Global Poverty, Injustice, and Resistance

Each year, millions of people die from poverty-related causes. In this groundbreaking and thought-provoking book, Gwilym David Blunt argues that the only people who will end this injustice are its victims, and that the global poor have the right to resist the causes of poverty. He explores how the right of resistance is used to reframe urgent political questions: is illegal immigration a form of resistance? Can transnational social movements, such as the indigenous rights movement, provide the foundations for civil resistance to global poverty? If peaceful resistance fails, is armed struggle justified? Do people living in affluent states have a responsibility to help even if it requires them to break the law? Giving clear historical examples and engaging with fields including philosophy, international law, history, and international political studies, this volume addresses real-world issues from terrorism to activism. It will be important for anyone interested in applied philosophy and global injustice.

Introduction: an unavoidable gaze; 1. Global poverty, justice, and intransigent non-compliance; 2. The right to resistance; 3. Does global poverty trigger the right to resistance?; 4. Illegal immigration as resistance to global poverty; 5. Transnational social movements, solidarity, and resistance; 6. Redistributive war as resistance; 7. Armed struggle and global poverty; 8. Duties of resistance; Conclusion: an inescapable choice.

Gwilym David Blunt is Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London. His work has been published in International Theory, Politics, and Human Rights Quarterly.