Global University for Sustainability | Sep 17, 2026
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We are living through a moment of profound crisis. From the ongoing genocide in Palestine to the U.S.-backed war on Iran, from the weaponization of debt and food dependency to the digital surveillance of whole populations, the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Americas face a brazen return to imperial domination. The very possibility of self-determination – the right of communities and nations to determine their own futures – is under direct assault.
Yet even in this dark conjuncture, alternatives are being built. From Venezuelan communes and Mexican solidarity economies to Iranian financial decoupling and Burkina Faso’s progressive turn, from peasant movements reclaiming food sovereignty to feminist and indigenous struggles defending life and territory, communities across the Tricontinental are, in practice, engaging in what Samir Amin called delinking.
What is delinking?
Samir Amin (1931–2018) – Franco-Egyptian economist, founding member of CODESRIA, the Third World Forum, The World Forum for Alternatives, and the Global University for Sustainability – argued that the countries of the Global South cannot hope to raise living standards if they continue to adjust their development strategies to the trends of a fundamentally unequal global capitalist system. The alternative is to delink: to prioritize community-centred social justice, ecological survival, and collective self-determination over capitalist global imperatives. Delinking is not national isolation or autarky. It is the strategic subordination of external relations to internal priorities of liberation and life.
Why now?
We are confronting not just an economic crisis, but a crisis of civilization – a terminal phase of senile capitalism that threatens the very survival of humanity and the planet. As the old order decays, it becomes more violent, more chaotic, more desperate to maintain its dominance. In this moment, the question of delinking is not academic. It is urgent. It is necessary. And it is already being practiced in struggles across the world.
Announcing the Webinar Series
We are launching Delinking for Self-Determination and Solidarity, a tricontinental dialogue that brings together scholars, activists, and community organizers from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe to ask: What does Samir Amin’s concept of delinking mean for our struggles today?
The series is organized by seven co-organizers:
- Global University for Sustainability
- CCRD-CS, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
- Daraja Press
- ALBA Movements
- National University of Communes, Venezuela
- Southern School of Social Policy, UFES, Brazil
- Network for Post-Capitalism Studies, Mexico
The webinars are scheduled for five Saturdays:
- 26 September 2026 (Launch)
- 31 October 2026
- 28 November 2026
- 30 January 2027
- 27 February 2027
Time: UTC 13:00 (Mexico City 07:00 / Caracas 09:00 / São Paulo 10:00 / Dakar 13:00 / New Delhi 18:30 / Bangkok 20:00 / Hong Kong 21:00)
Duration: 2 hours
Languages: English / Spanish (with simultaneous interpretation), and others if necessary
Platform: Zoom
Register here:
https://lingnan.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UidL-uydSGC8GobdLz8lmQ
Inaugural Webinar: 26 September 2026
The first webinar will launch the dialogue, with initiators and speakers from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, exploring what delinking means across diverse geographic contexts and struggles:
- India: democratic education and knowledge commons
- Mexico: solidarity economy and Zapatista grassroots autonomy
- Venezuela: the Bolivarian communal revolution
- Brazil: economic structural constraints and resistance
- China: young generations and rural-urban commoning practices
- Africa: experiences of delinking and Pan-African emancipation
These presentations are intended to open questions that will be developed in later webinars. We envision these sessions not as lectures, but as occasions for deep, collegial exchange – genuine dialogue across continents and across struggles.
Moderator:
- Firoze Manji (Daraja Press, Kenya/Canada)
Speakers:
- Anita Rampal (University of Delhi, India)
- Claudia Caballero (Multitrueke Mixiuhca Network, Mexico)
- Ebrima Sall & Jean-Bernard Ouedraogo
- Han Yuchen (Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China)
- Hernán Vargas (National University of Communes, Venezuela)
- Lau Kin Chi (Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China; Global University for Sustainability)
- Rémy Herrera (National Center of Scientific Research, France/Cuba)
- Rogério Faleiros (Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil)
- Sit Tsui Jade Margaret (Southwest University, China)
We Invite You to Participate
This is an open dialogue. We warmly welcome you to join us on September 26 – as a participant, a discussant, or simply a listener. We also invite you to share this announcement widely with your networks, friends, colleagues, students, and comrades.
The questions we generate together are more important than the answers we provide.
Register here:
https://lingnan.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UidL-uydSGC8GobdLz8lmQ
In solidarity,
Kin Chi Lau and Firoze Manji
On behalf of the Organizing Team
Delinking for Self-Determination and Solidarity
Global University for Sustainability