Ben Turok Memorial Lecture

With Ben Turok’s passing in December 2019, South Africa lost a voice that gave expression to the cry for liberty for more than seven decades. IFAA launched the annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture in his honour.

Although Prof Turok was an engineer by profession, his calling was politics, more properly, the political struggle for a society marked by equality and fundamental rights for all. He was foremost an activist but also a lecturer at universities in several countries, a Member of Parliament in South Africa’s first democratically elected parliament and a renowned debater, speaker and political analyst. Through his writings and interviews he not only articulated the aspirations of South Africa’s disenfranchised majority during the Apartheid era but was also a strong advocate for economic self-sufficiency after the transition in 1994. After retiring as parliamentarian, Prof Turok devoted his time to IFAA.

Ben Turok Memorial Lecture 2024

Dr Kumi Naidoo, human rights and climate justice activist

The world no longer has the time to indulge in pessimism or denialism as we get ever closer to the climate crisis cliff, and the urgent task at hand is to revise -- and revitalise -- the thinking of activists, academics and leftists world-wide who have taken on the responsibility of being changemakers in pursuit of a more just global order. This was the challenge thrown out to the civil society community by decades-long human rights and climate justice activist, Dr Kumi Naidoo, who delivered the fourth Ben Turok Memorial Lecture in Cape Town on 9 December 2024 on the anniversary of Turok’s passing in 2019.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxD_PXemyTM

Ben Turok Memorial Lecture 2023

Prof. Jayati Ghosh, renowned development economist and Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

In the third annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture, Prof. Jayati Ghosh honoured IFAA’s founder as a global inspiration. Her lecture titled ‘Climate Imperialism: How can the rest of the world respond?’ delivered a powerful critique of climate imperialism, highlighting how Global North countries frame climate negotiations in ways that protect their excessive consumption while disadvantaging poorer nations. She argued that rich countries, responsible for 80% of historical carbon emissions despite comprising only 14% of the population, continue to evade their responsibilities through deceptive, production-based emissions measures and misguided “adaptation” strategies that often worsen the problem. Prof. Ghosh emphasised that climate change is driven by inequality, with the wealthiest 1% responsible for 15% of current emissions, and called for global cooperation among low- and middle-income countries, progressive multilateralism, and taxing the ultra-rich to fund sustainable development. She maintained that combating both poverty and climate change is achievable, but only through systemic change, redistribution, and strong coalitions across global divides to challenge entrenched power and privilege.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIqHtgvCZ2M

Ben Turok Memorial Lecture 2022

Yanis Varoufakis, renowned radical economist and former Greek Finance Minister

In his lecture titled ‘Africa in the Face of the New Cold War and the West’s New Colonial Escapade’, Prof. Varoufakis compared the 1929 stock market crash and the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis, noting their shared collapse of financial systems but contrasting responses: banks were allowed to fail in 1929, while in 2008, they were bailed out. Prof. Varoufakis critiqued austerity as a self-defeating neo-liberal tool that deepens deficits by destroying livelihoods and shrinking tax revenues. Drawing on Greece’s experience under the IMF and EU's Structural Adjustment Programme, he argued that austerity, privatization, and global financial flows function as modern forms of colonialism, enriching elites and dispossessing the poor. He warned that such policies fuel global fascism and inequality, and called for a new non-aligned movement and a reimagined global financial order, proposing investments in green energy, public services, and an end to financial monopoly to restore democratic control over economies.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TJcrtZ0r1U

Ben Turok Memorial Lecture 2021

Prof. Ha-Joon Chang, Economist and Author

In his lecture, Prof. Chang, echoing the spirit of Ben Turok, delivered a powerful critique of economic orthodoxy and neo-liberalism, arguing that these frameworks have hindered development in the Global South since the 1980s. He emphasized that economics should be used to change the world, not just explain it, and praised Turok for challenging South Africa’s adoption of neo-liberal policies like GEAR. Tracing the history of capitalism and state-led development, Prof. Chang highlighted how post-colonial nations used industrial policy and protectionism to foster growth before being derailed by IMF and World Bank-imposed reforms. He refuted the myth that neo-liberalism brought efficiency, pointing to increased inequality and slower growth. Despite today’s global constraints, Prof. Chang insisted that developing countries still have policy space to pursue industrialisation, regulate foreign investment, and build sustainable, inclusive economies. He called on policymakers to reject fatalism, embrace historical lessons, and innovate for a more equitable future.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tqwxHzkYOw