Anti‐racist Practice and the Work of Community Food Organizations

Whiteness enables the coherence of an alliance organized to promote community food security and sustainable farming. This unnamed presence shapes a discourse identifying the focus of struggle as well as resource allocation, conference form and content, list serv discussions, staffing and programming. Unacknowledged white privilege gives the lie to the movement's rhetoric of justice, good intentions and sustainability. And yet it is clear that racism is an organizing process in the food system: people of color disproportionately experience food insecurity, lose their farms and face the dangerous work of food processing and agricultural labor. Critical analyses of social movements argue that a failure to confront difference undermines progressive change efforts. The paper provides evidence of how the community food movement reproduces white privilege and proposes ways it might engage with anti‐racism.     

'Not to do less but to do better. . .': French military policy in Africa

France's Africa policy has undergone significant change in recent years, particularly in its military aspects. In practical terms troop numbers have fallen; bases have closed; and financial and military resources have been reallocated or redirected. Politically, the will for forceful, unilateral French action in Africa seems largely to have dissipated. However, this does not mean that France seeks to disengage from the African continent. Rather, multilateral initiatives for maintaining influence are sought, including the possibility of diplomatic and potentially military action alongside the United Kingdom. However, it remains to be seen whether these policy reorientations will suffice to fulfil Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's dictum: 'not to do less but to do better'.