Description
This absorbing memoir by a legendary public intellectual from the Global South vividly recounts his journey from student activist to global figure on the international left.Ā It begins with Walden Belloās sojourn at an Ivy League university, Princeton, where he becomes a leader of the movement against the Vietnam War on campus in the early 1970s.Ā Then he transports the reader to Salvador Allendeās Chile, where he witnesses the unfolding of a doomed enterprise to move the country on a āpeaceful road to socialism.ā
Back in the United States in 1972, he becomes part of a movement to cut off US assistance to the Marcos dictatorship, joining the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in the process. Ā To erode support for Marcos in the US and internationally, he and his companions engage in innovative civil disobedience, hilarious political comedy deploying Sesame Street characters, and a celebrated heist of 6000 pages of confidential documents from the World Bank that were then turned into the best-selling international expose Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines.
Bello provides a detailed account and analysis of the anti-dictatorship movement in the Philippines, where the National Democratic Front led by the CPP gained hegemony, then was derailed and eventually marginalized following the so-called āEDSA Uprisingā that succeeded in ousting Ferdinand Marcos, Sr, in 1986.Ā He takes us behind the scenes, exposing the Reagan administration officialsā maneuvering that prevented the left from coming to power.
Bello does not spare the movement of its shortcomings. Specifically, he regrets the decision to boycott the 1986 elections and derides the underestimation of Washingtonās ability to change course.Ā Then thereās the movementās self-inflicted wound, a runaway purge that leads to the execution of hundreds that triggers an ethical reassessment and political change of course, notably his departure from the CPP.
Belloās return to the Philippines and Asia is the subject of the next few chapters, where he evolves into one of the leaders of the of the global struggle against neoliberalism and its key institutions, the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.Ā With George Bushās invasion of Iraq, he also steps into a high-profile role in the international movement against the US empire.Ā He flies to Baghdad in a desperate mission to prevent the impending American assault in early May 2003 and then takes a nine-hour journey across the desert from Baghdad to Damascus.Ā He introduces the reader to the din and smoke of the historic street battles of the 2000āsāin Seattle, Prague, Genoa, and Cancunāin which he, along with thousands, took part.Ā Here we find not simply a narration of developments, but also an engaged intellectualās analysis of why the anti-globalization and anti-empire movements failed to institutionalize themselves.
From 2009 to 2015 Walden Bello served as an elected official in the parliament of the Philippines. He takes us from the parliamentary battles over family planning and agrarian reform to his journeys to the Middle East to assist overseas Filipino workers imprisoned in horrible working conditions or trapped in the middle of civil wars, as in Syria.Ā He shares his efforts to make the Philippines steer an independent course between the United States and China, including his defying China by leading a congressional mission to the Spratly Islands to assert his countryās territorial rights, even as he pushes for the withdrawal of the Philippines from its military agreements with the United States.Ā He offers us the reasons for his resignation from the Philippine Congress in 2015āthe only recorded resignation on a matter of principle in the history of the Congress of the Philippines.
After his dramatic departure from public office, Bello continues to be an engaged activist and public scholar, winning local and global recognition via multiple awardsāthe Amnesty International Philippinesā award for being the āMost Distinguished Defender of Human Rights,ā the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, and his being named Outstanding Public Scholar by the International Studies Association.
Walden Bello concludes his memoir with a candid assessment of his more than five decades active engagement in both the national and global arenas and a public scholar who has produced 26 books and hundreds of articles. Truly, a life well lived, with much to offer by way of hope and example.
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