News
Crisis in BESU : A Counterviews Report in
Bengali New
Gross irregularities in admission process in a private Medical College in Kolkata
Act Now
Online petition to the Governer, WB to
Withdraw police cases against BESU students
Counterviews Webzine
February Issue
- Indian Tribes After Sixty Years — Walter Fernandes
- Just Compensation for Land: Singur Controversy — Madhusudan Dutta
- N-Power and Petrochemicals : “ Scientific Superstitions” — Manindra Narayan Majumder
Counterviews aims to counter the contemporary hegemony of neo-liberalism and its model of development from the perspective of the global South, with a special emphasis on the developments in India. It goes without saying that capitalist globalisation, spearheaded by transnational capital, globally facilitated through the WTO and aided by the developmental agenda of the IMF-World Bank, comes under searching critical scrutiny in this forum. However, the workings of capitalist globalisation cannot be understood without reference to the role of the state whether in the countries of the global South or in the West. While some states have recently rallied to resist the impact of the Structural Adjustment Programme on their respective economies and the sovereignty of their own fiscal policy-making, the majority of such states are found in various postures of capitulation to the ‘invisible hand’ of global capital. This forum, therefore, also puts the role of the state under the scanner to counter the neo-liberal dictum that ideally the state should not interfere with the imperatives of the free market economy. We also question in this connection, the ways in which giant corporations in an atmosphere of intense price competition are prevailing upon states to wrest concessions in the form of natural resources only at the cost of the environment and democratic rights of the people, particularly the agricultural communities of the global South. And as a corollary to this questioning we strongly counter the social-Darwinist argument that the imperatives of the market economy best decides the prospects of the survival of particular communities. We thus vehemently counter the models of development that displace indigenous communities from their land, livelihood and accustomed ways of life. We also forcefully counter the hegemonic paradigms of modernity that explicitly or implicitly deny the different communities in the different parts of the world their equal right to economic, social and cultural difference and to biodiversity.
Counterviews is peopled by scientists, social scientists, researchers (in all disciplines and multidisciplinary areas), physicians, teachers, social and human right activists, journalists and, indeed, all thinking persons who resonate to the forum's critical thrust.
Participating organisations:
Teachers And Scientists Against Maldevelopment (TASAM)
Nandigram Swasthya Udyog
Forum Against Monopolistic Aggression (FAMA)
Platform
Feedbacks and Suggestions to : counterviews[dot]mail[at]gmail[dot]com
