Stories from Bolivia’s Challenge to Globalization: Feb. 12, 2009

Dignity and Defiance, Stories from Bolivia’s Challenge to Globalization

February 12, 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Busboys and Poets - 14th Street
1390 V St NW


As the U.S. enters a new political era, what can we learn from one nation´s battle to define its own way forward in a globalizing world? Co-editors Jim Shultz and Melissa Crane Draper of the Democracy Center in Cochabamba, Bolivia, will share lessons from the book Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization. The event will also feature music, a slideshow, and refreshments.
Dignity and Defiance is a powerful, well-crafted, eyewitness account of Bolivia's rebellion from below. Readers will find compelling first person accounts of Bolivia's historic water revolt; of a massive Shell-Enron oil spill and its aftermath; of a nation's battle to control its oil and gas; and of one people's dramatic and successful challenge to the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Here too is the story of those seeking out globalization's opportunities, from indigenous weaving communities to emigrants, transplanted to three continents.
Bolivia's story is emblematic of the major political and social transformation underway throughout Latin America today. This book brings readers into that story at a human level, through the eye of skilled writers who blend together deep research and compelling narrative to bring a nation's story to life.

This is the little-known story of a people that has dared to fight back against the most powerful economic forces on the planet, told by writers with the courage to dig relentlessly for the truth and the humility to stand back and let their subjects speak for themselves. Enraging, unsparing, inspiring.”
—Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine
About the Democracy Center: The Democracy Center works globally to advance social justice through a combination of investigation and reporting, training citizens in the art of public advocacy, and organizing international citizen campaigns. http://www.democracyctr.org

IPS is working with The Democracy Center to challenge the international investment rules that undermine human rights and democracy by giving foreign investors the right to bypass domestic courts and sue governments directly in international tribunals.


For more information on this event, see: http://www.ips-dc.org/events/1014