Is the U.S. Social Forum primarily an arena for movements to propose a diversity of alternatives or is it a political agent of the left that pulls movements together into a counter-hegemonic program?
Thomas Ponniah
Thomas Ponniah was a Lecturer on Social Studies, Assistant Director of Studies, and Faculty Associate of the Project on Justice, Welfare and Economics at Harvard University from 2003-2011. He taught courses on modern social and political thought, the philosophy and methods of the social sciences, globalization and global justice. He is currently an affiliate of Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. His rabble column offers commentary on contemporary social, political and cultural ideas, issues and events.After the U.S. Social Forum 2010: The potential for a multi-scalar strategy
In 1933, Mexican artist Diego Rivera completed his Detroit Industry fresco cycle. The abundant, controversial work, considered one the 20th century's outstanding achievements of monumental art, covers the four walls of the Garden Court in the Detroit Institute of Art.
Picasso's Guernica as symbol of the peace movement
Seventy-five years ago Nazi warplanes -- aligned with Franco's Nationalists -- bombed and destroyed the Basque town of Guernica. In response, the Spanish Republican government asked Pablo Picasso to commemorate the tragedy via a mural to be exhibited at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. The large painting, the most memorable of the century, 11 feet and 6 inches by 28 feet and 8 inches, depicted the violence of the German bombardment. The attack was all the more terrifying because it demonstrated the existential significance of aerial barrage: all civilian populations would now potentially have to live in a state of emergency.
What is the post-colonial state?
The rise of new regions of power in recent decades has provoked much discussion of understanding the post-colonial state. While the global influence of the U.S. and the European Union appears to have diminished in past years, the significance of some post-colonial states, such as India and Pakistan, has consistently increased. The challenge for progressive thinkers is to formulate a theoretical model that can coherently explain the specific and general trajectories of these countries.
The Adam Smith tie and alternative economic models
One of the entertaining characteristics of Ronald Reagan's first cabinet was that most of its members wore a tie bearing a cameo profile of Adam Smith. The new team had a clear vision: it was time to replace the statist capitalism theorized by John Maynard Keynes with the free market capitalism espoused by An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Collective mobilization in the information age
The newest insurgencies embody essential aspects of our age of information.
Related rabble.ca story:
Social movements in the age of information
Contemporary social movements are characterized not only by their diverse commitments to building an emancipatory, egalitarian society but also by their innovative network composition. Both the form and content of the newest insurgencies embody essential aspects of our age of information. Their novelty opens up new possibilities for presence, mobilization and social change.
Black in Latin America
A few years ago a group of us went on a visit to "Ile de Gorée" -- the island was a sunlit 20-minute ferry ride off the coast of Dakar, Senegal. When reaching the shore, my first impression was that we had reached a tropical oasis: brightly coloured pink, brown and yellow buildings, children running along the dock, and vendors selling carved, rotund, wooden hippos. Within a 15-minute walk we came to a church and the guide informed us in elegant French, "In 1992 Pope John Paul II came here and asked for forgiveness."
Ecologists, leftists and Rio+20
A thematic Social Forum focused on "Capitalist Crises, Environmental and Social Justice" was held from January 24-29, 2012 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The dominant theme of the Forum was the upcoming Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development taking place this June in Rio de Janeiro, 20 years after the famous 1992 UN environmental conference held in the same location. The great sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos has written a thoughtful report on the Porto Alegre event.
'Blue Dragon' explores globalization and Canadian culture
Robert Lepage's enchanting play "Blue Dragon" was performed at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto from January 10 to February 19. Lepage is one of the world's greatest experimental directors: this production -- and perhaps all of his work -- is characterized by his unprecedented technological wizardry that sets the stage for tales of fragmented individuals longing for an end to the impermanence of love, living their ambivalent desire for Otherness, while permeated by the inexhaustible drive for immortality.
