Panelists and attendees championed the cause of sovereignty, modernization, and South-South cooperation at the Global South Academic Forum in Shanghai from December 5–6. Over 250 guests from 35 countries and regions attended the forum, whose theme was “Global South and Global Modernization.”

The forum was hosted by East China Normal University (ECNU) and organized by the institution’s School of Communication and Fudan University’s Institute for Global Communication and Integrated Media. Co-organizers included Fudan University’s School of Journalism and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Media and Communication.

The event was covered by international media organizations including China Global Television Network, Telesur, RT (formerly Russia Today), Prensa Latina, and TVT.

The Spirit of Internationalism

The forum kicked off with a performance of ‘The Internationale’ in Urdu, Chinese, English, and Spanish, symbolizing the spirit of internationalism that provides vitality to the mood in the Global South.

Participants at the forum expressed appreciation for the opportunity to connect diverse voices from the Global South. Participants also emphasized the importance of sharing practical experiences, countering Global North narratives, and fostering mutual understanding between countries, institutions, and social movements of the Global South. There was a common consensus on the importance of building South-South academic and grassroots collaboration independent of Global North-dominated platforms to build a more inclusive world order.

The forum featured 51 speakers including well-known scholars, government representatives, and media professionals from 27 countries and regions, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Ghana, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and Venezuela.

Many speakers were members of progressive social movements and political parties, including Zambian Socialist Party Chairman Fred M’membe, Morocco’s Workers Democratic Way Party Deputy General Secretary Abdallah El Harif, and Convenor of the Accra Collective of the Socialist Movement of Ghana Blaise Diboro Kanzonuba Tulo.

Representatives from the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the Labor Party of Taiwan, South Korea’s People’s Democratic Party, and the National Affairs Bureau of the Asia-Wide Campaign Against U.S.-Japanese Domination and Aggression of Asia also spoke.

The New Mood in the Global South

Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of ECNU Meng Zhongjie made opening remarks, emphasizing that China would always be a member of the Global South. “Promoting the development of the international order in a more just and reasonable direction is a sacred historical mission shouldered by the countries of the Global South, and it is also a common contemporary issue faced by the academic community and media of the Global South,” Meng Zhongjie said.

Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad, delivered the first keynote address in which he outlined the emergence of “a new mood in the Global South” which he argued was brought about by the Global North’s financial crises, irresponsible warmongering in countries like Libya, and the use of unilateral coercive sanctions on countries like Venezuela. The emergence of BRICS in 2009 signified a push towards greater South-South cooperation, while China’s Belt and Road Initiative provided critical infrastructure for this, he said. Prashad noted that the popular demand for sovereignty and development was what underpinned the new mood in the Global South.

Former Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Narayan Kaji Shrestha delivered the second keynote address which cautioned that countries in the Global South could not copy the exploitative path of modernization pursued by the Global North. Instead, the Global South should develop a model which addresses the needs and aspirations of the people, while taking into account inclusivity and sustainability, he said. Shrestha said that countries in the Global South should pursue regional integration and establish an order that promotes justice, solidarity, and cooperation.

The discussion panels at the forum touched on a broad range of topics including hot wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and the Sahel, and the New Cold War in the Taiwan Straits. Speakers also discussed in depth the challenges in developing new strategies for economic development in the Global South, reforming the global financial system, building state capacity, and constructing a new world information and communication order.

Learning From China’s Modernization

Several speakers discussed the experience of China’s modernization and the lessons that may be derived for governments and social movements in the Global South. Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide Gao Mobo emphasized the radical restructuring of China’s social relations starting in 1949 and the creation of an egalitarian society as the fundamental foundation for China’s modernization. British economist and Senior Fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University, John Ross, highlighted that China has pursued a path of investment-led growth which has resulted in rapid industrialization and vast improvements in life expectancy.

Delegates from Gannan in Jiangxi Province, the starting point of the Long March, and Rongjiang in Guizhou Province, an ethnic minority village that was one of the last regions in China to escape absolute poverty, explored the experiences and lessons learned from China’s poverty alleviation and rural revitalization programs. Guests from the Global South learned about the experiences of social leaders and party cadres in these regions and the importance of grassroots organization in overcoming backwardness and underdevelopment.

The forum also saw the launch of the Global South Book Series which is co-published by ECNU’s International Communication Research Institute, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, and the Orient Publishing Centre. The book series includes four sub-series including, Global South: Fieldwork in China, Global South: Academic Series, Global South: Academic Translation Series, and Palgrave Series in Global South Studies.

A Socialist Path out of the New Cold War

In the closing remarks for the forum, Lyu Xinyu, President of the Global South Academic Forum and President of ECNU’s International Communication Research Institute, called for a radical re-examination of the legacy of the Cold War in order to understand the crises of the present. Lyu argued that Western binaries such as “democracy vs. authoritarianism,” which are used to demonize foreign countries, have historically excluded the significance of capitalist crises in fuelling instability and conflict.

Lyu linked the struggles of the Global South to the domination of agriculture, rural areas, and peasants by bourgeois nations. “Whether 21st-century socialist development theories and practices, including development communication, can transcend this logic will determine the shared fate of Global South nations, including China.”

Lyu concluded that socialism was critical to transcending racial and cultural barriers and to guarantee sovereignty and solidarity among nations. “Without socialism, independence movements among weaker nations during the imperialist era cannot address issues of new and old colonialism.”