[Hot Off the Press] Global Battlefields: My Close Encounters with Dictatorship, Capital, Empire, and Love

Deemed by Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa as “a raw and honest examination of what it takes to challenge power and money,” this new release from the Ateneo Press, Global Battlefields: My Close Encounters with Dictatorship, Capital, Empire, and Love follows the beginnings, the triumphs, the trials, and tribulations of renowned Filipino activist and academic, Walden Bello. 

In his own words, Bello recounts a life spent fighting injustice and oppression. His memoir provides a captivating recollection of his childhood raised by two artist parents, his education under Jesuits, his leadership of anti-war student protests at Princeton University, his dedication to the anti-dictatorship movement as part of the Communist Party of the Philippines, his time as a member of the House of Representatives for Akbayan, and many more acts done for the sake of what he believed was right. Readers will be given an engaging and eloquent inside perspective into the mind that has been at the forefront of movements against globalization and imperialism. 

Former senator Leila de Lima highlights the impressive writing of the author: “He is, as his autobiography exhibits, a literary giant, capable of breathing life and painting colors to what otherwise could have been just another political memoir devoid of character and soul. In these pages, Prof. Walden creates in words a real world of people and events that could all but have been lost to history, if not for the brilliance of his recollection and the erudition of his writing.”

Senator Risa Hontiveros notes how the book will be of great resource to present and future generations: “This memoir is both a compelling account of the achievements of Wal­den and his generation, and a candid discussion of their crises and failures. It is a must read for persons who have struggled and continue to struggle for a better future for all.”

At the heart of Global Battlefields is one man’s staunch commitment to global social justice, a commitment that has and will continue to inspire all those he encounters and all those who dare pick up this book to witness Bello’s tumultuous political journey and adventurous life for themselves. 

About the Author

Walden Bello is a retired professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines and the State University of New York at Binghamton. He served in the House of Representatives as a congressman for Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party from 2009 to 2015 and ran for vice president in the 2022 national elections.

Cofounder of Focus on the Global South, the leading progressive think tank in Southeast Asia, he is the author of twenty-six books, including Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines (1982), Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World Economy (2006), The Food Wars (2009), and Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far Right (2019). A recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 2003, he was also named Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender by Amnesty International Philippines in 2023.

Global Battlefields: My Close Encounters with Dictatorship, Capital, Empire, and Love is published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press under the Bughaw imprint. The book retails at PHP 895. It is available at the Ateneo University Press Bookshop in Bellarmine Hall, and the Press’s official Lazada and Shopee stores.

Get your copy in paperback: Website | Shopee and Lazada