Event with Agnes Khoo, internationalist and anti-war activist from Singapore and China

Friday * May 23, 2025 * 7:30 p.m. * Kiezraum Dragonerareal * Mehringdamm * Berlin

The event will be held in English with simultaneous translation into German

Agnes Khoo is a sociologist and currently teaches at Shenzhen Technology University in China. Raised in Singapore, she has spent many years researching the struggle for independence against British colonialism and the resistance against Japanese fascism. We will speak with Agnes Khoo about the role of women in Asia in the global struggle against imperialism.

In 2004, Agnes Khoo published an oral history book with the voices of women who fought in the anti-colonial guerrilla movement, which has since been published in several editions and languages. These are women who fought against war and capitalism for a liberated, emancipated society. It is the only monograph to date on the resistance of largely forgotten fighters against British and Japanese imperialism in Malaysia and Singapore. In the foreword to her book „Life as the River Flows – Women in the Malayan Anti-Colonial Struggle,“ she writes that we must not leave history to bourgeois hegemony. That we must make women visible as struggling subjects and part of history. History serves as a guide for our own practice. Without this history, she says, we cannot understand the present and cannot recognize how to create our future.

„One way to stay true to my beliefs is to translate the stories of historical and contemporary fighters who have stood up for freedom and justice. They remind me that there were times when internationalism triumphed over ethno-nationalism.“

Agnes Khoo was invited to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation from German fascism. She is touring various cities, and we are delighted to welcome her to Berlin. The military escalation among the imperialist powers is in full swing. Will Southeast Asia become the next center of global warfare? What can we learn from these revolutionary fighters? What place does feminism play in the anti-militarist struggle?

We are excited to interview Agnes Khoo, an anti-war activist from Southeast Asia, about her perspective.

Hosted by Rheinmetall Entwaffnen Berlin