god forbid- revolutionary voices. From the point of view of activist and revolutionary archivists, the more important questions about the archive revolve not around what the archive is or should be, but about who the archive is for and how it can be of use to the people, communities, and organizations who are its primary audience. Understanding archives in this context means grasping the history, development and practice of archives as a tool like any other – and one that can be wielded as a weapon in the field of ideological struggle if we so choose.
About Lilah V
Lilah is a community archivist and organizer in the Filipino diaspora in the Netherlands. She is the archivist for the JMS Legacy Foundation.
About the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation
The Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation’s mission is to preserve JMS’ legacy for current and future generations to learn from in the struggle of humankind to build a new and better world. Through research, publications, exhibits, events, and public education, the Foundation aims to promote and share the legacy of Jose Maria Sison for all revolutionaries, activists, scholars, and seekers of a just society.
About Jose Maria Sison
Jose Maria Sison, popularly known as JMS or Ka Joma (Ka is short for kasama, the Filipino word for comrade), was a revolutionary leader, a political theorist, an internationalist, and a poet, whose writings have guided the resurgence and development of the Filipino people’s revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation. Over the course of his lifetime he was prolific in authoring many of the documents that have today become essential reading not only for activists in the Philippines but for activists the world over who are struggling for a more just and free society.
poster design by Droom.iris
next anarchival talk
Thursday 15 January, 19:30 - 22:00
Eccentric (an-) archives
Histories of experimental, fantastic, and anarchic archives
with Florian Cramer
free entrance