Publications

The official rhetoric regarding the ‘New Normal’ in Indonesia has become infused with the discourse on the imagination and aspiration of life beyond COVID-19. In this essay, we investigate how the idea of the New Normal is being complicated, negotiated, and contested by different grassroots solidarity practices in Indonesia. Embedded in specific local contexts and…

The Indonesian government released a restriction policy in response to curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The restrictions significantly impact almost all sectors, particularly the food and logistics sectors, creating food insecurity and a chaotic situation at the grassroots. On the other hand, community initiatives have emerged to overcome the grassroots vulnerabilities through the…

The paper examined the demands, activities, tactics and alliances forged by the Nagkaisa (United) labor coalition as the authoritarian covid response of Duterte in the Philippines led to an unprecedented economic crisis. Nagkaisa is the most successful experiment in uniting organized labor in the last decade. It pushed for a response that prioritizes workers’ rights…

In dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, the Duterte government responded too late in stopping local transmission, too little in preparation, and too much force in lockdown enforcement. The Philippines has the strictest and longest lockdown in Asia, yet the steady increase of covid infections from June 2020 until the surge on March 2021, show that…

This article is part of the publication “Crash barriers for a post-COVID 19 food and agricultural system,” a collaborative publication that aims to highlight how a post-COVID-19 food and agricultural system should look like from a left perspective. It is facilitated by several regional offices of RLS and joined by authors from countries like India,…

In left-wing discussions worldwide, the call for a “new internationalism” is growing ever louder. In the Guardian, former US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has called for the foundation of an “international progressive movement”. According to Sanders, a political project should be established that opposes the “international authoritarian axis”-a project that stands for a “vision of shared prosperity,…