State of Power

Energy is currently produced and consumed based on sexist, racist and classist power relations that favour the pursuit of private profits at the expense of the common good. Extractivist oligopolies and corporatised politics have imposed humiliating austerity measures, privatisations of public services, and excessive and growing socio-economic inequality, displacement and dispossession, and environmental destruction. These processes drive skyrocketing levels of energy poverty and a worsening ecological crisis. The most exploited and discriminated people are hit the hardest: from women in low-income households, women of colour and women with disabilities, to transwomen, single mothers and undocumented women. We need energy democracies and participatory politics in which a variety of ordinary women can influence tomorrow’s energy policies. Collective but diversified bottom-up power can ensure a new energy model is run by and services those who the current model exploits and discriminates against. But how do we get there?  The growing call for the feminisation of politics – and energy politics for that matter – is about much more than merely increasing the representation of women in decision-making positions. We need to question the ways energy politics are shaped. We need to ask, energy for whom and energy for what? An ecofeminist perspective on energy offers an important and underacknowledged framework for understanding what keeps us stuck in unsustainable energy cultures, as well as a paradigm for designing truly just energy systems.  In this episode of the State of power podcast, TNI researcher Lavinia Steinfort talks to Shannon Bell : professor of  sociology, Cara Daggert : assistant professor in political science, and  Christine Labaski, associate professor of women’s and gender studies in the field of  Science Technology and society. They are all at virgina tech university in the United States, and are the co-authors of the brilliant article: Toward feminist energy systems: Why adding women and solar panels is not enough.They are also all members of the May apple energy transition collective. image source: Repowering and Banister House Solar Episode Notes: Ecofeminism: fueling the journey to energy democracy Toward feminist energy systems: Why adding women and solar panels is not enough

Borders uphold a global system of apartheid—and we should demand nothing less than their abolition. In this interview, activist and writer Harsha Walia lays out how borders and citizenship maintain colonial axes of power. From Fortress Europe outsourcing border control far into the African continent in exchange for aid, to Canada securing the availability of cheap farm workers through its selective immigration system, she demonstrates how capitalism and border regimes feed off of each other. Harsha Walia makes a compelling case for abolition: No banks, no bombs, no borders, no bosses. Or, in her own words: “Why would we fight for anything less than the freedom of all people?”  At the State of power podcast, we’re glad to once again host Harsha Walia, who  is an activist and writer based in Canada. Her books include Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism (2021) and Undoing Border Imperialism (2013). Here she is Conversation with Arun Kundnani, a TNI associate and author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror. 

How is it that drug companies can make huge profits from vaccines while people in the global south die from lack of access to medical care? How does the global regime of intellectual property rights enable this inequality? And what is the role of Bill Gates in defending this system?  In this interview, Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni argues that vaccine inequality is not a market but a policy failure. From the HIV crisis in the early 2000s to the recent pandemic, the public has repeatedly shouldered the risk for the development of live-saving medicines while private corporations have reaped obscene profits. How can we break Big Pharma's power and develop an alternative health system?  Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni is the co-leader of the policy group of the People's Vaccine Alliance. She is a senior health advisor with 40 years of experience in health policy and programming with international and national health and development agencies including multilateral agencies, NGOs and governments. Arun Kundnani is a TNI associate and author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror.

 An influential group of big technology corporations, commonly referred to as Big Tech has concentrated vast economic power with the collusion of states, which has resulted in expanded surveillance,  spiraling disinformation and weakened workers' rights. TNI’s 11th flagship State of Power report exposes the actors, the strategies and the implications of this digital power grab, and shares ideas on how movements might bring technology back under popular control. Our guest on the podcast is Cory Doctorow, a  brilliant science fiction novelist, journalist and technology activist. He is a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation,  a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. His most recent book is Chokepoint Capitalism (co-authored with Rebecca Giblin), a powerful expose of how tech monopolies have stifled creative labour markets and how movements might fight back. This interview is part of the 11th State of power report, which focuses on Digital Power. Please be sure to check out all the other essays, as well as the infographics that give a good picture of digital power today. You can also read an edited transcript of the interview. 

What are the economic challenges facing the Global South post-pandemic? What role have global financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF played in worsening the economic situation for poorer countries? And what economic alternatives might exist? In this interview, Jomo Kwame Sundaram shines a light on the effects that decades of liberalisation policy have had on countries in the global South, including deindustrialisation, food insecurity, and another looming debt crisis. He argues that the recent refusal to waive international property rights related to vaccines as well as sanctions on China have worsened the situation, with the odds increasingly stacked against poorer countries. Jomo Kwame Sundaram is Visiting Senior Fellow at Khazanah Research Institute, Visiting Fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University, and has previously been the Assistant Director General and Coordinator for Economic and Social Development at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Arun Kundnani is a TNI associate and author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror. Keywords:  Economic Justice, Trade, IMF, World Bank, Debt, Crisis

As the various tax avoidance scandals such as the Panama papers, Paradise papers and Pandora papers have shown, tax havens are some of the most important instruments for reproducing social inequalities. The wealthy use countries with favourable laws to store their wealth, safely and away from public scrutiny.   But tax havens are becoming an even bigger problem for social equity as the global economy becomes more and more digital. Big Data, generated  by all of us all over the world through our interactions with technology, is the raw material for the digital economy, but is processed only in a few countries and by a handful of companies. Just as financial capital can be transferred across borders, which in turn has generated tax havens, so too is data stored in places where companies can exercise control. Tax havens are becoming data havens to hide away the raw material of the digital economy from states and communities, building digital monopolies that make fair competition impossible, and impede the improvement of digital products for the social good. Our guest on the podcast argues that it is no coincidence that financial power and digital power are gradually using the same places to hide.  Sofia Scassera is an economist, and associate researcher at TNI working on issues of digital society and the  digital economy.  In this conversation, we discuss why data is an important raw material? Why is it important for data to be seen as a public good and not hidden away by corporations.  Exactly why are tax havens becoming data havens? What is to be done? (Image: Evan Clayburg)  Episode Notes: Banking on data:  How the world’s tax havens became the data centres for the digital economy https://www.tni.org/en/publication/banking-on-data How Big Tech captured our public health system: Arun Kundnani in Conversation with Seda Gürses  https://audioboom.com/posts/8086185-how-big-tech-captured-our-public-health-system-arun-kundnani-in-conversation-with-seda-gurses

The environmental and social effects of the industrial capitalist system have long been obvious to marginalised communities forced to live in the garbage dumps of production while their resources are pillaged for raw materials. However, today, the systemic effects are increasingly visible to all. It’s clear, to save humanity and complex life on our precious planet, we need a major course change.  If we’re to survive, we need to figure out how to leave fossil fuels in the ground, and  how to adapt to the already changing climate while moving towards renewable energies, sustainable levels of energy use and other social transformations.  Billions will be spent on trying to adapt – finding new water sources, restructuring agriculture and changing the crops that are grown, building sea walls to keep the saltwater out, changing the shape and style of cities – and on trying to shift to green sources of energy by building the required infrastructure and investing in green jobs and technology. But whose interest will this adaptation and energy transition serve? And who will be expected to bear the heaviest costs of the climate crisis, and of the responses to it? Since the 1990s the alter-globalisation and food sovereignty movements have advanced large-scale critiques of neoliberal capitalism. In the 21st century a wide variety of movements have adopted a shared language of system change, arguing that human rights abuses, political and social harms, and the climate crisis can be addressed only by a transformation of our entire social, cultural, political, and economic system. However, whatever transition happens must not come at the price of the destruction of lives and livelihoods. Justice has to be a key factor.  The movements often use an intersectional lens, arguing that sexism and patriarchy, racism, and other forms of violence and systems of oppression are fundamental features of the capitalist system, and must be addressed.  Increasingly, these different calls are beginning to come together under the banner of Just Transition. But what do we mean by a Just Transition, and how do we orient ourselves and our social movements towards a such a Transition?  On this episode of the SOP podcast, Hamza Hamouchene unpacks a vision for a Just Transition, with a specific focus on North Africa. Hamza has done research on extractivism, energy democracy, food sovereignty and environmental and climate justice in the North African context. He is also the coordinator for North Africa at the Transnational Institute, where he has recently put together a dossier, a collection of essays from multiple authors, focusing on different dimensions of the energy transition in North Africa. With this year’s UN conference of the parties, COP27 taking place in Egypt, there seems to be no better time to put a spotlight on the region.  Episode Notes: Just Transition in North Africa https://longreads.tni.org/just-transition-in-north-africa From Crisis to Transformation: What is Just Transition?https://www.tni.org/en/publication/from-crisis-to-transformation Extractivism and resistance in North Africa https://www.tni.org/en/ExtractivismNorthAfrica

Nigeria has a terrible history with international oil companies like Shell, having a hard time getting compensation for environmental damage. Even with some legal wins,  like when the Hague Court of Appeals found Shell Nigeria liable for damages from pipeline leaks in the villages of Oruma and Goi, the country is still a long way from achieving true justice. To add salt to the injury, the violators have themselves gone on to sue Nigeria, sometimes using domestic law, but in the greater number of cases, resorting to  Investor State Dispute (ISDS) clauses in Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) that Nigeria is signed to.   As a result of these cases, where costs to citizens have run into billions of dollars, Nigeria has become critical of the current international arbitration system, and has since announced that it will revise all bilateral investment treaties (BITs) signed between 1990 and 2001. They plan to re-negotiate 12 out of the 15 BITs that are currently in force.  However, at the same time, Nigeria has already completed the first three steps of joining the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). This treaty is frequently used by fossil fuel companies to sue countries when they try to enact environmentally friendly policies. History shows that, though the Energy charter treaty makes many promises of burgeoning investment, the reality is that it doesn’t significantly improve investment prospects. Instead, the ECT’s Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions give foreign investors in the energy sector sweeping rights to directly sue states in international tribunals of three private lawyers, called arbitrators. Companies can be awarded dizzying sums in compensation for government actions that have allegedly damaged their investments.  When you consider that nearly all ISDS cases against Nigeria so far are already linked to the exploitation and selling of oil or gas, and couple this with the importance of the energy sector to Nigeria’s economy, it's easy to see the risk the country could face. If Nigeria joins the Energy Charter Treaty, the effort to critically assess its current investment treaties seems rather futile.     In many of the countries that are in the process of acceding to the ECT, hardly anyone seems to have even heard of the agreement, let alone have thoroughly examined its political, legal, and financial risks. And even with a supposed “modernization process”, which is supposed to deal with the problematic clauses in the treaty,  it  continues to threaten to bind yet more countries to corporate-friendly energy policies. Why are African countries like Nigeria drawn to the ECT, when the treaty has such obvious grave implications for their ability to determine their own internal policies?  What is the broader context that informs this seemingly contradictory behaviour?  To understand what is happening with the Energy Charter Treaty in West Africa, and particularly in the region’s biggest country by population and economy, Nigeria, I spoke to Oberko Daniel. Daniel works as a tax and trade organizer for Public Services International, which is the  Global Union Federation of Workers in Public Services. Currently based in Accra, Daniel also coordinates PSI’s project on digitalization in the region Image: The retired Orlando Power station in Johannesburg, South Africa/ Wikimedia Commons. Episode Notes: ISDS in Nigeria https://www.tni.org/en/publication/isds-in-nigeria Busting myths around the Energy Charter Treaty: https://www.tni.org/en/ect-mythbuster Public Services International https://publicservices.international/?lang=en 

Lack of access to modern energy services remains a major constraint to economic development in many regions, and perhaps in Africa most of all. According to the Africa development Bank, only 40 percent of the continent’s people have regular access to electricity.  African governments are trying to expand their capacity to provide energy to their citizens, and this has seen a proliferation of “mega energy deals”, where governments sign deals investors, usually foreign, who pledge to work with the government to build energy generation facilities, upgrade energy grids and other such cost-intensive developments.  However, this all happens in a context where we know what we have to do to solve the climate crisis. We must keep coal, oil and gas in the ground. What happens when African governments try to pass progressive policies to protect the environment, and to protect  people from some of the harmful practices of these investors? The fossil fuel industry has a secret powerful weapon to keep countries locked in on fossil fuels: The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT).  The ECT is an International Investment Agreement (IIAs) that establishes a multilateral framework for cross-border cooperation in the energy industry. The treaty covers all aspects of commercial energy activities including trade, investments and energy efficiency,  and it is currently on a massive geographical expansion into Africa, Asia and Latin America.  History shows that, though the Energy charter treaty makes many promises of burgeoning investment, the reality is that it does not significantly improve investment prospects. Instead, the ECT’s Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions give foreign investors in the energy sector sweeping rights to directly sue states in international tribunals of three private lawyers, the arbitrators. Companies can be awarded dizzying sums in compensation for government actions that have allegedly damaged their investments, either directly through ‘expropriation’ or indirectly through regulations of virtually any kind. In many of those countries in the process of acceding to the ECT, hardly anyone seems to have even heard of the agreement, let alone have thoroughly examined its political, legal, and financial risks. And even with a supposed “modernization process”, which is supposed to deal with the problematic clauses in the agreement,   the treaty continues to threaten to bind yet more countries to corporate-friendly energy policies. Here at the state of power podcast, we are concerned with power. How it can be generated in a fair and equitable manner,  without endangering the planet or livelihoods. On this episode of the podcast, we take a specific look at East Africa, where five of the East African Community (EAC) countries have signed the non-legally binding International Energy Charter (IEC), which is a political declaration aimed at strengthening energy cooperation among signatory countries and international organizations, and does not impose any legal or financial obligation. The Governments of Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda signed the IEC in 2015, while the Government of Rwanda in 2016, and the Government of Kenya and the East African Community as an intergovernmental institution signed the charter in 2017.  As a consequence of this political declaration, the ECT Secretariat, whose survival depends on continuation of the treaty, continues to lobby these countries to take additional steps towards acceding to the Energy Charter treaty, which , because of its ISDS clauses,  is not as innocuous as the International Energy Charter.  To get a better understanding of what exactly is going on, we speak to  Olivia Costa, who is the executive director of Tanzania Trade and investment coalition, a grouping of thirteen Civil Society Organizations in the East African country. Joining her is  Brenda Akankunda, who works with the Southern and Eastern Africa trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), and is based in Uganda. Both organizations  focus on Trade and Investment.  Image: The retired Orlando Power station in Johannesburg, South Africa/ Wikimedia Commons.  Episode Notes:  On the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT):  https://www.tni.org/en/energy-charter-dirty-secrets Busting myths around the Energy Charter Treaty:  https://www.tni.org/en/ect-mythbuster State of the World Conference link:  https://www.tni.org/en/webinar/state-of-the-world-2022 Get your tickets to the State of the World Conference:  https://ticketpass.org/event/ELAYKF/state-of-the-world

Why are US-China relations deteriorating? What are the impacts of growing anti-Asian racism on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) living in the US? Will the new Cold War with China replace the US War on Terror? In this interview, Tobita Chow argues that the rise of China as an economic power has become a clear threat to US hegemony. While the pandemic served as a catalyst for anti-Asian racism, it was not the root cause: Increasingly hostile foreign policy towards China leads to increasingly hostile domestic policy towards people perceived to be Asian. But AAPI communities are fighting back.  Tobita Chow is the founding Director of Justice Is Global, at the People's Action Institute, a network of state & local grassroots power-building organisations united in fighting for justice. He is an organiser, a political educator, and a leading progressive strategist and critic regarding US–China relations and the rise of Sinophobia in the U.S.  Arun Kundnani is a TNI associate and author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror.