Rethinking regionalisms in times of crises
A collection of activists’ perspectives from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe
The demand for people-centred regional alternatives has been at the core of people’s struggles in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. This reader pulls together perspectives of social movement activists, describing the restrictive regional spaces within which they work and propose regional alternatives.
This collection of articles is intended as a contribution to strengthen the idea that people-centred regional integration is not only needed but that it is also possible. It aspires to provide social organisations with new ideas and proposals that can inspire action within their specific regions.
The reader has three sections: 1) it includes the analysis of the current situation of integration processes in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe in relation to the changes in the global scene and their specific internal dynamics; 2) it concentrates on proposals on alternative regional integration in specific areas. It features models for alternative regional financial integration in Latin America; the need to re-think the eurozone in Europe; the idea of a SAARC Food Bank in South Asia and proposals to face climate change as a region in ASEAN; and 3) it deals with social actors’ actions vis-à-vis the dynamics of regional integration.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Gonzalo Berrón, Cecilia Olivet and Graciela Rodríguez
A world in crisis: the state of regional integration five years on
Mercosur: what kind of integration is possible?
Graciela Rodríguez.
The Pacific Alliance and Unasur: Integration and disintegration in South America
Carlos Alonso Bedoya
The political economy of the Eurozone: this crisis is not an accident
Andy Storey
Regional integration and the crisis: an agenda for SAARC
Meena R. Menon
ASEAN Regional dynamics and prospects
Jenina Joy Chavez
Current trends in Southern Africa: the challenges of reclaiming SADC for people’s development
Dot Keet
Regional responses to the global economic, food and ecological crises
Aspects of financial regionalisation: a Latin American perspective
Oscar Ugarteche
Regional alternatives to a global crisis: a European perspective
Mariana Mortagua
The SAARC Food Bank: can it abet food security in South Asia?
Afsar Jafri
The ASEAN, challenges of climate changes and spaces for civil society intervention
Dorothy Grace Guerrero
Regionalism from below: the role of social actors in regional integration
Assessing Social Participation in Integration Processes in South America after a decade of progressive governments
Gonzalo Berrón
Regional movements in Europe: strategies, challenges and achievements
Sol Trumbo
Regional governance of migration: ASEAN´s conundrum and spaces for civil society intervention
Jenina Joy Chavez
People’s struggles and aspirations for regional integration in Southern Africa
Brian Ashley
About the authors
Cecilia Olivet
Cecilia Olivet is a political scientist who specialises in the European Union's trade and investment agenda, the international investment regime and regional integration issues. Cecilia is Uruguayan, has a BA degree in International Relations from Universidad de la República in Uruguay and an MA in International Politics and East Asia from Warwick University, UK. In 2005, she joined TNI where she contributes to the Economic Justice, Corporate Power and Alternatives team with research, analysis, campaigning and network facilitation. She coordinates the initiative People's Agenda for Alternative Regionalisms (PAAR) and is involved in the work of networks such as Seattle to Brussels (S2B), Our World is not for Sale (OWINFS) and Bi-regional Network Europe-Latin America Enlazando Alternativas.
Cecilia is currently a member of a Commission established by Presidential decree to audit Ecuador's bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment arbitration cases. The new commission, known by its acronym CAITISA, was formally launched in October 2013.
Gonzalo Berrón
Gonzalo Berrón, TNI Associate Fellow, has played a leading role in coordinating Latin American movements resisting corporate "Free Trade Agreements." He has been an integral part of ongoing discussions with civil society and progressive governments on building alternative just regional trade and financial architecture in Latin America.
Berron worked as Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, and was until recently with the International Office of Central Única dos Trabalhadores - CUT (Unique Workers' Center), Brazil. Though Argentinian, he has been based in Brazil for many years.
Sol Trumbo Vila
Sol Trumbo is an economist and political activist working for TNI since November 2012. He is focussing on the construction of a pan-European social movement to resist and provide alternatives to the current neoliberal EU policies. Sol has a BSc degree in Economic science from the Universidad de Valencia in Spain and a MSc in International Relations from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. Since their uprising in 2011 he has been involved in the Indignados and Occupy movements, acting locally while working towards the international convergence of these new grass-roots movements with other civil society organizations that share the same objectives and values.
Recent publications from Alternative Regionalisms
Rethinking regionalisms in times of crisesThe demand for people-centred regional alternatives has been at the core of people’s struggles in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. This reader pulls together perspectives of social movement activists, describing the restrictive regional spaces within which they work and propose regional alternatives. |
Crisis and alternativesIn the long term we have to transcend capitalism as it cannot ensure a decent livelihood for all nor is it compatible with preserving necessary ecological balances. In the short-term we must start out with basic social democratic demands. |
Occupy the left or ignore it?Why the traditional Left needs to understand, be willing to be challenged, and fully embrace the Occupy and Indignado movements. |
Financial Governance Beyond the CrisisDr. Pedro Paez talks about the creation of a new financial architecture in Latin America, based on principles of redistribution, environmental sustainability and social cohesion rather than market principles that dominated the old architecture. |
