The tectonic plates of global politics are shifting.
The old colonial and imperial powers are losing their grip on humanity. At its darkest, this moment produces genocides and wars. At its brightest, it opens new horizons of possibility for regional integration, cooperation, and addressing humanity’s most pressing needs.
How do we make sense of this moment?
On 20 June 2024, leading scholars, activists, and political representatives from across the world will meet at the University of Campinas in the Brazilian state of São Paulo for a festival of ideas on the future of the international order.
Convened by the Progressive International, Phenomenal World, and Transforma UNICAMP, the festival will invite students and speakers to debate the meaning of power and prosperity in a multipolar world.
For its historic contributions and its central role at the helm of the Group of 20, Brazil is the ideal location to convene leading thinkers to chart a course toward a more peaceful, equitable, and democratic world order.
Across panels, plenaries, and keynote speeches, the participants of the UNICAMP symposium will offer their perspectives on the evolving international order, debate Brazil’s place in its transformation, and to build a common vision to support it.
For the past five decades, Brazil has been at the forefront of the geopolitical debate — from its scholarship on dependency theory to the leadership of President Lula to construct a global order “based in dialogue, multilateralism, and multipolarity.”
Find out who is speaking and how you can participate here.
On 16 May, a Turkish court convicted 24 of 108 members of the progressive People's Democratic Party (HDP) on baseless “terror-related” charges. The 24 convicted political leaders include former party co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, who received prison sentences of 42 years and 30 years, respectively. "Today, we witnessed a massacre of justice," said Tülay Hatimoğulları, co-chairperson of DEM, the HDP’s successor party.
The charges in the trial — better known as the "Kobani case" — hinged on a tweet from October 2014 that called for solidarity with the people of the city of Kobani against attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) and local Turkish police. More than 37 people were killed in the 2014 Kobani protests — the vast majority by Turkish police gunfire. Yet prosecutors claimed that the Twitter post had incited violence. International legal observers have found no evidence to sustain such a charge.
Since the beginning of the trial in April 2021, the Progressive International has dispatched multiple delegations to follow the trial's proceedings, expose the case’s political motivations, and defend the democratic struggle in Turkey.
Justice for the political prisoners of the Kobani case demands the same determined organising and international solidarity. Today, we demand the immediate release of all of the Kobani case’s prisoners, among them HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, and unequivocally condemn their incarceration.
On Monday, in London’s Royal Courts of Justice, Julian Assange won the right to appeal his extradition to the United States. The Court did not accept US assurances on Assange’s right to the US First Amendment and therefore granted him the opportunity to present his case again to a British court before any US extradition process can move ahead.
In Hardliner on the Hudson, Belly of the Beast’s award-winning Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández visits Union City, New Jersey, where embattled US Senator Bob Menendez rose to political power. Liz looks into his political history, revealing the disconnect between Sen. Menendez’s New Jersey constituents and his hardline Cuba policy. You can watch the documentary here.
Art of the Week: Original artwork for the Power and Prosperity in a Multipolar World Festival of Ideas in Brazil, by PI Creative Director Gabriel Silveira.
