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Making a Profit Out of The Food Crisis: From A Brave New World Bank to Monsanto

Anti-Hunger Protest in Haiti
In early June, the battle over the world's food supply moved to Rome where the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held an international summit to discuss rising food prices, climate change and biofuels cultivation. There was much coverage of the summit in the world's media, often focusing on the high profile appearance of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe or the Iranian president Mahmud Ahmedinejad, yet few commentators looked into the rotten heart of the exercise.

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Eyes on the Prize: Mark Engler’s ‘How to Rule the World’

You couldn't say that the global justice movement has melted away. But then, you couldn't say that it remains a vital force in shaping the concerns of media outlets, international financial moguls, world leaders or even the pulpits of anarchist rabble rousers. The war in Iraq, climate change and peak oil - all class A concerns for humanity to be sure - have tended to eclipse the critique of "neo-liberal globalization" at the top of the public activist agenda, making the mass mobilization of protesters in Seattle, to name only the movement's iconic congregation, a distant memory.

Photo by Giuseppe Bizzarri

Profit Over Food: The Root Causes of the Global Food Crisis

Food Aid Arrives in Haiti
The story of rising food prices around the world, and the hunger and unrest it is producing, has been widely reported in the mainstream media. Yet rarely is there any serious analysis to find the cause of the crisis. At best it's assumed, based on past experience, that the cause is temporary, the crisis can be eased by increasing food aid and by taking steps to restore production. However, the causes of the present crisis are not temporary.

Photo from Space4Peace.org

The Final Frontier: Washington Prepares for Arms Race in Space

This past fall humanity celebrated the golden anniversary of the Space Age, as measured by the launch into orbit by the Soviet Union of the first Earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik I, on October 1 1957. Today that stunning technical achievement has become routine. More than 4,500 satellites have been launched into orbit and more than 850 of them still operate. Private companies now launch satellites, as do a large numbers of countries. Less well known is the attempt to put weapons in space.

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Fighting Free Trade: New Publication Launched

Bilaterals.org, GRAIN and BIOTHAI are today launching a collaborative publication, "Fighting FTAs: The growing resistance to bilateral free trade and investment agreements". While global trade talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stagnate, governments and corporations are busy spinning a complex web of bilateral free trade and investment agreements (FTAs). "Fighting FTAs" looks at what this FTA frenzy is really about, how social movements are fighting back and strategic learning is emerging from these struggles.

Photo from Baltimore.Indymedia.org

Year in Review: Progressive Good Tidings of 2007

Understanding what is wrong in our society; speaking out against injustice; denouncing abuses by the powerful. All of these are crucial tasks. Many of us devote a large part of the year to them, and they are certainly necessary if we are to create a better world. At the same time, it is highly doubtful that these acts are sufficient. Creating positive social change takes more. It takes the knowledge that people can organize to win justice and an awareness that, even in inhospitable times, some things can go right. The holiday season provides an important moment to reflect on a few of those advances that offered hope in 2007-many of which came about just in the past few weeks.