Africa remains at the mercy of a self-interested international ruling class interested purely in maximising profit at all costs and consolidating its position, writes Yash Tandon. As the continent faces up to the enormous challenge of climate change and the creation of a sustainable ‘green economy’, it must look inwards and draw upon its own expertise and resources and resist the temptation to rely on compromised external ‘experts’, Tandon stresses.

Yash Tandon critiques the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) resolutions within the UN system to show how the forces of Empire have used 'humanitarian intervention' to advance their own interests. He also explains how the militaristic solutions advanced under R2P are part of a neurotic response to the various crises faced by the Empire.

‘Cheche: Reminiscences of a Radical Magazine’ should ‘be read by the younger generation of pan-Africanists from Cape to Cairo, so that they may dream, and also so that they may learn,’ writes Yash Tandon.

Yash Tandon explains the contradictions of ‘imperial finance capital’ in controlling neo-colonial states like Libya. While Gaddafi was being ‘accommodated’ by imperial powers, the ‘Arab Spring’ forced their hand, he says.

The World Social Forum should remain true to its founding aim of being an open space that builds alternatives to neoliberalism, writes Yash Tandon.

In November the European Union expects East African countries to sign a ‘comprehensive’ trade agreement. But Yash Tandon warns that the deal is not in Africa’s favour.

As the Pakistani people face up to the effects of terrible flooding, Yash Tandon expresses solidarity and stresses that if nature is cruel, a civilisation which puts ‘profits before humanity, and military security before food security’ is surely crueller.

The 'Africa Development Indicators 2010' report, with its emphasis on the 'quiet corruption' of public sector workers supposedly not fulfilling their roles, is the latest attempt by the World Bank to wash its hands of its primary role in Africa's continuing impoverishment, writes Yash Tandon.

Asymmetric negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between African countries and the European Union, with the power balance in favour of the latter, have created a sense of helplessness among ‘concerned citizens, government circles and indigenous business interests’ that stand to lose out if comprehensive EPA is signed. But all is not lost, says Yash Tandon – there’s ‘still plenty of scope and space to save the situation’.