State of Power

When the word security is mentioned, images of men in uniform, perhaps carrying guns and in armoured cars, come to mind. How did we end up in a place where security is understood in the narrow terms of policing, and inevitably leads to racism? Why does this kind of security fail to make a large part of the population feel safer? And can we imagine a society where my security is not the opposite of your security? In this thought-provoking conversation, Arun Kundnani speaks with Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò about the destructive intersection of racial capitalism and global security, which constitute each other. They discuss how racial hierarchy is fundamentally a hierarchy in security, who benefits from keeping this hierarchy untouched, and how the concept of collaborative security can help us overcome this hierarchy. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a frequent writer on issues of climate justice, racism, and colonialism, you may also remember him as a guest from a previous episode on this podcast. Arun Kundnani is a TNI associate and author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror. Keywords:  Security, terrorism, militarism, racism, racial capitalism. 

We are in a climate crisis. About this there seems to be broad consensus. But, there is more and more divergence around what must be done to stop it. As COP26 came around, we’ve seen more and more supposed solutions to the Climate crisis gaining attention.  But a closer look reveals that many of the ideas proffered as ways out of the climate emergency are merely duds, fancy ways to give the impression of progress while business continues as usual.  Just as we cannot expect mosquitoes to cure malaria, we cannot expect the people that created the crisis to be the ones to solve it.  At TNI, we have been tackling the problem from multiple perspectives, drawing from decades of research and analysis, and leaning on the knowledge and experiences of movements across the world. We believe that the ideas that come from the ground up, from indigenous communities, from peasant farmers, fisher peoples, and workers across the world have the capacity to bring about a totally different way of being, a different humanity, with a different relationship to each other, and to the planet.  In today’s episode, we speak with colleagues and associates, to draw out what we think are the approaches that will pull us back from the edge of the cliff. From radical cutting edge analysis that exposes the problems with the global neoliberal system, to new ideas about how to think about public services, to alternative approaches to food policy, trade and energy.  These are ideas that we believe can literally save the planet. Be sure to check out our climate reading list for all the material mentioned in this episode. Keywords: Climate, COP26, Just Transition

For the last two years, Lebanon has been witnessing an acute multi-dimensional crisis that has left more than half the population living below the poverty line. Many families are struggling to survive. Some say that the massive economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the August 2020 Beirut explosions and instability have all combined to create conditions even  worse than they were during the 1975-1990 civil war.   In October 2019, Lebanon also saw a mass uprising, rejecting corruption and sectarian politics, and demanding change. However, the uprising short-lived for various reasons, including the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 that halted mobilisations and protests.  To add to all these huge difficulties and challenges, the Lebanese people find themselves in the midst of a thorny and complex geopolitical situation that has significant bearings on their internal politics. The actions of players such as Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, the Gulf monarchies, Western imperialist powers and Russia have had and continue to have considerable consequences on political developments, not just in Lebanon but in the entire Arab region. To help us understand the situation in Lebanon, the Coordinator of TNI’s North Africa Program, Hamza Hamouchene,  sat down to have a chat with Hicham Safieddine. Hicham is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. He is a scholar of political economy and intellectual history (19th and 20th centuries) with a particular emphasis on the MENA region. He is currently researching financial (de)colonization on a global scale, the history of economic thought, as well as modern Arab and Islamic thought, with an emphasis on the age of anti-colonial national liberation in the mid-20th century. In addition to his academic research and teaching, he is the co-founder of e-zines Al-Akhbar English and The Legal Agenda’s English Edition. His press writings have appeared in The Toronto Star, Al-Jazeera English, The Monthly Review, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Middle East Eye, among others. Image source: NicolasGaron/Wikimedia Keywords:  Lebanon, Crisis, Economic Crisis, Debt, Middle East, Arab Uprisings

The Tonga people of Zimbabwe and Zambia, who call themselves  the river people, speak of the pain of being separated from their relatives, who all of a sudden were made foreigners, stuck on the opposite side of a dam, in another country. All this, so that a massive dam, the largest man-made lake in Africa, could be built. The Kariba dam, which has one of the biggest hydropower stations in Africa, came at a great price.  Fast-forward just one generation later, in a case of history repeating itself, though this time under a post-independence government, another injustice of similar proportions appears imminent. The Zimbabwe government has struck a deal for another mega energy project. This time, a coal thermal power plant  in Sengwa, Gokwe.  The  Sengwa coalfield, which extends into Binga, has an estimated 538 million tonnes of coal reserves, and if a power plant is constructed, it will vastly change the lives of another generation of Tonga people. And not for the better.  In Zimbabwe, power cuts are nothing to talk about, and it is quite obvious that there is need for an energy solution.  However, our guest on the program makes the case that building a 3 billion dollar power plant, financed with a loan from China, is not the solution to Zimbabwe’s energy woes. Not only is it a tragedy for the Tonga people, but also for the environment, for public health, and for long term sustainability and the country’s adherence to its climate change commitments.  Melania Chiponda is a Zimbabwean feminist activist and researcher. She is a land defender, and has been at the forefront of battles against extractivism in Zimbabwe and in the Southern African region in general. In her work with Just Associates Southern Africa (JASS), she has been involved in feminist movement building and feminist popular education around the extractives sector. She speaks about her work in Binga, in particular about the resistance to the proposed power plant.  Image source: Stodtmeister /Wikimedia Keywords:  power, energy, resistance, global campaign, transnational corporations, China, coal, renewable, just transition. 

Twenty years on, America has chaotically pulled out of the war in Afghanistan with nothing much to show for it, and the war on terror appears to have achieved very little, except to cause more terror and to  bring America’s violence to more parts of the world.  In this fascinating conversation,  Arun Kundnani interviews Deepa Kumar, who traces the longer historical roots of the War on Terror and how it racialised and targeted Arab and Muslim communities well before 9/11.  Deepa Kumar is the author of the recently published book, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire: Twenty Years after 9/11. Arun Kundnani is a TNI associate and author of the The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror.    Keywords: terror, War, George Bush, 9/11, 

About a decade ago, Tunisia was the birthplace of the so-called Arab spring, when Tunisians toppled the decades long dictator Ben Ali, heralding momentous changes across North Africa and beyond. To some extent, the Tunisian experience seems to be an exception in the region, because the country did not descend into the chaos  and violence that have affected its neighboring countries since.  However, many argue that the popular aspirations of the Tunisian people have been subverted and their demands for dignity, national sovereignty, and social justice have been sidelined by the same disastrous economic policies that led the people to rise up and revolt in the first place.  Fast-forward to 25 July 2021. After a day of protests across the country, Tunisia’s president Kais Saied announced that he was invoking article 80 of the 2014 constitution, which allows him to instate a state of emergency, following an imminent threat. He sacked the prime minister, closed the parliament for 30 days, and revoked the immunity of members of parliament and declared himself prosecutor general- all this while being backed by the  military.    The reactions were swift, especially from western media and pundits. There were headlines about the collapse of democracy in Tunisia, amid assertions that the coup is channeling the country towards dictatorship and turmoil. Saied has been described as a Trump-like populist, and of being inspired by the Egyptian scenario where Sisi orchestrated a coup after popular mobilisations in 2013, which pushed Egypt into a much worse form of dictatorship. We even saw the re-emergence of some orientalist and racist stereotypes about the region of the like, “maybe Tunisians are not yet fit for democracy after all.”  Yet many in Tunisia were celebrating these developments, seeing them as corrective measures to the revolution and the burgeoning democracy.  Is this a coup or not, and if so, is it a military reactionary coup, or is it a progressive coup to correct the revolutionary process? Is this a useful question to ask? What are the dangers and opportunities emerging from such developments, and what would a progressive agenda look like in this context?  Our guest, Heythem Guesmi, is a Tunisian researcher and activist based in Tunis. His focus of work is around agrarian questions and land struggles. He currently works with the North African Food Sovereignty Network. He also hosts a podcast on Tunisian affairs, called The Arrogant Monkey. Heythem  is in  conversation with Hamza Hamouchene, the coordinator of our North Africa program at TNI. This conversation is part of a series looking at the Arab Uprisings, a decade afterwards. Listen: What makes a Revolution? The Arab Uprisings a Decade on: In Conversation with Jamie Allinson   Image source: M.Rais/Wikimedia Keywords:  Arab Spring, Tunisia revolution, Mohamed Bouazizi

About a decade ago, parts of the Arab world experienced great upheaval. The events that took place, and which continue to unfold to the present day, are not easily explained. In fact, to this day, and in light of subsequent uprisings, there is an ongoing attempt to fully understand what it is exactly that happened during what has been called the Arab Spring. Can these events be called revolutions? What is a revolution, and how does one determine whether it is successful or not?  To tackle these questions and more,  TNI’s state of power Podcast presents  Jamie Allinson, who is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Edinburgh University, an activist and trade unionist, and author of the upcoming book:  The age of counter revolution: states and revolutions in the Middle East. Jamie is in conversation with Anthropologist, internet researcher, anti-racist campaigner, Miriyam Aouragh.  This conversation is part of a series looking at the Arab Uprisings, a decade afterwards. Watch the webinar: The Arab Spring lives on: Uprisings in times of pandemic Watch the webinar: The Arab uprisings a decade on: Egypt and Tunisia Listen to the podcast:  Algeria's popular movement - the Hirak: A Conversation with Brahim Rouabah Keywords Arab Spring, revolution, North Africa, MENA Region, Counter revolution  Image Source: AlMahra/Wikimedia

The Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated the already existing deep structural problems of corporate and increasingly globalized food systems. A radical, human rights-based and agroecological transformation of food systems is more urgent than ever.  As the United Nations gears itself to hold the 2021 version of the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), activists and analysts are sounding the alarm that this year’s event is not building on the legacy of past World Food Summits, which resulted in the creation of innovative, inclusive and participatory global food governance mechanisms anchored in human rights, such as the reformed UN Committee on World Food Security (the CFS).  This year’s Food Systems Summit follows a strong multi-stakeholder approach, which puts on equal footing governments, corporations, other private sector actors, philanthropies, scientists, and NGOs.  Critics argue that, while the FSS organizers aim to create an illusion of inclusiveness, it remains unclear who is in control of taking decisions and by what procedures those decisions are made.     Our guest on the podcast, Paula Gioia, is a peasant farmer, a beekeeper based in Germany. She works on a community farm, and is part of the European Coordination of La Via Campesina.  La Via Campesina is an international movement bringing together millions of peasants, small and medium size farmers, landless people, rural women and youth, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. Built on a strong sense of unity, and solidarity between these groups, it defends peasant agriculture and strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture that destroys social relations and nature.  La Via Campesina believes that this year’s summit is opening up UN processes to the private sector. It is privileging the corporate elites, and the process behind it  has been opaque, exclusive and has ignored the autonomy of People’s Movements.  Paula explains what kind of 'food regime' or 'food system' is needed today, right now, and how we can bring it about.  What are the main obstacles today to making fully real and accessible for everyone a genuine and meaningful 'human right to food'? Website of the People's Autonomous Response to the UN Food Systems Summit  :https://www.foodsystems4people.org/ International Peasants Movement: https://viacampesina.org/en/ Image source: Shade Cacao Plantation, Ixcacao Mayan Chocolate/Mvfarrell Keywords: food summit, World food summit, Food Aid Organisation FAO, Peasants, Farmers

If you listen to the news and read the papers, it would be easy to be convinced that the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future energy system is “already underway”. Advocates say that renewable energy is already cost-competitive - with costs of generation falling below that of fossil fuels.  According to them, the transition is all but  "inevitable". Yes, we may  still be using fossil fuels, but only as a temporary measure as we all move to cleaner energy. We are probably past peak use of coal, and with the daily improvements to our capacity for wind and solar energy, clear skies are just a  matter of time . Here at the State of Power podcast, we are very concerned with the state of power, because hardly anything has a greater impact on the future of our planet, than the ways in which we generate and consume energy.  Our guest on the program  believes that some of the optimism with regards to renewable sources of energy is ill-placed, and that we have to face the reality that we have a lot more to do before we can even begin to talk about a transition.    The following conversation is centred around an upcoming paper that Sean has written  together with John Treat. In the paper called The Energy Transition Myth, the authors look at the numbers, and use them to challenge many of the claims that we are well on the way towards an energy transition. Image: Kenueone/Wikimedia Read more: Energy democracy and public ownership Eskom Transformed: Achieving a Just Energy Transition for South Africa Keywords:  Energy, Energy Democracy, Public ownership, Renewables, Parastatals 

From a human rights perspective, the global vaccine distribution problem would for example aim to get the COVID vaccine to communities and peoples in the Global South quickly, safely, at low or no cost without political-, class- or gender-discrimination. It would lead toward a solution that combines a WTO waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-related products and processes, maybe a General Assembly declaration that health is a global public good, a multilateral global humanitarian relief fund underwritten by rich country governments, and an international distribution system directed by the World Health Assembly. But that is not the vision that has prevailed.  Instead, what we have is COVAX, a multistakeholder group that represents the vision and goals of a World Economic Forum (WEF) or a Gates Foundation perspective. Their aim is to get the COVID vaccine to communities and peoples in the Global South without disrupting the global pharmaceutical market, with a mechanism that circumvents long standing multilateral humanitarian relief systems while steering the vaccines to preferred allies in the Global South.   Today on the podcast, we’re taking a closer look at COVAX, the program touted as the solution to the global vaccine distribution problem. Our guest on the podcast  argues that COVAX is actually a mechanism through which corporate interests have hijacked UN processes and used them to safeguard their profits, with little regard to the attendant social costs.    Harris Gleckman is a sociologist who has spent much of his career at the United Nations and has a detailed understanding of corporate global governance across multiple issues.  His work at the UN and his ongoing research at the university of Boston in Massachusetts and also with the Brussels based Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability gives him deep insight into how the UN might be restructured to better handle bigger crises in the health, environment and social areas. Read Harris Gleckman's report here. For more about the corporate capture of global governance and what we can do about it, see this resource.  Image source: USAID in Africa/wikimedia commons  Keywords: Vaccine, Vaccination, Covax, COVID-19, Multistakeholderism, Corporate Capture, Corporate Power