George Caffentzis

Globalization and Professionalization in Africa

map” in the 1990s, the globalization process has had more dramatic consequences for the African continent than for any other region on the planet. African nations have been among the first targets of the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have imposed on indebted countries across the South. African nations have also been subjected to systematic “disinvestment,” which has reduced them to their former colonial role as producers of raw materials and labor power for the international economy. These developments have torn African societies apart. The dismantling of local industries, the privatization of economic assets, and the defunding of the public sector have stripped Africans across the continent of their most basic means of subsistence, leading to an unprecedented increase in unemployment, poverty, migration, and social conflict. The situation has also profoundly altered the schooling process. In the aftermath of adjustment and economic disinvestment, there has been an attempt to replace the educational and professionalization systems that had been constructed in postindependence Africa with a technocratic system of professional formation aimed at producing political and economic elites aligned with the interests of international capital and the goals of structural adjustment. This program so far has not succeeded, given the tremendous resistance to it from students and faculty across Africa. Nevertheless, it has already irreversibly transformed the “social contract” that had prevailed between the new generations of Africans and the state, in which education and professionalization played a crucial role. It has also made African societies more vulnerable to the “recolonization” drive at the core of globalization and the neoliberal agenda. Not least, it has undermined the production and distribution of knowledge in Africa, making it increasingly difficult for African intellectuals and professionals to carry on their work and participate in the global exchange of ideas. Thus much is at stake in a discussion of the present state of professionalization in Africa, and not for Africans alone. In recognition of this fact, our article concludes with a code of ethics that expresses our solidarity with our African colleagues and also pertains to our own struggle Silvia Federici and George Caffentzis Globalization and Professionalization in Africa

The death penalty and globalization in Nigeria, the United States, and Europe.

The most ominous social phenomena shaping the U.S. political economy in the 1980s and 1990s have undoubtedly been: (1) the mass incarceration of young proletarian men and women, mostly black and Hispanic, and (2) not only the return to the death penalty (after the moratorium of the 1972-1976 period) but the constant escalation in the number of executions.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Oil, Islam & September 11: an essay addressed to the anti‐globalization movement

iii) Transnational companies and the States should respect the culture and traditions of the local peoples whose lands they exploit. 2. We demand that States should make conscious and sincere effort to implement the following international conventions concerning the rights of the local people: i) UN article (2) 1 concerning self-determination; ii) ILO convention 169 concerning indigenous and tribal people i.e. in independent countries; iii) Respect to UN 1977 declaration on the rights of indigenous local people; (iv) UN article 3 on human rights; (v) African Charter article 24 on Human and Peoples Rights; (vi) Article of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. 2(b) Compensation rates should be reviewed upwards taking into account life span of the natural resources, including economic trees damaged and life expectancy of beneficiary. 2c) There should be a moratorium on oil and other mining activities to determine the level of damage to local and indigenous communities and their natural environment, as well as ways of remediation. 2d) We demand transparency in all transactions involving the World Bank/ IMF and the States concerning all projects in local communities. 3(i) As a matter of urgency all African States should institute the necessary mechanism for the implementation of Agenda 21 of the UN Rio Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development. (ii) The participation of local communities should be guaranteed by the State in environmental protection and development processes that affects them. (iii) The State should ensure the restructuring of the judicial system to enable local communities to seek redress at the law courts. (iv) All African States should guarantee the protection of the rights of women and children against dehumanisation, discrimination and exploitation by transnational companies and state institutions. Strategies 1. There should be an alliance of oppressed local communities in Africa and elsewhere to address their concerns 2. There should be exchanges of information, materials and experiences of local populations colonised by transnational companies to enrich their struggle for emancipation 3. NGOs, CBOs and other interest groups should support the activities of local communities fighting for their environmental and human rights. 4. African States should organise national or regional conferences of minorities as part of the process for self-determination.

Locke, Berkeley and Hume as Philosophers of Money

For the last 30 years I have been writing a trilogy on Locke’s, Berkeley’s, and Hume’s philosophies of money. With the publication of Clipped Coins. Abused Words and Civil Government; John Locke’s Philosophy of Money and Exciting the Industry of Mankind; George Berkeley’s Philosophy of Money and with the last volume on Hume in preparation, the trilogy is now almost completed.