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Ignacio Ramonet Miguez (born 5 May 1943) is a Spanish academic, journalist and writer who has been based in Paris for much of his career. After becoming first known for writing on film and media, he became
editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
of ''
Le Monde diplomatique ''Le Monde diplomatique'' (meaning "The Diplomatic World" in French) is a French monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. The publication is owned by Le Monde diplomatique SA, a subsidiary com ...
'', serving from 1991 until March 2008. Under his leadership, LMD established editorial independence in 1996 from ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', with which it had been affiliated since 1954. Ramonet published an editorial in December 1997 in LMD on the
Tobin tax A Tobin tax was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. It was suggested by James Tobin, an economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Tobin's tax was originally intended to pen ...
that led to the launching of
ATTAC The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...
. This is an activist organization promoting taxation of foreign exchange transactions. In addition, Ramonet is one of the founders and president of the
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
Media Watch Global. He frequently contributes to ''
El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...
'', among other media, and participates in an advisory council to TeleSUR.


Life

Ramonet was born in
Redondela Redondela is a town in the province of Pontevedra, Galicia, northwestern Spain. The most famous icons of the village are its two major railway viaducts built in the nineteenth century. Due to these infrastructures Redondela is known under the nick ...
(Pontevedra), Spain, in 1943. He went to
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...
,
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
, to study engineering. He continued these studies at
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...
,
Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populatio ...
and
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. In Paris he earned a PhD in Semiology and the History of Culture, at
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
(School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences)- EHESS, one of the French Grande Écoles. He has been a professor of Communication Theory at Paris Diderot University. He also taught at the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
. He first started writing journalism as a film critic and writer about film for various magazines. Ramonet later wrote more frequently about media culture, communications, and national affairs, becoming associated with ''
Le Monde Diplomatique ''Le Monde diplomatique'' (meaning "The Diplomatic World" in French) is a French monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. The publication is owned by Le Monde diplomatique SA, a subsidiary com ...
'', started in 1954 as a monthly publication associated with the newspaper. He was elected as editor-in-chief in January 1991, serving to March 2008. Under his leadership, the magazine became editorially independent of ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' in 1996. It has been an independent critic outside academia of media culture and its ties to national society. In 2007 Ramonet participated in the
Stock Exchange of Visions {{Unreferenced, date=August 2007 The Stock Exchange of Visions is a project initiated in 2006 by Fabrica, Benetton's research center. It gathers visionaries from diverse nationalities and cultures, who hail from a wide range of specialties, to prov ...
project.


Opinions


Socialism

Ramonet says that it is a betrayal of
socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...
for some
social democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...
parties to have chosen the
third way The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from ...
between socialism and
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
.


Fidel Castro

The NGO
Reporters without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
had written about Ramonet's strong relationship with
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
. Ramonet denied this claim in 2002. In May 2004, Ramonet supported Castro in a direct television interview when Castro protested about ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' Magazine's list of country leaders' wealth. Castro was number 7 on the list. In 2006, Ramonet praised Castro in a series of articles in ''Foreign Policy'' journal. He was approved as Castro's only authorised biographer. In September 2006, Ramonet published ''Fidel Castro : Biografía a Dos Voces''.


Against globalization and neoliberalism

Ramonet has called for
autarky Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems. Autarky as an ideal or method has been embraced by a wide range of political ideologies and movements, especiall ...
and for
regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. ...
,
tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
es and
tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and p ...
s that reduce international trade.


ATTAC

According to Ramonet, globalization and ultra-liberalism threaten the sovereignty of national states. In his December 1997 editorial "Disarming the markets", Ramonet attributed the
Asian economic crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...
to globalization, and said that it threatened the identity of national states. To counter this, he called for an NGO to promote the
Tobin tax A Tobin tax was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. It was suggested by James Tobin, an economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Tobin's tax was originally intended to pen ...
on foreign exchange. He became a founder of
Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens' Action The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...
(
ATTAC The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...
).Vilka är franska Attac? - Globaliseringskritikernas gurus
, Johan Norberg, Liberal Debatt 1-2001


Works

* 1981 : ''Le Chewing-gum des yeux'' (French: ''Chewing Gum for the Eyes'') * 1989 : ''La Communication victime des marchands'' * 1995 : ''Cómo nos venden la moto'', with
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
* 1996 : ''Nouveaux pouvoirs, nouveaux maîtres du monde'' (French: ''New Powers, New World Masters'') * 1997 : ''Géopolitique du chaos'' (French: ''Geopolitics of Chaos'') * 1998 : ''Internet, el mundo que llega'' (Spanish: ''Internet, the Coming World'') * 1998 : ''Rebeldes, dioses y excluidos'' (Spanish: ''Rebels, Gods, and the Excluded''), with Mariano Aguirre * 1999 : ''La Tyrannie de la communication'' (French: ''The Tyranny of Communication'') * 1999 : ''Geopolítica y comunicación de final de milenio'' (Spanish: ''Geopolitics and Communication at the End of the Millennium'') * 2000 : ''La golosina visual'' * 2000 : ''Propagandes silencieuses'' * 2001 : ''Marcos, la dignité rebelle'' * 2002 : ''La Post-Télévision'' * 2002 : ''Guerres du XXIe siècle'' (''Wars of the 21st Century'') * 2004 : ''Abécédaire partiel et partial de la mondialisation'', with Ramón Chao and Wozniak * 2006: '' Fidel Castro: biografía a dos voces'' (Spanish: ''Fidel Castro: Biography with Two Voices'') also titled ''Cien horas con Fidel'' (''One Hundred Hours with Fidel'') *2007: ''Fidel Castro: My Life'', edited by Ignacio Ramonet, translated by Andrew Hurley, Allen Lane. * 2018, ''Cinco entrevistas a Noam Chomsky'' (''Le Monde Diplomatique'' / Editorial ''Aun Creemos en los Sueños'') by
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and ho ...
, Ignacio Ramonet, Daniel Mermet,
Jorge Majfud Jorge Majfud (born September 10, 1969) is a Uruguayan American writer. Life He was born in Tacuarembó, Uruguay. He received a professional degree in Architecture in 1996 from the University of the Republic in Montevideo and studied at Escuela ...
y Federico Kukso.


Articles

* !-- http://aithne.net/index.php?e=news&id -->https://mondediplo.com/2003/10/01media ''Set The Media Free'' by Ignacio Ramonet(2003)


See also

*
ATTAC The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...
*
Financial transaction tax A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a levy on a specific type of financial transaction for a particular purpose. The tax has been most commonly associated with the financial sector for transactions involving intangible property rather than re ...
*
Tobin tax A Tobin tax was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. It was suggested by James Tobin, an economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Tobin's tax was originally intended to pen ...


References


External links


Visions of Ignacio Ramonet (Video Interviews)
Stock Exchange Of Visions * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramonet, Ignacio 1943 births Living people People from Redondela Spanish essayists Spanish male writers Spanish journalists Writers from Galicia (Spain) Mass media theorists Anti-globalization writers Male essayists