Building a new internationalism

A note from the editor

Yohann Koshy

Something bigger

An HSBC advert recently caught my eye on the London Underground. ‘We are not an island,’ the billboard read. ‘We are a Colombian coffee-drinking, American movie-watching, Swedish flat-pack assembling, Korean tablet-tapping… wonderful little lump of land in the middle of the sea. We are part of something far, far bigger.’

I groaned.

Naturally, this insipid pitch by a transnational bank, trying – in the Brexit era – to position itself as enlightened, failed to mention its own border-crossing record of laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and helping Swiss clients evade tax. But it still begs the question: has internationalism been so drained of meaning that it refers to nothing more than a diverse credit card history?

In this Big Story, we return to a different way of relating to ‘something far, far bigger’ than the nation-state: Third World solidarity, a radical tradition that sought to upend the order of things. It was a time when newly independent nations tried to prise open the rich world’s grip on power, deploying tactics from armed struggle to multilateral diplomacy at the United Nations. We hold up this emancipatory model of internationalism in the light of today – when there is no longer such a neat divide between colonizer and colonized, rich world and poor world – to see what can be salvaged to build an internationalism fit for the 21st century.

Elsewhere, the Cartoon History tells the story of the incorruptible Macli-ing Dulag, a Filipino villager who resisted a World Bank-funded dam project, and Margaret Busby introduces a lambent collection of writing by African women.

Yohann Koshy for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

Place markers ahead of the Bandung Conference, 1955. Photo: Howard Sochurek / Getty

Place markers ahead of the Bandung Conference, 1955.

Photo: Howard Sochurek / Getty

Worlds apart

Yohann Koshy returns to the golden age of solidarity between Global South states and asks: what should a new internationalism look like?

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The Big Story

Internationalism timeline

Internationalism timeline

A timeline of modern internationalism from 1810 to 2018.

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How to be an internationalist

How to be an internationalist

Eight ways to live out your principles, suggests Yohann Koshy.

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¿Hasta siempre?

As news comes of the withdrawal of 11,000 Cuban doctors from Bolsonaro’s Brazil, Sujatha Fernandes asks how viable the Cuban model of global solidarity is in the 21st century.

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Jeremy Corbyn addresses an anti-Donald Trump demonstration in London, July 2018.Photo: Niklas Hallen / AFP / Getty

Corbyn vs the nation

The prospect of a British government headed up by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – a veteran internationalist – should be a source of hope. But how would his government break from the past when the global economy is hardwired to extract profit from the Global South? Barnaby Raine proposes four ideas to help square the circle.

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Uber drivers of the world, unite!

Internationalists should pay attention to the way modern capitalism is increasingly dependent on transnational supply chains and migrant workers. Notes from Below explain why.

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The far-right international

It is not only the Left that makes use of internationalism. From fascists in the street to heads of state, the Right is showing a willingness and enthusiasm to co-ordinate across borders. Simon Childs finds out more.

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Thomas Sankara in Moscow, 1986. Two years before in his speech to the United Nations, Sankara said that he spoke ‘not only on behalf of Burkina Faso but of all those who suffer’.Photo: TASS / Getty

When the stars began to shine

In 1984, President of Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara addressed the United Nations General Assembly. Sankara was perhaps the last ‘Third World’ politician, a revolutionary Marxist who felt a ‘special solidarity uniting the three continents of Asia, Latin America and Africa’.

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All drinking from the same pool.Illustration: Peter Reynolds

For the greater good

A radical proposal to redefine and extend service provision to all those in need without breaking the bank has the potential to spark something truly transformative. Nick Dowson takes a closer look.

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Rescued but fearful: these are images of sub-Saharan women brought ashore from the Alboran Sea to the port of Motril near Granada by maritime rescue teams. Whether draped in red blankets or clinging fast to a railing after their time on the waves, uncertainty is written on every face.Photo: CARLOS GILL / SOPA IMAGES / GETTY

For women seeking refuge in Spain, a trail of peril awaits

The stories of women migrants making the desperate Mediterranean crossing to Europe are different from those of the men, marked by a higher level of exploitation and abuse. Lucia Benavides reports from Spain.

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Enter: the new daughters of Africa

With the release of New Daughters of Africa, editor Margaret Busby explains why the collection – 25 years after Daughters of Africa was published – could not have come at a better time and introduces three stories from the anthology.

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Opinion

View from Africa: Like red on rice

View from Africa: Like red on rice

Nanjala Nyabola comments on the fluctuating, and often unaffordable, cost of local staples in Madagascar.

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View from India: Will cows and temples still deliver a mandate for Modi?

View from India: Will cows and temples still deliver a mandate for Modi?

Nilanjana Bhowmick weighs up Modi's chances in the coming elections in India.

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View from America: The new climate moment

View from America: The new climate moment

Mark Engler on the US's Green New Deal. What does it mean for for America, and beyond?

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Currents

Tolossa Asrat, editor of Kanere, poses with a local Turkana girl in Kakuma refugee camp, northwest Kenya.Photo: Sally Hayden

Kenya: refugee reporters

Sally Hayden reports on a fully independent, refugee-run news outlet in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya

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Belize: whose land?

New developments in the Belizean–Guatemalan territorial dispute.

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Turkey: wolf at the door

Turkey: wolf at the door

The Kurdish MP has been on hunger strike since November.

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Senegal: if you build it…

Senegal: if you build it…

The Museum of Black Civilizations has opened in Dakar yet many of its galleries remain empty.

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Coalminers in treacherous ‘rat-hole’ mines work without safety equipment or rescue protocols in northeast India.Photo: Tashi Tobgyal / Indian Express Archive

India: into the darkness

Coalminers in treacherous ‘rat-hole’ mines work without safety equipment or rescue protocols in northeast India.

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Maria Augusta, 85, lives in fear of eviction since her building was sold to a company planning to invest in short-term rentals.Photo: Marta Vidal

Portugal: tourists, tourists everywhere

Marta Vidal talks to Maria Augusta, 85, who lives in fear of eviction since her building was sold to a company planning to invest in short-term rentals.

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Israel: musical chairs

Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party still leads the polls despite the ongoing investigation into corruption allegations against him.

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Reasons to be cheerful

R Kelly finally dropped; waking up for sleep sickness sufferers; free to love in Angola.

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Regulars

Letters

Letters

Praise, blame and all points in between? Give us your feedback.

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Illustration: Sarah John

Dhaka's bachelors of Bashundhara

Parsa Sanjana Sajid shines a light on the stigma faced by single men looking for housing.

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Borderlines

Borderlines

A look at a study that shows how photos of migrants can influence the political behaviour of those who view them.

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Seriously?

The world now has child influencers.

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Inequality Watch

Jeff Bezos’ fortune vs Ethiopia’s health budget

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Illustration: Schlorian

Open Window

Green resistance by Schlorian (Switzerland)

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Illustration: Saman Sarheng

What if...

...we scrapped the gender binary on official documents? Vanessa Baird suggests a world beyond M or F.

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Photo: Elvis Barukcic / AFP / Getty

Hall of infamy: Milorad Dodik

Bosnian Co-President from Republika Srpska.

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Photos, clockwise from top right: Soldiers of the Syrian Democratic Forces opposed to the Assad regime bury a comrade killed in the battle for Raqqa in September 2017; citizens of the capital, Damascus, buying food at the start of Ramadan in May 2018; and a portrait of seven-year-old Lubna, who was born in Syria but is part of the enforced exodus and now lives in a refugee camp in neighbouring Jordan.Photos: Ivor Prickett / Panos; Ammar Safarjalani / Xinhua/ Alamy; Chris De Bode / Save the Children / Panos

Country Profile: Syria

Though the conflict in Syria is often described as a civil war, most of the forces at play are exogenous. Zoe Holman writes.

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Illustration: ILYA

Cartoon History: The Incorruptible Macli-ing Dulag

The story of Filipino elder Macli-ing Dulag, who led the struggle against the Chico Dam, as told by ILYA (with Yohann Koshy).

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Illustrations: Kate Copeland

Is vegan activism too confrontational?

Is challenging members of the public with the reality of animal suffering and slaughter counterproductive? Vegans Chris Saltmarsh and Hannah Short agree to disagree.

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Photo: Justin Tallis / AFP / Getty

Are oil companies losing their social license?

As opposition to fossil-fuel sponsorship grows, arts institutions funded by big oil are looking increasingly out of touch. Danny Chivers reports.

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Photo: Luisa Dörr

Southern exposure: Luisa Dörr

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

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The interview: Slavoj Žižek

The Slovenian philosopher, sociologist and cultural critic speaks to Graeme Green about losing control, Twitter, Trump and a new approach.

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Agony Uncle

Agony Uncle

Age, circumstance, exploitative behaviour?

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Film, Book & Music Reviews

Mixed media: Books

Mixed media: Books

Woman of the Ashes; Death Register; The New Faces of Fascism; The Long Honduran Night.

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Mixed media: Music

Mixed media: Music

Songs of Our Native Daughters; Doko Mien.

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Spotlight: Euzhan Palcy

Spotlight: Euzhan Palcy

The first Black woman director of a Hollywood movie.

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