27 Apr. 2015

Bello on the BRICS

One of the Left’s Foremost Intellectuals Discusses the Rise of China and the Future of Global Power.

The global balance of power is shifting. There is much debate as to whether the rising BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—are capable of challenging the West’s dominance. At the same time, there is very little question that at least one of these countries–China–has established itself as a new great power. What does China’s rise mean for its neighbors and for the global balance of power? Are the BRICS the latest salvo in the Global South’s long battle for political and economic power (as Vijay Prashad has argued in this RLS–NYC study), or are they “sub-imperial” sheriffs, enforcing the status quo in their respective regions? Join us for an evening with veteran Filipino campaigner and intellectual Walden Bello to consider whether China and the BRICS can offer an alternative to neoliberal globalization or just more business-as-usual.


Walden Bello is an author, academic, and activist. He also was a member of the Congress of the Philippines until he resigned in protest last month. Bello is a leading critic of corporate globalization and a promoter of alternative models of development. Bello was a major figure in the struggle to restore democracy in the Philippines, and he has advocated consistently for demilitarization and denuclearization. The author of 14 books and countless articles, he is a professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines. In 2003, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award–known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Monday, April 27, 6pm
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office
275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114 (entrance over 40th St.)
New York, NY 10016
Free and open to the public.


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