We are in a fractured world – and we need to understand it to change it. Neoliberalism is cracking apart, age-old alliances are being abandoned, fascist leaders are coming to power, repression of activists is escalating, and marginalised communities are being targeted with ever more brutal force. Social justice movements face a new reality and need new strategies, tactics, and a renewed internationalism to resist. Fractures may cause chaos and division, but they also open up new possibilities—especially if we work strategically, concertedly, and globally.
This eight-week teach-in series will take a step back from the frenzy of news and dig beneath the surface to the long-term global trends that underpin this moment. It will bring together leading progressive and critical thinkers and activists from around the world to reflect on key global dynamics, the challenges and opportunities they pose for all those committed to social and environmental justice, and the tactics and strategies we need to move forward.
Programme
Sessions start 16:00-17:30 CEST and are moderated by Shaun Matsheza.
30 April:What will the new world order look like? What is the future for US imperialism? What are China’s global aspirations? Can the global South be a collective agent for progressive change?
Achin Vanaik, Retired Professor of International Relations, University of Delhi,
Aziz Rana, author of the Two faces of American freedom
Ho-Fung Hung, author of Clash of Empires: From ‘Chimerica’ to the ‘New Cold War’
Luciana Ghiotto, Trade and Investment researcher and activist at TN
7 May: Is the ‘liberal’ post-WWII international order dying? What was the promise and reality of the liberal order? Did it deserve to die? What is the future for international law and multilateralism? What will replace it? What should we demand in its place?
Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of International Law at Yale Law School
Shahd Hammouri, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights/University of Kent
Jomo Kwame Sundaram, former assistant secretary-general at UN-DESA
Co-Moderator: Meena Jagannath, Movement Law Lab
Video recording to follow in late June
14 May: Do we still live in a neoliberal world? How are the dynamics of capital and class changing? How is Big Tech reshaping capitalism? How does muscular state capitalism and trade wars reshape neoliberalism? How should we articulate public democratic economic alternatives? Can we re-create a democratic state, which has been so delegitimised by corporate take-over, cronyism and corruption?
Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ and the Capitalism of the Far Right
Daniel Chavez, co-author of The Future is Public and coordinator of TNI's Global Green Industrial Policy Lab
Anita Gurumurthy, director of IT for Change, India
Sofia Scasserra, TNI associate researcher who specialises on digital economy, labor and development.
21 May: Why is the far-right on the rise? What is the agenda of the far-right? How has the far-right secured the support of anti-elite anger – and appeased by the traditional right? Where did the left go wrong? How can we survive authoritarian rule and best resist misogyny and racism? Where are the fractures in the Right that need to be broken open?
Joe Mulhall, Research Director at Hope not Hate and author of Drums In The Distance: Journeys Into The Global Far Right
Ailynn Torres Santana, Professor and researcher at FLACSO Ecuador
Raqib Hameed Naik, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH).
Co-moderated: Maie Panaga Babker, Noor
28 May: Are we headed to World War III? How did global armament become hegemonic? What are the intentions of global powers? How do we slow down the arms race? How will tech change warfare? How can we rebuild the global peace movement?
Niamh Ni Bhriain, coordinator of TNI's War and Pacification programme
Samar Al-Bulushi, professor of anthropology at UC Irvine and author of War-Making as World-Making: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror (2024)
Andrew Feinstein, Shadow World Investigations and editor of Monstrous Anger of the Guns: How the Global Arms Trade Is Ruining the World and What We Can Do About It (2024)
Co-moderator: Anuradha Chenoy, Adjunct Professor, Jindal Global University (Haryana, India) and Asia-Europe Peoples' Forum
4 June: Amidst these global fractures, can we save our planet? Why has the existential threat of climate crisis been cast aside by so many centrist and far-right political leaders? Why is climate denialism on the rise? What are the paths today towards ecological and climate justice?
Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of Climate Action Network International
Julia Steinberger, Professor of Societal Challenges of Climate Change at the University of Lausanne
Maureen Santos, FASE, Brazil
Lavinia Steinfort, TNI researcher and co-author of Reclaiming Energy (2024)
11 June: How do we resist and win? What will social movements look like in the newly emerging era? What does global resistance look like? How do we build a new common sense in an age of internet eco-chambers? What can we learn from recent and past uprisings and movements to sustain them and take power?
Shanelle Matthews, Founder of Radical Communicators Network and co-editor of forthcoming Framing New Worlds: Building Narrative Power for 21st-Century Social Movements
Nimmi Gowrinathan, activist, writer, and scholar and founder of the Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative
Tooba Syed, feminist labour organiser, Pakistan
18 June: How do we build liberated futures? What are our imagined liberated futures? How can we build these within and beyond a fractured world? What are the alternatives that social movements are investing time, energy, resources and solidarity into building and sustaining?
Kali Akuno, co-founder and director of Cooperation Jackson, USA
The idea is simple: creating an open “Portal” where engaged and committed citizens who feel to share their ideas and offer their opinions on development related issues have the opportunity to do...
