The increased strength of emerging countries of the South confronts the challenges of contemporary globalization.

‘Their (media outlets') autonomy is reduced to the institutionalization of a functional casuistry that gives legitimacy to the powers that be. It is in this sense that I contend that the power of financial aristocracy is complemented by the power of media clergy’.

Arab regimes achieved success within a short period but then ran out of steam as a result of their internal limits and contradictions. The ruling circles have given in to neo-liberal globalization, leading to rapid decline in social conditions. That is what caused the revolts.

Frantz Fanon is a loved and respected figure all over Africa and Asia. Samir Amin argues that his writing and the choice to join the liberation struggle in Algeria show Fanon was a genuine revolutionary.

Samir Amin is proposing a way out of the current situation of capitalism in crisis. Nations should socialise the ownership of monopolies, de-financialise the management of the economy and de-globalise international relations.

Elections won't change the world unless we can work out how to 'bring together new, rich, inventive forms of democratisation' through which they can be used in a way other than is conceived by ‘conservative forces’, argues Samir Amin.

‘The right to education is a fundamental human right, inseparable from people’s aspirations to a full and a wholly authentic democracy,’ argues Samir Amin.

It is too early to predict the future of democracy in Tunisia, writes Samir Amin, but ‘only the rapid crystallisation of a radical left wing, going well beyond the demand for proper elections, can allow the resumption of a struggle for a change worthy of its name’.

Gaddafi was murdered by the henchmen in the service US imperialism and its subaalterns in NATO. The 'court' that was promised to try Gaddafi never met. That would have upset the patrons of the imperialist system. The assassination was therefore expected, if not planned.

Obama disdains not only international law but the rule of law, like his mentor, the sinister Bush. Obama and his subaltern allies in NATO have no respect for the sovereignty of nations and states. But then, there are so many politicians and unpleasant heads of state in both the North and the South, enemies of each other; it is obvious now that their assassinations could be seen as the "normal" way to settle political affairs. State terrorism has reasserted itself.

The revolution in Libya, led by a motley group of democrats and Islamists and their imperialist allies, is likely to entrench the deep divisions in the country, writes Samir Amin, warning of the possibility of disintegration of the nation.

The year 2011 began with a series of shattering, wrathful explosions from the Arab peoples. Is this springtime the inception of a second ‘awakening of the Arab world?', asks Samir Amin.

Responding to the work of scholars like William Carroll, Samir Amin considers the evolution and shape of globalised capitalism and the extent to which it might be termed ‘transnational’ or ‘collective imperialism’. He stresses: ‘Globalisation is an inappropriate term. Its popularity is commensurate with the violence of ideological aggression that has prohibited henceforth the utterance of “imperialism”.’

cc Beginning by praising the work of Rod Hill & Tony Myatt and Ha-Joon Chang, Samir Amin highlights the complete absence of adequate critical reflection across contemporary economics. ‘The true aim of the “science” of conventional economics’, he writes, ‘is simply to divest it of its political aspect and pretend it is something “neutral”, hence “objective”. The result is the annihilation of the capacity for critical thinking and reducing the citizen to being a mere spectator of history.’

Samir Amin discusses the role played by four key components of the opposition to Mubarak – the youth, the radical left, middle-class democrats and the Muslim Brotherhood – and the strategies used to oust the regime.

The reconstruction of a viable Somali state depends largely on the rebirth of a united Ethiopia, writes Samir Amin.

Renowned Egyptian economist

With Hosni Mubarak on a tentative footing, a US which once propped him up would now turn to a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) it regards as ‘moderate’, writes Samir Amin. But with the fundamental economic conditions which produced the social unrest in the first place unlikely to change much, and with the working-class and peasants’ movement yet to be fully involved, the same problems will remain, Amin concludes.

Samir Amin discusses the Tunisian uprising and the country’s prospects for building ‘a democratic government supported by the people’, in an interview with Aydinlik Magazine.

Third World Forum’s (TWF) director, Samir Amin, discusses the background to the World Forum for Alternatives (WFA), ‘a network of networks which organises its own activities with a view to contributing to the progress of a positive alternative to the dominant capitalist and imperialist system’.

At 79, Samir Amin has lost none of his militancy. A leading thinker around ‘Third World-ism’, close to particular fathers of independence – like Modibo Keita – and the author of some 50 works on politics and economics, he tracks capitalism and international imperialism in all their forms. Interviewed by Christophe Champin, he discusses the last 50 years of relations between African states and the rest of the world.