Internationalism with National-Popular Characteristics: The Politics of Food and Sovereignty in the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization (1970s–1980s)

This article undertakes a close reading of the social science periodical Development and Socio-Economic Progress , published by the Cairo-headquartered Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organization. Launched in 1977, with contributions from activists and intellectuals from across the Third World, the periodical offers a window into the intertwined politics of national sovereignty and internationalism in the era of decolonization. The focus of this paper is on strategies for agrarian development discussed and debated in the journal; I argue that the idiom of “food self-sufficiency” that animated discussions in the journal offers a compelling set of ideas—with enduring relevance—for a transition away from a social metabolism shaped and thoroughly permeated by capital. As such, these debates anticipated contemporary discussions of, and movements for, eco-socialism and food sovereignty. An engagement with this history brings up generative questions for the present conjuncture, witness to a resurgent imperialism and accelerating ecological collapse.