Food rebellions! : crisis and the hunger for justice

Today there are over a billion hungry people on the planet, more than ever before in history. While the global food crisis dropped out of the news in 2008, it returned in 2011 (and is threatening us again in 2012) and remains a painful reality for the world's poor and underserved. Why, in a time of record harvests, are a record number of people going hungry? And why are a handful of corporations making record profits? In Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice, authors Eric Holt-Giménez and Raj Patel with Annie Shattuck offer us the real story behind the global food crisis and document the growing trend of grassroots solutions to hunger spreading around the world. Food Rebellions! contains up to date information about the current political and economic realities of our food systems. Anchored in political economy and an historical perspective, it is a valuable academic resource for understanding the root causes of hunger, growing inequality, the industrial agri-foods complex, and political unrest. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Holt-Giménez and Patel give a detailed historical analysis of the events that led to the global food crisis and document the grassroots initiatives of social movements working to forge food sovereignty around the world. These social movements and this inspiring book compel readers to confront the crucial question: Who is hungry, why, and what can we do about it? SMS Uprisings: Mobile activism in Africa brings together the experiences of activists using mobile phone technology on the African continent as well as providing understanding of the socio-economic, political and media contexts which activists currently face. SMS Uprising provides a unique insight into how activists and social change advocates are addressing Africa's many challenges from within, and how they are using mobile telephone technologies to facilitate these changes. This collection of essays by those engaged in using mobile phone technologies for social change provides an analysis of the socio-economic, political and media contexts faced by activists in Africa today. The essays address a broad range of issues including inequalities in access to technology based on gender, rural and urban usage, as well as offering practical examples of how activists are using mobile technology to organise and document their experiences. They provide an overview of the lessons learned in making effective use of mobile phone technologies without any of the romanticism so often associated with the use of new technologies for social change. The examples are shared in a way that makes them easy to replicate - 'Try this idea in your campaign.' The intention is that the experiences described within the book will lead to greater reflection about the real potential and limitations of mobile technologies. Edited by Nigerian activist Sokari Ekine, who runs the prize-winning blog Black Looks, the book brings together some of the best known and experienced developers and users of mobile phone technologies in Africa, including Juliana Rotich from Ushahidi in Kenya, Ken Banks of Kiwanja.net, and Berna Ngolobe of WOUGNET in Uganda The neoliberal project, led by the IMF and World Bank, promised to correct many of the distortions in the African postcolonial environment and pledged to engineer liberalization and expand democratic space through competitive multiparty elections. Decades later, few people, if any, can testify to the success of the envisaged reforms. Instead, neoliberalism failed to guarantee a sustainable basis for freedom, rights and prosperity. This compilation shows that the reform period opened the continent to greater privation by a more emboldened local political class who, under pressure from or by acquiescing to foreign imperialist forces, undermined the struggles for democratic transformation and economic empowerment. Examining the rewards of multiparty politics, the dividends from a new constitutional dispensation, the processes of land reform, women's rights to property, or the Pan-Africanist project for emancipation shows that all have suffered severely. Through these essays, Issa Shivji calls for a new, Africa-centered line of thinking that is unapologetic of the continent's right to self-determination and sets out examples of how such thinking should proceed. Providing a unique insight into how activists and social change advocates are addressing Africa's many challenges from within, this collection of essays by those engaged in using mobile phone technologies for social change provides an analysis of the socioeconomic, political, and media contexts faced by activists in Africa today. The articles address a broad range of issues—including inequalities in access to technology based on gender and rural and urban usage—and it offers practical examples of how activists are using mobile technology to organize and document their experiences. An overview of the lessons learned in making effective use of mobile phone technologies without any of the romanticism so often associated with the use of new technologies for social change is given. Examples are shared in a way that makes them easy to replicate, hoping to lead to greater reflection about the real potential and limitations of mobile technologies. Contributors include Ken Banks, Nathan Eagle, Anil Naidoo, Berna Ngolobe, and Juliana Rotich.

Although the first edition was published in 1989 before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the analysis of the causes of the periodic crisis of capitalism is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. In this second edition, the author provides an updated analysis of the crash of international finance-capital of 2007–2008 and draws out the likely implications for the Third World, a perspective that has received little attention elsewhere. This book is a damning critique of a system that has paid trillions of dollars to bail out international banks and financial institutions, the very institutions that were responsible tor creating the crash, while the rest of humanity—especially the majority in the Third World—suffers its devastating consequences. Nabudere argues that capitalism has lost all moral and ethical claims to be a means for progress and that it is an indefensible system.

Although the first edition was published in 1989 before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the analysis of the causes of the periodic crisis of capitalism is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. In this second edition, the author provides an updated analysis of the crash of international finance-capital of 2007–2008 and draws out the likely implications for the Third World, a perspective that has received little attention elsewhere. This book is a damning critique of a system that has paid trillions of dollars to bail out international banks and financial institutions, the very institutions that were responsible tor creating the crash, while the rest of humanity—especially the majority in the Third World—suffers its devastating consequences. Nabudere argues that capitalism has lost all moral and ethical claims to be a means for progress and that it is an indefensible system. Developing countries reliant on aid want to escape this dependence, and yet they appear unable to do so. This book shows how they may liberate themselves from the aid that pretends to be developmental but is not and cautions countries of the South against falling into the aid trap and endorsing the collective colonialism of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). An exit strategy from aid dependence requires a radical shift in both the mindset and the development strategy of countries dependent on aid and a deeper and direct involvement of people in their own development. It also requires a radical restructuring of the global institutional aid architecture. The current global economic crisis resurges the debate on aid to Africa—the largest global recipient—and this comprehensive volume explores the premise, history, and foundation upon which the concept of aid is based. It considers aid's relationship to the broader development discourse in Africa, the politics and power dynamics of aid mechanisms, and how the emergence of powers such as China and India are redefining the global aid architecture. Diverse perspectives are shown from African social commentators, academics, and activists, including Demba Moussa Dembélé, Patrick Bond, Samir Amin, and Charles Mutasa. Annotation. The first edition of this book analyzed the financial crisis of 1987. Professor Nabudere's analysis of the causes of that crisis has extraordinary parallels with the contemporary financial and economic meltdown that has caused panic in the West and devastated the lives of millions in the Third World. In material added to this second edition, Nabudere analyzes the 20072008 financial crash and draws out the likely implications for the Third World, a perspective that has received little attention elsewhere Issa G. Shivji ; Edited By Godwin R. Murunga. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [229]-240) And Index.