Neoliberal Globalization and Subaltern Social Movements/Struggles in Asia and Africa

The post-independence dependent-development project in the global South and the current wave of 1980s neoliberal globalization continue to displace and dispossess, and are subsequently disrupted by, numerous local, translocal and increasingly global subaltern (peasant, indigenous, development-displaced rural/urban social groups enmeshed in unequal social relations of political, economic and cultural power reproduced by capital) struggles/activist movements that are ¡°within, beside and against colonization¡±, ¡°deflecting globalization¡¯s reinvention of colonial processes¡± (Joan Barker, 2005, p.20). This paper will elaborate on a preliminary sketch of local, translocal, national and/or global subaltern movements/struggles emerging from mining, dams, land, forests and eco-tourism-related displacements/dispossession of subaltern groups in the Asian and African contexts. The results derive from researching documents and literature both non-academic and academic. Where are these movements located? What are some of their apparent concerns/objectives? Who are the primary agents/actors (subaltern groups) engaged in these assertions? What are some of the strategies being employed? What are some of the apparent obstacles to/gains being realized by these movements? This research has been prompted by a paucity of amalgamated treatment of these movements in Asia/Africa (in contrast to Latin America) and their relative obscurity, given the scholarly and political preoccupation with modern urban civil-society activist movements.