You are cordially invited to the launch of three Pambazuka titles, To Cook a Continent, Earth Grab and African Awakening on Tuesday the 6th of December at Ike's Books in Durban. Authors and activists, Nnimmo Bassey, the ETC Group, Patrick Bond and more will be present at this exciting event happening alongside the COP17 talks in Durban. Visit this to find out more or click on the link provided to view a flyer about the event.

The US is losing the global information war, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared while appearing before a congressional committee to ask for extra funds to spread US propaganda through new media. Clinton said existing private channels are not good enough to handle the job, naming as rivals Al Jazeera, China's CCTV and RT - which she watches, she added.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Protesting outside the Durban climate talks, members of the Southern African Rural Women’s Assembly are expressing their frustration with international inaction on climate: 'We’ve come to join other rural women farmers from the southern African region,' said Thandiure Chidararume, a member of ActionAid, an international organisation that helped bring together this meeting of the Southern African Rural Women’s Assembly. The assembly unites women’s farming and agricultural unions and movements from around the world. The protesters, who also have the support of women’s movements in Latin America, do not believe that government negotiators represent their interests.

Fears of what climate change will do for African agriculture are real and in southern Africa farmers are taking action to ensure that negotiators at 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) in Durban get the message. The Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) – granted observer status at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) session – wants the global negotiations to put agriculture firmly on the climate change agenda and establish a work programme that will outline and coordinate necessary responses such as a specific allocation to the sector under the Green Climate Fund.

Opposition parties in Democratic Republic of Congo have rejected partial results released by the electoral commission giving incumbent President Joseph Kabila an early lead in the vote count from the November 28 presidential election. In a joint statement signed by major parties, including that of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, the opposition on Saturday cited irregularities and said the electoral commission was 'psychologically preparing the population for fraud'.

BECCS, or biomass with CCS, has recently gained attention in national as well as international
high level discussions on climate, as a supposedly viable means to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. But the underlying premises for these claims are unfounded and dangerous, says this briefing paper from Biofuelwatch. 'Capturing carbon and pumping it underground itself requires considerable energy consuming from 10-40% of the power generated at the power station where it is applied, and hence increasing energy demand and cost of construction and operation.'

ANC supporters dressed in the COP17 volunteers' tracksuits tossed stones and water bottles at members of civil society organisations that were marching in protest against climate change, the corporate-funded lack of progress at COP17 and other green issues in Durban on Saturday. At around 11am, as the protesters were still congregating at Botha's Park near Warwick Triangle in Durban, a phalanx of volunteers joined the march, in 'support of COP17' and 'in defence of President Zuma', according to some of the 200 or so volunteers who spoke to the Mail & Guardian.

The global revolt underway has shifted the whole political landscape and the terms of the discourse, writes William I. Robinson, a professor of sociology, global studies, and Latin American studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. 'Global elites are confused, reactive, and sinking into the quagmire of their own making. It is noteworthy that those struggling around the world have been shown a strong sense of solidarity and are in communications across whole continents. Just as the Egyptian uprising inspired the US Occupy movement, the latter has been an inspiration for a new round of mass struggle in Egypt. What remains is to extend transnational coordination and move towards transnationally-coordinated programs.'

'On Saturday 3 December, the mid-point of COP 17, about 12,000 people from across the continent and the world gathered in Durban to demand climate justice and unite against climate change. The march was largely peaceful, with divergent activist groups uniting to demand action from governments around the world. There was, however, disruption during the course of the march in which a group of about 300 protesters, dressed in official COP17 volunteer uniforms tore up placards, physically threatened and attacked activists participating in the march.'

Every year on 1 December, the world unites to commemorate the World AIDS day. This year's global theme, 'Getting to Zero' is aimed at reducing the global prevalence to the lowest rate possible. Based on Uganda's theme, 'Re-engaging leadership for effective HIV prevention', the Refugee Law Project brings you a five-minute video aimed at raising awareness about the plight of refugee communities living with HIV/AIDS. The lack of a coherent strategy for engaging refugee communities renders them invisible to caregivers and undermines efforts to reduce the prevalence of HIV in the country and indeed Getting to Zero. The corresponding lack of attention is a challenge affecting all areas of refugee protection and assistance, whether they live in camps or in urban areas.

The carbon markets operating today under the aegis of the UN, the EU, and a variety of state and non-state actors are the default international approach to the climate crisis. Reflecting, extending and deepening neoliberalism, these markets grew rapidly until 2008, when they began to stumble, following the financial crash, the 2010 failure of the US Congress to pass proposed carbon trading legislation, uncertainty about the future of UN climate treaties, and a recent spate of criminal and other scandals. This article explains how carbon commodities work through a process of radical disembedding - in particular, through disembedding the climate issue from the historical question of how to organise for structural, long-term change aimed at keeping remaining fossil fuels in the ground.

Brandishing a plea for developed countries to make good their promises to reduce carbon emissions, 300 farmers, youths and activists took the scenic route to the COP17 conference in Durban, travelling more than 7,000km from Burundi in 17 days, through 10 eastern and southern African countries, aboard a convoy of buses draped in various national flags. The aim of the Trans-African Caravan of Hope, organized by the Pan African Climate Change Justice Alliance, was to gather information about and raise awareness of the impact of climate change on those least responsible for causing it.

Fighting has erupted in a disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan, with the Sudanese army claiming a strategic victory in its offensive against rebels in the state of South Kordofan. The army said on Saturday it had captured camps on a key supply route after deadly clashes. South Kordofan and Blue Nile states served as the ninth and tenth divisions of the southern rebel forces during the decades-long civil war between south and north, but the peace pact that ended the conflict placed the areas they fought for in the north.

'We demand that climate change solutions put indigenous knowledge systems at the centre of policies to promote biodiversity, rehabilitate our ecosystems and rebuild the livlihoods destroyed by colonialism, apartheid and economic imperialism. Rural women are the holders of indigenous knowledge - our marginalisation from economic production, scientific knowledge generation and social systems has resulted in the steady loss of such knowledge to Africa, thereby making us more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.'

The Global Water Partnership together with IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, under the auspices of UNESCO, at the University of Dundee, is looking to build on their successful 2011 International Water Law Programme (www.dundee.ac.uk/water/workshop), and offer scholarships for 30 participants to undertake a module in International Water Law, in Dundee 11-29 June 2012. Scholarship recipients are responsible for all travel (to/from Dundee) and subsistence (food/accommodation) costs. GWP is aiming at providing funding for travel and subsistence for a limited number of successful Scholarship applicants. Even though final funding is pending, GWP and the University of Dundee now invite applications from suitable candidates. Applications will be accepted from 24 November 2011 to 3 February 2012. Successful candidates will be notified at the beginning of March 2012 to allow as much time as possible to obtain visas, additional funding, etc.

A recent study conducted by the African Women’s Development and communication Network (FEMNET) with support from Trust Africa has reviewed that a majority of African women still have relatively limited access to material assets, low incomes and very limited opportunities to engage in regional and foreign trade. The study was commissioned in five African countries (Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia) to assess the gender effects of the economic partnership agreements that the European Union is currently negotiating with different economic blocs in Africa, specifically how African women have benefitted from these new trade arrangements and their impact on women’s economic rights. Findings of the country studies indicates that trade arrangements in Africa and with its partners in other regions of the world has had different impacts on women and men and most often than not it affects women more negatively in their position as entrepreneurs, workers, consumers, producers, and care givers within the public and domestic spheres. Full report is available on request: [email][email protected]

Evaluation of the health impacts of climate mitigation strategies is critical to informed decisions that will attain the greatest combined gain for health, well-being and sustainable development.
This report from the World Health Organisation considers the scientific evidence regarding possible health gains and, where relevant, health risks of climate change mitigation measures in the residential housing sector. The report is one in a Health in the Green Economy series led by WHO’s Department of Public Health and Environment. Other reports in the series focus on transport, household energy in developing countries, agriculture and health care facilities.

Thousands of Tunisian Islamists and secularists staged parallel protests outside the interim parliament in a dispute over how big a role Islam should play in society after the country's 'Arab Spring' uprising, and subsequent election. Tensions have been running high between the two camps since the revolt in January scrapped a ban on parties that advocate political Islam, paving the way for a moderate Islamist party to come to power at the head of a coalition government.

Some European banks are now refusing to lend to firms trading with Africa, threatening growth in the world's poorest continent, a senior official of the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Tuesday. The reluctance of some banks to make Africa-related loans as Europe's own debt crisis turns them increasingly risk-averse is an ominous sign as it repeats one aspect of the 2008 credit crisis.