Decolonial Shocking Surprises: (Walter Mignolo’s “appropriation” of Carl Schmitt).

In March 2026, Harald Kümmerle published an article on TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research titled “Carl Schmitt Afterlife in Decolonial Theory: Rereading Walter Mignolo”. The article is an outcome of a reading group organized by Kümmerle. His motivation for running a group that lasted from April 2024 to February 2025 was to examine the reach and impact of Carl Schmitt’s ideas—both within mainstream conservative circles (for example, those associated with JD Vance, the current U.S. vice president) and across leftist and decolonial academic communities.

Kümmerle reports that, during these sessions, some participants (mostly Germans, as he notes) were surprised—“if not shocked”—when he observed that Walter Mignolo, the decolonial thinker under discussion, had welcomed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. My concern is less with the charge itself than with what is assumed but left unsaid in its framing: that the invasion must be rejected, while NATO’s eastward expansion and the conditions that Russia presents as “root causes” are either ignored or treated as irrelevant. The devil is in what goes unspoken.

I. Context: What Kümmerle Says Happened

From Pursuit of Profit to Supporting Basic Needs: A Broader Perspective on Capital Can Transform Capitalist Economic Praxis.

I
Have you ever noticed that, whenever someone says “capital,” your mind jumps straight to big businesses, endless profits, expropriation, exploitation, inequality, and a disregard for people’s well-being? Have you also noticed that, in general—even in serious journalism beyond official mass media—“capital” is not distinguished from “capitalism”? Or is it just me who fails to perceive when the distinctions are made?

If I’m right, then that’s not surprising. For several centuries, we’ve been taught to think about capital mostly as a tool for accumulating wealth and owning things. No wonder “capital,” “capitalism,” and “the economy” are so often mixed up—they’ve been tangled together for a long time. Capitalism, after all, is built around private ownership and the use of capital to generate profit at the expenses of the rest, not matter who and what falls. Much of today’s economic talk assumes that framework as the default.

Big thinkers like Adam Smith and Karl Marx also talked about capital in ways that made us focus on profit and accumulation. Smith framed capital investment as a key driver of national wealth, while Marx exposed the underside of accumulation. But here’s what often gets missed: there are other ways to use capital. In subsistence and cooperative economies, capital isn’t about getting rich—it’s simply there to help people meet their everyday needs and live balanced lives, not to create a surplus or widen the gap between haves and have-nots.

This is my first attempt at writing a newsletter, and I want to start by sharing what motivad me to embark on this journey.

Some time ago, I had a blog, but after taking a break, that break lasted too long and when I wanted to return, it had disappeared—lost simply because I forgot to pay for the hosting. Before I retired, my assistant gave the blog a fantastic new life. Unfortunately, by not remembering to renew the hosting, the blog vanished into the digital void, lost forever. Now that I no longer have an assistant and my technical skills are limited—and honestly, dealing with unnecessary technology can be overwhelming—Andrea W. Mignolo suggested I start a newsletter. She took care of the technological basics, setting it all up for me.

So, why do I feel the need to replace my lost blog with a newsletter? There are three main reasons. First, as someone committed to decolonial thinking, I focus on exploring how the colonial matrix of power is established, shifts, and is managed—and how, today, the struggle for its control has pushed the world’s order to the edge. Some might argue that those who originally constructed and oversaw this matrix are justified in objecting to challenges to their authority. Others might contend that the very colonial matrix, its creation and management have been so consuming and disruptive that it’s only natural for people to question or challenge who gets to manage it.

Second, every morning, as I read the news, ideas spring up like water from a spring—recalling Martín Fierro. Ideas and arguments I’d like to share. An academic article takes too long to publish. I thought about independent media, writing op-eds, but I haven’t found a place where I’m expected to send a contribution every week or every two weeks. But I failed and, of course, I don’t expect a salary, so the failure wasn’t due to excessive demands! Nowadays, offering free labor may seem suspicious to many! As for what I read that sparks my imagination, when it comes to Western media, I usually only read the headline and the first paragraph. In general, it’s obvious what the main information and arguments are on issues of international relations and domestic affairs. The task is to consult media from other countries, independent media, blogs, and some conversation programs on YouTube.