Radical transformations in Africa today: interventions from the left
An opportunity for activists and scholars to contribute to a series of three linked workshops in Africa. Each two-day meeting will debate current challenges and prospects for Left analysis and action. We are seeking both key speakers and offers of papers, with a plan to publish a selection in the Review of African Political Economy.
Schedule
November 2017 in Accra, Ghana; April 2018 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; June 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa; September 2018 at the African Studies Association in the UK.
The workshops will link analysis and activism in contemporary Africa from the perspective of radical political economy, and will be organised around three linked themes:
(1) Africa in a ‘post-crisis’ world.
(2) Economic strategy, industrialisation and the agrarian question.
(3) Resistance and social movements in Africa.The first day of each workshop will explore this common agenda, ensuring continuity and connectivity with the previous meeting. The second day will relate general themes to local circumstances and conditions. The workshops will bring together key speakers from Africa and elsewhere, combined with a call for local contributions and interventions.
Within the overall themes we encourage contributions which challenge orthodox thinking and might address the following questions:
. Is a new politics emerging from sites of contestation in Africa?
. What potential exists for revolutionary activity in Africa and international solidarity in the 21st century following the current crises in capitalism?
. What part do organised workers and peasants play in popular resistance in Africa?
. To what extent do political, social and economic issues drive resistance to
neoliberalism?
. What lessons might be drawn from revolutionary historical transitions, including the Russian revolution, and the demise of colonialism in Africa?
. How do we understand processes of state formation in Africa following liberation movements, with the frequent betrayals of revolutionary promise?
. What is the impact of limited industrialisation and the scramble for African resources on both urban and rural populations and the potential for organising resistance?. Do economic crisis, land alienation, unemployment and migration undermine local resistance?
. To what extent are struggles over globalising capitalism also gender struggles?
. What alternatives to (neoliberal) capitalist social and economic transformation are being debated in Africa?If you would like to take part in these debates, either as a key speaker, paper giver or participant, please contact: Ray Bush at [email protected]. Deadlines for abstracts:
. Accra meeting – June 2017
. Dar es Salaam – November 2017
. Johannesburg – January 2018.