Anam Parvez Butt

Northern Gaza is being wiped off the map. Not my words but those of 38 respected aid agencies including @Oxfam @christianaid @MedicalAidPal Staying silent is not an option. Passivity is not an option. Complicity is not an option. For the sake of humanity, we must see action.

🚨REACTION: Oxfam and 38 aid agencies warn that Northern Gaza is "being erased", and urge global leaders to immediately end Israel’s atrocities. Read our joint statement 👉oxf.am/3YzLZxL

The European settler colonies achieved faster economic development not because they had "better institutions", but because they were actively supported by the states of the imperial core, and purposefully integrated into that core for geopolitical and commercial reasons, which financed their industrialization with surplus appropriated from the rest of the colonial periphery. Furthermore, they were allowed to use state-led industrial policy and protectionism, which was actively denied to the other colonies and post-colonies. In the post-colonial period they were never subjected to Western-backed coups, military interventions, sanctions or destabilization campaigns. And, crucially, they were never subjected to the structural adjustment programmes that were imposed across the rest of the periphery, which dismantled public investment and public services, crushed public research and development initiatives, forcibly deregulated economies, destroyed industrial policy, induced prolonged recessions, and - as Ha-Joon Chang put it - kicked away the ladder to development.

Recognising Care as a Human Right and a Public Good in THE PACT OF THE FUTURE United global call for a bolder approach to care. Care, both paid and unpaid, is central to the functioning of our societies. publicservices.international/resources/news… @ActionAid @social_rights @DAWNfeminist @GIESCR @TaxJusticeNet @PSIglobalunion @FemnetProg @WomanKind

MUST WATCH - Burmese scholar delivers a powerful masterclass on the reality of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. He offers a lucid and unequivocal denunciation of the "ecosystem of genocidal methodologies" employed against the Palestinians as a people, combining contextual overview with vivid, specific examples. So: after just 9 days in the occupied Palestinian territory, Dr Zarni understands and articulates what Western scholarship and others have - intentionally or idly- overlooked, rationalized or pontificated against for decades, missing the forest for the trees.

Why are feminists rejecting the cult of growth? A throwback from #IAFFE2024 where Rachel Noble and @AnamParvezButt reflected on why we need to change our economic goals and how we measure them. Read full blog views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2024/08/why-fe… cc @IAFFE @crystalsimeoni @fatimahkelleher

A new blog by me and @AnamParvezButt capturing critical insights from an awesome lineup of feminists at our recent #IAFFE event challenging the cut of #growthism. It was a privilege to collaborate with and learn from @shereent @crystalsimeoni, @jenny_ricks and @danaabed_

Here’s just a few examples of Daily Mail headlines that have fanned the flames of hate and normalised Islamophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric #GMB

People are saying that the US/Israeli assault on Gaza is shredding international law. This is obviously true, but it also misses a key point: international law was always primarily intended for the imperial core. This arrangement arose in the wake of WWII, largely because the imperial powers wanted to avoid a repeat of the egregious destruction they had inflicted on one another. But it did not stop them from inflicting (or continuing to inflict) precisely this kind of violence on the people of the periphery. The ink had barely dried on the Geneva Convention when the imperial powers conducted or actively supported mass death campaigns in Indonesia, Korea, Guatemala, Vietnam, East Timor, El Salvador, etc; they assassinated or couped elected leaders in Chile, Ghana, Iran, Brazil, the DRC, etc.; they enabled apartheid South Africa and its violent counter-insurgency operations across the continent; and then Iraq, Libya, Yemen... Truly spectacular violence was inflicted - with mass civilian casualties - in most cases against people who wanted nothing but to regain control of their own land, labour and resources, because these movements conflicted with the interests of imperial capital. All of it was done in violation of international law, and all of it with zero consequences for the perpetrators. US, British and European war criminals walk among us. They do prime-time talk shows and retire peacefully to their ranches and villas. International law, such as it is, is generally utilized only against their enemies. We cannot continue to live in such a world. The double standards are obscene and intolerable. It dehumanizes all of us. But the lesson we must take from Gaza is that moral progress and the realization of human rights will never come from the ruling classes of the imperial core. The vision of universal values will never be a gift from Western elites. It was articulated by working class movements and in the crucible of anti-colonial struggle, by people who insisted that rights are for all and not just for a few. The world we yearn for, as our souls scream against the dehumanization of the Palestinians, will only ever be realised with the success of that struggle. That is the horizon. That is the objective.

Nowhere in Gaza is safe - an immediate ceasefire is needed and an end to arms sales to Israel. Demand action at bit.ly/3rRRJ8p #Gaza #CeasefireNOW

@N_Kabeer kicking off our session at #IAFFE2024 on challenging the cult of growthism @oxfamgbpolicy @NawiAfrica @MenaFem @FightInequality @LSEInequalities #beyondGDP #FeministEconomies

@crystalsimeoni of @NawiAfrica reflecting on uprisings in Kenya against IMF-backed tax policies as symptomatic of growth-centric economies that serve capital rather than people #IAFFE2024 #BeyondGDP #FeministEconomies @oxfamgbpolicy @Oxfam

Panel ready! Join us at @IAFFE’s conference this afternoon to discuss the “cult of growthism” - what an honor to be amongst those brilliant women! #IAFFE2024

Are you attending the #IAFFE2024 Annual Conference in Rome next week? Want to understand how we can look #BeyondGDP and realise #FeministEconomies? Join our panel discussion on Thursday 4 July with leading global thinkers and activists. Details: iaffe2024.exordo.com/programme/sess…

WATCH: Oxfam's Hadeel Qazzaz, gender coordinator, talks about her family trapped in Al-Mawasi. "I worry so much for my mother, she is 80 & has been fasting most of the time due to lack of food, to provide for the small children. She has lost almost 25kgs" youtube.com/watch?v=Uu7b9z…

Over 1,500 CSO, 400 government, and 100 media representatives as @MaherNasserUN introduces #2024UNSC. But this amidst stark criticism of civil society about the lack of participation and rights failures in the process of of the #PactForTheFuture 🧵Follow here for @hrw updates

Clear message: #NotOurPact #TheFutureIsFeminist. The zero draft doesn't even mention #CARE 🤯 #2024UNSC We need a decolonial, green, feminist economy

HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA.

In OTHER news @scotgov has just answered #ScotlandCares' campaign call and proposed a dedicated new National Outcome on Care. It mustn't be overshadowed by political upheaval. The new FM must deliver action to better value & support all carers🔽 bit.ly/ASTCares

Today, we launched our #Valued report with partners. Care is essential. It sustains our social and economic foundations. We need political will and leadership to value all care and finally break the link between care, poverty and inequalities. A thread🧵 policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/valu…