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On 6-8 January a three-day workshop was held in Tunis, it brought together scholars, activists, organizations and artists who work for the liberation of Asia and Africa. Each day this week roape.net will be posting contributions by participants of the workshop on political economy, knowledge production and solidarity and liberation. In this introduction to the themes of the workshop, the organisers celebrate a gathering of anti-imperialist, anti- and decolonial researchers and activists who shared experiences, knowledge, strategies and tactics with the overall goal of liberation.

In this review of Peter Cole’s comparative study of port workers in Durban and San Francisco Bay, Dockworker Power, Peter Limb assesses the combination of labour, comparative and global history framed by the political economy of containerization which makes this book timely and worthy of deep reflection. The book’s author insists on the relevance of these dockworker struggles for the present and future, how workers can change their conditions, and the world, which is why the book is useful not just to scholars but also to workers, trade unionists and social activists more broadly.

Heike Becker writes about Claude Lanzmann’s close encounter with Frantz Fanon in 1961, and his fierce anti-colonial activism. Becker argues that we must remember the French filmmaker for more than his engagement with the European holocaust experience and his controversial support of Israel. Lanzmann took an ardent anti-colonialist stand against France’s colonial war in Algeria.

On the launch of the English edition of Zohra Drif's extraordinary autobiography 'Inside the Battle of Algiers: Memoir of a Woman Freedom Fighter', Sarah Grey spends an evening with Algeria's national-liberation heroine in Washington. In unflinching detail and with piercing honesty, Drif describes the struggle against French occupation and colonialism in Algeria, and her vital role in the Battle of Algiers in the late 1950s.

John Pilger exposes how the West is both fighting Islamic jihadist terrorism and using it for its own foreign policy objectives. The Manchester bomb was the result. Pilger shows how the British and French-led 2011 Nato offensive in Libya has strengthened Islamic terrorism in the region, spreading mayhem across many parts of Africa.

In this moving tribute to the writer and teacher Barbara Harlow who has recently died, Christopher J. Lee looks at the work of a women who dared to treat dispersed worlds, such as Palestine, El Salvador, Northern Ireland, and South Africa within a single framework. Harlow wrote about the conditions of political injustice, literature and liberation, writing with passion and commitment about the South African revolutionary Ruth First.

In this far-reaching interview, ROAPE’s Ray Bush argues that the products and commodities that rural people produce must sustain local demand and local needs, rather than produce export crops to generate foreign exchange on the international markets. The foundation of any modern society has to be the basis of generating sufficiently and appropriately priced food stuffs from local markets. This is the path, he argues, to a real alternative for societies in the Global South.

In the fourth article in series on popular protests and social movements in Africa, David Seddon extends his comparison by examining three more Africa countries or territories in which the head of state has exceeded two decades in power. Seddon considers the political dynamics that have allowed this to occur, examining the popular response to what might be seen as a gradual slide towards de facto and often de jure one party states and dictatorships in these countries.

Shahenda Maklad (1938 – 2016), was an Egyptian activist, defending the rights of farmers and taking up many grassroots causes. She was the founder of the independent Peasants Union. On June 3, 2016, Maklad passed away after a battle with cancer. roape.net republishes an interview with Shahenda which first appeared in ROAPE in 2011.