English

The result of a remarkable three-year-long investigation that took award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin across four continents (North and South America, Europe, and Asia), The World According to Monsanto tells the little-known yet shocking story of this agribusiness giant—the world’s leading producer of GMOs (genetically modified organisms)—and how its new “green” face is no less malign than its PCB- and Agent Orange–soaked past.

Robin reports that, following its long history of manufacturing hazardous chemicals and lethal herbicides, Monsanto is now marketing itself as a “life sciences” company, seemingly convinced about the virtues of sustainable development. However, Monsanto now controls the majority of the yield of the world’s genetically modified corn and soy—ingredients found in more than 95 percent of American households—and its alarming legal and political tactics to maintain this monopoly are the subject of worldwide concern.

Released to great acclaim and controversy in France, throughout Europe, and in Latin America alongside the documentary film of the same name, The World According to Monsanto is sure to change the way we think about food safety and the corporate control of our food supply.

Marie-Monique Robin is an award-winning French journalist and filmmaker. She received the 1995 Albert-Londres Prize, awarded to investigative journalists in France. She is the director and producer of over thirty documentaries and investigative reports filmed in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. She lives outside of Paris. George Holoch has translated more than twenty books, including Notes on the Occupation (The New Press). He lives in Hinesburg, Vermont.

Year of publication: 2010 ; 384 pages

Back from Tunis, where the Arabic-language network meeting was held, the Alliance publishes the first outcomes of this meeting. Here you will find the network’s translation and joint co-publishing projects, the next steps towards the development of the Arabic-language network, the creation of specialised training, etc.

The International Alliance of Independent Publishers calls on all international solidarity organisations to mobilise in Haiti. The Alliance will do do its outmost to support Haitian book professionals in the long-term, particularly librarians, publishers and booksellers, by joining forces with existing and future stakeholders in Haiti.

The importance of culture should be considered in the reconstruction process. In the Haïtian context, where symbolism has a special place, reinventing Haïti also involves supporting the arts and culture, particularly books and authors that promote the people’s complex and fascinating identity. A people cut off from its culture is a dead people.

Rodney Saint-Éloi, author and publisher member of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers

Four years after the International Assembly on Independent Publishing in Paris in July 2007, we are delighted to be bringing together the Arabic-language network of the Alliance in Tunisia, during the Tunis International Book Fair.

The Alliance organizes a round table open to professionals, focussing on publishing and cultural diversity, at the heart of the Tunis International Book Fair on Monday 26 April at 4.00 pm.

The Afrilivres Association elected – during its Extraordinary Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, 16 March 2010 via an online forum – a new Committee. For the Alliance, the results of this AGM constitute the beginning of a restructuration of the Pan-African Association. The communiqué issued jointly by the two associations calls on institutions and all friends of Afrilivres to express their renewed confidence.

For more information: www.afrilivres.net

To access the youth catalogues, click here and here.

These catalogues are available from the Alliance. Contact us telephonically or by email for all enquiries and orders.

The notion of fair speech expands the idea of ‘free speech’ to incorporate the concept of justice. Indeed, in a context of media concentration, dominant powers (whether political, economic, religious, ideological, etc.) are the most represented and heard (because they are powerful or loud). Fair speech fosters speech equity for other voices that are often marginalised and/or censored to be heard. Fair speech therefore promotes an equitable access to expression (for example for women, historically marginalised groups, etc.), enabling an authentic diversity of voices. This concept was created by Betty McLellan in Unspeakable (Spinifex Press, 2010, Australia) and promoted by Susan Hawthorne in Bibliodiversity: A Manifesto for Independent Publishing (Spinifex Press, 2014, Australia).

The International Alliance of Independent Publishers calls on all international solidarity organisations to mobilise in Haiti. The Alliance will do do its outmost to support Haitian book professionals in the long-term, particularly librarians, publishers and booksellers, by joining forces with existing and future stakeholders in Haiti.

The importance of culture should be considered in the reconstruction process. In the Haïtian context, where symbolism has a special place, reinventing Haïti also involves supporting the arts and culture, particularly books and authors that promote the people’s complex and fascinating identity. A people cut off from its culture is a dead people.

Rodney Saint-Éloi, author and publisher member of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers

Ousmane Sy describes his journey, that of a negotiator extraordinaire, moving between action and reflection, between Africa and the world, between the past and the future. In this work from his lively and unapologetic pen dipped in personal experience, Ousmane Sy sets out real alternatives: an authentic decentralisation, a radical reform of the state, regional integration achieved by the people, the rethinking of international aid. What he offers us is a real project for Mali and Africa.

Ousmane SY is a doctor of economic and social development. He was a researcher at the Rural Economic Institute and headed up the UNDP programme in Mail, then piloted the Mission for Centralisation and Institutional Reform in Mali, before joining the governement as Minister of Territorial Adminstration and Local Communities, which gives him the opportunity to put his theoretical work into political practice. He has also created his own centre of expertise and advice, the Centre of Political and Institutional Expertise in Africa (CPIEA). Since 2002 he has been a coordinator for the Alliance for the Rethinking of Governance in Africa.

Preface: Pierre CALAME

Year of publication: 2009, 224 pages, 14 X 21,5 cm, ISBN: 978-2-84377-149-1

The Spanish-language network and the Portuguse-language network of the Alliance met in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) from 25 till 27 November 2009, during “la Primavera dos livros”. These meetings allowed both networks to build their respective initiative programme for 2010-2011 but also to strengthen the “regionalisation” of the Alliance, through an inter-network meeting.

The label “Fair Trade Book” is attributed by the International Alliance of independent publishers to works published in the context of international publishing agreements that respect each other’s particularities: fair co- publishing. These fair copublishings enable the sharing of costs linked to intellectual and physical production of books and therefore ensure an economy of scale; an exchange of professional know-how and a common experience, while respecting the publishers’ cultural contexts and identities; and a distribution of works on a broader scale by adjusting prices for each geographic zone.

Download the format epub here!