Neoliberalism, Democracy and Covid-19 in the Global South

No area of the world will be left untouched by coronavirus. All over the world, politics is changing in dangerous and unprecedented ways, as authoritarians, neo-liberals, big business and the nationalist right seek to exploit the crisis.

Europe has been regarded by WHO as the epicentre of the pandemic so far, and has been the main focus of attention. But the vast majority of the world’s population lives in the Global South, where health systems are least able to cope and conditions for contagion worse.

This week, we will look at what the coronavirus pandemic is doing to the Global South: what are the dangers for democracy, and social and economic justice? How is the opposition and the left responding – with what ideas and demands, and what prospects of success? And what does the coronavirus crisis tell us about the relationship between the West and the Global South, and the continuing role of the West in exploitation and extraction of wealth?

SPEAKERS
Trevor Ngwane, South African socialist and anti-apartheid activist
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, author of ‘What if Latin America Ruled the World?’
An activist from Egypt
Julia Blunck, Brazilian writer and activist