New from
Bullfrog Films:

NEWS:

A contingent of the GSA/NA was at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March and Flamme d'Afrique was there to cover it.

Global crisis deepens. More civil society activism predicted.

More and more social movements will be addressing the growing inequality and discontent. That was the conviction of Lauren Langman, a member of Global Studies Association, who was animating a debate at the World Social Forum in Tunis. Continue reading >>

Book Review:

A Short Recent Review of Harry Targ's 'Diary of a Heartland Radical'
By Matt Meyer
War Resister League

Visit our sister
GSA/UK organization:

CALL FOR PAPERS: GSA North America 2013 Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS: GSA/UK 2013 Conference

The Cosmopolitan Ideal: Challenges and Opportunities

Roehampton University
July 10–12, 2013

Confirmed keynote speakers include Gerard Delanty (University of Sussex) and Kate Nash
(Goldsmith’s College, University of London).

The conference aims to critically interrogate the idea of cosmopolitanism. Whereas previously cosmopolitanism was associated with (abstract) ideas of world citizenship and universal brotherhood, more recent constructions emphasize the multiplicity of identities, belongings, and memberships that are possible across a plurality of communities. In addition to a rejection of a narrow nationalistic outlook cosmopolitanism can claim a new political content: the idea of world citizenship has been given substance through notions of environmental responsibility, the universality of human and personhood rights, and the drive for worldwide human development. For these and many other reasons cosmopolitanism provides an important perspective on processes of globalization and the interconnectedness of the world. Continue reading >>

CALL FOR PAPERS: Network for the Critical Study of Global Capitalism 2013 Conference

Global Capitalism in Asia and Oceania
Sponsored by WOW Research Centre, the School of Humanities; the Arts, Education and Law Group, Griffith University

Griffith University | The Ship Inn Conference Centre
Corner Stanley & Sidon Streets
Southbank Parklands, Brisbane, Australia
June 28-29, 2013

Outside of Asia, much is made of ‘the Asian Century’, the ‘rise of Asia’, the economic potential of Asian markets, regional trade agreements with Asia, and building ‘Asia-relevant’ capabilities to support all these. Such instrumental views are shaping the ideological landscape of many parts of the ‘West’. For those from within and outside Asia who are interested in critical studies of global capitalism other topics are much more pressing. These include the different models and manifestations of global capitalism that are being adopted across Asia, as well as the links between such models and ongoing political developments in the region. Questions arise about the implications of newly energized “Asian capitalism” for current economic and social relationships— about current forms of economic division and exploitation, increasing social polarization and state based authoritarianism. Related questions also come up about oppositional activist practices that are arising and contemporary modes of policing such dissent. The purpose of this conference is to focus critical studies of global capitalism on Asia, Australia, and the Oceania region, to provide opportunities for interested scholars and activists to explore related issues. Continue reading >>

MORE CONFERENCES AND CALLS FOR PAPERS:

SEMINAR ON SOCIALIST RENEWAL AND THE CAPITALIST CRISIS
A Cuban-North American Exchange
June 16-30, 2013
Havana, Cuba

GEOGRAPHIES OF LABOR: 35th Annual North American Labor History Conference
October 24-26, 2013
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

NEWS:

A contingent of the GSA/NA was at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March and Flamme d'Afrique was there to cover it.

Global crisis deepens. More civil society activism predicted.

More and more social movements will be addressing the growing inequality and discontent. That was the conviction of Lauren Langman, a member of Global Studies Association, who was animating a debate at the World Social Forum in Tunis. He has predicted a growing civil society activism as the global economic crisis deepens. He said the crisis now was not merely economic, but social, with a growing number of people being marginalised, political, with leaders unable to prescribe solutions for those mostly affected, and also cultural.

With all these, he said, there were bound to be more protests, more activism which was useful as increasingly a large number of affected groups would come together to share their experiences, while the youth were also growing in their awareness of issues.

Another member of Global Studies Association, Walda Katz Fisman, said the crisis had generated some spontaneous global response that needed collaborative responses. Jerome Scott of the United States World Social Forum, said future solutions were up to all, however, it demanded that all endeavoured to sensitise themselves and understand what was currently happening in the world.

A participant from Argentina, Sofia Scasserra, of the Uni Global Union, said this was the time to form networks of people and not of trade and profits, which were the focus of the capitalist system Richard October, of People4Equality, South Africa, said the global crisis was impacting people in South Africa, with studies showing food shortages in some areas that was also fuelling violence.

He said the global economic crises stemmed from the drive for profits and Gross Domestic Products (GDP) as the only measure of progress in a capitalist economy. He challenged all to find a common ground and a common campaign to attack the challenges of capitalism.

Most participants in their contributions mentioned unity of purpose as one of the responses in fighting the current global challenges.

Download the Flamme d'Afrique journal >>

New Books:

Financial Elites and Transnational Business: Who Rules the World?
Edited by Georgina Murray and John Scott

Global Shift, Sixth Edition: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy
By Peter Dicken

In an Outpost of the Global Economy: Work and Workers in India's Information
Technology Industry
Edited by Carol Upadhya and A.R. Vasavi

See more >>

Journals:

Globalizations Special Issue:
Land Grabbing and Global Governance