Features

Debt is used to break nations. But resistance is fertile – and the North could learn a few lessons from the South, argues Nick Dearden.

The austerity prescription fattens the creditors and punishes the innocent. Susan George laments a leadership subservient to the desires of finance.

At any given time countries both owe debts and have them owing to them. Who owes what and what's the bigger crisis – foreign or domestic debt.

Vulture funds buy up ‘bad’ debt owed by countries in distress and aggressively sue for full payment, plus compound interest.

The standard response to the current financial crisis has been to punish the presumed debtors. Are the creditors blameless, then? asks Dinyar Godrej.

Gigantic palm oil plantations across Indonesia and Malaysia are having a devastating impact on local farms and workers, too. Ollie Milman reports from Sumatra.

Indigenous Argentineans, disrespected and ignored for too long, are forging new alliances in their quest to safeguard the natural world.

Today Argentina leads the world in recognizing the rights of transgender people. But it hasn't always been that way, writes Vanessa Baird.

Argentina has come a long way in dealing with its past. But what of the present? Vanessa Baird takes a look at the state of human rights.

Argentina is not in the habit of being cowed by international pressure and financial big-hitters – or by proponents of austerity. Vanessa Baird reports.

The government wants to fund popular co-ops that are meeting urgent social needs. What could be wrong with that? Vanessa Baird meets the people behind them.

Vanessa Baird reports on how Argentinean workers took over failing and bankrupt enterprises – and have kept them going.

Argentina’s ups and downs since 1946.

Stormy time ahead in the world’s largest country. Are there lessons to be learned? asks Vanessa Baird.

David Fedele relates a true and uncomfortable tale of a tardy Good Samaritan.

Can smallholders be more productive than agribusiness? It looks that way in Zimbabwe, which has broken up its big farms, and where growers have nearly matched production of their white predecessors, in fewer than ten years. Joseph Hanlon reports.

Some of the world’s biggest and most controversial land deals.

The land rush started back in 2008. It has not gone unnoticed – or unchallenged.

Forestry companies want to carve up Mozambique’s northern highlands. Peasant farmers and their allies are working to hold them accountable. Hazel Healy investigates.

With proceeds from hydrocarbons set to roll in, Mozambique has a unique opportunity to reverse the fortunes of its smallholders. Land activist Diamantino Nhampossa makes the case.