THURSDAY TALK: Eric Otieno on Necropolitics at Large – Pandemic Politics and the Covax Hoax

The Covax programme, set up to redistribute vaccines equitably on a global scale is failing to achieve its own goals. The reasons for this failure are moral, but they are also political and economic. Although Intellectual property rights clauses in trade agreements have co-determined this failure, they are rarely linked with the death that occurs when distribution chokepoints are rationalised and even encouraged in the name of ‘innovation’.

Eric Otieno Sumba, building on Achille Mbembe’s work, discusses the notion of “Necropolitics-at-large” to explore the slow but fatal violence of these interconnected structural phenomena and propose radical ways of moving beyond reactionary pandemic politics. This event will be in English.

Eric is a political economist and PhD researcher on the postcolonial politics of patent laws and the impact of South African resistance movements on WTO patent politics at the University of Kassel (Germany). He frequently contributes to various print and online publications and is a popular guest in panels and discussions surrounding patent politics and global social justice. We feel very honoured to welcome an expert on the politics of patents and pandemics and are more than thrilled to hear what he has to say! Come and join us for an inspiring talk and lively discussion. Don’t forget to press ‘going’ so we know how many people will be there!

This event is part of the Thursday Talks events series at Global Aktion where every Thursday at 7pm we invite you to our office at Wesselsgade 2, Copenhagen: At the Thusday talks, we gather for talks and panel discussions on topics that range from political analyses of Turkey to the interlinkages between class and climate crisis.

 

Arr.: Global Aktion