Shalmali Guttal has worked for decades researching, writing and organising around the impacts of neoliberal development in Southeast Asia. She says that the ideology of private over public interest has become widespread in Asia in the last three decades, with detrimental effects for Indigenous people, women, workers and the environment. 

Shalmali argues that the new generation of proposed and operating free trade agreements are the most aggressive in pushing neoliberal polices we’ve yet seen, giving the examples of the intellectual property regulations governing medicines and seeds. 

In the face of all of this, Focus on the Global South is part of the movements building communities of resistance and empowerment.

More information: Focus on the Global South

This episode is Earth Matters #1062 and was produced by Gem Romuld.