Speakers and presentations from the EU in Crisis conference
Read more below about our exciting line-up of speakers and their presentations to our conference
Walden Bello | Walden is a senior analyst at Philippine think-tank Focus on the Global South, TNI fellow and Akbayan representative in the Filipino Congress. The author of more than 14 books, Bello was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 2003 for "... outstanding efforts in educating civil society about the effects of corporate globalisation, and how alternatives to it can be implemented." Bello has been described by the Economist as the man “who popularised a new term: deglobalisation.” Bello predicted the financial crisis several years prior to the current meltdown and is a globally respected figure within the alternative globalisation movement. Canadian author Naomi Klein called him the "world's leading no-nonsense revolutionary." |
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Brid Brennan | Brid has put Transnational Institute at the heart of dynamic international networks from every continent campaigning against trade liberalisation. She is co-founder of the European Solidarity Centre for the Philippines and most recently, RESPECT, a Europe-wide anti-racist network for migrant domestic workers. Areas of expertise: European trade relations; Transnational companies in Latin America; The Future of Regionalisms; East Asian Democratisation Movements; Sexism, Racism & Migration in Europe; Asia/Europe Relations; Transnational Social Movements. |
| Pratap Chatterjee | Pratap Chatterjee (b. Birmingham, United Kingdom) is an Indian/Sri Lankan investigative journalist and progressive author. He is a British citizen and grew up in India, although he lived in California for many years. He serves as the executive director of CorpWatch, an Oakland-based corporate accountability organisation. He also works for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. He writes regularly for The Guardian and serves on the board of Amnesty International USA and of the Corporate Europe Observatory. |
| Fiona Dove | Fiona Dove has been Executive Director of TNI since 1995. She holds degrees in Development Studies and Industrial Sociology, and a post-graduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation Methods. A second generation African of Anglo-Irish descent, Dove was born in Zambia and grew up in South Africa. As a teenager, she became active in the anti-apartheid movement within South Africa. Dove played a leading role in feminist and anti-militarist organisations and from the mid-1980s, served the non-racial labour movement. She worked as a trade union magazine editor for Umanyano Publications in Johannesburg, and as an official of the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union. |
| Miren Etxezarreta | Miren Etxezarreta is an economist and professor at the Universidad Autónoma in Barcelona. Since 1970, she has been reserching on agroeconomic, economic politics and economic developpment. At present, she is active in several social movements, expecially in the Critical Economy Seminar TAIFA. TAIFA is promoting critics to the conventional economic theories, giving training to young economists and publishing critical analysis of current economical issues through their Informes de Economia Critica. |
| Trevor Evans | Trevor Evans is Professor of Monetary Economics at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, and Director of the university's Institute for International Political Economy. He is also a member of the coordinating committee of the European Economists for an Alternative Economic Policy in Europe. He previously worked for many years at the Regional Centre for Economic and Social Research in Managua, Nicaragua. Read Trevor Evans's presentation to our conference here. |
| Jorge Fael | Jorge is adviser at STAL, the National Trade Union of Local Administration in Portugal. Read Jorge Fael's presentation to our conference here. |
| Susan George | Susan George is a well-known Franco-American political and social scientist, activist and writer on global social justice, Third World poverty, underdevelopment and debt. She is a fellow and president of the board of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She is a fierce critic of the present policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (IBRD) and what she calls their 'maldevelopment model'. She similarly criticises the structural reform policies of the Washington Consensus on Third World development. |
| Jan Willem Goudriaan | Jan Willem Goudriaan is deputy general secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU). For the Federation he deals with policy issues, social dialogue and European Works Councils, as well as energy, water, waste. Other responsibilities include collective bargaining, the modernisation of public services and economic policy. He is active in the European social dialogue committee for the electricity and for the gas sector for which he is a member of the Bureau. EPSU organises 8 million public service workers in more than 270 trade unions in Europe. These workers deliver services to the public in areas such as electricity, gas, water, waste, local and central government, health and social services. EPSU has members in all European countries including Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey and in Central Asian states. Read Jan Willem's presentation to our conference here. |
| Kenneth Haar | Kenneth Haar has worked as a researcher for Corporate Europe Observatory late 2008. His main areas of work are the eurocrisis and economic governance, the financial lobby, and the expert groups of the Commission. Before joining CEO he has worked as an editor of NOTAT, a Danish magazine on European Affairs and as an advisor to the parliamentary group of the Red Green Alliance in the Danish Parliament. |
| Nina Holland | Nina Holland studied environmental studies at Utrecht University, graduating with a thesis on the EU Life Patents Directive. She has done campaigning on soy issues, through the project 'La Soja Mata'. She has worked with Corporate Europe Observatory since 2005, working on agribusiness issues including agrofuels and GMOs, and greenwash initiatives like the Round Table on Responsible Soy. |
| Olivier Hoedeman | Olivier Hoedeman is the research and campaign co-ordinator at Corporate Europe Observatory, which he also co-founded with three colleagues 15 years ago. CEO is a Brussels-based research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making. Read Olivier Hoedeman's presentation to our conference here. |
| Mariana Mortágua | Mariana Mortágua is an economist and advisor to the Left Block on economic and financial affairs at the Portuguese Parliament. She is an associate memeber of Dinâmia CET – Research Centre on Socioeconomic Change and a member of the Citizens Audition on Public Debt Commission. Read Mariana Mortágua's presentation to our conference here. |
| Alexis Passadakis | Alexis J. Passadakis is member of the Council of Attac Germany. He studied Political Sciences in Bonn, Berlin and Sussex (M.A. Global Political Economy). He works and publishes on topics like privatisation of public services, climate crisis/degrowth and EU integration. He was also one of the organisers of the first climate action camp in Germany in 2008 in Hamburg and is currently involved in the mobilisation against the current crisis policy in Frankfurt (16th -19th May 2012). Read Alexis Passadakis' presentation to our conference here. |
| Jakub Patočka | Jakub Patočka is currently Editor in Chief of the left-liberal online newspaper Deník Referendum, founder of the Friends of the Earth movement in the Czech Republic and former member of the leadership of the Czech Green Party (2003-2005). |
| Leigh Phillips | Until recently, Leigh Phillips was a reporter with the EUobserver in Brussels where he wrote many important articles about the European economic crisis. He has alos been Europe correspondent for Red Pepper and Embassy Magazine. |
| Andy Storey | Andy Storey is a lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. He has written extensively on European neoliberal governance and on European trade and development policies. He is chairperson of the justice and human rights group Action from Ireland (www.afri.ie) and a spokesperson for the Debt Justice Action network (www.notourdebt.ie). He is campaigning for a No vote in the forthcoming Irish referendum on the proposed Fiscal Treaty. |
Felipe Van Keirsbilck | Felipe is General Secretary of CNE, a trade union organizing workers (employees & professionals) in the health & social services, finances, ICT, shops, universities, and the white-collars in the industry. CNE is the largest union in French speaking Belgium, and belongs to ACV-CSC (the main Belgian confederation). On behalf of ACV-CSC he presently coordinate the Joint Social Conference process: an attempt to gather unions, social movements, NGOs and academics who not only think that "an another Europe is possible", but want to act together to make this other Europe NOW. |
| Esther Vivas | Esther Vivas is a social activist and a researcher in social movements and in agriculture and food policies. She is part of the Social Movements Research Centre of the Pompa Fabra University in Barcelona and author of several books about social movements and food sovereignity. Read Esther Vivas' presentation to our conference in English and Espanol |
| Hilary Wainwright | Hilary is a well-known writer and commentator on social justice issues. She is co-editor of Red Pepper and Fellow of the Transnational Institute |
| Erik Wesselius | Erik Wesselius is one of the co-founders of Corporate Europe Observatory. In the past few years, Erik has focused on issues related to lobbying transparency and regulation as well as EU economic governance. In 2005, Erik was active in the Dutch campaign for a No against the EU Constitution. Read Erik Wesselius' presentation to our conference here. |
| Brendan Young | Brendan is a political activist from Ireland. He is very active in the Campaign Against the Austerity Treaty (CAAT), which is at the forefront of the No campaign against the EU's Austerity Treaty in the forthcoming referendum. The activists in the CAAT also fought the Lisbon Treaty, under the name ‘Campaign Against the EU Constitution’ (CAEUC). Brendan is also active in the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes, which half the population have refused to pay. |