A panel in the conference “THE RISE OF ASIA IN
GLOBAL HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVE: Covid-19 from Asia to the world: what
assessment and what perspective for a common future?” organised by the
University Le Havre Normandy, France, February 9-11, 2022
The panel is open to individual and group paper
presentations. Those willing to present their papers are invited to submit
online their 200-300 word abstracts until December 31, 2021. The introduction
and the guidelines to submit proposal are available online at https://bandungspirit.org/
This panel deals with the political impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide. Starting with the uncertainty about the real
origin of the virus, the role of the mainstream media has been ambivalent,
offering either standardised explanations or one-sided perspectives. In some
cases, the media emphasised exclusively the news regarding the virus,
overshadowing other important information about governments’ controversial
choices. In other cases, especially in emerging countries, the media minimised
the real numbers of the contagion and deaths in order to conceal the unpreparedness
of the institutions to tackle the emergency. Pressure from governments on the
information was tremendous everywhere. In some cases, protesters for labour or
other economic, social and political issues and rights have been stigmatised
for hindering the capacity of the institutions to promptly come to people’s
aid. The Indian government for instance, blamed the farmers protesting against
the liberalisation of the agrarian market for slowing the oxygen delivery, when
in fact the supplies were insufficient. The first democratic pillar to be
undermined was the freedom of information. Most governments enforced emergency
measures with the excuse to maintain law and order in such tremendous
circumstance: tracking systems and social media black outs have been commonly
adopted worldwide.
It is extremely important to describe and analyse how,
on one hand, the alleged democratic forces and governments repressed
anti-establishment ideas while, on the other hand, the new far right has
hijacked those ideas and, in particular, the feelings to create a front against
logic, science and the possibility of progressive mobilization of peoples.
It is impellent to discuss about how to organize
struggle for democracy worldwide, that is on ways to overthrow the overwhelming
dictatorial power of international financial power, whose role in the COVID-19
pandemic requires to be seriously inquired.
Proposals may tackle the following issues
• The possible origins of the virus (natural,
accidental leak from biolab, planned leak from biolab).
• The fundamental difference in confronting the virus
between planned economies like China and capitalist economies.
• A huge defeat of any kind of solidarity. What the
pandemic has proven.
• The patents issues: EU hypocrisy vs Biden’s proposal.
• The successful use of the pandemic from the global
Far Right (Trump, Netanyahu, Modi etc.) to disseminate crazy conspiracy
theories and construct a mad world Party.
• The retreat of social and leftist movements in the
West as a result of the pandemic (for example the Yellow Vests).
• How the pandemic provided us with one more proof of
the complete interrelationship of the world. There is no more possibility of
tackling any of the big problems in the national or regional level.
A comparative and multidisciplinary approach to
analyse these subjects is recommended.
Panel Convenors:
Marzia Casolari, University of Turin, Italy
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos, Journalist and Writer,
Delphi Initiative coordinator, former Advisor of the Greek PM, former member of
the Secretariat of the CC of SYRIZA