Recent content by TNI

Re-examining the "agrarian movement-NGO" solidarity relations discourse
The demands of transnational agrarian movements for their own autonomous voice and representation have transformed their relationship with NGOs, and clarified the kind of solidarity that is acceptable to both, writes Jun Borras.

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The latest chapter of the 60 year old conflict

We are now spectators of the latest - and perhaps penultimate - chapter of the 60 year old conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. About the complexities of this tragic conflict billions of words have been pronounced, defending one side or the other.

Today, in face of the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the essential calculation, which was always covertly there, behind this conflict, has been blatantly revealed. The death of one Israeli victim justifies the killing of a hundred Palestinians.

Vacancy: Communications manager

The Transnational Institute in Amsterdam seeks a full-time Communications Manager to start by 1 April 2009 (neg, salary from Euro 2,174 per month depending on experience). The job involves strategic outreach, press work, some English language editing, managing four staff and a network of freelance editors, translators and layout artists, as well as liaison with printers and publishers. It requires an organised, creative, media savvy, preferably native English speaking (ideally with Spanish and/or Dutch language skills too) person with a demonstrable commitment to the ideals of TNI.

EU Land Policy and the Right to Food

In 2004 the EU Commission published EU Land Policy Guide-lines: Guidelines for Support to Land Policy Design and Land Policy Reform Process in Developing Countries. It proposes that steps be taken to allow the legal recognition of customary rights and to strengthen the institutional capacities of customary structures that enforce them.

Protectionist dominoes are beginning to tumble across the world
Quotes Boris Kagarlitsky

Greece has been in turmoil for 11 days. The mood seems to have turned "pre-insurrectionary" in parts of Athens - to borrow from the Marxist handbook.

This is a foretaste of what the world may face as the "crisis of capitalism" - another Marxist phase making a comeback - starts to turn two hundred million lives upside down.

We are advancing to the political stage of this global train wreck. Regimes are being tested.

A revolution without borders: reappraising Bolivia’s crisis

Bolivia, a country used to being ignored by the western media, has hit the headlines in recent months due to the marked increase in violence among opponents and supporters of the government. Back in December 2005 Bolivia, a country in which 62 per cent of the population identify themselves as indigenous, elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales, on a mandate of radical reform.

After the meltdown
On the eve of the US election, five critical writers and economists met to discuss the financial crisis – and what should be done. With Barack Obama heading for the White House, is this time for the left to think big? William Greider, Frances Fox Piven, Doug Henwood, Arun Gupta and Naomi Klein put their heads together

William Greider

People are asking me where we are now – how the hell do I know? I’ve heard from several people who really are losing their retirement savings. It’s terrible, and their lives are going to change very dramatically.

The futures of Iraq
An international study group convened in Barcelona to examine the political options for Iraq after five years of war. Fred Halliday, its chair, digests its conclusions.

What will happen in Iraq between 2008 and 2012? The agreement between the United States and the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki government in Baghdad on a plan for the withdrawal of United States forces by the end of 2011 is the context for this question to be posed rather than a definitive answer.

Carbon offsets undermine the effort to tackle climate change.
Carbon offsets undermine the effort to tackle climate change, argues Kevin Smith as part of an Economist debate.

This house believes that carbon offsets undermine the effort to tackle climate change.

Any climate change practice or policy should be assessed against the criterion of whether or not it enables us to move closer to leaving more fossil fuels in the ground. Carbon offsets are doing exactly the opposite.

Radical new agenda needed to achieve climate justice
We will not be able to stop climate change if we don't change the neo-liberal and corporate-based economy which stops us from achieving sustainable societies, writes Climate Justice Now! alliance in the Poznan statement.

Members of Climate Justice Now! – a worldwide alliance of more than 160 organisations -- have been in Poznan for the past two weeks closely following developments in the UN climate negotiations.

This statement is our assessment of the Conference of Parties (COP) 14, and articulates our principles for achieving climate justice.

The Bases of Empire

This book examines US military bases across the globe including those in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. It documents the massive political, economic and environmental impacts that these outposts have and studies the movements and campaigns against them.

Progressive perspectives on solving the global economic crisis
Corporate takeover at Poznan: some facts
The UN Climate Conference in Poznan is systematically privileging business lobby groups over public interest organisations.

The UN Climate Conference in Poznan is systematically privileging business lobby groups over public interest organisations, according to members of the Climate Justice Now! Coalition.1 In addition, Indigenous Peoples´ representatives do not get formal access to the negotiations, despite the fact that they are amongst the most affected by climate change.

* Who is the biggest non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Poznan?

Clean Development Mechanism: dump it, don´t expand it
The UN´s Clean Development Mechanism is beyond repair and should be dumped, climate justice campaigners told delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan today.

“The CDM is a ´lose-lose´ proposition that has become a corrupt and cheap way for the rich North to avoid making real emission reductions.

Offsets Under Kyoto: a dirty deal for the South
Despite driving poor communities off their land and patently failing to deliver carbon emissions reductions, lobbyists for big industries and institutions such as the World Bank were active in Poznan climate negotiations pushing for further deregulation and expansion of the market-based Clean Development Mechanism.

In Western Panama, the Naso and Ngobe peoples are fighting against the construction of four hydroelectric dams being built on the land of Indigenous Peoples, saying that they will destroy their homelands.

In 90 minutes, why couldn’t Frontline have presented the other side of the story on Chavez?

On November 25 PBS’s Frontline broadcast its 90 minute The Hugo Chávez Show. The Frontline team contacted me when they were here in Venezuela about 5 months ago and paid my fare to Caracas as well as hotel and per diem expenses in order to interview me.

The Swinging of the Pendulum: The Global Crisis and Beyond'
This crisis is the beginning of a new phase of reform and adaptation in the history of capitalist development, but which direction will this take? Will the ‘markets’ emerge re-empowered and strengthened or will the state resume its role in restraining the markets and redistributing wealth in the interest of the welfare and security of all citizens?

Some three decades ago, Ronald Reagan set a new tone in economic and political life.

Local politics and the sustainability of rural life

To be a strong peasant movement in a place like Chokwe, Mozambique requires going beyond ambiguous compromises to develop collective political thinking and to develop the capacity to use political power in ways that ensure that governmental and non-governmental organisations that help the peasantry act in line with what peasants wish and need.

Rural democratisation in Mexico’s deep south

Has political regime change led to changes in state-society relations? This study begins to address this question by analysing rural movement efforts to exercise newly-won citizen rights. The specific focus is on rural civil society initiatives to use the “right to know” as a tool to bolster long-standing campaigns to build self-managed, community-based economic development institutions, to bolster peasant influence over the policy process, to defend human rights, and to respect indigenous rights.

Rural social movements and their historical contribution for building democracy in Brazil

Brazil has not experienced any sort of major agrarian reform since then, but dozens of rural movements have been organised and hundreds of thousands of landless peasants have acquired the right of access to land (especially through settlement projects) as a result of these social movements’ struggles. After so many years of fighting and popular mobilisation, what are these movements’ contributions to building rural democracy? This study seeks to understand this process by evaluating social movements’ alliances (both rural and urban alliances) and evaluating their relationships with political parties, especially with the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT) and with the Brazilian Federal Government.