The world is looking at China to save it from depression, but China has built its export based economy on the backs of its rural population, which is too poor to absorb the industry’s output now that global demand has slumped.
Will China be the "growth pole" that will snatch the world from (...)
The international debate and the alter-globalist movement’s approach
The London G20 summit was as disappointing as expected. Several declarations were of course of interest insofar as they seem opposite to the policy principles of past years. Let us take note of them and not hesitate to remind the G20 about the promises on regulation. An initial question puts a (...)
In this new and expanded edition of Chossudovsky’s international best-seller, the author outlines the contours of a New World Order which feeds on human poverty and the destruction of the environment, generates social apartheid, encourages racism and ethnic strife and undermines the rights of (...)
Tom Cruise – “the world’s most powerful celebrity” according to Forbes Magazine – was unceremoniously sacked in 2006. His dismissal was particularly shocking for the fact that it was carried out not by his immediate employer, Paramount Studios, but rather by Paramount’s parent company, Viacom. (...)
Dee Torres sees history in the making in the West Texas borderlands. The elementary school teacher wants to be part of the history of the borderlands, and wants her grandchildren to remember these times.
Torres, a resident since a child of the border town of Ft. Hancock, is taking photos of (...)
On 1 May 2003, 20 days after Baghdad was taken in an offensive by the allied troops of the United States and Great Britain, with the support of the Spanish Government headed by José María Aznar, US President George W Bush proclaimed the “end to hostilities” in Iraqi territory. However, the (...)
The World Social Forum ended its ninth edition on February 1 in Belém with its "Assembly of assemblies" adopting dozens of resolutions and proposals to be the subjects of a programme of mobilisations around the world in 2009.
The 21 thematic assemblies thus broke the apparent WSF taboo on (...)
FnWG, Forum for a new World Governance, January 2009, 31p.
Ever since it was established in the wake of World War II, the UN has asserted itself as one of the pillars of postwar world governance. It could even be said that at the institutional level, the United Nations constitutes the pillar of world governance: no other international organization (...)
Seminar organized by the Forum for a new World Governance and IBASE, Rio de Janeiro, May 2008
Although Amazonia is a concentrate of all possible dangers, not only to its inhabitants but also for the planet’s ecological balances, it also represents a territory for life and the future. The game is not over. In this dawning of the twenty-first century, it is poised to become one of those (...)
I would like to talk about the current crisis. How is it that so many people could see it coming, but the people in charge of governments and economies didn’t, or didn’t prepare?
The basis for the crisis is predictable and it was in fact predicted. It is built into financial liberalization (...)
A. Understanding the deep causes of the crisis 1. The current financial crisis is a proof of the lack of global governance. The crisis is about much more than the shortcomings of national banking regulations. It has forced the European Union to act as one. Once again, the EU moves forward (...)
Brazil’s agribusiness is lobbying to make the case, but people and the environment are paying the price.
In spite of overwhelming criticism of agrofuels as a ’solution’ to climate change, sugarcane ethanol is often seen as the one more positive exception. The Brazilian government is lobbying (...)
Linda Nordling reflects on what the future holds for South African researchers following the resignation of former president Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki’s government backed science research at home, but his successor must reforge strong ties with the continent to maintain pole position.
he past few (...)
Far-reaching strategic debate is underway about how to respond to the global financial crisis, and indeed how the North’s problems can be tied into a broader critique of capitalism.
At minimum, the ongoing chaos offers new ideological space and material justifications for African finance (...)
Immigration and asylum policies in the European Union have entered into a new period. The author sums up the most important achievements and failures of the EU’s efforts to creat a common European asylum and immigration system, and she evaluates the new Hague Programme of the European Council (...)
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a regional mechanism, which was created in 2001 and consists of the following:
People’s Republic of China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It was inspired by the need to solve the border disputes lingering between the (...)
The Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved by 2015 at the present rate of progress
Progress in basic social indicators slowed down last year all over the world and at the present rate it does not allow for the internationally agreed poverty reduction goals to be met by 2015, (...)
The signing on August 14 of an agreement between the governments of the United States and Poland to deploy on Polish soil US ‘interceptor missiles’ is the most dangerous move towards nuclear war the world has seen since the 1962 Cuba Missile crisis. Far from a defensive move to protect (...)
The European Union (EU) is negotiating a veritable epidemic of “Association Agreements” or “Cooperation Agreements” throughout the world. In addition to the almost 30 agreements already signed, the EU is currently negotiating, or about to begin negotiating, further agreements with more than 40 (...)
In September 2008, ministers from over 100 countries, heads of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, donor organizations, and civil society organizations from around the world will gather in Accra for the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
This meeting has been promoted (...)