Tag: social movements

The Bullet: Connective Party or Return to a "War of Maneuver"?

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16 August 2013 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 865

For some two decades, the anti-globalization movement and its successors have assumed that society contains within itself – and automatically throws up – political oppositions and organizational forms independent of capital and of the state. There is simply the need to encourage the cumulative growth of society’s own potentialities for forming alternatives apart from the state and apart from the terrain of politics. Continue reading →

Declaration of the Social Movements Assembly

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6 May 2013 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 816

World Social Forum 2013, Tunisia

As the Social Movements Assembly of the World Social Forum of Tunisia, 2013, we are gathered here to affirm the fundamental contribution of peoples of Maghreb-Mashrek (from North Africa to the Middle East), in the construction of human civilization.

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The Making of Global Capitalism: an interview with Sam Gindin By Rishi Awatramani

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15 April 2013 — Organizing Upgrade

9781844677429 Making of Global CapitalismJust before the historic 2012 US presidential election, Rishi Awatramani interviewed long-time labor activist and scholar Sam Gindin to find out what his new book, The Making of Global Capitalism, has to say to social movement activists about this current political moment, the nature of global capitalism, and the possibility for a future beyond capitalism. This is part one of a two part interview with Sam Gindin. Stay tuned for part two next month!

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Joining Forces for Another Europe By Tommaso Fattori

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6 October 2012 — The Bullet • Socialist E-Project e-bulletin No. 707

In Europe we are living in particularly dramatic times. Democracy is in death-agony and we are witnessing post-democratic processes taking over at the national and supranational level. EU leaders have further concentrated decision-making power on public and fiscal policies in the hands of an oligarchy of governments, technocrats and the European Central Bank (ECB), which are subject to the dictates of the financial markets. Neoliberalism, the real cause of the crisis, not only is not dead, but it appears to be in perfect health: it uses the crisis to destroy social rights and workers’ rights and to privatize commons, public goods and public services. Continue reading →

Briefing – Venezuela’s Presidential Election

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3 October 2012 — Venezuela Solidarity Campaign

Venezuelans go to the polls this Sunday (7 October) to elect their president. In total there are seven candidates [for] president. However the main choice is between the incumbent Hugo Chavez, backed by a coalition of progressive and left aligned parties and social movements, and Henrique Capriles Radonski, a state governor with strong ties to the country’s elite and backed by a number of right-wing parties, who have formed a unity coalition known as the M.U.D.

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Video: Inside Job (2010) The Full Movie (8 Parts)

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6 June 2011 — Information Clearing House

‘Inside Job’ provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. The film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China. Continue reading →

European Social Movements Research Network‏

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5 May 2011

An Invitation to Join the European Social Movements Research Network

This is to invite you to join a newly-formed European Social Movements Research Network organized under the auspices of the Council for European Studies at Columbia University. Potential participants are broadly defined as anyone researching social movements in European countries, east or west, including of course transnational, comparative and historical work. Please note that the network is open to researchers from anywhere in the world who study social movements in Europe, from a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives. The network is multilingual as far as scholarly work goes although we expect that administrative / coordinating discussions will be through English.

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Interface: a journal for and about social movements Volume two, issue two

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7 December, 2010 — Interface

Voices of dissent: activists’ engagements in the creation of alternative, autonomous, radical and independent media

Volume two, issue two of Interface, a peer-reviewed e-journal produced and refereed by social movement practitioners and engaged movement researchers, is now out, on the special theme “Voices of dissent: activists’ engagements in the creation of alternative, autonomous, radical and independent media”.

Interface is open-access (free), global and programmatically multilingual. Our overall aim is to “learn from each other’s struggles”: to develop a dialogue between practitioners and researchers, but also between different social movements, intellectual traditions and national contexts.

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From Copenhagen to Cochabamba, via the Amazon By Ben Powless

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17 April, 2010 — Climate and Capitalism

On his way to the World Peoples’ Conference in Bolivia, a member of the Indigenous Environmental Network from the Six Nations in Ontario revisits the scenes of struggle to defend indigenous communities and rights in the Peruvian Amazon.

This article first appeared in rabble.ca, and is published here with the author’s permission. Photos he took in Peru can be viewed on Flickr.

The Amazon, it is often said, functions like the lungs of Mother Earth. The dense forest and undergrowth absorb much of the carbon dioxide that we manage to pump into the skies — an ever more important and taxing effort in light of the threats to our climate.

In December, countries around the world gathered in Copenhagen to reach an agreement to protect the climate, even if purely face-saving, and failed. With that sour taste gone, Bolivia has invited governments, social movements, Indigenous Peoples, politicians, really anyone who cares, to attend the so-called World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. The conference will be held the 19th-22nd in Cochabamba.

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Bolivia Calls World Conference of Social Movements

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21 December, 2009 — Climate and Capitalism

22 April, 2010: International Day of Mother Earth

CHUQUISACA, Bolivia, December 20 — Bolivian President Evo Morales announced today that a world conference of social movements is to take place in Bolivia, as a response to the failure of the 15th Summit on Climate Change, recently held in Copenhagen.

‘The problems of climate change are directly linked to the irrational development of industry,’ said the president at the celebrations for the 49th anniversary of the foundation of the Culpina municipality, in the region of Chuquisaca.

Morales said that he has requested technical and scientific arguments to support a large-scale international mobilization to defend the environment, especially water.

The meeting will take place on April 22, which is the International Day of Mother Earth.

‘It will be a great meeting where we’ll be able to come up with solutions for the problem of climate change,’ the leader said.

He regretted that the summit held in Copenhagen had concluded without reaching any important agreement. However, he noted that the event was an opportunity to break the hegemony of industrialized countries attending the gathering.

‘If we don’t make important decisions now, our children and the generations to come will be faced with serious problems,’ warned the president.

He pointed out that the Bolivian world conference of social movements will be aimed at finding options for guaranteeing food for the peoples, in view of the famine that is affecting different parts of the world.

(Granma, December 21, 2009)

Federico Fuentes: Bolivia: Unprecedented Alliance Defeats Right-Wing Assault

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LA PAZ: After three months of intense class struggle, there can be no doubt that the U.S.-backed right-wing opposition to the government of President Evo Morales has suffered three important defeats. The right’s offensive to topple Morales, which climaxed with the September 11-12 ‘civic coup’ attempt, has been decisively rolled back by the combined action of the government and social movements.

The government secured a historic vote in its favour with more than 67% endorsing Morales’ mandate in a referendum in August that also revoked the mandate of two opposition prefects. Another opposition prefect was arrested for his role in the coup. And now Morales has secured a referendum for the new draft Constitution to ‘refound Bolivia’ on the basis of justice for the indigenous majority.

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