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Global University for Sustainability

Communique of Founding Members Community

No.39 (20240505)

 

Summer is here (photo by Dai Jinhua)

 

 

Today is “Beginning of Summer”, according to the 24 solar terms. Hopefully the summer will not be a scorching one, and the genocide in Gaza will be stopped.

 

 

The 11^th South South Forum on Sustainability (SSFS11)

 

The 11th South-South Forum on Sustainability: Health and the Road to Sustainability, will be held on June 30 to July 5, 2024. The organizers are the Chinese Institute of Hong Kong, CCRD-CS of Lingnan University, School of Chinese Medicine of Baptist University, and Global University for Sustainability, together with 12 co-organizers. It will adopt a hybrid mode: onsite and online. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided: English and Putonghua for all sessions, and Spanish and Portuguese for some sessions.

 

Instead of 35 consecutive sessions every day during SSFS10, this year’s SSFS11 main forum will fall on three full days on July 2-4, Hong Kong time 10.00-23.30 (GMT 02.00-15.30). Speakers will speak for 20-60 minutes, and ample time will be allocated for questions and answers and exchanges.

 

Theme One: Cultural Traditions, Physical and Mental Health, and Sustainability

Focus：

1. Modern Healthcare and Traditional Medicine
2. The Role of Traditional Chinese Medicine during the COVID-19 Pandemic
3. Legacies and Challenges of Traditional Medicine in the Global South

Theme Two: Health and Sustainability

Focus:

1. Exploring North-South versus South-South Frameworks

2. Rethinking “Development” and “Peace”

3. Expanding the Boundaries of Discourse on Health

4. Health and Cultural Sustainability

Theme Three: Health and Community Sustainability

Focus:

1. Health and Community Sustainability
2. Ecological Civilization and Small Peasantry Livelihoods
3. Food Security and Rural Reconstruction

The draft programme will be sent soon. Please mark your diary to attend online.

 

WSF 2024 Nepal

World Social Forum 2024 was successfully held in Kathmandu, Nepal on February 15-19, 2024. This is the second time the World Social Forum was held in Asia. https://www.wsf2024nepal.org/ 

 

 

Global U joined the Solidarity March at the Opening Ceremony on 15 February 2024.

 

Professor Wen Tiejun, founding member of the Global University for Sustainability, was one of the speakers at the WSF Opening Ceremony.

https://wsf2024nepal.org/speaker/wen-tiejun

 

Professor Wen made some comments on the WSF (in Chinese):

Wen Tiejun: Growing in the Face of Adversity, 2024-02-27

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV19v421r7ER/?  (73,000 viewers)

 

 

Global University for Sustainability organized and co-organized some sessions. Please visit: https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/2024-world-social-forum/.

The videos have been uploaded to https://our-global-u.org/oguorg/en/wsf2024-video-recordings/

 

Feb 15: Gathering of Global U Community

This was an invaluable opportunity for Global U members and friends to physically meet each other after the COVID-19 Pandemic. Thanks to the support of Arjun Karki and Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), we held a gathering after the Opening Ceremony, at 17.00-19.00, at RRN office. It was co-organized by Global U, ARENA, and RRN.

https://wsf2024nepal.org/organization/activity/gathering-of-global-u-community

Global U Gathering at RNN office on 15 February 2024.

 

Feb 16: Radical Democracy and Autonomy (Session 1)

11:30–13:00 Nepali Time

Organized by Global Tapestry of Alternatives; co-organized by the Academy of Democratic Modernity, REDweb, and Global U

https://wsf2024nepal.org/organization/activity/radical-democracy-and-autonomy-session-1

Feb 17 Building the World Social Forum of Transformative Economies (WSFTE)

https://wsf2024nepal.org/organization/activity/160

 

 

Feb 17: Women and Peace Under Climate Change

Co-organized by Global U, CCRD of Lingnan University, Tewa & Nagarik Aawaz of Nepal, Woke Asia Feminist, ARENA, and Rural Reconstruction Nepal

https://wsf2024nepal.org/organization/activity/women-and-peace

This session looked at how women play a crucial role in community building to respond to the impacts of climate change. The panel, consisting of women from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, shared experiences on how severely peasant agriculture and rural communities were affected by climate change and the actions the women took.

  

Feb 18: Revitalising Rural Reconstruction Movements: Addressing Multiple Crises

This session addressed multiple crises including climate injustice and inequality through revitalizing Rural Reconstruction movements in Asia. Speakers from China, Nepal, the Philippines, India, and others made presentations.  

Co-organized by RRN, PRRM, IIRR, Global U, ARENA, and SAAPE

https://www.wsf2024nepal.org/organization/activity/151

 

 

Feb 15-19: Global U set up a booth at the WSF site.

 

 

 

Lau Kin Chi (Left 1, second row), on behalf of Global U, attended the International Council Meeting of WSF on 20 February 2024.

 

 

Visit to Venezuela (April 2024)

In 2021, we published Globalization and National Competitions: a Comparative Study of Seven Emerging Countries: China, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela and South Africa 《全球化与国家竞争: 新兴七国比较研究》 which has sold over a quarter of a million copies in China. We have continuously done research not only about the national changes in the new global setting but also about popular mobilization and participation, as well as self-sufficiency and autonomy. On Venezuela, we are particularly concerned about the ongoing movement of “Commune, or Nothing”, one of Hugo Chavez’s revolutionary legacies.

 

Group Photo with Hernan Vargas (center), vice-minister of the Ministry of Popular Power for Communes and Social Movements

 

With the recommendation of Hernan Vargas, vice-minister of the Ministry of Popular Power for Communes and Social Movements, the Global U executive team members Lau Kin Chi, Sit Tsui, Jin Peiyun, and Lau Kin Ching, were invited as international observers to visit Caracas and nearby areas during April 18-27. The delegation attended the World Gathering for an Alternative Social Agenda, organized by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) on April 19-20, which aimed to achieve Strategic Agenda 2030. Nicolás Maduro (Venezuelan president), Evo Morales (former president of Bolivia), and Manuel Zelaya (former president of Honduras) were present at the closing ceremony.

 

On April 20-21, the delegation attended the conference in which Guy Vernaez, Minister of Popular Power for Communes and Social Movements, introduced the National Popular Consultation 2024: Projects of the People! 4500 projects will be selected via popular voting which will be funded by the government, and these are mainly related to livelihood issues such as water, electricity, and roads. The international observers were divided into groups to observe the process of voting and organization in the local centres, administered by the local communes.

 

Group Photo with Guy Vernaez (center), Minister of Popular Power for Communes and Social Movements

 

On April 24-26, we joined a study tour to learn about Communal Economic Circuits (CEC). We also had a visit to Comuna El Maizal in Lara state.

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, the team leader of the Venezuela team of E7 comparative project, Jose Felix Rivas Alvarado, who is currently the Vice President for Economics, and Minister of Industries and National Production of Venezuela, gave us a valuable lecture on how Venezuela has struggled for food sovereignty and self-sufficiency in the triple traps of blockade, pandemic, and climate crisis.

 

We presented two books, Globalization and National Competition: A Comparative Study of Seven Emerging Countries, and Ten Crises: The Political Economy of China’s Development (1949-2020) by Wen Tiejun, to Jose Felix Rivas Alvarado (left 3), Vice President for Economy, Venezuela.

 

Hernan Vargas, Lau Kin Chi, and Sit Tsui will co-edit an English book on the experiences of building communes in Venezuela; the E7 Chinese team will produce a Chinese book on the Venezuelan experience.   

 

 

Alternative Perspectives of Global Thinkers (Video Series)

 

The Global U team has been producing videos with English or Chinese subtitles on its social media channel in China. The account has 2 million followers. Here’s some of the videos.

 

20231107 In Memory of Samir Amin

Samir Amin put forward the laws of Financial Capital Implosion and Globalization Disintegration five years ago, which have now become reality.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1PC4y1J7JN/?  (82,000 viewers)

 

20231106 The revolution process will start from the periphery of the world system

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1fa4y1S7HF/?   （27,000 viewers）

 

20231121 The Truth of Imperialism, The Hidden Nature of Class Struggle Beneath the Nations’ competition, by Professor Jayati Ghosh

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1tN4y1m7Wg/?  （38,000 viewers）

 

Videos by Michael Hudson

20231215 Hudson and Wolff Dialogue: Is the economy of China collapsing again?

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gu4y1M7m1/ (88,000 viewers)

 

20240229 US Government: Anything but not Israel

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xK421t7Jj/?  （41,000 viewers）

 

Videos by Wen Tiejun

20240105 Realization of common wealth - Breaking down the barriers of vested interests and reshaping capital flows (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1wa4y1B7z6/?  （112,000 viewers）

 

20240223 How can China cope with the hegemonic siege of financial capital? (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Fr421s7m5/?（118,000 viewers）

 

20240226 How can China cope with the madness before financial capital implosion? (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Lu4m1A7eZ/?（261,000 viewers）

 

20240306 Unless the predatory approach to development is eradicated, War and Conflict will never end  (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1KJ4m1Y7bP/?  （61,000 viewers）

 

20240322 National tragedies under the crisis of globalization  (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1VZ42187V8/? （71,000 viewers）

 

20240330 From Uncle Ye to Chief Executive Bao, half of capital’s history is condensed  (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1oC411t7i6/? （151,000 viewers）

 

20240309 Wen Tiejun & Lu Qiyuan Dialogue: Globalization Crisis and the Road to Reform in China  (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1aC411a74X/? （182,000 viewers）

 

Videos by Lu Qiyuan

20240102 State Capital is the anchor for China, and Financial Capital is the Sword overhanging the United States. (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1p64y1j7Wf/? （43,000 viewers）

 

20231225 China’s economy can cure the symptoms and the root of the illness; don't easily believe in prescriptions given by others. (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1CC4y1K74u/? （48,000 viewers）

 

20240311 What should China's strategy be amidst the world’s chaos? (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Dm411d74b/?  （44,000 viewers）

 

Videos by Zhang Xiaode

20240109 The essence of all crises is life crisis, and the root of life crisis lies in education. (in Chinese)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Pg4y1S7dA/? （37,000 viewers）

 

We hope to continue to edit videos to introduce thoughts by Global U Founding Members and Fellows to the Chinese audience.

 

Please feel free to email your messages to the Global U Founding Members google group for exchanges.

 

Take good care, stay healthy, and see you online at SSFS11!

 

With very warm regards,

Kin Chi and Jade

On behalf of the Executive Team