I remember that, nearly a decade ago, the Global Justice movement was under fire for the way it organized. It seemed to be a moveable carnival of activism, known only by its dates (N30 for the WTO on November 30th, 1999 – Seattle, A20 for the Summit of the Americans on April 20th, 2001 - Quebec City, and so on).

The insider nomenclature, it was said, mirrored the politics. Activists hopped from one city to another, discussing globalization among themselves in a code that never really connected with the people living in the places where protests happened. Although the accusation was much truer about the conferences we were protesting against - the WTO, G8, G20, the IMF and World Bank’s Annual Meetings and so on - there was a sliver of truth in the criticism.

It’s a criticism that has been trotted out in modified form by, er, Barack Obama who’s in Pittsburgh today at the G20 meetings. In this interview he says:

“I was always a big believer in - when I was doing organizing before I went to law school - that focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people's lives is what really makes a difference and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, is not really going to make much of a difference.”

So is it all terribly abstract and above peoples’ heads? If you’re listening to local talk radio, you might believe it to be. The shock jocks are howling about ‘anarchists’ with all the grace and the spittle that once only belonged to ‘Communists’ – see Monty Python below for a demonstration.

... read more »

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Posted on 24 September, 2009 - 15:07

Everyone's favourite guerilla political artists are back. Their latest hijink involves distributing fake versions of the New York Post. You can tell they're fake, because everything inside is factually accurate and scientifically informed. But don't take it from me - take it, at 1:11 in - from a representative of the New York Post.

"SPECIAL EDITION" NEW YORK POST from The Yes Men on Vimeo.

1 comment

Posted on 22 September, 2009 - 01:17

When it comes to broadcast media, nothing beats radio. It's fast, cheap, out of control, and the medium through which I've learned more about the world than any other.

So here's a post about radio. First, a rant. If there's a hell, the creators of the Chevron radio adverts (which sound like this) will one day finds themselves there, listening to their wretched creation on loop, in perpetuity. From the very first pensive piano note, everything about the ad spits disingenuity, deceit and greenwash. There hasn't been an occasion where I've heard the opening notes and not changed the station. The net effect is to make me want to give money to these people, who have a much firmer grasp of Chevron's environmental commitments.

... read more »

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Posted on 10 September, 2009 - 13:48

One of the things I've been up to recently is this piece, written with my co-authors of Food Rebellions. It's a look at the rise of philanthropy capitalism, and some worrying attempts to 'fix' Africa. You can read it all at The Nation, but there's a less elegantly formatted version below the fold. ... read more »

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Posted on 7 September, 2009 - 05:35

The preeminent thinker about food and hunger, Amartya Sen, learned about famine from direct experience. In his work, notably in Poverty and Famines, he argues that democracy and a free press can ward off famine.

Test this hypothesis in his native India, the world's largest democracy, and the results aren't terribly encouraging. As he notes, India has worse malnutrition rates than many countries in which democracy is observed only in the breech. But Sen's encouraged by a new Right to Food Act in India. ... read more »

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Posted on 27 August, 2009 - 08:36

It's as if the already miraculous reporters at Inter Press Service had read last night's posting, and sent this article from the heavens. While land-grabs continue in Africa, women wonder whether they'll be able to take what's theirs. Hat-tip to Dan M.

Women Want Land to Call Their Own

Davison Makanga/IPS

CAPE TOWN, Aug 10 (IPS) - In 1956, twenty thousand women marched to parliament to protest discriminatory pass laws. The march, commemorated as Women’s Day in South Africa on Aug. 9 each year, has become iconic of women’s quest for equality. ... read more »

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Posted on 10 August, 2009 - 15:11

At President Obama’s inauguration, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger thumped out this splendid tune, a rendition of Woodie Guthrie’s classic This Land Is Your Land. The most delightful verse appears at around 2:25 -

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

As one commentator has noted, this isn’t the version of the song that gets sung at the Democratic National Convention, preferred as a less chauvinist substitute for Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.

The Democratic Party doesn’t like to mess around with the fundamentals of private property – land in particular - and its obfuscating habits are being propagated internationally by the current administration, at an immense human cost. ... read more »

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Posted on 10 August, 2009 - 08:31

Normal service will soon resume here at Stuffed and Starved. After six months of intensive writing, I've just handed in the manuscript for my next book, which'll hit book stores later this year, entitled "The Value of Nothing". I'll be sharing a little more about that in the future, so watch this space.

I need a little break from the keyboard right now, but when I get back later this week, you can not only expect to hear more about what I've been up to, but stories on how free trade makes you fat, why organic food is healthy, and how to stop hunger in Africa.

But, for now, in an exhausted and happy mood, here's the tune that's rattling around in my head: Blur's Song #2.

6 comments

Posted on 5 August, 2009 - 05:40