Organising in the times of Covid19
Welcome
Jessica Horn: An African feminist’s perspectives on Covid-19
Jessica Horn is a PanAfrican feminist activist, writer and technical advisor on women’s rights with a focus on body politics, social movements, philanthropy and building scenarios for feminist futures. She currently works as Director of Programmes for the Accra based African Women’s Development for Fund
Dispatches from the rustbelt: Rockford, Illinois, USA
815 mutual aid is a collective dedicated to providing mutual aid (food, medicine, care and support) in the Rockford area through the Coronavirus crisis. The “crisis” is a product of our racial capitalist system that we as a collective oppose. We are a pro-feminist, pro-LGBTQIA, abolitionist, anti-racist and anti-colonial organization. In our work, we aim …
Why are there so many infections and deaths in Montreal?
Mostafa Henaway is a longtime community organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal which organizes with precarious im/migrant workers for their status, workplace dignity regardless of their status from undocumented workers, to temporary foreign workers, and those living with precarious status fighting for workplace and immigrant justice. Mostafa Henaway has also been a long-time …
Radical politics and the struggle for freedom
Blair Taylor is program director of the Institute for Social Ecology, a popular education center for ecological scholarship and advocacy founded in 1974. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the New School for Social Research, and has written on U.S. social movements, contemporary far-right politics, political ecology, and the history of the left. …
Njoki & Faith: Update on repression from Social Justice Centres (Nairobi)
Njoki Gachanja is a spirited Social Justice warrior and humanist based in Githurai Nairobi where she serves as the coordinator of Githurai Social Justice Center. She fiercely advocates for dignity and equity for all and is especially passionate about women in politics, leadership and governance and the welfare of children. She also serves as the …
Asian and Black solidarity and struggle in the time of Covid-19
To mark the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh, Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama, we are organising a panel discussion on Asian and Black solidarity and struggles Participants include: Thandisizwe Chimurenga is currently a Board Member of Cooperation Jackson, Thandisizwe Chimurenga has been an activist, organizer and writer for more than 20 years on a variety …
The crisis of capitalist healthcare unmasked by Covid-19
Salimah Valiani is the author of Rethinking Unequal Exchange – The global integration of nursing labour markets, and several research and policy papers on health and healthcare (https://wits.academia.edu/SalimahValiani/Papers). She has worked as researcher with unions in Canada, the Philippines and South Africa since 2005.
Our fight is for the right to breathe in the time of Covid-19
Arun Kundnani lives in New York and writes about racial capitalism, Islamophobia, surveillance, and political violence. He is the author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror (Verso, 2014) and The End of Tolerance: racism in 21st century Britain (Pluto, 2007). He is a former editor of the journal Race & Class. He is currently …
Enacting Liberation: Black Wellness & Freedom in a time of Covid-19
Nana Fofie Bashir Nana Fofie is a child of Black migrants from the south and Somali nomads from the east. She is a facilitator and multimodal artist rooted in New Orleans. She invites ritual, examination, story, and play in her work to vision, strategize, and practice liberation in community and movement spaces in the Gulf …
Impact of Covid-19 on African economies
Riaz Tayob trained as a lawyer in South Africa and holds a BA Llb and Llm. He is currently researcher for SEATINI, Southern and East African Trade Institute in South Africa dealing with international trade and development. Riaz was the Africa representative to Third World Network in Geneva and served as a correspondent for SUNS …
Persistence of Blackness: A series of five original photographs designed by Sokari Ekine
A series of five original photographs designed by Sokari Ekine Sokari Ekine is a Queer Nigerian British Feminist, diasporic nomad, visual scholar, and activist, writer, educator seeking out new possibilities and ways of being beyond the normative and hegemony of whiteness, heterosexuality and native informers.
The US regime and its impact on people in the time of Covid
Medea Benjamin is an American political activist who co-founded Code Pink and, along with activist and author Kevin Danaher, the fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange. Benjamin was the Green Party candidate in California in 2000 for the United States Senate, receiving the highest raw vote total of any Green Party U.S. Senate candidate. In …
Vandana Shiva on Oneness vs the 1% in the time of Covid-19
Vandana Shiva is a modern day revolutionary, and for many decades has been fighting a heroic battle on behalf of humanity and the ecologically besieged natural systems that support us. She is opposed by powerful multinational corporations invested in continuing their toxic though lucrative agricultural practices. We discuss her latest book Oneness VS.. The 1% …
Reflections on imperialism, racial capitalism and resistance in light of COVID-19
I speak with Azadeh Shahshahani and Corrina Mullin. Azadeh and Corinna met each other while both participating in an NLG sponsored international solidarity delegation to Tunisia in the aftermath of the 2010-2011 revolution. Since then they have collaborated together on numerous projects analyzing and resisting imperialism and racial capitalism. Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal & Advocacy Director, …
What does ‘after’ mean in the times of Covid?
I speak with Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, about the changes to economic and political life for Americans and internationally since the start of the pandemic, and why we can’t “go back to normal”. Phyllis Bennis focusies on Middle East, U.S. wars and UN issues. She …
China : organising in the time of Covid-19
I speak with Kin Chi Lau and Sit Tsui Jade Margaret. Kin Chi Lau is Associate Professor teaching Cultural Studies at Lingnan University, Hong Kong; Member of the International Board of Peace Women Across the Globe (PWAG); Co-chair of the Executive Committee of Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA); Vice-president of World Forum for …
Radical pathways out of global crises
I discuss the radical pathways out of the global crisis with Ashish Kothari. Ashish is founder-member of Indian environmental group Kalpavriksh, taught at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, coordinated India’s National Biodiversity Strategy & Action Plan process, served on Greenpeace International and India Boards, helped initiate the global ICCA Consortium. Participated in people’s movements …
What Would A Democratic Approach To Covid-19 Crisis Look Like?
I interview Kavita Krishnan on what a democratic approach to the pandemic would look like. Kavita Krishnan is Secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association. Krishnan is also a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of India, and the editor of its monthly publication, Liberation.
State violence, gender and the Kurdish Women’s movement
Ozlem Goner is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the College of Staten Island. She earned degrees in Political Science and Sociology from Bogazici University, Turkey and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Her work on memory and historicity; political economy and environment; and outsider identities has been …
Lewis Gordon on engaging with Fanon
“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” Frantz Fanon Lewis Gordon is one of the greatest philosophers not our times. He is based at the University of Connecticut and works in the areas of Africana philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of race …