Website of author, film-maker and academic, Raj Patel
More chop logic from our leaders, this time coming from the World Economic Forum. As the BBC reports,
“World leaders have warned that rising food prices could lead to social unrest and even “economic war”…But business leaders at the World Economic Forum rejected calls for curbs on commodity speculation.”
A Conversation with Michael Hardt, at the Taft Research Center.
Want to know what a sustainable climate-change-proof agricultural system might look like? Here’s an example from Cuba, in an academic paper written by my friend, comrade, and former boss, Peter Rosset, together with folk from Cuba’s peasant agriculture movement. The article’s free to download (for now), but the key parts from the abstract are: Continue reading “If you love Cuba so much…”
Some good news – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has scored a major victory in Southern Florida. Read about it on their site or, if you prefer, the New York Times.
Here’s a piece that I wrote for The Guardian about the global rise in food prices. Think of this inflation as a neutron-bomb-style inflation: a kind that goes after workers, but leaves their homes and places of work intact. Trouble is that the responses to this inflation that might protect the poor – government feeding and public works programmes – are the ones in the deficit hawk’s cross-hairs. It’s entirely possible to balance a budget and have large public works, but that means taxing the rich. In this political climate, that’s unlikely. So, watch out for more food rebellions in 2011. Continue reading “Neutron Bomb Inflation”
I’m doing a bit of work on the Black Panther Party’s School Breakfast program, and came across this terrific 1969 radio interview with children and Black Panther activists. You’ll need 20 minutes and the free Real Audio player. Click here to listen.
CUNY Segal Theater from 12p – 2p. Free. Details to come.