Race and Class special issue : The threat of globalism

Race & Class, a leading English language journal on Third World issues, has just published a major new report on globalisation which is essential reading for everyone - especially practitioners - whose work lies in the field of aid and development, international affairs and politics. The issue focuses on the impact of globalisation on the Third World, and how a new relationship of even greater North-South domination is being forged through it.

• James Davis and Cheryl Bishop outline the way that the governments of the developed countries are trying to foist the Multilateral Agreement on Investment onto the Third World - while maintaining exemptions for themselves.
• Jonathan King, (professor of molecular biology at MIT) and Doreen Stabinsky (environmental studies, CSU, Sacramento) draw an alarming picture of the ways in which transnationals working in the biotechnology field, drug industries and food production are drawing a noose ever tighter around Third World livelihoods.
• William Robinson, author of ’Promoting Polyarchy’, charts what globalisation means for Latin America - and how local movements are fighting against it
• Walden Bello, of Focus on the Global South, outlines just why the economies of South-east Asia nose-dived, and what could be done about it.
• John Berger, taking his cue from the cover image - Bosch’s vision of Hell - articulates the deeper essence of what globalisation is doing to the world.
• A. Sivanandan, in a devastating analysis of the havoc that imperialism wreaks on the Third World, issues a ringing challenge to the western-centric Left.
• Jerry Harris ( of ’cy.rev’ magazine), Jim Davis (co-editor of ’Cutting Edge’) and Arun Kundnani (HomeBeats cd rom and web designer) look at how the information revolution throws up new patterns of production and exploitation and a market-oriented culture.
• Among the impacts of globalisation in the North has been the growth of a prison-oriented economy in the US, chillingly described by Angela Davis - a fighter for justice since the days of Black Power - and an upsurge in racist nationalist movements, such as the Front National in France (analysed by Liz Fekete) and Hansonism in Australia (described by Suvendrini Perera.

To take these apparently disparate themes and reveal the patterns and connections between them is a major achievement. It hasn’t been done elsewhere - but is the type of approach that is becoming increasingly important if we are to link our scattered and separate issues and campaigns in the face of the global onslaught.

For more information about this special issue, go to http://www.homebeats.co.uk/publications/global.htm.