Voices from New Social Movements in North Africa, Middle East
INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS The Future We the People Need Voices from New Social Movements in North Africa, Middle East, Europe & North America WERNER PUSCHRA & SARA BURKE (EDS.) February 2013 The outcome document from the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Develop- ment, Rio+20—entitled »The Future We Want«—does not go nearly far enough to articulate what the vast majority of people around the world need, facing a future constrained by income and wealth inequalities, volatile and fragile financial and eco- nomic systems, resource depletion, global warming, and other planetary boundaries. This publication highlights the perspectives of new social, trade union, and protest movements in regions that have experienced great social upheaval due to recent crises—North Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and North America. These move- ments have challenged the unequal state of the world and the lack of accountabil- ity of governments in Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Greece, Spain, Ireland, the US, Canada and Mexico. They have managed to change the political discourse in ways formerly considered impossible. With contributions from 20 authors, this publication poses a number of urgent ques- tions: How can new social movements convert more of their alternative ideas into prac- tical policy? Will governments and political parties be able to adapt fast enough to tackle peo- ples’ needs? Can there be reinvention of the global governance system to enable more demo- cratic, global multilateral cooperation? WERNER PUSCHRA & SARA BURKE (EDS.) | The Future WE the People Need Contents Preface: »The Future We the People Need« . 3 Werner Puschra Introduction: »Time to Press the Reset Button on Representative Democracy? ( Or do we need a whole new operating system?)« .
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