State of Power

This is episode two of a series on Border Wars: placing the ‘migration crisis” in perspective. In episode one, we looked at some of the reasons for the building of militarized borders,  and examined the systemic causes of migration, showing how people are displaced as a result of corporate crimes, conflict, poverty, climate change. We showed that migration cannot be divorced from the legacy of colonialism and the impact today of corporate capitalism and imperialism. This episode takes a closer look at the military and security companies that have benefited from the refugee crisis. These companies provide, among other things, the equipment for border guards, the surveillance technology to monitor frontiers, and the IT infrastructure to track population movements. We will also look at how these companies grow their influence, and how they are implicated in a global restructuring of labour that has led to injustice, suffering, and death. The third and last episode will explore ways in which communities are reaching out and building bridges instead of walls. Guests: Nick Buxton, TNI Brid Brennan, TNI Harsha Walia, Author: Undoing Border Imperialism Todd Miller, Journalist, Author: More than a Wall Maren Mantovani, StopTheWall, Palestinian Land Defence Coalition. Photo credit: Rianne Van Doevern/Flickr/(CC BY-ND 2.0)

This is episode one of a series on Border Wars: Placing the ‘migration crisis” in perspective. It explores the rise of border walls particularly in the last three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and analyses some of the systemic reasons behind what has been termed the “migrant crisis”. Follow-up episodes will focus on the corporate interests that stand to gain the most from existing migration policies, and explore ways in which communities are reaching out and building bridges instead of walls. Guests: Harsha Walia: Canada Antiracist activist, author Undoing Border Imperialism Nick Buxton , TNI Todd Miller, Journalist Tucson Arizona: More than a wall. Brid Brennan, TNI, Transmigrant Platform “Mara” Photo credit: Flickr/syriafreedom

Walden Bello is a TNI associate, a human rights and peace campaigner, academic, environmentalist and journalist who has made a major contribution to the international case against corporate-driven globalization. He is currently a senior analyst at Focus on the Global South, as well as an adjunct professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Binghamton. In our latest podcast he shares his thoughts about China and its role in the global financial system.  The discussion is guided by Walden’s latest book: Paper Dragons, China and the Next Financial crisis. Have a listen to this wide ranging discussion about the contradictions in China’s financial system, the ongoing trade war with the United States of America, and China’s impact on the global economy.  

Instead of stemming the flow of narcotics, the global “war on drugs” has only managed to cause untold suffering to millions of people across the world. The voice of communities involved in illicit cultivation have long been excluded from national and international policymaking platforms.  What alternative approaches are there to current regime? Is it possible to put human rights first?  Guests:  Martin Jelsma: Director Drugs & Democracy programme, TNI. Nang Yon: Myanmar Opium Farmers Forum.  Photo: Farmer harvesting opium in southern Shan State / Credit: Tom Kramer

There is a crisis in Venezuela. The country teeters on the brink of total economic and social collapse. There is civil unrest, hospitals and supermarkets are empty, and there is a very real possibility of an invasion led by the United States of America. The Bolivarian revolution, which is the political process initiated by the late president Hugo Chavez, has not borne its promised fruits.   What happened in Venezuela, and what is in store for the country and its people? What lessons are there for the left? Guests:  Professor Edgardo Lander, TNI Fellow Dr. Daniel Chavez, TNI Fellow Rachel Rumai Diaz, Venezuelan poet Photo credit: Flickr/David Hernández (aka davidhdz)/ (CC BY-SA 2.0)

This episode of the State of Power podcast examines the case of the resistance against the TAP pipeline in Salento, Italy.  Expected to bring 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Azerbaijan, the pipeline has been hailed as an impressive feat of engineering that will help solve Europe’s energy needs. However, there is no overstating how much the local populations along the pipeline detest this development. We use the resistance against TAP to explore a process we call “pacification”, which is part of how capitalist elites, states and transnational corporations deal with protest and resistance against their activities.  In October 2018 TNI convened a conference on pacification over three days in this affected region in Italy. Delegates, who included local activists, scholars, and even the mayor of the nearest town, Melendugno heard how despite massive local resistance, construction work on the pipeline began in March 2017, and currently still continues. Guests: Mark Neocleous: Professor of the Critique of Political Economy, Brunel University, UK. Dr. María del Carmen Verdú: Lawyer, campaigner with Correpi: Coordinator Against Police and Institutional Repression), Argentina No TAP activists, Salento, Italy.

When Transnational Corporations violate the rights of people and communities, it can be almost impossible to hold them to account. That’s why TNI is a long term supporter of the process towards a United Nations Treaty on Transnational Corporations with regard to Human Rights. This episode of the State of Power podcast outlines some of the violations against people and the environment, perpetrated by Transnational Corporations in South Africa: Cases such as the massacre of protesting miners at the Marikana mine in August 2012, and ongoing attempts to evict rural communities in Pondoland from their land to facilitate titanium mining serve to underline the need for a binding international legal mechanism. The episode shows some of the efforts by local activists to hold perpetrators accountable, and briefly outlines the history of The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity. Guests: Joseph Mathunjwa, President of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) Siyabonga Ndovela, Amadiba Crisis Committee Brid Brennan, Transnational Institute, Global Campaign.  Photo: ACC marching, Commemoration 21 march 2017 Credit: Amadiba Crisis Committee

In 2008, as financial markets fell into chaos, the world got an acute reminder of the limitations of the current neoliberal financial system.  We need a systemic reversal, to ensure that public resources serve people and planet, and enhance collective and individual well-being. For this to become reality, we must pursue radical but doable proposals and practices, showing how progressive (local) authorities, social movements, workers and unions, among other engaged actors, can provide democratic and diverse ownership of finances and wealth for the future we want. Photo credit: kudumbashree.org/ (CC BY-SA 4.0) 

The financial crisis of 2008 revealed the limitations of our current neoliberal financial order. As banks and other financial institutions lost their grip on financial markets across the world, it was the world’s governments that stepped in and saved the system on the backs of their taxpayers.  If they have the capacity to create public money to save the banks, why don’t democratically elected governments use that same power to create money and involve people in order to solve problems of such as debt, poverty and the climate crisis? Photo credit: Carsten Ussat [CC BY-SA 4.0]

Photo credit: Flickr/InnovationNorway/CC BY-NC 2.0