Towards an emancipatory international law: The Bolivarian reconstruction

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 31, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 347-363

  Al Attar, Mohsen ^a   Miller, Rosalie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION; GLOBALIZATION; INTERNATIONAL LAW; INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION; REFORM PROCESS; SOCIAL MOVEMENT; THEORETICAL STUDY;

SOUTH AMERICA;

EID: 77954169419     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2010.488469     Document Type: Article

References (68)

1. ALBA originally stood for 'La Alternativa Bolivariana para los pueblos de nuestra America'-in English, the Bolivarian Alternative for the people of our Americas. Its relative success has buttressed its credibility, and during the sixth Summit the name change was announced. See 'ALBA changes its name to alliance', Caricom News Network, 26 June 2009, at http://csmnetwork.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&idth4335:alba-changes-its-name-to-alliance=&catid=122:csme-network-latest&Itemid=211, accessed 3 November 2009.
2. BS Chimni, 'Third World approaches to international law: a manifesto', in A Anghie, B Chimni, K Mickleson & O Okafor (eds), Third World and International Order: Law, Politics and Globalization, Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff, 2003, p 47.
3. A Anghie, 'Time present and time past: globalization, international financial institutions, and the Third World, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 32, 2000, p 243.
4. For a particularly 'upbeat' assessment of First-Third World power imbalances, see M Mandelbaum, The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the Twenty First Century, New York: Public Affairs, 2005.
5. In the approving (and callous) word of New York Times pundit Thomas Friedman, 'the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist'. T Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, London: Harper Collins, 2000, p 464.
6. 'Unfortunately, TWAIL... has never been able to effectively critique neo-liberal international law or project an alternative vision of international law.' Chimni A, 'Third World approaches to international law', p 48.
7. For an overview, see DP Fidler, 'Revolt against or from within the West? TWAIL, the developing world and the future direction of international law', Chinese Journal of International Law, 2, 2003, p 29.
8. See O Okafor, 'Newness, imperialism, and international legal reform in our time: a TWAIL perspective', Osgoode Hall Legal Journal, 43, 2005, pp 176-177.
9. V Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, New York: New Press, 2007.
10. Paolo Freire was a Brazilian education theorist who identified the radical potential of education as a practice of liberation. He explicated a critical pedagogy based on reciprocity and participation that aimed to empower, rather than integrate, its subjects. P Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum, 2000.
11. 'I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is not built on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind.'
12. Kwame Nkrumah, I Speak of Freedom: A Statement of African Ideology, London: Mercury, 1961, p xiv.
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14. Throughout the colonial period positivist legal reasoning reified assumptions derived from Darwinian evolutionary theory, legitimising widely held notions of biological superiority.
15. Prashad, The Darker Nations, p 207.
16. Ibid, p 34.
17. Nkrumah, I Speak of Freedom, p xi.
18. 'We have seen the Argentines reduced to the status of a British colony by means of economic penetration [by the Argentine oligarchy], the sellers of their country.' Juan Bautista Justo, quoted in V Alba, Nationalists without Nations: The Oligarchy Versus the People in Latin America, New York, Praeger, 1968, p 59.
19. MA Cameron, 'Latin America's left turns: beyond good and bad', Third World Quarterly, 30(2), 2009, pp 336-337.
20. See B de Sousa Santos & CA Rodriguez-Garavito, Law and Globalization from Below: Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
21. S Ellner, Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict and the Chávez Phenomenon, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008.
22. Also notable is Honduras'Manuel Zelaya. Like Chávez, Zelaya was elected on a moderate platform but soon radicalised, raising the minimum wage, condemning US military projection and joining ALBA. On 28 June 2009 Zelaya was ousted by Supreme Court decree for attempting to hold a non-binding referendum regarding amendments to the constitutional prohibition on re-election. See D Cassel, 'Honduras: coup d'état in constitutional clothing?', ASIL Proceedings, 13(9), 2009, at www.asil.org/files/insight090729pdf.pdf, accessed 3 November 2009.
23. V Prashad, '"The South also exists", as once the Third World did', North American Congress on Latin America, 40(5), at https://nacla.org/node/4554, accessed 3 November 2009.
24. N Kozloff, Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p 135.
25. See G Wilpert, 'Collision in Venezuela', New Left Review, 22, 2003, p 101, at http://www.newleftreview.org/?view=3451, accessed 3 November 2009.
26. C Muntaner, F Armada, H Chung, M Rosicar, L Williams-Brennan & J Benach, 'Venezuela's Barrio Adentro: participatory democracy, South-South cooperation and health care for all', Social Medicine, 3(4), November 2008, at www.scribd.com/doc/13726576/Venezuelas-Barrio-Adentro-participatory-democracy-southsouth-cooperation-and-health-care-for-all, accessed 3 November 2009.
27. J Webb-Pullman, 'Venezuela: the revolution and indigenous people', Green Left Weekly, 28 February 2009, at http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/785/40427, accessed 3 November 2009.
28. J Wendland, 'Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela', Politicalaffairs.net, 22 August 2005, at http://politicalaffairs.net/article/articlereview/1707/1/115, accessed 3 November 2009.
29. At the time of writing full membership stands at seven: Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Honduras and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Three other states hold observer status: Ecuador, Paraguay and Haiti. M Pocheron, 'ALBA y SUCRE: hacia law creació n de la primera zona monetaria fuera del FMI', PortalAlba, 14 April 2009, at http://alternativabolivariana.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4249, accessed 3 November 2009. However, by 24 May 2009, President Rafael Correa had announced that Ecuador would become a full member of ALBA.
30. D Fertl, 'Ecuador: Correa vows to deepen the citizens' revolution', Green LeftWeekly, 30 May 2009, at http://greenleft.org.au/2009/797/41016, accessed 3 November 2009.
31. Many reports also include Iran in that group. See S Gratius & H Fürtig, 'Iran and Venezuela: bilateral alliance and global power projections', Fride Comment, 21 April 2009, at http://www.fride.org/publication/592/iran-and-venezuela-bilateral-alliance-and-global-power-projections, accessed 3 November 2009.
32. J Cherian, 'Reaching out', Frontline, 8 September 2007, at http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2418/stories/20070921504105100.htm, accessed 3 November 2009.
33. For a critical assessment of ALBA membership, see M Fox, 'Defining the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas-ALBA, Venezuelaanalysis.com, 4 August 2006, at http://www.venezuelaanalysis.com/analysis/1870, accessed 3 November 2009.
34. Joint Declaration of the Governments of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Cuba, 14 December 2004, principle 3, at http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2004/ing/d141204i.html, accessed 3November 2009.
35. U Mattei, 'A theory of imperial law: a study on US hegemony and the Latin resistance', Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 10(1), 2003, pp 383-448.
36. M Mutua, 'What is TWAIL?', American Society of International Law Proceedings, 94, 2000, p 38.
37. 'Only integration based on co-operation, solidarity and a common willingness to advance hand in hand towards higher levels of development can satisfy the needs and desires of Latin American and Caribbean countries while preserving their independence, sovereignty and identity.' Joint Declaration.
38. EA Gamarra, 'Bolivia on the brink', Council Special Report, 24, Council on Foreign Relations, February 2007, at http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/BoliviaCSR24.pdf, accessed 3 November 2009.
39. Document of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of our Americas (ALBA) Countries for the 5th Summit of the Americas, in 'ALBA nations condemn capitalism', Global Research, 18 April 2009, at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13243, accessed 3 November 2009.
40. Chimni, 'Third World approaches to international law', p 50.
41. Joint Declaration, principle 1.
42. This staggering amassment of legislative power-and the physical repositories in which it resides-constitutes what Chimni terms the 'emerging imperial Global State'. Chimni, 'Third World approaches to international law'. Its legislative processes are tainted by opaque and undemocratic procedures that eschew accountability, and are driven by private capitalist and collaborative state forces.
43. Ibid, p 47.
44. See also S Sell, Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
45. Chimni, 'Third World approaches to international law: a manifesto', p 50.
46. YW Bradshaw & J Huang, 'Intensifying global dependency: foreign debt, structural adjustment, and Third World underdevelopment', Sociological Quarterly, 32, 1991, p 321.
47. K Janicke, 'Summit of the Bolivarian alternative (ALBA) concludes in Venezuela, Venezuelaanalysis.com, 27 January 2008, at http://www.venezuelaanalysis.com/news/3104, accessed 3 November 2009.
48. F Fuentes, 'Latin America: summit reveals a changing continent', Venezuelaanalysis.com, 28 April 2009, at http://www.venezuelaanalysis.com/analysis/4405, accessed 3 November 2009.
49. Announced in November 2008 the SUCRE (the acronym for the Spanish translation of Single Regional Compensation Payment System) will provide a common unit for exchange purposes within ALBA, progressing towards a common currency.
50. P Kellogg, 'Regional integration in Latin America: dawn of an alternative to neoliberalism?', New Political Science, 29, 2007, p 206.
51. Widespread civil unrest eventually forced the government to rescind the contract.
52. R Zibechi, 'After Bolivia's gas nationalization-toward a new regional map', trans N Henry, Americas Program Policy Report, Centre for International Policy, 30 May 2006, at http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3290, accessed 3 November 2009.
53. Joint Declaration, principle 12.
54. Kellogg, 'Regional integration in Latin America', p 209.
55. See M Fernandez Lozana, 'From protest to proposals for integration', Bilaterals.org, 25 October 2008, at http://www.bilaterals.org/article/php3?id_article=13577, accessed 3 November 2009.
56. See T Gibbs, 'Business as unusual: what the Chávez era tells us about democracy under globalisation', Third World Quarterly, 27(2), p 269.
57. See P Maybarduke, 'A people's health system: Venezuela works to bring healthcare to the excluded', Multinational Monitor, 25(10), 2004, at http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2004/102004/maybarduke.html, accessed 3 November 2009.
58. See K Cole, 'ALBA: a process of concientización', International Journal of Cuban Studies, 2, 2008, p 9.
59. Joint Declaration, principle 2.
60. What is the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean?, Venezuelan Bank of External Commerce (Bancoex) report, trans G Wilpert, 4 February 2004, at http://www.venezuelaanalysis.com/analysis/344, accessed 3 November 2009.
61. Joint Declaration, principle 2.
62. OperaciónMilagro (OperationMiracle) is a joint initiative of Cuba and Venezuela offering free surgery for eye diseases for citizens of every nation of Latin America and the Caribbean. D Harris & D Azzi, 'Venezuela's answer to "free trade": the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas', Focus on the Global South Occasional Paper No 3, December 2005, p 6.
63. Misión Barrio Adentro (Mission Inside the Neighbourhood) brings Cuban doctors into medically underserved Venezuelan communities. JM Feinsilver, 'Oil-for-doctors: Cuban medical diplomacy gets a little help from a Venezuelan friend', Nueva Sociedad, July-August 2008, at www.nuso.org/upload/articulos/3537_2.pdf, accessed 3 November 2009.
64. See B Shango, 'Report: Fifth Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of our Americas-Treaty of Commerce of the People', Venezuela Solidarity Network, 14 May 2007, at http://www.vensolidarity.org/Issue%20Overview/alba.php, accessed 3 November 2009.
65. M Bedjaoui, Towards a New International Economic Order, New York: Holmes & Meier, 1979, p 127.
66. W Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, London: Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1972.
67. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, pp 67-69, emphasis in the original.
68. E Healy,Waking Life (excerpt), at http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/1345/, accessed 3 November 2009.