After the collapse of the Soviet Union the bipolar cold-war world ended. The capitalist economy became truly global underwritten by the undisputable power of the US.  However, optimistic dreams of world peace and strengthened multilateralism didn’t materialize. Instead, countries pursue different strategies to move from unipolar US dominance to a multipolar world.  The BRICS is the attempt to create a non-western bloc. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative builds a China centered trade, finance and transport system. Russia wants to revert its decline through military force. Meanwhile, Europe tries to stop its relative decline by being the world largest trading bloc and a political soft power. The policy space of smaller countries is further eroded with the decline of multilateralism and rules-based arrangements.

As the massive trade deficit and the rising foreign and public debt are reaching unsustainable levels, the US under Trump tries to maintain and strengthen its top position in the global power hierarchy by shifting military costs to allies and to changing the global system of trade and tariffs.

The rearrangement of global forces and power relations is accompanied by increasing nationalism, arms races, and the risks of conflict including war while common global challenges like climate change, migration, health and poverty are neglected. With the re-emerge of the arms race also de-growth ideas need to answer how such policies can avoid higher military vulnerability.

Against this backdrop, this track invites papers that address the following questions:

• How is the global labour movement positioning itself in this changing geopolitical global landscape?
• What are the ideas, strategies and examples that prioritize international collaboration and solidarity over geopolitical confrontation?

The new authoritarian leaders do not come to power through military coups but through the ballot box. Disappointed from liberal democracy many citizens are voting for authoritarian strong men who promise decisive and disruptive measures. The widespread dissatisfaction grows out of frustration about inter alia stagnating or declining real wages, unaffordable housing, rising inequality, high levels of migration, rapid cultural changes, elite arrogance, devaluation of traditional ways of life, and relative loss of status and influence as the position of women, non-white ethnic groups and other minority groups improve.

By blaming minority groups, foreigners or woke-elites for societal problems, authoritarian leaders offer simple answers that mobilize resentment instead of offering real solutions. Their vision of the future often looks like the idealized paste of stable patriarchal world of cultural conformity and traditionalism.

The track invites papers that offer new perspectives and strategies at the international, regional and national level to address the following questions:

• How can labour become instead the voice of the dissatisfied and mobilize for progressive change?
• Are there successful strategies and examples of radical pragmatism that combine improvements of daily life with visionary dreams for sustainable societies of the free and equal?

The global economic system is subject to various crises that have made the international economic system fragile. First, it should be noted that neoliberal globalization, which gained momentum in the 1980s, has not fulfilled expectations of catch-up economic development in most countries of the Global South. Absolute poverty has declined, but in most countries of the Global South, the gap in real per capita income compared with countries in the Global North has widened. Many countries in the Global South have sold off prime assets in their industries and public utilities to foreign direct investors. This has resulted in high profit outflows. In global value chains or value systems, simple tasks are usually taken on, with most of the income going to the leading companies abroad. The trend towards oligopolies and oligopsonies has increased. There is also a tendency to outsource ecological problems from developed countries to the Global South. In many respects, there is an exploitative relationship between less developed and developed countries.

The deregulation of the financial system as part of the neoliberal model has led to dangerously high debt ratios – in terms of foreign debt in countries of the Global South, but in many countries of all country groups also in respect to government and the private sector. Military Keynesianism will have the tendency to increase debt quotas substantially. Overall, the global financial system is unstable, not only because of high debt and overvaluation of stock and real estate markets, but also because crypto currencies are gaining importance as a new financial market segments. In addition, the US dollar is potentially faltering as a stable international reserve currency, and there is a trend towards a multi-currency standard stimulated by geopolitical conflicts.

Track 3 invites papers that draw on a trade union/labour perspective in addressing the following questions:

• How can the globalization model be modified to allow sustainable catching-up of less developed countries in the Global South?
• How can global income distribution including the increasing concentration of rents and power in the hands of multinational companies be modified?
• How can the national and global financial system be made more stable and become an instrument to foster just transition?

The increasing intensity of the climate crisis threatens the life and livelihoods of millions of working people and their families. At the heart of what Adam Tooze called a climate emergency is an outrageous triple inequality: those who have contributed the least to environmental degradation are the most affected by this crisis and have the fewest resources for mitigation and adaptation.

Despite numerous global climate agreements and high-level meetings and commitments the climate goals appear increasingly illusory. Instead of energy transition, we are witnessing an energy expansion—an increase in both fossil fuels and renewables, fueled also by new geopolitical dynamics of national rivalry and increased militarization, which is responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.  

Confronting the climate crisis may require radical thinking beyond the green growth paradigm and other technical solutions that ignore the intensive extractivism involved in producing the infrastructure for renewables.

An economy that cares for people and the planet raises questions whose answers will be different for countries with different levels of development. It requires going beyond the state vs. private debate and developing new visions for inclusive and democratic socio-ecological transformations. Track 4 invites papers that stimulate debate and engage with the following questions:

• What sectors of the economy should grow? And which production should be stopped?
• How can we achieve an environmentally friendly, pro-poor growth economy where the income of those in need can rise while downscaling overconsumption for the sake of consumption?
• What political and macro-economic debates are needed for such changes?
• What transformative visions are emerging from the current resistance to the climate crisis and what is the role of workers and their organizations? How do questions of environmental justice and social justice intertwine in such struggles?
• Are there prospects for the emergence of long-term alliances that can push for these socio-ecological transformations?