The Deadly Ideas of Neoliberalism:

Bay Area local and anti-IMF activist, Rick Rowden, returns to SF to discuss his new book (London, Zed Books), and to answer your questions about the IMF, the global economic recession and how citizens are mobilizing with a rights-based approach for alternative economic policies. Rick is an expert on the IMF, a former senior policy analyst for the Washington DC office of the international advocacy NGO, ActionAid, which works with women’s rights organizations, small farmers and health and education activists in 45 countries around Africa, Asia and Latin America. During the recent global financial meltdown, the IMF launched a public relations offensive in which it tried to re-invent itself, promising to change its unpopular economic policies that are attached as conditions on the loans it gives to developing countries during economic crises. But Rowden will dispel these myths, show what the IMF is really up to, and explain how its policies impact the economies of developing countries and in particular, how they undermine the financing which is desperately needed for public health services and the fight against HIV/AIDS. He will also discuss the many ways in which networks of activists throughout the Global South are using a human rights-based approach to challenge these economic policies and open public spaces for a broader discussion of possible alternative economic policies for creating jobs and increasing public investment. A graduate of SF State, Rick Rowden taught Political Science at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and Global Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay before moving to Washington DC, where he spent nearly a decade working with activists around the world against the policies of the IMF, World Bank and WTO. Recently, he worked for the United Nations in Geneva and is currently doing his PhD in economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, India. This event is organized by Priority Africa Network, ActUP East Bay,and International Development Exchange (IDEX) Sponsored by Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Diseases (WORLD) and Global Exchange. For more information, please contact PAN email: priorityafrica@yahoo.com or call 510 663 2255 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              510 663 2255      end_of_the_skype_highlighting