State of Power

The unprecedented movement to #defundthepolice has brought a critical debate about the role of a powerful coercive state agency into the mainstream of political discussion. It has raised the question about how the police functions everywhere and whose interests they serve.    But the police are not the only coercive arm of the state. What about the military, homeland security, prisons, the intelligence agencies? Isn’t it time to put those agencies also under the spotlight and examine whose interests they serve?   For ten years, TNI has published a yearly State of Power report to examine who has power in the world today, how they use their power, and how those committed to social and environmental justice should respond. Most of our editions have  focused on corporate power, responding to the trend of ever more concentrated corporate power and the way it has shaped economic policy and had massive social and cultural impacts.    Yet alongside the rise of corporations, the last few decades have also seen a significant strengthening of coercive state forces, especially in the wake of 9/11. Military spending has doubled, world prison numbers have increased 24%, and border agencies have grown exponentially. State security forces not only escaped the post 2008 austerity crunch that afflicted nearly every other state agency, they often boomed without restraint. The rise of surveillance and data technologies has provided many of these agencies with capacities to monitor and control populations that were inconceivable in the last century.   How are we to understand the history, trajectory, current state and likely future of coercive state power? How does it differ in countries in the Global North and South?    How does geopolitics and the rise of Big Tech shape coercive state power?  What alternatives exist that can return power to the people?   To help us tackle these questions and more, we invited two prominent thinkers with deep and interesting perspectives on these issues. Achille Mbembe is a groundbreaking philosopher,  who has profoundly woken people to the deadly costs of racial capitalism over four decades of work, and Olufemi Taiwo a thinker and prolific writer whose theoretical work draws liberally from the Black radical tradition and anti-colonial thought. Both our guests are very public philosophers, and have written extensively on the intersections of racial capitalism, climate justice and colonialism. In this wide ranging conversation, they help us to understand modern day coercive state power, tracing its roots in  colonialism and examining the way it has shaped our contemporary security institutions.  Read the transcript Read all the essays from State of Power 2021 Keywords: Coercive Power, security, borders, arms trade, state violence, Police, Policing, national security

Despite the political and institutional changes that occurred with Africa's decolonisation process in the second half of the 20th century, many colonial constructs remain to this very day. One of the most obvious and egregious symbols of these continuities is no doubt the CFA franc. The acronym of this currency created in 1945 by the French provisional government originally stood for franc of the French colonies in Africa. It still circulates in eight countries in West Africa and six countries in Central Africa, and its imperial founding principles haven’t really changed. For a deeper understanding of the CFA Franc, we spoke to Dr.  Ndongo Samba Sylla, a Senegalese development economist who lives in Dakar, and works with the Rosa Luxembourg foundation. Ndongo recently published a book, written together with Fanny Pigeaud,  titled: Africa's Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story. Through an exploration of the genesis of the currency and an examination of how the economic system works, the book outlines how colonialism persists in many African countries.  Keywords: Finance, Currency, colonialism, independence, decolonial, France

The present reeks of the past. The world we live in is not the result of some natural law. It was created by people, like you and I, humans who walked, breathed, ate and drank. The contemporary world is a result of people making decisions, decisions that would give them more power, access to more wealth, and grant them the influence to safeguard their wealth and power. If they could make it, you and I can unmake it.  This is the third and final episode of our three part series, in which we look at how Europe and its offshoots came to be dominant globally. In the first episode we looked at Racism and how it was used to justify European imperialism. In the second, we took a closer look at how colonialism unfolded.  In this final episode, Shaun Matsheza continues his conversation with Roger van Zwanenberg, the founder of pluto books, an independent publisher of radical, left‐wing non­‐fiction books. Roger has written a new global history, called Wealth and Power, which he is sharing in a series of blogs.  Roger’s work traces the roller coaster story of the past 500 years or so of human history, focusing on how Europe and its offshoots amassed great wealth and power at the expense of the rest of the world.  In this episode, we explore how wealth and power manifest in the contemporary world. How does power play out today?   Julius Malema Oxford Union Address Harlot's Ghost Keywords: decolonial, colonialism, history, United Nations, African Union, World Bank, IMF

17 April is the “International Day of Peasant Struggles”. One may be inclined to think that such a day has very little significance for places like Europe and other parts of the developed world, but one would be mistaken. Struggles over farmland are a very real reality in Europe, although the nature of these struggles differ across the continent, with main differences being between Eastern and Western Europe.   There are threats of land grabbing by large transnational companies and investors. Farmland is converted to other uses (infrastructure, energy projects, urban sprawl for example.). More generally, market forces make it very difficult to make a living as a small, independent operator who wants to produce food locally rather than for the world market in an ecological way.   In this episode,  we get to hear inspiring stories from those who are farming in order to support life sustaining economies in line with principles of agroecology, food sovereignty, and community supported agriculture. Our host for this episode, Sylvia Kay,  speaks to our guests, Attila Szocs, Jolke de Moel and Samson Hart.    They also talk about the role of spirituality, feminism, and the legacy of communism in European land and farming. Image source: FranHogan/Wikimedia Roots of Resilience Policy Report 

Since February 2019 (2 years ago), the people of Algeria have waged an inspiring and historic revolt. Millions took to the streets united in their rejection of the ruling system, demanding radical democratic change. They chanted ‘They must all go!’ and ‘The country is ours and we’ll do what we wish’ – two slogans that have become emblematic of this new Algerian revolution. The popular movement or Hirak (movement in Arabic) succeeded in overthrowing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in early April 2019 after six weeks of protests. The weekly protests continued every Friday since and only in March 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic forcing a lockdown, did this mass movement see a temporary halt of around 10 months. But the Hirak has come back and it resumed its weekly protests against the military dictatorship. To talk about all of this and give some analysis about the motivations, objectives, challenges and the horizons of the uprising in Algeria, our guest Brahim Rouabah agreed to chat to us.

This is the second episode of our three part series in which we look at how Europe came to be the dominant global power. In the first episode we looked at Racism and how it was used to justify European imperialism. As the world seeks a decolonial future, it is good to remind ourselves of what colonialism really was, and in this episode we take a closer look at how colonialism actually unfolded.  Shaun Matsheza continues his conversation with Roger van Zwanenberg, who is the founder of Pluto books, an independent publisher of radical, left‐wing non­‐fiction books. He’s written a new global history, called Wealth and Power, which he is sharing in a series of blogs.  Roger’s work traces the roller coaster story of the past 500 years or so of human history, focusing on how Europe and its offshoots amassed great wealth and power at the expense of the rest of the world. Image source Walter Crane: Wikimedia Featured podcast: Erlendy Cuero Bravo: A vision for community

Societies the world over are under extreme stress and we are only beginning to guess the long term social and economic effects of the Covid19 pandemic.  However, it is already clear that there is a gendered dimension to Covid’s direct and indirect socioeconomic impacts.  Here at the State of power Podcast, we’re interested in how patriarchal power operates, how it mutates, and how it shapes the world around us. The theme for International women’s day on March 8  2021 is “Choose to challenge”, and our guest on the podcast today works with an organization that has chosen to stand up in support of women’s rights in Indonesia, and to challenge the oppression of women’s voices.   Arie Kurniawaty works with the feminist organization Solidaritas Perempuan, in Indonesia. Solidaritas Perempuan works with peasant women, fisherwomen, women migrant workers, and any other marginalized groups of women in Indonesia. Arie tells of some of the ways women in Indonesia's fisher communities have been adapting to a world that is far from the norm they were used to.  Photo credit: Thibault Josse Resources: TNI Webinar on Feminist Realities: Transforming democracy in times of crisis  Webinar with Nancy Fraser : The Left Reflects on the Global Pandemic TNI Longread on Gender and Fisheries in Indonesia TNI report on Marine Spatial Planning Solidaritas Perempuan website

Here at the State of power podcast we are interested in how power functions, how it mutates, and how it shapes the world around us. We believe that, if we are to understand the present, we need to put it in its proper historical context and try to understand the historical processes that have led us here.     Our guest on the podcast today, Roger van Zwanenberg is the founder of Pluto books, an independent publisher of radical, left‐wing non­‐fiction books. He’s written a new global history, called Wealth and Power, which he is also sharing in a series of blogs.  Roger’s book traces the roller coaster story of the past 500 years or so of human history, focusing on how Europe and its offshoots amassed great wealth and power at the expense of the rest of the world. Meant for popular reading, the book focuses on how we have created today’s world, which we all take for granted. Roger insists that the world we live in is unique in world history. He ponders the question of How Europe, a small and rather insignificant part of the world in 1500, became so powerful and dominant across the globe by 1900, and he brings out the mechanisms that were used to establish European dominance. In this episode, the first of three, we discuss the beginnings of racism, and how it has shaped the world today. Image source Walter Crane: Wikimedia You can find the Exalt Podcast here. 

Here at the State of Power Podcast we are concerned with how power functions, how it mutates, and how it reproduces itself, and our guest on this episode deals explicitly with this. Nyasha Mboti is an Associate Professor at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein South Africa, and is the founder of a new field of study that he terms ‘Apartheid Studies’. He is soon to publish the first of four volumes outlining the scope of the new field.  He graciously agreed when we asked him to sit with us and to explain what exactly Apartheid Studies is. Nyasha's Book will be available on major online book stores at the end of February. To get in contact with him, you can subscribe to the Apartheid Studies YouTube channel, and visit the website www.apartheidstudies.com. You can also follow the Instagram account "Apartheid Studies" and the ApartheidStudi1 account on Twitter Music credit: Pax Afro/Zimbabwe Image source: Annette Kurylo (Wikimedia)

Chihiro Geuzenbroek and Anna Bissila are both climate activists, and the co-organizers for the expo: People-Powered Movements versus Shell. An exhibition that explores the fight for justice that has been fought from Indonesia to Nigeria, from Curaçao to South Africa, and from Alaska to Groningen. Through installations, audio-stories, photography and relics of activisms, the exhibition invites the public to learn from the people who have shown resistance and made calls for decolonial climate justice. Link to exhibition: https://www.ndsm.nl/en/event/people-powered-movement-vs-shell-exhibition/  image Credit: People-Powered Movements versus Shell