Global south

1 March 2009Review

Zed, 2008; ISBN 978-1848130401; 192pp; £12.99

This isn’t a book about humanitarian relief, or really about the aid delivered by aid agencies at all. Instead its about the much bigger sums which rich countries’s governments contribute to African infrastructure, governance and welfare systems on a regular basis.

Most African countries receive more than 10% of their GDP in aid, and a few, like Sierra Leone and Burundi, receive more than 30 per cent. Aid received on this scale has an enormous impact, but not necessarily a good one,…

1 October 2008Feature

China, which spent £6bn on green energy projects last year, may soon become the world’s largest investor in renewable energy.

The ministry of public security has listed pollution as one of the top five threats to China’s peace and stability. In 2005, China experienced 51,000 riots or demonstrations of 100 or more people protesting against pollution – according to official estimates.

Li Junfeng, an energy expert at the National Development and Reform Commission said in…

3 May 2008Comment

A Fairtrade Town is a community that makes a collective commitment to Fairtrade and achieves Five Goals developed by the Fairtrade Foundation. The movement began in April 2000 when Garstang in Lancashire - uniting local shops, businesses, schools, campaigners, councillors and faith groups - declared itself “the world’s first Fairtrade Town”. Since then over 350 towns, cities, counties, villages, boroughs and islands from Glasgow to Guildford have achieved Fairtrade status and added their…

1 April 2008News

As Peace News went to press, the official death toll in Lhasa rose to 22 - generally assumed to be a massive under-estimate - and solidarity demonstrations were taking place around the world.

On 22 March, a Free Tibet Campaign march in London pressured China into allowing the Red Cross back into Tibet to treat people hurt in the violence. The day before, more than 30 protesters broke into the Chinese embassy in Delhi after foreign journalists were expelled from Tibet to…

1 April 2008Review

University of Texas Press, 2006; ISBN 9780292712980; 232pp; $19.95

Blood-soaked mass-murderer Henry Kissinger once infamously asserted (to Chile's foreign minister) that, “Nothing important can come from the South. The axis of history starts in Moscow, goes to Bonn, crosses over to Washington, and then goes to Tokyo. What happens in the South is of no importance.” In reality, as this book makes abundantly clear, the supposedly civilised “north” has much to learn from the south - and not just from the third world, but also from the even older “fourth world”…

1 March 2008Feature

PN How does GALZ struggle for equal rights for LGBT people in Zimbabwe?

KG Recently, with the introduction of repressive legislation coupled with rising poverty and unemployment, GALZ has concentrated on assisting its members and embedding itself in the broader human rights movement in Zimbabwe.

We have various services for members: the Women's Scholarship Programmes; Skills for Life, providing vocational training for our members; and Positive Image, an access-to-affordable-…

1 March 2008Feature

The following quotes are from an amazing young African children's rights activist Kimmie Weeks, who has inspired and changed many young people's lives in Africa. He now lives in exile in America, where he has devoted his life to giving talks and bringing awareness for social change.

“I remain a strong believer in the power of young people to make change happen. I believe that young people have immense power, more than we realize. Once (young people) are informed and begin to feel…

1 March 2008News

Following the success of last summer's Victor Jara festival in Machynlleth, El Sueno Existe (“the dream lives on”) staged a winter festival entitled “Nicaragua: New Time, New Hope”, inspired by the visit to Machynlleth of veteran activist and visionary Paul Baker Hernandez.

Paul is a former Trappist monk who has lived and worked in Nicaragua for a number of years and is active in local and international campaigns against war, exploitation and the plunder of Nicaragua's natural wealth…

1 March 2008Review

Zed Books, 2007; ISBN: 978-1 84277 689 6; pp. 243; £17.99

The ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the unfortunate distinction of being the world's biggest “forgotten emergency” according to a 2005 poll of experts by Reuters. The numbers are staggering, with the International Rescue Committee recently estimating that over 5 million people have died since 1998, the majority due to preventable diseases and starvation aggravated by the fighting.

Extensively referenced, with a useful chronology of events and a map to guide…

1 March 2008Review

Zed Books, 2007; ISBN: 978-1842778487; pp. 368; £16.99

A political biography of both Thabo Mbeki and the ANC since taking power, this book explores and evaluates the frustrations of the ANC's transformation from a national liberation movement to a strongly centrist political party committed to market-based economic policies. Packed with detail and context, the book can be read as a thorough introduction to current South African politics or as “what went wrong in post-liberation South Africa”.

Gumede gives an insight into the consequences…

1 November 2007News

After 22 years of debate, negotiation and hard work by campaigning groups, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has finally been approved by the UN General Assembly, by an overwhelming majority of 143 to 4, with 11 abstentions. The declaration recognises indigenous peoples' ownership of their lands, and affirms that they should not be moved without their free and informed consent.

In another long-awaited ruling - this time by the Supreme Court in the Philippines -…

1 June 2007News in Brief

On 14 May 14, Francisco Puerta, a leader of the Colombian “peace community” of San Jose de Apartado, was assassinated by paramilitaries in the town of Apartado.
Puerta was humanitarian coordinator for the hamlet of Miramar, one of the outlying communities in the hills around of San Jose de Apartado, the village which has refused to collaborate with any armed actors in Colombia's civil war.
Most peace community supporters have been driven out of San Jose over the past two years…

3 May 2007Comment

May Day is workers' day

The struggle for the eight-hour day which began in the 19th century (and which goes on, even now) involved strikes and demonstrations throughout the world, and a coordinated day of action on 1 May 1886. In a related demonstration three days later, in the Haymarket in Chicago, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing eight. The anarchist organisers of the demonstration and the speakers were then arrested and prosecuted for the murders, on the grounds that the bomb…

1 May 2007Feature

As the largest “recuperated” or worker-occupied factory in Argentina, the Zanon ceramics plant in the Patagonian province of Neuqun employs 470 workers.
Along with some 180 other recuperated enterprises which provide jobs for more than 10,000 Argentine workers, the Zanon experience has re-defined the basis of production: without workers, bosses are unable to run a businesses; without bosses, workers can do it better.
The FASINPAT workers' co-op followed the slogan “occupy,…

3 November 2006Comment

After pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, this October North Korea "officially" joined the international nuclear club when it carried out an underground nuclear test. Rebecca Johnson reflects on the implications.

It might have been described in North Korea as a “happy” test, but North Korea's nuclear explosion on 9 October was deeply sad.

Sad for the people of North Korea who are oppressed while their preening “dear leader” Kim Jong Il beggars the economy and pours scarce resources into building plutonium weapons. Sad for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, widening its credibility gap and yet again showing how the “promise” of nuclear power can be diverted into nuclear weapons by…