State of Power 2015 - TNI

[Oscar]

Transnational Institute (TNI) - State of Power 2015

A worldwide fellowship of scholar activists

[ http://www.tni.org/category/series/state-power-2015 ]


World Economic Forum: a history and analysis
[ http://www.tni.org/article/world-econom ... d-analysis ]
Andrew Gavin Marshall January 2015
The annual gathering in Davos has certainly cemented the power of a tiny global elite, but its real power has been as a spawning ground for neoliberalism's major advances - the rise of the financial sector, the spread of corporate trade agreements and the integration of emerging economic powers into the global economy.
http://www.tni.org/article/world-econom ... d-analysis


How Economics bolstered Power by obscuring it
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/how-economi ... scuring-it ]
Michael Perelman January 2015
Economists consistently have upheld the power of elites, at times by taking their side overtly, but most often by ignoring or obscuring power, giving economics a veneer of science, in which the impact on people and the environment is hidden from public view. http://www.tni.org/briefing/how-economi ... scuring-it


Organising workers’ Counter-power in Italy and Greece
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/organising- ... and-greece ]
Lorenzo Zamponi and Markos Vogiatzoglou January 2015
Austerity in Greece and Italy has struck workers' particularly hard, but it has also been the context for radical innovations in ’organising the unorganised’, building new kinds of work spaces and even taking control of production.
http://www.tni.org/briefing/organising- ... and-greece


Contesting Big Mining from Canada to Mozambique
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/contesting- ... mozambique ]
Judith Marshall January 2015
How have mining transnational companies and the extractive industry become so powerful in every country, no matter the political shade. Marshall shows how the ‘promiscuously intimate’
relationship between governments and companies developed and how we might resist.
http://www.tni.org/briefing/contesting- ... mozambique


Mexico: Challenging Drug Prohibition from Below
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/mexico-chal ... tion-below ]
Sebastian Scholl January 2015
The horrific forced disappearance of 43 students in Iguala reveals how organised crime and corruption thrive in conditions of institutional or democratic weakness, shaped to a large extent by distinctive transnational relations (importantly, in this case, with the US). Fortunately groups like the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity are showing a burgeoning ‘social power‘ that has the potential to change politics and policy.
http://www.tni.org/briefing/mexico-chal ... tion-below


Gambling on Hunger and Climate Change
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/gambling-hu ... ate-change ]
Sasha Breger Bush January 2015
Financial speculation has not just rewarded bankers; it has played a major role in fuelling hunger, land dispossession and climate change. Yet the financial sector innovates false financial ‘solutions’ to the very problems it creates.
http://www.tni.org/briefing/gambling-hu ... ate-change


The True Stakes of Internet Governance
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/true-stakes ... governance ]
Richard Hill January 2015
Many people understand how the Internet has revolutionised society, but have we really grasped the power implications? Richard Hill shows how US policy-makers have used the ad hoc ‘multi-stakeholder’ governance of the Internet for political and economic ends.
http://www.tni.org/briefing/true-stakes ... governance


Political Capture by the Financial Industry
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/political-c ... l-industry ]
Manolis Kalaitzake January 2015
How did the financial sector succeed escaping censure and even effective regulation despite the global economic crisis? Through the case study of the proposed Financial Transaction Tax, Kalaitzake looks at how the financial sector succeeded in capturing policy and politicians and how we might challenge their power.
http://www.tni.org/briefing/political-c ... l-industry


The new Global Corporate Law
[ http://www.tni.org/briefing/new-global-corporate-law ]
Juan Hernández Zubizarreta January 2015
How transnational corporations have succeeded in replacing rule of law with Global Corporate law, using a multitude of norms, treaties and agreements - most recently the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership - to secure their rights to profit above human rights.
http://www.tni.org/briefing/new-global-corporate-law

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Recommended essays

We also have essays on how law has been constructed to bolster austerity in Europe, why corporate social responsibility has failed, the role of colonialism in constructing today's power relations, why commonly-understood peace is really the violent ordering of power relations, how power and corruption are related, how corporate funding of elections removes political choice, the tactics used by mining companies to undermine resistance, how US tax policy undermined financial regulation, how universities are being increasingly corporatised, the challenges and opportunities of movement-based politics, the lessons from food sovereignty movements, the significance of the World Social Forum, the state of social movements in Asia, how to weave resistance against ecological crisis, as well as the dangers of fetishising small-scale resistance but ultimately why resistance is more prevalent than we realise and definitely not futile.

Davos week

As the world's elites gathered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, we teamed up with Occupy.com and one of their analysts Andrew Gavin Marshall who did a great potted history and analysis of WEF and its significance in underpinning neoliberalism's main advances in recent decades.

We finished the week with an essay by York University professor Markus Giesler who notes the failure of the media to cover his eight year ethnographic and institutional study on the World Economic Forum that provides empirical evidence that Davos is not "improving the state of the world."

And as if that is not enough, you can also find our previous state of Power reports here: State of Power series

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Infographics
Who are the Davos Class


Architecture of Impunity


The Transnational Institute carries out cutting-edge analysis on critical global issues, builds alliances with grassroots social movements, develops proposals for a more sustainable and just world.
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Info from TNI E-mail

"The wonderful activist intellectual hotspot Transnational Institute published a new State of Power report" -- Teivo Teivainen, Professor of World Politics, Helsinki University

"Excellent analysis... and a must read" -- Democracy Center, Bolivia [Shows you] "where the real power lies" Yousseff El Gingihy

"Thanks for a great rogue's gallery!" --- Seumas Milne, Guardian


For our fourth edition of the popular annual State of Power report, TNI decided to open up the call for analysis on the nature of globalised power today to everyone. We were not disappointed: we received so many great essays that it was difficult to slim it down to the top eight featured in the final book. So we decided to publish the others as recommended essays.

We also dug deep this year into the nature of the 'Davos class' with a highly popular infographic that was cited in the Guardian and shone a spotlight on Chevron, the winner of the Public Eye Lifetime Award for corporate irresponsibility, and how it fits into an architecture of impunity.

You can download the complete State of Power report as an ebook for only 3 Euros and help support TNI at the same time (Kindle or as an Epub). If you don't have an ereader or resources, you can still view the whole book and individual chapters as PDFs for free.