Patrick Bond on the Global Economic Crisis Articles on the world/African financial crisis, October 2008 Strauss-Kahn strikes again! (Counterpunch, October 29) Left learns lessons from financial follies (Financial Mail, October 24) Resisting free trade and global finance (Pambazuka News #403, October 23) Background to Volatile Global Capitalism: Political and Economic Aspects since the 1970s (Presented at the World Forum for Alternatives, Caracas, October 15) Global financial bubbles and capitalist crisis (Presented to the World Forum for Alternatives, October 13) Zimbabwe and the Bretton Woods Institutions (Presented at Georgetown University, October 10) Global capitalist crisis and African resistance: Analysis, evidence, practice (Presented at the International Forum on Globalization, San Francisco, October 8) The US financial meltdown, Part 1: What really happened (CCS Seminar paper, October 3) The US financial meltdown, Part 1: What really happened (CCS Seminar slideshow, October 3) Letters to Strauss-Kahn on global financial reform (23 November) (Now TWO letters have emerged for sign-on to the International Monetary Fund's leader, regarding next steps in the world financial crisis. Please choose. It's true that the second letter has more signatories - the first only has mine - but maybe that will change in coming hours.) LETTER 1) Please consider signing this letter which urges the IMF Managing Director, Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to boycott the Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development. Deadline is Monday November 24, by 3 pm US Eastern time. (Please send sign-on endorsement to pbond@mail.ngo.za) Background While initially scheduled to attend the Doha Financing for Development (FfD) Review in Doha, the IMF Managing Director Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn has hinted he is no longer planning to attend. This is most fortunate, especially given the extraordinary influence that had earlier been given to the IMF in the FfD drafting process, and the counterproductive nature of the FfD process to date. By withdrawing representation at the highest level, the gesture would send a political signal that seeks to distance the IMF from the UN process, as it enters into critical matters of reform of international finance and at a very critical juncture in the negotiations addressing such issues at this moment in New York. That distancing would give some hope that the new team at the UN - especially left and centre-left advisors to General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann (including Joseph Stiglitz, Jomo KS, Maude Barlow, Leonardo Boff, François Houtart, Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, Richard Falk and Howard Zinn) - can break through the inherited FfD nonsense and come up with a genuine alternative to the "Bretton Woods 2" elite project of financial system relegitimisation begun at the G20 meeting on November 14-15 in Washington. The letter: Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn Managing Director International Monetary Fund Dear Mr. Strauss-Kahn, We, the undersigned, are writing to urge you to boycott the Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development. On November 29, governments of the world will gather in Doha, Qatar, to reassert their 2002 Monterrey Consensus commitments to “eradicate poverty, achieve sustained economic growth and promote sustainable development as we advance to a fully inclusive and equitable global economic system,” and evaluate progress. We know that then, as now, these words are fakery. We know that in reality, globalisation and more rapid trade/investment/financial integration have generated worsening inequality, exclusivity and ecological degradation. We know that military expenditures have exploded, and that in the last two years, OECD aid payments to the South are dramatically lower - and we know such payments consist overwhelmingly of 'phantom aid' in any case. We know that the IMF has also spent the period since Monterrey squeezing debt payments out of wretched countries and imposing old-fashioned structural adjustment programmes, including on your very few new borrowers like Hungary (whose civil servants you recently denied a 13th cheque this year as part of loan conditionality). We know that most middle-income countries that could afford to, began rejecting your advice and repaying IMF loans early, leaving your institution in the red, forced to privatise 15% of your economists. The fact that only a few weeks ago your institution was called the "Turkish Monetary Fund" - in honour of your sole major borrower - meant that you are fortunate now, to potentially be rescued as a lender by the worst financial crisis since 1929. The Monterrey process was unique in that it represented a new and fresh type of fakery, one that sought to confuse and distract delegates from governments, global institutions with different economic responsibilities, such as the one you head, development responsibilities, civil society and the private sector. Its multi-stakeholder nature generated the banal, meaningless blather - with no accountability - that we inevitably encounter in global policy-making in a changed - and changing - world. After all, since the 1996 Montreal protocol banning ChloroFluoroCarbons, there has not been any substantial progress made in global governance venues on any of the major issues confronting the world, including militarism, trade, United Nations governance, Bretton Woods Institution reform, the climate crisis, nuclear non-proliferation, nonrenewable resources depletion, racism, gender discrimination, and so on. More importantly, in the collective agreement to build those bridges at the global level, Monterrey also paved the ground for talking left and walking right at the domestic levels of governments. In the South, finance ministers returned from the 2002 conference in Mexico full of self-important, inflated rhetoric, which (along with the temporary commodity boom from 2002-08) allowed them to confuse local constituencies into believing that taking more Washington Consensus medicine would lead to more generous financing terms. In the North, aid ministers could continue going to G8 conferences - especially Gleneagles in 2005 - making empty promises they knew from experience in Monterrey would not be taken seriously except by naive journalists and NGOs. The roles of the IMF and World Bank were relegitimised, in the immediate wake of a period of deep crisis, during the late 1990s Asian fiasco, when your institution was considered the most destructive economic force in the world, not counting US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers (now a renewed threat as chief economic advisor to US President-elect Barack Obama). In this sense, the Monterrey Consensus represented not a static, one-off event, but a dynamic one. It established an innovative process for dialogue: dynamic enough to allow for the adjustments that any learning process brings, but solid enough to ensure the continuity of a global partnership. Such a partnership continues to be premised upon coopting foolish Third World politicians and civilised society from international NGOs. Indeed, the global partnership between elites and aspirant elites is crucial to distracting more serious initiatives - mainly by a sometimes uncivil society - for progressive social change premised not on a ridiculous harmony model, but on recognition of a logical conflict between neoliberal/neoconservative rulers and capitalists on the one side, and the mass of the world's people and our environment on the other. By not attending the Doha FfD meeting, you will offer a chance to transcend the Monterrey partnership, so that a genuine alliance of left and centre-left forces can be built up, to battle the degradation associated with financial crisis and worsening austerity, that is now beginning to be felt around the world, especially if the Obama government attempts to revive neoliberal imperialism as might reasonably be anticipated by his senior appointments. Though unforeseen at that time, the Doha Review Conference will take place at a time when debunking the global governance myth is more crucial than ever. A global financial crisis, the largest anyone alive has seen, is threatening to undo globalisation's destructive march, but only if common-sense steps are taken to weaken the existing Bretton Woods Institutions and all that they represent. The Conference also takes place amidst global crisis in food, energy and climate. The Monterrey follow-up offers the best hope of generating confidence in national states' abilities to reverse their vulnerability to global finance. That will require harvesting the broad-based knowledge, ownership, and political support that a response to these exceptional times calls for, and drawing upon positive recent national experiences such as default on illegal/illegitimate debts (as did Argentina in 2002 and as Ecuador now intends), successful imposition of exchange controls (as did Malaysia in 1998 and Venezuela in 2003), and financial reregulation and bank nationalisation (as are so many countries doing now). Recognition that national governments must regain control over financial systems and in the process must delink their economies from the most destructive characteristics of global finance, is to recall what Keynes himself advised: "let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible, and, above all, let finance be primarily national" (Yale Review, 22, 4, 1933, p.769). But developing such insights within the notoriously repressive conference venue at Doha - where in 2001 the World Trade Organisation received a temporary new lease on life - can only work if the most dogmatic, reactionary partners leave the table. In spite of the name of the political party from which you hail, the French 'Socialist Party', you qualify. Your institution's advice (in an Article IV consultation) to South Africa on 22 October, for example, was to "persevere with steps to open the economy to greater international competition," just days after the most extreme outflows of finance in many months, at a time South Africa's current account deficit was so great that international agencies were lowering its credit rating. This is the kind of Old Washington perspective that should be missing from Doha, if a solid new global financial architecture, built on the existing powers of national states, is to be constructed. It is, therefore, with the utmost concern that we write to you to urge you to boycott the Doha Financing for Development Review. We understand you are seriously considering not to attend this conference, even though you had committed at a very early stage. We believe were you to go ahead with this threat, it would send the correct signal about the seriousness with which the IMF takes the challenges that we face, and how it perceives its role as a heretofore utterly destructive force against the international community of nations and organizations. Your boycott of Doha would certainly allow for new, more effective leadership in global financial crisis response efforts. Sign-on letter urging IMF Managing Director to boycott Doha FFD Review Name (country) Patrick Bond (South Africa)| LETTER 2) Please consider signing this letter which urges the IMF Managing Director, Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to attend the Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development. http://www.ifiwatchnet.org/campaigns/?q=en/node/245/signs Deadline is Monday November 24, by 3 pm US Eastern time. Background While initially scheduled to attend the Doha Financing for Development Review in Doha, the IMF Managing Director Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn has hinted he is no longer planning to attend. This is very unfortunate and difficult to explain, especially given the extraordinary influence that has been given to the IMF in the drafting process (in fact, the IMF is on record making suggestions on the same footing with member states, even though only member states are supposed to formally make drafting suggestions and even though its intervention, with such representation regime, means an unfair advantage for some large developed countries in the negotiation). By withdrawing representation at the highest level, the gesture would send a political signal that seeks to undermine the strength of the UN process as it enters into critical matters of reform of international finance and at a very critical juncture in the negotiations addressing such issues at this moment in New York. The letter: Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn Managing Director International Monetary Fund Dear Mr. Strauss-Kahn, We, the undersigned, are writing to urge you to attend the Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development. On November 29, governments of the world will gather in Doha, Qatar, to reassert their 2002 Monterrey Consensus commitments to “eradicate poverty, achieve sustained economic growth and promote sustainable development as we advance to a fully inclusive and equitable global economic system,” and evaluate progress. The Monterrey process was unique in that it represented a new and fresh type of multilateralism, one that sought to build bridges across governments, global institutions with different economic responsibilities, such as the one you head, development responsibilities, civil society and the private sector. Its multi-stakeholder nature generated the open, fresh approach needed for facing the challenges of global policy-making in a changed—and changing-- world. More importantly, in the collective agreement to build those bridges at the global level it also paved the ground for building those bridges at the domestic levels of governments. In this sense, the Monterrey Consensus represented not a static, one-off event, but a dynamic one. It established an innovative process for dialogue: dynamic enough to allow for the adjustments that any learning process brings, but solid enough to ensure the continuity of a global partnership. Though unforeseen at that time, the Doha Review Conference will take place at a time when those principles and commitments are more relevant than ever. A global financial crisis, the largest anyone alive has seen, is threatening to undo progress in poverty reduction and achievement of MDGs of several decades. The Conference also takes place amidst global crisis in food, energy and climate. The Monterrey follow-up offers the best hope of harvesting the broad-based knowledge, ownership, and political support that a response to these exceptional times call for. But it cannot work without all the partners at the table. It is, therefore, with the utmost concern that we write to you to urge you to attend the Doha Financing for Development Review. We understand you are seriously considering not to attend this conference, even though you had committed at a very early stage. We believe were you to delegate this responsibility, it would send the wrong signal about the seriousness with which the IMF takes the challenges that we face, and how it perceives its role as a partner in solidarity with the international community of nations and organizations. It would certainly undermine its claims to leadership in global financial crisis response efforts. Sign-on letter urging IMF Managing Director to attend Doha FFD Review Name (country) SAYOUTY El Hassan Savini lorenzo Sabine Mèdétadji (Benin) Jean-Pierre Dégué Social Watch Bénin Elsa Duhagon (Uruguay) David Obot (Uganda) Arjun Karki Abdulkadir Khalif Sh. Yusuf (Somalia) Verena Winkler Belgium Soeurs Unies à l'Oeuvre Thomasia Agbodjogbé Social Watch Bénin SEP Nouvelles Perspectives Afrique (Bénin) Sabine Mèdétadji Social Watch Roberto Bissio Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), Bangladesh M M Mahbub Hasan NURRU David Obot LDC Watch Arjun Karki Center of Concern Aldo Caliari VOICE/ Bangladesh Ahmed Swapan Somali Organisation for Community Development Acti EUROSTEP Belgium EEPA Belgium New Rules for Global Finance Coalition United Stat Soeurs Unies à l'Oeuvre Coastal Development Partnership (CDP) Network of Ugandan Researchers and Research Users Somali Organisation for Community Development Activ  Back

Events Index 2010  Trevor Ngwane at the African Participatory Democracy Conference, Johannesburg, 19‑20 August   Trevor Ngwane at Solidarity Peace Trust report on Zimbabwe, 30 July, Johannesburg   Wolpe Lecture: Social justice ideas in Civil society politics, global & local: A Colloquium of scholar activists, 29 July   Press Conference on Xenophobia, 28 July    Padraig Carmody Seminar: Chinese Geogovernance in Africa: Evidence from Zambia, 20 July    CCS and Gyeongsang University Institute for Social Science (Korea) joint seminar on political economy of social movements, 14 July   Giuliano Martiniello seminar on Inanda's socio-spatial change, 9 July   Pamela Ngwenya Seminar on Video as a tool for outreach, communication, advocacy and community expression, 8 July   Anti Xenophobia Rally City Hall 3 July   Renee Horne Seminar on Black Economic Empowerment, 2 July   Roithmayr, Adonis, Galvin, Bond, Khumalo CCS Colloquium on Water, Rights, Prices, 28 June (skypecast)    Blessing Karumbidza seminar on climate change and carbon trading controversies in Tanzania, 24 June   Trevor Ngwane and Rehana Dada at workshop on climate advocacy at the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, 22 June   Wolpe Lecture: Durban Social Forum members, 'World Cup for All!', Durban City Hall, 16 June   David J. Roberts Serminar: Re-branding Durban through the 2010 World Cup, 14 June    Patrick Bond (with Briggs Bomba and Dave Zirin) on the World Cup, Washington, 9 June   Patrick Bond on global justice movements, at Grantmakers without Borders conference, SF, 8 June   Patrick Bond presents on climate justice at conference, Alter-globalization movements and the alternative ideas of Korea, Seoul, 28 May   Patrick Bond on 'Poli Econ of the World Cup' in Seoul, 27 May   Patrick Bond lecture on National Health Insurance with Oxfam,26 May   Jessie Lazar Knott Identity/Spatial Relations: scholar‑activism in the greater Kei region of the Eastern Cape, 25 May   Patrick Bond at Osisa conference on climate and development in Africa, Pretoria, 21 May   Patrick Bond on energy policy and the World Bank, at Democracy and Development Programme, Durban, 20 May   Eunice N. Sahle Wolpe Lecture: World orders, Ike's Books, 5pm, 20 May    Barak Hoffman & Orlean Naidoo Seminar: Chatsworth politics and municipal advocacy, 17 May   Patrick Bond on SA climate policy on TEDxUKZN, 14 May   Khadija Sharife & Eunice Sahle Seminar: Oil, minerals and maldevelopment in Africa, 13 May    Patrick Bond speaks on climate debt to the Economic Justice Network, Johannesburg, 5 May   Erin McCandless & Shepherd Zvavanhu Seminar on Zimbabwe Civil Society, 3 May     Patrick Bond and Khadija Sharife address African tax authorities, 29 April 2010   Nathan Geffen (with Faith ka Manzi) Seminar: Debunking Delusions: The inside Story of The Treatment Action Campaign, 29 April    Alan Freeman & Radhika Desai Seminar on The world capitalist crisis, 23 April    Memorial Tribute to Professor Fatima Meer, 23 April   Molefi Mafereka Ndlovu facilitates Krogerup College and Durban Sings, 18‑20 April   Patrick Bond on carbon trading at Manchester conference on environment and finance, 15‑16 April   Patrick Bond in Boston v WB-Eskom loan, 9 April   Patrick Bond at Clark University, 8 April   World Bank protest, 7 April, Washington   Patrick Bond seminar on climate politics, City Univ of NY, 6 April   Patrick Bond at NYU on South African political economy, 5 April   Patrick Bond in SF Bay Area on World Bank loan to Eskom, 4 April   Trevor Ngwane at Marxism 2010 conference, Melbourne, 1-4 April   Patrick Bond on water commons, Syracuse University, 29-30 March   Trevor Ngwane seminar on activism and global campaigns, Univ of Helsinki, 26 March   CCS/VANSA KZN Panel discussion: 'What is Art and what is not?', March 25   Patrick Bond on 'Organising for Climate Justice', Left Forum, NYC, 21 March    Workers, Zama Hlatshwayo, Trevor Ngwane Seminar on UKZN labour outsourcing crisis 19 March   Carol Thompson seminar on resisting agro‑industry, 18 March   David Zirin Seminar on Fifa's Looting of SA, 13 March    Dennis Brutus memorial, 11 March   Trevor Ngwane CCS Seminar on SA's social protest wave, 9 March   Patrick Bond testifies to parliament on economic policy, 2 March   Molefi Ndlovu and Claudia Wegener seminar at the Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity, 2 March   CCS anti‑xenophobia research workshop, 27 February   Patrick Bond speaks on The ebb and flow of water rights, Univ of Cape Town Department of Public Law, 25 February    Patrick Bond at Power Indaba privatisation conference, 22 February   Press Conference: Keep our South African Coal in the Hole! 22 February 2010   CCS Economic Justice course, with Trevor Ngwane, Samson Zondi and Patrick Bond, from 20 Feb‑29 May   Climate Justice Now! SA‑KZN chapter hosted at CCS, 13 February   Hallowes, D'Sa, Ngwane, Bond , Dada: Seminar on proposed World Bank coal loan to Eskom, Friday, 12 February*   Durban renewable energy site visits by Minnesh Bipath, SA National Energy Research Institute with Muna Lakhani and Patrick Bond 10 February 2010   Susan Galleymore Seminar: A Dearth of Imagination Leads to Wasting Perfectly Good Waste, 5 February   Patrick Bond paper for Socialist Register workshop, 6 February   Durban Sings Follow-up and planning session with 8 Editorial Collectives, 4 February    Patrick Bond on climate change & Dennis Brutus Memorial at World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, 28 January   Rehana Dada & Patrick Bond Seminar: Copenhagen Climate and Eskom Energy Conflicts, 26 January   Dennis Brutus tribute, with Social Movements Indaba and Durban community groups, 23 January    Peter McKenzie & Doung Jahangeer Seminar: The Saharawi,Warwick Junction and Footsak Politics, 20 January   Patrick Bond debates NHI at Idasa, CT, 19 January   CCS cohosts Climate Justice Now! on electricity hearings strategy, 15 January   Events Index 2009   Patrick Bond at SF protest against Danish repression of civil society and Copenhagen climate 'deal', and radio interview, 18 December   Patrick Bond addresses climate seminar at Univ of Lund Business School, 15 December   Kristine Wasrud Participation and Influence in Water Policy in Durban, South Africa, 11 December    Climate Justice Film Festival, 10 December    Umesh de Silva Seminar: Traditional farming in Umzinyathi, 9 December   Oliver Meth at the CCS Workshop on women & child abuse Cato Crest Library, 8 December    Patrick Bond at Roskilde Univ Civil Society Centre, 7 December   Patrick Bond keynotes Leeds 'Democratisation in Africa' conference, 4 December   Sinegugu Zukulu & John Clarke Seminar: Resilience, Resolarisation and Relocalisation, 30 November    Patrick Bond speaks at Mandela Foundation about SA economic disasters, 26 November   Nick Smith Seminar Politics of protection/crime/policing, 26 November   Seminar on outsourced and contract workers at UKZN, 24 November   3rd Climate Justice Now! KZN meeting, 20 November   CCS and Durban Sings! at the Global Crisis and Africa: Struggles for Alternatives hosted by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation; Randburg, Johannesburg 19-21 November   MAKE SOME NOISE! Concert 6 November    Immanuel Wallerstein Wolpe Lecture: Crisis of the Capitalist System Where to from Here?, 5 November   Solidarity with Durban's oppressed: Bottom-up resistance strategies of shackdwellers, pollution victims and labour-brokered workers, 4 November   The Crises and the Commons: Durban debates on politics, economics and environment 4-7 November    Seminar on Problems faced by UKZN workers, Westville campus, 28 October   Faith Manzi & Oliver Meth at the Gender Based Violence Workshop, Durban 27 & 28 October   Bengt Brülde & Stellan Vinthagenand Seminar: Ethics, Resistance and Global Justice, 26 October    Baruti Amisi, Trevor Ngwane & Patrick Bond Anti-Xenophobia research project with Strategy&Tactics 19- 20 October   Durban Sings (Molefi Ndlovu & Claudia Wegener) at National Oral History Conference, 13-16 October   Tri-Continental Film Festival Durban community screenings – (hosted by Oliver Meth) at Inanda, Chatsworth, Wentworth, CBD, & Folweni, 1-12 October   Patrick Bond lectures at Suffolk Univ, Boston, 29 Sept-2 Oct   Dennis Brutus honored by War Resisters League, 18 September   Helen McCue Seminar: Grassroots Mobilising within Refugee Communities: Perspectives on Palestine and Australia, 18 September   Patrick Bond Booklaunch: Climate Change, Carbon Trading & Civil Society, 18 September   Patrick Bond skypecast on climate and ecological debt to Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, Copenhagen, 16 September   Oliver Meth People to People International Documentary Conference, 10-12 September    Dick Forslund & Patrick Bond Seminar: South Africa's capitalist crisis and civil society, 7 September   Dudu Khumalo on the Durban public transport crisis, 1 September    Patrick Bond National Health Insurance: Can SA afford it?, 24 August    John Berg Seminar: Barack Obama's presidency and civil society reactions, 24 August    Norman Finkelstein Wolpe Lecture: Resolving the Israel-Palestine Conflict: What we can learn from Gandhi, 20 August    Seminar with outsourced workers at UKZN, 12 August    Patrick Bond debates Sampie Terreblanche (Stellenbosch), 6 August, UCT   Dr Essop Pahad Thinking about the Legacy of Mbeki's Politics, 4 August   Patrick Bond addresses Ecuador eco-finance conference (videolink), 4 August   Patrick Bond at the South African Civil Society Energy Caucus Meeting, 29-30 July     Barak Hoffman Seminar: Democracy and Civil Society Research in Ghana and SA, 27 July   CCS hosts free screenings of Durban International Film Festival, 25 July - 1 August    Sean Flynn & Maj Fiil Seminar on water rights, ( SKYPECAST ) 24 July   Patrick Bond lecture at carbon trading conference, Johannesburg, 22 July   Sein Win Seminar by Burmese prime minister (exiled) on solidarity (SKYPECAST), 21 July   Tunde Adegbola A Pan-African Harold Wolpe Lecture & cultural events, 16 July   Patrick Bond lecture on SA Political Economy, San Francisco socialist conference, 4 July    Orlean Naidoo on participation at DDP seminar, 30 June   Patrick Bond speaks on 'World Slump: Financial Crisis and Emerging Class Struggles in the Global South', 28 June, Toronto   Patrick Bond on African social resistance to economic crisis, 26 June, Moscow   Oliver Meth and Orlean Naidoo facilitate Diakonia Council of Churches Democracy Course, 24 -26 June   Alex Callinicos Wolpe Lecture: Economic crisis and prospects for social revolution, 18 June    Blair Rutherford Seminar: Zimbabwe farm labour, social justice and citizenship, 17 June   Trevor Ngwane Seminar: Community resistance to energy privatisation and ecological degradation, 11 June   DURBAN SINGS central editorial workshops, 8 & 22 June   Gaby Bikombo, Judy Mulqueeny, Harry Ramlal, Caroline Skinner Seminar: War of Warwick Junction, 9 June   Patrick Bond, Abedian, Dumisa, Maharaj et al on 'Zumanomics', UKZN Biz School, 3 June   Rehana Dada keynote address to Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute AGM, 2 June   Patrick Bond on African underdevelopment at Sussex IDS conference (via skypecast), 1 June   Trevor Ngwane presents at the International Conference on Ideas and Strategies in the Alterglobalisation Movement, Seoul, 29 May   Peter McKenzie cultural seminar on 'Footsak: On the Ball for 2010', 28 May   Björn Surborg Seminar: Contesting Johannesburg's extractive industries, 25 May    Paul Verryn, Methodist Bishop of Johannesburg: Wolpe Lecture: Poverty and xenophobia, 21 May   Robert Jensen, Univ of Texas: Seminar: Whiteness and social change in the US, 21 May   Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute: Seminar: The state of the world water wars, 15 May   Patrick Bond debates 'The G20 Global Deal' at Wits/Osisa, Johannesburg, 12 May   Molefi Ndlovu, Seminar: Azania Rising: The demise of the 1652 class project, 13 May   Rehana Dada, Seminar: Climate mitigation case studies, 11 May   CCS/DYFS - Anti-xenophobia film screening facilitators workshop, 9 May   Orlean Naidoo, Seminar: Chatsworth upgrading struggles and victories, 8 May   Patrick Bond, Joburg Wolpe Lecture at Wits Univ, 7 May   Patrick Bond at Cosatu electricity workshop, Joburg, 6 May   Joan Canela and Helena Olcina Seminar: Social movements in Bolivia and Catalan, 5 May   William Gumede Wolpe Lecture: SA’s “Democracy Gap”, 30 April    Three representatives of the Tamil liberation movement youth Seminar: The Tamil people under seige, 21 April    Leading eco-social spokespersons from political parties and civil society Seminar: Environmental confrontations - Political parties meet civil society, POSTPONED   Rehana Dada at York Univ climate ecojustice conference, Toronto, 16-17 April   Dennis Brutus celebrations, honorary doctorates conferred at both Rhodes Univ and Mandela Univ, 16-17 April   John Minto Seminar: The Legacy of Anti-apartheid Sports Boycotts, 16 April   Nelson Muhirwa & Jean Chrisostome Kanamugire Seminar: The Rwandan Genocide 15 Years On, 8 April   Oliver Meth Seminar: Wentworth Crime, Gangs and Civil Society, 7 April    Dennis Brutus on Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Apartheid SA, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg, 2-3 April   Ida Susser booklaunch, 'AIDS, Sex and Culture', with Quarraisha Abdool Karim, at Ike's Books, 2 April   Sofie Hellberg Seminar: Governing lives through hydropolitics in eThekwini , 1 April 2009   Claudia Wegener & Molefi Mafereka Ndlovu Digital Soiree Durban Sings Internet Radio project, 24 March    Simone Claar Seminar: Post-Apartheid Political Economy and State Policy, 19 March   Oliver Meth presents at the HSRC Violent Crime and Democratization in the Global South Conference, 18-20 March   Simphiwe Nojiyeza Seminar: African Development Bank water projects, 12 March   Deniz Kellecioglu Seminar: Zimbabwe Civil Society confronts Mugabe's Economy, 11 March    Patrick Bond debates ANC economic policy, 9 March, Durban   Kalinca Copello Seminar: ICTs and social movements: From Chiapas to Brazil to South Africa, 6 March   Lisa Ramsay & Schwarzanne Leafe Seminar & Film: Climate Change and Eco-Social Resistance in South Durban, 27 February   Patrick Bond presents to ActionAid/Nepad conference on global financial crisis, 24 February, Midrand   Molefi Ndlovu Johannesburg: Market Photo Workshop, 22-28 February    Orlean Naidoo & Patrick Bond seminar on Free Basic Water, and screening of Flow, 18 February   Ida Susser Seminar: AIDS, Sex, Culture and Civil Society, 11 February   Dennis Brutus and Moya Atkinson film/seminar on US anti-war movement, 9 February   Patrick Bond seminar on the ongoing global financial crisis, University of Johannesburg, 6 February   Durban Sings internet audio and community radio with Molefi Ndlovu and Claudia Wegener, 2-6 February   Patrick Bond in dialogue with Jeremy Cronin on financial crisis, Johannesburg, 28 January   Dennis Brutus, Lubna Nadvi, Monica Rorvik and Salim Vally Seminar: Should Israel be boycotted? If so, how?, 27 January   Giyani Dube, Lubna Nadvi, Kate Griffiths and Timothy Rukombo Wolpe Lecture: Civil Society Internationalism - from Lindela to Gaza to Washington, 22 January   Pamela Ngwenya, Molefi Ndlovu, Claudia Wegener Seminar: Participatory community audio/video as a tool for social research, 21 January    Dale McKinley, Orlean Naidoo, Dudu Khumalo, Bryan Ashe Seminar on the World Water Forum, 19 January   Mavuso Dingani film/seminar on the Zimbabwean exile in Durban, 6 January