Tous les articles et traductions

WHAT began as a service aimed at empowering marginalised people like Kamlesh from East Delhi is being increasingly eyed by the corporates. If this happens, the entire microfinance (MF) concept could be turned on its head. Read (...)

Nearly 10 years after Argentina’s economic collapse sparked a movement, worker-run cooperatives endure another crisis. Report from Argentina on the state of the workers’ co-op movement there, which sprouted in the aftermath of the country’s 2001 economic collapse. Divisions within the movement, (...)

The birthplace of the World Social Forum (WSF), conceived as an alternative to international meetings pursuing free-market economics, Brazil is on its way to becoming a major economic power, analysts say. The question is, what kind of model will it adopt to avoid the behaviour it has previously (...)

Four years on from nef’s “Growth isn’t Working”, this new report goes one step further and tests that thesis in detail in the context of climate change and energy. It argues that indefinite global economic growth is unsustainable. Just as the laws of thermodynamics constrain the maximum efficiency (...)

In 2006-08, Maharashtra (India) saw 12, 493 farm suicides. That is 85 per cent higher than the 6,745 suicides it recorded during 1997-1999. And the worst three-year period for any State, any time. The dismal truth is that very high numbers of farm suicides still occur within a fast decreasing (...)

This report takes a new approach to looking at the value of work. We go beyond how much different professions are paid to look at what they contribute to society. We use some of the principles and valuation techniques of Social Return on Investment analysis to quantify the social, environmental (...)

The blame game Martin Khor, Blame Denmark, not China, for Copenhagen failure, The Guardian: The decision to override the multilateral process and hold a secret meeting of select nations ruined any chance of success Mark Lynas (British, adviser to the Maldives delegation), How do I know China (...)

Today’s food is well travelled. A pack of green beans in a Northern supermarket may have journeyed 6000 miles, or 60. But while food miles loom large in our carbon-aware times, transporting it counts for less than you might think. And there is a far bigger picture. Food is more than a plateful (...)

This sixth report from the Working Group on Climate Change and Development argues that our chances of triumphing over climate change will rise dramatically if we recognise that there we need not one but many models of human development.
Featuring contributions from Dr Rajendra Pachauri (...)

An inexplicable pricing regime and skewed export-import policies bring about a crisis for sugarcane farmers and consumers alike. From Rs.17 a kilogram barely six months ago to Rs.42 a kg now, sugar is fast running out of the common man’s reach. The crisis is likely to turn worse because a (...)

Creative, accessible, and illuminating introduction to the con of carbon trading by UK cartoonist Kate Evans. Download pdf

In her new book, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the origins of contemporary optimism from nineteenth-century healers to twentieth-century pushers of consumerism. She explores how that culture of optimism prevents us from holding to account both corporate heads and elected officials. Read more here (...)

Immanuel Wallerstein comments on the global financial crisis from a long-term historical perspective, and on the opportunities it offers for global justice movements (Harold Wolpe Lecture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 5 November 2009). Read (...)

The notion that somehow we can transform the world by shopping is a debilitating one, and it’s one that George Monbiot has recently done a fine job of skewering. In his latest, he references a piece in the journal Nature in which it appears that consumers who buy green goods feel that their (...)

The annual report, called Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch), was released on November 16th by the Association for Progressive Communications and Dutch-funder Hivos. GISWatch 2009 is entitled “Access to online information and knowledge – advancing human rights and democracy”.
It shows (...)

Financial wizards, economists, business persons and social activists around the globe have been challenging the free market orthodoxy. They seek to recover the virtues of bazaars from the tyranny of a market model that emerged about two centuries ago. This book is a chronicle of their (...)

35 years ago, workers at the Lucas Aerospace company formulated an ‘alternative corporate plan’ to convert military production to socially useful and environmentally desirable purposes. What are the lessons for greening the world economy today? Read (...)

Secrecy is a central feature of the global financial system. Jurisdictions compete with each other to provide it, in order to attract financial flows – with appalling effects elsewhere. It is essential to identify the worst culprits in providing this secrecy. But nobody has ever tried to do this (...)

‘Belching out the devil’ chronicles a series of journeys to various parts of the world to meet those who have experienced ‘the Coke side of life’ that the adverts don’t tell us about. There are Indian farmers with empty wells, Colombian trade unionists with collections of death threats, hassled (...)

The hike in global food prices has pushed hundreds of millions more people into poverty, and sparked riots and protests in the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Walden Bello, the leading writer and activist on the global South, provides a penetrating analysis of the various causes: not just (...)