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First hand account of 25 hibakushas, survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. They include soldiers, doctors, nurses, students, housewives, small children, Koreans brought to Japan for forced labour, and victims who were yet unborn.
When receiving of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 1991 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award, the Dalai Lama advocated total nuclear disarmament as a pre-requisite for the goals of demilitarization and the ending of all national forms of military establishment.
The Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit declaration that brought together a network of Indigenous Peoples from different areas that have been negatively impacted by the nuclear chain. This includes Uranium mining in the Grants Mineral Belt; northern Saskatchewan; the areas near the Sequoyah Fuels Uranium Processing Plant, and the Prairie Island Power Plant.
On Polish worker occupation to prevent closure of a factory, supported by local community and anarchist groups.
This Open Society Foundations fact sheet provides information on instances of forced sterilization of racial and ethnic minorities, poor women, women living with HIV, and women with disabilities in Chile, Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Mexico, Namibia, Kenya, Peru, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uzbekistan. It also provides recommendations for governments, medical professionals, UN agencies, and donors on how to end the practice of forced and coerced sterilization.
Notes that the Faslane Peace Camp has existed for 29 years 'on the frontline against Britain's nuclear weapons', has been home to hundreds over the years, and has been a centre for direct action against nuclear weapons.
This issue of the Journal published six articles assessing the regional uprisings. Michele Dunne 'After the Arab Spring: Caught in History's Crosswinds' suggests that despite difficulties in understanding the failures of the 'Spring' some lessons can be drawn; Michael Robbins 'After the Arab Spring: People Still Want Democracy' argues that data from the Arab Barometer suggested most Arabs still want democratic government; Marc Lynch, 'After the Arab Spring: How the Media Trashed the Transitions examines how the media that supported deposing dictators 'can make it harder to build democracy'; Charles Kurxzman and Didem Turkoglu 'After the Arab Spring: Do Muslims Vote Islamic Now?' assess whether Islamic parties have become more popular than they were before 2011, and Mieczslaw P. Boduszynski, Kristin Fabbe and Christopher Lamont, 'After the Arab Spring : Are Secular Parties the Answer?' examine sceptically whether the existing secular parties are equipped to play a positive role. (The sixth article on Tunisia is listed under E.V.B.b.2. Tunisia.)
Edited every two years on the occasion of the European Union and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-CELAC) Summit, this fifth edition of the series ‘Feminicide: A Global Phenomenon’ addresses the chapter on gender from the Action Plan, and points to other initiatives aiming at eradicating feminicide/femicide, and also inspiring the implementation of the Action Plan EU-CELAC on this matter.
This supplement on Syria provides a time line and other helpful contextual information about the complex developments in Syria from 2011-15, as well as an analysis of the role of civic activism in rebel held territory. The issue includes a discussion of artistic creativity since 2011, stories of individual journalists opposing Assad or ISIS, of a doctor treating victims of chemical attack, a teacher under ISIS, and an article on the White Helmets.
See also: Abbas, Omar, 'Dr Jalal Nofal: Connecting Relief Work and Civil Activism in Syria', War Resisters’ International, 11 Nov, 2016
https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2016/dr-jalal-nofal-connecting-relief-work-and-civil-activism-syria
An account of the leftist political background of Dr Nofal, his nonviolent resistance (including arrests and imprisonment), and his medical initiatives as a psychiatrist in Damascus from 2011-14. He was smuggled out of Syria early in 2015, but continued from a border town in Turkey to broadcast, to offer training for social workers and support for refugees, and also to help social workers inside Syria.
This publication focuses on the role of the Japanese hibakusha’s (atomic bomb survivors) experience in advocating for a Treaty that could ban nuclear weapons. It also discusses the impact of nuclear weapons on the environment as well as the human body, and offers arguments that delegitimise nuclear violence.
This report by the feminist civil society body, Urgent Action Fund of Latin America and the Caribbean, focuses on the role of women in protecting and defending nature, and warns of increasing risks to their lives and environment. The report discusses ‘the extractive model’ and the social-environmental conflicts it creates, and also the disturbing militarization and violations of women’s rights, including those defending their environment. The report outlines proposals made by women for defence of territory, and also stresses the diversity of the approaches, organizations and activities developed by Latin American women.
Discusses the deadly forms of violence against women in Latin America, the current development of the launching of the Latin America Model Protocol in 2014 by UN Women and the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and the most recent updates on the legislation by Latin American countries.
To access the last Survey on gender-based violence in Latin America, please see http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/highlights/2016/highlight-rn63.html
Highlights the organisation and impact of the October 19, 2016 Strike in Argentina - the first women’s strike in the history of the country (and Latin America), which alone mobilised 250,000 people in Buenos Aires. The strike inspired by the same initiative taken by Polish women, which extended to many countries in the world thanks to the coordination of groups activities, petitions sent to the UN and manifestos.
Discusses the deadly forms of violence against women in Latin America, developments since the launching of the Latin America Model Protocol in 2014 by UN Women and the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and the most recent updates on the legislation by Latin American countries.
To access the last Survey on gender-based violence in Latin America, please see http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/highlights/2016/highlight-rn63.html
Joint initiative between the government of Cuba, ECLAC and the Federation of Cuban Women that saw government authorities, international officials and representatives of civil society in Havana assess the existing policies in favour of gender equality and women’s rights that have been implemented over the past 40 years in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. They also debated the main challenges that lie ahead.
Amnesty International report on legislative measures taken by Nigeria to ensure the protection of the rights of women and girls. It also highlights gender-based violence resulting from displacements and armed conflict; and forced evictions which led to the disproportionate loss of livelihoods for women, and to gender based violence. Finally, Amnesty reports the use of rape and other forms of sexual violence by the police.
Discusses the deadly forms of violence against women in Latin America, the current development of the launching of the Latin America Model Protocol in 2014 by UN Women and the High Commissioner of Human Rights, and the most recent updates on the legislation by Latin American countries.
To access the last Survey on gender-based violence in Latin America, please see http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/about-us/highlights/2016/highlight-rn63.html
Stressing the need to create inter-agency agreements, the 2017 Economic Commission for the Latin America and the Caribbean’s report on femicide shows that Brazil topped the list of femicides (with 1,133 victims confirmed in 2017). In 2016, Honduras recorded 5.8 femicides for every 100,000 women. In Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia, high rates were also seen in 2017, equal to or above 2 cases for every 100,000 women. In the region, only Panama, Peru and Venezuela have rates below 1.0. In the Caribbean, four countries accounted for a total of 35 femicide victims in 2017: Belize (9 victims), the British Virgin Islands (1), Saint Lucia (4) and Trinidad and Tobago (21). In the same year, Guyana and Jamaica — which only have data on intimate femicides — reported the deaths of 34 and 15 women, respectively, at the hands of their current or former partners. In 2017, the rates of intimate femicides in Latin America ranged between a maximum of 1.98 for every 100,000 women in the Dominican Republic, to a minimum of 0.47 in Chile.
Reports on death in custody of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was prominent in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration and continued to defy the regime. He was serving an 11-year sentence for his role in promoting Charter 08 in 2008, calling for multi-party democracy. The report elaborates on his life and the responses to his death.
Provides a basic account of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the censorship that followed, the setting up of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, the birth of the movement led by the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) and the perception of them in the United States
Discusses the anti-nuclear weapons movements in the late 1950s, for example the Committee for Non-Violent Action, and the shift of focus, from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s to the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War by many local and national peace groups in the United States. In the late 1970s and 1980s Europe and the United States experienced a resurgence of concern over nuclear weapons.
Report on meeting held in conjunction with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature which was part of mobilization around People's Climate march and UN Climate summit in New York City 2014.
This supplement contains a number of articles exploring the nature of 'Putinism', the degree of regime stability, the extent of genuine popular support, and the implications of Putin’s post 2014 international policy for Russia internally. Authors provide varied perspectives, including an assessment of increasing popular frustration, especially among young people.
Explores the struggles and campaigns on anti-sexual harassment and gender equality led by Li Maizi in China - where she was arrested for more than a month as part of the Feminist Five – and the UK, where she came visiting on the occasion of the Million Women Rise demonstration in London.
Campaign by Veterans For Peace (founded in the US in 1985) to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons for divestment from corporations manufacturing nuclear weapons, and their endorsement of the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017. Their campaigns include: ‘The Golden Rule’ educational project, ‘Disarm Trident’, and ‘Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
TRT World journalist, Dimitri O’Donnell interviews Adriana Cely Verdadero, a women’s rights activist, and Ana Guezmes Garcia, a representative of UN Women Colombia, who provide background to the exhibition dedicated to the victims of femicide in Colombia and the gaps the social and political systems need to fill. Published on 16 December 2017 on YouTube.
Provides information on the legal framework on femicide of most Latin American countries up to 2017.
This is a detailed day by day account of the activities of the Scottish civil society team at the negotiations in New York from 15 June to 24 June and 29 June to 7 July based on the blog kept by the Scottish delegation. The group received regular briefings and lobbied delegates involved in the negotiations, but also attended external meetings and protests organized by peace activists.
The Report examines through a gender-lens perspective the progress and challenges that are needed to be implemented in order to achieve all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
After summarizing the dire economic and social conditions among the 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza (70 per cent of whom are registered as refugees from other parts of Israeli territory) after years of blockade and damage from military attacks, Amnesty focuses on the destructive Israeli military reaction to the Great March.
See also: Wispelwey, Bram and Yasser Abu Jamel. 'The Great March of Return: Lessons from Gaza on Mass Resistance and Mental Health', HHR: Health and Human Rights Journal, vol. 22 no. 1 (June 2020), pp. 179-86.
The article describes how the blockade and Israeli attacks have undermined mental health in the community. The authors assess the positive impact on communal mental health created initially by the March of Return resistance movement. But they argue that this has been offset by the impact of death, disability and trauma many have suffered as a result, and by the longer-term failure to achieve better conditions. The authors then examine what health workers can learn about the 'psychosocial consequences of community organizing’.
The Third Committee’s (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) report on the advancement of women worldwide. The Third Committee had before it the report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (document A/73/38). Also before the Committee were reports of the Secretary-General on Trafficking in women and girls (document A/73/263); intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilation (document A/73/266); intensifying efforts to end obstetric fistula within a generation (document A/73/285) and intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls (document A/73/294). The Committee also had before it a report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences on violence against women in politics (document A/73/301).
Reports on how women in Bolivia, Brazil, Honduras and Mexico who are willing to hold public offices experience violence and do react against intimidation.
Relevant document on political violence against women for each of these countries can be found below.
International: INCLUDE PDF; http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm
Bolivia: http://observatorioparidaddemocratica.oep.org.bo/ (Spanish). For further readings, please see http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/11/take-five-katia-uriona
Brazil: http://www.brasil5050.org.br/ (Portuguese)
Mexico: https://www.gob.mx/conavim/documentos/protocolo-para-la-atencion-de-la-violencia-contra-las-mujeres-en-razon-de-genero-2017; http://mexico.unwomen.org/es/digiteca/publicaciones/2017/10/protocolo-oaxaca
Traces the most important steps that in the last 40 years have shaped the public debates and attitudes towards abortion, until the 25th May 2018 referendum that legalised it in Ireland.
See also http://time.com/5286910/ireland-abortion-laws-history/
Analyses the referendum and the 66.4 per cent vote to repeal the amendment to the Irish Constitution forbidding abortion.
See also:
Emma Graham Harrison '"The future is safe" - a long fight pays off', Guardian Weekly, 10/06/18, p. 4-5, which looks back at 35 years of courageous campaigning, and Karl McDonald, 'Irish battle goes global: Abortion campaigners from around the world are intervening in referendum', the i, 19 May 2018, p.35.
This issue is focused on the roles of long established environmental NGOs (ENGOs), which often act as lobbying and advocacy groups seeking to influence government policy, and the potential of more radical campaigning groups. The introduction examines the implications of both approaches, as well as possible relations between ENGOs and protest movements. Other articles explore the role, strength and weaknesses of specific organizations, such as Friends of the Earth, and the problems as well as the benefits of transnational mobilization (as at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit). Topics covered include: an assessment of the effectiveness of transferring the US model of using the law to promote public interest environmental concerns to a European setting; the expansion of ENGOs in France; and a discussion of how to avoid conflicts of interest between indigenous peoples (concerned about economic opportunities) and environmental activists in Australia.
Press release on the report published on 23 February by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The report argues that the UK violates the rights of women in Northern Ireland by unduly restricting their access to abortion. It shows how thousands of women and girls in Northern Ireland are subjected to grave and systematic violations of rights through being compelled to either travel outside Northern Ireland to procure a legal abortion or to carry their pregnancy to term.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/23/northern-ireland-abortion-law-violates-womens-rights-says-un-committee; https://humanism.org.uk/2018/02/23/northern-ireland-abortion-law-breaches-womens-rights-says-un/ and https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/abortion-northern-ireland-un-women-human-rights-a8819306.html
Analysis of the new small unions that are mobilizing workers not previously organized, such as domestic workers (often migrants), and older unions extending their reach to cover young workers in fast food chains, delivering food or driving for Uber. The contributors discuss what is distinctive about the style of the unionism - for example its decentralised leadership and willingness to en gage in occupations, and its support from other campaigning groups. The focus is on the UK but within a context of global solidarity with similar campaigns. There is also a timeline from 2008 to 2018 highlighting key struggles including by the long established major unions.
A submission advocating the need for the people of Northern Ireland to access free, safe and legal local abortions facilities regardless of their ability, ethnicity, income level, migration status, or geographic location.
Greenhouse was established in 2006 to 'use the power of communications to drive positive social and environmental change.’ This report covers eight diverse 2018 campaigns which Greenhouse participated in. These include international media campaigns to pressure world major insurance companies to stop insurers covering coal mines and power plants, and promoting ethical banking. It also includes campaigns on environmentally aware farming methods.
Provides recent data uncovered by the United Nations on femicide in Honduras. It also connects the occurrence of femicide, and the lack of effective measures to tackle it, to political and economic instability, which lead many people to flee the country.
To see the consequences of femicide in terms of the children made orphans in Honduras, have a look at this link https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Thousands-of-Children-Orphaned-in-Honduras-By-Femicides-Study-20180912-0010.html
Report on the first sentencing of a man to prison and to payment of damages to the victim for a case of aggravated sexual harassment toward a 15-year old young woman. It also recalls one controversial case that motivated the rise of the movement NiUnaMenos.
Massive demonstration in the Peruvian capital, Lima, organized by the Assembly of Women and Diversities and the NGO Ni Una Menos (Not One More), which involved 20 human rights groups demanding justice for women, following the acquittal of a man accused of rape who negotiated with the authorities for his release.
Argues that movements sparked by alleged rape accusations could be the most powerful force for equality since women's suffrage' and discusses their impact and challenges in politics and business in the US.
See also more detailed articles on the same issue: ‘#MeToo and politics; Truth and Consequences', pp. 36-37, and 'American business after Weinstein: Behind closed doors', pp. 59-60.
Records the approval of the Micaela Law in December 2018, which made the training on gender and violence against women mandatory for all state officials and workers. It also summarises the key points of the Law.
Under the slogan "Now is the time: Rural and urban activists transform the lives of women", UN Women draw attention to the work of the movement of women activists in Colombia and the circumstances they have to face on a daily basis.
This short video shows Bolivian President, Evo Morales announcing the creation of a Defence Cabinet specialised in tackling violence against women and in supporting grassroots efforts. This video situates Bolivia’s move within the wider international context of governments integrating women’s liberation into the executive branch, taking inspiration from countries such as Cuba and Vietnam, which have done the same. In the video, RT producer, Cale Holmes, analyses how, despite an increase in femicide, violence against women and reactionary backlash in Bolivia, the government under Evo Morales was supporting women’s struggle.
Reports on the revival of the #NiUnaMenos movement following the acquittal of two men accused of sexual violence and the murder of 16-year old Lucia Perez in the coastal city of Mar del Plata. It also provides data on femicide since 2008.
For the same event, see also http://time.com/5472053/argentina-protest-lucia-perez-ni-una-menos/.
Discusses Australia’s decision to hold a national inquiry into workplace sexual harassment as part of the government’s response to the ‘Me Too’ movement.
Describes a new generation of student activists who are waging a struggle against harassment and sexual discrimination in universities through strikes, occupations and protests. When the article was published many university buildings were still being occupied. Polls showed public support and the government promised to meet some (but not all) of the students’ demands.
Introductory article by Amy Hall summarises the growth of BLM in the USA, discusses its global potential and spread to other countries, and notes the relevance of BLM in the UK. Jamilah King comments on the US movement, both on its strengths and the divisions within it. Other articles examine how BLM relates to a history of 'a policy of black extermination' in Brazil, and to the struggle by Aboriginal people in Australia.
In this special issue on race in the US, Michele Morris recounts how demographic changes across the US are challenging white Americans’ perception of their majority status. She also discusses attempts to re-create a narrative that could reflect more than white Christian ethnicity as the only identity framework of US history. Michael A. Fletcher reports the personal stories of people of colour who had suffered traumatic experiences of stop-and-search by police officers on the basis of their racial profile. Clint Smith examines two major and prestigious colleges that have experienced a recent surge in enrolment of black youth and the rise of new forms of Black activism. Finally, Maurice Bergers reports on the work by photographer Omar Victor Dopi on slave revolts, independence movements, social justice quests. The events represented range from 18th century’s Queen Nanny of the Maroons, known for her ability to lead Jamaican slaves to liberation from British colonialism, to 21st century’s 12 year-old Trayvon Martin, whose shooting by a white neighborhood watch volunteer inspired the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Notes a new Moroccan law - Law 103.13 on the elimination of violence against women - that criminalises violence against women. The law was approved by Parliament on 14th February 2018 and entered into force in September 2018 and punishes various types of violence committed both in the private and public spheres, including rape, sexual harassment and domestic abuse. However, it was criticized for not outlawing marital rape or spousal violence, and failing to provide a precise definition of domestic violence.
See also https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/morocco-violence-women-law-effect-180912061837132.html and https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/violence-against-women-morocco-girls/
Reports on the Nobel Peace Prize jointly awarded to Nadia Murad, a Yazidi in Iraq who was made a sex slave by Isis and wrote a book, The Last Girl, on her experience, and Dr. Mukwege in the Democratic Republic of Congo who runs a hospital that has treated over 40,000 women and children, survivors of rape and mutilation by militias. He has survived an assassination attempt in 2012.
See also: 'Nobel winner vows to use honour in fight to protect Congolese women', Observer, 7 October 2018, pp. 28-9.
Afro-Colombian women are documenting testimonies for use by the new online observatory, VigiaAfro, created to report on and raise awareness about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against Afro-descendants. MADRE is an international women's human rights organization working in partnership with community-based women's organizations worldwide in contexts of conflict, disasters, and their aftermath. It operates within the framework of a project entitled, Afro-Colombian Community Initiative for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace in Colombia.
See also http://aapf.org/historical-invisibility-of-afrocolombian-women-english.
Initiative by women’s rights organisations in El Salvador who gathered outside the Attorney General’s Office to protest against the surge in femicides, gender-based violence and a chain of unsolved crimes.
Highlights the initiatives undertaken by the EU and the UN in Guatemala and Mexico to tackle violence against women and girls. Other Latin American countries that are part of the project are El Salvador, Argentina and Honduras.
Highlights the initiative ‘Guatemala Safe City’ as part of the UN Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Initiative to tackle sexual harassment in Guatemala.
This report sets out Amnesty International’s concerns about the Mexican state’s failure to comply with observations of the Committee (in the combined seventh and eighth periodic reports) on violence against women. Amnesty notes in particular the murder of women for gender-based motives, also known as “femicides”, the gender alert mechanism, disappearances of women, and the torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of women during detention, which is exacerbated in the context of a militarization of public security.
Brief account of the initiative of Moni Rani Das, a Dalit woman living in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who started advocating for nearly 3 million Dalit women living in the country and became the first Dalit woman sitting on the National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh. Her activism is a source of empowerment for 120 million women altogether that live in South Asia and contributed to the transnational activism of FEDO, Feminist Dalit Organisation based in Nepal, which formed connection with the UN’s Women Fund for Gender Equality; more local organisations such as Nagorik Uddyog in Bangladesh, Swadhikar and Asia Dalit Rights Forum in India; and the Human Development Organization (HDO) in Sri Lanka. By predominantly promoting women’s economic rights, FEDO’s activity constitutes a protection against gender-based violence against Dalit women.
Brief overview on the recent rise in feminist activity, on the advances of women in jobs and their role within the judiciary. It focuses especially on the new role for women religious scholars.
Exlores femicide in Guatemala with particular reference to violence experienced by indigenous women.
See also https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/femicide-in-mexico-and-guatemala/
In this seminar, the impact of #MeToo was discussed in relation to the UK and Japan. The speakers outlined the implications and effects that the movement has had across each society and the extent to which it may impact government policies and legislation. The discussion also noted the challenges that the movement faces in both Japan and the UK.
A link to the video of the Conference can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XqL--SOaJI
A summary of two presentation can be read here http://dajf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Metoo-event-write-up.pdf
Reports on one of the most infamous case of a 68-year old woman who was killed by her partner, which gave rise to widespread protests against femicide in Uruguay. Uruguay’s penal code introduced femicide only in April 2018.
Describes Mexican activists that are collecting signatures to declare October 24 Dia de Muertas in order to create awareness of the three thousand femicides that occur every year. Human rights organizations hope the new commemorative day would draw international attention to the impunity surrounding the rising number of gender-based crimes.
Rita Segato, an Argentine-Brazilian academic and one of the most celebrated Latin American feminists, comments on the biases still affecting cases of femicide in Latin America due to the hyper machismo culture. She also discusses the need to unite academics working in the field of Communication, journalists and editors in order to promote discourses that encourage women to be seen as political actors rather than merely as victims.
Account of two major struggles by local people in conjunction with a wide range of external activists to defend their local territory: 1. against building a new airport near Nantes in France by ZAD (Zones a Defendre) and 2. against a high-speeed rail line (Treno ad Alta Velocita) in northern Italy by No TAV. The resistance has developed into alternative forms of social and economic organization within the defended territories. The book discusses the role of different strategies and tactics, and how to maintain alliances between diverse groups through dialogue.
See also: Jordan, John, 'Battle of the ZAD', Red Pepper, Jun-Jul 2018, pp. 24-29
Following the kidnapping of more than 200 girls in April 2014 by the Muslim extremist group Boko Haram, the campaign #BringBackOurGirls started and was supported worldwide. In this New York Times’ special more than a hundred girls who have been released four years later are photographed and some of their stories are narrated.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/21/boko-haram-returns-some-of-the-girls-it-kidnapped-last-month; https://www.dw.com/en/inside-boko-haram-chibok-girls-as-status-symbols/a-18677263;
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/meet-metoo-activists-one-worlds-hostile-environments/; https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbpxn9/boko-haram-has-kidnapped-another-110-teenage-girls and https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/07/john-simpson-can-anyone-bring-back-nigeria-s-lost-girls
In 2018, the documentary ‘Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram was released. To purchase the documentary, visit HBO official website https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/stolen-daughters-kidnapped-by-boko-haram
See the official website of #BRingBackOurGirls campaign here https://bringbackourgirls.ng/
The survey reports on the worst countries in the world for women in terms of health (e.g. maternal mortality, lack of access to health care facilities, lack of control over reproductive rights); discrimination (e.g. over land rights, job rights, property or inheritance); culture and religion (e.g. acid attacks, FGM, forced marriages); sexual violence (e.g. Rape, rape as a weapon of war, domestic rape or by a stranger); non-sexual violence (e.g. domestic violence); and human trafficking (including domestic servitude, forced labour, sexual slavery and forced marriage). The methodology is outlined and each listed country is fully described in each of the categories explored by the survey.
The short documentary explores the rise of the #MeToo movement in India. It also shows how the accusations on sexual harassment extended from the media industry to academia and the political sector, alongside campaigning for women to speak up when harassment happens in the private sphere as well. Men and women in India have been speaking up against violence against women since 2012-2013, following the death of a 23 year-old young woman. This episode initiated a more grounded conversation on sexual assault against women and especially against women of lower castes. In fact, according to Indian’s Crime National Bureau, more than four Dalit women – the ‘untouchable’ - are raped every day. In 2018, India was rated the most dangerous country in the world for women by the Thompson Reuter Foundation because of high rates of sexual violence. Reports attested that in 2016, India had 338,954 reported crimes against women (38,947 were rapes).
For first hand interviews with survivors, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13w-CJRoi30&vl=en.
See also: India was highlighted as one of the worst country for sexual violence, human trafficking, and for cultural and religious discrimination by Thomson Reuters Foundation’s 2018 survey (http://poll2018.trust.org/country/?id=india).
This article notes the disproportionate impact on women of climate change in many parts of the world and the recognition of this fact in the UN Paris Agreement, which called for empowerment of women in climate talks. It also points to the prominence of women in the struggle to limit climate change, and selects 15 women from round the world playing varied roles, including Greta Thunberg.
Covers issues of both climate change and biodiversity: loss of fish stocks, plastic pollution and role of oceans as climate regulators, and dangers of planned seabed mining. These issues are framed by a legal and political analysis of the Law of the Sea, the role of the International Seabed Authority and the negotiations between 190 countries in the Intergovernmental Conference on the Protection of Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, intended to lead to a new Global Ocean Treaty.
There are a number of timelines on the evolving scientific research and the political context of climate change:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15874560 (1712-2013)
Sources for the evolving scientific understanding of climate change include:
IPCC Reports (comprehensive assessment reports, special reports on specific issues and methodology reports); there are also summaries for policy makers. The IPCC releases very much shorter summaries to the press.
NASA provides climate change and global warming information on its website: climate.nasa.org
The Scientific American carries material on the science and politics relating to climate change. www.scientificamerican.com
The New Scientist provides accessible news reports and analyses on scientific issues, including climate change. https://newscientist.com
Reports that five out of six men involved in a gang rape of a 14-year old girl were convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, rather than the more serious crime of sexual assault; the girl was for part of the time in an 'unconscious state'. The report also provides an update on the Pamplona case, noting the the Spanish Supreme Court ruled the men were guilty of rape and raised their prison sentences to 15 years. El Pais records in addition that the commission created after the Pamplona case to revise the legal definition of sexual violence has reported, and recommended eliminating the lesser charge of sexual abuse; but the Socialist Party government has not yet acted.
Amnesty issued this early condemnation of regime violence against 'verified video footage', eyewitness reports and other information on the 'excessive and often lethal force' used to crush largely peaceful protests in over 100 cities. Amnesty also notes the role of security forces in seizing the bodies of the dead, or compelling relatives to bury protesters without an autopsy, as well as the internet shutdown imposed by the regime.
See also: Human Rights Watch, 'Iran: No Justice for Bloody Clampdown', 25 February, 2020, pp. 18.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/25/iran-no-justice-bloody-crackdown
This lengthy report, written after the mass demonstrations had been crushed, provides information about protests, and the authorities' response, in different provinces. It also indicates the difficulty of getting precise figures for deaths (estimated at a minimum of 304) and imprisonments (about 7,000 according to one member of parliament), given the closing down of the internet and regime threats to families.
Narrates the background of the #AbujaPoliceraidOnWomen campaign, in response to the violent arrest of 70 women in two clubs on the accusation of prostitution. The police allegedly raped those women who couldn’t afford the bail.
See also the interview on this campaign with Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, founder of the Stand To End Rape (STER) initiative http://africanfeminism.com/police-brutality-against-nigerian-women-an-interview-with-oluwaseun-ayodeji-osowobi/ and http://africanfeminism.com/protests-arent-tea-parties-dont-expect-women-to-be-civil/
In response to the rising murder and rape of women in South Africa (41,000 rapes and 2,700 murders between March 2018 and March 2019), and the rape and killing of university student Uyinene Mrwetyana by a Cape Town post office employee, women all over the country responded by blocking the entrance to the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, launching the #AmINext movement and the #SandtonShutdown (or #TheTotalShutDown) protest. They rallied outside Johnnesburg Stock Exchange on 13 September 2019, forcing South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa to cancel a trip to the UN world leaders’ gathering.
See also https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2019-09-13/south-african-leader-drops-un-visit-as-women-protest-attacks, https://www.africanews.com/2019/09/13/south-africa-activists-protest-gender-based-violence// and https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/protest-against-gender-based-violence-emerge-in-sa/
An interview with a political activist in Santiago in the context of 'the largest demonstrations in Chile since the return of democracy', which had developed into demands for a new constitution and comprehensive political reform. Beccar argues that the post-Pinochet reforms had primarily benefited a small elite.
Examines a range of technical issues relating to reaching carbon zero emissions targets, but focuses primarily on different forms of campaigning. These include Buddhist temples disinvesting from fossil fuels in Japan, and the often effective use of the law in Latin America, as well as examples of direct action. There is also a brief account of the Costa Rican government's programme to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Outlines the challenges faced by girls seeking an education, and provides data related to most of the African countries, alongside Afghanistan, Yemen, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.
Official website of ‘Back From the Brink’, a grassroots movement that aims to involve local councils and Members of Congress in the U.S. and pressure them to change U.S. nuclear policies. Their demands are:
- Renounce ‘first use’ option;
- End the sole presidential authority to launch a nuclear attack;
- Take U.S. nuclear weapons off ‘hair-trigger’ alert;
- Cancel U.S. plan to replace its entire nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons;
- Pursue total abolition.
See also http://www.nuclearban.us/back-from-the-brink-a-call-to-prevent-nuclear-war/ and https://www.wagingpeace.org/.
Report on the Australia response to the emergence of the #MeToo movement.
Covers the demonstrations by school children and students in an estimated 185 countries with a photo of a protest in Nairobi, Kenya, and an overview of the protests in their environmental and political context. Coverage also includes brief statements from young activists in Australia, Thailand, India, Afghanistan, South Africa, Ireland and the US; the speech by Greta Thunberg to the UN Climate Action summit in New York; and 10 charts explaining the climate crisis.
See also: Milman, Oliver, 'Crowds Welcome Thunberg to New York after Atlantic Crossing ', The Guardian, 29 Aug. 2019, p.3.
Reports on Thunberg's arrival in New York where she was to address the UN Climate Action summit on reaching zero carbon emissions.
Reports that after years of resistance by German green activists against open cast coal mining, which had already destroyed much of the Hambach forest, the rest of the forest seemed to be safe. A government-appointed 'coal exit commission' recommended in January 2019 that Germany should stop using coal-fired energy by 2038 and that it was 'desirable' to preserve the Hambach forest. A court order requested by the German Friends of the Earth (BUND) had already temporarily halted expansion of the mine, after major protests by the campaign Ende Gelaende, which included occupying coal train tracks
See also: Polden, David, '4,000 Activists Block German Coal Trains for 24 Hours', Peace News, 2624-2625, Dec.2018-Jan.2019, p.5.
Very brief report on Ende Gelaende direct action.
As part of the indigenous movement across the Amazon, thousands of indigenous women demonstrated in Brazil’s capital city in August 2019, joining the first Indigenous Women’s March. Carrying banners with the slogan “Territory: our body, our spirit”, women took to the streets to make their voices heard and to denounce the policies of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, which have set the stage for escalating violations of indigenous rights, racism, violence and the most alarming Amazon deforestation rates in recent memory.
This special supplement in the paper focusing especially on the homeless (and sold by them) takes up the climate crisis and the role of youth activism. Features young people arguing for climate change to be on the school curriculum, and interviewing the UK Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, Caroline Lucas (the sole Green MP in the UK Parliament), and representatives of Marks and Spencer about their clothing and recycling policies. Includes interviews with young naturalists and activists in different parts of the country.
Celebrates UK government decision to halt fracking because of size of seismic shocks caused by drilling, but stresses role of nearly a decade of campaigning, especially at the Cuadrilla fracking site in Sussex, where local residents from the village of Balcombe were joined by activists in resistance, and at the Cuadrilla site in Lancashire.
See also: McWhirter, Kathryn, Frack Free Balcombe Residents' Association, 'The biggest thing since the arrival of the railway', pp. 85-90 in Rodriguez, Global Resistance to Fracking (listed below)
See also: ‘How summer fracking protest unfolded in Sussex village’, BBC, 17 April 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-26765926
Detailed account of the the protests in Balcombe that centred on oil company Cuadrilla's attempt to drill a 3,000ft (900m) vertical well to test for oil.
See also: Vaughan, Adam, ‘Fracking firm gets green light to test for oil at Balcombe … again’,The Guardian, 9 January 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/09/fracking-firm-gets-green-light-to-drill-for-oil-at-balcombe-again
See also Perraudin, Frances and Helen Pidd, Anger and blockades as fracking starts in UK for first time since 2011’, The Guardian, 15 October 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/15/fracking-protesters-blockade-cuadrilla-site-where-uk-work-due-to-restart
Reports on Reclaim the Power campaign’s against fracking in Lancashire.
Describes the march to demand President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador should take appropriate action to protect women’s lives.
Narrates the background of the #AbujaPoliceraidOnWomen campaign, in response to the violent arrest of 70 women in two clubs on the accusation of prostitution. The police allegedly raped those women who couldn’t afford the bail.
See also the interview on this campaign with Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, founder of the Stand To End Rape (STER) initiative http://africanfeminism.com/police-brutality-against-nigerian-women-an-interview-with-oluwaseun-ayodeji-osowobi/ and http://africanfeminism.com/protests-arent-tea-parties-dont-expect-women-to-be-civil/
A series of articles exploring the implications of a Green New Deal. These include the importance of the international implications; climate change as a form of systemic racism; and an 'Open letter to Extinction Rebellion' from the grass roots collective Wretched of the Earth.
Covers the origins of the School Strike Movement in Greta Thunberg's solitary protest outside the Swedish Parliament, charts 'The snowball effect' prints Thunberg's speech at the Davos Economic Forum in January 2019, and summarizes a week of bad climate news.
Highlights how Russian authorities are conscripting men in occupied Crimea to serve in the Russian armed forces, although humanitarian law explicitly forbids Russia to compel Crimean residents to serve in Russian forces.
The EU Commission presented its plan for updating its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in December 2019. The goal of net zero emissions by 2050 was to be given legal force by a climate law in 2020, and its target for 2030 was a 50-55" cut (lifting its previous 40" target). The plan links these targets to a call for a new growth strategy, decoupled from resource use, and sets out a time line and more detailed aims.
See also: Simon, Frederic, 'The EU releases its Green Deal. Here are the key points' 12 Dec. 2019: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/12/12/eu-releases-green-deal-key-...
In the aftermath of Jair Bolsonaro’s election on an openly anti-human rights agenda, a climate of fear remains in Brazil. Yet, young people are rising up and making their voices heard. Amnesty International met seven human rights activists who reveal what life is like in Salvador, Brazil, and how they’re tackling violence against women, racism and homophobia.
Fact sheet providing information about Spotlight - a global campaign in joint partnership between the EU and UN - to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in South East Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean region. The initiative aims to contribute to the achievement of SGD Goal 5 on Gender Equality and SDG Goal 16 on inclusive and peaceful societies. It provides information on the EU’s Gender Action Plan 2016-202 0 and UNFPA (https://www.unfpa.org/) and the surveys conducted to shed light on this form of violence.
Spotlight’s official website can be accessed at http://www.un.org/en/spotlight-initiative/index.shtml
Combines UN reactions with pro-choice local initiatives by social movements and politicians demonstrating against recent bans on abortion in the U.S.
Brownell has been involved in a seven year campaign which succeeded in protecting half a million acres of Liberia's tropical rainforest from the Southeast Asia-based Golden Veroleum company, which had been granted t the right by the government to clear and use the land to grow palm oil. He took up the cause of the indigenous community in Sinoe County whose forests and cultural sites were being destroyed by the company. The article outlines how the campaign succeeded and Brownell's wider role in creating the Alliance for Rural Democracy throughout Liberia to work for environmental justice. He had been forced by death threats to move with his family to the USA.
A report tracking women’s participation in peace negotiations from 1990 to the present. It reveals that women comprise only two percent of mediators, five percent of witnesses and signatories, and eight percent of negotiators around the world.
See also https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/03AWomenPeaceNeg.pdf
Describes the Human Right Watch campaign against the denial of sexual and reproductive rights to young women in the Dominican Republic, which has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Latin America. The country has failed to provide scientifically accurate, right-based sexual education programmes in schools, as the authorities announced they would do in 2015. This article also provides the link to a 50-page report, I Felt Like The World Was Falling Down On Me: Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights In The Dominican Republic’, which is based on interviews with 30 girls who became pregnant before turning 18 and provides an overview on the stigmatization and clandestine-abortion related risks these young women face.
This link includes some of the campaigns and articles on abortion advocacy by Amnesty International. The most interesting articles have been selected to give a sense of how the campaigns developed since 2017. But users should keep accessing it to look for further material Amnesty International will upload in the future.
See a poll conducted by Amnesty International on whether Northern Ireland should change its abortion law published on 30 November 2018
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/northern-ireland-abortion-law-poll.
See also https://www.amnesty.org.uk/abortion-poll-research-majority-people-northern-ireland-want-decriminalise for a poll conducted in May 2017 on the same issue.
See the open letter to Prime minister Theresa May to change ‘cruel’ Northern Ireland abortion law published on 21 November 2018
Link to pro-abortion campaigns led by Amnesty International, including links to the 2019 campaign #NowForNI, a campaign organised on the occasion of the celebration of the first anniversary of the repeal of the Eight Amendment in Ireland which led to the legalisation of abortion in the Irish Republic.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/safe-abortions-northern-ireland
See the petition for obtaining the legalisation of abortion in Ireland published on 16 February 2017.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/ireland-abortion-laws-repeal-eighth-amendment
To celebrate the first anniversary from the repeal of the Eight Amendment of the Irish Constitution that prevented women accessing abortion even in cases of rape and incest, Ailbhe Smyth, the co-director of the ‘Together for Yes’ campaign in Ireland, is interviewed on First Person and describes what it was like for women in Ireland to live under the ban, and how the predominantly Catholic country managed to overturn it. She also talks about the laws passed in 2019 in Alabama and other parts of the United States that ban most abortions.
See also https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/world-reaction-ireland-historic-vote-abortion-rights/
Amnesty International pays tribute to the Irish campaigners that led to the revolutionary referendum that repealed the Eight Amendment (25-26 May 2018), thus legalising abortion. It also highlights the human rights violation that women in Northern Ireland faced because of the harsh and restrictive anti-abortion law then applicable.
This blog post received criticisms for the failure to include the voices of migrants, people of colour, trans and non-binary people in the Irish referendum campaign. The original blog post is preserved for transparency and accountability. It includes, however, a more recent response acknowledging the criticisms that have been made against it. It is a good source of information for activists on how to establish a more inclusive type of communication on issues related to abortion rights.
Letter published by The Guardian on International Women’s Day 2019, signed by women activists and actresses, as a public statement advocating the protection of women’s rights worldwide.
Another letter addressed to an international audience was published by The Guardian and was signed by prominent African women from all spheres titled ‘Equality for African women’. It can be accessed on here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/08/equality-for-african-women.
A comprehensive exploration of the development of feminist movements in the Middle East, despite the wars led by authoritarian states, western imperialistic powers, and reactionary fundamentalist forces.
The writer, educator and environmentalist Katharine Wilkinson illustrates the need for climate leadership that is 'more conventionally feminine and more faithfully feminist'.
This article was prompted by the Supreme Court's ruling in November 2018 that refusing to accept 21-14 months of military service for religious or conscientious reasons would no longer be a crime (overturning its own earlier 2003 ruling). The author notes that the small number of past objectors have usually been Jehovah's Witnesses, and that courts would in future judge the sincerity of pacifist convictions which they might reject, and that, if CO status were accepted, three years alternative service as a prison guard was required. But recognition of the right to be a CO makes it a more socially acceptable position, and might also help to mitigate the harsh conditions of military service.
Notes that two thirds of then world's large cities in 140 countries are close to the sea, that a billion people live only 10 metres above sea level. and that scientific reports show that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. Discusses different estimates of rising sea levels and the inadequacies of engineering measures to create adopted by many countries.
Looks at the expansion of political and legal rights on gender-related issues in Latin America. The article also discusses the overall progress of women in education; their role in the labour market; and women’s access to health-care and social security. Emphasises the predominance of gender-based violence and lack of reproductive rights in the region.
Announces the launch of the ‘Spotlight Initiative’ in Honduras through a joint collaboration between the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) and the Honduras government to end femicide and impunity. By 2014, Honduras had the highest number of femicides in the world, according to the U.N. It is reported that 380 women were murdered in the country in 2018 and that 30 women were killed during the first 30 days of 2019. The impunity rate for this crime hovers at 95 per cent.
Issue focusing on climate change: Contains an analysis of rising carbon dioxide emissions, articles on the role of China and Russia, forest fires in Indonesia, flood prevention plans in low lying Asian cities, and the climate diplomacy of small island states.
This article, drawing on material from the online socialist publication Notes from Below, focuses on the increasing reliance of capitalism today, with the growth of internet retail and the 'gig' economy, on transnational supply chains, and migrant workers. It starts by noting the disruptive effects of the French 'Yellow Vests' demonstrations blocking roundabouts on such chains. It also comments on how Italian grass roots unions Si Cobas and ADL have since 2008 used strikes and blockades to target the chain of distribution centres., leading to the arrest of the national coordinator of Si Cobas in 2017, and how workers in Amazon distribution centres in Italy, Spain and Germany have coordinated strike action. Concludes by noting how Uber drivers, mostly migrants, communicating via mobile phones have coordinated resistance. (See 'The wave of worker resistance in European food platforms 2016-7', Notes from Below, Jan 2018, nin.tl/FoodPlatforms)
Human rights activists have opposed President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s plan to cut funding for women’s shelters in Mexico. The scheme is still not properly defined, but the money will instead be given directly to the victims of domestic violence. While the government’s decision does not intend to withdraw support for victims, human rights activists point out the risk of nullifying years of activism and initiatives led by civil society. In fact, they stress that giving money directly to victims can further expose them to violence.
Six brief commentaries on key issues relating to the resurgence of Black Lives Matter in both the US and Britain. Philip V. McHarris, 'Property damage is not real violence'; Malaika Jaball, 'Police brutality is ingrained in America'; Jericho Brown, 'We need the rage that abolished slavery'; Kojo Koram, 'Systemic racism is a British problem too'; David Olusoga, 'Toppling a slave trader's statue is history being made'; Patricia J. Williams, 'The corrupt language used to describe black pain'.
See also: ‘The Big Story: Black Lives Matter: Do Look Now’, Guardian Weekly, 19 June, pp. 7-14.
Covers protests in the UK against statues honouring slave traders and imperialists; anti-racist demonstrations in Belgium and a petition to remove all statues of King Leopold, who presided over a particularly brutal colonial rule in the Congo; protests against police violence and racism against indigenous and black citizes in Canada; and demonstrations in the Dominican Republic about racist discrimination against those of Haitian descent. There is also an article reflecting on lessons to be learned from how Germany has confronted its Nazi past.
The Elders, a lobbying group for the environment chaired by Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland) joined leading climate experts to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement at a virtual conference. This was also hosted by Project Syndicate and the European Investment Bank and includes a two hour video clip of the panel discussion.
This hundredth issue of CO Update (which brings together a number of news items already published by WRI in June 2020 as separate stories) begins by noting that the annual International Conscientious Objection Day on 15 May 2020 was celebrated round the world mostly by actions online. This issue includes the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement's condemnation of the new draconian bill designed to enforce conscription (referenced above), and the Council of Europe's reiterated appeal to Turkey to recognize conscientious objection (noted in the Introduction). It also covers court cases to oppose EU financing of Eritrean development projects that employing conscript labour; the Azerbaijan government's parliamentary announcement about a prospective Alternative Service Law (promised to the Council of Europe in 2003 but not delivered); the suspicious death of a Turkish air force conscript; and two opposing bills in the US Congress: to extend draft registration to women, or to end draft registration.
See also other monthly issues of CO update for detailed news from around the world.
Compilation of historic documents recording the negotiations during the 1960s published by the Royal United Services Institute on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The documents can be found in pdf at the link provided.
On 23 January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday Clock (created in 1947) from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight, which is the closest that it has ever been to the prospect of human destruction. This article makes the case for Britain unilaterally dismantling its nuclear weapons programme; firstly, from a legal perspective, and secondly, from a practical perspective.
The year 2019 has seen women’s rights movements come to the fore across the Maghreb, a region where previous initiatives have been driven by Western political pressure and from the top down by predominantly authoritarian leaders. This paper explores the unprecedented bottom-up activist movements that have begun advancing the agenda of women’s rights across the region.
Explores the rise of Black Lives Matter protests in Australia in solidarity with the international response to the death of George Floyd, and also to highlight the long running tragedy of Aboriginal deaths in custody.
See also: Allam, Lorena and Nick Evershed, ‘The killing times: the massacres of Aboriginal people Australia must confront’, The Guardian, 3 March 2019.
Special report on the killing, incarceration and forced removal from their land of Indigenous Australians over 140 years. The article offers an interactive map that shows the locations and date of massacres between 1794 and 1928.
See also: Dovey, Ceridwen, ‘The mapping of massacres’ The New Yorker, 7 December 2017.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/mapping-massacres
The article reports on how historians and artists turned to cartography to record the widespread killing of Indigenous people in Australia.
Full statement by the WRI affiliate Ukrainian Pacifist Movement condemning the bill introducing 'intolerable elements of military dictatorship'. The bill required mandatory military registration for employment and draconian fines and imprisonment for COs and those showing solidarity with them. It also empowered police to hunt for draftees on the streets and transfer them forcibly to army recruiting centres.
See also: 'The Brutality of Military Commissariats in Ukraine: Reaction of UN and MPs', Truth Seeker, 23 September 2019
This article explores the practice of arbitrary detention of conscripts in Ukraine. It includes footage (in Russian) of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement that opposes compulsory military service.
See also: Harding, Luke, 'Ukraine reintroduces conscription to counter threat of pro-Russian separatists', The Guardian, 1 May 2014.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/ukraine-military-conscript...
Xiye Bastida, an 18 y-ear old Mexican-Indigenous climate activist recounts her own experiences and stresses the need to recognize the diversity of the climate justice movement in order to achieve a more equitable and sustainable future.
The author summarizes the beginning of the two movements, but notesthat despite significant victories, given the political power structure has not been overthrown the goals of regime change 'remain elusive'. She considers the successes in Algeria - the wide range of social groups involved and 'ethos of peacefulness' - and the shortcomings of lack of leadership and of a clear strategy to achieve change. Using the Algerian example she suggests lessons for Lebanon, such as maintaining nonviolence and avoiding political partisanship and sectarianism.
Brief account celebrating victory after years of campaigning by Indigenous Climate Action against Teck Resources, the company pressing for permission to build the tar sands Frontier Mine in Canada, which would have produced 3.2 billion barrels of oil over 40 years. Teck withdrew early in 2020, after 12 years of lobbying (indigenousclimateaction.com). The journal also reports very briefly that the Great Australian Bight Alliance, led by Aboriginal elders and local activists has in succession prevented Chevron, BP and (most recently) Equinor to abandon plans to drill for oil in the Bight (fightforthebight.org.au.)
Provides a close examination of the development of the anti-SARS protests, especially between 8-15 October 2020.
Explores briefly the Fridays for Future movement and its interconnection with the struggle against systemic racism.
See also: FridaysforFuture website page: https://fridaysforfuture.org/what-we-do-/activist-speeches
See also: 'Young voices on the Frontlines of Climate Change', The Elders' Blog, https://theelders.org//intergenerational-climate-blogs
An update of experiences of climate activists from both the Global North and the Global South.
This very informative supplement on the aftermath of the coup on 1 February 2021 carries several articles on the resistance, the repression by the generals, and assessment of future possibilities inside Myanmar. It also includes discussion of the scope for international action, a summary of key statistics, a list of relevant organizations and initiatives, and a bibliography.
Brief but informative overview of the historical background and socio-economic conditions in the country, plus a summary of political developments since 1991.
The Guardian spoke to six young indigenous activists from the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chad, Alaska, Sweden, Indonesia and Australia about what they think about COP 26.
Provides a well informed summary of the context and nature of the October military coup.
See also: 'Sudan: Coup de Grace', The Economist, 27 November 2021, p. 55.
This analysis of the coup leaders' decision to reinstate Prime Minister Hamdok interprets this move as' the army tightening its grip on Sudan's political transition.
The report examines the significance of the mass strikes and demonstrations in Colombia in 2020-21, examines the government's response, and also suggests some of the dangers involved. It notes that far right vigilantes supporting the police had fired on demonstrators, and that in some areas criminal gangs were taking advantage of the social disorder.
Critical account of the Indian government's response to the farmers' protest in central Delhi on Independence Day. This response included shutting down the internet, charging six journalists with sedition, promoting communal disharmony and making statements prejudicial to national integration.
Provides brief examples of protests and related activities in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021 during the COP 26 Conference. Almost all the events were organized by the COP 26 Coalition, a UK-based coalition of groups committed to climate justice, which also assisted activists from abroad.
In Brazil, which has the second largest Black population in the world, Brazilian police kill at least six times more people annually than the US police, and most of those dying are young Black men. In the video an interdisciplinary panels of Brazilian and US scholars examine the development of Black Brazilian mobilization against police violence, and compare police violence in Brazil with the position in the US and South Africa. The video then focuses on how Black LGBTQ+ Brazilians are affected by police violence.
See also: https://www.thedialogue.org/events/online-event-race-and-policing-in-the-us-and-brazil/
Reports on Inter-American Dialogue event 'Race and Policing in the US and Brazil' examining what recent cases of police violence revealed about systemic racism in both countries.
One of King’s closest associates from 1955 onwards, Abernathy took on greater prominence after King’s assassination.
This article reviews the birth and development of the #MeToo movement in India and its protagonists – mainly members of the movie industry - one year after its widespread endorsement in the US.
For the protests leading to the overthrow of the Shah, see pp. 496-537. See also Abrahamian, Ervand , Mass Protests in the Iranian Revolution, 1977-79 In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 162-178 .
Chapters by authors from 20 countries on developments in energy sector and struggles.
This article discusses the response of young Lithuanians to their government's 2015 decision to reintroduce compulsory military service of nine months men aged between 19-26. The conscripts are randomly selected each year from all those eligible, defined to include Lithuanians living abroad. The author notes that most try to avoid military service, and may prefer to pay fines or risk imprisonment, which has led to the government looking for new means of enforcing compliance.
The author argues that the March was an opportunity for ordinary Palestinians in Gaza to take the political initiative and that the March organizers tried hard to maintain the momentum. The problems of organizing in a politically divided context, and lack of international support, as well as the ruthlessness of the Israeli response meant however that momentum was lost. The March also raised many questions about how nonviolent methods could work when faced with serious military force.
Historic conviction of a 23-year old young man who murdered Anyela Ramos Claros, a transgender woman. This was the first conviction among at least 35 cases in Colombia.
Achcar rejects the concept of a sudden 'Spring', arguing instead that there is a long term deep-seated revolution which will take many years to develop. Achcar's Marxist inspired analysis stresses the basic socio-economic changes required. He also covers the role of both the relatively tolerant monarchies of Morocco and Jordan and the 'oil monarchies' of the Gulf.
Achcar, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, assesses the prospects for a successful outcome in Sudan, and notes the parallels with the earlier uprising in Eygpt and the 2019 movement in Algeria. He also comments on the deteriorating economic situation and the added problems created by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. But the outcome of the revolution depends largely on the very varied social and ideological groupings that fostered the revolution, and their present relationship with long established political forces. Achar provides an illuminating analysis. He also examines the different tendencies within the armed forces, whose role is crucial.
In this article (partially adapted from an interview in Marxist Left Review 19, but rewritten and updated) Achcar begins by situating 2011 within a global crisis of the neoliberal stage of capitalism. He also notes the specific features of the region, and comments on the defeat of the workers' movement and the left in Egypt, and then turns to prospects in Algeria. Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq.
The article discusses how some of the expectations and hopes about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons signed by many non-nuclear weapons states in 2017 at the UN have been fulfilled, what else needs to be done to implement further economic divestment, and alter to the nuclear weapons discourse and policies.
Discusses dominant narratives about nuclear weapons as tools of “safety” and “security” and “peace,” and the need to reinforce of a mass social movement against nuclear weapons. The authors also outline the emergence and core activities of the International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
On ICAN see https://www.icanw.org
This ICNC publication is designed to help opponents of autocratic regimes 'become more strategic and more skillful' in their struggle for democracy. The booklet is also directed towards professionals in democracy promotion and foreign policy to assist their understanding of the issues involved. Ackerman founded ICNC and is the author of important books on civil resistance.
Analysis of a selection of predominantly nonviolent struggles from Russia 1905 to Serbia 2000, arguing against ‘the mythology of violence’. Some of the case studies are standard in books on civil resistance, others – for example the 1990 movement in Mongolia – less familiar. Each chapter has a useful bibliography. The book arose out of a 1999 US documentary television series ‘A Force More Powerful’, now available on DVD, and therefore includes, in the more recent cases, information from interviews.
Focuses on the importance of resistance strategy in determining the outcome. Outlines 12 principles of strategic action and assesses five movements (Russia 1905, Ruhr 1923, the Indian independence campaign,, resistance in German-occupied Denmark, and Solidarity in Poland) in relation to these principles.
Lists range of nonviolent direct action protests by ACT UP since 1987, involving marches, sit-ins, blockades, political funerals, die-ins, disrupting political occasions and speeches, etc. Main targets have been pharmaceutical companies (for profiteering and failure to produce new drugs or provide adequate access to them in Africa), the medical establishment in the US, health insurance companies, the Catholic Church and President Bush Snr and President Clinton and Vice-President Gore.
Scholarly study of world wide campaigning for gay and lesbian rights, looking at earlier history as well as the militant protests and organizations of the 1960s-1970s.
Although abortion became legal in the USA over 40 years ago, the population remains bitterly divided over its acceptability. Personal religious beliefs and life style have emerged as pivotal in shaping disapproval. However, very little attention has been given to how the local religious context may shape views and abortion access. Using data from the General Social Survey (6922) that has geographical identifiers, the authors examine how the local religious context influences social attitudes. They also examine the different impact of a higher rate of Catholicism or of Conservative Protestantism within the country, both on the attitudes of other residents and on acceptance of abortion clinics.
Combines extracts from interviews with photos to present varied phenomena of everyday resistance – ‘incidental’ (a by-product of being in a group), ‘reluctant’ (under group pressure) and ‘solidarity’ (helping others) – specifically of women who joined arpillera groups in Pinochet’s Chile. A web page with related resources for students and teachers is http://www.routledge.com/cw/adams-9780415998048.
This article by a professor of sociology, written a month after the outbreak of the revolution on 22 February, stresses that the 'gigantic rallies are peaceful and socially mixed'. The article traces the background of the uprising since 1988, claimed by many Algerians as their 'Arab Spring', since it ended one party rule. Addi explains why this democratic experiment failed and led to a decade of civil war - the context in which Boutifleka came to power in 1999 promising to bring peace
Describes the ‘Stand To End Rape Initiative’ and the #ArewaMeToo campaign in Nigeria (‘Arewa’ means ‘northern’) to combat the widespread sexual harassment of young women in the country. Provides background on the difficulty of achieving accountability, due to the very conservative culture.
In this essay Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers a unique definition of feminism, by rooting it in inclusion and awareness. This book is an adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi’s TEDx talk.
Primarily on nonviolent action in townships during apartheid. Combines a national strategic overview by Jeremy Seekings of how the concept of civic struggle evolved in the period 1977-90 with detailed local accounts.
This article examines how women’s organisations have attempted to ensure compliance for Hausa-Fulani women with the Minimum Age of Marriage Clause of Nigerian Child Rights Act of 2003, in a context of plural legal systems and traditional norms, which make achieving gender equality difficult. The authors focus on this issue in the context of feminist attempts in Nigeria since the 1980s to reconstruct the concept of ‘the feminine’. This reconstruction is especially important in struggling against patriarchy and local interpretations of Islam in northern Nigeria.
A brief overview of responses to the ‘MeToo’ movement in some countries in Africa, noting how women still face stigma and victim-blaming when they are victims of sexual harassment
Collection of essays and documents, including materials on mothers’ resistance in Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Provides profiles of some of the women who have taken to the streets to protest against the military coup and demand a return to democracy.
Primarily an account of the movement of conscientious objection and ‘insumision’ in Spain, but including analysis and proposals. It was written by university teachers who joined the movement and assisted from inside. Published in the final stage of the movement, when the end of conscription was announced. but there were still objectors jailed in military prisons.
Arendt is one of the most eminent political philosophers often cited by theorists of nonviolent resistance, especially in relation to her 1963 book On Revolution, and also a major theorist of totalitarianism. This book contrasts Arendt's concept of total domination under totalitarianism with the testimonies of both well known and lesser known intellectuals and writers who survived the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, as well as those of unknown survivors of the holocaust. Aharony argues that Nazi domination was less total than Arendt posited (in her 1951 book On Totalitarianism), and that morality and individual choice exist even in the most extreme conditions.
Discusses reasons for the resurgence of veil-wearing among Muslim women, and the social and political implications. Argues (contrary to author’s own earlier position) that Islamists rather than secularists often prominent in struggle for social justice and women’s rights.
This case study of COVAW is used to provide in-depth analysis of how this women’s organization represents women’s agency in addressing violence against women and girls in Kenyan society. It also illustrates that women do have the capacity and ability to combat violence in their society.
Discusses the relative impact of ‘reasons of state’ and ‘social mobilization’ (against conscription) as factors leading to the abandonment of conscription.
Debates of the reasons why the Western #MeToo campaign didn’t spread as much in the African continent as it did in the US, UK, France, India and China. The article also briefly outlines the various campaigns that have evolved instead, such as #EndRapeCulture in South Africa; #MyDressismyChoice in Uganda and Kenya; #BeingfemaleinNigeria. Other protests includes #Nopiwouma (‘I will not shut up’) and #Doyna (‘That’s enough’) in Senegal
Argues that, in a society like Nigeria’s, where lack of financial opportunity has fostered an entrepreneurial mindset, and where distrust of western feminism is culturally entrenched, neoliberal feminism may be women’s best option, even if neoliberal feminism is criticized for its disregard for structural inequalities and thus for failing women most susceptible to violence.
Provides an overview of the reasons for the protests and the initial government response.
See also: Akinwotu, Emmanuel, 'Nigeria Tried to Ban Bitcoin. How Did It Work Out?', Guardian Weekly, 13 August 2021, pp.25-6.
Akinwotu explains the rising use of bitcoin by the tech-savvy young, and notes how the government clamp down after October 2020 on bank accounts of those supporting the anti-SARS protests fueled this trend.
This article by an Algerian feminist activist explains how the 2019 movement, triggered by rejection of Boutifleka being nominated (despite his physical incapacity) to run for the presidency for a fifth term, began in the city of Kherrata on 16 February. It then spread to other cities, and became a rejection of the whole regime. She sets the movement in its historical context, noting how the success of the movement in forcing Boutifleka's resignation from the presidency was used by the army to take over. She concludes by stressing the resilience of the movement, despite the impact of Covid-19 in 2020 which enabled a 'political lockdown'. But she also argues that the lack of a political leadership able to draw the ideological strands of the movement together is its chief weakness.
This article aims to review the strategic experience of individuals and human rights organizations for human rights, women's rights, gender equality and social justice in Bangladesh. Following an empirical research methodology, this article has been written on the four themes: education, engagement, empowerment, and advocacy. The organizations were selected because of their creative concepts, innovative approaches, achievements and impact on the public. The study focuses on how the “Unite for Body Rights” program provides education related to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR); how men from local community engage themselves in promoting gender equality and social justice; how “acid survivors” transform themselves into “survivor ambassadors” and empower themselves as women’s rights activists; and how the five leading human rights organizations in Bangladesh contributed to “banning the ‘two-finger test’ on rape survivors.”
Discusses early resistance in 19th and 20th centuries and contemporary campaigns against destruction of forests, dams, pollution and over-fishing of seas, and mining. Akula also describes Jharkand separatist ‘tribal’ struggle to own their historic land and promote sustainable use of resources.
Describes the movement behind the 2017 election (by 93 per cent of the vote) of Chokwe Antar Lumumba as Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. He is committed to implement the 'Jackson Plan' for participatory democracy, promotion of public services and a local economy based on cooperatives and other forms of popular organization. The Plan, which is promoted by the Jackson People's Assembly and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), represents the kind of participatory local initiatives envisaged in the Black Lives Matter 2016 Platform. A longer version of this article is available in Akuno, Kali and Ajamu Nangwaya, Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination, Daraja Press, 2017, and at: www.mxgm.org
A brief overview of the factors that led to the revolution in April 2019 and the toppling of Omar al-Bashir.
This article assesses women’s progress in Saudi Arabia since the lifting of the driving ban in 2018, and reports on the official decision to grant women passports to travel abroad without a male guardian’s consent. This is a step towards reversing the deprivation of women’s legal, political and human rights unique to Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi version of Islam as interpreted by conservative clerics. But women still cannot marry, or leave domestic violence shelters or prison without a male relative’s consent. Moreover, Al Rasheed notes, prominent feminist activists had been imprisoned. However, Saudi feminists are still discreetly and effectively engaging within civil society to help women.
See also ‘Women in Saudi Arabia: Changing the Guard’, Economist, 20 July 2019, p.42.
Reports official plans to lift some restrictions on women, but also notes fears that a right to travel would increase the number of women fleeing abroad and seeking asylum. The article contextualises possible reforms to free women in the conflicting politics of liberalisation and repression being practised by the Crown Prince.
This article elaborates on earlier protests before 2019, focusing on 2011 and noting 'dozens of protests' (which crossed sectarian lines) against political corruption and calling for revolution at Tahrir Square, Baghdad, between February 12 and the 'day of rage' on February 25 2011. On this day the government of Nouri Maliki shut down media coverage, accusing the protesters of being followers of the banned Baath Party of Saddam Hussein or supporters of Al Qaeda. On February 25 2011, 30 demonstrators were killed by security services and many injured. But the main focus of the article is on the use of Facebook and You Tube to publicize, comment on and justify the protests. The blogs and comments studied were predominantly by young men, including some in the US and Canada.
Explores both attempts at legal reform and those reforms achieved in Islamic countries (Palestine, Yemen, Iran and Egypt) and problems of implementing reform, for example the domestic violence law in Ghana.
Al-Taher begins by observing that, unlike in the beginning of the Syrian Spring 2011-12, the international and western press no longer reported on peaceful protests in Syria. The paper discusses two possible explanations: a problem of information (either a lack of information or an excess of news), or the absence of nonviolent protests in the region. The author refutes the second thesis, arguing that despite the ongoing bloody civil war in Syria, large parts of the society nevertheless participate in peaceful protests.
This article describes the difficulty of talking about sexual harassment in conservative Arab societies, which have made the ‘MeToo’ movement in the Arab world less significant than in the West. However, it also points to the fact that the activism of Arab women is becoming less of a taboo and mentions the legislative reforms that took place in countries such as Morocco, Jordan, and Lebanon.
For another thorough analysis of the cultural impediments to openly discuss sexual violence and sexual harassment within Arab societies, see also http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2017/10/22/Why-aren-t-more-Arab-women-saying-MeToo-.html and https://www.albawaba.com/loop/harvey-weinstein-scandal-and-metoo-hit-nerve-arab-women-1035238.
Bredoux is a journalist who has specialised in covering charges of sexual harassment and assault by prominent personalities since 2011, when she was shocked by the prevailing French media response to rape charges made in New York against Dominique Strauss Kahn, due to become head of the IMF. Bredoux also had to appear in court in February 2019 with six women who had accused the deputy speaker of the National Assembly of harassment, when he filed a defamation lawsuit against them. She assesses positively the impact of MeToo in France (despite evidence of opposition to it, including by women), arguing that 'the balance of power has changed' and that media coverage was more sympathetic to women making accusations.
Albert also comments briefly on the Iranian Revolution to illustrate the dynamics of power relationships (pp. 29-36) in his booklet: Albert, David H., People Power: Applying Nonviolence Theory Philadelphia PA, New Society Publishers, , 1985, pp. 64 .
Following the murder of at least 357 women by their partners or ex-partners, women organised the March of the Butterflies to protest against the alarming rate of femicide in Dominican Republic.
Two months after the mass demonstrations started, the authors note that protests are continuing, despite the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri on 30 October. Many of the demonstrators did not approve of his replacement Hassan Diab, appointed on 19 December to head a government of technocrats. The article comments on the evolution of a left wing economic agenda and the groups within the movement who support it. But the main focus is on the longer term and recent causes of the financial crisis which prompted the outbreak of major protests.
Relevant for background to the events of 2011.
Interviews with strikers who took part in protests and written from their viewpoint.
See also: ‘Striking Progress’ a list of strikes involving women 1973-74, pp. 332-48.
Physicist Hannes Alfven offers a careful examination of the ways language guides the thinking on nuclear deterrence.
Account on how feminism has developed in the African continent, in connection also to African history and customs.
The first four chapters cover the period 1947-1968. Chapters 5-7 (pp. 156-216) discuss the mass revolt from November 1968 to March 1969, which the author compares to the May 1968 Events in France.
Includes Roy’s 2008 essay ‘Azadi: the only thing Kashmiris want’, previously published in the Guardian (London), Outlook (New Delhi), and her 2009 book Roy, Arundhati , Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy London, Hamish Hamilton, , 2009, pp. 304 .
A detailed account and analysis of the 'spontaneous and leaderless protest movement' that was strongest in Shia-dominated provinces, but spread across Iraq. Ali notes how protests in Baghdad in early October 2019 against the removal of a popular general, who had led the fight-back against ISIS, were also fuelled by anger at failures of basic services, such as water and electricity, and the pervasive political corruption. These demonstrations developed into a demand for a new political system to replace the US- imposed regime based on ethnicity and religious divides. The article then sets the 2019 movement in the context of earlier waves of protest, starting with the 2009 protests in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Sunni-majority protests in 2012-13 against their exclusion from political power. It also emphasizes the role of a new generation of protesters since 2015.
Analysis of background and context of elections, the regime’s role and actions of the opposition.
Analysing Palestinian print media in 1987 reveals a convergence in calls for action.
The author investigates two questions: How did the politics of disappointment unfold among female activists after the 2011 Egyptian uprising and specifically under the current regime? What were the effects of the strong sense of emotional disappointment on women’s activism and collective action? She argues that disappointment did not mark the end of politics and activism among women’s groups in Egypt. Although the situation is complicated and activism is restricted in Egypt, in this research participants affirm that their experience in the uprising has changed them, and that “things cannot go back to the old days.” A focus on hope and disappointment makes the experiences of activists central to the analysis. It allows researchers to reclaim the voices of female activists in explaining the challenges and opportunities that developed after the uprising, and how these developments influenced and shaped their experience, movement, and mobilization.
This article starts by suggesting the popular resistance in Sudan led the military to make a deal with the civilian politicians they had jailed, but on terms ensuring military control. It also notes the refusal by the resistance committees that led the 2019 revolution to accept power sharing. Muzan traces the evolution from the 2019 revolution to the coup, stressing that political parties had been dominant in the transition civilian government. He also comments on the economic problems, including very high inflation, which had led to popular unrest, which might have encouraged the coup plotters.
The chapters cover a wide range of countries and issues, including: The Korean Women’s Trade Union, the feminist movement in Indonesia, the Algerian ‘Twenty Years is Enough’ campaign, widening the base of the feminist movement in Pakistan, advocacy of women’s rights in Nigeria, re-politicizing feminist activity in Argentina, new modes of organizing in Mexico, and two chapters on Israel, one on an Arab women’s organization.
Alport was appointed High Commisioner to the Federation from 1961-63, and gives an official British perspective on these contentious years.
Chapter 7 ‘Strategies against occupation: 2. Defence by civil resistance’, pp. 208-48, analyses the implications and applicability of nonviolent defence and its applicability to Britain.
This special issue of the magazine Alternatives Non-Violentes, collects papers presented at a landmark conference organized at the French National Assembly in October 2001 on civil peace intervention.
A narration of Gandhi’s life in South Africa and his battle for the civil rights of the Indian minorities who were living there at the time. The work illustrates how Gandhi’s teaching and practice of nonviolence developed from the South African experience.
Key work on early period of Gay Liberation in 1960s/70s in the USA, examining different strands of movement and arguing need for struggle for common goals.
Assessment of role of community-based organizations world-wide in responding to AIDS.
Notes threat to developing countries but also potential of new forms of global cooperation through UN AIDS programmes, and discusses how best to analyze the spread and impact of AIDS. See also: Altman, Dennis , Aids and the Globalization of Sexuality World Politics Review, 10/08/2010
Especially Isabel Donoso, ‘Human Rights and Popular Organizations’, pp. 189-200.
Manifesto outlining a nonviolent approach to international politics and social change. Influenced the thinking of radical direct actionists in the US and Britain.
The author analyses the evolution of the political discourse on abortion from the 1960s to today, and argues that, in order to understand the changing elements in the contemporary abortion debate in Britain, it is necessary to move beyond viewing abortion politics as pro-choice or pro-life.
(Appeared originally in Monthly Review.)
Surveys provisions for conscientious objection to military service, and expresses particular concerns in relation to treatment of COs in some countries. Recommends the release of all COs in prison, that all member states of EU and Council of Europe re-examine their legislation regarding conscientious objection, and that the EU include in the criteria for membership the recognition of conscientious objection and provisions for alternative service ‘of non-punitive length’.
Analysis of lack of proper consultation and of legal protection for those evicted.
Report by Amnesty International on recurrent gender-based violence in Libya, in particular abduction, beating, sexual violence and threats; violence against women on social media; and the discrimination suffered by women in law and practice.
Amnesty International’s Body Politics: Criminalization of sexuality and reproduction series is comprised of a Primer (Index: POL 40/7763/2018), a Campaigning Toolkit (Index: POL 40/7764/2018) and a Training Manual (Index: POL 40/7771/2018) designed to help activists worldwide opposing criminalisation of contraception, abortion or LGBT’s rights.
Also available online as Joan Shorenstein Center Working Paper no. 3, 2006.
Chapter 7 covers the 1945 general strike.
Essays exploring the institutionalised violence under Suharto and its legacy, with studies of the police and the military. (Also essay on East Timor.)
White Rage, by Professor of African American Studies Carol Anderson, centres on a discussion on race, more specifically on the foregrounding of whiteness and the continuing threat that structural racism poses to US democratic aspirations. She provides an historical account of landmark moments in US history, namely the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction; the reaction to the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the disenfranchisement of Black communities in the aftermath of Reagan’s War on Drugs; and the mass protests in Ferguson, Missouri, triggered by the shooting of Mike Brown in 2014. Through her analysis, Anderson argues that white rage erupts as a backlash at a moment of Black progress and therefore needs to be placed at the centre of US’s national history. In this light, White Rage is an attempt to illustrate how whiteness is positioned at the core of state power, and how it permits the reinforcement of a system that systematically disadvantages African Americans.
In 2012 Uruguay became the second country in Latin America to decriminalize abortion during the first trimester. Drawing on original field research, this article argues that the reform was due to the existence of a strong campaign for decriminalization. The women’s movement framed their case to resonate within civil society, gathered support from key social actors, and collaborated closely with sympathetic legislators. Success was also due to the limited influence of the Catholic Church, a president open to abortion reform, and a highly institutionalized party system creating a strong leftist coalition.
Study of black trade union leader who played key role in pressuring presidents Roosevelt and Truman to ban discrimination in federal and defence employment. In 1963 headed the March on Washington.
Editorial reflections on the historical and social context of the revolts.
Anderson discusses the nature of Putin’s regime, starting from two opposing assessments of it. The first, promoted by western journalists, stressed lack of legality, kleptocracy, thuggery and authoritarianism. The second, elaborated by some academic studies, suggested a more nuanced picture of gradual progress towards greater legal stability. Anderson then considers in some detail the implications of Russian policy in relation to the Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and situates Putin’s rule in the wider context of Russian and Soviet history. He concludes by noting the tension created by trying to combine traditional Russian emphasis on military power and regional domination with the logic of financial capitalism.
Arising out of the #MeToo movement in Sweden, #sistabriefen was created to represent women, non-binaries and trans-persons working within the communications industry. This study analyses the dynamics and identities of the #sistabriefen group members on their private social media platform through 23 interviews, and a qualitative content analysis over the course of five months. This research assesses how members are motivated to participate in the #sistabriefen group, how they identify themselves within the group, and how the nature of the group affects members’ involvement. The findings indicated that digital social movements have the potential to promote social change.
At a time when international law and the law of war are particularly important and warlike rhetoric is creating new fears and heightening current tensions Falk’s message is particularly relevant. In this collection of essays, Falk examines the global threats to all humanity posed by nuclear weapons. He rejects the adequacy of arms control measures as a managerial stopgap to these threats and seeks no less than to move the world back from the nuclear precipice and towards denuclearization.
Collection of news reports, web-logs and diaries of International Solidarity Movement activists engaged in nonviolent resistance to Israeli military action in the occupied territories, including contributions relating to Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, who were both killed.
Report on a workshop organized by Global Justice Now, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Brussels Office and the Transnational Institute to develop the concept of 'energy democracy' agreed by the German climate justice movement at the 2012 Climate Camp in Lausitz. The aim is to ensure access for all to non-polluting energy, entailing an end to fossil fuel us e, democratizing the means of production and rethinking energy consumption. The workshop noted that since 2012 many communal, municipal, worker and movement initiatives were making the concept a reality: for example in Bristol in S.W. England, with a co-operatively owned solar generation project and a new publicly owned municipal supply company
See also: 'Just Transition and Energy Democracy: a civil service trade union perspective, PCS pamphlet, adopted at PCS conference May 2017. (It was also being promoted in translation by the Portuguese Climate Jobs campaign.)
Argues for public ownership and democratic control of energy supplies, and for the creation of a National Climate Service (proposed by the One Million Climate Jobs campaign, launched by the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group (CACCTU).
See also:
Greener Jobs Alliance: www.greenerjobsalliance.co.uk;
Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) a global trade union community for energy democracy coordinated in New York in cooperation with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York office.
The authors focus on two important strikes in the UK in two different socio-economic contexts: whereas the two year Grunwick strike for union recognition had national support and was backed by secondary picketing, the Gate Gourmet confrontation in 2008 lacked union support (secondary picketing was now illegal). But the authors see both strikes as challenging stereotypes about Asian women, and draw on in-depth interviews with strikers to show the influence of migration (from East Africa or the Punjab), initial high expectations and anger at their low pay and poor working conditions. The book also makes comparisons with trade union struggles in today's gig economy.
Discusses how Tebboune, the president elected in December 2019, had campaigned during the referendum on an amendment the constitution drafted to increase its democratic content, hoping to shore up his legitimacy. But Anser notes that under 24 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote in 2020, though the amendment passed by 66.8 per cent of those voting. The article also looks at the earlier history of constitutional amendments in Algeria.
A short report on a rising wave of pressure that is weighing on companies that seek sexual harassment insurance in the US.
This special double issue of the review Alternatives Non-Violentes presents numerous examples of nonviolent struggles and of leading figures in the field of nonviolence that have marked the 20th century.
Contributors provide case studies of Morocco, Uganda, People’s Republic of Congo, South Africa, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya and Swaziland.
Explores how internet links Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, creates a Palestine in cyberspace, and has an impact on manifestations of resistance, for example through street candle vigils and ‘lighting a candle’ on the internet.
This article describes the initiative a young Palestinian-American took to confront patriarchy and sexism in the West Bank and the lack of protection for women, despite legal reforms formally taking place in its territories. Yasmeen Mjalli is the inventor of T-shirts, hoodies and jackets with the slogan ‘I Am Not Your Habibti (darling)’, an expression typically used for catcalling women and young girls. Sexual harassment is a taboo subject in Palestine, which is still dominated by a culture of victim blaming, like many other parts of the Arab World. It is moreover not considered a priority amongst Palestinians in comparison to the fight against Israeli occupation. The article also briefly cites minor reforms that occurred in Egypt, the Gulf Arab Region and Saudi Arabia.
Highlights Chinese authorities’ forced sterilisations practices of Uighurs women in an apparent campaign to curb the growth of ethnic minority populations in the western Xinjiang region.
See also: AFP, ‘China sterilising ethnic minority women in Xinjiang, report says’, The Guardian, 29 June 2020.
See also: ‘China forcing birth control on Uighurs to suppress population, report says, BBC, 29 June 2020.
Analysis of major campaign by agricultural community against loss of land for Narita airport.
Examination of violence from a gender perspective by academic specializing in women’s political participation in Turkey.
Peru has had significant economic growth due to extraction of natural resources, but there have also been many protests about this extraction. Noting the weaknesses of many such environmental and indigenous protests, the author draws on fieldwork and interviews to outline the kind of mobilization likely to prevent extraction, and also to have positive social effects. He argues that the movement in Peru has significant implications for other developing countries relying on resource extraction.
Provides detailed account of the development of an Afghan peace movement after March 26 2018, after dozens of football fans were killed by a Taliban car bomb in Lashkargah, capital of Helmand province. Members of their families launched a protest that included pitching tens and going on hunger strike. Protesters included women, the disabled and the old. The movement also made specific demands for a ceasefire during Ramadan, further ceasefires, creating a political framework acceptable to all Afghan groups, and promoting the ultimate withdrawal of international military forces.
See also: Abed, Fahim, ‘Afghan peace marchers meet the Taliban and find ‘people just like us’, The New York Times, 10 June 2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/world/asia/afghanistan-peace-march-taliban.html
See also: Hassan, Sharif, ‘After 17 years of war, a peace movement grows in Afghanistan’, The Washington Post, 18 August 2018.
This book introduces key documents presented by the Italian Partito Radicale Nonviolento Transnazionale e Transpartito (Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (PRNTT)) enunciating the core values from which nonviolence was extrapolated as the guiding principle for the party’s political action. It is also a testament defining the Party’s programme on the abolition of the death penalty; the abolition of prohibitionism, especially with regards to drugs; the abolishment of Genital Female Mutilation; freedom in scientific research, especially in relation to stem cells research; and the enabling of international jurisdiction aimed at ensuring citizens’ access to international legal institutions to advance their political and social goals.
The author explores the introduction of conscription in the Gulf States through the lens of promoting national identities and instilling a spirit of sacrifice.
See also: Alterman, Jon and Margo Balboni, Citizens in Training: Conscription and Nation-building in the United Arab Emirates, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) - Middle East Program, 2017, pp. 57.
https:// csis -website-prod.s3.amazonws.com/s3fs-public/publication/180312-Alterman-UAS-conscription.pdf
This report analyzes the broad implications of introducing conscription for the wider society, such as the militarization of nationalism, gendering citizenship and social hierarchy.
The essay ‘Civil Disobedience’ discusses consent and the right to dissent in the context of the US Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam anti-war protests. It distinguishes between disobedience motivated by citizenship responsibility and that motivated primarily by individual conscience. The essay ‘On Violence’, examines the nature of power and violence (with examples from contemporary movements and politics), and argues that power (as she defines it) is not only distinct from violence but its opposite.
Explores the concept and experience of revolution, drawing on the history of the American and French revolutions in particular, but also Russia, and develops the theme of the ‘lost treasure’ of revolutionary experience, which is the upsurge of creative and organisational energy in forms of direct democracy, and the conflict between popular political cooperation and the centralising tendencies of political parties.
(First edition was printed illegally in 1973 during the Franco dictatorship.)
This is a compilation of texts on nonviolent alternatives to accepting unjust rule, starting from the classics, e.g. Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Gregg and Ramamurti, and providing translations of important contemporary European authors, such as Muller, Ebert, Colbere or Frognier. The second appendix of the second edition offers a summary of the nonviolent movement in Spain up to 1995.
The President of the Christian Democratic Party discusses the 1987 National Civic Crusade to coordinate the protest movements and formulate its key demands: for justice, removal of Noriega and democratiization. Explains background to protests, notes the 1,500 arrests and numerous shootings of protesters, and comments on changing attitudes inside the USA.
The work touches upon general conflict theories and proposes conflict resolution techniques in relation to specific conflict resolution case samples.
Account focusing primarily on role of military and using extensive military sources, but also discusses the role of people power.
Arman surveys the social composition of the revolutionary nonviolent mass movement, seen as more inclusive than the previous uprisings since independence in 1956. In 2019 both rural and urban areas, students and professionals, political parties and civil society groups, as well as social activists engaged in resisting dams or land grabs or and other causes, joined in. The participation of some Islamists from both older and younger generations is significant. Arman also stresses the greater role played by women, and suggests that the movement's discourse - embracing diversity, equal citizenship and anti-racism - could provide a new discourse for nation-building.
See also: Akashra, Yosra ‘Killing a student is killing a nation’, OpenDemocracy, 22 April 2016.
Explores how Sudanese universities have become the only space left to exercise freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
See also: Hale, Sondra, ‘Sudanese feminists, civil society, and the Islamist military’, OpenDemocracy, 12 February 2015.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/sudanese-feminists-civil-society-and-islamist-military/
Investigates the impact of NGOs and civil society participation of progressive women in Sudan in representing women and youth.
Study of the political figure who was central to the struggle for independence from 1928 and became head of Kenya’s first African government.
One in a series of four books analysing how nonviolent resistance works, focusing on Gandhi. [See comments under Arnold in section above.]
Arnold, a Protestant cleric, explores the ideas of three protagonists of nonviolent resistance (Goss-Mayr, Gandhi and de Ligt) on how nonviolent action ‘works’. The author, who does not use the German translation of ‘nonviolence’ but his own term ‘the power of good’, argues that, regardless of the origin and religion of the practitioners, the effects of nonviolence are basically the same. This volume – the fourth in a series – is a summary of his conclusions from three more detailed case studies, each published as a separate book, and derives from a dissertation undertaken late in the author’s life.
Presents an 'ideal type' of nonviolence (the power of good) which synthesizes the approaches developed by the Catholic Hildegard Goss-Mayr, the Hindu Gandhi and the atheist de Ligt. Attempts to describe the common core of the various traditions of nonviolence: the conception of how nonviolent action typically works. Differentiates between nonviolence as a pattern of interaction, a model of behaviour and a human potential. 'The power of good' chiefly has an impact through action by committed individuals, 'contagion' and the evolution of both in mass noncooperation.
Covers the growing resistance from 1967 inside the Occupied Territories.
Arrarte is the most famous of the Uruguayan soldiers who refused to torture, and served a total of 10 years in prison for his conscience. After the dictatorship, he went on to become a general and an active member of Amnesty International.
Opposition leader, active in the 1983 jornadas de protesta, and also in No campaign of 1988. Chapter 7 discusses the protests between 1983 and 1986.
In Spain and France, a lot of attention was initially given to Alyssa Milano’s #Me Too initiative in October 2017 and Oprah Winfrey’s #Time’s Up claim in January 2018. The authors argue that in Spain and France #MeToo was focused as a way for ordinary women to denounce the sexual abuse and harassment they had been suffering, sometimes for decades, in the past, and the role of well-known actors or powerful personalities was almost non-existent. But the #MeToo movement did play a significant role in supporting women, individually or collectively, to oppose sexual abuse and harassment.
Account by participants in British team demonstrating opposition to US war in Vietnam and its extension to Cambodia. The team planned to share the hazards of US bombing in the hope of deterring it. They were received in Cambodia (but not North Vietnam); some later demonstrated at a US base in Thailand.
Provides data on femicide in Latin America (up to 2016). It also provides links to individual cases that advanced the protection of women in Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay, and also reports on El Salvador, Argentina and Cuba. In almost all Latin America countries, violence against women is difficult to challenge due to the pervasiveness of patriarchal and macho culture. In general, it is acknowledged that tolerance of this type of violence is due to the belief that ‘having a woman’s body’ means ‘having a sexual body’, which places women in a subordinate and objectified position. Moreover, because in many Latin American countries murder of men is frequent due to gang-related crimes, deaths of women have appeared, in comparison, unimportant.
For a general overview of high-profile cases that have helped to stimulate a debate about femicide, rape, domestic violence and other forms of abuse, and led to protests for women’s rights and against femicide prior to 2017, see https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jun/03/brazil-argentina-unite-protest-sexual-violence-gender for Brazil and Argentina; https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/25/state-violence-against-women-mexico/83488114/ for Mexico; http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/30/bolivia-struggles-with-gender-based-violence.html for Bolivia; https://colombiareports.com/colombias-women-protest-against-gender-based-violence/ for Colombia; http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/08/peruvians-say-no-to-violence-against-women/ for Peru.
For factors behind the world’s highest number of female murder rates in Latin America, see https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/mimi-yagoub/why-does-latin-america-have-worlds-highest-female-murder-rates
A manifesto inspired by the international women's strike, ‘NiUnaMenos’ in Argentina and other radical feminist actions. It argues for a linkage between feminism and LGBTQ+ rights and the struggle against neoliberal capitalism, and rejects the kind of liberal feminism (exemplified by Hillary Clinton) that seeks equal opportunities for women within an inherently oppressive system.
Author was active in PD, but this nonetheless is a dispassionate and sometimes critical account of the movement, which had its origins among student activists at Queens University Belfast in 1968. Recounts internal debates and divisions and shows how PD moved from being a purely civil rights campaign to taking a radical socialist position, and campaigning for a workers’ republic in a re-united Ireland.
Account up to mid-1981 by British journalist familiar with Eastern Europe, with text of Gdansk and Szeczecin Agreements between strikers and government and postscript on December 1981.
Gives account through pictures and captions of the history and activities of ‘New Rhythm’, a small feminist group in Kyrgyzstan that is raising awareness over many problems the women of the county face, such as domestic violence, early marriage, sexism, and the lack of encouragement to young women to pursue higher education.
Forbes discusses with Ashoka fellow, Gbenga Sesan, how both offline and online mobilization contributed to the build-up of the End SARS protests. The discussion also includes the intersection of police brutality and digital rights in the light of accusations that SARS officials were arresting individuals working in start-ups and stealing their data.
See also: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/endsars-young-nigeria-protest-p...
Discusses evolution of alternative media campaigning from the 15th UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009.
Selection of essays including assessments of the role of civil society and of the youth group Pora, an examination of western influence, and a concluding analysis of the ‘revolution’ in comparative perspective.
The article deals with the Gezi Park protests against the demolition of a public park in Istanbul in May 2013, which turned into nationwide protests against the government. One source of these protests can be located in the conservative-religious neo-liberalism of the ruling AKP. The fundamental thesis of the authors defines the protests as an expression of a search for new spheres and forms of participatory politics, as an alternative to institutional structures.
Scrutinises the theories behind nonviolence. Develops his earlier criticisms of consent theory, suggesting the relevance of Foucault’s apporach to ‘micro-resistance’ (See Atack, Iain , Nonviolent Political Action and the Limits of Consent Theoria, 2006, pp. 87-97 ).
The author, writing from inside Greece, covers the background to the coup, going back to the 1930s, and analyses the nature of the regime. See especially chapter 8 ‘The Great Fear’, pp. 123-31; and chapter 9, ‘The Resistance’, pp. 132-44.
Margaret Attwood’s argument that the #MeToo movement should not turn into ‘vigilante justice’ – i.e. condemnation without a trial. She voiced her opinion following the firing of an employee, Prof. Steven Galloway, from the University of British Columbia in Canada. Serious allegations were cited without further comments on their nature. The accusations were presumably related to allegations of sexual assaults, but the hearing found no evidence and Galloway was fired after signing a non-disclosure agreement. Attwood’s view met with a backlash of accusations that she used her power to silence less powerful victims.
For a follow-up by The Guardian, please visit: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/15/margaret-atwood-feminist-backlash-metoo
Based on a survey of over 1000 feminists discusses revitalized movement, the areas in which change is necessary, and how to struggle for change. International perspective but especial focus on UK.
Aung reports on the protests that erupted in Nigeria on 2 October 2020, after a video circulated showing a man killed by police. The protests broke out three years after the online campaign #EndSARS was launched, demanding an end to the squad's indiscriminate violence against young people. She notes the role of two Afro-Pop musicians and feminists in promoting protests, and the rapid extension of demands to encompass misuse of public funds, the unemployment crisis. poor economic infrastructure and bad government.
Regarded as classic account of this period.
The author compares the Nigerian movement with Black Lives Matter and discusses within the wider context of Nigerian politics EndSARS has not been successful.
A brief overview of how the MeToo movement started to get support in Israel as a consequence of the release of the song ‘Toy’ by Israeli singer Netta Barzilai and her victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon. The song points to issues around feminism and diversity, and has a strong emphasis on the harassment suffered by women. This article also addresses the lack of attention to the plight that Hindu and Christian women and girls in Pakistan suffer, the fact that they are compelled to convert to Islam and then subsequently forced to marry their captors.
Detailed account of the Sudanese women activists who supported the revolution and contributed to ousting Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.
See also: Awad, Nazik, ‘Women’s stories from the frontline of Sudan’s revolution must be told’, OpenDemocracy, 20 March 2019.
Provides background on socio-economic conditions in Sudan and highlights women's leading role in the revolution. Includes a direct link to #SudanUprising which is relevant to understanding how the discourse about the revolution developed on social media.
Discusses the rising momentum of accusation of harassment in the press, politics, and the film industry and implications for wider culture of rape.
See also: 'Sexual harassment in India: Pests decried; A minister's resignation boosts # MeToo in India', Economist, 20 October, 2018, p. 57; and ' Sexism in India: Nuns, pilgrims and starlets', Economist, 6 October, 2018, p.51 on women's protests in several contexts, including nuns' hunger strike against a bishop accused of harassment, which achieved his removal and trial.
Presents two episodes in the 1990s as ‘founding events’ in the later cycle of protest.
Focuses on the Hungarian Writers’ Union from 1953-59.
Collection of 17 essays by academics, journalists, lawyers, policy makers and activists covering Euromaidan and the election of President Poroshenko in May 2014, and also developments in Crimea, from a multidisciplinary perspective. It is sponsored by the Polish National Research Institute, but inlcudes also contributions from Germany, Sweden and the USA. Thre are chapters on post-1991 Ukrainian politics, on the Orange Revolutions and Euromaidan (focusing only on Kiev).
See also: Rainer Huhle, ‘The dictatorship is a colossus on fragile feet”’: Remembering the movement against torture Sebastian Acevedo in Chile’; and Christopher Ney, ‘The solidarity of God’ – three presentations at the Nuremberg Menschenrechtszentum, July 2012.
Memoirs of the bold nonviolent actions taken from 1983 onwards by the Movement Against Torture Sebastian Acevedo. For other items by Bacic on this movement, see:
http://www.wri-irg.org/node/5186, and http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/roberta-bacic/saying-no-to-pinochet’s-dictatorship-through-non-violence.
Examines social base, organization and tactics of the anti-poll tax movement and relates it to theoretical debates about new social movements and poor people’s movements. See also: Bagguley, Paul , Anti-Poll Tax Protest In Kennedy, Paul ; Barker, Colin , To Make Another World: Studies in Protest and Collective Action Aldershot, Avebury Press, , 1996, pp. 7-24
Collection of writings (from Nov. 1982 to June 1985) by former East German dissident and radical ecologist. Covers issue such as North-South relations, the peace movement and the crucial role of communes in rebuilding an ecologically sound society. Includes his statement on resigning from the German Greens, claiming that they ‘have identified themselves -critically- with the industrial system and its administration’.
Covers the London Squatters Campaign 1968-71, but notes background of the mass movement by homeless people in Britain at the end of the Second World War to occupy military bases, and later luxury flats, in 1945-46.
Examines how women's rights are under attack since the ousting of President Dilma Rouseff, with scrapping of Ministry of Women and the Ministry on Racial Equality, and notes the Siempre Viva Feminist Organization opposition to dismantling government bodies to protect LGBT+ people. The article also discusses the prevalence of rape culture, and the general impact on women of race and class. Notes growing cultural movement of women of colour, and prominent role of women's movement in protests against Temer's presidency.
Interview with indigenous human rights defender, Virginia Pinares, from Peru, who came to London to represent communities in the Andes actively resisting - for example by blockades - mining for copper concentrates and molybdenum, which is controlled by the Chinese company MMG. Pinares argues that her community is not against all mining, but against the environmentally reckless way operations are conducted and the minerals transported, and they also demand a stop to the violence used against environmental and human rights activists. She stressed the need for environmentally protected zones, which could be used f or sustainable tourism.
Baker argues that the purpose of the 2014 military coup was not only to end the influence of the radical Thaksin forces, but also to entrench authoritarianism. He stresses the role of 'the professional and official elite' in promoting the coup and examines authoritarian tendencies in Thai politics and in Bangkok's middle class.
Critically assesses the qualities that a nuclear disarmament movement needs to develop in the current era. By comparing Black Lives Matter, ICAN and the Nuclear Freeze movement of the 1980s, Baker explains why a new anti-nuclear weapons movement should be intersectional, digital and confrontational.
Examines different (though overlapping) alternatives to privatization developed through North-South and red-green alliances and argues concept of the ‘commons’ most effective basis for a strategy of action.
Sruti Bala comes from the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. In her dissertation on nonviolent protest she discusses some significant elements of nonviolent resistance such as 'action', 'play' and display'. She also tries to define certain consequences of nonviolent protest for political identity. Finally, these conclusions are related to the ideas of Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the 'Frontier Gandhi').
Balducci examines fundamental ethical questions from a global perspective following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of Cold War and the attack on the U.S. on 11th September 2001. His analysis draws upon Catholicism and the necessity of pursuing a secular, nonviolent renovation that – as he argues - all religions must face.
In this critique of both idealism and realism the authors argue that, in the atomic era, the former should incorporate some aspects of realist thinking and the latter should incorporate some idealist concepts if it is to escape the negation of itself. The work focuses on the exploration of pacifism. The authors distinguish ‘humanitarian pacifism’ - centered on the human conscience; ‘democratic pacifism’ - centered on peace as a process resulting from the exercise of popular sovereignty; and ‘socialist pacifism’ - centered on the labour movement and its main characteristic: nonviolence as a tool for achieving change. By arguing on the limits of idealism and realism the authors reach the conclusion that the only way forward is international cooperation, solidarity and the solidification of a culture of peace that focuses on faith in humankind.
This now famous work contains two essays written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation - "My Dungeon Shook. Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation," and "Down At The Cross. Letter from a Region of My Mind". It provides a three-point dissection on "The Negro Problem", an expression not owned by Baldwin that he refers to while discussing the roots of racial tensions of his time and how to overcome them. (To know more about the use of and debate on this expression by Baldwin himself, please see: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830326,00.html and https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2934484.pdf).
In the first essay, Baldwin focuses on the central role of race in American history, and specifically addresses himself to his 14 year-old nephew who was confronted with anger and outrage. Through his nephew, Baldwin aims to address any Black young Afro-American.
In the second essay, Baldwin discusses relations between race and religion. He addresses Christianity with particular regard to its meaning for US society and to its use for the oppression of Black people.
A common thread to the whole book is Baldwin’s call to both Whites and Blacks to use compassion, communication and mutual understanding to transcend tensions and overcome the legacy of racism.
James Balwin was an iconic essayist, novelist, playwright and critic, who worked primarily about the Black American experience, racial tension, homosexuality and religion. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement, but spent his last years in the more congenial society of France.
The subject of this article is the right to resistance, and in particular whether this right can exist within a liberal and democratic order, which emphasizes protection of civil rights, freedom of speech and the right to public criticism and the right to form an opposition.
(reprinted in 1910 by the Universal Peace Union, and online at www.nonresistance.org)
Ballou distinguishes his brand of Christian moral resistance to evil from both secular interpretations and from the ‘”passive obedience and nonresistance” imperiously preached by despots to their subjects’. He was active in the Anti-Slavery campaign in the USA together with William Garrison. While Garrison changed position and ultimately supported armed struggle to free the slaves, Ballou maintained his commitment to nonresistance. He had a direct influence on Tolstoy, and is therefore part of the broad tradition of nonviolent resistance
Part 2 of the article, published on 21 January 2011, is available at http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/472/the-tunisian-revolution_initial-reflections_part-2.
Narratives and assessments by 30 activists and researchers of struggle by indigenous peoples and environmentalists to prevent proposed exploitation of oil, gas and coal in Arctic Alaska.
Account of the activism by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, an NGO based in Santa Fe, New Mexico that led President Obama and the Department of Energy to abandon the proposed Nuclear Facility as part of the Chemistry & Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
Discusses the ‘Justice for Janitors’ campaign in Los Angeles from 1986-1990 and success in reaching out to the immigrant community.
Explores the conflict between law and morality, and case for civil disobedience, with reference mainly to six well known prosecutions, including: the Fort Hood Three (GIs who refused to be posted to Vietnam); Dr Spock and others in 1967-68 charged with conspiracy to violate draft laws; and Daniel and Philip Berrigan and five other who burnt draft files at Catonsville in 1968.
An analysis of the factors that have led to Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar introducing conscription for their armed forces. Barany argues that conscription is a response to emerging security needs, but is also designed to strengthen the link between state and citizen.
Discusses problems faced by union in new global context of neoliberal economic dominance and its resistance to water privatization.
Very detailed account and analysis by former civil rights activist who also worked in the fields for six seasons 1971 and 1979, charting contradictions within the movement and the role of Chavez, based on hundreds of field reports and first hand experience.
Barghouti is the leader of Al Mubadara (the Initiative), launched in 2000 with a petititon signed by 10,000, urging civil resistance, and formally established in 2002.
and also his essay ‘Fear, Laughter, and Collective Power: The Making of Solidarity at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, August 1980’, pp. 175-194, Goodwin; Jasper; Polletta, Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) .
Barkham notes the major potential value of reforestation to limit global warming and preserve biodiversity as well as local economic benefits. But he also stresses the dangers of ignoring the importance of planting local species or relying on technologies that may require minerals under old forests. His article focuses on the role of the 'TreeSisters' charity founded in 2014, which funds tree planting in India, Nepal, Brazil, Kenya, Cameroon and Madagascar. In Madagascar the focus is partly on replanting lost mangroves (providing multiple environmental benefits).
In 2012 Barnard founded UK Feminista, which gives support and training to local activists, and together with Object began the campaign in 2013 Lose the Lads’ Mags. Her book argues that feminism is still very necessary in the light of continuing inequality at work, prevalence of sexual harassment, rape and domestic violence, and treatment of women’s bodies in magazines, lap dancing clubs and on the internet. UK Feminista offers workshops for schools: http://ukfeminista.org.uk
Barnes notes that, although academic analysis initially stressed the need to end extensive state control of the economy in post-Communist states, there was now increasing recognition that private economic interests can capture the state and prevent full-scale political reform. While no single economic group can control the political institutions, competing groups can struggle to gain leverage for their own economic benefit.
Barnett also contributes an essay to Lehman, Steve ; Barnett, Robert ; Coles, Robert , The Tibetans: A Struggle to Survive New York, Powerhouse Cultural Entertainment Books, , 2004, pp. 125 , a primarily photographic record.
This work organises Danilo Dolci’s scholarship on nonviolence and nonviolent action through a selection of his most significant experiences and works.
This work, divided in two parts, reprints in the first Danilo Dolci’s writings on his struggle for employment and democracy; the struggles he led for the construction of dams in Sicily, and nonviolent anti-mafia initiatives in the 1950s and 1960s in Sicily. The second part recalls Dolci’s work on development educational programmes, the development of democratic and participatory models and his critique of the mass consumption model.
This work contains selected letters between anti-fascist Italian philosopher Aldo Capitini and nonviolent activist Danilo Dolci, initiated by the former when Dolci was on his first hunger strike. This series of letters testifies to the close and unique relationship that developed through time between the two figures, which inspired both to develop their work and further implement insights in the field of culture, politics, education, and religion in the second half of the twentieth century in Italy.
This brief, but informative, article focuses on the campaign by the Marshall Islands to arraign the UK before the International Court of Justice for failure to fulfill its legal and moral obligations under Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty: to negotiate for nuclear disarmament. Barron notes that the 70,000 inhabitants of the Marshall Islands suffered the effects of 67 US nuclear weapons tests from 1946-58, and as a UN Trust Territory only achieved independence from the US in 1990.
Ambitious volume in historical and geographical range (from 1765 to current struggles, and in every continent). Individual chapters feature in relevant sections of this bibliography.
Part 1 of a two part series. Part 2 is available at http://www.opendemocracy.net/civilresistance/maciej-bartkowski-mohja-kahf/syrian-resistance-tale-of-two-struggles-part-2
Annotated bibliography, with an emphasis on recently published books and articles, compiled by two researchers in the field of nonviolent resistance, organised under useful analytical subheads. These include: 'Power and People: The Consent-Based View of Political Power', 'Structure, Agency and Civil Resistance Movements', 'Repression, Backfire and Defections', 'External Actors, Civil Resistance and International Law' 'Civil Resistance against Extreme Violence and Violent Nonstate Actors' and Civilian-Based Defense against Foreign Invasion and Coups' d 'Etat'. Ends with a list of multimedia resources.
Available online at https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Civil-Resistance-Bartkowski-Merriman-2016.pdf
This work discusses the Euromaidan movement from a perspective of nonviolent strategy, highlighting the role of ‘backfire’ when the police attacked peaceful students’ sit-ins, nonviolent tactics used to combat covert intimidation and the importance of the army’s refusal to crush the protest. It also comments on the negative impact of the ‘radical flank’ that turned to violence.
See also: Ackerman, Peter, Maciej J. Barkowski and Jack Duvall, ‘Ukraine: A Nonviolent Victory’, OpenDemocracy (3 March 2004)
This study of the Maidan Revolution analyzes what Bartkowsky calls nonviolent resistance in violence-loaded situations. He argues that the major use of force and violence by the regime was not a sign of strength, but of the fundamental weakening of the regime and seemed to be a desperate attempt to avert its threatened defeat. Therefore Janukowytsch's fall was preceded by three months of mobilization and civil resistance that undermined the already weak defences of the regime.
The articles discuss the 'tragedy' of nonviolent resistance being overtaken by armed resistance and the tendency of the nonviolent activism to be obscured, and outline the role of nonviolent resistance in Syria so far.
It explores the wave of student protests that paralysed schools and universities across Chile, demanding protection against sexual harassment and calling for gender equality.
Bartlett briefly traces the evolution of the movement. from high school students protesting about metro fare increases to major demonstrations in Santiago and across the country voicing numerous demands. The article analyzes both the socio-economic problems creating anger, and the neo-liberal nature of the Pinochet constitution, designed to maximize the role of private businesses and minimize the social and economic role of the state. It also notes the role of civil society groups in promoting public debate and crystalizing demands for a new constitution.
Chapters 5-7 focus on the demonstrations.
Authoritative account of COSATU’s early years by then National Coordinator.
Worldwide overview, but with especial focus on postcolonial states in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
This book provides a study of the genesis, growth, gains, and dilemmas of women's movements in countries throughout the world. Its focus is on Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, USA, as well as more generally covering Europe and Latina America. The authors argue that women's movements have engaged in complex negotiations with national and international forces, and challenge widely held assumptions about the Western origins and character of local feminisms. They locate women's movements within their context by exploring their relationships with the state, civil society, and other social movements.
This is a collection of articles authored in The Guardian by journalist Laura Bates, in which she uncovers the sexism underpinning personal relationships, the workplace, the media and society in general.
In this paper Juliana Batista discusses the interconnection between Confucianism and Feminism and their inherent conflict. However, she reaches the conclusion that they are not mutually incompatible.
Bautusta describes the progress Mexico has made since 2007 in the legislation related to femicide, and provides information on the prosecution of femicide and the related conviction rate. She also describes the campaign ‘Invisibles Somos Visibles’ (Invisibles We are Visible), a collective that uses performance art to denounce femicide. The collective puts on performances that dramatise the stories of local women who have been killed, seeking to generate discussion about machismo and misogyny within their communities and the legal impunity that surrounds these crimes.
This article examines the important question of how far nonviolent resistance promotes peaceful and democratic political outcomes after the overthrow of a dictatorial or authoritarian regime, as claimed in the nonviolence literature. The authors develop hypotheses about the likelihood of more egalitarian and peaceful relations at a governmental and party political level, and a greater political role for civil society, as a result of use of nonviolent resistance. These hypotheses are examined by comparing post-transition politics in Benin (an impressive example of successful nonviolent resistance) and Namibia (where in 1966 the South West African People's Organization began an armed struggle for independence from apartheid South Africa).
Nonviolent resistance is a mass phenomenon that can challenge corrupt and autocratic regimes. This form of resistance and its symbiotic relationship to cities is not at all new: the plebeians in the Roman Republic used this kind of struggle when they abandoned the city until their demands were met. But how do modern cities as conflict spaces favour nonviolent resistance? The authors systematically analyse the relationship between the urban sphere and nonviolent resistance.
Account of 1973 decision by American Psychiatric Association to stop listing homosexuality as a mental disorder and attempts by some psychiatrists to overturn this decision.
Account by participants of transnational team which went to Iraq to try to intervene between the two sides in the 1991 Gulf War. (See also Robert J. Burrowes, ‘The Persian Gulf War and the Gulf Peace Team’ in Moser-Puangsuwan and Weber, Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders, pp. 305-18 – 209 below.)
BBC Middle East editor briefly surveys the demonstrations in Lebanon and Iraq, notes attempted protests in Egypt, and discusses the frustration and rage of young people over educational failures and unemployment, as well as rampant corruption. He comments on the security forces firing on Iraqi demonstrators, and on reports that men in black (sometimes masked) who might be pro-Iranian militias were opening fire, Bowen also notes that some Iraqi soldiers have wrapped the national flag around their shoulders, suggesting sympathy for the protesters.
A year after the eruption of the #MeToo movement, historian Mary Beard traces the roots of misogyny in the West to Athens and Rome and explores the relationships between women and power and how this intersects with issues of rape and consent.
When the five men involved in the 2017 gang rape were released from prison in June 2018, weeks before the Pamplona festival, feminists around Spain protested and called for revision of the legal definition of rape, which required 'violence or intimidation', terms that allowed many rapists to escape conviction. The new Minister for Equality, Carmen Calvo, promised to redefine rape in terms of consent. Many feminists planned to demonstrate in relation to the Pamplona festival, either by a boycott or by dressing in black during the festival (challenging the traditional wearing of white). But they called off this plan in response to pleas from women in Pamplona, who had long campaigned to take part in the ceremonial supporting events and eventually won that right 15 years earlier.
This 'long read' article provides a detailed account of the notorious rape of an 18-year-old woman at the Pamplona bull run festival in 2016 and the five man 'wolf pack' responsible. It assesses the impact of the trial, which in April 2018 found the men guilty of 'sexual abuse', instead of rape, because the woman had not been violently coerced. The rape and the verdict sparked widespread anger among women, who demonstrated across the country, and journalist Cristina Fallaras tweeted about her own experiences of sexual violence and launched the hashtag #Cuentalo (tell your story). The five men were released from jail in June 2018 on bail whilst appealing their prison sentences. Beatley describes the impact on the feminist movement - police estimated 350,000 demonstrated in Madrid and 200,000 in Barcelona and many thousands in other cities and towns on International Women's Day 2019. But the case has also mobilised the far right party Vox to attack feminists and to claim that the danger of violence against women comes from non-European immigrants.
Report on how small group protests in Iran's second largest city, Mashhad, in December 2017 rapidly grew into major demonstrations reported in most provinces across Iran, with crowds often demanding an end to the dominance of senior clerics and the Revolutionary Guard. Beauchamp notes that protests on specifically economic issues, the responsibility of the parliamentary leader President Rouhani, could be acceptable to the religious leaders, but a direct challenge to their own dominance was not.
The televising of Margaret Attwood's dystopian feminist novel The Handmaid's Tale has inspired activists in Argentina, Northern Ireland, the USA and London to wear the distinctive scarlet cloaks and white bonnets to protest for abortion rights and contraceptive rights and against President Trump. The article discusses with Attwood and others how the costume signifies subjection of women and works for protests.
Introductory texts, downloadable or as print copies from: World Peace Communications, 495 Whitman St, Goleta, CA 93117, USA.
The author notes that consumer boycotts are frequently adopted as a means of protest, especially in the digital age, to put pressure on corporations to improve their practices on a wide range of moral issues. Valentin argues that such boycotts are legitimate and can be effective and suggests criteria campaigners should adopt, such as proportionality and transparency.
Journalist usually based in China gives his perspective on the movement and the broader context.
Multidisciplinary study by 13 Nigerian and 6 American political analysts of attempts at transition to democracy, including historical, social and economic as well as political factors.
Wide range of contributions on case for and against civil disobedience, including classic essays by Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Bertrand Russell on civil disobedience against nuclear weapons, and Noam Chomsky and others on draft resistance to the Vietnam War. John Rawls’ ‘Justification for Civil Disobedience’ is also included (see Rawls, A Theory of Justice (A. 1.a.iii. Social and Political Writings cited in Civil Resistance Literature) below).
A critical assessment that notes the role of neoconservatives in endorsing export of democracy, the dangers of compromising the impartiality of human rights bodies, or intensifying internal ethnic and other conflicts, and the danger of ‘packaging, exporting, and spreading democratic revolution like a module across a broad array of settings, irrespective of local circumstances’.
Leftist academic discusses sympathetically the role of the left and armed revolution in the countryside, but also explores the ‘legal, semi-legal and clandestine mass struggles in the cities’. Notes the creation by 1975 of a militant workers’ movement and the 1975 year-long wave of over 400 strikes, as well as networks among Catholics, professionals and students.
Observes that Cory Aquino’s movement seen as a third force by the US, though author rebuts US claims to have supported her before the fall of Marcos. Describes movement as ‘a genuine populist phenomenon’ with base in urban middle class, bringing onto the streets the lower middle class, unemployed workers and shanty town residents. Aquino avoided ties to the left, and did not need them to win the election, though – Bello claims – the left had paved the way for her ultimate success.
Highlights the content and possible consequences of Trump’s decision to bar organisations that provide abortion referrals from receiving federal family planning funds.
See also on the same issue:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/26/trump-administration-title-x-abortion-funding
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/22/planned-parenthood-funding-trump-1164038
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17367964/trump-abortion-planned-parenthood-defund
https://theintercept.com/2018/05/24/domestic-gag-rule-title-x-abortion-birth-control/
For a further explanation on the ‘global gag rule’ that aims to ban family planning clinics that get aid money from the United States and refer patients for abortions see
https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/blog/what-is-the-domestic-gag-rule
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17367964/trump-abortion-planned-parenthood-defund
This article explores the role of women in the farmers' protests in the context of 75 per cent of rural women working in agriculture. The authors note that this sector has been left behind in the boom accompanying the previous three decades of economic liberalization.
See also https://time.com/5942125/women-india-farmers-protests/ and https://thediplomat.com//2021/01/indias-invisible-women-farmers//
The author notes that forced labour is a sensitive and rarely publicized topic, although it has existed in China for decades, for example in construction work. It sometimes surfaces, as in the 2007 scandal about children, the elderly and adults with disabilities who were kidnapped in Zhanxi province, often with the collusion of local authorities, and forced to work in brick kilns. Later similar stories in other provinces came to light. The article also covers other forms of exploitation, such as students forced to work cheaply as interns in order to graduate - a practice that received global attention in 2012 in relation to electronic supply chains. The author notes the role of local NGOs and sometimes the local media in exposing abuses.
See also: Bengsten, Peter, 'Hidden in Plain Sight: Forced Labour Constructing China', openDemocracy, (16 Feb, 2018), https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/hidden-in-plain-sight-forced-labour-constructing-china/
Summary of developing African opposition, including early ‘passive resistance’ and land protests, attempts at unionization, and links with the East African Indian National Congress, as well as role of Mau Mau.
General analysis, includes some references to protest.
Includes CO revolts in camps and prisons in World War Two against racial segregation, and role of League members in helping to found the Congress of Racial Equality and its nonviolent direct action strategy. Also covers relations of secular and radical WRL with other pacifist bodies, such as Christian Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Bennis, a Fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and expert on Middle East and US foreign policy, examines critically the US doctrine of pre-emptive war and willingness to bypass the UN in the context of the global mobilization against the US-led 2003 attack on Iraq.
See also: Bennis, Phyllis, 'February 15, 2003, The Day the World Said No to War', Institute for Policy Studies, 15 Feb 2013.
https://ips-dc.org/february_15_2003_the_day_the_world_said_no_to_war/
Celebrates the mass global protests, but focuses in particular how opposition of Germany and France to the war enabled the 'Uncommitted Six' in the UN Security Council - Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico and Pakistan - to resist pressure from the US and UK and to refuse to endorse the war.
Covers the period 1910- 60.
Following the acquittal of three men who were accused of raping a 15 year-old girl, the activist movement, FATTA, and the other related demonstrations inspired by ‘MeToo’, led Sweden to the historic declaration, following Iceland, that sex without voluntary participation is illegal.
See also: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/05/sweden-new-rape-law-is-historic-victory-for-metoo-campaigners/ and https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/04/eu-sex-without-consent-is-rape/.
A compilation of the voices and experiences of seven objectors in prison, as well as of their relatives and supporting groups, in the context of the first years of the campaign of disobedience to military service in Spain. This book arose out of the need to train activists to face jail.
Berners-Lee, from the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University, starts by summarizing the arguments for the urgent need to stop using fossil fuels and by assessing the climate science. He then examines a wide range of issues involved in transforming energy policy, transport, food supply, business models, and technological possibilities, providing important detail on, for example, the implications of alternative technology choices for fuel.
Blog based on contribution to panel on 'Prospects for Democracy in Sudan' at LSE, 11 October 2019. Berridge compares the 2019 revolution with the 1964 and 1985 uprisings in Sudan, and assesses their failures to establish a long term democracy in the country.
See also: Berridge, W.J., '50 years on: Remembering Sudan's October Revolution', African Arguments, 20 0ctober 2014, pp. 16.
https://africanarguments.org/2014/10/20/50-years-on-remembering-sudans-october-revolution-by-willow-berridge/
Berridge notes Sudan's status as 'a gateway between the Arab and African worlds', which means it is often overlooked in discussion of Arab civilian uprisings overthrowing military autocracies. But long before the 'Arab Spring' of 2011, the October 1964 revolution overthrew a military dictator and brought in four years of parliamentary democracy. The article suggests that Sudan did not join in the 2011 uprisings partly because the regime had learned lessons from 1964 and 1985. It also explores the changes in opposition politics since the 1960s such as the new role of regional rebel movements, the mixed legacy of 1964, and the problems of creating a democracy after a revolution.
See also: Berridge, W.J, Civil Uprising in Modern Sudan: The 'Khartoum Springs' of 1964 and 1985, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016, pp. 304 (pb).
See also: Hasan, Yusuf Fadl, 'The Sudanese Revolution of October 1964', The Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 5, no. 4, December 1967, pp. 491-509. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00016372
Study by Sudanese historian of the first revolution after Sudan became an independent state.
There have been significant campaigns to protect and promote LGBT rights in the USA, including a series of National Marches on Washington in 1979, 1987, 1993 and 2000, but also in many other western countries, which are not so well covered in English publications. The political, legal , religious and cultural contexts vary, however, between countries, so LGBT communities can face somewhat different problems. (For the UK see G.2.b.)
(Translated by Steffi Buchier)
Summary report by Sorbonne student newspaper on versions of MeToo hashtag and the responses in France, Sweden, Spain and UK. It then notes the political repercussions of the movement in France (positive response by President Macron), Sweden (new law on consent) and Spain (where new socialist government was discussing modification of law on consent). The author also touches on reasons why the Balkans and Eastern Europe and (more surprisingly) Germany have been less responsive to MeToo, and notes how typical social reactions in different countries may influence the reliability of comparative statistical surveys of harassment.
A report on the initiative by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to create the first legally binding international treaty on violence and harassment in the field of work. The Convention – whose proposed title is ‘Convention and Recommendations Concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work’ – has so far received support from ILO member governments, various NGOs and employers and it was scheduled to be discussed in the Summer 2019. It will aim at addressing normative gaps in law and policy in countries or situations where there is no legal provision on sexual harassment in employment. The aim is that ratifying countries will prevent and address harassment through strengthening enforcing mechanisms and ensuring remedies for victims, and by acknowledging the costs of violence and harassment in the workplace. An important step is that the Convention focuses on addressing the needs of all women, including average-wage and low-wage workers.
An extended historical interpretation from a Marxist perspective, which makes use of the large volume of archive material released in the 1970s. Focuses on the interaction of class and other economic and political factors in the conflict in Northern Ireland. Maintains that the divisions in the country made some form of partition inevitable, the issue at stake being what form it would take.
General analysis of impact of opencast (strip) mining which spread in Britain in the 1980s. Chapter 7 ‘Changing Patterns of Protest’ (pp. 167-206) looks at the collaboration between the National Union of Miners’ Support Groups and environmental groups to oppose mines creating pollution, and examines the turn from conventional protest to direct action.
See also the book Bhan, Gautam ; Menon-Sen, Kalyani , Swept Off the Map: Surviving Eviction and Resettlement in Delhi New Delhi, Yoda Press, , 2008
In the aftermath of the series of sexual allegations faced by Harvey Weinstein, one of the most powerful faces of Hollywood, the #MeToo movement went viral in social media. This movement was initially launched in 2006 by Tarana Burke aimed at helping survivors of sexual harassment. Taking examples from different countries, this commentary attempts to analyse the #MeToo movement and answer the question of why most victims of sexual harassment chose to remain silent.
A memoir by Bhutto’s daughter, who was a central figure in the campaign for democracy in the 1980s, which takes her story almost up to the November 1988 elections and her becoming Prime Minister. Although the focus is personal, includes material on the wider political context and the growing popular resistance.
A range of transnational case studies, including cooperation between unions in developing and developed countries, illustrate problems and possibilities of solidarity.
This article explores the ‘Black Protest’ demonstration in Poland against a proposed abortion law, which would have been one of the most restrictive in the European Union.
Report of conference of that title bringing together nonviolent activists from different campaigns and different generations.
Urges incorporation of right to conscientious objection in national constitutions, and the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Account by former Lieutenant in the US navy of an attempt by four people to sail a ketch into the US nuclear testing zone at Eniwetok in protest against the tests. Defying an injunction, the ketch sailed 5 miles into the zone before being stopped by US navy. Their example inspired a second attempt by Earle and Barbara Reynolds (see Reynolds, The Forbidden Voyage (D.3.c. Studies of Particular Countries, Campaigns or Actions) ).
Commentary on the role that women can play in the peace talks within the context of the Yemeni conflict that erupted in 2015. It highlights the situation of women in politics prior to and after the eruption of the conflict. It also provides data elucidating gender-based violence in the country and names of coalitions established by women to tackle it.
Report on the signing of the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment (WEEE) Act by President Trump in the midst of the US Government shutdown, which aims at promoting opportunities for female entrepreneurs worldwide.
Biko, a key figure in the move to radical black consciousness, was killed while in custody by the security services.
Gill discusses the Indian farmers' protests in the context of the shift towards neo-liberal global capitalism and the power of Indian agribusiness, aided by new internet platforms and data analytics.
The article provides a detailed analysis of the immediate and longer term results of a protest over loss of village land in Wukan, Guangdon, to reveal government responses designed to pacify protesters, and the impact on individuals, the local protest group and broader society. The aim is to shed light on the widespread phenomenon of protests over land.
The book focuses on 'year' August 1969-1970, and explores the roots of the movement against the Vietnam War in the Civil Rights Movement, citing testimony of those involved.
Describes explicit strategies developed in both Serbia and Ukraine to increase costs of repression and reduce the willingness of the security forces to resort to violence. By combining deterrence and persuasion the organisers were able to avert major repression in 2000 and 2004.
Provides information on the legal framework on femicide of most Latin American countries up to 2017.
In this interview, Ibrahim AlHusseini - entrepreneur, documentary producer, and philanthropist - discusses the connection between renewable energy, democracy in the Middle East and feminism. It also elucidates why feminism is important to Middle Eastern men and the factors that contribute to a larger participation of men in women’s struggles for equality.
Collection of brief articles on key issues, protest by regions, key actors, and assessments by actors within the movement.
Charts the processes of nationalism, liberation and independence in the various countries of Africa between 1922, when self-government was restored to Egypt, and 1994, when a non-racial democracy was established in South Africa.
Starts with the example of an unidentified mutilated body of a girl in Gujarat, a victim of prolonged gang rape and assault, and discusses the impact of the unnaturally high proportion of men to women (largely due to illegal sex selection abortions) on the level of rape. Since the widely publicised 2012 gang-rape and murder of a student in Delhi, statistic suggest a doubling of rapes of children, but Biswas cautions that better reporting of rapes by police and media, and a widening of the definition of rape, may partly account for the rise.
By former member of Allende’s cabinet.
The article starts with protests about police killing of an Afro-Columbian man in Bogota the same week George Floyd was killed, noting the general impact of the BLM movement on anti-racist and Afro-Latino organizations. The author also sketches in the historical background of the Spanish colonies enslaving millions of Africans, and subsequent treatment of racial issues, including the 'myth' of multiculturalism.
See also:
Valencia, Jorge, 'Black Lives Matter Protests Renew Parallel Debates in Brazil, Columbia', The World, 15 June 2020
Across the Americas police violence disproportionally targets young Black men. The protests sparked by Floyd's death in Minneapolis shone a light on police brutality in South America and led to demonstrations in Brazil and other countries.
published in English, Spanish and Serbian since 1994.
Blain traces the vital role women played in shaping Black nationalist politics between the 1920s and 1960s. It is addressed to anyone wanting to better understand the history of race, empire, and imperialism in the twentieth century.
See also https://www.aaihs.org/feminism-gender-politics-and-black-nationalist-women/; https://africanarguments.org/2017/03/08/how-african-feminism-changed-the-world/;
https://iycoalition.org/what-is-african-feminism-an-introduction/; https://thedailyaztec.com/90741/opinion/african-feminism-is-on-the-rise/ and https://www.msafropolitan.com/2017/12/what-is-african-feminism-actually.html
(A Penguin Special and one in a series on Hong Kong)
The author charts the attitudes of the generation who grew up since 1997, arguing that they have a distinctive Hong Kong identity, detached from Britain's legacy and far from identifying with mainland China, but aware of pressure from Beijing. He follows the stories of 'activists turned politicians', 'artists resisting censorship' and. some connected with the world of high finance, making comparisons with other Asian countries he has covered as a journalist.
Accounts by Israeli conscientious objectors of their experience and the reasons for their stance. Editors relate these to a critique of Zionism.
Theorizes transnational (‘transversal’) dissent, looking back to de La Boetie’s Renaissance theory of power and tracing evolution of modern collective action. Draws on Foucault to explore a ‘discursive’ concept of power. Critiques Sharp’s theory of power, illustrated by analysis of East German political and cultural dissent culminating in the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
The authors comment on the impressive revival of Black LivesMatter in May/June 2020, reforms to policing already agreed in some cities and the new prominence of the demand to ‘defund the police’. They also discuss the importance of combining a range of approaches and tactics to complement direct action: doing research; making the ‘invisible visible’; using symbolic ritual (for example turning the fence around the White House into a shrine); and encouraging artistic creativity to promote joy and healing.
In societies with anti-abortion norms, such as Northern Ireland, little is known about how these norms may be resisted by the adult population. The authors argue that resistance to religious and patriarchal norms can be fostered through adult community abortion education. They see this resistance as multi-faceted and bolstered by reference to lived experience. It does not necessarily involve abandoning religious beliefs.
This book uses case studies from a range of countries to provide a transnational and interdisciplinary analysis of trends in abortion politics, and considers how religion, nationalism, and culture impact on abortion law and access. It also explores the impact of international human rights norms and the role of activists on law reform and access to abortion. Finally the authors examine the future of abortion politics through the more holistic lens of ‘reproductive justice’. The countries included are: Argentina, Egypt, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, Uruguay and the US.
Covers both ‘partisan’ nonviolent action, e.g. against extension of a military camp on Larzac plateau in France, and ‘nonpartisan’ nonviolent intervention to try to prevent violent conflict, e.g. the role of the Gandhian peace brigade (Shanti Sena) in the Ahmedabad riots of 1969. Parts 3 and 4 analyse examples of partisan and nonpartisan intervention by international teams operating a transnational level. Several chapters are listed later in the bibliography. Part 5 analyses processes of change through the third party approach. With extensive bibliographical guide, pp. 288-341.
Collection of brief accounts of events at Zuccotti Park encampment and initial assessments by writers from leftist New York media, plus extracts from speeches of visiting intellectuals and activists – Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Angela Davis and Rebecca Solnit.
Chapters on Christian Peacemaker Team, Voices in the Wilderness project in Iraq, Peace Brigades International and the International Solidarity Movement. Descriptions by participants of work done by these groups, who runs them and what is involved in joining them.
Diary of a participant in this defiance of the US prohibition on taking supplies to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Bobbio discusses the interconnection of human rights, democracy and peace as central elements for the achievement of peace. He discusses nonviolence as a tool for establishing a condition of ‘institutional pacifism’ capable of regulating violence and managing the peaceful resolution of conflict.
This analysis, written at an early stage of the 2019 protests, comments on the combination of longstanding grievances and the recent sources of anger, such as repression of protests calling for jobs for university graduates in September, which led to the mass eruption onto the streets of 'unemployed and underemployed youth' in Shia majority areas. It notes that there was little immediate response in Sunni-majority areas, because of the recent violence of the war against ISIS and fear of being targeted as pro-ISIS, or as supportive of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The author also examines why Shia protesters reject the existing political parties and often criticize Iran's role in Iraqi politics.
France, which abolished conscription in 1997, reintroduced a new form of universal national service for 16 year olds in 2018, which extended to women as well as men and included forms of social as well as military service. Bock's article discusses the national debate at a time when the new form of service was being tested by over 2,000 young volunteers in a pilot programme. The eventual service will be compulsory, with no exceptions recognized, and penalties envisaged included being banned from taking the academic qualification the baccalaureat or a driving test.
See also: Williamson, Lucy, 'France's Macron brings back National Service', BBC News, 27 June 2018.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44625625
This report stresses that Macron's original plan had been 'softened and broadened' with less focus on military experience and with an emphasis on fostering social cohesion.
Compares struggles over water in Andean communities of Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia and Native American communities in S .W. USA, noting the combined goals of cultural justice and socio-economic justice.
Analysis of the ‘revolution’ including some mention of role of nonviolence.
Discusses the development of a new wave of feminism in Latin America, with particular regard to the ‘Ni Una Menos’ movement, and notes its main differences from ‘Me Too’ in the US, particularly in the type of testimonies relayed, and the inclusion and diversity within the Latin American movement. Boesten also reports on the harsh backlash against the newly developing feminist movements, provoked by conservative Catholicism and pays tribute to Colombian writer Emma Reyes, who symbolises the hidden contribution to literature women in Latin America can offer, providing a different perspective on the pervasive violent misogyny in the country.
Indian journalist’s account of the continuing unarmed protests
Recalls that the 1968 Ford Dagenham strike for equal pay, although it achieved a substantial pay rise and eventual parity with men on the same grade, did not recognise the skilled nature of the sewing-machinists work by upgrading them. Provides brief account of later 1984 strike by women machinists demanding upgrading, which led to an independent inquiry, which recognised their claim. A film Making the Grade by the Open Eye Film, Video and Animation Workshop documents this second struggle.
Recently, many women’s movements in Brazil sought internet as means of expression and claim, and held campaigns of national and international impact through it, disseminating information using the hashtags #meuamigosecreto (#mysecretsanta) and #meuprimeiroassédio (#myfirstharassment) to denounce situations of various types of harassment they have experienced. The authors of this study aimed to identify which are the elements that influence the intention of women’s participation in online feminist movements by surveying 185 Brazilian women who took part in the #meuamigosecreto campaign. The survey provides relevant information for better understanding of feminist movements online, demonstrating that the participants believe that the campaigns strengthen the feminist movement, assist in raising awareness of men about their macho attitudes, can result in a decrease of cases of violence against women and can contribute to the debate on violence against women.
Over 20 contributions from a wide range of aboriginal peoples and organizations, academics and government representatives, discussing land rights and other contentious issues in an historical, legal and political framework, and from regional and international perspectives.
Bolton, focuses on his experience with the Living Wage campaign in the UK since 2001 and how the campaign has through varied tactics significantly increased the wages of over 150,000 cleaners and other low paid workers.
Analysis of how ICAN, by choosing a precise discursive strategy to establish a categorical prohibition, helped to build the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, placing nuclear weapons in the same legal category as other pariah weapons. The article uses Mary Douglas’ landmark theorization of ‘purity’ and ‘danger’ to explore the development of the ‘nuclear taboo’ and ICAN’s creative manipulation of discourses of nuclear pollution.
This article explores the development of the ‘nuclear taboo’ and ICAN’s creative manipulation of discourses of nuclear pollution. ICAN placed people who had long been marginalized by nuclear diplomacy – Atomic Bomb survivors, women, indigenous people, civilians, representatives of small states – at the centre of the debate about conversation about nuclear weapons. In doing so, ICAN deconstructed discourses legitimating nuclear weapons, revealing the ambivalence and fear underneath diplomatic euphemism. ICAN also turned the stigma associated with nuclear weapons onto those who defended them.
The authors assess how women’s empowerment in the political sphere on a global scale can best be conceptualized and measured. This work argues that women’s political empowerment is a fundamental process of transformation and provides a benchmark for understanding all gains in political empowerment across the globe.
Analysis of Gandhi’s approach to conflict and struggle and of three of his campaigns in India; the 1918 Ahmedabad textile workers strike; the 1919 resistance to the repressive Rowlatt Bills, and the 1930-31 Salt March.
This book collects stories related to experience of abortion in the US with the aim of de-stigmatising it. ‘Shout Your Abortion’ is also a media platform and a social movement that promotose pro-choice activism, which can be found at:
https://shoutyourabortion.com/
To read about the creator of #ShoutYourAbortion see https://www.reuters.com/article/us-abortion-usa-stigma/u-s-women-get-creative-in-fighting-abortion-stigma-idUSKCN0YH17E
To look at other pro-choice advocacy campaigns and their media platforms, see https://wetestify.org/ and http://www.1in3campaign.org/about
Following the alleged murder of Caracas activist Sheila Silva, feminists and women’s movements in Venezuela launched a campaign demanding authorities take decisive action against gender-based violence and femicide. The activists’ initiative was supported by the Venezuelan government campaign ‘Peace Begins at Home: No More Violence Against Women’. The campaign saw various public landmarks lit up in violet light by night, aimed at promoting debate about the decriminalization of abortion and family planning, and also the need to criminalise domestic violence. These are all long-term demands of Venezuela’s feminist movements.
On 1977-78 hunger strike.
Covers transnational farmer resistance to WTO and other global institutions and high profile global alliances such as the small farmer organization Via Campesina. Case studies include Indonesian forest dwellers chopping down rubber plants to grow rice to eat, and Mexican migrants returning home to transform their communities. Also includes information on early 20th century agrarian movements.
The article examines accidentally the emergence of the TPNW, including how, and to what degree, efforts to alter states’ framing of nuclear weapons have influenced the treaty’s emergence and negotiation. It also examines the humanitarian perspective on the consequences of nuclear weapons, the activities of ICAN and the role played by transnational institutions like the UN and the Red Cross Movement to highlight lessons and limits on transnational advocacy network models of norm emergence.
Originally commissioned by the Danish Department of Foreign Affairs, this examines the theory of nonviolent defence, strategic and organisational issues, historical examples and the possibility of combining nonviolent and military forms of defence.
One of the best conceptualizations of civilian-based defence, enriched with examples of civil resistance.
MA dissertation by grandson of leader of village’s resistance to incorporation into Israel.
Traces the course of the feminist movement from its beginnings at a meeting in Seneca Falls, USA, in 1848, through the campaign for voting rights in the early 20th century to the emergence of radical feminism in the 1960s and 1970s.
Compares democracy movements in Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines from a social movement perspective. Charts post-colonial evolution. On Indonesia, examines the Sukarno years, the 1965 coup and anti-communist massacres, initial student protests in the 1970s under Suharto, and the complexities of party politics in the 1980s and 1990s. Ch. 10 ‘Indonesia’s Democracy Protests’ (pp. 215-37) covers the build-up of resistance to Suharto, the role of the student demonstrations and the end of the Suharto regime.
The objectification of women pervades all aspects of Egyptian public and private life. This article illustrates the epidemic of sexual harassment that Egyptian women face and some initiatives taken to combat it.
This collection of essays by the sociologist, Quaker and eminent peace researcher, Elise Boulding, reflects her 50 years of studying family, civic culture, education, the role of women and the nature of a culture of peace. She believes this culture requires the management of differences and a balance between social bonding and autonomy, and often unnoticed examples indicate a potential for the future.
The authors observe that Germany in 2017 finally ratified the 2011 Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women, and also amended the law on rape to emphasise consent, not the physical violence of the rapist. But these changes were not due to decades of feminist pressure, but to the highly publicised harassment of women in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015 by immigrants. This led to sensational media coverage invoking anti-Muslim fears, and pressure from the far right AFD party (Alternative for Germany) and extremist Pegida movement. Cologne encouraged demands for quicker deportations and restrictions on refugee numbers across the political spectrum, and there was a rise of up to three a week in arson attacks on refugee centres. The article notes the response of anti-racist feminists, for example in the internet initiative #ausnahmlos (without exception), challenging the racialisation of sexual harassment and the racial undertones of public debate. But they were in turn attacked for fuelling right wing extremism, and were compared to Holocaust deniers.
See also: 'A Feminist View of Cologne: The current outrage is very hypocritical', Der Spiegel Online, 21 January 2016. https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-feminists-debate-cologne-attacks-a-1072806.html
Debate between two leading feminists (Alice Schwarzer and Anne Wizorek) from different generations of feminists responding to Cologne. They disagree about the urgency of addressing sexism within some immigrant communities, as opposed to stressing the persistence of patriarchal attitudes throughout German society. Both seem to agree that groping and sexual harassment should become a criminal offence, a cause which Wizorek had promoted since 2013.
Discusses the Confederation Paysanne and the farmers’ international Via Campesina, but also gives account of French farmer resistance to McDonald’s.
This essay by leading politician and activist Bové and journalist Luneau traces the world history of civil disobedience and explains its current relevance.
Discusses community campaign in County Mayo on west coast of Ireland against a planned gas pipeline and refinery. The campaign involved fasting, blockades and civil disobedience by five men who defied compulsory purchase orders and went to jail. (See also Rossport 5 and Siggins below)
Addresses how photography (using photographs taken in the USA and Australia) can illuminate the unimaginable, namely nuclear catastrophe, in order to fuel the imagination in the search for alternatives that lead to a world free of nuclear weapons.
The contributors provide an analysis of the illegality of nuclear weapons under international criminal law.
Reports on the wave of student protests across the country since the July 18 rally in front of the Democracy Monument. Focuses particularly on a protest on 19 August by thousands at Thammasat University in Bangkok (which has iconic significance in the history of Thai pro-democracy struggles), the largest of many student-led protests that day.
Traces the growth of disillusionment with the war amongst American GIs and the increasingly militant opposition within the US forces. Extracts published as pamphlet ‘GI Revolts: The Breakdown of the US Army in Vietnam’, available online: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/richard-boyle-gi-revolts-the-breakdown-of-the-u-s-army-in-vietnam
Story of the rise of direct action against nuclear weapons in the British context. Includes diary of main protest in the 1957-1966 period, and interviews with those involved.
History of conscientious objection to compliance with various legal provisions involving compulsion of citizens, including taking of oaths, vaccination and religious education. Chapter on ethical and political problems related to conscientious objections takes the form of imaginary dialogue between author and a critic of her thesis.
Aceh, pp. 343-428, Papua, 49-146.
Review of the reasons behind the choice by the Chinese publishing company People’s Cultural Publishing House to translate Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book with the title ‘The Rights of Women’ rather than ‘We Should All Be Feminists’. Critics argue that the problem with the word ‘feminist’ lies in its organising for the cause, while the word ‘right’ reproduces the contemporary governmental discourse that emphasizes the rights conceded and the rule of law imposed from above, thus reproducing a patriarchal scheme on the portrayal of the book.
Explores high carbon footprint of military defence, argues for an alternative nonviolent defence, and advocates ‘active resistance’ of kind pioneered by Australian environmentalists.
Part 1 of the trilogy. Episodes extracted from this readable narrative have been compiled into one volume – Taylor Branch, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, New York, Simon and Schuster, pp. 256.
Part 2 of a trilogy. Episodes extracted from this readable narrative have been compiled into one volume – Taylor Branch, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, New York, Simon and Schuster, pp. 256.
Part 3 of a trilogy. Episodes extracted from this readable narrative have been compiled into one volume – Taylor Branch, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, New York, Simon and Schuster, pp. 256.
Assessment of why Italian media have hounded individual women who went public about sexual assault, and why the Italian MeToo hashtag, #quellavoltache, only attracted a few hundred mentions on social media. The author cites conclusion of a panel of journalists that a major reason is the mafia culture of silence and protecting one's own. The emphasis on personal ties (clientalism) in the workplace, and the ethos of cronyism encouraged under former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (1990s-2000s) are also cited as reasons for Italy's misogyny.
Account of resistance to the TransCanada Corporation's Keystone XL oil pipeline to protect ancestral lands and the environment against oil spillage. President Obama halted the project in 2015, but President Trump gave TransCanada the go-ahead in March 2017. In response two Native American communities launched a lawsuit against the Administration in 2018.
See: 'Native American Tribes File Lawsuit Seeking to Invalidate Keystone XL Pipeline Permit', npr, 10 Sept. 2018.
Well researched account of MST.
In-depth account of the organisation of #NiUnaMenos and the 2018 International Women’s Strike, elucidating how the strike became a decisive moment in the history of Argentina’s and Latin America’s feminist revolutions. The authors note the importance of the region as a laboratory for the imposition of high impact neoliberal economic policies. The process by which IWS has become successful is based on radicalization by mass mobilisation and inclusion and aims never to isolate sexual violence from the very complex entwinement of capitalism and machista violences (macho culture) that lies at the core of the capitalist system.
Thorough account of the organisation of #NiUnaMenos and the 2018 International Women’s Strike, elucidating how the strike became a decisive moment in the history of Argentina’s and Latin America’s feminist revolutions. The authors note that the region functions as a laboratory for observing the imposition of high impact neoliberal economic policies. The process by which IWS has become successful is based on radicalization by mass mobilisation and inclusion and aims never to isolate sexual violence from the very complex entwinement of capitialism and machista violences (macho culture) that lies at the core of the capitalist system.
The authors assess the prospects for the protest movement in Hong Kong since Beijing announced the new security law. They examine the 2019 movement and developments early in 2020 in the context of the recent history of Hong Kong and the failure of the Umbrella Movement.
See also: Kuo, Lily and Helen Davidson, 'From the Shadows, Beijing Asserts its Control', Guardian Weekly, 2 October, 2020, pp.24-5.
Describes how key individuals with a reputation for repression in China are directing Beijing's policy in Hong Kong and the role of the central government's liaison office. The article also comments briefly on the virtual suppression of open protest, which has become extremely risky.
See also: Wright, George, 'Hong Kong Protest Singers Fear for their Future', BBC News, 25 August, 2020.
The report discusses the impact of the Beijing Security Law on Hong Kong's musicians.
A broad-ranging analysis by two experts in the field, drawing on the democratization literature, but focused on African realities.
Collects tributes to Einstein as a man of science and Nobel Peace Laureate, and explores Einstein’s vision of peace and scientific responsibility, especially in relation to nuclear science.
A series of essays on the life of Joseph Rotblat, British physics and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, including his activism for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Bravo and Buzzone collect biographical recounts and other documents that narrate women’s history in war. The authors argue that war cannot be a way to achieve progress, and debate the use of violence and on the rejection of violence. They also stress the importance of not underestimating civil and unorganised forms of struggle alongside more common forms of organised forms of resistance, and of including more on the contributions of women in the organisation and study of resistance movements.
The author is an activist who sees the potential for a global movement to prevent disastrous climate change by forcing corporations and governments to adopt more radical policies, focusing in particular on ending use of fossil fuels. He gives examples of action from many parts of the world. But his primary emphasis is on developing a strategy (including civil disobedience) for activists in the USA, stressing the need to undermine support for fossil fuel industries but also to build parallel institutions such as popular assemblies.
Published in conjunction with a BBC TV series. Chapters 27 and 28 (pp. 187-199) cover the first Intifada, the impact on Israel and the initiatives taken by the PLO.
Charts the evolution of the movement from 1979 to deployment of missiles in Germany at the end of 1983, linking accounts of major protests in West Germany to internal political developments and US/USSR negotiations. The final chapter assesses the impact of the movement and its relation to the INF Treaty.
Feminist critic Laura Briggs argues that all politics in the U.S. are effectively reproductive politics. She outlines how politicians’ racist accounts of reproduction — stories of Black “welfare queens” and Latina “breeding machines" — encouraged the government and business disinvestment in families. With decreasing wages, the rise in temporary work and no resources for family care, US households have grown increasingly precarious over the past forty years in race-and class-stratified ways. This crisis, Briggs argues, fuels all others, such as immigration, gay marriage, anti-feminism, the rise of the Tea Party, and the election of Trump.
These two volumes form the book series Solinger, Rickie, Khiara M. Bridges, Zakiya Luna and Ruby Tapia (eds.) Reproductive Justice: A New Vision For The Twenty First Century, Oakland, CA: University of California Press,
Examines community action by the poor; (in Californian Studies of Urbanization and Environment series).
(published in the USA as Rosa Parks, New York, Viking, 2000)
Parks is famous for her role in sparking the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, but had a long history of engaging in the struggle for civil rights.
Published immediately after the war to discuss key issues raised. Gives background information and comments on the conduct of the war, in particular the killing from the air of large numbers of Iraqi troops flying white flags. On opposition to the war see: Grace Paley, ‘Something about the Peace Movement: Something about the People’s Right Not to Know’, which comments on the US-based opposition, including references to soldiers refusing to support the war, pp. 64-5 and 70-71.
Examines dilemma of growth versus environmentalism, and how Japan has resolved it, with focus on how anti-pollution protests 1960s-1973 changed government policy , using the movement in one prefecture as a case study.
Clutton Brock, a member of the African National Congress, worked with a village cooperative in Southern Rhodesia. Puts the political and economic case against the Federation, justifying strikes and ‘disorderly conduct’ in Nyasaland, because 20 years of constitutional tactics had been unsuccessful. Chronology of political events in Nyasaland from 1859 (coming of Livingstone) to proposed conference on constitution of Federation in 1960.
The author, a full time worker at War Resisters' International with a focus on support for conscientious objectors to military service, discusses whether the previous trend towards the abolition of conscription around the world is being reversed. She notes that it has been reintroduced in Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania and Kuwait (after a short period when it was not in force) and introduced for the first time by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; in total over 100 states practice, responding with varying degrees of harshness to objectors. Most states impose conscription for men, but both Norway and Sweden (where it h ad been reintroduced) extend it to women. The article discusses the varying regional security situations, which influence states to use conscription and carrying rounds for exemption.
Brock assesses the changing context of her work for War Resisters' International since she began in 2012, when conscription had ended or been suspended in 22 states. She notes how regional fears of Russian aggression have influenced the reintroduction of conscription in former Soviet states (Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania) and in Western Europe, where Sweden had reintroduced it. She also comments on Gulf States introducing or reintroducing conscription (as in Kuwait). The extension of conscription to women in both Norway and Sweden, opposed by some feminists but supported by women politicians, raises wider questions, which Brock considers, about the extent of social diversity in the armed forces. The article is extensively annotated, including references to protests against conscription and against the major military exercise 'Aurora' mounted by neutral Sweden in 2017, which incorporated NATO troops.
Anthology of prison memoirs by conscientious objectors from World War One to the Cold War. Contributions from Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.
(Revised and updated version of Peter Brock, Twentieth Century Pacifism, 1970, Van Nostrand Reinhold.)
History of opposition to war drawing primarily on US and British experience, but including material on Gandhi and the later Gandhian movement, assessments of the position of conscientious objectors in many parts of the world, and references to transnational organizations, e.g. the War Resisters’ International. Although the focus is on pacifism, the book includes material on the role of pacifists in the nuclear disarmament and anti-Vietnam War movements.
Analyses the confrontation between popular movements – urban and rural – and repressive regimes, especially in Guatemala and El Salvador, in particular discussing the ‘repression-protest paradox’.
Account of feminist organization founded in 1977, which uses literacy classes, underground papers and pamphlets and demonstrations, based on more than 100 interviews with key activists by author, a US feminist scholar. The founder of the Association, who left university in Kabul to struggle for women’s rights, was assassinated in 1987.
Contrasts the necessity of local resistance – e.g. the right to unionize – with the transnational emphasis on consumer boycotts that, she argues, can unintentionally reinforce the global forces they denounce.
Discusses major crisis of water scarcity in India, due not only to climate change (failures of monsoons since 2012) but commercial exploitation of water sources, which leaves small farmers and citizens without water supplies and often reliant on tankers run by 'water mafia'. The government still tends to favour dams rather than localised measures to preserve water, and political pressures promote crops such as sugar cane in unsuitably environments. The author also notes an example of local good practice. The women's organization, the Mann Deshi Foundation, has in last few years promoted rehabilitation of streams and the local river in a semi-desert area of Maharashtra, before creating a reservoir which was handed over to the local village council.
Explores the strategy and tactics of the anti-nuclear energy movement in Tokyo developed in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, points to the existing dissatisfaction with both the nuclear industry, and the decaying institutions of Japan’s capitalist developmental state, as the foundations upon which the anti-nuclear energy movement has become the longest social movement in Japan.
Brown discusses why the devolved Scottish government has opposed both nuclear energy as a power source, and also strongly opposed the UK government's decision to renew the Trident missile (which carries nuclear warheads) for the submarine fleet based at Faslane. Although there are several factors, such as abundant resources available for energy, Brown argues that the Scottish government's stance can be best understood by 'considering the underlying (and deliberate) bridging of policy frames that is noticeable between environmental, pacifist and Scottish independence actors'.
Part 2 is on major miners’ strike organized by the militant Zikist movement. The movement became associated with riots and an assassination attempt and was banned in April 1950.
This wide-ranging collection analyzes the status and progress of women both in a national context and collectively on a global scale, as a powerful social force in a rapidly evolving world. The countries studied―China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, Cameroon, South Africa, Italy, France, Brazil, Belize, Mexico, and the United States―represent a cross-section of economic conditions, cultural and religious traditions, political realities, and social contexts that shape women’s lives, challenges, and opportunities. Psychological and human rights perspectives highlight worldwide goals for equality and empowerment, with implications for today’s girls as they become the next generation of women. Women’s lived experience is compared and contrasted in such critical areas as: home and work; physical, medical, and psychological issues; safety and violence; sexual and reproductive concerns; political participation and status under the law; impact of technology and globalism; country-specific topics.
See also Brown, David L.; Fox, Jonathan , Transnational Civil Society Coalitions and the World Bank: Lessons from Project and Policy Influence Campaigns In Edwards; Gaventa, Global Citizen Action (1.a. Transnational and Continent-wide Movements and Networks)London, Earthscan Publications, 2001, pp. 43-58
As there is an anti-abortion majority on the Supreme Court, and several states only have one abortion clinic, many reproductive rights activists are on the defensive, hoping to hold on to abortion in a few places and cases. This book explains abortion access in the United States, and makes the argument for building a militant feminist movement to promote reproductive freedom.
Also watch the launching of the book and related conference at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhZfC0tGBpc
First of three books by leading Gandhi scholar. Followed by:
Sympathetic yet objective biography with an emphasis on political tactics and organisation.
Covers historical background, earlier attempts at democratization and the evolution of political parties. It draws on extensive interviews. See especially chapter 5 for the resistance movement.
Covers voyages to challenge nuclear testing at Amchitka Island, Alaska and at Mururoa Atoll, but also the voyages protesting against nuclear waste disposal and pollution, and to protect marine mammals.
The 2018 referendum to overturn Ireland’s abortion ban had worldwide significance. The campaign to repeal the Eight Amendment succeeded against a background of religious and patriarchal dogmatism, representing a major transformation of Irish society itself. This work explores both the campaign and the implications of the referendum result for politics, identity and culture in the Republic of Ireland. It explores activism, artwork, social movements, law, media, democratic institutions, and reproductive technologies in the country and beyond.
This book draws on a range of theoretical traditions emerging from feminism, criminology, and sociology, to challenge the narrow idea that domestic violence and sexual assault are phenomena of interpersonal violence perpetrated by men. The authors highlight the diversity of women’s experience, discuss the role social structures play, and include discussions of workplace and state violence. The first section develops the conceptual and contextual framework, and the following three sections focus on types of victimization: interpersonal, in the workplace, and by the state. Accounts of individual experiences are used throughout to personalize the issues discussed.
Numerous protests took place round the world contemporaneously with the global economic crisis, but the left in Europe as a whole failed to organize. This gap should be filled by Blockupy, a European network of activists composed of trade unionists, political parties and different social movements. The article traces the history of this organization and assesses how far Blockupy has the power to create a new left movement in Germany.
See also the recent discussion between Amy Risley and Brysk, pp. 83-113, in Goodwin; Jasper, Contention in Context: Political Opportunities and the Emergence of Protest (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) .
After the kidnapping and gang rape of a 17-yearl old young woman called Khadija by 12 men, public outrage in Morocco led women and men to organize a campaign combating violence against women. ‘#Masaktach’ (She was not silent) first took to the streets of Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, with early members carrying whistles, which they handed out to women as a defense against sexual harassment. Khadija was held for two months, during which time she was starved, drugged, beaten, gang-raped, tortured, tattooed with swastikas, and burned with cigarettes.
See also https://insidearabia.com/masaktach-a-movement-against-sexual-harassment-in-morocco/ and https://www.azeemamag.com/stories/masaktach
Mostly an analysis of broader Iranian history, but discusses June 2009 protests and their aftermath.
Rather sensationalist account by journalist focusing on events from the 1985 coup to the US invasion, but stressing the role of Noriega and the Panama Defence Force. Includes descriptions of popular resistance as well as elite manoeuvres.
TAPOL has campaigned against Indonesian human rights abuses for 40 years, for which in 1995 Budiardjo won the Right Livelihood Award.
A case study for the University of KwaZulu-Natal project Globalisation, Marginalisation and new Social Movements in post-Apartheid South Africa.
based on interviews with 60 people and includes photos and map of Belgrade.
Covers Europe in the 1990s, including essays on ‘Theorizing Feminism in Postcommunism’, ‘Something Unnatural: Attitudes to Feminism in Russia’, ‘New Mothers’ Campaigning Organization in Russia’, ‘”Its about Helping women to Believe in Themselves”: Grassroots Women’s Organizations in Contemporary Russian Society’ and ‘Women’s Discordant Voices in the Context of the 1998 Elections in the Ukraine’.
This book draws on a wide range of academic disciplines to present the very diverse nature of feminist thought and activism in Japan since the early 20th century. It covers employment, education, literature and the arts, as well as feminist protests and initiatives. The book includes ideas and approaches adopted by a range of cultural and socio-political groups that have not bee labeled feminist, but which have promoted ideas and values close to feminism. It also examines important aspects of feminist history to challenge the mainstream interpretation of them.
Survey of gay and lesbian rights issues in USA. Part 1 covers period before 1950, Parts 2 and 3 organizational activists and national figures , and Part 4 ‘Other Voices’.
Examines waves of change in 11 former communist nations, from 1989-1992, and the electoral defeat of authoritarian rulers from 1996 to 2005 in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine. This volume looks in particular at issues of transmission and the role of transnational and international actors, with a particular focus on the role of the EU. The final section discusses the conundrum posed by political developments in Russia, and also Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. Individual chapters are also cited under particular countries.
Analysis of ‘second wave of democratization’ in post-Communist states and why conditions in these states favourable to success, compared for example with failure of protests over fraudulent elections in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Cote d’Ivoire. See also by Bunce, Valerie J.; Wolchik, Sharon L., International diffusion and postcommunist electoral revolutions Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 2006, pp. 283-302 , discussing five factors in the diffusion of electoral revolutions, including the development of civil society and networks between ‘international democracy promoters’.
See also Bunce; Wolchik, Defeating Authoritarian Leaders in Post-Communist Countries (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments) , pp. 178-90.
Discusses why since 1996 some authoritarian rulers have been ousted but in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus opposition failed (in two successive elections in each case).
Discusses electoral defeats of authoritarian leaders from 1998 to 2005 (Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan), but also unsuccessful movements in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. Analyses local and international actors and draws comparisons with other parts of the world.
This work examines the role of NGOs in protest against violence and harassment against women. The aim is to show that women are not just victims, but also rational actors, and to inspire courageous and nonviolent responses to harassment.
Discusses how Pinochet regime mobilized women to support it, but also role of women in spearheading resistance in 1979 and their role in 1986.
See also Bunster, Ximena , Surviving beyond Fear: Women and Torture in Latin America In Agosin, Surviving Beyond Fear: Women, Children and Human Rights (E. IV.1. General and Comparative Studies)Fredonia NY, White Pine Press, 1993, pp. 98-125 .
By taking into consideration the impact of social and political unrest and conflicts over natural resources and the environment on the lives and livelihoods of Thai women, this paper proposes four areas through which gender issues can be strategically politicized and based on feminist principles and approaches: 1) Public communication through social media to deconstruct gender mystification; 2) Educational programs to uncover intersectional strife (e.g., involving gender, national origin and class) in care work from a feminist perspective; 3) Application of gender diversity as an analytical framework for sustainable national economic and social development policy-making; 4) Creation of spaces for women’s political participation and for legitimizing women’s political participation outside the formal political system to ensure women’s right to self-determination as dignified members of society.
New Zealand has built a strong, bipartisan record over several decades for constructive disarmament and arms control policies, which promotes its reputation as a relatively independent, principled international actor. New Zealand’s role as a champion of a rules-based international order, and as a defender of the rights and interests of small states, is also underpinned by its record.
See also Burgmann, Verity , Power, Profit and Protest: Australian Social Movements and Globalization Crows Nest NSW, Allen and Unwin, , 2003, pp. 393 .
On the initiation of ‘green bans’ – work bans by unions to prevent redevelopment of working class neighbourhoods and destruction of historic buildings and urban green spaces in Sydney. Between 1971 and 1974 42 separate bans were imposed and linked unionists with middle class conservationists. See also: Mundey, Jack , Green Bans and Beyond Sydney NSW, Angus and Robertson, , 1981
Covers the early days of the April 2019 revolution and the role of the Sudanese Professionals Association. Organizer of many of the protests, in negotiations with the military. Reprinted in Guardian Weekly, 19 April 2019, pp.10-12
This article focuses particularly on the growing role by 2019-21 of independent regional news media prepared to report corruption, uphold the right to independent comment and to explore taboo topics like Stalinist labour camps. These regional media (often online) give a voice to individual bloggers and have underpinned political, economic and environmental protests at a regional and local level throughout Russia. Burrell also discusses the attempts by the regime to suppress these channels through tightening its 'Fake News' law and classifying independent journalists as 'foreign agents', but notes the solidarity between regional media.
Reinterprets Clausewitz’s classic work on war and discusses nature of power underlying nonviolent strategy, the concept of ‘human needs’ and the potential for social change.
There have been frequent examples of civil disobedience in Germany in recent years. Protests in cities and regions such as Heiligendamm, Dresden, Stuttgart, Wendland and Frankfurt represent a kind of renaissance of civil resistance. This book examines the sources of legitimation and points of dispute, and also notes different definitions of civil disobedience and how these are discussed in the literature. Therefore this book draws on the ideas and experience of various authors.
The Director of the Brookings Institution's Center on East Asian Policy Studies examines the conflict between the Chinese government and the protesters over the role of popular control in Hong Kong's political system in the context of the 2014 movement. Bush stresses the popular resentment about growing economic inequality and the dominance of the business sector, discusses policies which would promote 'both economic competitiveness and good governance', and examines implications of developments in Honk Kong for the USA.
History of first 50 years of transnational body campaigning against war and for disarmament, which opposed NATO and nuclear weapons, was active (especially in the US) in resisting the Vietnam War and promotes social justice and reconciliation.
Judith Butler, an eminent feminist theorist and philosopher, challenges interpretations of nonviolence as either passive, or based on an individualistic ethics. Instead she argues that nonviolence should be understood in a context of social interdependence and seen as a forceful form of political struggle. She also draws on Freud, Fanon, Foucault and Benjamin to explore how official interpretations of 'violence' tend to attribute it to the most subjugated and despised social groups, who in fact are subjected to many forms of violence throughout their lives. She argues, therefore, that nonviolence should be understood in the context of movements demanding social and political equality and fundamental societal change.
Written by protagonists and supporters of the anti-Meciar campaign. Chapters on mobilization of trade unions, Slovak churches and other civil society bodies to turn out the vote for the anti-Meciar coalition, especially among the young (10% of the electorate were first time voters).
See also: Butora, Martin ; Butrova, Zora , Slovakia’s Democratic Awakening Journal of Democracy, 1999, pp. 80-93 ; and Butora, Martin , OK’98: A Campaign of Slovak NGOs for Free and Fair Elections In Forbrig; Demes, Reclaiming Democracy: Civil Society and Electoral Change in Central and Eastern Europe (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments)Washington DC, German Marshall Fund of USA, 2007, pp. 21-52 . Butora was a founder member of Public Against Violence and a former Slovak ambassador to the USA.
Analyses ‘patterns of key student movements in Pakistan’, using historical information and interviews with 24 student leaders, plus a chronology.
This article provides an analysis of the socio-economic background to the protests, the social and class composition of the protesters (and of those who did not take part) and the 'contradictions within the Belarusian "power elite". It was written whilst the protests were still taking place.
Includes discussion of why the 1% have such a dominant economic position.
On different peace brigade projects, including the Gandhian-inspired Shanti Sena.
Looks at 2006 and 2011 protests.
Reports on the Argentine government plans and the oil companies involved in exploitation of the Vaca Muerta formation, close to one of the country's most important water basins. The UN Committee on ESCR had warned in October that the project would have a serious impact on the climate and the local territory. Cabrera also notes that over 60 municipalities had banned fracking, but several of m these bans have been ruled unconstitutional for exceeding communal powers.
Gives background to the lifting of the abortion ban in Northern Ireland, and the social campaigning behind it.
See also McGuinness, Sheelagh (2019) ‘Abortion Law Reform in Northern Ireland’, University of Bristol Portal, 25 October 2019.
https://legalresearch.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2019/10/abortion-law-reform-in-northern-ireland/
Provides a very detailed explanation of the legal framework on abortion before and after 22 October 2019. Comments also on the interpretation of the law, that could be useful for future campaigning an abortion rights.
The authors also attribute the outspokenness of young women activists to the one-child policy enforced in China in 1979. They argue that parents could devote more financial resources to their only children, enabling them to become more independent and educated, and therefore able to recognise and fight against sexism'.
See also https://sensusjournal.org/2018/12/07/case-study-why-is-feminism-limited-in-china/
On the 1980s revived movement against nuclear weapons, in particular Australia’s People for Nuclear Disarmament.
Account of prolonged struggle to recover agricultural land occupied by US forces in 1945 and later retained by Japanese armed forces.
Argues Occupy Wall Street was ‘less an organized effective movement’ than a dramatic performance.
Stresses economic basis of original 2007 protests.
Includes critical assessment of the 1960s campaigns and examination of trade union action in the 1970s.
Statement of case for nonviolent, as opposed to violent, resistance by Archbishop known for his support for the poor and opposition to racism and militarism.
This book was published soon after December 1997, when over 120 states (excluding the USA, Russia, China, India and Pakistan) signed the Ottawa Convention to ban production, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel mines. It provides a wide ranging survey of both the global campaign and the diplomatic moves culminating in the 'Ottawa process', which, under Canadian government leadership, resulted in the treaty. There are contributions from leading campaigners, diplomats and academics.
The editors, Elena Camino, researcher in Natural Sciences, and history teacher Angela Dogliotti, who are both leading nonviolence and civil resistance activists, reproduce here the contents of seminars they organised on the concept of ‘conflict’ from a Galtunghian perspective with the purpose of re-enforcing a culture on peace education.
Papers from International Conference of Americanists in 1982.
Policing the Planet examines the policy of 'broken windows policing': prosecuting vigorously minor crimes as a means of preventing major offences. The book argues that this policy is at the heart of a broader neoliberal approach to social order, and examines how the way it is applied enhances the array of punitive and discriminatory measures available to the state. Several chapters compare US policies of domestic control over the 'racialised and criminalised' with the 'war on terror' and use of drones and surveillance abroad. The book also elaborates on the Black Lives Matter movement's attempts to promote global support and develop links with other struggles, for example with Palestinians under seige in Gaza in 2014.
Detailed account of the campaign set up by the families of the 13 people killed, and 14 injured, on ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Derry in 1972. The campaign set up in 1992 succeeded, in the face of intransigence by the British authorities and indifference or open hostility of many others, in forcing the government to institute a new inquiry under Lord Justice Saville. This concluded in 2010 that the demonstrators had been unarmed, that no stones or petrol bombs had been thrown and that the civilians were not posing any threat. British Prime Minister David Cameron made a public apology in Parliament, describing the killings as ‘unjustified and unjustifiable.’ The book is written by the niece of one of those who was killed, and includes the testimonies of eyewitnesses, and a foreword by the leading civil rights lawyer, Garreth Pierce.
Economics professor suggests three main causes of the protests.
Article discusses why, despite major role of young people using social media in the first three weeks of protests, columnists in the major Turkish daily Hurriyet (Liberty) often failed to mention, or underplayed, the significance of the young demonstrators.
Italian philosopher Aldo Capitini expounds the principles and practices which he regards as inherent in nonviolence and explains his own ethics-based philosophy, which informs his political analysis. He evaluates the role of the United Nations, the Cold War, the relations between Italy and Europe, the arguments for economic controls versus the free market, the global role of the USA and the confrontation between East and West. He argues that only an individual transformation of the actors concerned will favour the implementation of new forms of politics and, therefore, lead to new realities
This works elucidates fundamental principles of nonviolence, and proposes a toolkit of nonviolent practices and techniques with reference to some of Capitini’s lived experiences in Italy and worldwide. To develop his argument, Capitini draws connections between ethics and politics, ends and means of both politics and social action, and between the rule of law and civil disobedience.
Combines two earlier collections of songs and participant memoirs, We Shall Overcome (1963) and Freedom is a Constant Struggle (1968). Compiled by veterans of the Highlander Folk School (later Center), Tennessee – the adult education centre described as an ‘incubator’ for the Civil Rights movement.
Rustin was an influential adviser to MLK and the coordinator of the 1963 March on Washington. These writings on civil rights and gay politics from 1942 to 1986 include his important 1964 essay ‘From Protest to Politics’ arguing for a policy shift towards mainstream politics through voter registration and involvement with trade unions. Rustin’s later attempts to achieve his goals through the Democratic Party made him a contentious figure in some radical circles.
This is a special issue on women’s organized resistance to the extraction of natural resources that has a damaging impact on their lives and environment. Articles cover movements in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico and also Ghana, focusing on the importance of water as a vital resource, and also on women’s embodied experience of suffering from water pollution and scarcity. The articles also discuss gendered critiques of extraction.
Discusses the negative implication of the right of doctors and nurses to claim ‘objection of conscience’ over women’s right to have an abortion in Latin America.
Makes case for black separatism in the struggle for equality, to enable black people to lead their own organisations and create their own power bases. Describes the attempts to achieve these aims through the Mississippi Freedom Democrats in 1964, and the role of SNCC in voter registration 1965-66. There is also a chapter on the northern ghettoes.
Compares North American Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.
Carothers has written widely on US democratic assistance - see for example Carothers, Thomas , Revitalizing Democracy Assistance: The Challenge of USAID Washington DC, Carnegie Endowment, , 2009, pp. 66 - and tends to the view that such aid is positive but necessarily limited in its effects.
Carpenter draws on participant observation and extensive interviews to examine protests in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and also the Great March of Return in Gaza, in 2017-18, and to gauge wider Palestinian views of the strategy. He also considers the discourse of 'rights and global justice' which underpins Jewish Israeli and international support for Palestinian resistance. Carpenter argues for unarmed struggle as an alternative to the apparent failure of both armed struggle and negotiations.
See also: Rigby, Andrew, 'Reflections on Researching Palestinian Resistance', Journal of Resistance Studies, vol. 5 no. 2, pp.222-28.
Rigby reviews three books on Palestine, including Carpenter's, and raises critical questions about Carpenter's stress on ongoing popular Palestinian resistance, at a time when often Israeli citizens and international sympathizers were more prominent in demonstrations in the West Bank, and the willingness to take part among many Palestinians had waned.
North American initiative, but taken up in Britain and transnationally.
Especially chapter 7, ‘From “conformism” to confrontation’, pp. 134-67, which covers not only regional, worker and student resistance, but also changes within the Catholic Church; and chapter 9 ‘The regime in crisis: Carrero Blanco and Arras Navarro 1969-1975’, pp. 189-206.
Examines campaign against the banks’ ruthless treatment of those unable to pay mortgages and other campaigns such as defiance by doctors and health care workers of law requiring them to refuse treatment to immigrants.
Admired study of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) by an activist in the Civil Rights Movement.
Comprises documents, speeches and firsthand accounts of from the black freedom struggle during this period. Published to accompany Eyes on the Prize TV series.
By drawing on the perspective of young activists, it provides insights about the importance of feminist analysis and the vote of young people in building an anti-nuclear movement. It also proposes various strategies for engaging the young.
See also Fernando, Kris and Graham Vaughan (1992) ‘Young New Zealanders’ knowledge and concern about nuclear war’ in Interdisciplinary Peace Research, Vol. 4, issue 2, pp. 31-57. DOI: 10.1080/14781159208412752
On a transnational expedition in 1959-60 attempting to prevent French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara.
Particular focus on European and North American movements against nuclear weapons in the 1950s-60s and 1980s and East European responses in the 1980s. But other nuclear disarmament protests, peace campaigns on other issues and nonviolent initiatives in other parts of the world are indicated more briefly.
Examines a range of justifications for nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience in liberal parliamentary states, and shows the shifts in debate both within protest movements and in response to them. Also discusses unarmed resistance to corporate exploitation and neoliberal economic policies in a global context.
Focuses on unarmed national movements of resistance to imperial, dictatorial or semi-authoritarian rule in relation to the theories and experience of guerrilla warfare, revolution, concepts of power and links between people power and electoral processes. The discussion, which draws on a range of literatures (including theories of nonviolent action, political thought and democratization) is then set in a global context.
Account of four transnational teams going to Warsaw Pact capitals to protest against the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion.
Detailed account of protests that erupted on 28 June 1969 when New York police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village (popular among gays), when many others joined in, and demonstrations spread across the city for several days. The ‘riots’ led to the founding of the Gay Liberation Front and the first Gay Pride marches in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco a year later.
Part I covers environmental philosophy and green political thought; Part II Green parties and NGOs; Part III policy making at international, national and local levels. This is a textbook, which gives guidance on other sources.
On a key focus of protest against the ‘Apartheid Wall’.
Part 1, Part 2 is available at http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72931.
Scholarly article challenging the dichotomy between violence and nonviolence, and arguing that civil resistance literature tends to focus on violence as warfare. The author suggests 'unarmed collective political violence' such as destruction of property and fights with police or opponents are frequently part of civilian resistance movements and that this reality should be examined. The article focuses in particular on unarmed violence in the January 2011 revolution against Mubarak in Egypt, and argues that it qualifies as civil resistance because of its civil character and that riots 'reacted dynamically' with more specifically nonviolent mobilization.
See also: Craig S. Brown, ‘‘’Riots’’ during the 2010/2011 Tunisian Revolution: A Response to Case’s Article in JRS, Vol. 4 Number 1' in Journal of Resistance Studies, Vol. 4. No. 2, pp. 112-31.
Early sociological study of nonviolent action in social movements, and of Gandhian strategy.
Builds on participant observation in Barcelona in summer of 2011.
This is a historical review of nonviolent ideas and movements from the first recorded strike in ancient Egypt to the 21st century. It connects the concepts of revolution and transformatión in each era with the historical movements which often inspired them. There are chapters on Tolstoy, Gandhi and other theorists of nonviolent action, e.g. Bart de Ligt and Gene Sharp, as well as chapters on conscientious objection, nonviolent resistance to Hitler and opposition to other dictatorships round the world, but no detailed examples after the 1960s. Instead it focuses on different approaches to nonviolent action, from the ‘pragmatic’ approaches of Sharp and Ackerman to the principled commitment to nonviolence of Burrowes, Martin and Lakey.
Castello outlines the evolution of the movement that erupted on October 18, 2019 (ending the period of political calm in the country) and the government responses to try to deal with it.
Well known theorist of global networks examines the mass uprisings across the world in 2011, giving account of events in ‘Arab Spring’ and the reaction to the bank collapse and austerity policies in the west in Iceland, Spain, Greece and the USA, and stressing the causal role of the internet.
By recalling the trauma that society suffered following the homicides by the mafia organisation Cosa Nostra that took place in the Italian island of Sicily in 1992 - which involved more than 20 victims, including the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, their security and mafia informers -, Cavadi introduces some reflections on how every part of civil society is responsible for building a different society. He discusses the importance of awareness of how mafia works, alongside the importance of adopting a particular ideological, ethical, political, economic, and pedagogic orientation to solidify a strong anti-mafia movement.
In this work, Cavadi argues that the anti-mafia movement should be as organised as mafia organisations are. He proposes that alongside the repressive forces of police and policing institutions, a predominant and pedagogical role should be fulfilled by schools, churches and social organisations and should aim at counterposing a moral and intellectual form of resistance to the mafia phenomenon.
This work comprises a theoretical discussion and proposed methodological tools for establishing a critical and comprehensive anti-mafia educational programme. It’s divided into five parts: theoretical aspects of anti-mafia education; pedagogical approaches; practical experiences; law procedures; available bibliographies on the topic.
Takes Chile as case study of Christian response to torture. The Catholic Church’s Vicaria de la Solidaridad (pp. 264-7) was the major human rights monitoring body in the country, while the more ecumenical Sebastian Acevedo Movement against Torture (pp. 273-7) organized lightning protests to hightlight places or institutions implicated in torture.
A compilation from the (London) Committee on South African War Resistance.
A frequently cited analysis and classification of different ways of thinking about war, which examines 5 ‘ideal types’ of ‘militarism’, ‘crusading’, ‘defencism’, ‘pacific-ism’ (representing many ideological and organizational strands within peace movements), and ‘pacifism’.
Reports on surprise promise by newly elected Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to stop fracking in the country, which would be the largest area yet to ban this process. But also notes that anti-fracking activists were not ready to abandon resistance yet.
Describes the main legislative instruments protecting women from sexual violence in Egypt, up to 2016. These are: the Egyptian Constitution of 2014 and the Criminal Code of 1937 and amendments to it. The report also discusses suggestions which have been made for improving the legal system.
PeaceDirect has promoted twinning between British groups and those working for peace in the midst of conflict, such as in Cali, Colombia.
Largely based on the author’s PhD thesis, this book analyses three historical approaches to civil disobedience, from conservatives and liberal philosophies to the applied theory of disobedience derived from Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
Largely based on the author’s PhD thesis, this book analyses three historical approaches to civil disobedience, from conservative and liberal philosophies to the applied theory of disobedience derived from Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
The authors examine legal reforms relating to gender and violence against women in states emerging from the Arab Spring, such as Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen. They argue that, while legal reform has been uneven, women’s organizations and movements (particularly those that are feminist or feminist-oriented) are key, though not sufficient, to ensure positive legal reforms.
This study seeks to reveal the relationship between the stereotypical images of Moroccan girls and women and the violence that is often committed against them. It suggests that women’s location in the power structures of the family, school, media and the law, as well as their unequal access to the economic and political spheres, all contribute to fostering violent attitudes and practices against women in the public arena. The evolution of the status of women requires changes in their freedom-of-movement, security and emancipation. Future research should address women’s discourse and experiences of street harassment as well as its social meaning, prevalence, severity and impact.
Chakrabarti gives an account of gender injustice as a major breach of human rights, comparable to the systematic oppression of apartheid.
Brings together historical and contemporary approaches to nonviolent struggle and theoretical contributions as well as analyses of particular movements. Section 1 on theory includes writings by Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Section 2 covers 'Nonviolence as a Political Strategy' and Section 3 'Nonviolence in Contemporary Movements' including a number of contributions on important recent movements in India: environmental campaigns against the Narmada dams and to preserve forests, Gandhian campaigns after Independence and the role of Jayaprakash Narayan, and the Anna Hazare Movement against corruption. A number of eminent contemporary Indian scholars have contributed.
This review provides a useful overview of the deep divisions in Thai politics between the supporters of the radical populist Thaksin and the strongly opposed conservative royalist groups, leading to the 2006 coup and conflict between the 'Red Shirts' and 'Yellow Shirts'.
See also: Funston, John, ed. , Divided Over Thaksin: Thailand's Coup and Problematic Transition, Singapore, Silkworm Books, 2009, pp. 203.
The book grew out of seminars on Thai politics at the Australian National University in 2006 and 2007; it has six chapters on the 2006 coup and constitutional issues arising, four on the sources of the growing radicalism in the rural and Muslim south of the country, and three on economic issues.
The authors, from the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, note the unprecedented 'scale, scope and time span' of these grassroots 'leaderless' protests. They also comment on the dramatic scenes of violent confrontation between police and protesters. They argue that this confrontation obscures 'an emerging economic resistance movement' trying to develop alternative political resources to redress the imbalance in power between them and the government.
This article was written before the occupation of areas of Hong Kong had been ended by the authorities, so it is an initial response to the protests. It examines the causes of the movement and speculates about its wider implications for politics in Hong Kong and relations with China.
Examines the surprisingly high level of participation by Protestants in the movement, despite the doubts or opposition of church leaders to the Umbrella movement. The author argues this participation can be explained by Richard Wood's theory of faith-based community organizing: using biblical stories, images and symbols to create a culture of protest.
Discusses mixed fortunes of women’s movement in changing political contexts, and how Taiwanese women made selective use of western feminist theory.
A journalist expert on Ukraine assesses the three opposition politicians - Vitaly Klitschko, Oleh Tyahnybok, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk - who, after the 2012 parliamentary elections, created a 'united opposotion' and put themselves forward as 'leaders' of the Euromaidan protests.
Chappell, an Iraq War veteran, challenges the myths about violence and nonviolence that prevent people from tackling the basic causes of problems in the US and globally. He discusses the concept of 'peace literacy', the power and dangers of language, and the need to understand nonviolence better.
Based on BBC series of programmes and consisting primarily of interviews with wide range of those involved in first French and then US policy on Vietnam, and individuals prominent in opposition. Covers period 1945-1973. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss protests inside US and the leaking by Daniel Ellsberg of The Pentagon Papers, which revealed in detail secret internal policy making.
Argues radical left never had a cohesive centre and that when movement most confrontational, its liberal wing was working most effectively with the political system. Suggests the movement became associated with social and cultural iconoclasm, which appeal to sections of middle classes, but that the broader public eventually opposed both the war and the antiwar protest, because ‘both seemed to threaten the established social order’.
This article sets the Indian farmers' movement within the context of climate justice, since farmers, who are a significant proportion of the population, are dependent on rainfall for their crops. Due to climate change farmers are increasingly affected by changing rainfall patterns and suffering from drought.
This article positions the Indian farmers’ movement within a conversation about climate justice because a significant demography of farmers in India are dependent on rainfall for the growth of crops. The author highlights that due to uneven rainfall patterns caused by climate change, instances of drought and rainfall are frequent, leading to a feeling of uncertainty about rainfall and sense of insecurity about crops.
Collection of essays by academics and activists on condition of women in colonial and independent India, and the challenges to Indian feminism from globalization and the Hindu Right. Indicates a vigorous if uneven women’s movement over several decades.
Chapter 9 focuses on protests of 1983-84.
Important article addressing the question why, when there have been so many examples of impressive nonviolent resistance around the world - especially since 2019, the success rate has been so low. Chenoweth notes the impact of Covid since 2020 as well as 'savvier state responses', but suggests the key reasons lie in the need to focus on building coalitions, grassroots organizing, strategy and planning.
This study, by one of the authors of the acclaimed Why Civil Resistance Works, is designed as an accessible overview of what civil resistance is, how it is effective, its use around the world, and its long term impact. It covers the theory and history of civil resistance, and includes chapters on the problems of violence against movements and violence within them.
After introductory essays by the editors and by Kurt Schock, there are sections on: ‘Explaining Nonviolent Resistance’, ‘Dynamics of Nonviolent Contention’ and ‘Outcomes’. Topics covered include self-determination disputes, gender ideologies and forms of mobilisation in the Middle East, role of mutiny in the Arab Spring, transitions in autocracies and transitions from armed to unarmed struggles.
Combines statistical analysis with case studies of unarmed resistance to argue that since 1900 nonviolent resistance campaigns have been strategically more effective than violent campaigns. Also analyses factors that promote success or failure of nonviolent campaigns. An earlier version of their overall argument was published as Chenoweth, Erica ; Stephan, Maria J., Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict International Security, 2008, pp. 7-44 , including useful case studies of East Timor, the Philippines and Burma 1988-1990.
Provides background to the 2021 military coup in Myanmar.
Account written during the post-electoral negotiations in 2008, but primarily assessing the role of community-based organisations (unions, professional associations, urban community groups and women’s groups) in the broad resistance movement. Draws on extensive interviews with activists. In the same volume see: Carter, April ; Cherry, Janet , Worker solidarity and civil society cooperation: Blocking the Chinese arms shipment to Zimbabwe, April 2008 In Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)London, Pluto Press, 2009, pp. 191-192 .
This paper argues for a conceptualisng denial of abortion as the patriarchal policing of women’s bodies and their sexuality. The authors briefly review international trends regarding abortion politics, including many thousands of abortion related deaths, injuries and loss of fertility, and then analyze women’s access to abortion in two countries, the United States and Bangladesh, which represent two very different contexts: the developed and developing world. They argue that abortion services are being constrained by misogynistic politics that deny women control over their bodies. Finally, the paper reviews recent international efforts to establish abortion rights in the context of human rights. In particular, a recent United Nation’s report describes moves to recriminalise both contraception and abortion in the U.S. and Europe as the deliberate denial of medically available and necessary services and hence a form of “torture.”
On Australia. It includes some references to protests.
This book explores social movements and forms of political activism in contemporary Japan, arguing that the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident led to a resurgence in social and protest movements and inaugurated a new era of civic engagement. Re-examines older and recent forms of activism in Japan, as well as provides studies of specific movements that developed after Fukushima. The book considers structural challenges that activists face in contemporary Japan, and how the newly developing movements have been shaped by the neo-conservative policies of the Japanese government. The authors also considers how the Japanese experience adds to our understanding of how social movements work, and whether it might challenge prevailing theoretical frameworks.
This book provides scholarly Japanese and East Asian perspectives on how the September 11 2001 attack on the US changed the prospects for international peace. Other chapters explore pacifism from religious (Christian and Islamic) perspectives and also in relation to Kant's philosophy. Japan's postwar 'constitutional pacifism', and specific ways to promote peace in the 21st century are also discussed.
The author argues that Indian agricultural policy, devised in response to food shortages in the 1960s, relied on a mix of technological solutions to increase yields and a range of pricing measures to support farmers. These policies are out of date, but changing the overall policy is difficult as farmers believe their livelihoods are at stake. This paper considers the issues behind the protests and suggests ways forward.
The author argues that Indian agricultural policy, devised in response to food shortages in the 1960s, relied on a mix of technological solutions to increase yields and a range of pricing measures to support farmers. These policies are out of date, but changing the overall policy is difficult as farmers believe their livelihoods are at stake. This paper considers the issues behind the protests and suggests ways forward.
Describes the #EleNao (‘Not Him’) demonstrations led by women in Brazil against sexist statements made by President Jair Bolsonaro, sparked by his remark to 63-year-old fellow congresswomen, Maria do Rosario: "I would never rape you because you do not deserve it". These remonstrations have been connected also to the lack of political representation of women within the Brazilian Parliament. Despite making up 52 percent of Brazil's electorate, women hold just 13 of 81 seats in the country's upper house senate. Fewer than 11 percent of the 513 seats in the lower house Chamber of Deputies are held by women.
Includes chapters on conscientious objection and Reinhold Niebuhr on violent and nonviolent methods.
See also: Chinguno, Crispen , Marikana Massacre and Strike Violence Post-Apartheid Global Labour Journal, 2013, pp. 160-166
Report on development of fracking, its technology and implications, and the widespread resistance to it around the world. Larger coalitions of opposition listed at end.
In South Korea, punitive measures in response to extreme sex-crimes against children have emerged since the mid-2000s. Some scholars have argued that this punitive turn is a result of the feminist movement against sexual violence and so has been labeled as “carceral feminism.” In this paper the author argues that the Korean feminist movement against sexual violence in fact offers a counter-example to the discourse of “carceral feminism” with respect to their activities and the dynamics surrounding the movement.
This book comprises five sections:
- Chomsky’s Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture given to Occupy Boston in Oct.2011;
- an interview with a student in Jan 2012;
- a question and answer session with ‘InterOccupy’;
- a question and answer session partly on foreign policy; and
- Chomsky’s brief appreciation of the life and work of radical historian Howard Zinn.
There is a short introductory note by the editor, Greg Ruggiero.
Noam Chomsky, an internationally renowned linguist, and Laray Polk, an artist and activist, discuss the two major problems humanity is facing: the use of nuclear weapons and climate change.
The paper's Middle East correspondent provides a snapshot of the immediate and longer tern causes of the major protests that erupted in October 2019, on a scale not seen since the 2005 'Cedar Revolution'.
Influential report which concluded that Just War principles forbid the use of nuclear weapons, and recommended that the UK should renounce its independent nuclear deterrent, followed by a phased withdrawal from other forms of reliance on nuclear weapons including, ultimately, the presence of US air and submarine bases.
Explores women’s fight against oil extraction in the Bolivian Tariquía Reserve and the threat against forms of self-governance, of dispossession from the land and the environment this constitutes. The authors bring into the analysis the false division between the public and the private sphere. The threat of dispossession, in fact, is projected in daily life, as when women have to endure divisions within their families, occurrence that is considered a form of private and public violence.
An updated overview of the recognition of the right to conscientious objection in international human rights law, with a focus on the UN and Council of Europe.
Collections of essays: Part 1 comprises Turkish experience and viewpoints; Part 2 examines conscientious objection from gender perspectives; Part 3 examines C.O. struggles in different parts of the world and Part 4 looks at conscientious objection and the law.
Includes bibliography pp. 95-96.
Traces peace movement debates on social defence, including critiques.
This study, whilst explaining the historical and political context of the civil resistance, focuses primarily on the strategy, institutions and weaknesses of the nonviolent struggle.
Also Clark, Howard , Kosovo: Civil Resistance in Defence of the Nation – 1990s In Bartkowski, Recovering Nonviolent History: Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Boulder CO, Lynne Rienner, 2013, pp. 279-296 , pp. 279-96, and Clark, Howard , The Limits of Prudence: Civil Resistance in Kosovo, 1990-98 In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 277-293 , pp. 277-94.
Campaign of the U’wa people of Colombia to prevent oil drilling.
The Introduction and Afterword discuss key strategic questions and Part I consists of five case studies of nonviolent resistance from 5 continents. But the major focus is on forms of transnational support for resistance campaigns and the possible problems (as well major advantages) of not only governmental, but also nongovernmental support and intervention. Some of the main chapters in Part II and Part III are therefore listed separately under A.5.
On the vigorous campaign to support mortgage defaulters and the wider 15M movement.
Chapters on all the relevant countries, but focuses on elites, parties and institutions rather than popular movements.
Elaborates on the case the Marshall Islands, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands jointly brought before the International Court of Justice in Advisory Proceedings on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, as part of the process leading to the 1996 ICJ Advisory Opinion on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
Covers the period from 1945, including detailed discussion of 1988-90 moves towards independence (chapters 8-12) giving weight to role of nonviolent resistance.
Clements comments on the success of the peace movement in the 1980s in achieving the Nuclear-Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987, and the later waning of its influence on New Zealand’s foreign policy.
Account of significant popular movement in 1970s and 1980s (including local councils declaring themselves nuclear-free) that led to government action to turn New Zealand into a nuclear-free zone and to refuse to allow US warships carrying nuclear weapons to dock in its ports (although it did not remove US monitoring bases).
Sweeping historical and transnational survey from a socialist standpoint, noting industrial action by working women and criticizing class base and focus of second wave American and British feminism.
See especially: chapter 3.’The Ideology of the Revolution of 21 April 1967’, pp. 36-58; chapter 4 ‘The Colonels and the Press’. pp.59-74; chapter 8 ‘Culture and the Military’, pp. 148-62, which includes materials on censorship and repression and on forms of intellectual resistance, such as circulating ‘samizdat’, and liberal protests and manifestos; and chapter 9 ‘The State of the Opposition Forces since the Military coup’, pp. 163-90.
An account of sit-ins or work-ins to prevent workplace closures in Britain in early 1970s, and an examination of subsequent experiments in workers’ control.
Includes chapters on political unionism, the township revolts, student politics (school and university). Earlier version of the much-cited article Swilling, Mark , The United Democratic Front and the township revolt Durban, South Africa, South African History Archives (SAHA), , 1987, pp. 23 , reprinted here on pp. 90-113, are available online.
After giving a brief review of the anti-nuclear weapons movement that developed in the 1980s and the landmark treaties that were signed then, Coburn points to the difficulties campaigners face in the Trump era.
Discusses the possible development of the anti-nuclear weapons movement in the US following the election of President Trump.
See also her article Cochrane, Kira , The fourth wave of feminism: meet the rebel women The Guardian, 10/12/2013
Describes wide range of feminist activities and groups (both established like the Fawcett Society, and new) and wider attitudes to feminism in mainstream organizations such as Girl Guides and Mumsnet.
According to available data, Egypt has higher than average rates of sexual harassment for the Middle East and North Africa region and many other countries in the Global South. This article explores how one organization, HarassMap, has mapped sexual harassment using crowd-sourced technology, engaged in anti-sexual harassment activities and sought to change social norms to promote an environment of zero tolerance. The authors highlight the evolving activism since 2010, and the lessons learned, within an environment influenced by restrictive political, religious and socio-cultural spheres. This article shows how anti-sexual harassment activities can occur in challenging contexts, using crowdsourcing mapping, when traditional methods are illegal or could lead to violence. The authors draw on these experiences to reflect on more effective forms of support that external actors can provide within restrictive environments.
See also Bernardi, Chiara (2018) ‘HarassMap: The Silent Revolution for Women’s Rights in Egypt’ in Maestri Elena, Annemarie Profanter (eds.) Arab Women and the Media in Changing Landscapes. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 215-227.
The author analyzes the role played by the independent organization HarassMap, run by Egyptian men and women, with the aim to “put an end to social acceptance of sexual harassment” in the country. HarassMap situates itself at the intersection of activism, digital media and semiotics. It is an interactive map that enables sexual harassment to become visible and “exposed” in a country where bystanders turn a blind eye to instances of harassment and even violence.
See also Nathan, Laurie , Force of Arms, Force of Conscience: A Study of Militarisation, the Military and the Anti-Apartheid War Resisters’ Movement in South Africa, 1970-1988 M. Phil. ThesisBradford, University of Bradford, , 1990 .
Nathan was a leading activist in the End Conscription Campaign.
Critical assessment of today's 'military industrial complex' and also the role of drones in the US wars in Afghanistan and in targeting 'terrorists'. Cockburn documents the technological failings of drones, often unable to distinguish targeted individuals from others nearby, and the 'trigger-happy' attitudes of some soldiers using them. Both led to numerous mistaken deaths.
See also: Frew, Joanna, 'Drone Wars: the next generation', Peace News , 2618-2619, June-July 2018, p. 4.
Frew summarizes a new report, issued by Drone Wars UK, on development and use of armed drones by a 'second generation' of nine states (including China, Iran and Turkey) and several non-state actors developing and using armed drones. (The first group was the US, UK and Israel.) The report also estimates that a further 11 states would soon be deploying drones, and that China was increasing export of them. Frew stresses the urgent need for international controls, and queries whether existing controls on exports (already being undermined in the US) were adequate.
Focuses on action-research project Women Building Bridges in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine and Bosnia Hercegovina, and comments on role of transnational women’s networks, including Women in Black.
Examines women’s resistance to war in many parts of the world, including Sierra Leone, Colombia and Gujarat, India. It also covers women’s cooperation across enemy lines in the former Yugoslavia and in Israel/Palestine, and resistance in the west to imperialist war, and develops theoretical questions about gender and militarism. See also: Cockburn, Cynthia , Women in Black: The Stony Path to “Solidarity” In Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)London, Pluto Press, 2009, pp. 156-163
Feminist peace activist provides her theoretical perspective on cross-national case studies including UK peace movement, War Resisters’ International, anti-militarist campaigns in Spain, Korea and Japan, and the anti-NATO demonstrations in Strasbourg 2009.
Describes how the Christian Peacemaker Teams function, the roles they play and their impact - especially in Hebron. One 'ppt' presentation and four images
In this work the author presents the work of Nigerian feminist sociologist, Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmí, as a decolonising force having the power to disrupt sub-Saharan African philosophy, Western feminist thought and discourses on African decolonisation in highly significant and surprising ways.
The author interprets the work of Nigerian feminist scholar Oyèrónké Oyĕwùmí to be embedded in a relational understanding of subjectivity, as developed in African philosophy, that is deeply relational, fluid and non-dichotomous and therefore not reducible to the strict, essentialised, hierarchical and stable gender dyad of the colonial Western gender system.
Includes protest ‘fish-ins’
Highlights the establishment of joint effort between racial justice movements and climate justice movements in the United States in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing.
PowerPoint presentation where Margot Cohen briefly addresses which factors can explain institutional responses to gender-based violence; how state institutions have responded to femicide in Chile up until 2017, and what are the implications of these responses for reducing levels of femicide.
Essays examining aspects of indigenous peoples’, women’s, labour, religious and Islamic movements, as well as human rights, environmental and peace movements.
This book summarizes the long term work of the two person collective Utopía Contagiosa on defense alternatives from an antimilitarist point of view. The model of military defense is challenged from a nonviolence- cooperation paradigm which conflicts with the hegemonic paradigm of domination and violence. The authors then propose transarmament, suggesting criteria, methodological orientations and a two-phase implementation, together with several proposals for sectorial transarmament for debate.
This document was developed by the leaders of the Otpor movement, which inspired civil resistance against Milosevic in Serbia in the 1990s. It examines a strategic approach to nonviolent struggle presented in four thematic sections: definition and analysis of the framework of nonviolent struggle; elaboration and planning of the struggle; the techniques of nonviolent combat; and measures to resist repression.
The widespread problem of sexual harassment has made headlines around the world, including in political legislatures. Using public reports of sexism and sexual harassment, the authors highlight these problems in three countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Although sexual harassment is a global issue, the aim of this article is to show how the shared rules, practices, and norms of these Westminster-style bodies perpetuate sexist cultures that produce unequal and unsafe work conditions for female politicians. The findings highlight some of the unique challenges women face in their representational and policy-making roles.
Updated story of Radio B92 to 2004.
Interviews activists from Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Belarus, as well as Serbia.
Covers the story of Brisa De Angulo, now in her 30s, who was raped at the age of 15 and, two years after, opened the first – and only – comprehensive support centre for child survivors of sexual violence. This led to creation of the charity A Breeze of Hope and prompted support from Bolivian society and local NGOs.
This is an informative article about the reasons for the Prime Minister's decision to accept the deal offered by the military a month after their October 2021 coup, and the terms of the agreement. Collins also notes the responses of political parties and the organized resistance on the streets. He notes that Russia was building a military base in ort Sudan and did not condemn the coup, and considers how far the Egyptian government might have prompted the coup.
The mass displacement caused by the Kariba Dam was a central issue for the pro-independence movement, despite the problems of organising resistance in the affected areas. Pioneer study of what is now called ‘development-induced displacement’.
Combs, a US researcher, travelled throughout Myanmar after 2011 when people were becoming more willing to talk, and interviewed a wide range of people from a punk rocker to a monk. He also observed the role of Buddhism in society and politics, including the fear and hostility towards Muslim minorities.
Access to this link connects to the annual reports and up-to –date highlights on violence against women worldwide by the UN Special Rapporteur on gender-based violence. Includes Annual Reports; country visits; relevant publications and documents; consultations with civil society; links about cooperation between global and regional initiatives; and existing legal frameworks amongst many other information.
Compares two contrasting African-American leaders. Initially totally opposed, they moved closer together in the later 1960s, as King came out against the Vietnam War and Malcolm X moved away from black messianic separatism. They also worked with different constituencies: the black communities of the south and the alienated residents of the northern ghettoes.
Survey from early concerns about conservation through the ‘second wave’ 1945-72, and the campaigns of 1973-83 up to the subsequent professionalization of the movement. Chapter 4 ‘Taking to the Streets’ covers ‘green bans’ and the anti-uranium campaigns; ‘Taking to the Bush’ looks at direct action on a number of issues, culminating in the 1982 blockade of the Franklin Dam; and Chapter 6 ‘Fighting for Wilderness’ assesses further protests around Australia. Chapter 8 considers the role of the Green Party.
Text of contributions, workshop reports and summaries of discussions. Conscience and Peace Tax International was established in Brussels as a non-profit association under Belgian law.
Briefly explains problem in higher education and how privatization promotes gap between rich and poor. Describes wide range of nonviolent direct action used by the students, but notes wider support and activism.
See also Conway, Daniel , Contesting the Masculine State: White Male War Resisters in Apartheid South Africa In Parpart, Jane L.; Zalewski, Marysia , Rethinking the Man Question: Sex, Gender and Violence in International Relations London, Zed Books, , 2008, pp. 127-142 .
Assessment of Turkey’s progress towards being a consolidated democracy since the Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, arguing that despite some significant gains there are still ‘profound’ problems as the corruption allegations against Erodgan illustrate.
One year after the outbreak of mass protests in October 2019, the authors note that thousands turned out to mark the anniversary, but that this time the protests were brief. The Covid-19 lockdown, 'protest fatigue' and suspicion of infiltration of the movement have combined to reduce active support. The main focus of this analysis is a survey commissioned by Chatham House of over 1,200 Iraqis to gauge public opinion about the October 2019 protests. It finds that 83 per cent of those surveyed believed most or all the demonstrations were justified, and only 10 per cent strongly disapproved, and suggests that most Iraqis support the main complaints of the activists.
Account of one of the best known and documented campaigns against oil drilling which damages the local environment and communities, by the Ogoni people of Nigeria against Shell.
Covers cultural protests relating to presentation in museums, returning sacred objects and naming of national days in both USA and Canada. Includes discussion of call by Lubicon Lake Band of Cree in Northern Alberta for a boycott of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Canada over land claim and related boycott of exhibition on Canada’s First People.
Cooper celebrates this under-reported 'velvet revolution' that 'boiled up from the streets' and was not influenced by outside forces. He notes that although there had been limited protests in the previous decade on specific economic, environmental or gender issues, no one expected a major political revolt.
See also: Avedissian, Karina, 'A real revolution? Protest leader Armen Grigoryan on what's happening in Armenia', Open Democracy, 30 April 2018.
Study of British movement since 1960s, legislative changes and political developments affecting women in work, the family, sex and culture. Chapter 1, pp. 9-47, charts the evolution of the movement in terms of key protests, campaigns and organization, including some examples of nonviolent action.
Brief Historical Association study giving historical context and referring to historiographical debates, noting ‘Cambridge school’ argument that internal weaknesses of the British Administration main cause of independence, and ‘subaltern studies’ school which stresses autonomous resistance of peasants and workers.
Copnall notes that the revolt against President Omar-al-Bash ir is not the first in Sudan's history, but it is the first since Africa's former largest country split in two, when South Sudan became independent in 2011. He summarizes the events leading to the fall of Bashir. He also discusses the long term tensions between the Arab Islamist northern elite, who dominated politics, and the great variety of African peoples and cultures, a conflict revealed by the bloody suppression of unrest in Darfur from 2003.
Reports on three-day demonstration spearheaded by the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Analyses the reality of women’s political participation in Bolivia, and the efforts towards its promotion, within the spheres of indigenous institutions, sindicatos (i.e. trade unions) and state participation.
Discusses the success of squatter movements by the homeless, addresses issues such as ‘direct action and the law’ and ‘tactics and mobilization’ and includes case studies of squatter settlements and rent strikes.
Documents impact of state terror on society in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay from 1950s to 1980s, and the emergence of resistance in various sectors.
Chapters 7 and 8 cover anti-nuclear weapon campaigns, opposition to Vietnam and Iraq wars, resistance in the military and also draft resistance and conscientious objection.
Offers a contemporary analysis of Gandhi, while tracing how subsequent US figures and campaigns have applied and enhanced an understanding of ‘applied nonviolence’ that is an effective methodology rooted in values, including feminist values.
The chapter ‘The Philippines: another Portugal?’, pp. 220-28, challenges the view that the Reformed Armed Forces Movement was ever a revolutionary movement, concluding ‘The primary thrust for the overthrow of Marcos and the installation of Cory Aquino came from the people themselves, notably the church and the middle classes’.
The author discusses the more than fifty residential three-day political dialogue workshops he facilitated between 1994 and 2007 at the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation near Dublin that brought together politicians from all parties in Britain and Ireland during the period of peace negotiations in Northern Ireland.
Discusses nonviolent direct action by US feminists in both early suffrage movement and the 1970s.
The author argues that social mobilization in Iraq, especially since 2011, has been politically significant, but not seriously analyzed. Her focus is to investigate 'nonviolent means to promote social and political change in violent contexts', which Iraq amply illustrates. She compares waves of protest since 2011 and concludes that cyclical violence and political dysfunction are a major limitation on the effectiveness of protest, but that social mobilization also holds out the possibility of more positive political change.
A collection of essays – including by Johan Galtung - on the life and work of Danilo Dolci, aimed at exploring his contribution to the practice of nonviolent civil resistance, to the project of building a resilient civil society and being an agent of change.
Proceedings of conference in Melbourne, 1992.
Examines post-1945 history of Yugoslavia and causes of its breakdown. Notes emerging feminist peace and ecological movement in the 1980s and the role of women in ongoing opposition to the war, including Serbian women demonstrating against the war with Croatia and demanding return of their husbands and sons.
Critique of policing methods.
See also Coy, Patrick G., Cooperative Accompaniment in Sri Lanka with Peace Brigades International In Smith, Jackie ; Chatfield, Charles ; Pagnucco, Ron , Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics: Solidarity Beyond the State Syracuse NJ, Syracuse University Press , , 19971997 .
Covers other protests over land, water and coca, but the final chapter ‘El Alto and the Gas Wars’ describes and analyses 2003, including brief discussion of women’s organizations and the role of radio.
Articles presented at 1988 conference.
Interesting range of examples of ingenious forms of indirect or symbolic resistance at individual and group level, as well as more open defiance and protest.
Analysis of how organization, tactics, political context and ‘framing’ of the issue affect outcomes, based on 15 campaigns in 8 US cities.
A preliminary sociological analysis of the ‘recent wave of anti-corporate protest’ seeking to provide a framework and highlight important themes.
This article appeared on the day of the 2020 referendum on whether there should be a new constitution, and if so how it should be drawn up. Cruz explains that voters can choose between two kinds of convention, one based solely on members elected by voters (the option generally favoured by the left), and the other composed half of elected members and half of parliamentarians (many of whom did not want a new constitution). an option seen as favouring the right wing government of Sebastian Pinera. The article then looks back at Chilean politics since the fall of Pinochet.
Cummings notes that despite a significant reduction in poverty levels, and the establishment of political democracy since the end of the Pinochet regime in 1990, there were widespread high school and student protests in 2006 and 2011. These were supported by most of the population and indicated serious discontent. He suggests three main reasons: a gap between student expectations and ability to realize them; their collective sense of identity as a fearless new generation; and the specific interactions between the government and the students.
Cummins is the founder of the US Organic Consumers Association and involved in international environmental activism. His book focuses primarily on changing agriculture and on a renewable fuel policy.
It considers past, present and future prospects of female activism in China and how it is thriving despite the current political leadership in the country, predominantly patriarchal and directed at maintaining social stability, thus suppressing all forms of activism.
A history of the period from a nationalist perspective with the stated aim of putting in context the divisions and conflict in Northern Ireland. A postscript notes briefly some of the political developments in the 1920s and 1930s including the introduction of the Special Powers Act in 1933 and the emergence of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Explores the rise of feminism and feminist activism in Jordan following December 2016, when women's rights activists protest in front of Parliament in Amman, Jordan calling for an end to violence against women.
See also https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-59291-0_22
The book challenges the prevailing focus of public debate on economic growth and argues for democratic political action to reduce consumption and production with the goals of social justice and ecological sustainability. Parts 1 and 2 cover a wide range of theoretical issues, Part 3 looks at 'The Action" exploring different approaches and policies.
Argues that while most studies focus on grassroots movements, elites – especially security services – are crucial in determining whether movements reach a ‘tipping point’. Illustrates argument by comparing two ‘failed revolutions’ (Serbia 1996-97 and Ukraine 2001) with two ‘successful revolutions’ (Serbia 2000 and Ukraine 2004-2005). [Compare with Binnendijk; Marovic, Power and persuasion: Nonviolent strategies to influence state security forces in Serbia (2000) and Ukraine (2004) (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments) above.]
This article discusses the work of Youth Against Settlements, which opposes Israeli settlements in this Palestinian city in the West Bank, and describes the range of nonviolent tactics used by them, such as documenting human rights abuses, legal action and direct action. D'Aprile also meets with other civil society organizations, which are involved in community work, including the Christian Peacemaker Team organizer who supports Palestinian-led grass roots resistance to the occupation.
Highly regarded book on the American Homophile movement by historian and gay activist, including biographical sketches of prominent lesbian and gay figures.
A collection of diverse essays, not a comprehensive survey of LGBT history in the US, but explores the movement’s growth and activities from the 1970s to 1990s, the impact of AIDS in increasing resources and organization in the LGBT community, and the role of several organizations, including the influential National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) founded in 1973 to promote grass roots power and its role in resisting hostile referenda and promoting positive legislation. NB. NGLTF records from 1973-2008 are based in the Cornell University library: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07301.html
An ambitious attempt to explain 2011 in historical context. Starts from the Green Movement in Iran to chart the difference between ‘political modernity’ and the ‘social modernity’ which is supplanting it. Chapter 1 explores the ‘unfolding’ of the Arab Spring and other chapters include discussion of ‘A New Language of Revolt’ and ‘Race, Gender and Class in Transnational Revolutions’.
Notes that Bulgaria maintained a stable Soviet-style system until the collapse of the Soviet Union, but has made a surprisingly effective transition to parliamentary government and a market economy.
Dainov analyzes Borissov's style of government, noting that democracy can be destroyed not only by far right ideologues, but also by non-ideological 'macho males' like Borissov.
See also Dajani, Souad R., Resistance in the occupied territories In Zunes; Kurtz; Asher, Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Oxford, Blackwell, 1999, pp. 52-74 .
Eye-witness stresses the role of civic groups and the increasing radicalisation of workers and technicians, and engages critically with other interpretations of the revolution. See also his earlier book, Dale, Gareth , Popular Protest in East Germany 1945-1989 London, Frank Cass, , 2004, pp. 256 .
Ted Daley argues that maintaining the nuclear double standard by which some countries permit themselves reliance on nuclear weapons, while denying them to others is military unnecessary, morally unjustifiable, and politically unsustainable. He insists on the necessity of considering nuclear abolition as an attainable political goal rather than a utopia.
Describes the history of the atom in the US and the UK; the combination of civilian/military use and how people and movement developed an understanding of the risks associated with nuclear power since the 1960s.
Analysis of Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha, of his political leadership and and of the 1931 Salt Satyagraha and 1947 fast, as well as covering critiques by contemporaries and making comparisons with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
Three women were appointed to politically powerful and historically significant positions in Japan in 2016. Koike Yuriko became the first female governor of Tokyo, Renho Murata became the leader of the opposition party, the Democratic Party, and Inada Tomomi became the Minister of Defence. Despite these gains, Japanese politics can be a hostile place for women. Japan's national legislative assembly has the lowest representation of women among OECD countries, and harassment of women in politics is common. Situating Japan within the emerging ‘Violence Against Women in Politics’ (VAWP) literature, the author draws on a 2014 survey of women politicians about their experiences of sexual harassment as well as interviews with individual women politicians. Harassment is a 'hidden' problem due to ineffective legislation and a lack of awareness of what forms it takes. The author argues that the first step in combating sexual harassment of women in politics in Japan is to make it visible.
This article examines sexual harassment that has occurred worlds of media and politics in Japan, in the context of the global (mostly Western) #MeToo movement. It argues that harassment by male political leaders constitutes a pattern and should not be seen simply as isolated individual incidents. This pattern occurs within a cultural context that discourages women from speaking out about individual grievances. The naming of this pattern of sexual harassment is important to address ‘Violence Against Women in Politics’ (VAWP), a problem around the world. The public and media outrage directed at individual sexist statements by male politicians often dissipates, only to emerge again after the next sexist incident makes headlines. By establishing a pattern of sexual harassment, the author aims to show that there is a systemic problem facing all women working in politics or in close proximity to politicians in Japan.
Examines development of Green movement in Western democracies. Argues that environmental interest groups are important new participants in the contemporary political process and that, if the movement is politically successful ‘it may at least partially reshape the style and structure of democratic processes in these countries’.
This article looks at the claims on social media by Nigerian youth of police abuse, which is well documented in the three-year online EndSARS campaign. The authors examine the limitations of the campaign, which lasted three years with little success. They explore the main themes of the campaign and consider4 how Nigeria's political environment can hinder successful movement activism.
Dangl is an editor of http://towardfreedom.com and http://upsidedownworld.org.
(Penguin Special)
Dapiran argues that Hong Kong has been 'a city shaped by civil disobedience', and he sets the 2014 movement in the historical context of protest since the 1960s. He also discusses the role of these popular protests in forging a distinctive Hong Kong identity, whilst indicating that the relationship between politics and cultural identity is complex.
The authors explore women’s activism and political representation, as well as discursive changes, with a particular focus on secular and Islamic feminism. They also examine changes in public opinion on women’s position in society in countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Jordan.
Journalist Elly Draking interviews Isabel Agatón, human rights lawyer and director of CIJUSTICIA (Centre for Research in Justice and Critical Studies of Law) to highlight her key role in the creation and implementation of Law 1761 in 2015 in Colombia, which made femicide a legally defined crime, punishable with up to 50 years in jail. It also highlights the obstacles the Colombian government still faces in implementing this law, fully.
This essay updates Thoreau’s thought in the light of later additions by academics and activists. Starting from Thoreau’s own context, and using extracts from his classic text and other unpublished fragments available in Spanish, the author recreates Thoreau’s thinking for today.
Two experts on Palestine examine the history of Palestinian political resistance to the creation of the state of Israel from the late 19th century to 1939, and provide a balnced assessment of the phases of primarily unarmed popular resistance to Isreali domination. They cover the First Intifada and (after the mainly armed resistance of the Second Intifada) the growth of nonviolent forms of protest since the building of the Separation Wall in 2005.
The article examines the factors promoting significant international solidarity with specific campaigns against injustice. It does so through a study of the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign launched by Palestinian civil society bodies in 2005. The article compares the BDS movement with the international campaign against apartheid in South Africa (an inspiration for BDS) and discusses why BDS has been less effective.
Two experts on Palestine discuss what factors can increase the impact of international solidarity in aiding resistance struggles. They focus on the Palestinian-inspired Boycott Divestment and Sanctions and compare it with the earlier global anti-apartheid movement, analysing key factors that gave the latter significant leverage. They conclude by stressing the need for a dynamic relationship between internal resistance and external solidarity.
Explores varied forms of repression and means of response drawing on a wide sociological literature. Particularly relevant is Hank Johnston, ‘Talking the Walk: Speech Acts and Resistance in Authoritarian Regimes’ (pp. 108-37), exploring underground humour, graffiti, hit and run tactics, informal opposition networks, ‘duplicitous organisation’ – using official status for opposition, and role of recreational, cultural and religious groups. Johnston also notes how official political and cultural events can be subverted. (Strong overlap with ch. 4 in Johnston, States & Social Movements (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) .)
In this series of interviews conducted by Frank Barat - activist for human rights and Palestinian rights -, Angela Davis reflects on the importance of Black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles. She discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles and makes connection between the Black Freedom Movement and the South African anti-apartheid movement, as well as between the events in Ferguson and Palestine. The core message of the book is the emphasis on the importance of establishing transnational networks of solidarity and activism.
Angela Y. Davis is a political activist (who supported the Black Panthers in the late 1960s and became widely known in 1971 when arrested on false charges), scholar, author, and speaker. She is an outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, writing on Black liberation, prison abolition, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and international solidarity with Palestine.
The article focuses on how the 'one country, two systems' model in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration was undermined by the June 2014 Chinese White Paper and the August 2014 Chinese decision on the conduct of Hong Kong elections. These have meant that the 'one country, two systems' commitment has been broken, underlining the need for more internal democracy in Hong Kong.
Account of evolving crisis by former US ambassador to Chile.
Brief exploration of the increasing use of the red cloak as a symbol of advocacy for reproductive rights in Northern Ireland, the US, the Caribbean and Latin America.
This brief but interesting commentary was written after the first week of protests in October 2019, in which 100 people were killed and over 6,000 injured. Dawood discusses the immediate causes of the protests and the longer term failings of the government under Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, elected as a compromise candidate between two Shiite coalitions a year earlier. The author notes that opposition groups like the Communist Party and the Sadrist movement (followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr) were not involved, but that the lack of leadership among the protesters (even within cities) was a weakness in making credible demands for change. Nevertheless, the government (despite its immediate authoritarian reaction) was making concessions by offering economic reforms and pressing for passage of anti-corruption bills before parliament.
This book was compiled before the 2018 constitutional referendum that liberalised abortion in the Republic of Ireland. It offers practical proposals for policymakers and advocates, including model legislation, making it an important campaigning tool for feminists in other countries.
This article offers a critical overview of the Brazilian legal framework for confronting domestic violence. Intimate partner homicides are epidemic in Brazil: there are four deaths of women per day. In 2006, the Maria da Penha Law (MPL) introduced integrated polices and transformed criminal procedures to deal with the complexities of gender violence. Reforms included the establishment of The House of Brazilian Women, women‐only police stations, specialised courts, intervention orders, interdisciplinary experts, and perpetrator programs. In 2015, a new law established the crime of femicide and was designed to prevent ‘honour killings’ defences in cases of intimate partner homicides and to avoid impunity. Despite the legal reforms, the structure and articulation of the networks of services remains a challenge. The MPL led to great social change in Brazil by raising awareness of violence against women, and facilitating a broader discussion about gender equality.
Detailed and well researched account. Final chapter by Charles Chatfield analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the movement and influence on US policy. Concludes that anti-war activists contributed to the growth of public disaffection with the war, but could not harness it, but that both Johnson and Nixon Administrations adapted their policies in response to pressure from dissenters.
Especially chapter 18 ‘The Oppositions’, pp. 490-513.
Comments on parallels with ex-Soviet bloc, noting that ‘the sudden coalescence of a “critical mass” of pro-democracy pressures in Africa’ was equally unexpected. (Decalo contributed the chapter on Benin in Clark; Gardinier, Political Reform in Francophone Africa (E. I.2.1.b. Movements for Multi-Party Democracy in Francophone Africa 1988-93) .)
Account by labour activist of protracted struggle from 1962 in PETRUS cement factory in Sao Paolo against strikebreaking, police repression and an employer-created ‘union’.
By journalist and political activist, who supported Delgado in his opposition to Salazar, was imprisoned in Portugal for his resistance to the regime, and campaigned against Portugal’s colonial abuses.
Elucidates the differences between the conditions that led Ireland to a pro-abortion vote in May 2018 and the obstacles that Northern Ireland still then faced.
This project explores the discourse on abortion in the United States, examining the abortion clinic as a ‘space of interaction’ between the pro-choice and pro-life social movements. The author completed four months of participant observation in the fall of 2017 as a clinic escort at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Poughkeepsie, New York. She witnessed firsthand (and participated in) the interactions between the clinic escorts and the anti-abortion protestors who picketed the clinic each week. The study shows that, while the two sides of the debate adopt opposing ideologies, their ‘structure in this space’ does not actually look all that different.
The article begins by describing the Sumud Freedom Camp in May 2019, where over 300 Palestinians, Israelis and international activists set up camp in the destroyed village of Sarura, with the aim of rebuilding it. Despite raids b y the Israeli Defence Forces the rebuilding had some success. The author as the title indicates queries the nature of power relations between the volunteers. Her main example of unequal power relations (seen as form of structural violence) is, however, based on her analysis of a nonviolent protest at the Erez checkpoint into Gaza held in January 2008, promoted as a joint Palestinian-Israeli protest, but in fact only involving Israeli Arab and Jewish citizens (plus a few international participants), and planned and controlled by veteran Jewish Hebrew speaking activists.
See also: Milburn, Caroline , Australia: Women at forefront of Jabiluka resistance The Age, 1999
Frequently cited in discussions of the ‘consent’ theory of power. The accuracy of this ‘Gandhian paradigm’ of Boetie has been questioned (see Randle, Civil Resistance (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , p. 31), but Boetie has been used in the past by religious dissidents and from the 20th century by exponents of unarmed resistance. For discussion of his Renaissance context, (see Bleiker, Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (A. 1.a.ii. Theories of Civil Disobedience, Power and Revolution) pp. 51-73).
This is a key book about the Colombian peace communities and the civil resistance of indigenous peoples, Afro Americans and peasants in the context of a bloody civil war. It focuses in particular on the civil resistance of the Nasa people (Paez) in the Cauca department. This is not only the strongest movement (with their Indigenous Guard able to confront guerrillas, the army and paramilitaries), but also the one which has lasted longest and influenced the others. In addition there are studies of the Asociacíon Campesina Integral del Atrato (ACIA), Asociación de Trabajadores Campesinos de Carare (ATCC), Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó and the Asamblea Municipal Constituyente de Tarso.
and London, Pluto Press, 1989 (with Introduction by Peter van den Dungen), pp. 306.
Classic argument for nonviolent resistance from an anarchist anti-war perspective, with a broad historical perspective, and giving more emphasis to examples of unarmed resistance in the socialist tradition (for example 1905 in Russia) than much of the early literature.
Expert on social movements combines analysis of movements with theory of democratisation, and using comparative framework discusses causes and outcomes of 1989 movements in Eastern Europe with the Middle East and North Africa from 2011. Particular, but by no means exclusive, focus on GDR and Czechoslovakia and on Tunisia and Egypt.
Analyzes movements since 2008 (Iceland) challenging corruption and inequality and situating them within the crisis of neoliberalism. Covers Spain, Greece and Portugal anti-austerity movements, but also Peru, Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Ukraine.
An in depth look at the Genoa G.8 summit in 2001, and European Social Forum, from protesters’ point of view, based on survey of 800 activists at Genoa and 2,400 participants in 2002 Florence European Social Forum.
Collection of essays exploring globalization and its varying impact on social movements, comparing today’s movements with earlier movements and examining specific examples.
Covers developing activism in the 1960s, the protest caravan of 1972 culminating in the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and site occupations, including the 71 day occupation and siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973.
Translation from French of ‘The Power of the Peaceful’, by well known nonviolent activist and theorist who drew inspiration from Gandhi.
Originally written in 1974, this essay explores the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence inspired by the author’s meeting with Gandhi in 1937, and applies it to environmental and solidarity struggles as well as in the daily life of the Arch communities, which he founded across France.
(Article originally published in the Nation 23 December 1961.)
On the transnational protests by the ship ‘Everyman III’ which sailed from London to Leningrad to protest against Soviet nuclear tests.
The title essay confronts the case for violence made by Frantz Fanon, in his critique of colonialism (see 1a.iii), and by many US militants in the later 1960s, and argues that radical nonviolent action can be an alternative. Other essays by this feminist nonviolent activist and writer cover a wide range of protests. (The title essay is also available as a separate pamphlet from A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, New York.)
(Article originally published in the Nation 15 July.)
See also: Deming, Barbara , San Francisco to Moscow: Why the Russians let them in In Deming, Revolution and Equilibrium (A. 1.a.ii. Theories of Civil Disobedience, Power and Revolution)New York, Grossman, 1971, pp. 60-72
Articles by:
- Afshan, Ali and Graham Underwood, ‘The Green Wave;
- Milani, Abbas, ‘Cracks in the Regime’ (focusing on role of Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps and dissent in Ministry of Intelligence’;
- Bouroumand, Ladan, ‘Civil Society’s Choice’ (stressing human rights and referring back to her article Bourourmand, Ladan , The Untold Story of the Fight for Human Rights Journal of Democracy, 2007, pp. 64-79 ).
including contributions from Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik, Mark Beissinger, Charles Fairbanks, Vitali Silitksy and Martin Dimitrou, with reply by Lucan Way
This section includes three articles: Schraeder, Peter J. and Hamadi Redissa, ‘Bem Ali’s Fall’, pp. 3-19; Howard, Philip N. and Muzammil M. Hussein, ‘The role of the digital media’, pp. 35-48, compares Tunisia and Egypt; Masoud, Tarek, ‘The Road to (and from) Liberation Square’, pp. 20-34, is primarily about Egypt.
Comprises 5 articles: Shevtsova, Lilia, ‘Putin Under Siege; Implosion, Atrophy or Revolution?’; Krastev, Ivan and Stephen Holmes, ‘An Autopsy of Managed Democracy’; Popescu, Nicu, ‘The Strange Alliance of Nationalists and Democrats’; Volvkov, Denis, ‘The Protesters and the Public’; Wolchick, Sharon, ‘Can There be a Color Revolution?’
Compiles testimonies from protest organisers, teachers, unionists, religious leaders, indigenous community activists, housewives and others represented at the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca which emerged from the 2006 movement.
Series of 22 posts covering numerous aspects of protests, their cause, and issues of policing.
On struggles against neoliberal policies and privatization in the townships, strikes, and the Durban Social Forum.
The founder of the Institute for Total Revolution outlines a Gandhian approach to nonviolence training.
Examines impact of modernization and globalization on agriculture and explores alternative forms of development and the evolution of an international peasant voice in Via Campesina, formed in 1993 to challenge the neoliberal economic agenda.
Journalist Giulia Dessi reports on the series of students’ occupations (particularly by young women) that started in Southern Chile on 17 April 2018 and prompted a new wave of feminist civil disobedience. These demonstrations were responding to a case of sexual harassment by a university professor, Carlos Carmona, former president of the Constitutional Court. He was suspended for lack of integrity for only three months after eight months of protests. The students wanted to raise awareness of the systemic character of sexism and they campaigned for the university to put in place policies against sexual harassment. In addition, the students voiced a broader theoretical challenge to free-market capitalism. Following the protest Chilean President, Sebatsian Piñera, announced the ‘Women’s Agenda’ consisting of measures that address gender inequality in the areas of harassment, childcare and health. In November 2018, Chile signed a joint agreement with Peru at the Second Binational Cabinet that established increased sanctions for gender violence and domestic abuse.
This is the third, substantially revised and updated, edition of the volume first published in 2005 and reissued in a 2nd edition in 2009, by two US professors, specialists in atmospheric sciences and environmental law respectively. It explores climate change as a new type of environmental problem, the interplay of science and politics, the policy debates about climate change and possible approaches to tackling the problem. The book is designed to be suitable for undergraduate courses.
This article is a literature review examining the latest English literature on nonviolent resistance. It discusses different types of protest and delineates the characteristics of nonviolent resistance movements, and then focuses on explanations for the success of such movements. Last but not least, the authors discuss possible new avenues for research.
Account of the genesis, development and programme of the Peace People by French journalist resident in Belfast at the time the movement began
Describes the growing number of organizations engaged in demonstrating solidarity with the Palestinians (e.g. Women in Black), meeting with Palestinian women in the Occupied Territories, helping Palestinian women political prisoners, or proposing peace plans.
Analysis of Social Forum processes, the nature of the global justice movement and the Zapatista experience. NB: Development, vol. 47 no 3 (2004) is on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’.
Autobiography of one of the most dynamic student leaders of the civil rights movement. Recounts the emergence of People’s Democracy (PD) at Queen’s University Belfast, and includes vivid first-hand accounts of the August 1968 March in Derry, and the Belfast to Derry march by PD in January 1969 which was ambushed by a loyalist mob at Burntollet. Also recounts Devlin’s election to the Westminster Parliament in April1969, her frustration at the limits to her power as an MP, and her participation in the Battle of the Bogside in August of that year.
The authors explain the purpose of this campaign (that brought together peace activists, doctors and lawyers from around the world): to prohibit under international law the use or threat to use nuclear weapons, as the Conventions on Biological and on Chemical Weapons had done for these weapons of mass destruction. The campaign persuaded the UN to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on the issue. This article (written before the Court had delivered its decision) focuses on how the umbrella network of NGOs in the World Court Project successfully lobbied governments to gain support at the UN General Assembly, and how it persuaded the ICJ to accept citizens' evidence for the first time.
Since 1945 European states have achieved increasing levels of economic integration, but their social policy have varied. This is particularly true for contentious issues such as abortion, where different political and religious institutions and social movements have produced very different policies. This book provides an interdisciplinary survey of the struggles over abortion rights. Drawing on national case studies from across the continent, it analyses the strategies and discourses of groups seeking to liberalise or restrict reproductive rights, from the immediate postwar era to the austerity politics, resurgent nationalism, and mass migration of today.
Comprehensive analysis of the political fault lines, corruption and repression of Nigerian politics, and the failure to achieve a transition to democracy, including the role of the military, constitutional formulas and electoral administration. Chapters on political parties, the press and ‘associational life’.
Collection of relevant articles in the Journal of Democracy.
The increasing impact of digitalization, especially in Africa, has transformed political, social, economic and business activity. There is therefore a need for rigorous academic debate about the effectiveness of social media platforms for citizen activism. This study focusses on the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria to explore strategies and mechanisms used to try to influence government. The authors conclude that the movement may inspire youth-led movements elsewhere, but also examine how the nature of the Nigerian state resulted in an abrupt end to the protests.
This thesis scrutinises the conversation about violence against women on social media. The main research question is: ‘Does social media reproduce colonial ideologies such as racism and sexism?’ Indigenous women experience the highest rates of sexual violence in the United States: they are twice as likely to be as all other women. Social media is praised as a tool for activists and marginalized groups to raise awareness. The thesis explores whether this applies to Indigenous women and sexual violence, or whether their voices are generally overlooked.
On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 140th birthday the authors offer a guide to understanding Gandhi’s personality and life through different chapters in his life, for example the role of his family, his youth and the long period in South Africa.
Bulgarian reporter Martin Dimitrov explains the events which sparked the 2020 mass protests in Bulgaria against the Borissov government and corrupt political system.
Charts transition to multiparty democracy and a market economy from 1989, with a focus on party coalitions and alignments.
See also Dinerstein, Ana Cecilia, Workers’ factory takeovers and new state policies in Argentina: towards an “institutionalisation” of non-governmental public action? Policy & Politics, 2007, pp. 529-550 .
This special number of Diogene (international review of the human sciences) presents diverse perspectives on different themes relating to nonviolence: the language of nonviolence; the links between nonviolence and religion; and between nonviolence and civil resistance. It also considers the future of nonviolence.
Report by a Vice-President of Endowment for Democracy covering the developments of Ukraine's demonstrations until the end of December 2014. It stresses the creative and disciplined popular organisation; the unwillingness to rely on politicians; the breadth of support not only in Kiev but in other cities of eastern Ukraine; how provocateurs have been kept out of Maidan and how violence was avoided when responding to brutal attempts to clear the square. Available on line: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/euromaidan-ukraine%E2%80%99s-self-organizing-revolution
Abortion by Black women is often blamed on white women and their feminist ideology is seen as an insidious tool to further eradicate Black people in America, a view held by some anti-choice and self-proclaimed anti-racists, as well as some Black anti-choice activists. This article explores the myth of abortion as Black genocide as it pertains to Black women and their reproductive rights and the arguments used to promote this belief. After defining genocide and the stereotypes used by proponents of the abortion as Black genocide myth in Part I, Part II identifies and describes the past and current proponents of the myth. In Part III, the myth is placed within the ‘herstory’ umbrella, while part IV explores the myth in its current form, including examples of outreach and advertisements by its proponents. Finally, Part V showcases Black women's robust response to this myth and highlights their continued participation in the struggle for Black liberation.
Former editor of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy assesses the nature of various contemporary authoritarian regimes and discusses unarmed resistance. Chapter 1 ‘The Czar’ analyses the Putin regime including its control over the media; Chapter 2 ‘Enemies of the State’ gives prominence to a campaign to preserve the Khimki forest and the effectiveness of tactics used.
Discusses how the ‘humanitarian’ approach to disarmament served as a catalyst to and model for the negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and describes its purpose and provisions.
After Weinstein accusers were nominated by Time as ‘Person of the Year’, this article explores the legacy left by the movement in the US one year since #MeToo exploded globally.
Discusses role of nonviolence in Green thought (and in original policy of German Greens) and case for nonviolent protest.
Describes context of his campaigns – not much detail on the campaigns themselves.
These stories, which Dolci collected in Sicily, are the medium through which he elucidates the local dimension of the mafia – its action and influence in Sicily – and its wider impact in Italy and beyond. This is a record of how ordinary people coped with their suffering of violence, and it aims to transmit their vision of social justice. The work has an educational value.
Dolci’s account of the ‘reverse strike’ by unemployed agricultural workers which he led in Partinico to repair a disused road, and his subsequent trial in 1956. The demonstration dramatised the extreme poverty endured in Sicily, while affirming the right to work inscribed in Article 4 of the Italian Constitution, and was supported by many of the unemployed, farmers and representatives of the labour movement. The reverse strike created a new form of nonviolent protest.
See also: Ancora del Mediterraneo (ed.) (2006), Perché L’Italia Diventi Un Paese Civile, Napoli: L’Ancora, pp. 153.
This covers the mass fast in San Cataldo, the subsequent reverse strike and the trial, and provides a chronology of the events leading to Dolci’s conviction.
On the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, New Left Review launched a discussion on the role and significance of the NPT. The physicist and expert on the treaty, Norman Dombey, initiated the debate with this detailed and well annotated historical and political examination of the origins and evolution of the treaty and the difficulties it had faced. The article concludes with his assessment of the role of the NPT in limiting proliferation and questions about its future.
See also: Watkins, Susan, ‘The Nuclear Non-Protestation Treaty’, New Left Review, no. 54, Nov-Dec. 2008 for a much more critical analysis of the NPT.
Tells the story of the insumisos from the point of view of one of the mothers. It begins with a summary of the historical process and then introduces a personal narrative of the experience of trials and jail, and the struggle of the conscientious objectors’ mothers association. Includes press articles and pictures which illustrate each element of the story.
Interview with a former railway worker involved in trade union activity at time of Tiananmen, who now directs the China Labour Bulletin and broadcasts from Hong Kong to promote independent union activity in China.
Examines Tibet from 1950 to early 1990s, including the 1959 uprising, the role of the Dalai Lama and protests in the 1980s (see chapter 4, ‘The revival of nationalism’, pp. 93-107).
In El Salvador, hundreds of women marched in the capital San Salvador on this day, to protest for reproductive rights, against violence, and in celebration of the release of three women jailed on abortion charges. The article also discusses the Trump administration’s cut of funding towards programs that support women and the initiative to tackle violence against women that exists in El Salvador.
In El Salvador, hundreds of women marched in the capital San Salvador on this day, to protest for reproductive rights, against violence, and in celebration of the release of three women jailed on abortion charges. The article also discusses the Trump administration’s cut of funding towards programs that support women and the initiative to tackle violence against women that exists in El Salvador.
This is Doolin’s translation of a Beijing Student Union pamphlet, together with his own introduction.
The Anzac legend has been traditionally dominated by white males and was increasingly brought under the spotlight with the emergence of feminist movements from the 1960s onwards. But it is was feminists that rekindled interest in Anzac in the 1980s with the Women Against Rape in War protests at Anzac Day events in the early 1980s. The Second Wave Feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s saw a significant shift towards a more specific focus on issues around violence against women, most particularly in the realm of domestic/family violence. The Australian feminist movement also opposed the Australian involvement in the Vietnam War and promoted the cause of nuclear disarmament.
Downing demonstrates how on 9 November 1983 the USSR put its nuclear forces on high alert in fear of a pre-emptive US nuclear strike, bringing the world close to nuclear war. (Fortunately the US did not react rapidly.) Whereas in 1962 both sides in the Cuba crisis knew it could trigger nuclear war (and tried frantically to avert it), in 1983 the Reagan Administration had no idea that its renewed Cold War anti-communist rhetoric and military build-up (including 'Star Wars' plans) were seen by Moscow as a rationale and strategy for an attack. A NATO exercise and change in codes were therefore interpreted as a prelude to attack. Downing revealed the main lines of this story in a TV documentary in 2008.
This book discusses trends in women’s representation and their role in politics in Latin American countries, from three different perspectives. Firstly, it examines cultural, political-partisan and organizational obstacles that women face in and outside institutions. Secondly, the book explores barriers in the political sphere, such as gender legislation implementation, public administration and international cooperation. It also proposes solutions, based on successful initiatives. Thirdly, the authors highlight the role of women in politics at the subnational level. The book combines academic expertise in various disciplines with contributions from practitioners within national and international institutions.
The interviews with Dr Sasa, minister for international cooperation in the National Unity Government (NUG) representing the resistance, and with two railway workers involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement, are prefaced by a brief summary of the policy of the NUG. The article stresses the ethnic diversity of the NUG and its call for the abolition of the 2008 constitution and the 1982 citizenship law used to exclude the Rohingya.
Looks at Global Justice Movement in a broad historical framework and relates it to case studies of earlier struggles in the USA, UK, France, South Africa, Algeria, the Philippines and Jamaica.
In addition to detailed analysis of Argentine, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, has comparative discussion with European dictatorships – Greece, Portugal, and Spain.
See also Drewett, Michael , Aesopian Strategies of Textual Resistance in the Struggle to Overcome the Censorship of Popular Music in Apartheid South Africa In Müller, Beate , Censorship & Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age Amsterdam and New York, Rodopi, , 2004, pp. 189-207 .
Account of the emergence of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War and the Committee of 100 in Britain. Describes the main actions and internal debates within the movement.
The author was secretary of Brent Trades Council in London when the non-unionised women strikers at the mail-order plant contacted him for help in 1976, and became a member of the strike committee. He also wrote an obituary of the inspirational leader of the strike, Jayaben Desia, when she died 23 December 2010 (Guardian, 29 Dec 2010, p.30). (For a celebration of Desia’s role and life see also Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, ‘Remembering an unsung heroine of our modern history’, Independent, 3 Jan 2011, p.5.)
Comparative study of successes and failures of four environmental movements since 1970, exploring implications of inclusion and exclusion from political process.
Chapter 1, ‘Beginnings’ examines role of women in May 1968 and the emergence of the Mouvement de Liberation des Femmes in 1970, laying of a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier to commemorate his wife (leading to arrests), support for women strikers (e.g. in a hat factory in Troyes) and the 5th April 1971 Manifesto by 343 prominent women who had resorted to illegal abortions. Later chapters explore ideological divisions within the movement, theoretical issues and the relationship of feminists to socialist government in France.
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the activities of international volunteers working with Palestinians to empower them in their nonviolent struggle against the Israeli occupation.
Summarises evolution of nonviolent resistance in theory and practice and explores its role in redressing structural asymmetry and as a prelude to reconciliation and peace building.
Explores the context and conditions in which nonviolent resistance can contribute to successful and sustainable conflict transformation processes. The author introduces the concept, aims and methods of nonviolent action and explores conceptual and empirical developments throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. She illustrates its potential and limits, both in transforming asymmetric power structures and in encouraging democratic practices, using the example of the Palestinian first intifada in the Israeli/Palestinian struggle. (updated and revised for 2011 print edition)
Chapters on: Western Sahara, West Papua, Palestine, South Africa (in 1980s), the Zapatistas. Egypt, Nepal and on indigenous armed struggle and nonviolent resistance in Colombia.
Scholarly study commissioned by the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament, evaluating EU practice and making recommendations on principles that should guide EU support for nonviolent action for democratization, including concrete proposals on how to make it more effective.
Martine Dufour is a member of the Movement for a Non-violent Alternative. She took part in several civil missions to Kosovo between 1993 and 2011. This book relates a pioneering experiment in civil intervention and includes elements of analysis, appreciation and assesment of the Civil Peace Intervention in a post-conflict area.
- Part I: ‘They Shale Not Pass’, 26 Sept. 2013;
- Part II: Shale 911’, 26 Sept 2013
Eyewitness account from May 19 by Chinese-speaking American professor.
Chapters include: ‘Kent State: How the War in Vietnam became a War at Home’; ‘Congress and the Anti-War Movement’; ‘US Presidential Campaigns in the Vietnamese Era’; ‘Opposing the War in Vietnam – the Australian Experience’; ‘Vietnam War Resisters in Quebec’; ‘Anger and After – Britain’s CND and the Vietnam War’.
A journalist (now deputy editor of the Economist) provides her perspective on Pakistan in the 1980s.
Notes that 1952 revolution is not well covered in the literature (even in Spanish). Charts changing economic and political context, giving weight to the role of the militant working class in the mines, but also notes role of Catholic Church on human rights (pp. 128-31).
See also: Earthworks ‘No Dirty Gold: Rosia Montana’: http://nodirtygold.earthworksaction.org; Solly, Richard ‘Festival of Resistance to Romanian Gold Mine’, London Mining Network, 18 Aug . 2014: http://londonminingnetwork.org
Sources for 15 year long local resistance in Romania to open-pit gold mine (which would use cyanide), proposed by Toronto-based Gabriel Resources, and for the evolution of government policy and legal challenges. The mine became a focus of national resistance in September 2013. The local opponents propose that the site should become a UNESCO heritage area (the open cast mine would destroy the original Roman gold mine) and a centre for farming.
Shows how Rustin’s gay lifestyle was repeatedly brought up by public enemies intent on discrediting the movement and by political rivals wanting to marginalize him.
Anthology of accounts by 17 British women campaigners, engaged in a range of militant direct action, including one by Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr laith) activist, Angharad Thomas.
- Vol. 1: Historische Erfahrungen und Grundzuege der Strategie, 1981, 193pp;
- Vol. 2. Formen und Bedingungen des Zivilen Widerstands, 1981, 194 pp.
Ebert has researched important examples of earlier nonviolent resistance, e.g. the 1953 East German uprising, and has been a leading theorist of nonviolent action and civilian defence since the 1960s. Both books are compilations of articles Ebert wrote on the subject in the 1970s.
Analysis of nonviolent resistance by leading German scholar of nonviolent uprisings, based on his dissertation. In this book Ebert outlines an often quoted series of steps in the escalation of nonviolent action.
Social movements come into being due to contradictions within a society. They create a growing number of people that fear a social catastrophe or believe they can change the current situation. These motives also provide legitimation for people to protest, resist or, in some circumstances, even promote a radical change in their society.
'Power from below through nonviolent action' is the latest contribution from German's best known proponent of civilian defence and nonviolent resistance. Aware that he is 80 years old, Ebert sums up his experiences and elaborates on new ideas for future research
The article draws on interviews with Thai citizens to discuss why, a year after the May 2014 military coup, there were no protests in a country known for its activism on the streets. It outlines the extent of strict censorship and the draconian sentences, which could be imposed for insulting the king, and stresses the links between the 87 years old monarch and the military, dating back to a coup in 1957. Eckersley also looks back to the 2006 military coup against the Thaksin government and the violent suppression of Thaksin supporters in 2010, but suggests the death of the reigning monarch could precipitate change and expose the state as a 'naked military dictatorship'.
Analyses critically the roles of several national pro-democracy groups in the 1990s, and their attempts to mobilize civil society to resist. Compares their strategies and activities and their role in promoting a democratic transition.
Discusses transnational civil society, its impact on financial institutions, and a range of specific campaigns, e.g. to ban landmines, Jubilee 2000, campaigns against corporations.
This Report describes the situation regarding one of the most serious human rights abuses of women – the practice of coercive sterilisation among Romani women – and the legal, policy and other obstacles in reaching an effective remedy for the victims.
See also Van der Zee, Renate, ‘Roma women share stories of forced sterilisation’, Al Jazeera, 19 July 2016.
The authors start from the 2017-18 protests, significant for their 'geographical scope and range of grievances', but emphasize that local unrest linked to a range of economic grievances has been frequent - especially since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 - and largely ignored by western media. They consider why the goal of social justice, central to 1979, has not been achieved and the change in policy after 1988 towards 'commercial priorities and top-down policy making'.
This thesis examines the personal, public and professional life of celebrated abortion rights activist, Patricia Goyette Miller. The first section is based on the writer’s own family relationship to Miller and explores larger questions of archival and biographical work. The second section explores Miller’s life, considering how she came to commit herself to abortion rights activism in Colorado and Pennsylvania. The final section looks towards the future, applying lessons and strategies from Miller’s life to consider the best next steps forward in the current US political context.
Editor of La Prensa, Panama’s leading daily, looks at the role of Panama’s people and the organized opposition, in article written before US invasion.
Wide ranging reader including poetry and analysis, personal testimonies, and activist accounts and discussions of strategy. Testament to resistance of LGBT communities across the continent.
Although sexual harassment is a worldwide phenomenon, it is noteworthy in Egypt, which recently occupied a top position on the map of sexual harassment on a world scale. In November 2013, Egypt was declared by the Thomson Reuters Foundation as the worst country for women to live in within the Arab World, when compared to twenty-two other Arab countries, largely because of its female sexual harassment rates. The United Nations Population Fund declared Egypt as ranking “second in the world after Afghanistan in terms of this issue.” In the years following the 2011 revolution, the nature of sexual harassment in Egyptian society was transformed from a hidden phenomenon to an overtly prevalent social epidemic. This study argues that the “weaponization” of sexual harassment is a common ground where class struggles, state policies, and women’s empowerment intertwine in post-revolutionary Egyptian society.
Palestinian activist el-Baghdadi, based in Oslo, speaks about his role in providing news about the Arab Spring to the international media, and publishing his ideas about securing radical change in the longer term. He also explains why he now seeks to counter disinformation online and to campaign in particular against the autocratic model of Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia.
suggesting a non-western interpretation of events.
Analysis of the Mubarak regime and its policies, the nature of political Islam, and (most relevant here) a chapter on ‘The democracy movement: Cycles of protest’, pp. 87-102, which provides background to Tahrir Square.
The author highlights the peculiarities of the ‘MeToo’ movement in the United States, and the differences between North American and Egyptian society. She then describes the origin and tactics of Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment and Assault (OpAntiSH), a women-led, feminist and civilian group combatting sexual assault in Cairo
Discusses ACT-UP in relation to two contrasting approaches in social movement theory: ‘resource mobilization’ and the ‘identity’ paradigm.
Elfstrom analyzes data from 2003-2012 on strikes and other worker protests, and concludes that the state has responded both with greater repression (illustrated by higher spending on the People's Armed Police) and greater responsiveness (illustrated by pro-worker or split decisions in mediation, arbitration and court judgements). The article concludes by analyzing the implications of changes in policy since the accession of Xi Jinping.
See also: Elfstrom, Manfred, 'A Tale of Two Deltas: Labour Politics in Jiangsu and Guangdong', British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol.57 no.2 (2019), pp.247-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12467
Explores how the feminist movement in Tunisia has been a victim of brutal hijacking, exploitation, and politicization, which has fragmented its foundation.
An anthropological approach to explaining why the Thai military has tried to 'silence' politics, focusing on the emergence of the poor as political actors and the fears generated by this development. The article is based on research into squatter settlements on railway tracks in the provincial capital Khon Kaen demanding land rights (with support from NGO activists), between 2007 and 2017.
A major study looking at the history of Catholics in Ulster from the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 to the signing of the Belfast agreement in 1998. The author, who defines herself an ’Ulster Catholic’, takes a fresh look at the attitudes, assumption and convictions of the Catholic community, and at some of the causes of sectarian division. She notes that there has been a return of self-confidence among Ulster Catholics since the signing of the GFA and that the overwhelming majority of them support the constitutional arrangement based on majority consent.
Provides an account of who is protesting in the camps around Delhi, why the farmers oppose the government's new farm laws, the government's responses to the protests, and future plans.
Explores theoretical arguments for and against selective objection, together with case studies from US, Britain, Australia, Germany and Israel.
Includes material on role of local peace movement, nonviolence training and a 1983 statement on ‘creative nonviolence’.
Elhassan regularly uses her social media platform to raise awareness of social and political conditions in Sudan. She became well known after the December 2018 protests led to the demand for Bashir to be deposed.
See Elhassan, Sara, ‘Revolution in Sudan: on the verge of civilian rule?’, Afropunk, 12 July 2019, available at https://afropunk.com/2019/07/revolution-in-sudan-on-the-verge-of-civilian-rule/
This article argues that the movement that led to the imprisonment of Bashir can only be properly understood in terms of the grassroots struggle that defined it. Elnaiem also argues that it was a multi-layered struggle and discusses the composition of the broader resistance and the historical legacy it built upon, as well as the obstacles to further progress.
See also: Elnaiem, Mohammed, (2019) ‘Sudan’s uprising a ‘people revolution’, Green Left Weekly, Issue 1209, pp. 14-15.
See also: de Waal, Alex, ‘What’s Next for Sudan’s Revolution’, Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2019.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/sudan/2019-04-23/whats-next-sudans-revolution
Analyses the Sudanese revolution with an emphasis on its non-violent forms of resistance.
It examines the patriarchal structure of the football game that excludes women all across Latin America from the history of football.
Provides a round up of what UK based environmental bodies were doing to foreground climate and environmental issues in the run-up to the Glasgow Conference, both in terms of protest and direct action and in terms of green initiatives such as creating 'green towns'. It also references the website of the COP 26 Coalition.
A collection of essays by and about women COs in USA, Europe, Turkey, Israel, Eritrea, Korea, Paraguay and Colombia.
Human rights activist and journalist, Mona Eltahawy, contextualizes Middle Eastern women’s repression in a net of political, cultural and religious forces that undermine the possibility of a new Arab Spring emerging as an organic revolutionary process for the upholding of human rights in the MENA region.
This chapter discusses women’s dual struggle in the context of the Arab Spring: the political struggle to secure civil rights and political rights, and the social struggle to secure gender equality. While the former can be enshrined in constitutions and enforced through the judicial branch, the latter is much harder to pin down, and even harder to enforce, because it deals with cultural mindsets and entrenched social norms. This chapter uses the example of Egypt to show how within the actual struggle for political rights, women experienced the worst forms of sexual violence, highlighting the long struggle ahead. It also stresses the efforts by Egyptian women to continue their parallel sociopolitical struggles, as evidenced in their tireless attempts to fight sexual harassment.
Nahed Eltantawy discusses the influence ‘MeToo’ had on the anti-sexual harassment movement in Egypt and the women-led initiatives that occurred consequently.
First published on Waging Nonviolence website: www.wagingnonviolence.org
See also: Horton, Adrian, Dream McClinton and Lauren Aratani, 'Adults Failed to take Climate Action. Meet the young activists stepping up', The Guardian, 4 Mar. 2019.
Interviews with young activists in the Sunrise Movement.
Although mostly relevant to the second volume of this bibliography, it provides context for the movements against governments that are covered here.
The book examines how contemporary movements are using strategic nonviolent action to promote social change, covering a range of protests including climate change, immigrant rights, gay rights, Occupy and Black Lives Matter. The authors argue that nonviolent uprisings are becoming more common than violent rebellion, and look back to twentieth century antecedents in the Indian Independence and US Civil Rights movements, examine the nature of effective strategy and discuss organizational discipline. Their analysis includes the Arab Spring, but notes its discouraging implications.
The chapters in this history of the IRA which deal with the gradual shift in the position of Provisional Sinn Fein and IRA, their engagement in the political process through discussions with both the rival nationalist SDLP and the British government, and their eventual decision to end the military campaign, provide valuable insights into the dynamics of the peace process in Northern Ireland. The final chapter subjects the republican case to critical – though not unsympathetic – scrutiny but rejects the contention that the struggle was in any straightforward sense an anti-colonial one or that its religious dimension can be ignored.
This book explores how far the ending of one-man rule in 1994 had achieved wider economic, social and cultural changes and explores the continuing problems such as political intolerance and hate speech. The contributors, mostly from Malawi, criticize both 'chameleon' political leaders and aid donors for supporting superficial democratization.
The article assesses the impact of the main Russian online social network, VK, on the likelihood of protest with a focus on 2011. It argues that increased use of the network did have some impact on the likelihood of protest, but did so through simplifying coordination rather than increasing the availability of criticism of the regime. The authors also suggest that wider social use of the network actually increased support for the government.
The authors explores the various aspects of Moroccan feminism from a historical, sociological and comparative perspective. They discuss women and politics, women’s NGOs, female identities, women and Sufism, and their role in the 20 February Movement (20 February 2011 – March/April 2012). They also cover women’s role in society in general, from various but inter-related perspectives: secular, Islamic, grassroots, etc.
See also Ennaji, Moha (2020) ‘Women’s activism in North Africa: a historical and socio-political approach’ in Darhour, Hanane and Drude Dahlerup (eds) (2020) Double-Edged Politics on Women’s Rights in the MENA Region. Gender and Politics, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 157-178.
Analyses women’s activism strategies in Tunisia and Morocco directed at transforming gender roles; pursuing better legal rights and women’s progress in the public sphere; opposing violence and discrimination against women, and trying to consolidate democracy in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
This article (written in 2011) starts from the 1988 achievement of a new democratic constitution, soon subverted by a military take-over leading to a decade of civil war. Entelis stresses the growing frustration among many sections of Algerian society - the young, workers, women, the middle class, Berbers and Islamists - who were all demanding economic opportunity, political freedom and social justice. He examines how the FLN regime established after 1999 has so far managed to control this growing dissent at a time of revolutionary upsurge in the Arab world.
Covers activism for rights and over HIV. Notes external influences exacerbating position of lesbians, gays and trans, as well as role of some African leaders and cultural influences.
Covers environmental/peace/feminist protest in the USA, analysing key ideas and organising methods, as well as evolution of some major campaigns, for example against the Seabrook nuclear energy plant and the Livermore nuclear weapons laboratory.
On Seattle.
This as an introductory book on nonviolence by various authors (Equipo Plan Congruente de Paz y Nonviolencia), centred on the classics: Thoreau, Gandhi and Luther King. It provides exercise sheets for students and develops the concept of ‘kingian’ nonviolence (following Martin Luther King’s approach).
Erasto notes that the TPNW explicitly mentions the NPT, and argues that the two treaties are clearly legally compatible, despite claims that the TPNW is in conflict with the NPT. He then assesses in detail political arguments that the TPNW could jeopardise the NPT regime.
Companion to Morgenstierne and Sellstrom, below.
Essays on conceptualizing and understanding social movements in Latin American context, as well as on indigenous, peasant and urban protests, and feminist and ecology movements. See also: Oxhorn, P. , From human rights to citizenship rights: Recent trends in the study of Latin American social movements Latin American Research Review, 2001, pp. 163-182 .
This book is an account of the prolonged and multi-faceted Sioux resistance to the 1,172 mile Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) which in 2014 was rerouted through their territory, threatening their ancestral burying grounds and archaeological sites. In addition to violation of their rights over the land, the Sioux Nation feared that oil spills would pollute their land, and especially the water supply. The protest began in April 2016 with the setting up of a camp as a centre for direct action and the expression of spiritual resistance, and was supplemented by a social media campaign. Surrounding Native American communities joined in the protest, as did many environmentalists, so that thousands were involved by the summer. The local police were criticised for using unnecessary force against protesters and there were many arrests. The story of Standing Rock is set within the context of the much longer history of indigenous resistance to colonization and struggle to maintain their culture.
See also: Treuer, The Heartbreak of Wounded Knee (under Vol. 2. B.1.d.) which includes an account of Standing Rock at the end of the book.
See also: 'What is Standing Rock and Why are 1.4m 'checking in' there? - BBC News, 2 Nov. 2016. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37834334
Protesters were worried that they were being individually traced by the police through social media (denied by the local police) and asked for supporters to check-in to the SR Facebook site to overwhelm police efforts to identify protesters that way.
Argues popular protests led by Obrador against election results undermined democratic process.
Well-documented examination of the role of transnational civil movements in contributing to arms control and the ending of the Cold War. Includes assessment of the Pugwash Conference which brought together scientists from East and West, and also the wider anti-war movement.
Discusses role of corporations and governments in different parts of the world. Chapters 8-12 focus on resistance in Bougainville, the Philippines and Australia. Chapter 12 (pp. 195-206) covers the resistance to the Jabiluka uranium mine by the local Aboriginal people, supported by environmentalists.
Covers Plaid Cymru, history and Welsh politics and government. An earlier book by Evans from the same publisher is: Evans, Gwynfor , Fighting for Wales Talybont, Y Lolfa, , 1992, pp. 221
Memoirs of this key figure in the nationalist movement and committed advocate of nonviolence.
Professor of Chinese Studies Harriet Evans analyses the development of feminist activism in comparison with feminism in the UK. Drawing on the idea of sexual and gender rights, she also makes a comparison with the LGBTQ community and its global organisational activism since the 1990s.
The editors were among the women who launched the campaign Code Pink: Women for Peace in November 2002, which has since undertaken a wide range of nonviolent direct action protests in the United States and forged links with women in many other countries. (For details see: http://www.codepink.org). The book is a collection of essays by peace activists and scholars exploring a range of issues but including an emphasis on dissent and movement building.
Focuses particularly on those who actively supported the Algerian guerrilla movement the FLN (the Jeanson network), but includes references to the September 1960 ‘121 Manifesto’, in which intellectuals asserted the right to refuse to take up arms in the war. Not an overall history of opposition, but using oral reminiscences to show motivation for resistance.
Using her personal experience the author examines how women were dismayed by their treatment in radical movements, and how they turned their activist skills to feminist campaigning.
Compilation of articles on the rationale, history and practice of the Civilian Peace Service (CPS) in Germany. The CPS, which started in 2000, is a governmentally financed programme with implementers both from state and non-state organizations.
General analysis of movement in 1990s and case studies of individual environmental organizations.
Dr Fahmi outlines the early months of protest in both Sudan and Algeria, and discusses parallels with 2011 in terms of being 'nationwide, sustained over time, political in nature and interconnected', with the movements encouraging each other.
Brief analysis of gaps in 1990 Constitution and of the King’s February 2005 coup removing the Prime Minister
Explains background to the demonstrations, and elaborates on role of the US government in relation to the elections, and of the George Soros Open Society Foundation in funding opposition and promoting nonviolent prkotest. Comments also on the role of TV stations owned by private entrepreneurs.
Story of the march to Greenham Common in August 1981 by a small group of women, ‘Women for Life on Earth’, to demand a public debate on nuclear weapons, in order to keep the nuclear issue under scrutiny, and how it led to the prolonged and renowned women-only camp and blockades at the Greenham Cruise Missile Base in the UK.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/may/03/greenham.yourgreenham3
Article representing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe position by its chairman. Notes that the Obama administration refused in late 2016 to grant DAPL a permit to cross the Missouri River upstream of Standing Rock, but that under Trump the pipeline had been built. Faith also reports that his tribe is still engaging in legal challenges to pipeline permits, and that owners of DAPL are trying to double the pipeline capacity, increasing the risk of oil spills.
Falk assesses the nature of the 1989 revolutions, which she delineates as the collapse of communist regimes across Eastern Europe in a context of commitment to nonviolence by key players (with the exception of Romania) and of restraint by both Gorbachev in the USSR and western leaders. Year 1989 appeared to usher in a new concept of peaceful revolution, which could be applied to challenge other repressive regimes. But, Falk argues, these attempts, as in the '2009 Green Revolution' in Iran and the 'Arab Spring' in 2011 in Egypt and elsewhere, have resulted in defeat. The author also notes other factors, which militate against successful nonviolent revolution. These include the greater ruthlessness (compared with the East European Communist regimes of the 1980s) of many of today's dictatorships, the declining respect for the US and for liberal democracy as an ideal, a rise in barbaric violence (represented by ISIS) and the complex role of today's communication technologies, which can mobilize protest but promote lack of leadership capable of formulating negotiable demands. The article references a number of other interesting recent perspectives on revolution today.
Analyses anti-nuclear struggles globally, with particular attention to how each movement relates to the state promoting nuclear power.
The authors critique the theory of nuclear deterrence, and debate the role of civil society in leading to the abolition of nuclear weapons. They also discuss nuclear weapons from a moral and cultural perspective, and the interconnections between nuclear weapons and militarism, energy, international law, and democracy.
See also Richard Falk and David Krieger (2016) ‘A Dialogue on Nuclear Weapons’ in Peace Review, Vol. 28, issue 3, pp. 280-287, DOI: 10.1080/10402659.2016.1201936.
A dialogue on what steps are necessary to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
Outlines how the MeToo movement in 2017 prompted Jeanne Ponte, a French parliamentary assistant who had been keeping a record of workplace sexual harassment inside the EU parliament since 2014, to create the MeTooEP blog. Soon after the story of her recording of social harassment broke, MEPs at Strasbourg passed a resolution against sexual harassment. Over 1,000 people then signed a petition demanding enforcement of it.
This chapter explores how to measure quantitatively women’s social movements. Drawing on previous qualitative and quantitative studies of politically influential social movements addressing women’s rights across developing countries, the authors examine what aspects of women’s collective action can create a meaningful variable. The chapter concludes with a call for new methods to measure women’s movements, to pinpoint the circumstances that lead to mobilization, the intricacies of women’s movements, and the ways women’s collective action leads to women’s political empowerment and gender equality, both in the developing world and a global context.
Eloquent and influential defence of revolutionary violence as a necessary psychological reaction to the prolonged experience of structural domination by colonialism, and as a socially radicalising experience promoting the possibility of genuine political freedom.
Narratives based on interviews with 12 Papuans.
Central figure in CORE outlines its origins and later campaigns (chapters 9, 10 and 19).
A history of Northern Ireland, and socialist political analysis of the causes of the conflict there, by a leading civil rights campaigner and founding member of People’s Democracy. He concludes that the choice in Ireland is ‘between, on the one hand, a semi-fascist Orange statelet in the North, matched by a pro-imperialist police state in the South, and, on the other hand, an anti-imperialist and socialist revolution’.
Contributions by nine activists who had been involved in the Civil Rights movement in 1968. Contributors include Gerry Adams on his experiences as a republican in the civil rights campaign and the Provisionals’case for splitting with what became Official Sinn Fein and IRA; Bernadette (Devlin) McAliskey on her time in the British Parliament which she entitles ‘a peasant in the halls of the great’, and Michael Farrell on the ‘Long March’ from Belfast to Derry in January 1969 and subsequent developments. Carol Coulter describes the reverberations of the campaign in the South and Margaret Ward its influence in the development of feminism in Ireland.
Faulkner argues that the 'bottom up' international campaign, and the cooperation between leading activists and sympathetic government officials, provides a model for a way of achieving arms control. The campaign succeeded in changing policies on anti-personnel mines in 130 countries.
Evaluates the worldwide impact of the Fukushima disaster in Japan and provides an account of the dynamics of the anti-nuclear power movement in Indonesia.
Respected and long established British feminist organisation publishes research on impact of MeToo in UK, covering the 'powerful, disruptive impact' of the movement. It analyses harassment by gender and age, provides data on the public's willingness to challenge harassment, and makes recommendations on how to change the law.
Part I of this book sets out the context of the conflict in Northern Ireland, including a chronology of key events from the opening of the first Parliament there in 1921 to the Provisionl IRA ceasefire in September 1998, considers political, social and economic facets of the conflict, and reviews the principal interpretations of its causes. Part II examines the effects of the violence on individuals and groups and argues the need to address them if there is to be peace in the longer term.
Study of Shanghai home owners’ resistance that suggests that fragmentation of state power at local level provides opportunities for resistance, and that its success may be helped by social networks between participants in collective action and officials or media workers. See also Fayong, Shi , Social Capital and Collective Resistance in Urban China Neighborhoods: a comunity movement in Shanghai Singapore, Dept of Sociology, National University of Singapore, , 2004, pp. 43 , online.
Reports that universities (both student unions and the authorities) are becoming more active in trying to prevent, and taking action against, forms of harassment. But a survey published in March 2018 found 70% of female students had suffered harassment or assault and only 6% had reported it to the university. Harassment is a problem both between students and between some staff members and students.
See also: Suen, Evianne, '#MeToo movement reaches an all-time high across UK universities', 23 August 2018 https://theboar.org/2018/08/metoo-movement-sexual-uk-universities/
In the early 1980s, there were mass protests across the Western world with varied goals, for example to support different models of economic development, promote anti-militarism and non-violence, or redefine urban and social spaces. Many, however, saw safeguarding the environment as their primary goal and identified nuclear energy as their main target. The authors investigate the movement for as afer environment and how it mobilized large sections of society and provided people with new tools of civic expression.
Fazzi explores Eleanor Roosevelt’s involvement in the global campaign for nuclear disarmament during the early years of the Cold War. Based on an extensive research, it assesses her overall contribution and shows how she constantly tried to raise awareness of the real hazards of nuclear testing.
(Accord is published by the London-based Conciliation Resources. Issue 13 was entitled ‘Owning the process: Public Participation in Peacemaking’, edited by Catherine Barnes.)
The Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) was initiated by women of various political affiliations, religious beliefs and occupations. It was institutionalized as a political party in 1996 so that its members would be eligible to take part in the all-party talks that culminated in the Good Friday Agreement. It also campaigned for the acceptance of the GFA in the referendums which followed its signing.
Touches upon the history of the celebration of the International Women’s Day on March 8 and on the particular significance of striking on this day. It also includes mention of the initiatives that have taken place on 8 March 2019 in many cities around the world.
Examines protest camps as key tactic of movements from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street; includes Red Shirts in Thailand and teachers in Oaxaca.
Rabbi Feinberg’s account of his participation in a mission to North Vietnam in 1966-67 to investigate and publicize the effects of the US bombing. The other participants in the mission were the veteran US pacifist and socialist, A.J. Muste, Rev. Martin Niemoller, the Protestant pastor incarcerated in Dachau during part of World War II for opposing Hitler, and Rt Rev Ambrose Reeves, former Bishop of Johannesburg exiled for speaking out against apartheid.
Collection of speeches by Feinberg (poet and grassroots activist in US) covering range of issues including health care reform and infant genital mutilation.
A critical study of the 1954-55 campaigns.
Examines destalinization in Poland and why the Polish 1956 uprising avoided bloodshed, making comparisons with Hungary and its 1956 Revolution, see pp. 79-80 and 87-123. These events are set in the wider context of Soviet and bloc politics.
Feldman attended a conference on anti-corruption organized by the new government in 2018 with judges, prosecutors and investigators. The focus of the article is an examination of how far the nature of the rebellion (and its wider context) might be expected to promote a more democratic government committed to end corruption. After making comparisons with other countries, they provisionally conclude that the prospects for a transition to a government respecting the rule of law are positive.
The main emphasis of this book is on Ayub Khan’s government, but chapter 9 ‘The last phase’ (pp. 237-71) covers the ‘132 days of uninterrupted disturbances’. Stresses the rioting and factionalised violence, but notes the importance of the urban working classes and the students.
Femen was founded in the Ukraine in 2008 by four women to protest against patriarchy embodied in dictatorship, religion and the sex industry. Their well publicised bare-breasted protests have included a dangerous demonstration in Belarus and opposition to President Putin. They have moved to France and this book was first published in French. A film ‘Ukraine is not a Brothel’ claimed that Femen’s protests were orchestrated and the women controlled by a male svengali. This claim is addressed in an addendum to the English version of the book.
The editorial comments on key changes for women in the transition from Communism: political representation had dropped; more women were overrepresented among the unemployed; socialist reproductive rights were being challenged; women’s domesticity promoted as a virtue; and pornography and marketing of women’s bodies seen as ‘freedom’. Women were also more vulnerable to various sorts of violence, including sexual harassment at work, domestic violence and sex trafficking.
Looks back at pioneering issue 30 years earlier on black feminism (no. 17, 1984) and examines role of black feminists today and the mobilizing impact of cyber feminism.
Discusses how, despite having a well-educated female workforce, the high level of employment in China is imbued with patriarchal gender norms.
Feng outlines difficulties of Chinese women’s experience for organising mass protests. However, she sheds light on the mass initiatives that happen behind the scenes, such as the WeChat group named “Walking with women from all over the world” from which Chinese feminists attending the march can broadcast live video and photos. It also reports on the sexist campaigns led by the Chinese government that portray women as submissive to patriarchal ideologies and stereotypes.
In response to the climate set worldwide by #MeToo, this article reports on an anti-sexual harassment manifesto written by professor Xu Kaibin, following the case involving Chen Xiaowu, a former professor at Beihang University, who was stripped of all teaching duties after sexual harassment allegations from a former student. The manifesto was signed by more than 50 academics across more than 30 Universities in China.
Well documented and illustrated account of movement.
Discusses origins in 1988 of an Africa-wide group that promotes theological debates between Christians, Muslims, Jews and adherents of African religions, gives African women a voice through numerous publications and has focused on social issues such as the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS. For background and current information: http://thecirclecawt.com/index.html.
Ireland voted in 2018 to remove its constitutional ban on abortion in almost all circumstances. This overturned a previous vote by referendum to institute such a ban in 1983. The 2018 vote demonstrated how far Irish society has moved in a socially liberal direction. The 2018 referendum is also of interest to scholars of deliberative processes, given the key role played by Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly in fostering the debate and shaping both the referendum question and the draft legislation that was to follow. This report provides the historical context of this referendum and discusses the deliberative processes and the dynamics of the referendum campaign itself.
Discusses context of protest, the school and university education system, extent of inequality in Chilean society, and implications if movement successful.
#MeToo has sparked a global re-emergence of debate about and opposition to sexual violence. This edited collection uses the #MeToo movement as a starting point for examining contemporary debates among those engaged in combatting sexual violence. Academics and anti-sexual violence activists across the globe provide perspectives on the broader implications of the movement. It taps into wider conversations about the nature, history, and complexities of anti-rape and anti-sexual harassment politics, noting the limitations of the movement, including in the Global South. Contributors span the disciplines of criminology, media and communications, film studies, gender and queer studies, and law.
Examines the financial collapse and the popular protests in ‘the Kitchenware Revolution’ (which included banging pots and pans), which led to widespread popular involvement in changing the constitution to prevent a future financial collapse and betrayal of trust.
Analysis of evolution of opposition from 1983: from saucepan banging, one-day general strikes and 250,000 strong rally on the last Sunday of November 1983 (the traditional day for elections); the electoral politics of 1984 and public sector strike of January-February 1985.
Collection featuring writers and activists – including Rebecca Walker, Nomy Lama and Inga Musci – and editors of several women’s periodicals – discussing range of issues.
Comprehensive survey of regime in its internal and international context, covering protests against General Ne Win in the 1970s, the national nonviolent resistance 1988-90, subsequent opposition to military rule and campaigns by transnational bodies. Updated to include the 2007 protests.
See also:
Fink, Christina , The Moment of the Monks: Burma, 2007 In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 354-370 .
Webcast sponsored by the Iving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by alumni UBC with Equity and Inclusion. #MeToo. #IWill. Awareness is important, but how do we move beyond hashtags and words to making real change for women in the workplace? New accusations of harassment keep coming to the fore – from Hollywood to Wall Street to Commercial Drive. In response, thousands of women have posted “#MeToo” on social media. Men have since responded with #IWill, signaling their individual commitment to take action in order to prevent harassment in their midst. But what next? How do we go beyond awareness to actual – and more permanent – change? This video includes a panel discussion that examines this issue and explore options for moving forward.
Explains the scope and nature of the Alberta tar sands in western Canada - oil fields and mines covering an area larger than England with lakes created by the runoff of chemicals. This oil extraction process is difficult because the oil (bitumen) is heavy and has to be brought to the surface using huge amounts of water. It is a major contributor to global warming as well as polluting indigenous lands and the local environment. Greenpeace notes that resistance was mounting to the pipeline projects linked to tar sands, including Keystone XL, and the Transmountain Expansion pipeline.
Lively sympathetic biography used as basis for Richard Attenborough’s 1982 film.
Analyses rise of nationalist movements, how the regimes in newly independent Croatia (1991) and Slovakia (1992) promoted nationalism and the subsequent decline of nationalism and rise of democratic civil society and opposition movements.
Includes exercises and advice on active nonviolence.
Interviews with three protesters, two of whom were then protesting against Russian military intervention.
See also: Stelmakh and Tom Bamforth, 'Ukraine's Maidan Protests - One Year On', The Guardian, 21 November 2014
Detailed account by journalist of the strike and its political repercussions.
This book sponsored by The Independent newspaper is written by its two major Middle East reporters and cover the events of 2010-11 and the aftermath. Both correspondents have extensive expertise on their area, and have tended to diverge in their assessments from much mainstream western reporting.
Deals with the anti-nuclear power movements and government responses to them and their demands in eight West European states – Austria, Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and West Germany.
Flam draws on newly available archives and over 100 interviews with Communist officials, dissidents and ‘bystanders’. (See also Flam, Anger in Repressive Regimes: A Footnote to Domination and the Arts of Resistance by James Scott (A. 1.c. Small Scale, Hidden, Indirect and 'Everyday' Resistance) ).
Covers variety of movements, but three chapters on problems of gay/lesbian groups in Hungary, Poland and the eastern part of Germany.
Argues against Scott’s thesis that long suppressed anger will one day explode, and suggests instead (drawing on Central European examples after 1980) that protest took indirect, satirical and carnivalesque forms.
Covers Canada, New Zealand and the USA.
Detailed historical study of both Pax and the Catholic element in the British peace movement. Pax from the outset opposed war under modern conditions as contrary to traditional just war teaching, a stance underlined by the development of nuclear weapons. Influenced Catholic thinking about modern war and the decision of the Second Vatican Council to recognize the right to conscientious objection and to call upon states to make provision for it.
The author argues that feminism has been closely linked to reproductive rights, and Irish feminism contributed a significant ‘legal win’ with the landslide vote for lifting abortion restrictions in the 2018 referendum. This win is especially significant when right wing populist pressure is restricting women’s reproductive rights in many coutries. The movement #RepealedThe8th shows how legal tools like the vote can express care for reproductive lives. This paper ‘reflects on the #Repeal movement as a process of feminist socio-legal translation in order to show how legal change comes about through the motivation of collective joy, the mourning of damaged and lost lives, the sharing of legal knowledge, and the claiming of the rest of reproductive life.’
Discusses varieties of conscientious objection, from pacifist objection to all wars, selective objection to particular wars considered unjust and objection to indiscriminate and, most notably, nuclear warfare. Includes a discussion of just war principles.
Argues emergence of movement not ‘new’ and ‘spontaneous’ but product of evolution of a collective identity and culture stressing deliberative democracy since the 1980s.
See also her blog on the OpenDemocracy website: ‘Spain is Different: Podemos and 15-M’ on the rise of the leftist but non-ideological Podemos party in the European Parliamentary elections of June 2014, and influence of 15-M movement on the nature of the new party.
Traces the emergence of (belated) trade union opposition from a November 1967 conference in Chicago, attended by 523 trade unionists from 38 states and 63 international unions, which established the trade union division of the peace organization SANE. Includes a chapter on labour-student alliances.
In this book the journalist Mei Fong explains the context of the one child policy introduced in 1978 to control China’s growing population,and enforced through sterilization, abortion and fines. The policy was modified in January 2016, when couples were allowed to have two children.
See also: Fong, Mei, ‘Sterilization, abortion, fines: How China brutally enforced its 1-child policy’, New York Post, 3 January 2016.
https://nypost.com/2016/01/03/how-chinas-pregnancy-police-brutally-enfor...
Describes Sampat Pal and the now 20,000 strong Pink Gang she founded, which uses ‘social power’ to defend individual women treated unjustly and to challenge misogyny in general, The women carry sticks and sometimes attack corrupt politicians and policemen. See also: Pal, Sampan ; Berthod, Anne , Warrior in a Pink Sari New Delhi, Zubaan Books, , 2012, pp. 220
Useful summary analysis including brief case studies of corporate misuse of water and resistance to them (and further references): Nestle in US, Vivendi and Suez in Mexico, Bechtel in Bolivia and Coca Cola in India.
chapter 7.
First section includes contributions from Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Georgia and the Ukraine. Second section is comparative discussion on range of issues by authors including Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik, Taras Kuzio and Vitali Silitski.
By a founder of Earth First!
This book combines an anthropological with a political approach, describing the origin, development and activities of the Indigenous Guard of the Nasa People of Cauca (Colombia) with testimonies from some of their leaders.
Memoirs of SNCC Executive Secretary, 1961-65.
Produced by Australian National University Research Unit. Examines how and why Suharto was forced to step down.
See also Lee, Military Cohesion and Regime Maintenance : Explaining the Role of the Military in 1989 China and 1998 Indonesia (C. II.1.c. Tiananmen, The Mass Protests of 1989) and Lee, The Armed Forces and Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (E. II.8.a. Resisting Marcos, 1983-86) .
Retired Commander Robert Forsyth, Executive Officer of the Polaris Missile Submarine HMS Repulse in 1970s, makes a compelling case why the UK should dismantle its Trident.
Covers a range of issues, including Foucault’s interpretation of power and resistance, in accessible form (and also includes interesting discussion on the 1977-79 Iranian Revolution). See also Foucault. M., ‘Truth and Power’ in Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader: An Introduction to Foucault’s Thought, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1991. For a brief survey of Foucault’s evolving thought see Bleiker, Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (A. 1.a.ii. Theories of Civil Disobedience, Power and Revolution) , pp. 530-73.
Well reviewed inside account of the succesfull battle to halt the AIDS epidemic, this is the incredible story of grassroots activists whose work turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a mangeable disease. France gives account of bureaucratic incompetence and political cowardice in a country where in 1982, 42.6 percent of gay men in San Francisco and 26.8 gay men in New York were infected by AIDS. Almost universally ignored, these men and women learned to become their own researchres, lobbysts, and drug smugglers; established their own newspapaers and research journals, and went on to force reform in the nation's disease fighting agencies.
Covers women’s political rights across all major regions of the world, focusing both on women’s right to vote and women’s right to run for political office. The countries explored are Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, New Zealand, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Rwanda, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, South Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States, Uganda, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.
(looking in particular at developing skilled nongovernmental leadership in nonviolent approaches to promoting justice and ending destructive conflict)
(new edition in preparation)
Account of how the strike developed differently in Wales from other parts of Britain, and grew into a national movement involving community groups, churches and Welsh nationalists and fostered a greater national consciousness with a lasting impact on Welsh politics.
The immediate popular resistance to the military coup in 2009, that ousted the democratically elected President Manuel Zelava, did not defeat the coup, but a sustained and impressive movement continued under the National Front for Popular Resistance, which brought together trade unions, church leaders, academics and teachers and others, despite violent repression by the military and police. Frank also examines the role of the US government in supporting the coup and describes the support offered to the resisters by the US organization she founded.
See also: Main, Alexander, 'Honduras: The Deep Roots of Resistance', Dissent, Spring 2014,
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/honduras-the-deep-roots-of-resistance
Focuses particularly on role of the National Front of Popular Resistance in creating in 2011 a new political party Liberty and Refoundation with the aim of winning power and creating a new constitution. Main sets this development in the context of socialist parties winning power through elections in other Latin American countries.
See also: Portillo, Suyapa, ''Honduran Social Movements: Then and Now', Oxford Research Encylopedia of Politics, 28 September 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9781190228637.013.1774
Examines historic bases of social movements: political parties, both moderate and radical unionism and land struggles, the reaction against neoliberal economic policies of the 1990s undermining earlier economic and political gains. The article concludes by assessing the remarkable mobilization against the 2009 coup by almost all sections of society, including feminists, Black and indigenous groups.
A comprehensive article on the various demonstrations and campaigns organised in Latin America with the aim of tackling gender-based violence. It highlights differences with the ‘MeToo’ movement in North America by pointing out how feminist activism in Latin America has always been based on a political and structural analysis of violence, rather than on individual statements by mostly famous women. This analysis also assesses the violence committed against women of different race, age, class and immigration status, and highlights the institutions that in Latin America are at the forefront of this battle.
Compares views of Arendt and Fanon on the role of violence in politics.
Estelle Freedman highlights the forces that have shaped the definition of rape in the US, namely political power and social privilege. She outlines the history of how the conception of rape has evolved since the 1870s to the 1930s, when both racial segregation and the women’s suffrage movement influenced how rape was understood.
Examines the evolution of second wave feminism in the USA from the early protests.
Report monitoring the political participation of women in Honduras, and investigating the causes and implications of women’s absence from institutions and public decision-making processes.
This is an account and analysis of the 1968 Ford Dagenham women sewing machinists’ strike by two men on opposing sides (trade union convener of plant and Ford negotiating team) involved in the dispute. A lively semi-fictionalized account of the dispute from the women’s viewpoint is the 2010 film ‘Made in Dagenham’.
The author, drawing on fieldwork in unofficial labour organizations, examines how, rather than stage risky collective protests, these groups quite often assist individuals to demand their rights by appealing to officials. She concludes that 'disguised collective action' can secure concessions for participants and enable activists to find 'a middle ground between challenging authorities and organizational survival'.
This case study of the Marlin gold mine in Guatemala, which was a source of controversy among the local indigenous people, examines the role of national and international law as well as of international financial institutions and the concept of corporate social responsibility in major mining projects in developing countries.
See also: 'Gold Mine's Closing leaves Uncertain Legacy in Guatemala Mayan Community; Global Sisters' Report, 23 May 2016, pp. 20.
Survey of the impact of the Marlin gold mine in Guatemala, owned by a subsidiary of Goldcorp, on the local Mam, one of the Mayan nations in the country. Some found jobs and temporary prosperity through the mine, whilst others campaigned against a breach of indigenous right to proper consultation, the challenge to Mayan customs and the environmental hazards. Catholic nuns joined with Mayan activists to found the 'Parish Sisters and Brothers of Mother Earth Committee' to resist the mine in 2009. The closing of the mine prompted further debate about the conduct and impact of the project.
Funes notes the legislative development in Argentina since 2009 to tackle femicide and the development of the #NiUnaMenos movement since 2015.
This is an interesting critical look at 'civil society' in an African context, in particular the role of international donors in promoting 'civil society', which can be seen as a continuing form of imperial control. However, the author suggests that since Malawi became a multi-party democracy in 1994 civil society groups generally played a constructive democratic role, especially in the 2011 protests against the increasingly authoritarian President Bingu wa Mutharika.
This article focuses on the internet, not as a tool for mobilizing open protest, but enabling 'covert, individual, non-ohrganized' resistance in a repressive context.
The purpose of the Women’s Major Group is to make sure women’s NGOs have a voice at the UN in framing policy on sustainable development and environmental issues. This articles focuses on the Group’s role in negotiations for the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and assesses the effectiveness of civil society involvement.
The author discusses the findings from a case study of Sunni networks in the Lebanese city of Tripoli over three decades, based on fieldwork, primary Arabic sources and secondary literature. The article argues that if a network survives, even if there are periods of disengagement or cooptation, changing circumstances may unite people against the authorities and the network can enable rapid mobilization.
Examines the long history of feminism in Indonesia, and how it has contributed to the discourse of equality. This study shows that Third World feminism stems from its own ideals and cultures, while being frequently accused of acting as a proponent of western ideology or adopted from Western cultures.
The author’s research spans the period 1998 -2012 to chart the impact of the economic reforms on rural women drawn into urban areas, often employed in domestic service or in hotels and office cleaning. She notes how this migration of cheap and flexible labour from the countryside has underpinned high levels of urban consumption, and both helped to empower the women migrants and to perpetuate gendered forms of difference and inequality.
See also: Chang, Leslie T., Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, New York, Penguin Random House, 2009, pp. 448 (pb).
Chang, who was a journalist for the Wall Street Journal inside China, revealed the lives of migrant women working on assembly lines in an industrial city, primarily by focusing on the experiences of two young women for three years. Her book which won awards in the USA, threw light on a previously unknown area, and illustrated the very mixed impact of the economic reforms and migration from the countryside on women’s opportunities.
An account of the origin of #NiUnaMenos in Argentina, that arose prior to #MeToo in the USA – and of the progress the country achieved in tackling femicide. Although femicide and other forms of violence against women are still high and cruel, Argentina is the most advanced country within Latin America for the protection of women’s rights. The #NiUnaMenos movement was born in 2015 after a tweet by journalist Marcela Ojeda about the murder of Chiara Páez, 14-year old and pregnant. The young woman disappeared in May in Santa Fe province, and her body was found buried under the patio of her boyfriend's home. She had been beaten to death. Marcela Ojeda’s tweet “Women, together. Why don't we scream? THEY ARE KILLING US” gave rise to the start of #NiUnaMenos.
This article sheds light on women’s uprisings in Latin America and places particular emphasis on proposing a new framing for the struggles. Firstly, it stresses the need to revitalise a non-state centric type of politics. Secondly, it proposes the renewal of new forms of togetherness that could overpower patriarchal, colonial and capitalist structures. Thirdly, it argues the necessity to challenge the control exercised over women’s bodies and minds.
Highlights the evidence that in 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean at least 3,529 women were victims of femicide in 2018. According to the report by ECLAC, the five countries with the highest rates of femicide in Latin America are: El Salvador (6.8 femicides per 100,000 women), Honduras (5.1), Bolivia (2.3), Guatemala (2.0) and the Dominican Republic (1.9). In the Caribbean, Guyana leads with 8.8 femicides per 100,000 women, followed by Saint Lucia (4.4), Trinidad and Tobago (3.4), Barbados (3.4), and Belize (2.6).
Galleotti, a Russian expert at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, explores how the Russian underworld has evolved under Putin, and how the regime has both exerted control over it and also used it for semi-covert operations, which the government can distance itself from in public. Although the underworld can be used when violence and ruthlessness are required, Galleotti stresses that many criminals now have sophisticated financial and technological skills.
‘DOB’ was founded in 1955 as a social group in San Francisco, but developed over two decades into a national organization. See also Martin; Lyon, Lesbian/Woman (G.1. The 'Homophile' Movement and Rise of Gay Liberation in the West: 1950s-1970s) .
In this work Johan Galtung provides a conceptualisation of peace and security, with reference to the East-West conflict, the global balance of power, the disarmament issue and security policies. The analysis founded on his own epistemological approach to conflict resolution.
Peace studies pioneer aspires to lay ‘theoretical foundation for peace research, peace education and peace action,’ distinguishes between a static definition of peace as ‘an absence of direct, structural, and cultural violence’ and dynamic definition as ‘the state of affairs that makes the nonviolent and creative handling of conflict possible’. More specific contributions on nonviolence are:
- ‘On the Meaning of Nonviolence’, Journal of Peace Research, No. 3 1965, distinguishing between negative and positive sanctions, and
- ‘Principles of Nonviolent Action: The Great Chain of Nonviolence Hypothesis’ in Nonviolence and Israel/Palestine, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Institute for Peace, 1989, p. 13-33.
The ‘chain of nonviolence’ concept addresses the problem of social and psychological distance between oppressors and oppressed, and has been taken up in the literature. For instance, Howard Clark’s ‘Afterword’, pp. 214-218, in Clark, ed., People Power (below) briefly explores the concept.
This toolkit elucidates a method for nonviolent conflict resolution, the so-called Transcend method established by Galtung himself. The book expounds Galtung’s theory on the visible, cultural and structural aspects of violence, and includes his conflict theory. It is intended to be a resource for those that would like to benefit from training in nonviolent resolution techniques, whilst primarily focusing on dialogue as the main tool for settling disputes.
A reduced version of the book is available at: http://serenoregis.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Johan-Galtung-La-trasformazione-dei-conflitti-con-mezzi-pacifici-web.pdf
In this study Galtung provides four major theoretical approaches to peace, including peace education and peace action. This work is divided into four parts: Peace Theory, where he elucidates the epistemological foundations of peace studies and the nature of violence; Conflict Theory, where he focuses on explaining the culture of conflict and moves onto discussing nonviolence as a tool for conflict resolution; Development Theory, where he illustrates the dynamics of structural violence (economic in particular); and Civilisation Theory, where he discusses cultural violence, cosmology, and what he terms ‘codes’ and ‘programmes’.
This article was written in response to the All India General Strike of 26 November 2020, organized by 10 trade unions and over 250 farmers' organizations, that mobilized over 250 million to protest against the new farm and labour laws passed by the BJP dominated coalition government. It examines the protests and the laws which gave rise to them.
Notes opposition by indigenous activists (at ‘People’s Summit’ in Quebec City April 2001) to Free Trade Agreement of the Americas debated at official government Summit of the Americas elsewhere in the city, and reports some of speeches.
Gandhi’s account of the seminal civil disobedience campaigns against legislation discriminating against the Indian population, and the evolution of his strategy and theory of ‘satyagraha’.
pp. 375, 379-794, 471, 464, 514, 555
Includes Satyagraha in South Africa (vol. 3), as well as Gandhi’s highly personal Autobiography, published 1927 (vols 1-2), important pamphlets such as his translation of Ruskin’s Unto This Last (vol. 4 – influential on Gandhi’s socio-economic thinking), letters on key issues (vol. 5) and speeches on historic occasions (vol. 6).
This book gives an insight into Gandhi’s life (including a chronology), as well as a chronology of events in India and South Africa, plus speeches and articles by Gandhi on truth, nonviolence, civil disobedience, etc.
The author discusses 'patterns of democratic backsliding' in Eastern Europe, but concentrates primarily on 'constitutional retrogression' in Bulgaria. The article argues that the declining political influence of the middle class has undermined respect for the rule of law, so enabling 'oligarchic networks' to capture key parts of the judiciary, and undermining media independence. Ganev describes Borissov's personalistic form of governing, suggesting this can be conceptualised as 'soft decisionism'.
Uses the struggle of Latino farmworkers in California in the 1960s to illustrate the concept of ‘strategic capacity’ – how strategic resourcefulness can sometimes compensate for lack of resources.
This report focuses on “all forms of aggression, coercion and intimidation against women as political actors simply because they are women. These acts – whether directed at women as civic leader, voters, political party members, candidates, elected representatives or appointed officials – are designed to restrict the political participation of women as a group. This violence reinforces traditional stereotypes and roles given to women, using domination and control to exclude women from politics”, as defined by the NDI.
Survey of first year of PAH.
Introduces general and specific ways of resistance in Colombia, considering also the crucial role that international solidarity has played for the existence and sustainability of these expressions of unarmed resistance. Plus ppt presentation.
Garibotti and Hopp argue that even though anti-rape politics did not advance in any meaningful way in Argentina #MeToo provided feminists with an opportunity to access mainstream media and discuss their local agenda: the legalization of abortion. Due to the influence of #NiUnaMenos, another social media campaign that commenced in 2015, by the time #MeToo was launched in 2017, feminist movements were highly organized, had a clear agenda and used the opportunity to press for the legalization of abortion. The chapter shows how #MeToo provided a new arena for women’s voices and new ways of organizing feminist mobilization.
Distinguishes between phases of military regimes: the first of terror not a time for direct confrontation but for survival and assistance to others, although human rights activists may link up with international networks. In the second phase the opposition have more scope for promoting organisation and indirect forms of resistance.
Interview with Patrisse Cullors on the growth and further development of Black Lives Matter Global Network into its two most important complementing movements: #DefundPolice and #InvestInCommunities.
See also: https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-is-a-revolutionary-peace-movement-85449
Highly regarded first hand analysis by scholar of Central Europe and commentator on other civil resistance struggles.
(Published in New York by Random House as The Magic Lantern).
Places the Orange Revolution in a sequence of ‘velvet revolutions’ based on strict nonviolence.
Essay by observer and analyst of many recent movements of unarmed resistance (see later sections). Garton Ash looks back after 20 years on 1989 in the Soviet bloc, but also other movements involving large scale unarmed resistance and culminating in negotiated agreement for a transfer of power (as in South Africa) that suggest a new model of revolution has emerged challenging older models.
Garvaghy Road, a Catholic area in mainly Protestant Portadown, has been the scene of confrontations down the years during the annual Orange Order parade on the weekend before 12 July, following a service in Drumcree Church. The Orange Order claims the right to march along the road; the residents say that they face abuse and violence when this happens and that there are alternative routes the parade could take. Resistance to the event has included sit-downs, a women’s Peace and Justice Camp and the setting up of Radio Equality. Part 1 of the book is based mainly on the diaries of residents in July 1998 when the parade was banned and police and soldiers erected barricades and dug trenches to prevent the march from entering the road. Part 2 is an edited version of the Residents’ submission in 1996 to the Parades Commission.
One of the co-founders of the hashtag Black Lives Matter in 2013, Garza outlines in this book a long term strategy for social change. It is based on her own years of experience in community organizing. She has moved on from the Black Lives Matter organization (although still close to the other co-founders) to create the Black Futures Lab. She has developed a policy platform (based on a major cross-party survey of Black people in the US in 2018) that focuses on central, widely supported demands. These include raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, broadening opportunities for Black home ownership, and removing the police presence from schools that often leads to pupils being jailed. She has campaigned in the 2020 US election on her agenda. Her book also argues the need to abandon outdated models of individual leadership from the Civil Rights Movement, as well as cautioning against over-reliance on celebrity activists and the role of the internet.
See also: Mahdawi, Arwa, ‘Move Fast and Fix Things’, Guardian Weekly, 23 Oct. 2020, pp. 34-7.
An extended interview with Alicia Garza.
Part Three – ‘War: armed and mass struggles as gendered experiences’ – includes Jacklyn Cock, ‘”Another mother for peace”: Women and peace building in South Africa, 1983-2003, pp. 257-280, and Janet Cherry ‘”We were not afraid”: The role of women in the 1980s’ township uprising in the Eastern Cape’, pp. 281-313, and Pat Gibbs, ‘Women, labour and resistance: Case studies from the Port Elizabeth/Uitenhage area, 1972-94’, pp. 315-343.
Biography of long-term prisoner and human rights campaigner who was increasingly critical of Rugova’s ‘passive’ approach.
This article examines how the historical and class character of Nigeria has fueled repression and exploitation, and contributed to the indiscriminate violence used by SARS and its lack of accountability. It also explains how the #EndSARS movement developed.
Report on grassroots initiatives promoted by Christian Aid and Latin America civil society aimed at developing a national system of data and statistics on violence against women in El Salvador. It also discusses women’s deprivation of citizen rights in the Dominican Republic; the struggle of women defending their community in the Brazilian Amazon; the need to protect the rights of LGBTIQ people in Colombia; the need to enhance the participation of women in the labour market in Guatemala, and to tackle gender based violence and its legitimisation by the Church in Bolivia.
On the negative impact of preparations for the World Cup and increasingly repressive police tactics.
The article describes the change in police tactics from earlier protests, including immediate intervention to stop obstruction of roads and the use of batons. It then discusses briefly the changes in XR's own approach: the emphasis shifting from 'sounding the alarm' to demanding why there is not 'an emergency response'.
See also: 'XR's Latest Rebellion', Peace News, October-November 2021, p.7.
Outlines briefly plans for a fortnight of action directed at stopping fossil fuel investment and focused mainly on the City of London. On the same page there is a brief report on XR Scotland's appeal to all XR activists to respect XR Scotland's 'COP 26 Rebel Agreement' to show respect for the most vulnerable local communities and to demand a just transition for workers and local communities.
Examines campaigns by the Ojibwa Indians against mining and over land tenure and the role of multinationals in Wisconsin.
Covers resistance by Cree and Inuit, supported by Kayapo Indians in Brazil and transnational green groups, to major hydro-electric project in Quebec.
Lively discussion of the strategies and methods popular movements can use to win struggles against various forms of oppression and to undermine elites. Includes brief accounts of the struggles for Indian independence, the ending of apartheid and the overthrow of Mubarak, as well the extension of the franchise in Britain, opposition to the Vietnam War, and resistance to corporate power.
The article examines how the Lebanese government and sectarian political establishment responded to two earlier waves of protest against the sectarian system of government. She finds that they try to end such protests through a combination of 'co-optation, counter-narratives, and repression'.
Geha notes that the 'century-old sectarian framework' of governing through clientelist networks and individual patronage, together with socio-economic crisis and political deadlock, make official opposition very difficult. But social networks can mobilize protests, and after these have died down sustain 'a loosely organized informal political opposition both on the streets and in the ballot box'. This thesis is illustrated by a study of the 2015 movement responding to an escalating garbage crisis in the summer of 2015, the cessation of activism after the crisis was resolved in September 2015 and the resurgence of opposition during the 2016 municipal elections.
The terms civil disobedience, resistance and the right or duty to resist are well known elements of political rhetoric. The use of these terms often combines various dimensions of interpretation, such as religious, moral and ethical ideas, or philosophical and political approaches too. This book therefore seeks to analyze the term 'civil disobedience' from the perspective of the philosophy of law.
Comparing the US, British and Swedish movements.
Explores the disadvantages of ‘velvet revolutions’ with a specific focus on Czechoslovakia and comparing Vaclav Havel with the earlier president and theorist Thomas Masaryk.
Book in question and answer format by an historian – topics include the role of youth, labour and religious groups, and why in some cases the military decided not to support the ruler. Discusses also the role of monarchies in Morocco, Jordan and the Gulf.
Committed political and economic analysis of the injustices and dangers of neoliberal globalization by a leading thinker and activist in the Global Justice Movement. Includes brief discussion of campaigns (Jubilee 2000, opposition to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, summit protests) and ends with chapter on why the movement should be nonviolent.
On launch of movement by Real Democracy Now! on 15 May 2011 with marches and protest camp in Madrid, its spread across Spain and to Greece.
Book by organizers of the Stop the War Coalition, created in 2001 after the September 11 attacks in the USA, which demonstrated against the Afghan War. It played a central role in mobilizing up to a million people to march in London in February 2003 and continued to demonstrate against the presence of western troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the role of the Socialist Workers Party in the Coalition was sometimes criticized, it succeeded in mobilizing large numbers of British Muslims in peaceful protest and in drawing in people from a broad political spectrum.
Gershman is the president of the US National Endowment for Democracy. This article lists restrictions introduced by a number of governments on receipt of democracy assistance.
Mit CD: Peace Counts: Die Erfolge der Friedensmacher: ed. Institut fur Friedenspaedagogik.
The ‘peace makers’ is an exhibition of people from all over the world engaged in resistance and conflict transformation. The book, which the TV journalist Petra Gerster wrote with the producer of the exhibition, Michael Gleich, gives an impression of the range of nonviolent activism world-wide.
Discusses roots of the group founded in 2011 and their international support, especially among musical celebrities, after their 2012 demonstration in Moscow Cathedral, leading to imprisonment of the three involved. See also: Pussy Riot, Pussy Riot!: A Punk Prayer For Freedom London, Feminist Press, , 2013, pp. 152 , including letters from prison, court statements, poems and tributes by international admirers.
Reports on how Yazidi women in refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan are finding ‘a way to fight back’ through learning how to box, after the trauma they endured under ISIS. Illustrated by striking photographs of the ‘Boxing Sisters.’
Malak Gharib reports the story of Egyptian-American activist and journalist, Mona Eltahawy, who was sexually assaulted during a pilgrimage at Mecca in 1982 when she was 15. Eltahawy initiated the hashtag #MosqueMeToo after other Arab women shared similar stories on social media. (For further reading, see also https://stepfeed.com/women-are-speaking-out-about-being-sexually-harassed-during-hajj-8156#.WnjdMR8gzo0.twitter)
In this comprehensive article, Rym Tina Ghazal sheds light on the difficult condition women living in the MENA region face if they fall victim to rape. She highlights the pervasive culture of blame that prevent women from reporting episodes of abuse, and the still predominant practice of ‘honour killing’ that women risk for being sexually assaulted. She also publicises the weeks-long campaign #ShameOnWho led by the Lebanese women’s rights group ABAAD in 2018, aimed at addressing the social stigma that women suffer in the aftermath of sexual violence.
For more on #ShameOnWho, please see https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-rape-rights/shameonwho-campaign-uses-art-to-change-lebanese-attitudes-to-rape-idUSKCN1NC2GK
Memoir of activist who works for Google and focused particularly on promoting the revolution online. He anonymously ran the Facebook page demanding justice for Khaled Said, a young man beaten to death by police in Alexandria in June 2010, and promoted brief demonstrations, for example a ‘silent stand’ by people wearing black and holding hands to express their anger at the lack of justice for Khaled. The Facebook page attracted over 350,000 members.
Examines how the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in a Florida town provide a model of how to achieve greater justice for migrant workers in agriculture. when combating major retail corporations and in the context of exploitation and sometimes modern slavery, which CIW exposed. CIW workers are not only paid better as a result of their campaign, but the Fair Food Standards Council they promoted regularly checks working conditions and hold farmers to account. They have also prompted the Fair Food Program which growers join, and enlisted support from across US society - including a range of religious groups, artists and musicians, as well as food writers. The movement is committed to nonviolent protest on the model of the Civil Rights movement.
On July 7, 2017, at the UN General Assembly, 122 states voted to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the culmination of pressure from a global network of states and grassroots activists. This article traces the history of the ban movement from 2005. It identifies six factors that led to the successful adoption of the treaty: a small group of committed diplomats; an influx of new coalition members; the contribution of civil society; the reframing of the narrative surrounding nuclear weapons; the pursuit of a simple ban treaty; and the context provided by the Barack Obama Administration.
Christian Churches have been important in quite a few African movements. This book analyses different churches – Catholic, Protestant (mainstream), Evangelical, Pentecostal and Independent – and their beliefs, and also assesses their role in the emerging of civil society. Case studies of four countries: Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and Cameroon.
Examines role of women’s organizations in civil wars in former Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka.
Wide range of theoretical perspectives organized in 3 parts: Generations and Genealogies; Locales and Locations; Politics and Popular Culture. Part II includes essays on ‘Imagining Feminist Futures: The Third Wave, Postfeminism and Eco/feminism’ by N. Moore, and ‘Global Feminism, Transnational Political Economies, Third World Cultural Production’ by W. Woodhull.
Discusses the 1996 Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice on the illegality of nuclear weapons within the provisions of the UN Charter, by putting it into political and legal context. Includes the full text of the ICJ, as well as the separate opinions and dissents of the individual judges. It also provides an account of how NGOs and governments worked together toward the World Court’s decision.
Analysis of fraud and manipulation of elections to favour the ruling candidate Felipe Calderon and account of opposition’s response.
Book by former radical student leader in the 1960s, providing a portrait of the movement.
Giummo and Marchese collect the major inspiring ideas that Danilo Dolci used to project a model for development based on nonviolence, which has at its core the imperative of including all the population involved.
Public opinion studies argue that in Middle Eastern and North African countries, Muslims support gender equality less than non-Muslims. This overlooks the diversity in religion–feminism relations. This paper argues that religious Muslims who support feminism are disregarded, even though in-depth studies have repeatedly pointed to their existence. The authors provide a large-scale analysis of support for Muslim feminism. Conducting latent class analyses on 64,000 Muslims in 51 Middle Eastern and North African contexts, they find that a substantial one in five Arab Muslims combines high attachment to Islam with support for feminism.
The authors studied the impact of feminism in some Arab countries following the Arab Spring uprising across North Africa in 2011. They assessed the specific forms of the uprisings. They also examined whether pre-existing anti-Western value and gender relations influenced the visibility and resonance of feminist norms.
Describes the cultural project of musician Arnold Ap in the 10 years before he was killed by Indonesian troops, how at first it exploited the limited radio space granted by Indonesia and later became a more open challenge to Indonesian repression.
Argues that the pretence that nuclear weapons do not constitute an actual danger constitutes a “psychic numbing”, and prevents people from taking positive action on either a personal and political level.
An informative survey of the protests that broke out in April 2021 and the immediate government responses. The articles suggests the demonstrations were essentially a revival of the 2019 movement that was interrupted by Covid-19, but notes differences - for example the much greater protest in rural areas in 2021. Glotsky also situates the protests in the context of Columbia's social and economic problems, which have been exacerbated by the impact of Covid.
The interview examines the role of Asian garment workers in a ruthlessly competitive garment industry influenced by 'fast fashion', which intensifies pressure on workers through forced overtime and 'inhuman productivity targets'. The Asia Floor Wage Alliance was created to unite unions across the borders of countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka competing for market share, to create a regional bloc able to negotiate with the global brands in the industry. The aim was to ensure there is a cross-border minimum wage which cannot be breached, though the aim is also to raise wages, which would only entail a small rise to consumers. There is now recognition of the principle of an Asia Floor Wage across the industry, supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO), but pressure on the brands is needed. AFWA works with other labour rights bodies and NGOs, and also has partners in Europe and the US, where the global brands have their headquarters.
See also:
http://awajfoundation.org/, https://ngwfbd.com/ and https://www.ilo.org/dhaka/Areasofwork/workers-and-employers-organizations/lang--en/index.htm (ILO-Bangladesh).
Includes a range of brief essays on the Taksim protests, but also includes Immanuel Wallerstein on ‘Turkey: Dilemma of the Kurds’, and chapters making comparisons with Mexico 1968 and with Brazil, plus an analysis of ‘Two Waves of Popular Protest in 2013 Bulgaria’.
Starts with brief summary of period 1956-1962 and then analyses in detail developments both within the Party and in other social spheres up to 1968, including the role of dissent and public protest.
Includes chapters by Moshiri on the evolving theory of revolution since Marx, including Tilly, Skocpcol and Goldstone. It also comprises Goldstone’s analytical framework for understanding revolutions, case studies of a range of violent and unarmed movements (chapters on Iran, Poland, the Philippines and the Palestinian Occupied Territories are referenced under appropriate sections later), and a concluding chapter ‘Comparison and Policy Implications’ by Gurr and Goldstone that incorporates reflections on the role of violence and nonviolence.
Golkar examiines the November 2019 upsurge of protests, comparing it with 2017-18. He also analyzes the regime responses, its investment in new technologies for its security forces, but also attempts in 2020 to improve welfare for the poor.
The authors stress that it is too early to provide either a comprehensive or definitive account of the unfolding protest movement. Their aim is to cover the main events, to outline the immediate background to the protests, and to draw on current research and surveys to indicate some explanations.
Contends that the ANC ‘showed an increasing intolerance for the values upheld by the UDF, like criticism and self-criticism of elites and nonviolence’.
Examines why the strike failed and the role of key institutions and the pickets. Includes a chronology.
Analyses by both Australian and international contributors of problems posed by globalization.
Designed as a series of ‘empirical tests’ to identify the role of political opportunities in the rise of protest movements.
This paper argues that in principle there is a potential for market reforms to benefit farmers, but that the farm laws passed by the government will in practice benefit 'traders' rather than farmers. Deregulation without 'enabling preconditions' is not likely to help farmers, and may prove counterproductive.
Gorbachev’s own brief account of the attempted coup against him and his reformist programme in August 1991, with some appended documents.
On the demonstration in Red Square, Moscow, against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and subsequent trial and sentences.
This book was published in conjunction with the showing of Gore's influential climate change film, with the aim of making climate change research accessible through charts, graphs and illustrations, and the inclusion of personal stories.
This book was published in conjunction with the showing of Gore's influential climate change film, with the aim of making climate change research accessible through charts, graphs and illustrations, and the inclusion of personal stories.
Theological approach to nonviolence and what the author terms ‘nonviolent liberation’.
Goss-Mayr and Goss played a significant role in promoting nonviolent action and training internationally. This book is Goss-Mayr’s biography and memories of their work in Latin America, Madagascar and the Philippines.
Uses a very broad definition of the New Left, and examines common features in Civil Rights, peace, anti-war, student, feminist and gay/lesbian movements in the USA.
Analysis sympathetic to Chavez, includes a section on the popular uprising following the 2002 coup.
Analysis of emergence, development and decline of ACT UP, highlighting emotional dimension in movement politics.
A study of community power and regional planning on the environment, based on US case studies.
This article analyses the #EndRapeCulture campaign in South Africa, where women students took to the streets in 2016 to protest against the pervasive normalisation of sexual violence on university campuses. Some participated topless and brandished sjamboks (whips) to show their resentment and anger at the prevailing sexual violence. The article looks at the role of digital media in circulating slogans around the campaign and asks the question whether these protests can be compared with SlutWalks or FEMEN.
Participant observation study of Global Justice Movement, centred on case study of Summit of the Americas in Quebec City 2001.
Reflections on Occupy Wall Street movement and its beginning in the occupation of Zucotti Park, September 2011, from standpoint of an anarchist theorist.
Argues ‘wave’ chronology does not apply to Poland.
Articles based on a major leak of Chinese Communist Party documents from 2017 revealing the all-embracing surveillance system in the Xinjiang region and the mass incarceration of the Uighurs. Publication in November 2019 was part of an internationally coordinated release of the leaked papers through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
See also: https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/china-cables-who-are-the-uighurs-and-why-mass-detention/ and https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/panorama-china-cables, which also reveals how Australian citizens from Muslim minorities in Xinjiang were targeted for surveillance by the Chinese authorities as part of a policy involving deportation or detention of foreign passport holders.
See also: Kuo, Lily, 'How Beijing is Quietly Razing the Mosques of Xinjiang', Guardian Weekly, 17 May, 2019, pp.26-27.
Reports on a Guardian and Bellingcat investigation that discovered the systematic destruction of mosques and shrines since 2016.
As a journalist in Argentina the author tried to compile a day-to-day chronicle of violence and repression – he was forced into exile in 1976.
The authors reinterpret the Cold War as an ‘imaginary war’, a conflict that had visions of nuclear devastation as one of its main battlegrounds, and provide and cultural representations of nuclear war. There are chapters and case studies on Western Europe, the USSR, Japan and the USA. Drawing on various strands of intellectual debate and from different media, such as documentary film and debates among physicians, the contributors demonstrate the difficulties in making the unthinkable and unimaginable - nuclear apocalypse - imaginable. The aim is to make nuclear culture relevant to an understanding of the period from 1945 to 1990.
Refers to study by the interviewees of Green parties in 32 countries, and asks about their geographical spread (primarily Europe and Latin America), but much weaker in Eastern Europe than in most West European countries. The interview discusses the reasons for the varying electoral support and success of Green parties and also the impact of the weakening of mainstream parties and political polarisation to both the left and the right.
‘Grassroots Revolution’ is a nonviolent-libertarian-anarchist magazine. This special issue focuses on an anarchistic approach to ‘social defence’ as opposed to proposals for governments to adopt civilian-based defence.
Includes essays related to the anti-globalization movement and on civil disobedience in context of transnational mobilization.
Oxfam provides a very useful analysis of developments in Malawi by Nic Cheeseman and Golden Matonga, who argue that two key lessons are that change results from a combination of pressures and that 'people power is critical to strengthening the independence and effectiveness of democratic institutions'. There are also 10 comments on this analysis by Malawi citizens.
See also: Corcoran, Bill, 'Malawi One of the Few Wins for Democracy in 2020:', Irish Times, 28 December, 2020.
Corcoran comments on Chatham House awarding their 2020 prize in December to the judges of Malawi's Constitutional Court in recognition of their bravery in annulling the presidential poll of 2019. He then elaborates on the evolution of the campaign to annul t he election and to celebrate the upholding of democracy in Malawi when it was under threat in many other parts of the world.
See also: Swift, Richard, 'Introducing Lazarus Chakwera', New Internationalist, September-October 2020, p.11.
Brief but useful summary of events leading to the election of the opposition leader Chakwera in June 2020.
Green outlines plans by the Canadian oil and gas company Recon Africa to create a huge oil and gas field in the Okavango valley area, which includes large areas of both Namibia and Botswana and is at present a sanctuary for wildlife and home to about 2 million people. Both African and international green organizations are mobilizing to stop the project. Recon Africa are already drilling under exploratory licenses.
The article examines the linkage between activists concerned about Australia supplying uranium for US and British nuclear weapon programmes, and its close military alliance with the US, and the environmental groups focusing on the dangers of civilian nuclear energy. Green argues that resistance to nuclear energy was weak and isolated before the 1970s, but gained significant, nationally coordinated, support in 1976-77, which swung the Labor Party against uranium mining and exports. The movement highlighted the dangers of uranium mining for Aborigines and workers in the mines, as well as the environmental impact; and it opposed Australia's role in the cold war nuclear confrontation (having US bases and allowing US nuclear warships to visit Australian harbours). It also publicized the secret history of the health impact of British nuclear testing in Australian deserts on Aboriginal people. However, the movement lost momentum in the 1980s and failed to prevent the Labor Party, when in government from 1983, abandoning its strong opposition to uranium mining.
This article, which explores both differences and similarities between the two movements, begins by comparing both internal and external definitions of success within Black Lives Matter and MeToo. It also considers both movements from the standpoint of ‘intersectionality’. The authors then assess how both movements have influenced scholars, teachers, lawyers and community activists, their impacts on law and popular culture and how these external factors influence the movements. Finally they ask what the next steps should be for each movement.
The authors, academic experts on Russian politics, draw on surveys, social media, interviews and leaked documents to examine why there has been such long term popular support for Putin. They examine his changing tactics, his handling of the 2012 protests against electoral manipulation, and the role of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 that made pride in Russia the main pillar of his support. The authors argue that attempts to secure change are undermined by belief that it is impossible, but suggest there are limits to public acquiescence and Putin's power. The potential fragility of his rule is revealed for example by demonstrations by thousands of pensioners against pension reforms that raised the retirement age.
Explores the diverse meanings of community unionism, provides case studies from the UK – the ‘London’s living wage’ campaign, and activism by black and minority workers and migrant workers – and from Japan, Australia and the US.
Discusses sit-down strikes in Britain, the well-known occupation of the Lip factory in France in 1973 and West European sit-ins and work-ins protesting against redundancy.
Classic analysis of ‘moral jiu jitsu’ as the basis of nonviolent resistance, and in particular of Gandhi’s interpretation and strategy of nonviolent action (‘satyagraha’). The updated second edition includes material on unarmed resistance during World War Two in Norway and Denmark, and on the US Civil Rights Movement.
Covers ‘Stop Jabiluka’ campaign by Aborigines and environmentalists in Kakadu National Park.
Report on an online survey of over 9,000 Algerians, including 4,200 who identified as protesters, and 1,700 who stated they were military personnel. The survey therefore drew out how the military attitudes compare with those of the protesters. The authors found 'very high support' for Boutfileka's resignation and the protest movement, including among those not involved in the protests and among soldiers and junior officers in the military. Senior officers were much more critical of both democracy and popular revolution. But even junior officers and soldiers believed there was a role for the military to 'referee the political arena' and were opposed to investigation of military excesses during the 1990s.
Account of border and conflict monitoring in Nicaragua in 1980s (in attempt to restrain the US-backed Contras and gather evidence on impact of foreign policy), and also of accompaniment of Guatemalan refugees returning home in 1989. (Extract in Moser-Puangsuwan; Weber, Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment) , pp. 279-304 – see 209 below). The approach adopted in Nicaragua was extended to other parts of Central America and to Colombia in the 1990s. See also: Witness for Peace, Ten Years of Accompaniment, Washington DC, Witness for Peace, 1994.
(The 1918 edition, which includes references to the unarmed campaign for independence in Finland, is now online.)
This brief book – originally a series of articles – was influential in Ireland and translated into a number of Indian languages, and was almost certainly read by Gandhi. Whilst the historical accuracy is questionable, Griffith’s account was important in conveying the idea of nonviolent resistance. Csapody, Tamas and Thomas Weber, ‘Hungarian Nonviolent Resistance against Austria and its Place in the History of Nonviolence’, Peace and Change, vol. 32 no. 4 (2007), pp. 499-519, analyses the influence of Griffith’s interpretation.
The article compares the 2018 revolution with earlier unsuccessful political protests in Armenia since 2003-4, to try to determine what made success possible. Grigoryan also makes comparisons with some other examples of regime change, and considers the implications of the nature of the 2018 revolution for post-revolutionary politics and society.
Grigoryan argues that a ‘kleptocratic regime’ has been ousted by the revolution, but a more radical conservative agenda is being promoted in this new context.
Grimm compares the rising in Sudan, Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon with 2011, whilst also indicating why these countries were not part of the 2011 wave of movements. He also suggests lessons learned from 2011 and considers what the European response should be.
Includes comments on the role of the French government in supporting Biya.
Contributors to this book include democracy activists as well as scholars, who look critically at the process of democratization in: Malawi, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana and Gabon. The focus is not on institutions but on leadership, and also on the role of the military and churches in the reform process.
In this essay Gros reconsiders the roots of political obedience in order to understand the different forms of civic and civil disobedience, in so far as they constitute an ethical resistance to promote democracy.
Compares the evolution of the role of women in the Japanese and Chinese society from the 19th Century to today.
Discusses the role of the Tibetan diaspora, and intrigues by the Indian government, the Chiang Kai-shek government of Taiwan and the CIA, as well as internal developments from the 1950s to 1995.
Examines feminist activism in two East German cities, Erfurt and Rostock, in context of economic and political upheaval in former socialist bloc, and the trends undermining the rights and status of women.
This is the second volume of massive biography by the eminent contemporary Indian historian re-evaluating Gandhi's life, ideas and role. It is published at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rehabilitating the far right Hindu nationalists in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (an individual linked to the RSS assassinated Gandhi), and when Gandhi is often vilified. This volume is broadly sympathetic to Gandhi, though not uncritical, and gives weight to the influence of his secretary Mahadev Desai.
The first, widely praised, volume Gandhi Before India, which covers all of Gandhi’s life to the end of the South African campaign, was published by Penguin Random House in 2015.
See also Guha, Ramachandra, 'Remembering Vaikom satyagraha in the light of Sabarimala', The News Minute, 6 Januray 2019.
Commentary by prominent Indian public intellectual, and author of books on Gandhi, at the time of the 2019 mass protest by women in Kerala against a Hindu temple refusing to admit them. Guha responds by recalling the 1924-25 campaign (in which Gandhi played a role) to persuade the Vaikom temple to admit dalits (untouchables).
Southall Black Sisters was founded by Asian women in 1982 to campaign about issues specific to women in racial minorities in Britain. Over the years it has become the focus for racial and ethnic minorities in Britain and gained an international profile. Issues tackled include: ‘honour’ killings, domestic violence, forced marriages and resistance to deportations. See also: SBS Collective, Against the Grain London, Southall Black Sisters, , 1990 ,: a collection of essays covering the first ten years, and available from SBS. For current activities: http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk
Following the decision by Sweden to declare an official feminist foreign policy, this report investigates China’s prospects of including feminism – or adopting it fully – in its own foreign policy.
Account by a key organizer of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Article published just before protests erupted in February.
Gutman reports on the initiative of the Argentine Actresses collective, a group created by 300 artistes in April 2018, when the country mobilised for the legislative debate on the decriminalisation of abortion. The mobilisation shed light also on the abuses that occurred within the entertainment industry, followed by scandals in the politics’ and sports’ sectors. The article outlines how reported femicides have been on the rise since the birth of #NiUnaMenos, which has promoted recognition of femicide, and the legal and protective initiatives that are taking place in the country thanks to the movement.
Includes large section on the transnational movement against nuclear power.
Discusses the protests and their symbolism and the ideological conflicts evoked.
Haberkorn recalls a massacre of peaceful protesters in the Muslim-majority south in October 2004 after a declaration of martial law. He argues the failure of the state and courts to hold any official accountable for 78 deaths demonstrates the country's 'deepening crisis' in which the International Crisis Group reported (22 June 2009) over, 3,400 people had died.
Haberkorn begins by describing a photographic exhibition at Thammasat university of the massacre of students there in October 1976 in connection with a military coup. The exhibition in October 2016, which commemorated the fortieth anniversary of that tragedy, had particular resonance in the context of the 2014 military coup and the death of the king after 70 years on the throne in 2016.
Habermas, one of today’s major social theorists, is associated with the concept of ‘new social movements’ in the 1970s, and developing the theory of ‘deliberative democracy’. Argues for the potential value of civil disobedience as a means of upholding democratic principles.
Other important essays by Habermas are: ‘Hannah Arendt’s Communicative Concept of Power’ in Steven Lukes ed., Power, Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 75-93, arguing for a structural interpretation of power.
And
Habermas, Jürgen , What does Socialism Mean Today? The Rectifying Revolution and the Need for New Thinking on the Left New Left Review, 1990, pp. 3-21 , an interpretation of the nature and significance of the 1989 revolutions from a democratic socialist perspective.
Nigerian novelist Helon Habila tells the stories of the girls who have been kidnapped by Boko Harama in the northern part of Nigeria and the impact on their families. Having a deep understanding of the historical context, the author also illuminates the long history of colonialism, and the influence of cultural and religious dynamics that gave rise to conflicts in this region.
The author examines the aftermath of the 2010 riots in Osh, when 400 Uzbeks were killed in the city by Kyrgyz from outside. Hager tests the thesis that riots heighten cohesion within the ethnic group but reduce cooperation across ethnic divides. He found that - contrary to the theory - the neighbourhoods attacked in 2010 had low social cohesion and there was a sense of being abandoned by fellow Uzbeks.
This open access article by academics at the American University in Dubai studies coverage of the 2019-20 protests and confirms that the ideological slant of the two TV stations (the pro-government OTV and the anti-government MTV) influenced their depiction of the protest movement. It begins by summarizing the causes and nature of the movement and comments on Lebanese people's often unfavourable attitudes to international media coverage of the demonstrations.
Includes helpful information on the Buddhist resistance in 1963, see especially pp. 194-243 in original edition.
Discusses company codes of conduct introduced in response to ethical trade boycotts in west of products made with sweatshop labour, and analyzes the global economic conditions undercutting such codes and the right to union organization.
Includes references to Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.
Argues that the ‘color revolutions’ 2003-2005 were fundamentally succession struggles in ‘patronal presidental’ regimes, rather than demoncratic breakthroughs, and therefore can result in retreat from democratic principles, as in Georgia.
Argues that governments, businesses and individuals acting alone cannot secure effective policies on curbing climate change, what is needed is mobilization by the 'third sector'. Hale suggests success depends on 'national leadership by a diverse coalition of groups; action at community level; a mass movement 'living differently and demanding more, and mobilization across borders'.
Discusses the dilemma posed by Covid, which arrived in Algeria in February 2020, for the year-long movement of regular protests against the regime, and the shift by movement networks towards promoting local assistance during the pandemic. But the authors note that activists are still offering legal help to those arrested and put on trial, and maintain an online presence for the movement.
See also: Parks, Robert, 'From Protest to Hirak to Algeria's New Revolutionary Moment', Middle East Report, vol. 292, no.3 (Fall/Winter2019).
The election of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) in 2015, and its growing authoritarianism, has politicized thousands of Poles and stimulated large-scale protests. Women have been at the forefront, linking the demand for reproductive rights with the wider resistance to the ruling party. In particular, the proposal to restrict the abortion law sparked mass mobilization in 2016. These Black Protests became a formative experience for many previously inactive. This article examines this latest wave of feminist activism in Poland and its methods, from a generational perspective. It scrutinises in detail the narrative of a “new generation of activists,” who claim they are making Polish feminism more inclusive, creative and bolder.
Examines role of different types of opposition in ‘delaying, cancelling or reversing the privatization of water and energy’, including success in Nkondobe (South Africa), Paraguay where parliament voted in 2002 to suspend indefinitely privatization of state-owned water and Poznan in Poland in 2002, and failure of campaigns in UK, Chile and Philippines.
Analyzes conflicts over land in terms of its role as territory (leading to inter-state claims or wars), its status as property, and ways in which its use is regulated. The book examines the attempts of NGOs to protect property rights and environments in the Global South and the land grabs by corporations and governments, drawing on wide range of examples, including China and Honduras.
Investigates this historical tradition of resistance to involvement in armed conflict. In particular, it discusses peacemaking efforts in the United States. It also examines the entirety of American history, from the colonial era to modern times and reveals the multiple religious and secular motivations of peace seekers in the US. Finally, it examines how war and those who oppose war have been portrayed in popular media over the centuries.
Chapter 3, ‘Colonialism and the roots of African nationalism’ covers early copperbelt strikes; chapter 4 ‘Federation – genesis and exodus’, includes extensive information on developing resistance to the colour bar, to the building of the Kariba dam and eviction of local farmers, and to the Federation itself. Chapter 5 ‘The creation of Zambia’ examines final stages of resistance and political developments. His earlier book, Zambia, Pall Mall Press, 1965, pp. 375, also covered the evolving struggle in chapters 5-7.
Using archival research, explores both how the Civil Rights Movement reacted to the Vietnam War, and also examines relations between black groups opposed to the War and the wider peace movement, and difficulties that arose.
Hallam is a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion (XR) and claims its April 2019 protest launch in London was based largely on the strategic ideas he had already sketched out. The book examines the case for fearing imminent planetary disaster, outlines 'the civil resistance model' underlying X R strategy. and criticizes 'climate justice' movements' for their approach.
His views do not represent all those taking part in the XR movement or who support in principle taking nonviolent direct action to combat climate change.
For a critical review of both the use of science and the basis of the strategy see: Gabriel Carlyle, Peace News, 2636-2637 (Dec. 2019-Jan. 2020), p. 21
'Has Extinction Rebellion Got the Right Tactics?' - debate in New Internationalist, Jan-Feb. 2020, pp. 46-47
Two supporters of climate activism disagree about the likely efficacy of XR's approach and its ability to maintain momentum over time.
Against the background of the world-wide protests of 2011, the authors discuss the Bulgarian movement in early 2013 and its stronger manifestation during the summer. They aim to draw out aspects of the prolonged protests that are unique to Bulgaria, arguing they represent a 'distinctive struggle for cultural recognition' with links to the earlier 19th century National Awakening movement when Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire.
Traces the rise of the anti-Vietnam War movement, including accounts of the ideological and institutional rivalries between organizations, and covers all the major demonstrations and civil disobedience actions from the Students for a Democratic Society March on Washington in 1965 to US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973.
This paper examines the role and contribution of antinuclear and civil society efforts to establish a regional nuclear free zone in the period up to the signing of the 1985 South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone (SPNFZ) Rarotonga Treaty. The Treaty negotiated under the auspices of the South Pacific Forum (now Pacific Islands Forum), the regional organization of independent South Pacific island states, Australia and New Zealand. The antinuclear campaigns that led up to and contributed to the negotiation of the Treaty began some 25 years earlier and may be divided into three broad waves.
See also Hammond, John L., The MST and the media: Competing images of the Brazilian Landless Farmworkers’ Movement Latin American Politics and Society, 2004, pp. 61-90
The author notes that Covid brought a halt in March 2020 to the weekly Friday demonstrations since February 2019, and the parallel student protests every Tuesday. She notes the Hirak's achievements: forcing the Military High Command to distance itself from Boutifleka's political power centre and preventing presidential elections in both April and July 2019, because they were seen as a means to provide legitimacy for military control. The article also comments on the very broad social base of the movement, primarily led by the young, but including 'the working poor', independent trade unions, professional bodies and a prominent role for women. It then assesses the 'counter-revolution' involving repression of the media and arrests of activists.
Collection of materials from the protest movement.
Covers both student protests in late 2010 ( e.g against high tuition fees) and wider demonstrations against cuts. Edited by young protesters, but includes essay by Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy reflecting on potential significance of new activism.
(Successor to ebook
Hancox, Dan , Utopia and the Valley of Tears , 2012, pp. 76 , on same topic.)
Discusses the small village, Marinaleda, in southern Spain that has battled for decades with the state and capitalist policies, but gained international attention in 2012 when its mayor (and farmers union leader) organized the filling of ten shopping trolleys, refused to pay, and distributed them to the poor from a military base and mansion of a local large landowner.
Sympathetic, but not uncritical, assessment of Gandhi’s style of politics, his conflicts with the Raj and opposition groups and critics within India, and his impact on later movements. The author studied ‘subaltern’ movements in India for many years before engaging with Gandhi.
This is the first volume in a study of Gandhi's role in relation to the broader history of Indian movements for justice and independence, by a British historian who has specialised in Indian history and peasant struggles. The book includes important and little known material on Indian 'passive resistance' movements from 1905-1909, charts Gandhi's role in the 'passive resistance' in South Africa 1906-14, and after his return to India his varied links to different forms of peasant resistance in Bijoliya, Champaran (often covered in literautre on Gandhi) and Kheda. This volume concludes with an assessment of Gandhi's evolving theory of nonviolence in relation to other theories of the time, and his leadership role in the 1919 resistance to the Rowlatt Acts.
Discusses earlier and contemporary theoretical analyses of nonviolence from a social psychological standpoint, and combines this with examples of nonviolent action and peace campaigns in the USA.
There was a lively debate in Africa about the case for violence or nonviolence and some movements chose predominantly nonviolent tactics. There was also a close link between anti-colonialism and resistance to apartheid in South Africa, where Gandhi’s influence was still significant (see section E.I.1).
Examines the 1956 Revolution primarily from standpoint of role of the workers, with emphasis on the workers’ councils, pp. 124-87.
Chapter 13 ‘Portugal: The Revolution that Wilted’ recounts from a revolutionary socialist perspective the extraordinary ferment of 1974-75, a period of ‘dual power’ between radical workers going on strike and occupying their workplaces and the provisional government, with increasing polarization between left and right.
Explores how both pro-choice and pro-life supporters have employed language over abortion rights and shaped its debate.
Draws comparisons between the Trump Administration’s isolationist and disunited foreign policy and its consistent approach, both nationally and internationally, towards restrictive sexual and reproductive rights.
This study examines of how religion (Christianity, Islam and indigenous religions) influences the laws and policies on African women’s reproductive rights. Using South Africa as a case study, this paper elaborates on the influence of religion on South African women’s reproductive rights and the African world in general.
The attempt by the previous president, Blaise Compaore (forced to resign a year earlier) to topple President Kafando. was defeated within a week. The role of neighbouring states, the African Union and UN in condemning the coup and threatening sanctions played a part. But the immediate resistance by young people and civil society groups, together with unions calling a ten day general strike, played a key role. (For further analysis of wider struggle for democracy in Burkina Faso see Vol.1. E.1.2.3.)
Defends new forms of radical direct action, including ‘ecotage’, arguing that violence should be measured by harm inflicted, not use of physical force.
Activist Alicia Garcia discusses the history of the BLM movement and its future in light of the 2020 protests for racial justice in many countries in the world.
The author explores how women’s organisations in South Africa are often constrained in demanding their rights, or protesting in the streets, by their links to governments, political parties or international charities. Not only do these organisations need financial backing, but they are also expected to maintain a professional profile. She illuminates this dilemma by studying organisations in the Cape Flat of Cape Town, mostly run by black and coloured women struggling against increasing crime and violence against women and children.
See also Red Pepper, Apr/May 2018, pp. 13-17 for a wide-ranging analysis. Key issues about the safety of housing for the poor were raised in 2017 when 71 people are known to have died in a rapidly spreading fire in a tower block in north Kensington in London. The Grenfell fire raised major issues about the safety of tower blocks across the UK, the responsibility of builders, local authorities and safety inspectorates for inadequate checks on standards, and the dangers of opting for cheaper solutions. Grenfell also dramatised the gap between the relatively poor and racially diverse tenants of Grenfell living in social housing and the rich residents of the borough and the Conservative Council. A major long-running enquiry has been set up, viewed with some distrust by former Grenfell residents and the local community. Campaigning groups such as Justice4Grenfell and Grenfell Speaks have been set up complaining about lack of respect and representation, and people in other major cities have joined in solidarity protests.
Compares the September 2020 Friday strikes (in about 3,500 places worldwide) which were constrained by Covid related social distancing measures, with the 2019 week of action involving at least six million. The article also provides a link to a 24-hour global zoom call covering regional issues and links to forms of activism, especially digital activism.
The Introduction examines the dynamics of anti-nuclear activism in the Second Cold War. There is a chapter on mainstream movement building, but the emphasis is on nonviolent approaches and the role of pacifists.
The introduction examinesthe dynamics of anti-nucelar activism in the Second Cold War. There is a chapter on mainstream movement building, but the emphasis is on nonviolent approaches and the role of pacifists.
Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) began as the Women's Party for Survival (WPS), founded by Helen Caldicott in Boston in 1980. WPS chapters and affiliates soon formed across the United States, with educational programs, lobbying workshops, and demonstrations - the largest held annually on Mother's Day.
Anthology exploring the nature of the movement, including expert and participant analyses, manifestos, communiques, interviews and debates. A number of the presentations, including that by co-editor Danny Postel and Charles Kurzman’s ‘Cultural Jiu-Jitsu’ can be viewed on YouTube channel ‘Iran: Politics of Resistance’.
This report analyzes substantive decisions on workplace sexual harassment at each of the BC and Ontario Human Rights Tribunals from 2000-2018, to ascertain how the law of sexual harassment is understood, interpreted and applied by the Tribunals’ adjudicators. In particular, the report examines whether, and to what extent, gender-based stereotypes and myths, known to occur in criminal justice proceedings, arise in the human rights context. It also examines substantive decisions on sexual harassment in the workplace from 2000-2018.
(written from the perspective of an activist academic)
This article compares the impact of the #MeToo movement in South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, #MeToo inspired many women to go public with their accusations in numerous high-profile cases. Those accusations in turn inspired mass demonstrations and demands for legal reform. In South Korea, the movement also led to policy proposals and the revision of laws on sexual harassment and gender-based violence. In Japan, however, the movement has grown more slowly. Fewer women made public accusations, and if they did, they tended to remain anonymous. The movement has been limited to a small number of cases leading to a professional network to support women journalists. The authors argue that the different outcomes can be explained by the strength of women’s engagement in civil society and the nature of the media coverage in each case. In both countries, however, women continue to face a powerful backlash that includes victim-blaming and social and professional sanctions for speaking up.
Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall, ‘Nonviolent Power in the Twentieth Century’; Doug McAdam and Sidney Tarrow, ‘Nonviolence as Contentious Politics’; Ted Robert Gurr, ‘Nonviolence in Ethnopolitics: Strategies for the Attainment of Group Rights and Autonomy’; Gay W. Seidman, ‘Blurred Lines: Nonviolence in South Africa’; Allison Calhoun-Brown, ‘Upon This Rock: The Black Church, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights Movement’; Anne N. Costain, ‘Women’s Movements and Nonviolence’; Stephen Zunes, ‘Nonviolent Action and Human Rights’.
(Also available in other collections.)
Influential analysis of ‘post-totalitarian’ society and politics in the Soviet bloc in the 1970s and eloquent argument for individual integrity and acts of dissent by lead Czechoslovak playwright and dissident, who became President after 1989. This text inspired many activists in Eastern Europe and others round the world, including Aung San Suu Kyi, leading figure in the nonviolent resistance in Burma from 1988.
Covers growth of a major anti-war movement of rallies and marches against Japanese government support for the US in the war and the use of US bases in Japan.
While Palestinian women have always faced political marginalization, developments since the Oslo Accords have caused them to endure perhaps even more formidable challenges when it comes to political participation. Al-Shabaka Palestine Policy Fellow, Yara Hawari outlines these challenges and recommends ways for Palestinian women and society to disrupt this process and revitalize the Palestinian liberation struggle through feminism.
Reports on the campaign during the 2017 UK election by Frack Free United (a network of residents near fracking sites and campaign groups) and Cross Party Frack Free (group of MPs, Peers and parliamentary candidates, as well as local councillors, who support a national ban on fracking).
Writer and academic Leta Hong Fincher discusses the feminist movement in China in connection with the development of #MeToo in the USA. She also discusses the impact of the arrest in 2015 of the Feminist Five on the struggle for Chinese women’s equality and the patriarchal authoritarianism’ of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, noting similarities with other world leaders.
Includes information on demonstrations, but focus on the Mana Motukhake political party founded at beginning of 1980s which contested several elections and by-elections in that decade.
Examines Occupy Oakland, its potential and downside.
Stresses the role of voluntary associations in Benin.
This book, which deals with international approaches to conflict transformation, has been compiled by two researchers/practitioners with a background in the Civil Peace Service.
Includes chapters on the often difficult relationship between socialist, anarchist or social democratic movements and homosexuality in countries such as pre-First World War Netherlands, Civil-War Spain, the German Weimar Republic and post-1945 East Germany.
Retired US Army colonel, now colleague of Gene Sharp, examines the basis of political power and the methods and strategy of nonviolent struggle. His guidelines for preparing a Strategic Estimate are also included in Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle.
Inspired by the debate over whether globalisation has brought more benefits or disadvantages, and whether feminist movements around the world are gaining more agency and leverage, this thesis explores what influence feminist movements exercised on labour rights legislation in Morocco.
Detailed account by an academic historian who acted as special advisor to the Unionist Party of the negotiations that led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The author comments in the Introduction that ‘what complicated the Northern Ireland conflict was the range of options which the central protagonists – Unionists and Nationalists – viewed as their preferred solution.’ Historically, he states ‘the Ulster Question has been a dispute concerning sovereignty and identity. Or to put it another way, it has been a dispute between states and nations. But neither Unionists nor Nationalists could agree which states were legitimate or the legitimacy of the opposing group’s national identity’.
Essays on revolution, nonviolence and pacifism by a key figure on US radical/pacifist left, from 1905 to 1966, commenting in later essays on conscientious objection, opposition to French nuclear tests in Africa, the Civil Rights movement and the opposition to the Vietnam War.
Outlines how the organization founded by US climate activist Bill McKibben in 2007 was still promoting climate activism: supporting the indigenous struggle against the Keystone XL oil pipeline, urging universities and other bodies to stop investing in fossil-fuel companies and playing a significant role in organizing hundreds of thousands at the September 2014 People's Climate March in New York city. Hertsgaard also notes 350.org's role in international lobbying and activism in the run up to the UN Paris Climate Conference in 2015. The article was written just as McKibben was standing down as chairman.
See also: https://www.influencwewatch.org/non-profit/350-org/ for a brief history and assessment, including explanation of the organization's name, which sums up McKibben's belief that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere needs to fall to 350 parts per million, or below.
The article compares Narendra Modi (when Chief Minister of Gujurat, India, after deadly anti-Muslim riots) with the Mayor of Osh in Kyrgystan after the 2010 Kyrgyz attacks on Uzbeks, to examine the use of populist rhetoric to cement local political support and undermine external attempts at reconciliation.
Hannah Arendt presented her ideas about civil disobedience at a symposium of the New York Bar Association in 1970, and posed as the central question whether the law was dead. This article explains Arendt's 'republican' philosophy and distinguishes it from the liberal approaches of Rawls and Habermas, and from democrats like Etienne Balibar, before discussing in some detail Arendt's work On Revolution.
An overview of society and politics in Thailand. The Introduction briefly discusses the background to May 1992. Andrew Brown, ‘Locating Working Class Power’ (pp. 163-78), challenges the mainstream interpretation of May 1992 as an expression of the increased power of the middle class and civil society groups, which demonstrated the absence of working class power, suggesting commentators have an over-simplified model of united working class action.
Hewison assesses a biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which the palace tried to suppress, and which examines the king's role in Thai politics and in the moves to suppress Thaksin.
See also: Handley, Paul, The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibal Adulyade, New Haven Conn, Yale University Press, 2006.
Wide range of theoretical perspectives organized in 3 parts: Generations and Genealogies; Locales and Locations; Politics and Popular Culture. Part II includes essays on ‘Imagining Feminist Futures: The Third Wave, Postfeminism and Eco/feminism’ by N. Moore, and ‘Global Feminism, Transnational Political Economies, Third World Cultural Production’ by W. Woodhull.
This article focuses on how women in South Africa mobilised to press for a legislative response to a critical gender justice issue: access to maternity benefits for self-employed women, and women in the informal economy.
The authors note that many of the groups in the Bolivian coalition mobilizing against global warming draw on indigenous philosophy and worldviews to oppose value commitments to economic development. Drawing on fieldwork in 2010, they assess the relationship between state and non-state actors and argue that the coalition has had a significant global impact, despite the failure of multilateral climate change negotiations.
See also article by the same authors: 'Bolivia vs. the Billionaires: Limitations of the "Climate Justice Movement" in International Negotiations', Nacla: reporting on the Americans since 1967, Vol. 46, issue 2, 2013, pp. 27-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2013.11722008
Examine's Bolivia's role at UN Conferences in Copenhagen and Doha and notes the strength of the opposition, not only from powerful global companies blocking real reduction iof carbon emissions, but 'the capitalist economy itself'. They also discuss the World People's Conference in Bolivia in 2010 and report criticisms of Evo Morales reliance on extractive industries f or economic development, despite his 'anti-capitalist discourse'.
International lawyer and expert on ecocide Polly Higgins sets out the full case for an international ecocide law which would hold corporations and governments to account for actions and policies that result in massive harm to the environment. She also examines how law has operated effectively in other contexts. The book is linked to the international campaign she headed to broaden the remit of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to include ecocide as a crime (alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity). An example of ecocide was the massive oil spill of 134 million gallons by BP in the Mexican Gulf in 2010. Higgins died from cancer in 2019, but an international campaign continues. See: stopecocide.earth
See also: Cooke, Ben, 'Could Ecocide become an International Crime?', New Statesman, 16 Mar. 2020. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/environment/2020/03/could-ecocide-...
Useful overview of possible examples of ecocide, such as the 2019 Amazon forest fires and tar sand oil extraction , and of the goals and current strategy of the campaign, now headed by Jojo Mehta. The campaign now focuses on getting support from states most vulnerable to climate change (any ICC signatory state can propose an amendment to the Rome Statute governing the court, and the votes of all states are equal). The South Pacific island state, Vanuatu, has indicated it might initiate the process - if two thirds of the signatories agree the ecocide law would apply to them. Cooke notes that the idea now has support from Extinction Rebellion activists, and that Pope Francis indicated in 2019 that he was considering making ecocide a sin
On 10th anniversary of closing down WTO summit at Seattle, author celebrates the setbacks of the WTO since. He notes broadening of movement, illustrated by role of migrant workers and women’s rights groups from across Asia leading protests at WTO 2005 Hong Kong summit.
Analysis by War on Want director of how neoliberal elite is using the 2008 crisis to entrench its own power and impose neoliberal policies on Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The book ends with a sketch of the growing worldwide struggle against neoliberalism and suggesting how alternatives might be strengthened.
Documents emergence of armed self-defence groups in Louisiana and Mississippi in the mid-1960s to counter the Klan and enforce civil rights legislation.
African-American Studies scholar and policy analyst Marc Lamont Hill examines the interlocking mechanisms of unregulated capitalism, public policy, and social practice in the US. His work starts recounting one of the most salient event that gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement: the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. More precisely, the narration spans different periods of time, starting with the grand jury testimony of Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Michael Brown, and then looks back at the 1939 World’s Fair and Le Corbusier’s lofty ideas about urban renewal. It moves forward in time again to the development of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing projects in St. Louis, completed in 1955 and demolished twenty years later, with many of the displaced residents having to move to Ferguson and face a climate of socio-cultural deprivation. Hill terminates his narration in Flint, Michigan, where the American city’s population ended up being poisoned by lead in the water.
Hill’s work is an account of the systematically disadvantaged identities - “those marked as poor, black, brown, immigrant, queer, or trans” – by a system that treats them as nobody, and makes them disposable, vulnerable and invisible. This work has been praised for enriching the contemporary canon of US civil rights literature not only because it captures the systemic nature of inequality in US society, but also because of his positive conclusion on the transformative power of organising, the most recent version of which lies in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Structured in sections covering key events and key individuals in movement against Vietnam War, and includes a chapter assessing strength and weaknesses of movement. Extensive footnotes and bibliography.
by Channel Four foreign editor.
Drawing on interviews with transgender people charts impact of changing legislation in UK. Primarily about individual experience and social context, but there is a chapter on: ‘Transgender Care Networks, Social Movements and Citizenship’.
Scholarly, interdisciplinary analysis of the Assad regime and of the first two years of the uprising. The book explores the nature of the uprising, reasons for the lack of success, and why it turned into an increasingly sectarian civil war.
See also: Hinnenbusch, Raymond, Omar Imady and Tina Zintl, 'Civil Resistance in the Syrian Uprising: From Peaceful Protest to Sectarian Civil War', in Adam Roberts, Michael J. Willis, Rory McCarthy and Timothy Garton Ash, eds. Civil Resistance in the Arab Spring (E.V.B.a.), pp. 223-47.
An overview with a focus on the role, possibilities and limitations of civil resistance in the specific context of the Assad regime, and the realities of the civil war from 2012 and the rise of ISIS.
Devised by a little-known South American feminist collective, the song ‘Un Violador en Tu Camino’ (‘A rapist in your path’) has been performed by women from Washington to Istanbul. This article sheds light on the reason why the song has become the hymn of feminist movements against sexual harassment.
Covers a significant movement in post-war Britain when many houses had been destroyed by bombing.
Covers pacifist and anti-war campaigning in Britain from the ‘imperialist pacifism’ of the Victorian period, through both World Wars to the birth of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the New Left in the 1950s and 1960s. Written from a democratic socialist perspective. Final chapters cover CND’s ‘second wave’ in the 1980s, the Gorbachev initiatives, and the role of the European Nuclear Disarmament campaign seeking to transcend the Cold War divide.
Gives an account of massive anti-nuclear protests that took place in Taiwan, one year before the election in the country, to protest against calls by nuclear proponents to extend the operating permits for several reactors that were due to expire.
To learn about anti-nuclear march in Taiwan, commemorating the Fukushima incident in Japan, in previous years see also https://newbloommag.net/2017/03/12/2017-anti-nuclear-march/; https://thediplomat.com/2016/10/orchid-islands-nuclear-fate/; https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2016-03-12/71061; https://newbloommag.net/2015/03/16/fukushima-four-years-on-in-taiwan-and-japan/; https://newbloommag.net/2015/01/30/anti-nuclear-activism-in-taiwan-and-japan/ and https://thediplomat.com/2014/04/taiwan-rocked-by-anti-nuclear-protests/.
Examines growing significance of environmental movement in Thailand since the success in stopping proposed dam in 1988.
Much cited conceptual analysis contrasting the movement of emigration through Hungary to the West and the internal resistance.
Analysis by the Guardian Middle East editor of Lebanese politics.
Hobbs explores the tradition of testimony over sexual assault allegations by women of colour – from Harriet Jacobs’ case in 1861 up to now - and how that has facilitated testimony today in the US. She advocates a more inclusive narrative that can overcome the gender-only or race-only approach to telling stories of sexual abuse.
Spans period from 1940 to 2000, examining urban worker protest and railway strikes, new peasant movements, school strikes, student opposition and also the rise of guerrilla struggles, including the Zapatistas.
The author argues that comparison with the 'Colour Revolutions' are misleading since these were promoted by civil society organizations and opposition parties and focused on regime distortion of elections. Success in Armenia did demonstrate the power of civil society, but relied on 'grassroots organizing via social media' rather than on official NGOs, which are widely distrusted. The 2018 revolution drew on experience of earlier protests focused on limited issues. Hoellerbauer also speculates about future prospects for democracy under Pashinyan without a strong civil society to hold him accountable, and in the light of Armenia's dependence on Russia and the problem of the 'frozen conflict' over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hoffman documents the struggles of local communities in the UK to save irreplaceable woods, marshes and other rare and beautiful habitats from roads, airports and industrial development. He stresses the historical, cultural and communal importance of these sites as well as their ecological value, and the grounds for hope provided by successful local campaigns.
Standard work covering all aspects of the internal German resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, though with a major focus on the 1944 Generals’ Plot.
Briefly reports on ex-pats from the Dominican Republic who marched on the streets of Washington Heights, denouncing an epidemic of gender-based killings in their home country, where an average of 200 femicides per year occur. The protest in New York was called “March Against the Plague of Femicide”.
See also https://www.vibe.com/2018/03/new-york-marches-against-dominican-femicide and https://borgenproject.org/challenges-for-women-in-the-dominican-republic/
See also reply by Lavalette, Michael ; Mooney, Gerry , The Poll Tax Struggle in Britain: A Reply to Hoggett and Burn Critical Social Policy, 1993, pp. 96-108
The article discusses the role of the US National Security spy base at Menwith Hill and notes some of the local protesters, including Lindis Percy (arrested hundreds of times for breaking into bases).
See also:
Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB), 'Synopses of the work of Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases', Peace News, 13 May 2012
https://www.peacenews.info/blog/6785/campaign-accountability-american-bases
Brief but informative summary of the work of the British group CAAB, founded in 1992. It grew out of decades of scrutiny and campaigning related to the Menwith Hill US National Security Agency base, which has been involved in intelligence gathering and had a key role in the development of the US missile defence system. The history and methods of CAAB, coordinated by Lindis Percy and Melanie Ndzinga, are outlined: tactics have ranged from use of the law to challenge the US military presence to nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience.
Includes chapter by Alix Holt, ‘The First Soviet Feminists’ on Leningrad group associated with The Almanach: ‘Women and Russia’ and their club ‘Maria’.
Account of the growth of the grassroots campaign against legalised abortion in the US. Whilst other socially conservative movements have lost young activists, the pro-life movement has successfully recruited more young people to its cause. Jennifer Holland explores why abortion dominates conservative politics. She studied anti-abortion movements in four US western states since the 1960s and argues that activists made foetal life feel personal to many Americans. Pro-life activists persuaded people to see themselves in the pins, images of embryos, and dolls and made the fight against abortion the primary day-to-day issue for social conservatives. Holland concludes that the success of the pro-life movement derives from the borrowed logic and emotional power of leftist activism.
Discusses possible confusion in meaning of ‘resistance’ in recent sociological studies and suggests a typology of intended and unintended ‘resistance’. Many references to gender-based resistance, and forms of indirect resistance by slaves, peasants, workers and the unemployed, as well as the direct resistance of the US Civil Rights Movement.
This paper reports on a #MeToo campaign by a mainstream news organisation. The ‘Me Too’ campaign led to a large number of disclosures adopted a survivor-led approach to minimise potential harm. It offers lessons for reporting on #MeToo issues, including the best practice for dealing with survivors, campaign management and ultimately the implications for changing editorial news values. Journalists showed greater awareness of the feelings of survivors and were able to reconcile this with traditional journalistic norms.
Reader with excerpts on religious roots of nonviolence and classic writings on disobedience, including Socrates, as well as Thoreau, Tolstoy and Gandhi on nonviolent resistance.
Covers a range of perspectives on nuclear weapons. Includes influential Bundy, McGeorge ; Kennan, George F.; McNamara, Robert S.; Smith, Gerard , Nuclear weapons and the Atlantic Alliance Foreign Affairs, 1982, pp. 753-766 , arguing that NATO should not use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack. Also includes section from the Alternative Defence Commission report on ‘The rationale for rejecting nuclear weapons’, as well as an extract from Edward P. Thompson’s 1980 pamphlet Protest and Survive (see below).
This book discusses the popular myth that women have fared well as a result of post-socialist China's economic reforms and breakneck growth. It lays out the structural discrimination against women in China and speaks of the broader problems within China's economy, politics, and development.
See also ‘Talking policy: Leta Hong Fincher on feminism in China’, World Policy, 2 June 2017, https://worldpolicy.org/2017/06/02/talking-policy-leta-hong-fincher-on-feminism-in-china/ where Leta Hong discusses her book Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China and the development of feminism in china from the post-socialist era up to these days.
Describing China’s feminist activists in relation to their political and historical circumstances, the author elucidates the development of China’s feminist movement and discusses China’s history from a feminist perspective.
Story of the 'Feminist Five' who were jailed in 2015 for a protest against sexual harassment, and the art and activism of their supporters. The book also examines the official gender equality policy of the Communist Party since 1949, and the recent suppression of dissidence and bans on foreign support for NGOs.
See also ‘Talking policy: Leta Hong Fincher on feminism in China’, World Policy, 2 June 2017: https://worldpolicy.org/2017/06/02/talking-policy-leta-hong-fincher-on-feminism-in-china/
Leta Hong discusses her book Leftover Women: The Resurgence of gender Inequality in China and the development of feminism in China from the post- socialist era up to today.
To read the first-hand account on the arrest of one activist of the ‘Feminist Five’ and other initiatives to free them, see this comprehensive article https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/08/feminist-stickers-china-backash-women-activists
See also https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2093973/fight-against-gender-violence-goes-chinas-feminist-five and https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/02/people-week-feminist-five/
This book is the outcome of long term research by the Antiracist Research and Action Network of the Americas into rising racial intolerance, but also increasing resistance by both Black and indigenous people throughout the Americas. It covers six Latin American countries - Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico - as well as the US, and discusses the backlash against earlier gains in rights within nation states. The book argues that this nation-based strategy, pursued in a neo-liberal capitalist context, was inadequate and that the focus should now be on resisting ‘racial capitalism’ which bolsters white supremacy. The rise of militant anti-racial activism in the US and around the world in 2020 makes the book especially relevant.
The most authoritative country by country survey of the position on conscription and conscientious objection in all member states of the UN, following the same formula in each case and setting out legal possibilities for avoiding military service. Historical overview of the evolution of conscription and conscientious objection appended to many country reports. There are also often additional sections on forced recruitment by non-governmental armed groups. Each report is dated. The online version includes updates, especially 2008, on all the countries (and then candidate countries) in the Council of Europe, see http://www.wri-irg.org/co/rtba/index.html. The 2008 update also published separately as: War Resisters' International, Professional soldiers and the right to conscientious objection in the European Union Brussels, Tobias Pfluger MEP, European Parliamentary Group European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), , 2008, pp. 60
The film Udita (made by the Rainbow Collective) traces the struggle by women garment workers in Bangladesh to get better conditions and pay in the context of appalling and dangerous conditions. The film stresses the growing resistance by the women and interviews a woman organiser who describes the tactics used to make their boss pay them unpaid wages. It is still extremely relevant as the movement of Bangladeshi garment workers continues. The Guardian Weekly (18 January 2019, p. 7.) reported briefly on a strike by thousands of garment workers for better pay which had shut down 52 factories and was in its second week. The previous Sunday women had blockaded a road just outside Dhaka. The film is made available on YouTube at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tuvBHr6WU
Discusses whether growing popular opposition to neoliberalism, especially since 2008, can develop coherent alternative ideologies.
Reports that since US climate activist Bill McKibben and 350.org launched the divestment in fossil fuels campaign in 2012, over 220 institutions such as universities, local authorities and pension funds, have divested from some fossil fuels. So have foundations, notably the Rockefeller Brothers' Fund in 2014. The 'Fossil Free' campaign was launched in the UK in 2013, and grew more rapidly than earlier divestment campaigns against the tobacco industry and apartheid in South Africa. Howard also hails divestment by the World Council of Churches in 2014 and reports that the UN body coordinating agreement on climate change backed divestment in March 2015.
See also: Carlyle, Gabriel, 'Ducks, Direct Action and Investment', Peace News, June-July 2018, p.17.
Account of second Fossil Free UK national gathering, including examples of some campaigning and organizing experiences revealed there. The article also provides background on the rapidly growing global movement and the 880 institutions that had by then committed to some divestment from fossil fuels.
Makes comparisons between post-communist regimes and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Part 1 covers France’s defence policy since 1945 – including the wars in Indo-China and Algeria, and De Gaulle’s decision (supported by the major political parties) to develop a French nuclear bomb. Part 2 focuses on anti-nuclear critiques and movements in the 1980s, including a military critique of French defence policy by Admiral Sanguinetti and Claude Bourdet on the ‘The rebirth of the peace movement’.
Up to date account of British nuclear disarmament movement since the 1950s by chair of CND, giving some weight to direct action.
This book by the General Secretary of CND was published on the 60th anniversary of the launch of CND in February 1958. It covers both the major campaigns within the nuclear disarmament movement of the first three decades, including the Aldermaston marches and Greenham Common. It also charts the evolving role of CND after 1990: becoming prominent in the resistance to Britain's involvement in wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan; and more recently supporting the movement to achieve the UN Treaty to ban all nuclear weapons. CND has also continued to focus on opposing British production and deployment of nuclear weapons, and in particular the government's decision to renew the Trident missile force.
This article explores from a Marxist perspective the contributions the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has made over time within a context where the threats the world is facing are increasing. The article concludes by considering the challenges ahead.
Includes analysis of the role of the labour movement (chapter 3), of traders (chapter 2) and of women in the Intifada.
This introduction to a substantial report on the latest phase in Kyrgyz politics provides an analysis of the events of October 2020 to February 2021 against the background of the recent political past, including the legacy of the anti-Uzbek violence in 2010.
This article (following on the previous article by Davis analysing China's role in sparking the protest) focuses on the role of the Hong Kong government in opposing greater democracy and allowing excessive use of force by the police, so fuelling public anger.
Hundai examines the predominantly Sikh farmers protests centred on Delhi in the context of the history of religious pogroms in India, and notes that fear of persecution has resurfaced within the Sikh community.
Covers origins and development of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and key events, as well as attempts to recruit Afro-American veterans and the role of women in the organization.
Focuses on the brother of the executed leader of the Ogoni movement, Kenule Sarowiwa, and his efforts to carry on the campaign.
Hunter, who is the global training manager of the international climate action group 350.org discusses the difference between a campaign based on a strategy with a target institution and specific goal, and continuous protest using a particular tactic. He sets out six stages for a potentially successful campaign, which may involve diverse tactics, and gives examples of effective campaigns from different countries. An edited extract from the book is: 'The difference between a campaign and endless action', Peace News, 2632-2633 (Aug-Sept 2019), p. 11.
See also: 'How to Build a Movement that Wins', Peace News, 2634-2635, Oct.-Nov. 2019, pp.8-9. which is an extract from the Handbook
Much of this book can be downloaded from: http://www.trainingforchange.org.
Devised as a training resource for the Nonviolent Peace Force, this manual contains hundreds of training activities, with special emphasis on team-building and defending human rights. It includes over 60 handouts, an integrated 23 day curriculum, and many tips for trainers.
(Published in USA as Warriors of the Rainbow: A Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement, New York, Rhinehart and Winston, 1978)
The story of Greenpeace from its emergence in the 1970s to the time of the book’s publication. Autobiographical account by a founder member of Greenpeace International.
The author, who founded a US support group for the landless, provides excerpts from her journal of visiting sites of land struggle in 1987. She notes intensified confrontations in 1980s between the landed elite and the landless, who resorted to lawsuits, demonstrations, fasts, vigils, marches, mock funerals and, above all, land occupations.
Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that declined to hear Alabama’s 2019 bid to revive a Republican-backed state law that would have effectively banned the ‘dismemberment abortion’ procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Through this procedure, the woman’s cervix is dilated and the contents of the uterus removed. The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling that protects woman’s constitutional right to abortion recognized in the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.
Essays by 20 Israelis – some of them ‘selective objectors’ – who question standard definitions of nationalism, national security and loyalty.
Hussein argues that although many aspects of Algerian politics combined to prevent a major uprising in 2011, subsequent developments such as Boutifleka's 2013 stroke and the constitutional amendment of 2016 (lifting again the two term limit on holding the presidency) heightened opposition to the regime by 2019. The article starts by contrasting 'oil rich Algeria' with 'poor Algerians'.
On the 23rd March 2018, tens of thousands of Polish citizens demonstrated against the right-wing populist government’s renewed attempt (after its defeat in 2016) to make the existing abortion laws even more restrictive. In what has become known as the #BlackProtest movement, people dressed in black to show their opposition to attempts to restrict abortion. This paper explores the laws, regulations and policies related to abortion in Poland within a wider global context.
A collection of essays by feminist scholars and activists in South Asia outlining the development of feminism in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan over the last decade with regard to the social embodiment of women, television representations, LGTB discourses, domestic violence, and the “new” feminism.
which includes some discussion in chapter 10 of nonviolent resistance
Hylton discusses the sudden emergence of nation-wide protests mostly led by young people, but uniting diverse sectors of society in opposition to neo-liberal government measures. The article looks back at the historical context, and suggests the protest could strengthen' new movements of the progressive centre'.
Expert on the Danish resistance extends his scholarship to other resistance movements in Occupied Europe.
Discusses the possibility of ‘MeToo’ of becoming a legal movement which could help shape the legislation on sexual harassment.
Argues that Palestinian youth were constrained by the Israeli occupation, political oppression by both Fatah and Hamas, and 'political paralysis' resulting from the divisions between these two parties. But youth activism did challenge the role of these parties.
This collective work analyzes the origins and early stages of conscientious objection and insumision in Spain, its ideological debates and evolution. It includes an analysis of the national and international political context, a chapter on alternative civilian service in the Federal Republic of Germany, and a guide to becoming an objector.
The ICJ’s report explores the various obstacles that women seeking justice in Morocco face, and addresses recommendations to the Moroccan government and judiciary with a view to improving access to justice and effective remedies for women and girls who are victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
See also https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/03/267531/womens-day-change-morocco/ and https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/03/267573/protests-rabat-international-women-day/
An account of the possible development of the #MeToo movement from four different perspectives. It analyses the need to explore the nature and consequences of power as a primordial factor influencing response to sexual harassment; the work-based campaigns in Sweden; the development of the #MeToo movement in Hungary; and the varying nature of the movement in different parts of Europe with particular emphasis on the distinction between West and East.
Provides global overview of LGB legislation and country-by-country summary of states that still criminalize same-sex acts between consenting adults in private. Published annually since 2006.
Similar material is contained in: Ilic, Vladimir , Otpor - An Organization in Action , 2002, pp. 54 .
The story, narrated by his brother, of one of the most iconic figure of the anti-mafia struggle, Peppino Impastato, who revolted against the patriarchal structure of his family, went against his father who belonged to the Sicilian mafia organisation and ignited an anti-mafia culture and actions at the cost of his own life.
Brief but illuminating article about the liberatory role of cycling for women, both as a group sport and as means of travelling to and from work and avoiding the crowded public transport, where sexual harassment is rife. Imtiaz notes the hostility of conservative Pakistani men to women cycling.
This issue is largely dedicated to dissent in China.
Primary focus on Saami in Finland. Study of reservation resettled due to boundary changes with USSR after 1945, looking at ecological imbalances, links to government and debates about future. But also notes influence of broader Nordic movement and its different approaches (conservative defence of Lapp culture, or left focus on neocolonialism). Chapter 21 examines the evolution of the wider Saami movement and inter-Nordic conferences (pp. 235-44).
A large scale survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India. It reports that 30% percent of women aged 15-49 in India have experienced physical violence since age 15, amongst many other forms of violence or discrimination, and the social context that makes it difficult to challenge. The National Family Health Survey 2018-2019 is yet to be published.
Issue devoted to reconsideration of nonviolent defence with contributions by leading exponents, including Sharp, Roberts and Galtung, and articles on its role in Sweden’s Total Defence strategy, and on a Dutch government research project.
Historian Vincent Intondi describes the long but little-known history of Black Americans in the Nuclear Disarmament Movement from 1945, when some protested against the A- bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to today. He shows how those black activists who fought for nuclear disarmament connected the nuclear issue with the fight for racial equality. Intondi also shows that from early on, blacks in America saw the use of atomic bombs as a racial issue, asking why such enormous resources were being spent building nuclear arms instead of being used to improve impoverished communities.
Following the rise of tensions between the US and Iran during 2019 and the increased of awareness within the public of the catastrophic consequences of a nuclear attack, this article critically discuss the potential for movements to advocate a ‘No First Use’ policy in the US, and the potential embedded within the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Overview after half a year of XR's impact, noting its very rapid growth inside the UK and mobilization of a wide cross-section of people, its global spread (485 affiliates around the world). Iqbal also notes the impact on the engineering and construction industries, universities, local councils, architecture and the arts all focusing on the urgency of reducing emissions. But he cites criticism from the Wretched of the Earth collective for climate justice, who urged XR not to ignore the voices of indigenous, black, brown and diaspora groups.
See also: 'Climate Change Protesters Take Over Museum and Threaten Disruption', The i, 23 April 2019, p.11. Report on 'die in' by 100 activists under the blue whale skeleton in London's Natural History Museum, a week after XR blockades in London began;
See also: 'Climate Protesters to Pitch Tent City in Four-day "Northern Rebellion", The Guardian, 29 Aug. 2019, p.20.
Report that at least 750 people had pledged to occupy Deansgate in Manchester, an entertainment area with high air pollution levels;
See also 'Mothers in Google Climate Action as Protesters Defy Ban', The Guardian, 17 Oct. 2019, p.13. Reports blockade of Google's London HQ in defiance of police ban on protests in London to oppose Google's funding of deniers of climate crisis. Young people and nursing mothers took part. Lawyers for XR were applying for judicial review of the police banning order at the high court.
Report on the initiative of the Argentinian feminist organisation ‘Mujeres de la Matria Latinoamericana’ (MuMaLá) to call on the government to declare a national emergency after 27 confirmed femicides occurred between January and February 2019. The organisation has also submitted a petition highlighting the educational and legislative steps to take in order to reduce this form of violence.
Discusses the lessons learned from the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement. Describes how opinion polls were used by politicians to explore what compromises their supporters might accept.
Assessment by a Marxist sociologist in Ukraine who demonstrated in 2000 against the Kuchma regime. Topics include: the role of the far right in Euromaidan (he argues that an organised and effective minority was promoting nationalist slogans); the changing of the social composition of protesters; the interim goverment; the cultural roots of the eastern Ukrainian uprisings for independence, and the election of President Poroshenko.
Critical assessment of western support for civil society groups, noting that it can create a backlash and needs to be considered in the historical, social and cultural context of the country involved. Also makes comparisons with other post-Soviet states.
Ch. 17 ‘Colonialism rejected’ (pp. 396-412) examines workers’ and women’s protests and growing nationalism from the 1920s to 1950.
A trigger incident in 1948 was when armed police opened fire on an ex-servicemen’s march about unpaid benefits, killing three.
Article explaining the economic, social and political context of the protests that forced Boyko Borissov to resign at the end of February 2013, and the immediate repercussions. Ivancheva is highly critical of 'monopolies in the hands of private companies' within a context of no state regulation, and notes problems in electoral law making it hard for smaller parties to contest elections.
Compares Australia and Canada
Report on the origin of the #ChurchToo movement in Nigeria to shed light on and challenge sexual assaults perpetrate by the clergy.
See also http://africanfeminism.com/churchtoo-confronting-the-last-bastion-of-patriarchy/
Account of the French ‘homophile’ organization Arcadie.
The chair of the Danish-based Gaia Trust advocates return to smaller decentralised communities with a more sustainable life style.
Examines social movement strategies and how they differ to fit national circumstances and considers activism related to the environment and sustainability, animal rights, human rights, women’s rights and gay rights. Reconceptualizes the relationship between state and civil society under post-communism. Based on special issue of East European Politics.
Frequent references to strikes and nonviolent resistance. See especially ch. 7, ‘Positive action’.
a short essay arguing the need for alternatives to military methods and emotions associated with war, later reproduced as a pamphlet and in anthologies
Examines the emergence of #MeuPrimeiroAssedio (‘My First Harassment’) in Brazil in 2015, aimed at tackling sexual violence but also other social evils. These include mass incarceration, deadly abortion medical neglect, and racism against the large portion of Afro-American women that compose Brazilian society (more than 25%).
See also https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/31/brazils-women-violence-begins-home
Takes up the challenge that ‘most academic theories of social movements are not prepared to explain the full range of protest goals and activities, especially those of privileged rather than oppressed citizens’, specifically drawing on the US environmental, anti-nuclear energy, and animals rights movements.
Views and experiences of US activists and their assessment of how much or little had changed since Stonewall.
Article written at peak of Hazare movement, noting the divided views on the movement and criticisms of it, including the dangers of ‘messianic campaigns’ for parliamentary democracy.
By demolishing the myth that feminism originated in the West, Kumari Jayawardena presents feminism as it originated in the Third World, erupting from the specific struggles of women fighting against colonial power, for education or the vote, for safety, and against poverty and inequality. Gives particular attention to Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam.
To look at a brief extract of the book see also https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4018-feminism-and-nationalism-in-the-third-world
Study of women’s rights movements in Middle East and Asia from 19th century to 1980s, covering Egypt and Turkey, China, India, Indonesia, Korea and the Philippines. Argues feminism was not an alien ideology but indigenous to these countries.
Detailed account of post-war gay movement using contemporary newspaper reports, articles and letters.
Compares protests in Iraq and Lebanon after seven weeks, noting the youth of demonstrators and their demands: for jobs and housing, investigation of corruption and the resignation of their governments. Jenkins also observes that so far the movements have bridged religious divides. But he is cautious about prospects for success and notes the brutal repression of protesters in both countries.
Examination of the grass roots work of the MKSS in developing campaign for right to information as part of their wider campaigning and their use of jan sunwals (public hearings) in communities where official documents regarding public works, anti-poverty programmes etc. are read out and people are encouraged to add their own testimony about diversion of funds and fraud. The article also covers the MKSS use of public protest, such as a 52 day sit-in in the capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur, in 1997. See also: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Right to Information. State Level: Rajasthan [2005] , 2005 . Brief elaboration and update on work of MKSS and Right to Information Acts up to 2005.
Answers by range of peace activists to questions about the future of the movement, including whether it should focus on the arms race or more broadly on US foreign policy, its relationship to electoral politics, the role of civil disobedience and issues related to feminist separatism.
Explains how Chinese women understand their identities and feminism in the new media age and how, as Jiang argues, they present and shape ideas about feminism and gender issues in the current socio-political context.
Account by City Press reporters and photographers, supplemented by edited evidence from official Enquiry, and including analyses of labour migration.
Abortion is a hotly debated topic among Muslim communities. In this paper, the author examines how both anti-abortion and abortion rights groups deploy ideas about Islam. She analised the language used by these groups when describing Muslim communities and Muslim views and found that a majority of them did not include arguments from both sides. Almost all the Anti-Abortion Websites included generalizations about the Muslim community, and also used the conservative elements in Islamic Religion to persuade more Muslims to join their stance on abortion.
Discusses protest through letters, petitions, law suits and sometimes demonstrations and sabotage, against pollution, soil erosion, contaminated water, etc.
Looks briefly at early 20th century, focusing on celebrities. But based primarily on interviews with 36 lesbians and gay men and covers changing social and legal contexts of World War Two, 1950s, 1960s-70s and emergence of gay liberation, and setbacks of HIV/AIDS and Section 28 in the 1980s.
A general description of nonviolent action, its ideas, methods and effects.
Study of important and rare example of open protest against Gestapo, by German wives demanding release of their German Jewish husbands who had been arrested.
Overview of farmers protests round Delhi after six months, including the impact of Covid-19. Jodkha also summarizes why the farmers are protesting and what they had achieved, and also their future plans. The article includes links to more detailed examination of specific issues, such as the role of women.
Two authors with a longstanding interest in nonviolent alternatives to military force restate the case for social defence, given the damage caused by military systems, and summarize examples of popular resistance in the past to coups and invasions. They also consider the relevance of political changes and social movements since the end of the Cold War.
Analyses the role of international funding in episodes of 'people power'.
Critical assessment of external financing in historical perspective.
Emphasis on role of military and Catholic Church.
Selected key texts from Gandhi with essays by Judith Brown, Richard Falk, Michael Nagler, Glenn Paige, Bhiku Parekh and others.
Much-cited in the social movement literature on ‘framing’, Johnston analyses the contribution of resistant sub-cultures under Francoism to the eventual resurgence of Catalan opposition.
Johnston edited the journal Mobilization 1996-2007. Chapters on protest both in contemporary democracies and repressive states, on revolutions, and on globalization.
Examines three different forms of resistance: oblique spoken criticism; using officially approved organisations to promote muted collective opposition; and more open ‘dissidence’ – petitions, open letters, samizdat and contacting foreign press. (See also Johnston, States & Social Movements (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) , ch. 4.)
Comparison of the Umbrella Movement with the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan is relevant for a number of reasons. Taiwan is under pressure to move closer to China, and although it is politically more independent than Hong Kong, the Taiwanese government since 2010 has entered into a close trading relationship with China, making it economically more dependent. Moreover, many smaller Taiwanese businesses have suffered. The protests occurred between 18 March and 10 April 2014 and took the form of an occupation of the legislature, which spiraled into a mass occupation of the surrounding district. Young people, who feel distinctively Taiwanese rather than Chinese, were prominent in the occupation, but it included a wide section of the population (an estimated 500,000 taking part at one point) and many others gave food, water and money to the demonstrators. This book includes contributions from a range of distinguished scholars from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other parts of Asia who explore, in particular, issues relating to democracy, the rule of law and freedom of speech. Contributors also discuss the legal and political implications of mass occupation as a protest tactic and seek to draw lessons for the future.
Exposes the widespread phenomenon of Canadian universities censoring students who want to denounce episodes of sexual harassment. The article includes the report by OurTurn – a national, student-led action plan that aims to implement strategies to end sexual violence on campus, and sets out the policies survivors have to follow while filing a complaint. The National Our Turn Action Plan provides guidelines for student unions and groups to: prevent sexual violence and eliminate rape culture on Canadian campuses; support survivors and create a culture of survivor-centrism at Canadian institutions; and campaign for policy and legislative reforms at the campus, provincial and national levels.
Gives transnational examples of women's peace activism.
Argues that the role of civil society bodies was important, but not vital. He suggests that key factors were popular attitudes to the ideal of Europe, the impact of the global economy, the appeal of western models and the implications of the soviet legacy. See also Jones, Stephen , Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’ of 2003: Enforcing Peaceful Change In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)New York, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 317-334 .
Overview of opposition to fracking plans in Argentina, includinga provincial law in the province of Entre Rios to ban fracking (it is not directly involved in the plans) and Vista Alegre became the first municipality to ban fracking. The Supreme Court suspended the ban, but residents marched to the capital and blocked a highway to demonstrate their commitment to it. Brandon notes also that the Mapuche, the largest indigenous group in Argentina were mobilizing to resist the threats to their land, especially near the Vaca Muerte basin. (The article was reproduced from the Waging Nonviolence website.)
See also Platform London, 'UK-Argentina Fracking Talks Targeted by Protest', 22 May 2019.
https://platformlondon.org/p-pressreleases/uk-argentina-fracking-talks-targeted-by-protest/
Wide-ranging collection of comparative essays on democratic transitions, the state and economic and social factors. Considers developments since the early 1990s and degrees of democracy achieved (in Benin and Zambia), continuing obstacles to democracy and ‘second elections’.
Prints papers from international conference: The Land Deal Politics Initiative, (convenor of) ‘The Second International Academic Conference on Land Grabbing’ , Cornell University, 17-19 October 2012.
Explores life of young woman who secretly ran schools for girls in Herat during Taliban rule, was elected to the Afghan parliament in 2005 at the age of 23, but was thrown out of it for raising women’s issues, and who had by 2009 already survived five assassination attempts. When she visited Britain in 2009, where she opposed NATO involvement in Afghanistan, the Independent ran a long interview with her: Hari, Johann , Malalai Joya: The woman who will not be silenced The Independent, 28/07/2009, pp. 1-5 .
Analysis of two case studies in Thailand: the Raindrops Association encouraging villagers to resuscitate the natural environment; and the opposition to planned Kaeng Krung Dam.
Useful and well referenced analysis of student phase of protests, in context of earlier student protests in 1997 and wider national demonstrations in 2013.
Kim Dae Jung had been a leading figure in the Democratic Opposition of South Korea since 1971, when he ran for president against the dictator Park Chung Hee, was imprisoned and then exiled. He gave this interview in November 1984, setting out his policies and hopes, when planning to return to join in the struggle against the dictatorship.
Sceptical assessment of role of popular protest in achieving genuine democratic change.
By examining the wars in Rwanda, in the former Yugoslavia, across the Middle East and in the former Soviet Union, Kaldor discusses the elements and dynamics of structural violence that determined the nature of these wars. She argues that these wars were predominantly determined by military and criminal factors, as well as by the presence of an illegal economy and human rights’ violations. She also argues that the underlying causes of these conflicts lie in the relationship between military and civilian victims, and in the changed perception of threat by the Western powers.
Includes campaigns against logging, tree plantations, factories and tourist facilities and in defence of nature reserves. Argues environmentalism in Asia has a local focus and is often a form of cultural and political protests where overt political opposition is too dangerous.
Essays arising out of May 1984 conference at the Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, on peace movements in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, West Germany, France, Italy, Britain and the US. Focus is on the anti-nuclear movements of the 1980s, though some contributors sketch the earlier history of movements in their countries.
Using interviews and a range of documentary sources, this book examines how the apartheid state sought to control women’s and girls’ bodies and reproductive choices, both through the enforcement of restrictive abortion laws and the promotion of a patriarchal Christian Afrikaner culture. It also explores the ways in which women and girls defied these restrictions.
For a comprehensive review of this book, please see Hepburn, Sacha (2018) ‘A History of Abortion in Apartheid South Africa’ in Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 44, issue 1, pp. 190-192.
Article discussing Kyrgyz protests in 2019 against migrant Chinese workers (both illegal and legal), in the context of alarm about Chinese government treatment of ethnic Kyrgyz inside China. The author considers how far fears of large numbers of migrants could be substantiated and what the relationship was between protesters and state bodies.
Veteran Israeli leftist explores relations between moderates and militants, and gives special emphasis to rise of an autonomous women’s movement, especially Women in Black and their weekly vigils. With glossary of political parties and groups.
Account by student leader and founder of Kmara. Discusses background of Shevardnadze regime, comments on why protesters and the government avoided violence, assesses role of internal media (especially Rustavi-2) and argues that the role of foreign support was limited by lack of information and by caution. Summary and full report available online.
Interview in which Kandil analyses the revolt brewing under the surface and the role of six distinct groups, the nature of the Mubarak regime, the events of the first month of revolution and prospects for the future.
Analysis by political sociologist depicting the revolt as a power struggle between the military, the security services and the political leadership in the context of the previous six decades. Challenges the widespread assumption that after the popular rebellion the military continued to control the political developments.
Widely reviewed and recommended account by the two journalists who wrote the New York Times article that exposed and documented Harvey Weinstein’s systematic abuse of women actors and employees over decades. The book reveals the unfolding story they uncovered, exposes in detail the mechanisms of power that silenced many women, and reveals those who resisted these pressures. The second part of the book covers the Senate hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh and Blasey Ford’s accusation against him.
Celebrated analysis by distinguished Polish journalist of later years of Shah’s regime and meditation on power, the role of fear and the nature of revolution.
This paper aims to assess the ideology of feminism and feminist criticism, with the aim of affirming its success in Africa over the years while focusing on intra-gender relations among women as reflected in Gynotexts, namely literary texts written by women. The author finds that the present relationship between female characters in gynotexts does not promote feminist ideology but is inimical to it. Because healthy sisterhood is not often depicted This is because the lack of healthy sisterhood (though this is not necessarily inherent in women's writing) this omission detracts from the realization of the goals of the feminist movement in Africa'.
– a six-volume series. Notably vol. 2, ‘Hope and Challenge, 1935-1952’, Thomas Karis, ed., 1973, pp. 550; vol 3, ‘Challenge and Violence, 1953-1964’, 1987, pp. 845; vol. 5, ‘Nadir and Resurgence, 1964-1979’, Thomas G. Karis and Gail M. Gerhart, eds., 1997, pp. 840; vol 6, ‘Challenge and Victory’, Gail M. Gerhart and Clive L. Glaser, 2010, pp. 816. ‘Combines narrative with a wealth of primary source material.’
Account by a Polish journalist (who left in 1949) of the evolution of destalinization from above and demands for democratization from below in 1955-56, and the October 1956 revolution. Karol explains the background context of Poland’s wartime experiences and the Communist seizure of power and in Part Two assesses Poland a year after October 1956.
Features interviews with a number of Georgian political figures. Most of the contents are reproduced from the Spring 2004 issue of Caucasus Context.
Kascian explain how a new law to prevent the rehabilitation of Nazism is designed as part of the campaign to suppress Belarus civil society.
Analyses social and political context and mounting opposition up to April 2006.
Examines scale of crisis created in Greece by austerity programme and the growing movement Solidarity for All (promoted by the left coalition Syriza) creating support networks supplying food, health, education, cultural activity and legal advice, and setting up informal exchanges of goods and services.
SANE was founded in the US in 1957 to campaign against nuclear tests, but also to draw attention to wider dangers of the arms race. Its emphasis was on public appeals, lobbying in Washington and backing peace candidates in the 1962 primaries, and its support was mainly from intellectuals and some business people; students tended to support more radical groups and nonviolent direct action against tests and bases was carried out by groups like the Committee for Nonviolent Action.
Examination of major protests and movements in the USA from the anti-Vietnam War mass obstruction of Washington DC in May 1971 to the Occupy movement of 2011. The author discusses the role of feminists and gay activists in launching significant resistance on key public issues: notably the 'Women's Pentagon Action' in 1980 and ACT-UP battling discrimination against AIDS sufferers in the 1980s. The book also examines why some major protests were not well supported by Black activists and how they brought a different focus to others.
The author, who has experience of organizing mass demonstrations (for example against the Iraq War in 2003) compares two major protests: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (when Martin Luther King gave his 'I have a dream' speech); and the Women's Marches in Washington and across the USA in January 2017. She focuses on the different styles of protest -the first highly organized and centrally controlled by Civil Rights leaders (who strictly monitored the slogans on banners and signs), the second decentralized and spontaneous in origin with a multiplicity of demands and slogans. There was also a major contrast in the public role played by women (not allowed to speak at the 1963 rally and prominent in 2017). Kauffman argues that the mass protests also had contrasting aftermaths - with the 2017 protests leading directly to continuing grass roots mobilization, whereas the 1963 march did not.
Includes references to role of ‘truly peaceful resistance’ in 1983.
Includes chapter by Mohammed Abu Nimer, ‘Nonviolent Action is Israel and Palestine: A Growing Force’ (pp. 135-171) and others on the role of civil society and NGOs in both Israel and Palestine. Also profiles of a range of Israeli and Palestinian organizations.
Kaunda, President of Zambia and an advocate of nonviolence, wrestles with problems of violence and nonviolence, giving his reasons for ultimately accepting the case for armed struggle in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Kaur explains the social and economic context within which the Modi government introduced the new farm laws. These, he argues, will result in an unending cycle of structural adjustments, disinvestment and privatization, that farmers fear will lead to debts and dispossession. He outlines how the farmers are, despite intimidation, developing solidarity across caste, class, religion and regional divides.
See also: Sormova, Ruth ; Neubarova, Michaela ; Kavan, Jan , Czechoslovakia’s Nonviolent Revolution In Martin, Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defence (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)London, War Resisters' International, 1991, pp. 36-41
Kazharski notes that the mass movement that arose to reject the rigged 2020 election had been interpreted as the creation of a new civil society or even a new political nation. His article focuses on the relevance of the symbolic politics of the movement in creating a new sense of identity.
Covers range of environmental campaigns in different parts of the world, including Ireland, France, Israel, Japan, India and Indonesia.
Kehinde sees blackness as a unifying factor for people of African descent across different continents. He examines different political approaches adopted in the past, such as pan-Africanism, black nationalism, Marxism and liberalism, and argues for black radicalism as the best strategy today - to resist racism by embracing African descent. The focus of the book is on the UK, but it covers the US, Caribbean and Africa and other parts of the world.
Kell stresses the role of the constitutional court and notes the role also played by the high court in thwarting an attempt by President Mutharika just before the re-run June 2020 election to force the chief justice to retire. But he also notes the importance of public pressure and the judiciary have worked together before to uphold the constitution and prevent a president from abolish term limits on his tenure.
See also: Moffat, Craig, 'Malawi Elections Provide a Global Lesson in Democracy', Mail and Guardian (South Africa), 23 November 2020, pp.3.
Moffat celebrates the securing of democracy in Malawi, notes key factors which led to the successful election of the opposition in the June 2020 re-run election, and comments also on the difficult context of Covid-19 and the absence of external observers to monitor the conduct of the poll.
See also: 'Lessons from Malawi's Fresh Presidential Elections of 23 June 2020', International IDEA, 25 November 2020, pp. 23.
Conference Report and Webinar in August 2020, when Malawi's Electoral Commission share their experiences with other electoral commissions in the Southern African Development Community (SADF).
Among the many groups that sprang up to offer financial support and solidarity to the miners was the London- based Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners. This article charts support offered by LGSM and discusses wider implications for the movement on the left.
A comprehensive article exploring the legislative advances and what is yet to be accomplished in the US one year after the emergence of the #MeToo movement and #TimeIsUp campaigns.
Kelly participated in the Gulf Peace Team and later co-founded Voices in the Wilderness, breaking sanctions against Iraq. See also: ‘Kathy Kelly and Milan Rai, ‘Voices in the Wilderness: Campaigning against Sanctions on Iraq 1995-2005’, in Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp.143-49.
Selection of documents and personal accounts, including eyewitness reports on demonstrations in Lhasa in 1988 and 1989.
After decades of silence, many surviving ‘comfort women’ – sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army in World War Two - have publicly come forward to demand justice through apologies and reparations. The Japanese government has continued to deny responsibility. In response, supporters of ‘comfort women’ have created public memorials throughout the world, particularly in the US. These memorials have led to Japanese diplomatic intervention and demands for their removal, sparking a battle for recognition in the public sphere. This thesis explores the ‘comfort women’ movement and the controversy surrounding the memorials, reexamining these memorials as a form of recognition, reparations and reconciliation.
The thesis can be accessed here https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5h71r542#article_main
Kem discusses a survey showing how attitudes to social harassment vary across Europe, and also how EU countries have different laws and punishments for harassment. Notes that although the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention of 2011 prohibiting violence against women has been ratified by many West European states (though not by Germany until 2017), legal provisions, and in particular reporting rates, vary between countries. France provides for a fine of up to 30,000 euros and two years in prison, or in the case of harassment by a work superior up to three years in prison.
This article makes comparisons between the pre-digital ‘Riot Girl’ movement of the 1990s, which developed out of feminist punk rock bands in the US, and MeToo. Both have named perpetrators of sexual violence, warned others about predators, and offered support to survivors. But those naming perpetrators have become much more liable to retaliation in the digital age. The author argues that the complex body of law related to whistleblowing provides a framework for MeToo accusers to express their anger and frustration, as the Riot Girl did.
Account widely reprinted (including in both Crow, Ralph E.; Grant, Philip ; Ibrahim, Saad E., Arab Nonviolent Political Struggle in the Middle East Boulder CO, Lynne Rienner, , 1990, pp. 129 , and Stephan, Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , (above) of the (Syrian) Druze resistance to incorporation into Israel after the occupation of the Golan Heights in 1967.
Narrates the history of Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion and was published a few weeks before the referendum that legalized abortion in May 2018.
See also https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-27/abortion-referendum:-ireland-votes-to-liberalise-laws/9803848
Youthful personal impressions combined with later historical research on Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. Especially strong on the playful resistance of groups such as the Orange Alternative in Wroclaw.
Covers Lebanon since the mass movement in response to Hariri’s assassination, covering the role of Hizbollah and other political groupings.
This book covers the popular resistance that has developed in the towns since the coup in 2009, but especially in the Bajo Aguan valley, where peasants who are contesting their dispossession from their land since 1992 by the Dinant Corporation and other large landowners promoting palm oil plantations, are staging large scale occupations of land. The area has a large military presence and special forces are implicated in killing local activists.
Focused particularly on the controversy over the major Narmada River dam projects, but also provides comparative perspective by considering dam projects in Brazil, China, Indonesia, South Africa and Lesotho, where the World Bank and other lenders were persuaded to withdraw funding.
See also: Khagram, ‘Restructuring the Global Politics of Development: The Case of India’s Narmada Valley Dams’, pp. 206-30; and Smitu, Kothari, ‘Globalization, Global Alliances and the Narmada Movement’, pp. 231-44.
This book illustrates how Arab women have been engaging in ongoing, parallel struggles before, during, and after the Arab Spring. It focuses on three levels: 1) the political struggle to pave the way to democracy, freedom, and reform; 2) the social struggle to achieve gender equality and combat all forms of injustice and discrimination against women; and 3) the legal struggle to chart new laws which can safeguard both the political and the social gains. The contributors argue that while the political upheavals often had a more dramatic impact, they should not overshadow the parallel social and legal revolutions, which are equally important, due to their long-term impacts on the region. The chapters shed light on the intersections, overlaps and divergences between these gendered struggles and unpacks their complexities and multiple implications, locally, regionally, and internationally.
The authors explain the significance for Sikhs of the date (19 November) of Modi's surprise announcement, summarize the laws to be repealed, and interview a number of protesters who express their distrust and require proof the laws will no longer apply.
See also: BBC, 'Farm Laws: India's PM Narendra Modi Repeals Controversial Reforms', 19 November, 2021
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-59342627
Report on Modi's announcement and the laws to be repealed, and on farmers' reactions. Notes celebrations in Punjab and Haryana, but also the refusal to end protest camps until formal repeal by parliament. The report is followed by an analysis by the BBC's India Correspondent.
When They Call You A Terrorist is the story of Patrisse Khan-Cullors, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. It collects her reflections on humanity, on her life and activism since early age, her brother’s first-hand experience with police brutality, and on the founding of a movement for racial justice and its development during the Trump era.
The author, a PhD student at a US university, examines the Lebanese movement in its fourth week. She summarizes its origins, immediately after fire destroyed over 3,000 acres of woodland in the country, as a reaction to new taxes on online calling apps, fuel, cigarettes and consumer goods,
and notes how it developed to challenge corruption and the nature of the regime. She argues the movement's scale (about 2 million protesters on Sunday October 20) its national spread, including to sectarian strongholds, and its inclusion of different religious and class groups, made the protests unprecedented in recent history. As a result of demonstrations, strikes in schools and universities, and blockades the government abandoned its tax plans and the Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, announced his resignation on 29 October.
Documents from the soldiers’ resistance to the Lebanon War, the First Intifada and the Second Intifada.
Examines the background to the major protests that erupted after the military coup.
European Studies graduate Charlotte Killeen outlines the national and Europe-wide reactions to Poland’s near-total ban on abortion, ’after a 2020 Constitutional Court ruling that excluded foetal abnormalities (previously recognized as a ground for abortion) from exemption to the general ban.
In the last decade of the Cold War, during the 1980s, the Peace Movement in Vancouver, BC, gained an unprecedented amount of traction. However, was short-lived as peace activists dwindled in the 1990s and beyond. In this article Christine Kim explores what were the factors that caused the peace movement in Vancouver to fail and whether its legacy is one that supports the value of political activism as a powerful agent for change. The author interviews students, professors, and activists from the Vancouver Peace Movement of the 1980s in an hour-long radio documentary.
In advance of the NPT Review Conference due in April 2020 (since postponed due to Civid-19) Kimball comments on the dangers to the whole system of arms control and the worsening relations between nuclear weapon states. He suggests an action plan for the NPT conference.
See also: Rauf, Tariq, ‘The NPT at 50: Perish or Survive?’, Arms Control Today, March 2020.
https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2020-03/features/npt-50-perish-survive
Discusses the division between the view of the NPT held by nuclear weapon states who adhere to the treaty and the view of 160 non-nuclear weapon states who are parties to the NPT, who seek reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. He also discusses the 1995 resolution on a Middle Eastern nuclear weapon free zone, which has become a significant source of disagreement.
Case studies of a range of environmental conflicts in Britain over urban development, water supply, power lines, M4 motorway, juggernaut lorries, the Cublington airport campaign, and the genesis of the Clean Air Act. Focus on pressure groups.
A collection of some of the most iconic artworks from seven decades of anti-nuclear movement aimed at suggesting the rethinking of the idea of living under the shadow on nuclear weapons realised on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The author examines, using newspaper reports on corporate boycotts in the US from1990 to 2005, why some corporations that are boycotted are more likely to respond to the demands than others. Brayden concludes that boycotts are more likely to succeed when they attract considerable media attention, and especially if the corporation has previously suffered from attacks on its reputation and from declining sales.
In this book, Coretta Scott King collects a series of extracts on Dr. King’s views on issues such as racism, justice, civil rights, freedom, religion, nonviolence and peace. She also includes some of her husband’s major speeches.
Account of year-long 1955 bus boycott which heralded a new stage of nonviolent direct action against segregation and launched King’s leadership.
Answer to critics during the major campaign to desegregate Birmingham Alabama. President Kennedy intervened to get King released.
Answer to white leaders urging less militant confrontation and greater patience.
At a time when Gandhi is being widely criticized (for very different reasons) in India, South Africa and the UK, Mary King sets Gandhi in his historical context and also stresses Gandhi's own willingness to confront his assumptions and prejudices.
Insider account by white woman working in SNCC office. Meticulously detailed, with extensive quotes from key documents.
2nd edition New Delhi, Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Mehta Publishers, 2002, pp. 520.
Argues that the First Intifada represented a mass nonviolent mobilization in which women played a significant role, and looks at the global history of nonviolent resistance to suggest that nonviolent strategies are the way to achieve a just peace. See also King, Mary Elizabeth, Palestine: Nonviolent Resistance in the Struggle for Statehood, 1920s-2012 In Bartkowski, Recovering Nonviolent History: Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Boulder CO, Lynne Rienner, 2013, pp. 161-180 .
Revisionary analysis of Gandhi’s 608 day campaign to secure right of untouchables to use road by a Brahmin temple, challenging claims in earlier accounts that a solution was reached because the Brahmins were ‘converted’. The author criticises both Gandhi’s belief that self-imposed suffering can convert the opponent and his leadership of this campaign.
This article explores how the protests against racial injustice and police violence brought millions to the streets under the banner of Black Lives Matter, giving the international movement significant corporate and political muscle, which US leaders used to launch a nationwide voter mobilization effort. It also briefly explores the initiatives the movement proposed towards police reform.
The most substantial publication from CPACS’ ongoing West Papua Project – 25 chapters, including human rights surveys, discussions on strategic possibilities, and other commentaries, plus Katrina Rae’s West Papua 2010: A Literature Survey. All online at http://sydney.edu.au/arts/peace_conflict/practice/west_papua_project.shtml
Wide ranging exploration of campaigns in all parts of the world seen at first hand. Includes coverage of Sem Terra in Brazil, Cochabamba in Bolivia, township resistance to privatization in South Africa, the Zapatistas, opposition to mining in West Papua, and campaigning groups in the USA. See also his: Kingsnorth, Paul , Protest still matters New Statesman, 08/05/2006 , 8 May, 2006, discussing why the Global Justice Movement has dropped out of the news, the turn away from street demonstrations to social forums, and stressing that struggles still continue, especially in the Global South.
Tips for diplomats on how they can more effectively support local pro-democracy g roups facing repressive regimes. Case studies from South Africa, Ukraine, Chile, Belarus, Burma/Myanamar, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
This paper identifies the impact of rampant sexual harassment on Egypt’s legal culture. As it had been vaguely defined in Egyptian laws and largely condoned by the society and justice system, sexual harassment increased over the years in both the frequency and in the intensity of its violence. As a result, legal initiatives and grassroots movements arose attempting to criminalise sexual harassment and end its social acceptability. With the fall of Mubarak, the human rights movements optimistically continued to call for an anti-sexual harassment law, but due to the continuing political turmoil, the struggle was more arduous than expected. Three years after the uprising, sexual harassment was finally criminalised and efforts to change public attitudes towards it continue, but the will of the state to enforce the law, beyond statements and promises, is yet to be proven.
Discusses why MeToo was not taken up in Germany as it spread from the US to parts of Europe, until an actress went public in 2018 about a violent attempted rape by prominent film director Dieter Wedel in 1980. Her accusation led other women to follow suit, and Die Zeit revealed that the TV network Wedel worked for had buried evidence of his sexual misconduct. The article quotes a woman university professor on two main reasons for German reluctance to take up MeToo: 1) that despite Angela Merkel's long period as Chancellor women are not well represented in politics, or in top management; 2) German skepticism about cultural trends emanating from the USA.
The author stresses that a democratic state based on the rule of law provides a rigorous normative order, which guarantees basic civil and human rights for each citizen, whilst also allowing for democratic government. Therefore, resistance and civil disobedience are always caught in a conflict between social (and political) rules and individual rights.
Since the protests against the use of nuclear energy in the 1980s, civil disobedience is part of German society. The author claims that this kind of resistance shouldn't be confused with the right to resist. Civil disobedience has certain stringent criteria that have to be fulfilled, and should moreover be an exception in a democracy founded on the rule of law and the principle of representation.
Klein discusses involvement of women within the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation, EZLN). The movement is now engaged in activities such as peaceful mobilizations, dialogue with civil society, and structures of political, economic, and cultural autonomy even though it was previously known as a military movement demanding justice and democracy for Indigenous peasants in Southern Mexico. Women’s activism in fighting patriarchy, discrimination and violence across the Zapatista territory is crucial.
Klein discusses involvement of women within the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation, EZLN). The movement is now engaged in activities such as peaceful mobilizations, dialogue with civil society, and structures of political, economic, and cultural autonomy even though it was previously known as a military movement demanding justice and democracy for Indigenous peasants in Southern Mexico. Women’s activism in fighting patriarchy, discrimination and violence across the Zapatista territory is crucial.
Now a classic analysis of the role of brands and sources of leverage on corporations, including extensive information on a range of campaigns, many including direct action.
See ‘IMF: Go To Hell. The People of Argentina have tried the IMF Approach; Now they want to govern the country’, pp. 51-55.
Well known critic of neoliberal globalization analyses its impact on climate change, argues against the adequacy of technical fixes and for fundamental social change. She also examines the developments in the environmental movement and suggests how campaigns against fracking and tar sands are front lines in the struggle against climate change.
Klein enters the current debate about a Green New Deal in the context of the US Presidential and Congressional elections, and deploys her analytical and persuasive skills to argue for its necessity and to examine the policies and approaches required.
This thesis examines how government responses affected femicide rates in five selected countries: Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. The study is a qualitative comparative multi-case study using social inclusion and exclusion theory to understand if policies are inclusive or exclusive, and if the nature of legislation has an impact on the femicide rates.
Discusses role of self-immolation by Korean protesters.
A detailed history and sympathetic analysis of the development of a new kind of politics in the autonomous administration created rebel held territory in northern Kurdistan in Syria. Rojava’s ideology (a reaction against the previous Marxist-Leninist beliefs of the Kurdish PKK) rejects centralized state control and emphases local communal organizing and promotion of ecological and feminist goals. Their armed groups, which include women's units, played a major role in opposing ISIS.
See also: Dirik, Dilar, 'Unbowed" New Internationalist, July/August 2020, pp.22-4.
The author notes the 'remarkable progress' made by the Autonomous Administration in Northern and Eastern Syria since July 2012 in promoting women's rights in all spheres. Turkish troops and their proxies occupied parts of Rojava -Afrin in the north in 2018 and the area bordering Turkey in 2019 - expelling hundreds of thousands of Kurds, shutting down all women's organizations and allowing armed groups to terrorize women. Nevertheless, women were continuing to organize more informally and were committed to resist the permanent extinction of their basic rights, and in northern Syria had held protests and rallies.
Ko explores the US policy of coerced sterilization in the 20th century, implemented through federal funding in 32 states. Sterilization was used to control ‘undesirable’ groups such as immigrants, people of colour, the poor, disabled or mentally ill and unmarried mothers.
See also: DenHoed, Andrea, ‘The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement’, The New Yorker, 27 April 2016.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-forgotten-lessons-of-the-american-eugenics-movement
See also: Pandit, Eesha, ‘America's secret history of forced sterilization: Remembering a disturbing and not-so-distant past, Salon, 30 January 2016.
Kohn discusses the allegations against high-profile perpetrators as a representative sample of the range of accusations raised generally by the #MeToo movement. She also analyzes the current responses available to redress these wrongs and then turns to the potential of restorative justice. This is conceived as a therapeutic form of dispute resolution that has enormous potential for eliciting the outcomes the #MeToo movement seek: true gender-equality, respect, and understanding.
See also Hutt, Michael , Drafting the Nepal Constitution, 1990 Asian Survey, 1991, pp. 1020-1039 .
Derives propositions about social movements and political change from detailed analyses of the US Civil Rights Movement compared with movements against nuclear power.
Kolbert, a former New York Times journalist, sets the current crisis in the context of five mass extinctions over the last half a billion years. She draws on the scientific findings of geologists, botanists and marine biologists to track 12 species which have become extinct, or are on the point of extinction, and raises basic questions about the impact and role of the human species.
Discusses role of Benigno Aquino and Corazon Aquino’s involvement in politics; pp. 105-23 focus on mutiny and popular protests.
A detailed account of the 2014 movement, setting it in the wider context of the campaign for democracy in Hong Kong, and of Hong Kong's relations with mainland China. The author, who is a free lance journalist, explains that he began this account as a record by a participant in the protests, but that he came to see the need to counter propaganda about the movement and give a proper overall picture. The student radical leader Joshua Wong has written a Foreword.
By tracing everyday breadwinner practices from the early industrial period to the democratic period (largely between 1960s and 2000s) in Korea, and by observing that the Confucian hierarchy of male supremacy continued into the early industrial period, despite the significant contributions of women to earning a living for their families, this study illustrates the changes in dynamics relating to women’s subordination.
Analyzes range of social movements and over 3,000 ‘protest events’ between 1965-1989 in the context of West German institutional arrangements, drawing comparisons with the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Eyewitness account by the police chief of Budapest in 1956, who refused to obey Soviet orders to quell the uprising and was later sentenced to life imprisonment, but released in 1963 in an amnesty granted by Khrushchev.
Although originally intended to de-stigmatise abortion, the #ShoutYourAbortion Twitter campaign was hijacked by anti-abortionists who linked the hashtag to hundreds of stigmatising anti-abortion messages. Using a Twitter Search API, the authors collected these messages (1,990 tweets) to identify the discursive features of abortion stigma.
The authors, Panamanian journalists, were both forced to leave the country.
Kostovica’s commentaries also appeared frequently in the on-line journal Transitions: http://www.tol.org.
Primarily a study of education and on ethnic segregation.
Examines whether, as often assumed, scientists support for particular views and policies damages their scientific credibility. Their findings were that there was no significant indication that advocacy undermines scientific credibility.
The contributors provide historical perspective on nuclear weapons policy; explore the role of international law in furthering the prospects of nuclear weapons abolition; consider the obstacles to nuclear abolition; to achieving a nuclear-weapons-free-world; and consider issues of sovereignty, and general and complete disarmament.
See also: Krieger, David (2003) Hope In A Dark Time, Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, pp. 255.
Includes essays on hope and nuclear weapons abolition by many leading figures, such as Adam Curle, Joseph Rotblat, and Elise Boulding. It also includes an exchange on global citizenship and global democracy.
David Krieger, founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, proposes a counter argument to the widely held belief that nuclear weapons are necessary and provide protection to the countries that possess them. He argues that there is a ‘human responsibility’ to seek the elimination of these weapons.
A dialogue between two peace philosophers, one American and one Japanese, that provide a balance of Western and Eastern perspectives on the imperative of abolishing nuclear weapons.
A ‘classic’ for grassroots activists. A study of the interdependence of the state, as a form of political organization, and war.
The author distinguishes between 'civil disobedience' and 'whistle blowing', discusses possible classification of the terms and clarifies their meaning with reference to historical context.
Account by four women who ‘disarmed’ a Hawk fighter-bomber bound for Indonesia at the time of the war against East Timorese resisters. In July 1997 Liverpool Crown Court acquitted the four, accepting that under international law their action aimed to prevent a crime.
Mona Krook argues that violence against women in politics is increasingly recognised around the world as a significant barrier to women’s political participation. This article maps how this analysis emerged globally. She notes that it has multiple, parallel origins, such as: efforts by locally elected women in Bolivia in the late 1990s to theorise their experiences as political harassment and violence against women; networking by elected women in Asia (with support from global actors) to map and condemn manifestations of violence against women in politics in the mid 2000s; and initiatives in Kenya to recognize and tackle electoral gender-based violence in the late 2000s.
This paper discusses the events of the 2016 mobilization against a proposed total abortion ban proposal through a lens of reproductive justice, and explains the context of the struggle. The authors examine the Strike as a ‘tumultuous act of women’s solidarity’, while simultaneously assessing its implications for RJ issues. They also discuss the aftermath and the social unwillingness to acknowledge the complexities of women’s lives and reproductive choices. They also provide arguments for applying the RJ framework to illuminate the concept of ideal citizens, and to explore gendered social control in Poland. This study has a global relevance, reflecting the impact of worldwide trends in women’s rights activism, and the relevance of RJ in the context of resurfacing nationalisms and populism.
This article, which is part of an issue on 'Youth Politics in Urban Areas', focuses on the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill movement to explore the role of young people in steering this movement. Ku examines how they drew on local and international resources to direct the movement, and 'the path-breaking strategies and results that have emerged'.
Analyzes corruption as a violation of human rights and proposes a multi-pronged approach to tackling corruption, including a greater role for civil society. A postscript takes account of the 2011 Anna Hazare movement against corruption.
Kumar discusses why the ‘first wave’ of the ‘Me Too’ movement in India in October 2017 was not very effective, but argues that the ‘second wave’ from Autumn 2018 has been better organised, provided better evidence of harassment and brought in more women. Therefore, there is now some hope that earlier 2013 legislation against sexual harassment in the workplace may be implemented in practice.
Sociological study of the 1952 ‘Defiance Campaign’.
Account by an enthusiastic Russian Ukrainian novelist, best known for his surreal Deat of a Penguin, who was a symphatetic observer of protests, and stresses popular anger at the systematic corruption of Yanukovytch regime and the spontaneous self-organising nature of the Euromaidan movement.
The focus of this study is on how movements using nonviolent tactics can respond to repression, and increase the potential for repressive and violent measures to backfire. The contributors include both social scientists and activists who have experienced repression, providing an analysis of the different forms of repression possible, and of methods protesters might use in response.
Contends that the revolution was truly unpredictable by critiquing five sets of retrospective ‘explanations’. Includes essay on available source material.
The starting point for this book is the editors’ belief in the need to revive and redefine pacifist thought for the 21st century, on the grounds that just war theory (dominant in recent decades) has proved insufficient, and that rejection of any limits on warfare is obviously undesirable. Pacifism has proved inspirational in the past, so its potential should be explored.
Examines the leading role of youth organizations – Otpor in Serbia (2000), Kmara in Georgia (2003) and Pora in Ukraine (2004) – and conditions for success, including training, western technical and financial assistance, choice of strategies and response of authorities.
Eight contributions analysing various aspects of Ukrainian society from schools to rock ’n’ roll, from politics to gender.
Much of this issue analyses the previous Kuchma regime and parliamentary elections in 1994, 1998 and 2002, but there are two articles on the 2004 presidential elections and impact of the ‘Orange Revolution’, one by Kuzio, Taras , From Kuchma to Yushchenko Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 2005, pp. 229-244 .
Feminist analysis of the conscientious objection movement in South Korea in which women activists challenge dominant militarized conception of masculinity.
The article starts with an analysis of the personal as well as the institutional factors leading to the 2021 coup. It then assesses the special situation in Rakhine State (previously the kingdom of Arakan), home to Muslim minorities including the Rohingya, and to Arakan Buddhists, who are hostile to both Muslims and to the Burmese (Buddhist) government.
In this long article, L’Abate reflects on Cassola’ s work, La Rivoluzione Disarmista, which focuses on pursuing a nonviolent ‘disarming revolution’ aimed at strengthening fraternity amongst people and abolishing nuclear weapons. Starting from Cassola, L’Abate examines the relevance of nonviolent movements in Italy and worldwide, starting from those whose activity contributed to the adoption of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987 by Gorbachev and Reagan. He also sharply analyses the pervasive, global structural violence caused by the huge concentration of natural resources in the hands of a few, and reflects on how nonviolence can contribute to changing the current global financial system. L’Abate cites both Italian and internationally renowned authors on nonviolence, and proposes his solutions for overcoming the current state of affairs.
Between arriving in Poland in 1980 and being expelled in 1982, the author engaged in firsthand research and gathered relevant documents to question the emphasis on the role of intellectuals, and develop his thesis on the central role of working class activism and their talent for democratic organization.
On struggle in late 1970s by Navajos against proposed uranium and coal mining, stressing dangers of uranium mining.
See also her article
La Duke, Winona , Uranium Mining, Native Resistance and the Greener Path: The impact of uranium mining on indigenous communities Orion Magazine, 2009 , on Navajo resistance in past and new threat from revived stress on nuclear power. (Includes references to Kakadu.)
This is the second volume of the history of the direct action movement launched by radical Catholics in the USA, whose tactics were taken up by Protestants and committed advocates of disarmament in both the US and Europe. Protests have over the years been directed at a range of ICBMs designed to carry nuclear warheads, Trident submarines, and nuclear weapons plants. This volume, which includes individual accounts and information on trials of protesters, covers actions not only in the US, but in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.
Laffin, a Plowshares activist and member of the radical Catholic Worker organization, gave this talk to 100 supporters of the seven protesters on trial that week for entering the Kings Bay naval submarine base in Georgia in 2018 and symbolically damaging weapons systems. They were found guilty of conspiracy, damaging government property and trespassing. The first Plowshares protest in 1980 involved eight Catholics trespassing on the General Electric Nuclear Missile facility in the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and taking action that became characteristic of later protests: they damaged nuclear warhead cones and poured blood on files, before publicly announcing their actions and being arrested. Laffin notes that Plowshares (drawing on the biblical injunction 'beat your swords into plowshares') grew out of the Catholic protests at draft offices during the Vietnam War, when draft records were destroyed. The Berrigan brothers took part in both.
See also: Cohen-Joppa, Jack, ‘They Came to Stop a Crime: The Trial of the Kingsbay Plowshares 7’, Peace News, 2636-2637, Dec. 2019-Jan. 2020, p.7.
(Article first published on 10 Nov. 2019, on Beyond Nuclear International: beyondnuclearinternational.org)
The article provides brief background on Plowshares and outlines the testimony by defendants during their trial. It also records the jury decision to convict each of the seven on four counts: trespass, destruction of government property, ‘depredation’ of government property on a military installation; and conspiracy to commit these illegal acts.
The authors challenge the (dominant) one-sided representations of gender in the discourses on human rights, and also transitional justice (involving new approaches to redressing recent major suffering and oppression). They examine how transitional justice and human rights institutions, as well as political institutions, impact the lives and experiences of women with references to Argentina, Bosnia, Egypt, Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lanka. They focus especially, in a variety of contexts, on the relationships between local and global forces.
Compares movements of objection to the French war in Algeria, the US War in Vietnam and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
As civil resistance again took the world of realpolitik by surprise, the Stimson Center invited experts to evaluate how their sectors had viewed the prospects for change in the Middle East.
Analyses revolutionary popular movements (such as Guatemala and El Salvador 1944, and France 1968) and issues of cultural preparation, organisation and tactics from a committed nonviolent standpoint. Also discusses how to develop and defend revolution by decentralizing power and use of nonviolent civilian defence.
Experienced activist trainer poses questions for trainers to ask themselves about their work, and suggests questions for those who denounce nonviolence training as ‘pro-imperialist’.
Lakey, a veteran of nonviolent action protests and prominent in developing training for nonviolent action, here recounts numerous campaign successes from different times and parts of the world, but its central example of innovative organizing is the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) five-year campaign (initiated by Lakey in 2009), which forced the major US bank PNC to end its financing of mountaintop removal coal mining.
Journalist Nina Lakhani draws on numerous interviews, including with Caceras herself, legal files and corporate records to recount the years of environmental protest by this indigenous Honduran activist, who received the Goldman Prize in 2015 for her successful campaign to halt the hydroelectric dam being built on a river sacred to her people, and was assassinated in 2016. She had been under threat for years, and many colleagues had been killed or forced into exile. Lakhani attended the trial of Caceres' killers in 2018, when employees of the dam Company and state security were implicated in the murder by hired gunmen. But the trial failed to reveal who had ordered and paid for the assassination.
In the aftermath of the 2016 Paris accords, according to the international non-profit Global Witness, one in three of those killed were indigenous people. This article reports on indigenous voices and their exclusion from COP 26.
See also: If Not Us, Then Who?, Climate Week 2019.
Focuses on the role of indigenous and local people in protecting the planet and fighting for climate justice.
Autobiography of his earlier years.
On the Platform for Mortgage Affected People (PAH) set up in February2009 to campaign about the hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and evictions of people unable to keep up mortgages on their homes, and often faced with a huge debt to the banks even after eviction. The group organized mass resistance to evictions, occupied foreclosed flats and houses to provide shelter for those made homeless, and to lobby Parliament to end evictions, promote affordable rents and changes to the mortgage law.
Discusses the constitutional problems of Philippine democracy and the role of an elite above the law.
The authors, both from the National Endowment for Democracy, note that political revolution in other post-Soviet states have been followed by 'back sliding'. But they note how Armenia differs from Georgia and Ukraine. After exploring the background and context of the 2018 revolution, they conclude with a relatively optimistic assessment of the prospects for the Pashinyan government after the December 2018 election.
Argues there was domestic crisis in Georgia before the war with Russia. Flawed elections, a ‘superpresidency’ and arbitrariness towards the constitution marked politics after the Rose Revolution.
Generally critical contributions on the peace movements of the 1980s in various European countries and their impact on the Western alliance. Includes chapter on the US peace movement of the 1980s.
Primarily a compilation of texts on civil disobedience from a philosophical perspective, using texts from George Anastaplo, G.E. Lessing, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, plus chapter 6 from John Rawls’s Theory of Justice. Tolstoy is represented by chapters 14 and 15 from his novel War and Peace, and there is an appendix with two short classic texts from Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
This issue focuses on Mexican politics, society and economy and provides background to the 2006 protests. Articles include: Rus, Jan and Miguel Tinker Solas, ‘Introduction. Mexico 2006-2007: High stakes, daunting challenges’, pp. 5-15; Gilly, Adolfo, ‘One triangle, two campaigns’, pp. 78-83; Semo, Enrique, ‘What is left of the Mexican Left?’, pp. 84-89.
The whole issue is dedicated to ‘Peasant Movements in Latin America’ including 2 articles on MST.
Provides detailed information about the abortion laws in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio.
Useful summary with references.
See also the article by Lawson, Ronald , The Rent Strike in New York City 1904-1980: The End of a Social Movement Strategy Journal of Urban History, 1984, pp. 235-258
Campaigners from all over Britain united on October 25, 2018 to blockade the government's nuclear bomb factory in Berkshire, preventing staff from entering the site.
Based on interviews with more than 1,000 participants in the 1996-97 protests.
Maire Leadbeater provides an insider’s view of the last 40 years of New Zealand’s peace movement and the fight for a nuclear free country. She was secretary and then spokeperson for Auckland’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and participated to the anti-nuclear weapons protests in the 1970s and 1980s.
Chapter 24 – ‘Toppling Milosevic from Budapest’, pp. 298-312 – covers Otpor demonstrations in 2000, but focuses on role of outside powers in toppling Milosevic and ensuring TV coverage.
Lebron explores the rhetoric and activism that laid the foundations for the Black Lives Matter movement, drawing on earlier Black intellectuals such as Fredrick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Anna Julia Cooper, Audre Lourde, James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr. His aim is to convey the ideas, demands and emotions of African Americans to illuminate their activism, and to show how the history of Black thought influences resistance to anti-Black law enforcement today.
This study covers both international and local media, as well as the role of conventional as well as digital media, in both publicizing and mobilizing the Hong Kong protests. It discusses, for example, the impact of TV, but also deliberate social media strategies. The editor is a Professor in the School of Journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Examines how digital media transformed the largely spontaneous movement into a campaign of collective action, with a central organization articulating clear policy demands as a result of a process of 'bottom up' debate and organization. The book covers the role of conventional as well as digital media, and draws on surveys of protesters, wider public opinion surveys and analysis of both conventional and social media platforms content.
See also: L.F., Francis ; Chan, Joseph , Digital Media Activities and Mode of Participation in a Protest Campaign: a Study of the Umbrella Movement Information, Communication and Society, 2016 .
Study of the militant US movement founded in 1980, which split between what the author terms ‘millenarian’ and ‘apocalyptic’ wings, the former seeking to educate others and the latter trying to save biodiversity before it is too late.
The authors from the Chinese University of Hong Kong interviewed a random sample of 1011 to assess the role of social media in the Umbrella Movement. They found a positive correlation between support for the movement and reliance on social media for news and that this group also distrusted the Hong Kong authorities, the police and Chinese Government.
This online report includes up-to-date links to the status of the legislation on sexual harassment in every state in the US.
The author argues that the historical preoccupation with the anti-apartheid struggle, which has also focused on the role of men as agents of change, has obscured both the role of women from all races and classes who joined in the national struggle, and women’s campaigning for their own rights. She uses oral histories, South African newspaper reports and materials from organisations such as the Black Sash to show women’s influence on legislation passed under and immediately after apartheid. She also notes how women created their own political spaces and, at times, transcended race and class divides.
Includes material on Archbishop Romero.
The article draws on interviews with 150 university and 150school students, focus groups and observation of 16 protests to ascertain why high school students joined the demonstrations. The author concludes that they were rebelling both against conservative, authoritarian and repressive educational systems, and against political institutions - especially the monarchy.
Includes account of 1984 workers’ occupation of Coca-Cola factory.
The authors draw on their own experiences and intersectional identities to consider: What is Blackwom?nhood? They explore a variety of topics, such as identity, feminist activism, the environment, and decoloniality and focus on the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, location, and language. This article is designed to provoke ideas about the representation and self-expression of Black women and their implication for critical feminist theorising of Black women’s role in activism, academia, and the workplace.
Covers developments in 1956, especially the June and October public protests.
Lewis, who was born in Alabama, played a major role in the Freedom Rides and sit-ins, in the 1963 March on Washington and in the March on Selma that led to the Voting Rights Act. He also helped to found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Mostly about prospects for civil society in post-communist context, but drawing on theory and practice of 1980s. Includes a chapter on the movement in Slovenia that led to it breaking away from Yugoslavia.
The authors are proponents of the theory that there is a geological epoch, which can be defined by the irreversible impact of human activity. The early stages of human development, from hunter-gatherers to settled farmers, had some environmental impact. But Lewis and Maslin trace the beginnings of a decisive human impact on the planet to the 16th-17th centuries when western colonialism, linked to the rise of global capitalism, began to transform the Americas, followed by the industrial revolution and the growth in population and consumption. The book concludes by calling for a new stage in human development involving radical economic change (away from profit-driven ownership of energy and food supplies), linked to comprehensive technological changes and much closer global cooperation. Two goals they set out are a re-wilding of half the planet and a universal basic income.
Secret Party papers leaked to the west provide details of the meetings, negotiations and communications between the top leaders about how to deal with the protests, and the triumph of the hardliners over Zhao Ziyang, General Secretary of the Party, who wished to be conciliatory. Western scholars generally accepted the papers as authentic.
Provides insights on aspects of Chinese culture that remain deeply patriarchal in a way that mixes Communist, capitalist, and Confucian values. It also provides links to organised feminist initiatives in China; reports on sexual harassment and gender discrimination; and sheds light on positive initiatives by the government to protect women alongside grave episodes of censorship on the occasion of worldwide #MeToo mobilisation and other forms of feminist street protests and art performances.
Gives background to one of the catalysts for the development of #MeToo in China - translated as “我也是” or #WoYeShi -, namely a social media post by academic Luo Xixi in December 2017, in which she accused her former doctoral professor Chen Xiaowu of unwanted sexual advances.
See also https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/chinas-me-too-moment
Report on Japanese law that compensates thousands of people who were sterilized, often without their consent, under a government program to prevent the birth of “inferior descendants” that remained in effect under “Eugenics Protection Law”, from 1948 to 1996.
See also: Kyodo, ‘Woman sues Japan over forced sterilization under eugenics law’, Japan Times, 3 July 2020.
The authors examine President Truman’s motives for authorizing and then defending the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They also discuss the moral concern of many of the scientists that directed the Manhattan Project, and expose the official attempts by historians and the media to suppress or distort the information about it.
Summary account of following organizations and their campaigns: 350.org (founded to combat climate change globally); the Sierra Club; Greenpeace; Idle No More (founded 2012 in Canada mostly by Native North Americans to combat government tar sands plan); and Union of Concerned Scientists.
Interview with leading activist Zion Lights from Extinction Rebellion about their shutdown of central London, covering reasons for adopting civil disobedience and 'flat management' structures.
Includes chapters on student activism in 1960 and 1971.
Includes article on ‘Intersex and Transgender Activism in South Africa’ and interviews with activists from Africa, Latin America and Europe discussing situation of trans people, forms of organization and role transnational organizations in these regions.
Reports on wave of rail blockades across Canada in February/March 2020 in solidarity with the Wet-suwet-en indigenous nation in British Columbia, who had been obstructing work on the 670 kilometre Coastal Gaslink project. A military style police raid in British Columbia sparked solidarity from Mohawks in Ontario and Quebec, and other indigenous and non-indigenous people. Greenpeace gave their support. There were also street marches in towns and cities.
See also: Rizvi, Husna, 'Wet"suwet'en Gas Pipeline Battle', New Internationalist, May-June 2020, p. 10.
Covers the 1988 mass unarmed resistance and its suppression.
Much-cited essay discussing categories of opposition.
Gives examples of where ‘consent’ of the oppressed is not necessary to the ends and strategy of the oppressor.
A study of Costa Rica, which explores the relation between its demilitarized status and its safety, independence, and social wellbeing.
Wakako Fukuda, one of the leading voices of the SEALDs (Student Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy) activist group in Japan, speaks about her experience of being discriminated against at work, and endlessly harassed online, for her strong presence in the Japanese feminist activist community.
Looks back to key findings of Peru’s Ombudsman enquiry (1997 to 2002) into sterilization of Indigenous women. This official policy, according to data released by the Health Ministry in 2002, Involved tubal-ligation operations on 260.874 women between 1996 and 2000.
See also: van Eerten, Jurrian, ‘Peru's history of forced sterilisation overshadows vote’, AlJazeera, 8 April 2016.
See also Mcelroy, Wendy, ‘U.N. Complicit in Forced Sterilizations’, Independent Institute, 23 December 2002.
Fang Lizhi, a prominent astrophysicist, became an increasingly vocal critic of the regime in the 1980s and was linked to the 1986 student protests.
Study of the Spanish tax resistance campaign against military expenditure, launched in the early 1980s and still continuing.
Chronicles peace activities in New Zealand from Maori time and early colonial settlement to the anti-Vietnam war movement and anti-nuclear campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s. Includes accounts of the direct action protests against French nuclear tests in 1972.
Covers key campaigns up to Sharpeville and the Soweto student rebellion.
See also Lodge, Tom , The Interplay of Nonviolent and Violent Action in the Movements Against Apartheid in South Africa, 1983-94 In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)New York, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 213-230 .
Reports on the shutting down by the government on the occasion of International Women’s Day of Feminist Voices account, a micro-blogging platform in China similar to Twitter, which is predominantly used for causes related to sexual harassment and gender discrimination in a way that attempts to bypass censorship.
This article covers the continuing and long-term protests against militarism, and for reconciliation with North Korea. It examines in particular protests against deployment of Korean troops overseas and against US military bases in Korea, and initiatives for reconciliation between the two Koreas, and assesses the movement's impact.
Excerpt from his book Hungary 1956, London, Alison and Busby, 1976, pp. 222, which provides a chronology, background to the 1956 uprising and an account of the events of October/November.
A history of resistance to US wars and military policy from the War of Independence to the 21st century, including wars against Native Americans. It also covers mutinies and protests over mistreatment of soldiers, including Jim Crow laws after the Civil War, and abuse of women and gays. The emphasis is on telling stories and assumes knwoledge of US history.
Explores women’s consciousness of the period through interviews, many with local Gdansk activists, notes women’s marginalisation in union structures and discusses implications for post-Communist period.
After sketching in Taiwan’s earlier history and the evolution of the KMT, chapter 3 describes Taiwan’s political development up to 1986, including a brief summary of the birth of opposition (pp. 66-72). Chapter 8 looks at political reform in 1986-89, the founding of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and the rise in protest.
Building on 40 years of activism and scholarship, contributors assess recent feminist issues and campaigns in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Sheds light on the causes of femicide in Ciudad Juarez, a city in Mexico with the highest rate of femicides. It highlights nonviolent initiatives led by feminist groups and emphasises that the pandemic of femicide in Ciudad Juárez should be placed in a national context of uncontrolled violence from organised crime, impunity, institutional corruption, and a patriarchal mentality.
Examines squatting in empty properties in European cities over three decades, and argues squatting has promoted a mode of citizen participation, protest and self-management.
A comprehensive overview of how the campaign for ‘Yes’ – which led to the repeal of the Eight Amendment of the Irish Constitution and legalisation of abortion in May 2018 - was organised in Ireland.
See also https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/world/europe/savita-halappanavar-ireland-abortion.html; https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/26/ireland-has-changed-utterly-the-cruel-eighth-amendment-is-history; https://www.ft.com/content/b60d313e-f826-11e8-af46-2022a0b02a6c and https://mobilisationlab.org/stories/how-powerful-conversations-yes-ireland/
Primarily a detailed history of the Vicaria de la Solidaridad and the changing context of its work.
A front-line account of the police killings and the Black, young activism that sparked the birth of the racial justice movement Black Lives Matter. Lowery, a Washington Post reporter, provides the narration of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, and the weeks of protests and rioting that broke out in the aftermath. He also challenges readers with the question of why so little progress has been made on the racial front during Barack Obama’s presidency, despite its promise and potential for such a transformative advancement.
Wesley Lowery became renowned, together with other of his colleagues at The Washington Post, for establishing an informal database that collects information about the shooting of Black people by police officers in 2014 and 2015, in the absence of a comprehensive federal government database.
Lowery, Wesley, 'The Birth of a Movement', Guardian (17 Jan 2017), pp. 23-25.
This Guardian 'Long Read' article is an adapted extract from Lowery's book They Can't Kill Us All, London, Penguin, 2017. The article is available (free) at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/17/black-lives-matter-birth-of-a-movement
María Luengo looks at contemporary movements against femicide in Argentina and at the role the civil sphere plays in creating forms of solidarity with transversal and global links that unite various groups of different beliefs and ideologies. She also sheds light on how the #NiUnaMenos movement is helping to reverse the trend of polarisation within and degradation of the discourse on human rights.
Substantially expanded second edition (with two new chapters) of his influential 1974 short book. His delineation of ‘three dimensions of power’ has influenced debates about power in the social sciences, and provided a reference point for some debates about resistance to domination.
An informed political assessment of the problems of Chile's political system, and the social and political divisions revealed by the 2019 protests and exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. Luna, a professor of politics, concludes with some brief suggestions on how international actors could contribute positively to the political debate by promoting moderate reforms.
Review article covering nine recent books, and providing overview of movement and noting the impact on the Arab world (Algeria and Jordan) and wider world.
Autobiography of President of ANC from 1952 to 1967, and Nobel Prize winner.
Also available in Mary Alice Waters, ed., Rosa Luxemburg Speaks, New York, Pathfinder Press, 1970; and in The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, 14 vols, London, Verso Books, 2011.
Discusses the evolution, nature and significance of the (predominantly unarmed) 1905 Revolution in Russia, and reflects Luxemburg’s emphasis on the importance of popular initiative and cooperation, as opposed to centralised party leadership – themes developed in her pamphlets ‘The Russian Revolution’ and ‘Leninism or Marxism’, both republished in 1961 under those joint titles (Ann Arbor paperback, University of Michigan Press). The standard study of Luxemburg is: Peter Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg, Oxford University Press, 1966 and 1969 (abridged edition).
By US political scientist and Foreign Policy blogger.
Deals with conscientious objection in US during the Vietnam War, 1961-1975.
The 1966 anthology included writings by opponents of slavery, anarchists and ‘progressives’ in the 19th century, and trade unionists, conscientious objectors and peace campaigners in the 20th century, up to the Civil Rights Movement and anti-Vietnam War protests. The revised edition covers radical Catholic resistance, nonviolent trade unionism, resistance to US imperialism in Central America in the 1980s and assistance to Central American refugees, opposition to the 1991 Gulf War and environmental protests.
Covers six cases of grassroots activism in Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil and Chile, which use interviews with activists and provide histories of organizations and movements involved. The activists are concerned with economic and health issues, but also stress problems relating to contraception and abortion, rape and domestic violence.
Explores standard philosophical writings on civil disobedience and queries the assumption of political obligation in contexts of major injustice and oppression, such as slavery and segregation.
An exploration of how digital tools contribute to mobilizing people to vote in the 2020 U.S. election, particularly in the aftermath of George Floyd killing.
Participant’s account of march for disarmament organized by the Committee for Nonviolent Action. After marching across the USA the participants walked in Britain, Belgium and West Germany (they were debarred from entering France). But they were allowed to enter the Soviet bloc to travel through parts of the GDR, Poland and the USSR.
(also published as: Unbowed: My Autobiography, Anchor 2008)
By prominent Kenyan woman who promoted mass planting of trees by women at grassroots level through the Green Belt Movement (founded in 1977) to reverse effects of deforestation. She also undertook vigils and fasts for human rights under the dictatorship of President Moi. See also her book: Maathai, Wangaari , The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experiences [1985] New York, Lantern Books, , 2004, pp. 117
Highly respected scholarly analysis.
An informative and detailed account of how the proposal for an Arms Trade Treaty to set international standards and controls upon the sale of arms, promoted in the 1990s by NGOs (such as Oxfam and Amnesty International) and by prominent individuals, for example Nobel Peace laureates, gained governmental support. The goal was not to stop all arms exports, but the more limited one of setting international standards for controlling sale of arms to strengthen national rules and to prevent weapons from intensifying conflicts or worsening human rights abuses. The Treaty was agreed at the UN General Assembly in April 2013 by 157 states, including the US under President Obama.
See also: Campaign Against the Arms Trade, 'Issues - Arms Trade Treaty'
https://www.caat.org.uk/issues/att
CAAT notes that the Arms Trade Treaty came into force in December 2014 when ratified by 50 states (including the UK), but explains their scepticism about the concept of a 'responsible' arms trade. CAAT claims the UK approves licenses which contravene the approved guidelines. and it should stop promoting arms sales A number of other sources sceptical about the Treaty are listed.
See also: 'Canada, ‘Canada joins the Arms Trade Treaty while still selling arms to Saudi Arabia’, Oxfam, 16 May 2019
Oxfam comments that whilst Canadian eventual accession to the Treaty is a major victory for civil society, the government has not made moves to cancel its $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, despite the Saudi record on human rights (denounced by the Trudeau government) and the Saudi role in the war in Yemen.
See also: Pecquet, Julian, ‘UN Approval of Arms Trade Treaty sets up Obama, Senate Showdown’, The Hill, 2 April 2013
Commentary on the domestic political context of Obama’s decision to back the Arms Trade Treaty, opposed by 53 Senators and the National Rifle Association. In the light of domestic opposition the Obama Administration had delayed support for the UN treaty in the run-up to the November 2012 election. Pecquet also notes that the treaty passed with 154 votes; three countries opposed – North Korea, Syria and Iran – and 23 abstained.
Feminist legal scholar, writer, teacher, and activist Catharine A. MacKinnon discusses the #MeToo movement with Durba Mitra, professor of women, gender and sexualities studies. They discuss the origins of sexual harassment law and the relationship between the law and social movements. Other topics include the particular vulnerabilities faced by women of colour, immigrant women and trans people, and harassment in international law.
Mackinnon argues that, under the right conditions, small simple actions can produce large complex effects, and that seemingly minor positive interventions in the legal realm can have a butterfly effect that generates major social and cultural transformations. Mackinnon connects the theory of social causality to a wide-ranging exploration of gender inequality, sexual harassment, rape, pornography and prostitution. His aim is to encourage political activism and promote equality socially and legally.
Compares Canada and USA from a legal perspective.
Examines deterioration of governance in Zimbabwe since independence and the effectiveness of opposition since 2001.
MacLeod has a chapter on dialogue in King; Elmslie; Webb-Gannon, Comprehending West Papua (E. II.2.d. West Papua: Civil mobilization supersedes guerrilla struggle) , above, and a historical chapter, ‘West Papua: Civil Resistance, Framing, and Identity, 1910s-2010s’, in Bartkowski, Recovering Nonviolent History: Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , Chapter 12, pp. 217-237. He also contributes on Papua for opendemocracy.net.
Includes assessment of nonviolence.
Campaign on Vancouver Island, Canada, against corporate loggers trying to take over indigenous land. Protesters blocked roads against logging. Both men and women took part, but cited as a protest organized on feminist principles.
When receiving the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 1992 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award in June 1992, peace activist, Mairead Maguire’s spoke about the concept of Peace Community and its relevance to opposing weapons of mass destruction.
A detailed analysis of how Al Qaeda under various organizational guises have been taking over the opposition to Assad and marginalized the moderates, whilst claiming to pursue a 'middle path'. The author also warns that ISIS has not been wholly defeated.
Authoritative account by former-volunteers-turned-researchers of work of Peace Brigades International (PBI) in countries in Central and South America and in Asia. The authors interviewed generals connected with the Guatemala death squads to see how far PBI had inhibited the squads. See also: Liam Mahony, Human Rights Defenders Under Attack, London, Peace Brigades International-UK, pp. 20, marking PBI’s 25th anniversary, downloadable from: http://www.peacebrigades.org/publications/books-from-pbi/. For one volunteer’s more recent account; Louise Winstanley, ‘With Peace Brigades International in Colombia’, Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp.108-11.
Drawing on newly released Party and Stasi archives, Maier analyses the 40 years of East German history, and charts both the growth of dissent (for example the autonomous peace campaigns and youth culture) in the 1980s, and the systemic decline of the regime due to economic crisis and corruption at the top. See also: Maier, ‘Civil Resistance and Civil Society: Lessons from the Collapse of the German Democratic Republic in 1989’, in Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp. 260-76.
Firsthand account from Irish libertarian socialist, looking beyond parties and discussing agrarian and urban social struggles.
It explores the development of feminism in different historical periods: during the New Socialist China (1949-1965); feminism in the Cultural Revolution (1966- 1999); and feminism in contemporary China (2000-2017).
See also https://www.theblueandgoldsmu.com/single-post/2017/10/26/Holding-up-half-the-sky-Feminism-in-China
Until as recently as September 2017, Chile was one of the few countries in the world that did not permit abortion under any circumstances. Although the Health Code had permitted therapeutic abortion on health grounds from 1931, this was repealed in 1989 as one of General Pinochet’s last acts in office. It took more than 25 years to reverse the ban. Finally, a new act was approved allowing abortion on three grounds: when a woman’s life is in danger, when there are foetal anomalies incompatible with life, and in the case of rape. Since the law allows abortion only in limited cases, most women continue to seek illegal abortions. In this paper, the authors explore the historical context in which Chile’s 2017 bill was finally passed and analyze the legislative debate. They also present the results of a community-based participatory research effort carried out by feminist and human rights organizations. Despite the 2017 law, this research shows the persistence of various obstacles to women’s access to legal abortion, such as conscientious objection by medical staff a lack of trained health care providers, and a lack of information for women.
The author, an Iranian journalist living abroad, provides lively analysis of the Green Movement and current Iranian politics. See also: Majd, Hooman , Think Again: Iran’s Green Movement. It’s a Civil Rights Movement, not a Revolution Washington DC, Foreign Policy, , 2010 , online at http://foreignpolicy.com/2010/01/06/think-again-irans-green-movement/.
This article by a sociologist at the American University of Beirut examines the movement after a year of 'struggle, crisis and destruction'. It summarizes the causes of the October 2019 uprising, its unprecedented scale (an estimated 2 million out of a population of 4.8 million), and its transcendance of all regional, social class and sectarian political divisions. It also notes that the protesters rejected both the political system based on 'sectarian clientelism', and the banking sector. Since October the financial crisis has intensified, leading to the rapid growth of extreme poverty. Majed argues that the lack of clear leadership of the movement, though it initially encouraged wide participation, by early 2020 meant that there was no strong organization or clear goals. This lack of focus contributed, together with growing financial hardship, political fatigue and regime violence against protesters, to undermine the movement.
(Originally published as March to Political Freedom, 1981).
Personal account by an activist prominent in the independence struggle of political events from the 1940s to 1963.
Includes material on the second wave of Italian feminism in 1960s and 1970s and developments on divorce, family law and employment law in the 1970s and 1980s, Ends with some discussion of lesbian and queer struggles for recognition.
Malik examines the 30 years of Bashir's dictatorial rule and comments on the lack of civil society leaders able to install a democratically elected government.
Outlines the result of a social media campaign against Trump and Pence’s decision to curtail women’s right to abortion that saw thousands of people making private donations to Planned Parenthood in the name of Vice President-elect, Mike Pence.
Memoir by a Cambodian activist against sexual slavery, whose organizations have tried to rescue, shelter and teach girls and women escaping from sexual exploitation in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and more generally. She received high level international support, but the credibility of her claims to have been sent to a brothel as a child, and of her most lurid examples of abuse in the sex industry, was challenged in a Newsweek report, 21 May 2014. An interview and report in Marie Claire 16 September 2014 in turn queried some of the allegations and interpretations of the Newsweek story. Mam is still involved in campaigning and fund raising, but controversy continues about her role, management of her campaigns, and the extent of exploitation in the sex industry.
Focus on examples from Nigerian, Sierra Leone and Liberian civil wars over several decades.
Covers very wide range of ‘movements’, including trade unions, religious and gender groupings potentially relevant to nonviolent action, but also ‘mafias’. Embraces the whole of Africa.
Mamonova and three others in the group were forced into exile by the KGB.
This book is the key reference guide to the main French nonviolent action movement. It presents the basis for applying a culture of nonviolence to the spheres of the economy, ecology, education, democracy, defence and international solidarity.
A selection of Gandhi’s writings that illustrate his thought and action, his relationship with the West and his reflection on the West-East relationship. The author presents also research findings on educational programs based on Gandhian principles, Gandhi’s thought on economic issues, nonviolence, nationalism, intercultural dialogue, terrorism and war, as well as experiments in Italy based on the Gandhian philosophy.
Includes views on nonviolence and support for the turn to violent resistance. Mandela’s earlier articles, speeches and addresses at his trials are published in: Mandela, Nelson , No Easy Walk to Freedom [1965] London, Heinemann, , 1986, pp. 189 .
Documents how multinationals are targeting resources in indigenous lands and strong indigenous resistance. Section V discusses activism and social movements and what can be done.
Chapter on ‘Donald Macleod and Australia’s Aboriginal Problem’, pp. 174-89 covers Pilbara strike and Pindan movement of late 1940s.
Investigates strategic choices of a range of social movements.
Part I is composed of the Guardian live blogs; Part II is made up of essays and analyses covering all the Arab countries, but with especial focus on those where the uprisings were most significant.
These are largely contemporaneous accounts, lightly revised from Pambazuka News, Pan-African Voices for Freedom and Justice, http://www.pambazuka.org. As well as interesting contributions on Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Algeria (noted again under E.V), this book covers unrest in a number of Sub-Saharan countries:
‘People’s revolts in Burkina Faso’, February-April 2011, involving students, the broad population and army mutinies (unfortunately the mutineers did not make common cause with the civilian protesters), pp. 131-46.
A ‘Protest Diary’ from Cameroon in February 2011, by presidential candidate Kah Walla, blogs about strictly nonviolent protests brutally suppressed (pp.107-10).
In Swaziland (pp. 155-169) the 12-15 April 2011 popular demonstrations went ahead in the face of roadblocks and despite the arrests of virtually the entire leadership of the democratic association, perhaps signalling ‘the beginning of the end’ for the absolute monarchy.
On the occasion of the 2018 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, this long article remembers the 58th anniversary of the killing of the Mirabal sisters by dictator Rafael Trujillo. They had been involved in the resistance against him in the Dominican Republic. Publicity about the Mirabal sisters inspired a wave of feminist activism in the Dominican Republic.
This long article acknowledges the 58th anniversary on November 25 of the murder of three young women – the Mirabal sisters - at the hands of dictator Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. November 25 became the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and gave rise to the emergence of feminist groups, such as the Tertulia Feminista Magaly Pineda (Magali Pineta Feminist Gathering), Coloquio Mujeres RD (Women’s Colloquium RD) and Encuentro de Abrazos (Gathering of Embraces). These groups, amongst others, represent the new wave of feminist activity in the Dominican Republic, and stress the role of women in denouncing gender-based violence committed by the state and other social actors. The article establishes connections in some cases between their struggles and Latin America’s resistance to US occupation. It also stresses the importance of creating networks of solidarity with other countries in Latin America as well as enlarging the discussion to other aspects of gender identity and sexuality.
Reflects on positive impact of solidarity from Israeli and international activists, with suggestions for strengthening effectiveness
Chronological collection of articles from Jamestown’s Eurasia Daily Monitor.
This book aims to sensitise policy-makers and especially those active in the security sector, to the strategic utility of mass-based civilian resistance, and its potential use for national defence purposes.
In a positive light, Belski discusses the advances in the fight to legalise abortion in Argentina, despite the Senate refusing to pass a bill legalising abortion in 2018. She notes the change in language by the media whilst referring to women and men; the establishment of mainstream discourses on sexual harassment and gender-based violence, and the recognition of the symbolic power of the handkerchiefs that identify the widespread pro-choice movement in Argentina and the rest of Latin America.
See also http://socialistworker.org/2018/08/16/the-people-versus-the-parliament-in-argentina
For the re-launch of the campaign for legal abortion see https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/abortion-rights-campaigners-flood-streets-buenos-aires-190220143549930.html
The authors argue that the movements in Algeria and Sudan are part of a wider trend across Africa, where since 2000 most popular uprisings have been unarmed.
Examines struggle for gay rights in USA from 1950s to early 1970s, charting the different political and cultural issues and types of campaigning and the contradictions between political reformism and radical hippy culture. Part III covers the Lesbian Feminist Movement.
Marovic, who was prominent in the student resistance to Milosevic in Serbia, provides a guide to planning a campaign in stages, and suggests exercises for each stage.
Examines why protesters failed to achieve regime change in the 2006 presidential election. Argues that the historical background of the regime, the popularity of the president, and electors’ concern with economic rather than democratic issues were all important. Also considers role of Russia and its ambivalence towards the Belarus regime.
Collection of essays edited by two historians at the University of Alberta. Topics cover the role of nationalism, the issue of the Russian language, the mass media, the motives and aims of the protesters, gender issues, and the impact of Euromaidan on politics in Ukraine, the EU, Russia and also Belarus. The Russian annexation of Crimea, and the creation of pro-Russian republics in the east of Ukraine and ensuing wars are covered in an epilogue.
This book explores misogyny across the media, from political and editorial cartoons to news and sport. It also covers film, television, social media (especially Twitter), and journalistic organizations that address gender inequities. The authors argue that the conservative populism ushered in by President Donald Trump and the Republicans create the social-cultural and political environment that have prompted the #MeToo Movement and Fourth Wave Feminism in the US as a response. They argue, therefore, that the ‘social contract’ should be reinterpreted to create a just, gender- and race-equitable society.
Original French version. Examines activist lesbian and gay organizations in relation to post-1968 feminism, gay ‘ghettoes’ and the gay press, and explores the impact of AIDS and revival of militancy in the 1990s. Notes influence of American movement, but also stresses differences.
Writings by prominent intellectuals, including Christa Wolf, exploring how far the GDR gave women the equality it proclaimed.
(also in Martin, Nonviolent Struggle and Social Defence (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) ), Ch. 5.
Examines whether a theory of power underlying nonviolent resistance should incorporate a structuralist (Marxist or feminist) interpretation, while noting the limits of structuralism for explaining active resistance.
Analysis of nonviolent action and case studies of people power in Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central and South America and South Africa.
Anarchist perspective on civilian (nonviolent) defence.
Authoritarian actions often 'backfire' against those who carry them out. Effective accompaniment strategies make this more likely.
Analysis of how violent attacks can (but do not always) backfire on the perpetrators. Not solely about unarmed resistance movements, but the theoretical framework is relevant to nonviolent strategy and there are chapters on Sharpeville, South Africa 1960. the 1991 Dili massacre in East Timor, and the 1930 salt works protest in Dharasana, India. Many of Brian Martin’s publications are online at http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs.
A guide to turning an opponent’s violence to the campaign’s advantage. For the wider theoretical analysis see: Martin, Justice Ignited: The Dynamics of Backfire (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)
Explores how methods of nonviolent action can be used effectively in contexts where unfamiliar: verbal abuse, online defamation, and struggles in relation to euthanasia and vaccination.
Compares the successful protests against Suharto in 1998 with the problems of resisting repression inside Indonesia 1965-66 and in East Timor after 1975. Brian Martin’s articles are online at: http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs
The US feminist magazine reports that #quellavoltache (MeToo) was a central theme of annual Women's Marches and rallies in Rome, Milan and Florence. The Rome rally of hundreds of women was addressed by Asia Argento, who commented on the media abuse she had received after speaking out about being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. Representatives from the International Women's House and the Network of Women Against Violence, as well as a refugee woman activist, also spoke.
By two women journalists at forefront of US gay and lesbian rights struggle from the 1950s, founders of Daughters of Bilitis and active in the feminist campaign NOW (National Organization for Women) where they argued that lesbian issues were feminist issues. A couple since the 1950s, they married in San Francisco in February 2004.
Professor Lopez presents the concepts of civil defense, people power, civil resistance, nonviolent defense and peace building. Although the book is a compilation of articles, it has a structural connection, and the many references provide the reader with more than an introduction – a full map of sources to research the ideas presented.
Reports on water ceremony in Pittsburgh, conducted by two indigenous tribal faith leaders, followed by march and rally by local and national environmental groups to protest against the development of fracking in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The protests were timed to coincide with a large fracking convention in the city.
Examines relationship between strategies and different ideologies of resistance based on race, nation or class.
Discusses resistance of slum dwellers in Philippines to eviction, but also their role in providing cheap workforce undermining organized labour.
Wide-ranging exploration, by BBC economics journalist, of campaigns round the world since 2008, including the Arab uprisings of 2011, but mainly focused on resistance to economic policies and including accounts of protest in UK, USA and Greece. Discusses economic and social causes of unrest and role of new communications.
The author traces the history of Tunisia's politics back to the 19th century and early reforms relating to religion, education and women's rights, to explain the relatively liberal context in the 21st century. Masri therefore argues that Tunisia is not a model for other Arab states, but an exception, given the general role of Islam in shaping education and social and political agendas. The book draws on interviews as well as historical analysis and personal knowledge.
Examines the factors that could contribute to reduce femicides in Argentina, such as training for state and security personnel, and judicial workers; sex education programs in academia and public schools and the inclusion of women journalists within the broader #NiUnaMenos movement. She also argues that the inclusion of climate justice and structural transformation within the patriarchal system can further contribute to the reduction of femicide.
Explores impact of political, economic, cultural and religious conditions on environmental activism.
Manual presenting nonviolent strategies and tactics being used in contemporary environmental or social rights campaigns in France.
Focuses on 1974-75, and provides more detailed references in both Portuguese and English.
Examines the impact of violence on popular movements and how they adapted.
May, a philosopher who has taken part in nonviolent resistance, explores both the dynamics of different types of nonviolent action O (such as moral ju-jitsu and nonviolent coercion) drawing on historical and contemporary campaigns. He then considers the values inherent in nonviolent action, such as respect for dignity, and discusses the role of nonviolent action today.
Gives Beatrice Finh’s personal account of her experience as ICAN’s Director, the story behind the idea of the international treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons and her activism immediately after its approval at the United Nations.
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) – Nobel Lecture
See also Beatrice Fihn’s speech on the occasion of the acceptance of the Nobel Peace Award in 2017: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2017/ican/26041-international-campaign-to-abolish-nuclear-weapons-ican-nobel-lecture-2017/ and https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/anti-nuclear-weapons-campaign-ican-wins-nobel-peace-prize-171006065955247.html
Collection of writings on war, pacifism and nonviolence from 500 BC to 1960 AD, but emphasis on more modern figures, such as William Lloyd Garrison, Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Simone Weil and Albert Camus. Includes also Martin Buber’s criticism of Gandhi for advocating nonviolent resistance by Jews to Hitler, and Reinhold Niebuhr’s reasons for leaving the (pacifist) Fellowship of Reconciliation.
'Development' can be a euphemism for displacement, dispossession, disempowerment, unemployment, de-skilling, destruction of natural resources and dehumanisation.
Include two brief accounts of struggles to retain land, by Adivasi (indigenous) people in Gujarat against dispossession from traditional lands by the Forest Department, and the ‘Save Our Lands’ campaign in Gujerat for common lands held by villages and often used by the landless for herding animals, plant collecting, etc, who were threatened by corporate agriculture. See also Mazgaonkar, Anand , Macro Violence, Micro Resistance (Development Violence and Unarmed Grassroots Resistance) , 2006 .
The authors note that the Cameroon government had announced the goal of restoring 12 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 and had applied for support from the Bonn Challenge and AFR100 initiatives. They argue that women, who constitute over 60% of the rural workforce in Central Africa, have a crucial role to play, and examine some forms of restoration so far undertaken by women’s groups in Cameroon.
Mboya was a union leader and prominent in Kenya’s independence struggle. His book also covers negotiations with Britain.
A detailed study of SNCC’s Mississippi summer project in 1964.
McAdam, a leading social movement theorist, has written widely on various aspects and interpretations of the Civil Rights Movement, including McAdam, Doug , The US Civil Rights Movement: Power from Below and Above, 1945-70 In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 58-74 . His influential article McAdam, Doug , Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency American Sociological Review, 1985, pp. 735-754 (reprinted in McAdam; Snow, Readings on Social Movements: Origins, Dynamics and Outcomes (A. 7. Important Reference Works and Websites) ) highlights how innovative tactics of mass action broke through institutionalised powerlessness.
Book by three important authors in the field of social movements who also have some interest in nonviolent action – they address the role of nonviolent action more directly in their contribution to the ‘Symposium on Nonviolence’ (see below).
Covers the period 1945-99 when Plaid was developing from a pressure group to established party with MPS and MEPs.
Examines feminism, pacifism and nonviolence and anti-nuclear protests in the USA.
Describes the genesis of the civil rights and housing action campaign in Derry in which he played a leading role, and the civil rights march through the city in October 1968, which was attacked by the RUC and is now widely regarded as marking the start of the Troubles. Analyzes subsequent political developments from a radical socialist perspective and argues that the solution to the conflict lies in the creation of an all-Ireland workers’ republic. Critical of what he regards as the apolitical stance of NICRA , and of the later Women Together and Peace People campaigns. McCann took part in the Battle of the Bogside in 1969 and the civil rights march in Derry on Bloody Sunday. Argues that there is war in Ireland ‘ because capitalism, to establish and preserve itself, created conditions which made war inevitable.’
Notes that the movement for divestment from fossil fuels has grown 'from picket signs and petitions to a multi-trillion dollar crusade involving more than 350 institutions worldwide'. Cites Norway's Sovereign Wealth fund, the Episcopal Church and the British Medical Association as some of the important bodies that have divested, and that investment firms such as Blackrock have begun to withdraw support from climate polluting industries, as have universities and various companies. But also notes that divestment still often initiated by pressure from below.
Influential account by US novelist of her visit to Vietnam, in which she argued that the US was fighting a war it could not win, and called for withdrawal.
An exhaustive, annotated, bibliography, very strong on earlier history of nonviolent action, but also including many recent nonviolent campaigns up to the mid-1990s. Part I covers cases of nonviolent action. Part II the methods and dynamics of nonviolent action and theories of conflict, power and violence. NB the index is seriously flawed (a correct version should be available on the Albert Einstein Institution website), but it is possible to trace campaigns through the list of contents.
Accounts of peace process from perspectives of various parties involved, including several members of the then recently formed Northern Ireland Executive. Clem McCartney writes on ‘The Role of Civil Society’ and Monica McWilliams and Kate Fearon of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition on ‘Problems of Implementation’.
Examines thwarting attempted coup by the right against Hugo Chavez in 2002. (See also the works under Venezuela in E IV.12)
Account of origins and development of the movement by an activist who played a key role in its foundation.
Despite its title, this is not primarily about protest, but the international /state context in which protest occurs, stressing the UN and international agreements.
Japanese journalist Shiori Ito was awarded damages after publicly accusing Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a famous TV presenter, of rape in 2017. Her case became a symbol of Japan’s MeToo movement and of the country’s failure to investigate allegations of rape and sexual assaults. After Shiori Ito went public, the documentary ‘Japan’s Secret Shame’ was released by the BBC, covering violence towards women, and structural inequality and discrimination against women in Japan, as well as on her individual case.
Highlights the different legal consequences that women might face in Alabama, where a ban on abortion was enacted in May 2019 (likely to be challenged in the courts), and compares them to those then existing in Northern Ireland. Although Northern Ireland passed the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill 2018 that allows abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, women could still face life sentences because the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 remained in place.
See also https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2019/05/alabama-abortion-rights-are-under-threat-northern-ireland-they-never and https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/alabama-abortion-ban-georgia-northern-ireland-dup-theresa-may-a8915141.html
Discusses competing theoretical perspectives on the causes of the conflict and the political parties and paramilitaries involved. Records the various reforms and constitutional initiatives from the 1970s to the 1990s to find a settlement which culminated in the Good Friday Agreement, the setting up of a power-sharing Executive and Assembly, and finally, following the suspension of the Assembly between 2002 and 2007, the agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein to co-operate in a power-sharing government.
Comparative study of power sharing-initiatives, analyzing the different approaches in each case and the role of external actors. Author argues that the experience in Northern Ireland, despite many setbacks and false starts, has been relatively positive, though threatened by the rioting and quarrels that followed the decision in December 2010 to fly the Union flag at Stormont only on special occasions rather than every day as had previously been the case.
Before becoming US ambassador to Russia (January 2012) McFaul was a professor at Stanford University. A firm advocate of democracy promotion (which he distinguishes from advancing US geostrategic interests), he also argued for the USA re-establish its own civil rights credentials (e.g. after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo). See: McFaul, Michael , Importing revolution: Internal and external factors in Ukraine’s 2004 democratic breakthrough In Bunce; McFaul; Stoner-Weiss, Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments)New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 189-225 .
Critical examination of both Nationalist and Unionist accounts of the causes of the conflict. Authors distinguish broadly between explanations that focus on external factors – the policies of British and Irish governments – and those that identify the internal factors of religion, culture and ethnicity in Northern Irish society. They reject the proposition that the conflict is fundamentally a religious one, and are sceptical not only of the various Marxist accounts – Orange, Green and ‘Red’ – but of the essentially materialist accounts by many liberal commentators. While acknowledging the multiplicity of causal factors, they view the conflict as essentially one between groups which identify themselves along different national, ethnic and religious lines, though they hold out the hope of an accommodation between them to produce an ‘agreed’, though not necessarily a united, Ireland.
Account of the 1971 ‘work in’ that took over shipyards threatened with redundancy and for a period maintained them under worker control and forced the government to delay closure.
Article discussing the rising number of law suits being brought in the US by cities and states against fossil fuel companies for environmental damage and for hiding information about the dangers of their operations. It also comments on how courts and activists are influencing the board membership of oil companies. But McGreal notes that although there is mounting pressure on the companies, the court process is very slow.
Stresses challenge to Pinochet legacy and links with workers’ unions. Includes timeline of protests from May 2011 – August 2012.
Study of ‘Citizens’ movements’ against industrial pollution.
McKeown was one of the group of student activists campaigning on civil rights issues at Queens University Belfast in the mid-1960s from which People’s Democracy emerged in 1968. However, he opposed the Belfast to Derry march in January 1969 as likely to inflame sectarian divisions, and the Marxist direction to which the organization turned. Best known for his leading role in the Peace People whose origins and development he recounts in detail. Sets out his idea for a parliamentary system based not on political parties but on autonomous community groups.
Anthology of 44 essays by noted writer and activist on green issues, including climate change (with some more personal reflections).
Critical analysis of failings of Forum, which was set up in 2000 and active for 10 years, but also noting its positive role as voice for marginalised and promoter of grass roots activism.
Coverage of major events during the Troubles. Includes a useful chronology and an account of the Ulster Workers Council strike in 1974. . The revised 2012 edition also covers political developments in Northern Ireland since the origonal publication including the historic power-sharing agreement between the DUP and Sinn Féin in 2007.
Covers 12 years of the ‘homophile’ movement, represented by ASK (Association for Social Knowledge) in Vancouver, and early Gay Liberation activity to founding of the National Gay Rights Coalition in 1975. Emphasis on demonstrations, lobbying and other political activities and legal reform, but also covers expressions of lesbian and gay concerns in culture and arts.
[Individual essays are also cited in sub-sections.]
In the 1980s some groups used the term ‘firmeza permanente’ (in English widely rendered as ‘relentless persistence’) to indicate nonviolence.
Critical account by Australian participant of Portuguese initiated act of solidarity with East Timorese victims of Indonesian occupation and repression: to sail a boat from Darwin to Dili in 1992 and lay a wreath in Santa Cruz cemetery in memory of 50 killed there attending a funeral in November 1991.
Following President Joe Biden’s initiative to recommit to the Paris Agreement on climate change and the signing of an executive order halting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline project, this article emphasises the role of indigenous people within the climate justice movement.
See also: Ambroiggio, Mia, ‘Why We Need to Center Indigenous Voices in Climate Conversations’, Loyola Phoenix, 3 February 2021.
http://loyolaphoenix.com/2021/02/why-we-need-to-center-indigenous-voices-in-climate-conversations/
This interactive long report explores the killing of Berta Cáceres, environmentalist and recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, and contextaulises it within the emergence of a cohesive feminist movement in Honduras. It also reports the statistics on violence against women in the country, and initiatives to tackle it.
Leading Greenpeace activists recount how their boat succeeded in sailing into the French nuclear testing zone near Muroroa Atoll in 1971, forcing the French government to halt one of its planned nuclear tests.
Sympathetic coverage of a wide range of campaigns in Britain – Greenham Common, Trident Ploughshares, the arms trade, British troops in Northern Ireland, US bases, the ‘peace tax’, and opposition to the (first) Gulf War.
Extensive analysis of rise and fall of CORE drawing on interviews with key members and CORE archives. Covers the 1960 sit-ins, 1961 Freedom Ride, mass campaigns in 1963 to desegregate Southern cities, and the impact of black power ideology.
Personal account by Guardian journalist of Zimbabwe’s politics and people since 1980. Chapters 12-19 (pp. 114-241) cover the rise of the MDC, the debate about the new constitution, resistance and repression, and Chapter 20 describes his own expulsion from the country.
This study, based on a survey undertaken during the Lebanese uprising of October 2019, examines use of traditional and social media and assesses public trust in these media and their sharing of news. The study suggests that the theory of 'selective exposure' is relevant outside a western context.
By one of the founding Madres.
Study commissioned by the then French Defence Minister on the principles and techniques of nonviolent defence.
Study commissioned by the then French Defence Minister on the principles and techniques of nonviolent defence.
The authors offer a definition of nonviolence and its main components, before reviewing the history of nonviolent struggles, as well as the past and future research agenda on civil resistance.
Records how the Teach-In movement began modestly in a mid-West campus in 1965 but spread across the country, engaging many students and professors, and released a vast quantity of material about the Vietnam War. For first teach-in see: ‘History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century: 1965 First ‘Teach-in’ held at University of Michigan: New Tool for Further Education is Born’:
http://schugurensky.faculty.asu.edu/moments/1965teachin.html
Explores the preparation behind the organisation of a feminist campaign and the use and impact of hashtags in discussing experiences of sexual violence.
A study of how digital technologies and social media are used to challenge rape culture, misogyny and harassment, conducted after the #MeToo movement’s explosion in October 2017.
Discusses if the role of civil resistance from 1983 onwards ‘derived from a principled rejection of violence, or from particular strategic, moral, and cultural considerations’. Suggests all relevant to the moderate coalition against Marcos. Also discusses crucial role of US government – though divided – and notes the continuing problems facing Philippine democracy.
Theatre administrators, artistic directors, and heads of programmes from across Canada discuss about how institutional policies and cultures have shifted in the wake of #MeToo. The participants reflect on the challenges of assessing the impacts and effects of a cultural movement that is still unfolding and how #MeToo has changed the relationship between training institutions and the performing arts industry.
The authors examine the role of the state in relation to the growing risk of violence against women at home and on the streets. They argue that, especially since the 2009 coup, increasing political repression, pervasive violence and the loss of power by civil society groups promote extreme violence against women. They also argue that there is a growing gap between the laws officially protecting women (passed to appease international or internal pressure) and the actual implementation of those laws.
Account of three months struggle against Newbury bypass.
Merton explains his theoretical approach, which draws on exponents of nonviolence such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, and in this context discusses the Danish people's resistance against the Nazis, the perils of the nuclear age and racism.
Collection of essays by well-know Catholic thinker on war, peace and nonviolence.
Interviews with both Serbs and Albanians about key episodes in the escalation from 1981 to 1990 are juxtaposed with a written history. See also: Mertus, Julie, ‘Women in Kosovo: Contested terrains – the role of national identity in shaping and challenging gender identity’ in Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.), Gender Politics in the Western Balkans, University Park PA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999, pp. 171-86.
Describes the feminist revolt in Caracas, Venezuela, seeking to bring attention to gender-based violence, and highlight the lack of statistics on femicides (which have not been updated since 2013) and the current obstacles to Venezuelan feminism.
Examines movement of the early 1980s which mobilized huge numbers in the US to protest against the dangers of nuclear weapons and strategies and demanding a US-Soviet agreement for a freeze on testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons, bombers and missiles. The movement gained some support in Congress, organized a mass lobby in Washington and demonstrated throughout the country in 1983, and engaged in electoral activity. This book examines the successes and failures of the Freeze, and broader implications for other movements. See also: Meyer, David S., A Winter of Discontent: The Nuclear Freeze and American Politics New York, Praeger, , 1990, pp. 320
Former Newsweek bureau chief in East Europe combines personal recollections with an analysis contesting the view that the US government made a significant contribution to the collapse of the regimes – except indirectly through cooperating with Gorbachev’s detente agenda.
The resistance by Norwegian teachers and other civil society groups to Quisling’s attempt to impose fascist ideology during th e German occupation is one of the most important and successful examples of resistance during World War Two.
The article covers movements in countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Guatemala, Chile, India and Egypt that have preceded the #MeToo movement and have in some way created the conditions through which the #MeToo movement acquired international resonance.
Analysis of (predominantly) white women’s organization publicly opposing apartheid since 1950, known especially for its vigils.
The divisive nature of abortion within the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland meant that access to safe, legal abortion has been severely restricted. This paper focuses on how achieving legal reform requires changing public opinion, and contributes to a growing body of Health Care Informed (HCI) research that takes an activist approach to designing digital story-telling. The authors report findings from four design workshops with 31 pro-choice stakeholders across Ireland in which they used a digital storytelling platform – HerStoryTold - to promote critical conversations around sensitive abortion narratives. The findings show how digital storytelling can help reject false narratives and raise awareness of the realities of abortion laws. The authors also suggest the workshops provide design directions to curate narratives that ‘provoke empathy, foster a plurality of voices, and ultimately expand the engaged community.’
Influential intellectual oppositionist in Poland from the 1960s to the 1980s argues for adhering to nonviolent methods for moral and political as well as pragmatic reasons (i.e. threat of Soviet military response to a violent uprising).
A manual derived mainly from writings and approach of Gene Sharp, Robert Helvey and Peter Ackerman and directed at an African audience.
Aims, in words of editor, ‘to give its readers a reasonably broad critical introduction to the Northern Ireland conflict’. Most of the 13 contributors to the book are academics working in the field of sociology, politics and media studies, plus writers and journalists. The thrust of the argument in the book is that the conflict needs to be understood as an anti-colonial struggle, not as a religious or ethnic one, and that tackling the inequalities brought about by colonialism is the key to securing a lasting peace.
Discusses the evolution of the idea of feminism over the centuries in China and what may be called a “proto-feminism” concept, known as the Daodejing. Classical Chinese philosophy has influenced and helped shape what feminism is today in China. Dessie Miller analyzed the use of language in the Daodejing to demonstrate the feminine imagery throughout the text. She also deconstructed the characters that bear significance for feminist interpretations for the Dao and Yin-Yang in order to analyse their deeper meaning. Finally, she compared Confucianism and Daoism in order to provide a broader context and to show how they differ from each other. Lastly, she used contemporary feminist figures—such as Li Ruzhen, Qiu Jin, and the “Beijing Five”—as examples to show how Daoism was a precursor to and how it helped shape feminism in what is today’s China.
Discusses the nature and dynamics of nonviolent action and briefly covers several unarmed resistance movements (the accuracy of the account of the Danish resistance in World War has been questioned).
Brief survey, which raises issue of how homosexuality should be addressed in the socialist movement.
Economic historian’s caustic analysis of self-validating nature of neoliberal thought among economists and politicians and suggested bases for an alternative analysis of economic crisis and future possibilities.
Primarily an exposition of Gandhi’s theory of democracy, but commenting on Hazare’s anti-corruption movement as a starting point.
After the initial hopes for democracy and freedom after the fall of the state socialist regime in 1989, political forces that had been dormant during the state socialist era began to emerge, and to establish a new religious-nationalist orthodoxy. Solidarity, which played a key role in ending the communist regime, had worked quietly with the Catholic Church. Most Poles were at least nominally Catholics. As the Church emerged as a political force in the Polish Sejm and Senate, it promoted a rapid erosion of women’s reproductive rights, especially the right to abortion established under the former regime. This book is an anthropological study of this expansion of power by the religious right and its effects on individual rights and social attitudes. It explores the contradictions of postsocialist democratization in Poland and provides the background to the advance on abortion rights activism in Poland.
Conversation with Alfred Brownell, Liberian environmental lawyers recorded by Veronique Mistiaen. Brownell has been involved in a seven year campaign which succeeded in protecting half a million acres of Liberia's tropical rainforest from the Southeast Asia-based Golden Veroleum company, which had been granted the right by the government to clear and use the land to grow palm oil. He took up the cause of the indigenous community in Sinoe County whose forests and cultural sites were being destroyed by the company. The article outlines how the campaign succeeded and Brownell's wider role in creating the Alliance for Rural Democracy throughout Liberia to work for environmental justice. He had been forced by death threats to move with his family to the USA.
Brownell took up the case of indigenous people living in the rainforest against abusive violence and imprisonment for resisting the destruction of their environment and cultural monuments by the Southeast Asian agro-industrial company Golden Veroleum (GVL) planning to grow palm oil. Brownell's seven-year campaign invoked help from global NGOs to support a complaint to the Roundtable on sustainable Palm Oil, which froze GVL's expansion. He succeeded in saving over half a million acres of rainforest, but he had to flee to the US. He has also established a rural network - the Alliance for Rural Democracy - throughout Liberia to work form environmental justice.
Interview with Peter Lallang, campaigning in Sarawak to defend its biodiverse rainf orest and indigenous people against the Malaysian government's plans for megadams. He briefly describes the Save Rivers campaign that included river flotillas in towns and rural areas and a two-year blockade to stop dam building. The campaign also made international links with the Green Party in Australia to lobby parliamentarians about links to a Tasmanian company, and also top renewable energy experts at the University of California, who provided alternative energy proposals for the region. After five years the Malaysian government agreed to cancel the dam, but campaigners fear it may revive the project.
Diary of events aboard Boy Roel, one of the fleet of four ships, including Greenpeace III, which attempted to sail into French nuclear testing zone near Muroroa Atoll in 1972.
The authors show how university students were able to challenge sexual violence in South Africa in practical and locally relevant ways. They used formal methods of influencing policy, but prioritised the young women’s own views and voices, in ways that they felt empowering. What remains to be further explored, by both researchers and organizations, is how to act as a good ally and supportive collaborator to these kinds of semi-autonomous youth groups navigating formal power.
The authors argue that the activism of women’s movements has helped achieve South African government policies designed to promote women’s equality (for example in employment) and women’s empowerment. They draw on a 2017 qualitative study of leading women in the government to illustrate this link. They recognize, however, that there are still social and psychological barriers within government impeding women with activist experience from achieving radical outcomes, and that ‘gendered discourse still disadvantages women across racial identities, gender orientations and (dis)abilities’.
Reviews development of Yugoslav feminism from 1978 and notes strains created by vigils against the war in Croatia and later in Bosnia. See also: Women in Black, Compilation of Information on Crimes of War against Women in ex-Yugoslavia – and Actions and Initiatives in their Defence Belgrade, Women in Black, , 1993
Account by Communist Party leader close to Dubcek of internal Party politics leading up to the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, personal account of the Kremlin ‘negotiations’ after the abduction of top leaders, and his resignation from the Party.
contains an overview by Charles Kurzman. ‘The Arab Spring Uncoiled’, and articles on Egypt, Iran, and Syria.
Hashtags such as #timesup and #metoo illustrate the growing international concerns about the sexual violation of women. The media plays a large role in promoting negative racial and gender ideologies about Indigenous women. In Canada, where there is a national crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), researchers have collected data from social media and identified how degrading texts about Indigenous women perpetuate a racialized violent discourse. Many Indigenous peoples, including Indigenous youth, have smart phones and/or other ways to access social media, so they too are exposed to the discourse that subjugates, vilifies and dehumanizes Indigenous women, many of whom are family or community members. The authors’ research investigates the messages shared through the hashtag ‘#MMIW’ and identifies a reframing by hashtag users. The results indicate how social media play a role in perpetuating stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, but also how they can be used to combat those messages.
Explores pressures of globalization on women and reactions against it and rise of transnational networks, such as DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era), WEDO (Women’s Economic and Development Organization), SIGI (Sisterhood is Global Institute) and WLUML (Women Living Under Muslim Laws).
Although President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Gender-Based Violence Declaration in April 2019, promising that the government would strengthen its fight against gender-based violence (GBV), which he called a national crisis, activists say that little has been done to tackle the issue. This article includes the requests advanced by the movement, links to other national campaigns and data regarding gender-based violence since 2016.
See the report on Gender-Based Violence Declaration here https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/gender-based-violence-declaration-south-africa/
Outlines the events that led to the overthrow of Bashir in 2019 and links them to the legacy of civil unrest, which overthrew two previous military dictatorships in 1964 and 1985.
See also: Abbas, Reem, ‘Sudan’s Unfinished Revolution: The Dictator Is Gone, but the Fight Continues’, The Nation, 26 April 2019. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/sudan-revolution-bashir/
Interesting survey of Iraian public opinion after the 2017-18 protests. The survey covers a wide range of economic and political issues, including Iran's foreign policy. The findings show that many see Iran's economy as worsening, but blame inefficiency and corruption more than international sanctions. The survey also indicates that a majority of the respondents disagree with criticism of the regime and or of strictness in enforcing Islamic laws, and also support the police response to protests. However, a majority does not endorse harsh punishment for peaceful protesters. For a summary of the findings see: https://drum.lib.umd.edu/handle/1903/21088
Collection of documents from participants in demonstrations.
Useful overall summary analysis of changing position of women in communist (and post-communist) countries (including China), with detailed references.
After surveying the scope of the problems caused by climate change, the article provides a useful critique of the UK government's approach to fulfilling its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, drawing on points made by the UK Committee on Climate Change (the independent statutory body set up in 2008 under the Climate Change Act). The authors conclude that so far the government has failed to make definite plans for housing and heating, industrial emissions, carbon capture and storage, agriculture, aviation and shipping. The article notes also the excessive reliance on electric vehicles to solve road transport emissions, as this could create a dangerous demand for relatively rare minerals like cobalt and lead to new ecological problems. The authors point to the potential of hydrogen fuel cells, but they also argue for simply reducing car use.
In this work, Maria Montessori elucidates her theory of education. She argues that children are the most important actors in a society and therefore stresses the role of education as a tool for building a culture of peace.
This is an account of the origin and early years of the US Plowshares movement launched in 1980 by radical Catholics, and edited by two of the leading figures in this new form of personal ‘witness’ against nuclear weapons. Plowshares took inspiration from the biblical phrase ‘beat your swords into ploughshares’ and physically attacked missiles and associated targets, before publicizing their actions and accepting arrest and often subsequent imprisonment. This book explains their motivation, wider social beliefs, and provides details of early protests.
Part 1 investigates the shadowy world of international mining finances, while Part 2 has case study chapters on mining projects and local resistance in West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania and Peru.
Detailed analysis by committed campaigner. Chapter 8 ‘No Means No’ discusses strategy against mining, calling for more emphasis on nonviolent direct action and greater scepticism about certification.
Chapter 6 ‘Democracy in Asia: India and the price of peaceful change’ argues that Gandhi was ‘the spokesman of the Indian peasant and village artisan’ (p. 178) and comments critically on Gandhi’s desire to return to ‘an idealized past’ of the village community purged of untouchability, and failure to challenge interests of landed aristocracy.
Starts with account of major rent strikes on the Clyde in 1915 and 1921-26, but includes materials on rent strikes in London 1959-61 and 1968-70 and their implications.
Anthology of essays and documents from women in 70 countries round the world, especially the Global South. Authors are a mix of well known and less well known grass roots activists, politicians and scholars. A global strategy meeting organized to mark publication in 1984 led to the creation of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI).
Companion to Eriksen and Sellstrom, this section.
(reprinted in McAdam; Snow, Readings on Social Movements: Origins, Dynamics and Outcomes (A. 7. Important Reference Works and Websites) )
Describes the expansion of organisational capacity for direct action between 1956 and 1960.
Details continuity with pre-civil rights movement generations of protest, and studies organisational infrastructure of protest in black communities.
In this work, Monique Morris provides a statistical account on the lives of African Americans in the U.S. related to the field of education, environment, sport, health and justice system, military, politics, voting and civic engagement in order to highlight the disparity between racial communities.
The anti-sexual harassment group Pandora's Box, composed of 3,000 women involved in the arts, called for institutional protection against harassment and demanded allegations should not be ignored. The appeal was part of a campaign to support the dancer Carmen Tome, who had accused a curator at a cultural centre in Alicante of groping her. The group was still organising itself and considering both educational and legal means of preventing gender violence.
Draws on interviews and personal stories to examine how the ideal of the ‘citizen soldier’ encouraged thousands to move towards opposition to the Vietnam war.
Includes comparison with resistance to Tibet.
Analyses different kinds of ‘intervention’ and notes history of earlier 20th century attempts. It provides accounts of transnational actions round the world designed to mobilize protest, provide assistance, promote reconciliation and development, witness human rights violations and ‘accompany’ endangered individuals, highlight danger (e.g. of nuclear testing), demonstrate solidarity, or to prevent or halt war. Includes chronology and summary of actions with suggestions for further reading.
Section 1 suggests ‘the secularization of conscience and modern individ-ualism have been the driving force’ in the rise of conscientious objection. Section 2 looks at the historical record in the USA. Section 3 has articles on France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the former Communist states in Eastern Europe, Israel and South Africa.
This is the major compilation of declarations, press statements and articles by the protagonists of the insumisión campaign at the time of their disobedience. Therefore it includes accounts of various stages of movement, such as the formation of the first objectors’ groups, and defiance of the Conscientious Objection Act, and the struggle inside the prison in Pamplona. There are also manifestoes, letters of support and internal documents which record these struggles and others that arose out of them: for example the gender issue raised by antimilitarist-feminist women, and the campaign against military expenditure involving tax refusal.
From his central insight that some movements could not recognise when they were succeeding, Bill Moyer constructed his model MAP - Movement Action Plan - as a tool for strategic analysis for nonviolent movements. The book includes case studies of five US movements: civil rights, anti-nuclear energy, gay and lesbian, breast cancer and anti-globalization.
Mudrov, an academic working inside Belarus, argues that despite the initial impetus of the movement against Lukashenko from August 2020, there were four main reasons why it failed. The degree of support for Lukashenko was underestimated, some social classes such as industrial and agricultural workers were not well represented in the protests, government institutions consolidated behind the government and the police and military stayed loyal to the regime. Other factors were that protest symbols alienated many people, and many were deterred by the harshness of the repression. Mudrov also argues that the protests exacerbated divisions in Belarusian society, and increased hatred and distrust. But he concludes that there is also, especially amongst the young, increasing desire for change.
The officially organized German resistance to the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 is an especially relevant case study for proponents of civilian-based defence.
A description and evaluation of the work of the international Balkan Peace Team that worked in Croatia and Serbia/Kosovo in the 1990s.
This working paper is the product of a joint workshop on ‘The Timeliness of Civilian-based Defence’ held by the Union for Civilian Defence. It discusses the role of nonviolent resistance in successful conflict management today in the context of the current direction of world politics.
Washington Post journalist, who was in South Africa 1984-86, interviewed leaders of banned organizations and more conservative Africans. Less strong on post-1986 period.
A collection of stories, essays, poems and photographs recalling the movement that advocated reproductive rights in Ireland up to the May 2018 referendum.
This thesis focuses on the (neglected) role of civil society in both maintaining the existing nuclear weapons system globally and in challenging it. Adopting Antonio Gramsci's theory of civil society, Mulas also draws on critical theoretical approaches to nuclear studies and security to challenge the dominant nuclear discourse. The thesis explores how civil society actors calling for forms of nuclear disarmament can either accept the dominant discourse of deterrence or pose a radical challenge to it. In Gramscian terms the former groups unwittingly act as part of the hegemonic apparatus, the latter constitute a 'counter-hegemonic' opposition.
This book has become a key reference on the subject of nonviolent action, and notably was circulated clandestinely in Poland after 1981. It has been translated in Italian, Spanish, Polish, Croatian and Arabic.
This work discusses Weils’s nonviolent militancy during the 1930s and 1940s and highlights her rejection of violence as the epicentre of Weil’s discussions on economy, politics, philosophy and religion.
The goal of this book is to develop a philosophical concept of non-violence to challenge the ideology that violence is necessary, legitimate and honourable.
A key resource on the French approach to international civilian peace intervention as an alternative to military or humanitarian intervention in conflict zones. It has been translated in Italian and Portuguese.
This encyclopaedia by leading French theorist compiles and analyses key words in the philosophy of nonviolence, as well as strategic components for effective nonviolent action.
The author analyses the foundation texts and historic campaigns of civil disobedience in France and in the world. He constructs a definition of the concept understood as both an ethical imperative and a form of nonviolent direct action.
The goal of this book is to develop a philosophical concept of nonviolence, aiming to challenge the ideology that violence is necessary, legitimate and honourable.
Blockupy in Germany is one of the broadest ranging attempts to politicize the austerity measures, which have been introduced throughout Europe since 2010. Blockupy was enabled to emerge through the combination of embedding protest in the 'Global City' of Frankfurt with the practice of civil disobedience. Drawing on the theories of Lefebvre, Laclau/Mouffe and also Ranciere, the author highlights the links between dissident production of space, the historical formation of the crisis and the focus on Frankfurt as the stage for the protests.
The authors provide a detailed account of the developing protests after Joao Pedro Matos Pinto, a fourteen year-old Black teenager, was shot 72 times by a police officer whilst playing in his cousin's backyard. The article also examines the organizational initiatives that support victims of state violence.
This May 2019 Open Democracy article explains the political context of President Jair Bolsonaro's security policy in Rio de Janeiro, especially in the favelas, where 25 per cent of the Black deaths were due to the security forces.
Starting from the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action of 1994, the revised African Union (AU) Maputo Platform of Action (MPoA) 2016–2030 commits African leaders to guarantee women's universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. The MPoA 2016–2030 addresses women's sexual and reproductive health throughout their entire life to improve the poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes on the continent. The MPoA 2016–2030 also aligns itself with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the AU Agenda 2063, both of which have made women's health a priority. This briefing reports on the findings of the policy review through a comparison of key themes/action strategies and an analysis of both weaknesses and gains.
Detailed case study of poll tax protest in the London Borough of Ealing.
Records the experiences of this distinguished Irish travel writer during her cycling tour of Northern Ireland in 1976-77. Briefly recapitulates the historical background to the Troubles, and re-examines the rival myths and prejudices of the Protestant and Catholic communities, both of whom warmly welcomed her while remaining suspicious of each other. Informed by genuine affection for the people of Northern Ireland and an optimism about its future in the longer term though discounting the possibility of a united Ireland.
Puts the case, following the publication of the report of the New Ireland Forum, for an independent Northern Ireland
Contributions from Northern Ireland Protestants with backgrounds in politics, the media, education, religion and community work. Murray, himself from a nationalist background, stresses the importance of contesting the widely held view in the Republic of Ireland and beyond that the Unionist population of Northern Ireland is a homogeneous group, which is both intransigent and obstructive. His intention as editor, he states, is to illuminate the diversity which exists in the unionist community.
The authors contextualise women in the election of and resistance to newly elected Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in October 2018.
The authors discuss the new cross-generational alliance behind the militant October/November 2020 mass protests against government implementation of the Constitutional Court ruling excluding foeatal abnormalities as a reason to have an abortion.
See also Torrisi, Claudia, ‘Abortion Without Borders: a bold, feminist reply to Poland’s draconian laws’, OpenDemocracy, 28 September 2020.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/abortion-without-borders-a-bold-fe...
Highlights initiatives to help women exercise their limited abortion rights in Poland. These include Abortion Without Borders (which offers advice and funds to women seeking abortion abroad), Abortion Dream Team and Kobiety w Sieci (Poland’s first online forums for unbiased abortion information).
Examines the interplay of Islam, history, and feminism and views it in the legal context of Indonesia. The author uses social movement theory to examine how women’s movements here have organized and mobilized resources to achieve certain goals in this specific socio-political context.
For further research, see also: Poerwandari, Elizabeth Kristi, Ratna Batara Munti and Jackie Viemilawati (2018) “Pro-women's policy advocacy movements in Indonesia: Struggles and reflections”, Asian Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 489-509; and Wariyatun Wariyatun (2019) Creating zero tolerance for violence against women, Asian Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 25, no 3, pp. 459-467.
This article focuses primarily on the Ugandan Women’s Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) as a key part of the wider women’s movement in Uganda. It considers how women members of parliament were able to give more prominence to women’s concerns in policy debates, but also how they were strengthened, when pressing for gender-sensitive laws and policies, by women’s collective backing. The findings also show that success in achieving laws such as Domestic Violence Act and Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation was due to collaborating with male legislators, some of whom joined UWOPA.
Account of talk by Giorgio Jackson, President of the Catholic University’s Student Association in Chile.
Nkumbula was the first major exponent from the 1940s of African resistance to white dominance and federation, and led the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress. But in the late 1950s he moved towards gradual reform policies and stood for a seat in the 1959 elections, whilst Kapepwe and Kaunda opted for further resistance and founded their own separate party.
This well-received book by a Burmese historian (and grandson of UN Secretary General U Thant) explores the complexities of the ethnic and religious composition of Burma/Myanmar, which has never fully cohered as a country since it acquired independence from the British Empire after the Second World War. The book focuses particularly on the period since the cyclone of 2008, which killed almost 400,000 people and exposed the ineffectiveness of the military regime when constructive action was needed.
An analysis of likely future developments by the respected Burmese historian and expert on Myanmar's recent past.
Explores the struggles of women during different historical events and political regimes in the Philippines, including during the Spanish colonization, Marcos dictatorship, and the current challenges under the administration of President Duterte. The study hopes to enhance conversations and possibilities for collaboration among new generation of feminists and experienced women activists at the national and global fronts.
See also: Gabriel, Arneil G. (2017) “Indigenous women and the law: The consciousness of marginalized women in the Philippines”, Asian Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 250-263 and https://www.cbsnews.com/news/international-womens-day-march-8-protests-amplify-feminism-in-asia/
An in depth examination of the Indian farmers' resistance to the 2020 agricultural laws passed by Narendra Modi's government.
See also: https://nationalheraldindia.com/india/why-are-farmers-protesting and https://thediplomat.com/2021/02/past-imperfect-the-future-of-indias-farmer-protests
The authors examine violence against women and gender-based discrimination around the world, today. They provide a global perspective on the history, causes, and complex underpinnings of gender and violence from a multidimensional and cross-disciplinary perspective. The regions covered are North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Each chapter begins with an overview of its world region, and then focuses on particular forms of violence against women in the more specific contexts of particular countries and in relation to the wider region.
A study of quiet resistance through a women’s group reading forbidden western literature. Also includes autobiographical insights into the 1977-79 Iranian revolution – its early stages and aftermath.
The American activist and academic Nagler and the German theologian Spiegel describe the principles, practices and perspectives of nonviolence.
Marxist analysis of the political and economic factors leading to a resurgence of national consciousness in the constituent parts of the UK. In a chapter on Ireland, he rejects what he sees as the oversimplified imperialist analysis of Ireland’s situation by Irish nationalists and some fellow Marxists from Connolly to Farrell. Argues the case for an independent Northern Ireland.
This on the spot report provides an overview of the popular uprising up to mid-December 2019, and to the resignation of Prime Minister Mahdi. (Though he was to stay on in a caretaker government until parliament could agree a replacement.) The authors note the scale of violence against the protesters and the role of Iran-backed militias in shooting at them, as well as increasing international concern.
Argues peacebuilding has to empower resilience and resistance to occupation.
Finland’s Han Honours award, which recognizes individuals promoting equality around the world, was given to Professor Chizuko Ueno, a Women’s Studies scholar in January 2019 for her research and books, and also for her activism for women’s right in Japan. She has provoked debates on issues such as gender discrimination and sexual violence. This article, which notes several high profile recent incidents exposing sexism in Japan, reports Professor Ueno’s comments on sexism.
Analyses the US LGBT movement from 1945-2000 using the model of the Movement Action Plan developed by Moyer.
Nanda, who has also written a balanced biography of Gandhi and studies of other Indian leaders close to Gandhi (including Gandhi’s early mentor Gokhale), here examines controversial aspects of Gandhi’s life and thought.
Focuses on women’s inequalities in rural and urban areas, and considers forms of organization and solidarity across borders. Includes a study of women activists in Mali.
Abortion in Poland was legal under Communism and became illegal (with a few exceptions) after the political shift to multi-party democracy. Feminists opposing the abortion law had little impact. This changed in 2016, when hundreds of thousands of Poles across the country took to the streets in the Czarny Protest, or Black Protest. They opposed a bill that would remove some of the exceptions in the existing legislation and impose criminal sanctions on abortion. The scale of the protest meant that the proposal was stalled, despite the newly elected right-wing populist government. It was a surprising victory for the feminist movement, especially after a similar proposal in 2011 received almost no public attention and failed to mobilise resistance even among feminists. This paper looks back at the pro-choice movement before the mass mobilisation in 2016. It draws on interviews and focus groups conducted with pro-choice activists in Poland between 2011 and 2012, when the feminist movement was predominantly active online rather than on the streets. The paper concludes with questions about the success of the mass mobilisation that took place five years later in 2016, which was largely mobilised from online platforms. It asks whether there has been a shift within the pro-choice feminist movement or a sudden interest in feminist politics among the Polish public or whether the 2016 protest reflected a broader dissatisfaction with the current regime. If the third exploration is correct, what are the implications for feminist activism in Poland and the wider resistance to right-wing politics?
Includes material on strikes, demonstrations, hunger strikes and road blocks.
Explores the use of power over women in post-colonial Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
Assesses effectiveness of feminist resistance on movement to refuse the draft, looking primarily at experience of individual feminist COs, rather than organized women’s groups.
The report reveals that India recorded 106 rapes a day, and 4 victims out of every 10 were minors. In 95% of the cases it reveals that the perpetrator was a relative, such as a brother, father, grandfather, son or other man close to the family. In 2016, a total of 38,947 rapes were registered in the country under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) as well as Section 376 and other related section of the Indian Penal Code. In a positive light, the report indicates that the number of reports to the police is increasing each year. However, only 26% of rape cases ended up in conviction in 2016.
During the forty years of armed conflict in Colombia, civil society was continuously assaulted by violent infringement of rights by both left wing guerrilla movements and paramilitary groups. Nevertheless, since the end of the 1990s many communities declared themselves 'municipalities of peace'. Their members commit themselves to behave neutrally and to reject any collaboration with armed actors. Naucke investigates the origin, function and structure of San Jose de Apartado, which is one of the peaceful communities that decided to confront repression.
Discusses historical background since 1951, the evolution of parliamentary democracy from 1991-2001 and examines in detail the royal takeover and war with the Maoists.
This blog highlights the activism of the Feminist Coalition, a group of young feminists who were at the forefront of the youth movement against police brutality. They helped initiate the public protests and provided food, security, mobile toilets and ambulances, as well as hospital services and bail arrangements for protesters.
The book tells the story of how ten women disarmed a Hawk jet at the British Aerospace Warton site near Preston, in England in 1996, which was bound for genocide in East Timor and were acquitted.
Discusses cultural and social bases of protest against nuclear weapons, role of nationalism in the movements, and importance of British types of activism for German protest in light of experience in World War Two and the cold war. See also: Nehring, Holger , Demonstrating for “Peace” in the Cold War: The British and West German Easter Marches 1958-64 In Reiss, Matthias , The Street as Stage: Protest Marches and Public Rallies since the Nineteenth Century Oxford, Oxford University Press, , 2007 , chap. 15; Nehring, Holger , National Internationalists: British and West German Protests Against Nuclear Weapons, the Politics of Transnational Communication and the Social Hisotry of the Cold War 1957-1964 Contemporary European History, 2005, pp. 559-582 .
The number of women in positions of power and authority in Japanese companies has remained small despite the increase in the number of educated women and the laws on gender equality. Kumiko Nemoto challenges claims that the surge in women’s education and employment will logically lead to the decline of gender inequality and eventually improve women’s status in the Japanese workplace. Interviews with diverse groups of workers at three Japanese financial companies and two cosmetics companies in Tokyo reveal the persistence of vertical sex segregation as a cost-saving measure. Women’s progress is impeded by corporate customs such as pay and promotion, track-based hiring of women, long working hours, and the absence of women leaders. Gender equality for common businesses requires that Japan fundamentally depart from its postwar methods of business management. Comparison with the situation in the United States makes the author’s analysis of the Japanese case relevant for understanding the dynamics of the glass ceiling in U.S. workplaces as well.
This paper explores the phenomenon of Otpor (Resistance) movement from Serbia that has played one of the crucial roles in overthrowing undemocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic. It will focus on revealing some of the key elements of every movement such as organization, structure, mobilization and activism.
Former Otpor activists assess its role and criticism made of the group. Accompanied by critical reflections on ‘Serbia eight years after’ by Ivana Franovic (pp. 35-38).
Discusses the post-1990 statist supplanting of ‘the popular emancipatory project’.
This book examines the development and evolution of the Plowshares movement from a social science perspective, looking at issues such as ‘tactical legitimation’ and sustainability in relation to the US movement, and also analyzing ‘intermittent resistance’ in the German, Dutch and Australian movements, and ‘internal implosion’ in the Swedish movement. It also assesses the UK movement.
Compares ‘unsuccessful’ and ‘successful’ movements against Socialist regimes (Tiananmen and East Germany 1989), against military regimes (Panama and Chile in the 1980s) and against personal dictators (Kenyan opposition to Moi and the Philippines struggle against Marcos). Draws some fairly brief general conclusions.
Designed as a textbook, it covers history, theoretical developments and debates about the results of nonviolent movements. It categorizes nine types of nonviolent action, which are illustrated by case studies. A separate chapter explores key issues of why and when sections of the armed services defect from a regime challenged by a nonviolent movement.
Examines the political contexts, nature of the movements against nuclear power and their tactics, and government responses.
Provides practical manuals on different types of protest, e.g. climbing fences, blockading.
Reports on a new app, created by the Sydney-based National Justice Project, that enables Aboriginal people to record police discrimination and violence against them. It is being adopted across Australia. The author sets this Australian initiative in the context of disproportionate jailing of Aborigines and frequent police discrimination, as well as the wider global movement to use film to highlight police injustice, with examples from the USA and Canada.
Author lived in squatter communities in Rio, Bombay, Nairobi (where squatting was linked to building new homes) and Istanbul.
The article argues that the success of the campaign which resulted in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons provides an example of how global mobilisation around a moral idea can have significant political results. Noting that the Parsi Agreement on limiting climate change does not even mention fossil fuels, the authors argue for a 'Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty'. This would impose a moratorium on developing fossil fuels by rich countries, phase out their use, provide for an end to extracting such fuels, and offer technological support to developing countries to increase alternative sources of energy. They note that growing numbers of people, including prominent political figures like Mary Robinson, now support the idea of a treaty to keep almost all remaining fossil fuels underground.
Covers a range of issues and including a list of organizations and resources.
Account of ‘nuclear-free-zone’ protesters who blocked nuclear-power vessels from entering port with ships, boats and canoes.
Examines different types of interventions, including nonviolent direct action, and reviews some relevant books.
The publishers claim it is the first detailed account in English of the movement. Ng, who is a lawyer and newspaper columnist, includes direct reporting from the protest, a timeline, a Who's Who of Hong Kong politics, maps and photographs. The book is reviewed positively by the independent Hong Kong Free Press.
This article explores some feminist voices from India, especially one of a Dalit feminist, and two Northeastern feminists, and identifies certain views on common issues that bind them together. It also looks into the different priorities of each of these feminists, in order to understand the contexts, cultures and experiences that have shaped their primary concerns.
The editors, two professors of government in Hong Kong, argue that although the Occupy Central movement did not achieve immediate specific results it did alter the nature of Hong Kong politics through the emergence of a new movement and repertoire of protest, and also changed Hong Kong's relations with China and its perceived identity internationally. Scholarly contributors from different disciplines assess the origins of the movement, discuss new participants and forms of protest, and the Hong Kong government's response. The book includes perspectives from China, Taiwan and Macau.
See also: Cheng, Edmund W.; Chan, Wai-Yin , Explaining Spontaneous Occupation: Antecedents, Contingencies and Spaces in the Umbrella Movement Social Movement Studies, 2017, pp. 222-239
Chapter 14, pp. 81-95, specifically discusses the electoral performance of the opposition and criticises its lack of internal democracy.
The ‘humanitarian initiative’ in nonproliferation diplomacy leading to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty — has its origins in a reference in the Final Document of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference to the deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons. However, Nielsen notes that the international and civil society diplomacy that led to the success of the Ban Treaty have not yet changed the national policies of nuclear weapons states. It remains an open question if any of these states will ever support the Ban Treaty.
Comments on the potential of a large and nonviolent movement and criticizes hard line leftist criticisms.
A brief analysis of the violence Dalit women experience in India. Dalit women – the ‘untouchables’ – suffer from gender and class-based violence more than Dalit men, non-Dalit men and non-Dalit women. Cases of rape are not reported or followed through due to social stigma and non-cooperation by police. The Ministry of the Home Affairs has signaled in its 2017-2018 report that rape and generally violence against women had been on the increase (See https://mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/MINISTRY%20OF%20HOME%20AFFAIR%20AR%202017-18%20FOR%20WEB.pdf).
A Dalit women’s collective met at the 38th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to speak against gender- and class-based violence. The collective release a report titled ‘Voices Against Caste Impunity: Narratives of Dalit Women in India’ that talks about the violence suffered and the struggles survivors go through to obtain justice with the aim that policy measures should be taken to address the issue.
Stresses that Bulgaria’s corrupt and incompetent governments are result of the nature of the 1989 transition, the opportunities created then for members of the security services to seize economic, social and political power, and lack of public debate about the past.
This article provides an analysis of the socio-economic and political framework within which the movement of 2020 erupted, noting that both the right and the left in Bulgarian politics were accused of corruption, which indicated the 'lack of real political alternatives'. It also notes that issues such as high unemployment, low wages and failing health system are scarcely raised in parliament, even by the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Concludes by pointing to parallels with the 2013 protests.
Discusses the linkage between toxic masculinity, patriarchy and the commodification of Indigenous women in Canada.
Especially chapters 10 and 11.
This study of the Japanese branch of the global World Peace Now movement, which organizes synchronized 'waves of protest', examines the motives for taking part in such peace activism. The author focuses especially on personal experiences, family narratives and local collective memory.
Wide ranging manual with sections on: ‘Defining nonviolence’, ‘Power and conflict’, ‘Learning from other movements’, ‘Strategic frameworks’, ‘Nonviolence and communication’, ‘Working in groups’, ‘Preparing for nonviolent action’.
Studies military rebellions after return to civilian government in 1982.
See also: Lopez Levy, Marcela , We Are Millions: Neo-Liberalism and New Forms of Political Action in Argentina London, Latin America Bureau, , 2004 . Includes brief reference to millions demonstrating in support of President Alfonsin after a military uprising in a barracks in Argentina, Easter 1987, against trials of military for the ‘Dirty War’ (pp. 41 and 122), and explains broader context.
The article begins with the arrest of Alejandro Gaitan, who had led peaceful marches during the recent national strike. He was accused of belonging to 'Primera Linea[, a protest collective singled out for attack by President Duque. The collective attacked the government for trying to weaken the movement for change through arrests and court cases.
Studies how the focal points of resistance by prisoners, hunger strikes, are made possible by longer term lower key strategies. These included encouraging forms of communication between prisoners, development of political education, and by less dramatic acts of ‘everyday’ noncooperation, for example with strip searches or some prison routines. The article is based on interviews with former Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank and some interviews with lawyers and NGOs supporting prisoners.
Shows Palestinians frequently resorted to nonviolent tactics, especially when these were framed as a practical strategy rather than just as a moral preference.
This long article narrates the birth of the #MeToo movement and its development. It also provides a list of the more than 200 high-profile figures who were accused since 2017, which is constantly updated. (You can access the lost from here as well: https://www.vox.com/a/sexual-harassment-assault-allegations-list).
Examines the evolution of the abortion debate since 1970s; the polarization of Republicans and Democrats, and the grassroots movements that have developed through the years.
See also https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/opinion/abortion-roe-science.html
Just as the massive exodus of Guatemalans, mainly indigenous people, in the early 1980s was externally the most visible symptom of the terror that had befallen the country, so their organized return put into focus the need for and hopes of a transformation affecting land, gender, identity, and rights. Also includes Barry Levitt ‘Theorizing Accompaniment’, pp. 237-54.
Norwood explores the influence of Black Lives Matter in informing and driving policy within the Democratic Party, especially on key issues, such as economic equality, education and criminal justice.
See also: Remnick, David, ‘After George Floyd and Juneteenth’, The New Yorker, 20 June 2020.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/after-juneteenth
Part I examines ‘The Roots of Rage’, for example the role of ‘Bread, oil and jobs’ and the new media; Part II ‘The Battlegrounds’ discusses Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria; and Part III considers ‘The New Arab Politics’. Noueihed is a Lebanese/British Reuters correspondent for the Middle East and Warren a specialist in the area.
For background on Argentina’s politics.
In this toolkit for educators working with teenagers between the age of 9 and 13 years old, Novara proposes methodological and pedagogical approaches to transforming conflict nonviolently.
Reports on the pressure from multinational companies to extract hydrocarbons from rocks through fracking in Bolivia, Columbia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, and documents the harmful environmental effects including contamination of water supplies. The report also notes the growing resistance in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina to fracking, for example the No Fracking Brazil Coalition (Coesus) protests outside the offices of fossil fuel companies tendering for areas to frack in October 2015, with international support.
Nowack examines the struggle between 1999 and 2003 to prevent the President serving a third term contrary to the constitution. Drawing on newspaper reports and interviews he argues that a decline in party support and a strong civil society were key, conditions imposed by aid donors and international democracy promotion influenced both these internal factors.
Extensive collection of brief articles on campaigns round the world using different tactics and approaches.
This chapter examines how aspects of the Bashir regime's policy of Islamisation, control over women's bodies and concepts of morality and respectability, prompted Sudanese women's activism after 1989. It also explores how the political context has influenced space for activism, and the changing discourse about women's activism arising from the #FallThatIsAll movement.
See also: Gorani, Amel, ‘Sudanese women demand justice’, OpenDemocracy, 20 May 2011.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/sudanese-women-demand-justice/
Amel Gorani reports the systematic use of sexual violence, torture, cruel and degrading treatment as one of the major security threats and tools of repression targeting women and communities all over Sudan.
See also: Bakhit, Rawa Gafar, ‘Women in #SudanRevolts: heritage of civil resistance’, OpenDemocracy, 19 July 2012
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/women-in-sudanrevolts-heritage-of-civil-resistance/
Explores how women have been active in the Sudanese civil resistance and non-violent protests
This long report explores the rate and consequences of femicide in El Salvador.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/06/el-salvador-devastating-epidemic-femicide and https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/17/teenage-girls-el-salvador-rising-sexual-violence-report
especially ch. 9 ‘Democracy Rediscovered: Popular Protest, Elite mobilization and the Return of Multipartyism’, pp. 368-433.
This article addresses Femen’s media-based activism in Spain. It examines the lack of understanding of Femen’s activist methods among mainstream feminists and broader debates in the current Spanish political context.
Also covers negotiations, the Oslo Accords and the new Palestinian Authority.
See also O'Beachain, Donnacha , Roses and Tulips: Dynamics of regime change in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan Journal of Communist and Transition Studies, 2009, pp. 199-206 . Argues against the thesis that opposition unity is a prerequisite for success in overthrowing presidents, and also rejects claims that Western agents promoted protests to secure western interests.
Mixture of history, personal memoir and analysis by this Irish academic, writer and statesman. In chapter 8, ‘Civil Rights: the Crossroads’ (pp. 147-77) he argues that the campaign of civil disobedience begun by the civil rights movement in 1968 was bound in the context of Northern Ireland’s deeply divided society to increase sectarianism and lead to violence. Defends Partition on the grounds that the alternative would have been a much bloodier civil war than the one that occurred in the South in 1922-23. Cites a loyalty survey conducted by Richard Rose in 1968 to dismiss as unrealistic the proposition that the Catholic and Protestant working class might unite in a struggle against a common class enemy and create a workers’ republic in a united Ireland.
The authors examine youth opposition to policies and practices that lead to climate change, noting that differing forms of climate activism have differing results. They focus on three types that oppose power relationships and political interests: ‘dutiful, disruptive, and dangerous dissent’
Based on fieldwork since 1994 on local instances of rights-based opposition. Chapter 4, ‘Tactical Escalation’, pp. 67-94, is especially rich in examples
Examination from a socialist perspective of key issues by three Northern Ireland academics. Includes a chapter on the reform of the RUC in the 1970s.
In this SIPRI policy paper the authors discuss the recurring issues raised by the 2019 wave of protests in the context of state-society relations in the Middle East and North Africa, general trends and the role of external actors. It also considers the probable impact of Covid-19.
Reports on the ban that Facebook and Google put on foreign ads from activists in the US, UK and other countries’ and from vloggers, which were directed at influencing an-anti abortion result in the 2018 Irish referendum.
See also https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-poisonous-online-campaign-to-defeat-the-abortion-referendum-1.3486236 and https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/overseas-influence-in-abortion-referendum-will-be-hard-to-stop-1.3406610
This article examines how the changing external environment faced by the Canadian feminist movement, and its internal situation, are reflected in the beliefs and strategies of recruits to the movement at a given point in time. Using a large sample data set, the author provides evidence that the changes experienced by the Canadian feminist movement from the 1980s onwards have resulted in noticeable shifts in the collective identity and activist strategies of subsequent waves of feminist recruits. The findings suggest that further research into cohort recruitment and replacement is essential for understanding the forces at play in shaping the contemporary Canadian feminist movement.
Assessment of World Social Forum conference in Tunisia March 2013, attempting to link the ‘alter-globalization’ movement and the ‘Arab Spring’.
Drawing on her years of research in El Salvador, legal scholar Michelle Oberman explores the consequences of criminalizing abortion. She then turns her attention to the United States, where the battle over abortion takes place, in her opinion, almost exclusively in legislatures and courtrooms. Focusing on Oklahoma, she interviews current and former legislators and activists, and shows how Americans voice their moral opposition to abortion by supporting laws that would restrict it. She challenges this approach to the law by highlighting the real life impact of laws and policies on motherhood and abortion on women.
Emphasises the importance of the nonviolent moral force versus a force that had the means of control and repression but lacked moral authority.
Men have an important role as allies in reducing discrimination against women. Using the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA), the authors examined whether men's identification with women would predict their allied collective actions. They also examined whether men’s identification with their own group would reduce their willingness to improve women's situation. They found that moral beliefs and a sense of group efficacy made men more likely to join in collective action to combat discrimination against women. They also discuss the possible role of norms and concept of legitimacy in society in explaining the pattern of results.
Ockey notes that the Covid pandemic interrupted student-led protests for constitutional reform. When they resumed students demanded not only constitutional amendments already being considered by parliament, but the resignation of the prime minister, dissolution of parliament and reform of the monarchy. He notes fears of violence between students and royalists or security forces.
Investigation of the convictions and sense of identity of people in the Catholic Community in Northern Ireland based on recorded interviews with fifty-five individuals – not all of them necessarily practising Catholics – about their political allegiances, their relationship with Protestants, and their attitude to the IRA, Britain, Southern Ireland and the Church.
Text of a talk given in June 1997 to the Nonviolent Research Project at Bradford University.. Discusses the development of community level political engagement and the vision of Ciaron McKeown of the Peace People that it could someday provide an alternative to the existing political system. She argues that Community politics up to that time (1997) was more developed in the Catholic/Nationalist community than in that of the Protestant/Unionist one but there too it had emerged in the previous five years or so. Former members of paramilitary groups were frequently involved because they had come to see the futility of the violence or because they wanted their own children to have a different life to the one they had experienced.
Briefly discusses the women-led initiative in Indonesia against the burning and plundering of forests for mining and palm oil plantation.
Autobiography of a nationalist leader, a rival of Mboya, who in the mid-1960s left the ruling Kenyan African National Union because he disagreed with land resettlement and economic policies, and argued for greater socialism. Includes references to 1938 destocking campaign and to strikes.
Collection of essays providing a comparative history of women’s activism round the world.
also available in Arabic, French, Russian, Spanish (pdf)
Chapter 4, ‘Transition to Peace and Nonviolent Politics in a Democratic State’, pp. 31-44.
This book examines the diverse experiences of being young in today’s Africa. It offers new perspectives on the roles and positions young people take to change their conditions both within and beyond the formal political structures and institutions. The contributors represent several social science disciplines, and analyse critically dominant discourses of youth, politics and ideology. Despite focusing on Africa, the book is a collective effort to understand what it is like to be young today, and what working for change means in personal and political terms.
a paper submitted to the 1998 International Peace Research Association Conference
see also Oishi, Mikio , Nonviolent Struggle of the Burmese People for Democracy Durban, South Africa, , 1998 , a paper submitted to the 1998 International Peace Research Association Conference.
Ojewale argues that the EndSARS protests, which incorporate demands for human rights and greater democracy, provide an outlet for marginalized young Nigerians to express their grievances against the government. The excesses of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and the failure of the government to address them, despite promises of reform, are at the top of the list. This blog provides an in depth analysis of the movement and its causes, and discusses how the protests might affect the 2021 election.
See also: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/10/police-protest-power-and-nigerias-y...
After experiencing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945, Chinese-ink painter Iri Maruki and oil painter Toshi Maruki began their collaboration on the Hiroshima Panels in 1950. During the Allied occupation of Japan when reporting on the atomic bombing was strictly prohibited, the panels made known the hidden nuclear sufferings through a nationwide tour. In 1953, the panels began a ten-year tour of about 20 countries, mainly in East Asia and Europe, and disseminated the Hiroshima stories in the age of the US-Soviet arms race. The Marukis embarked on a new direction in the 1970s, with their emphasis on complex realities of war in which the victim/perpetrator dichotomy was not clear-cut, and explored other forms of violence such as pollution and discrimination.
Account of first Go Feminist conference designed to link up and inspire activists.
Collection of documents from official perspective.
Young people, who comprise nearly 34 per cent of Nigeria's, population of over 200 million, are of central importance to its future. This paper examines the 2019 Nigerian National Youth Policy, and argues that #EndSARS was not only a protest against police violence, but 'a desperate reaction' to the long term failure of governments to 'make Nigeria a livable society in general, and to achieve genuine youth development in particular'.
The author, who was a member of the Mexican government delegation throughout the negotiations for the Treaty, explains the significance of detailed provisions of the Treaty, and its overall importance as a multilateral arms control treaty. He also notes the close links between the Mexican and US delegations during the talks.
Article covers responses by community and legal groups to: Expo ‘86 in Vancouver; 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics; and the rejected proposal for 1996 Summer Olympics in Toronto.
A book about the beginning of the conscientious objection movement in Spain, which tells the story of Pepe Beunza, the first C.O. in Spain who embarked on disobedience under the Franco dictatorship. It is not only about Pepe’s personal experience, but also an account of the supporting campaigns and of the next conscientious objectors and the creation of MOC, the C.O. movement that still exists.
The World Peace Brigade was founded in 1962 to develop the potential of transnational action. Its first project in Central Africa was planning a march in support of Zambian claims to independence (the march became unnecessary); the second was the Delhi Peking Friendship March to promote understanding at the time of the brief border war between India and China.
For more on the Brigade, see Prasad, Devi, War is a Crime Against Humanity: The Story of War Resisters’ International, London, War Resisters’ International, 2005, pp. 325-31.
Includes assessments of the increasingly active role of civil society and relations with the state.
Contributors assess the efforts and problems of oppositions in difficult circumstances, and also consider issues of leadership and organization. The book includes case studies of Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The author begins by recalling the death of 20 year-old Rashan Charles in a London shop in July 2017 whilst he was being violently restrained by two police officers, who were cleared of misconduct. She argues that though the scale of police violence may be smaller in the UK, it is not very different. The cause is structural racism.
After the explosion of the anti-SARS protests, this analysis argues that the way the Nigerian government responds to these emphatic demands for government accountability and an end to police violence will influence similar struggles across much of Africa, and impact especially on the young.
See also: https://urbanviolence.org/why-nigerias-youth-are-protesting-for-police-reform/
After Pakistani repression of the 1971 East Bengali independence movement and outbreak of the India-Pakistan war, a transnational team tried with some success to take relief supplies into East Bengal. Their aim was to provide practical aid to refugees and protest against Pakistani army repression. At the same time US activists blocked arms supplies to Pakistan (see also Taylor, Blockade: A Guide to Nonviolent Intervention (E.3. Opposing Other Wars and Occupations) ).
Uses experiences of West Germany anti-nuclear energy movement to discuss how repression impacts on protest.
Study based on fieldwork interviewing various actors.
The author has been prominent in Ghanaian politics and a professor of political science at the University of Legon.
This study of the #EndSARS protests that shook Nigeria in October and November 2020 considers how far they can be related to more violent acts of insurgency such as Boko Haram. The study adopts a historical framework and draws on qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore how endemic governmental corruption and 'the re-enslavement and recolonization' of citizens' by political leaders has led to youth rebellion. The authors conclude that protest and violent forms of revolt will not cease until the deep-seated causes are tackled.
See also: Oloyede, F. and A.A. Elega, (2019) 'Exploring Hashtag Activism in Nigeria. A Case of #EndSARS Campaign'. Conference Proceedings: 5th in Communication and Media Studies (CRPC 2018) Famagusta. Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, pp. 1-7.
This article describes the ‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’ campaign to promote disinvestment in companies that have a role in producing nuclear weapons. Some of these, for example BAE Systems, have factories in Scotland and others have benefited from Scottish funding, including investment by Scottish pensions schemes. Notes that this investment is inconsistent with opposition of many Scottish MPs and the Scottish government to renewal of Trident, and suggests campaigning tactics.
This book is a compendium of many examples of nonviolent action, mainly in the Basque country, but also from the rest of the world. The examples are presented individually, without a connecting link, so this is not a history, but a compendium of cases.
This book is an introduction to some of the classic theories and movements of nonviolent action, based on the studies of Sharp and Ackerman, which have not yet been translated into Spanish. But it provides a personal interpretation derived from the principled approach to nonviolent action. A very good starting point for beginners in this subject.
Ortmann explains the movement in the context of the slow process of institutional democratization and the dashing of early hopes. He notes the obstacles to progress through the democratic political parties created by the Hong Kong authorities. He also points to the role of the business elite, afraid that fully democratic politics would lead to radical economic and social policies, and the constraints imposed by Beijing. As a result the democracy movement has become divided, and students have come to the fore in promoting protest.
Reprinted in A Collection of Essays, New York, Harcourt, 1953.
A frequently cited critical review of many aspects of Gandhi’s philosophy and life, which nevertheless recognizes his positive contribution as a politician.
Places participation in Solidarity in context of engagement in previous Polish ‘protest cycles’.
States the case for devolution, criticizes British regional policy, and traces the emergence and development of a distinctive Welsh politics.
Especially chapters 4 to 7.
A documentary history in sections, including: i. origins of crisis April 1952-mid-June 1953; ii. the uprising; with introductions to each section and general well referenced introduction.
Explores abortion access in Catalonia for immigrant women in particular, within a context of austerity and the movement for separation from Spain.
The authors look back to 2011 and the varied outcomes in four different contexts which shaped the possibility of and the reactions to mass protest. These are: the Maghreb (Tunisia and Morocco); Egypt; the Levant (Syria and Iraq) - states created out of the Ottoman Empire and then dominated by the colonial powers Britain and France; and the Gulf Arab monarchies. They then discuss 'whither the second wave?' in relation to Sudan, Algeria, Labanon and Iraq and draw some provisional conclusions.
Analyzes the rise of Syriza (formed in 2004) within its broader political context, and comments on the problems faced after its victory in the polls and the developments up to early 2015. Chapter 3 'Their Austerity and Our Resistance' focuses on popular resistance by students, strikes by workers, occupations of the squares, environmental struggle, opposition to racism and the major struggle sparked in 2013 by efforts to maintain the national broadcasting and television networks, leading to work place occupations across the country.'
Includes a sympathetic analysis of the Peace People pp. 30-38. See also: https://civilresistance.info/challenge/effective.
A chapter from Overy’s unpublished PhD thesis.
Through detailed analysis of Gandhi's campaigns from 1915 to 1922 the author illuminates the evolution of Gandhi's thinking and strategy. Overy stresses the importance of Gandhi's constructive programme, promoting local empowerment, and its interconnectedness with resistance campaigns against imperial rule.
Describes the trajectory of resistance from largely nonviolent demonstrations, modeled on the US Civil Rights movement, to riots and finally to virtual civil war in Derry/Londonderry. O’Dochartaigh subscribes to the view that in conditions of civil disorder and conflict ‘the local environment becomes ever more important as a focus of political activity.’ A central thesis of the book is that ‘occasions of violent confrontation play a crucial role in promoting the escalation and continuation of conflict’.
Since the end of 2017, many controversies and social media campaigns, especially the “#MeToo” movement, have kept the issue of sexual harassment in the public eye, intentionally, but its impact in Japan has been limited. This is surprising as sexual harassment is prevalent in many social spheres in Japan, including in educational institutions. This article outlines the extent of the problem and provides suggestions for classroom activities and educational initiatives to raise awareness for the transformation of currently toxic conditions.
Includes coverage of petitions, strikes and demonstrations of May-June 1960 with emphasis on role of Zengakuren student organization.
By leading Pan African activist and close associate of Nkrumah. Chapter 5 covers the 1950 Positive Action campaign.
Claudia Padrón Cueto comments on the absence of the crime of femicide in the Cuban Criminal Code, and on the lack of statistics and appropriate media reporting on the subject. She also recalls the protests in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Brazil under the slogans #NoEstamosTodas (“We’re Not All Here”) #NiUnaMenos (“Not One Less”) and argues that the lack of demonstrations and feminist movements do negatively affect Cuban society.
See also https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article211666429.html and https://www.univision.com/univision-news/latin-america/in-cuba-where-femicide-is-not-a-crime-the-country-grapples-with-gender-based-violence.
Analysis by social anthropologist of campaign against the Alta Hydropower Dam, and its impact in promoting cultural and political rights.
Paiva analyses the international #MeToo movement from the perspective of the Brazilian feminist movement; its historical approaches and new focus on using social networks. She also interprets #MeToo as one expression of new feminism and the related movements and collectives that stemmed from it. The author finally analyses #EleNão (NotHim) as an offshoot of #MeToo and its failure to prevent the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro, who represented misogynist and chauvinist movement in Brazil.
Introduction to the December 2018 issue, which presents, amongst other topics, essays and articles on the daily resistance against anti-Black state violence in Brazil; the demonstration of women wearing green handkerchiefs and claiming spaces in Argentina; the role of Ixil women in rebuilding communal structures post-genocide; the searches for the disappeared in Mexico; women’s struggle against oil exploitation; the organisation of LGBTI+ community members’ forms of resistance for immigrant justice; and the revisitation of the #NiUnaMenos movement.
Anti-dam resistance persuaded the World Bank to withdraw from funding one of the dams, but did not change Indian government policy.
Examines resistance by indigenous people in desert of Central Mexico to government granting mining concessions to Canadian First Majestic Silver in their protected zone, and wider support in Mexico for their cause.
Highlights the impetus that the National Wommen’s Strike on 19 October 2016 gave to the further development of the movement ‘Ni Una Menos’ in Latin America and the links it revealed between the most dramatic forms of violence against women such as femicide, rape and physical violence, to the more normalised forms of exploitation of women’s abilities in the context of neoliberalism.
Provides historical background to the formation of the #NiUnaMenos movement in Argentina in 2015, which extended to other parts of Latin America, and gives an account of the demands, which were taken up by the government.
See also a more recent article on the development of the movement https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/while-u-s-has-metoo-latin-america-s-ni-una-n875091.
Panikkar’s is an attempt to define the meaning of ‘peace’ in relation to war, politics, religion and ecology. He introduces the concepts of ‘cultural disarmament’ and ‘intercultural dialogue’ as paramount elements for pursuing reconciliation between nations.
In this work, Marco Pannella, Italian journalist and politician, founder of the Partito Radicale Nonviolento Transnazionale e Transpartito (Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (PRNTT)), narrates the story of his political life and devotion to nonviolence as the core principle of his political programme. He also narrates the hunger-strikes and dialogues he engaged in to pursue political objectives.
Further information about the Party can be found at http://www.radicalparty.org/, which is available in Italian, English, French, Russian, and Arabic.
The page dedicated exclusively to him can be found at https://www.partitoradicale.it/marco-pannella/
Gives an account on the debate in Kyrgyzstan, and more generally in Central Asia, about women's rights and the role of women in contemporary Central Asian societies. Provides link to videos and podcast debating the issue.
Part 3 focuses on ‘The Struggle for Freedom’, including international pressure on the regime.
Explores how women's reproductive rights and needs are reflected in pro-life and pro-choice public debate in Poland.
Assessment drawing on survey data and giving weight to analysis of impact of external factors on internal forces. See Chapter 2 for the people power movement.
Political theorist and Gandhi scholar Parekh has also written a brief account of Gandhi’s life and work: Parekh, Bhikhu , Gandhi Oxford, Oxford University Press, , 1997, pp. 111 .
References to the Sebastian Acevedo Movement also occur in Agger, Inger ; Jensen, Søren Buus, Trauma and Healing Under State Terrorism London, Zed Books, , 1996, pp. 246 , who see it as ‘an expression both of psychological counter-strategies at the private and political level and of healing strategies at the societal level’ (p. 184) but do not describe its methodology. Lloyd, Vincent W., The Problem with Grace: Reconfiguring Political Theology Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, , 2011, pp. 256 , pp. 109-11, discusses its liturgical aspects in comparison with contemporary Critical Mass bicycle rides.
Eyewitness accounts (from different perspectives) of impact of strike on community.
See also Parkman, Patricia , Nonviolent Insurrection in El Salvador Tucson, University of Arizona Press, , 1988, pp. 168 .
An analysis of the theocratic regime installed in 1979 and the problems facing the country, including corruption and cronyism, deep economic inequality and a brain drain of professionals. The author discusses the potential of the Green Revolution and its suppression, considers whether there is any scope to reform the regime from within, and concludes that the best hope is another revolution.
See also: Boroumand, Ladan, 'Iran's Exclusionary Republic', Journal of Democracy, vol. 29 no. 2. (April 2018), pp. 406.
This review of the 2016 book Democracy in Iran (see below) begins by commenting on the mass demonstrations that broke out in late December 2017 across 72 cities, calling for regime change, and how they were suppressed (48 killed and 4,792 arrests). Boroumand asks how 'recurrent explosions of popular anger in the Islamic Republic can be explained, and how the most recent protests related to the strong majority vote for the moderate President Rouhani six months earlier. She then turns to the book as a helpful analysis of developments since 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini came to power.
This article explores how activism in the protests influenced how students saw their role and their identity. It also argues that the Umbrella Movement needs to be understood within the context of other Asian student movements from the last century (such as student activism leading to Tiananmen) as well as the recent (March 2014) Sunflower Movement in Taiwan opposing greater economic integration with China. Partaken stresses the impact of the movement on the educational world of Hong Kong and also beyond its borders.
Debates how intersectional feminism is relevant to the Middle East, in relation to a different conception of class, ethnicity and social status from the West. It examines whether a fixed understanding of feminism – based on a westernized value system - might be detrimental to the achievement of women’s rights in Middle Eastern societies.
Brief but illuminating account, by the founder and chair of the National Women’s Movement for the Nurturance of Democracy in the Philippines, of the role played by her organization and two related civil society groups between 1983 and 1986.
Venezuela veteran activist for women’s rights, Gioconda Mota, discusses the growth of feminist movements in Venezuela. She pays particular attention to how they have contributed to the improvement of existing legal frameworks on the issue of gender violence and women’s role in the economy, and how much work is still needed with regard to dissident sexualities and abortion. She also discusses the predominantly sexist nature of justice administration, and the lack of women’s participation in strategic spheres of power, despite the increased participation in communal councils, social organisations and committees. She also sheds light on the feminisation of poverty, due to the double burden of productivity and care on women. The interview with Mota came after a group of feminist researchers released a ground-breaking report on the situation of women’s human rights in Venezuela, called ‘Desde Nosotras’ (From Us), whose 250 pages reveal the key challenges facing the political, economic, health, sexual and reproductive rights of Venezuelan women today.
Analyzes the current feminist actors, organizations and debates around gender equality and feminist perspectives in order to provide an overview of feminist ideas and actors in India. It shows that feminism today is the constant questioning of the world we perceive and the boundaries we encounter.
Critiques individualist liberal theories of civil disobedience, including the notion that civil disobedients should willingly accept punishment (pp. 57-60 and 161-2). Rather ‘political disobedience ... may be the only way in which freedom and equality can be preserved’, and minorities have the right to refuse or withdraw consent.
Many people dream about a world without hate violence and war, but they doubt such a world is possible. So finally, they cease to dream about it. Patfoort ch allenges such resignation with a book of hope, but also describes the system within which people are inhibited. Finally, he offers a model of equality in rank and nonviolence, where self-assertion without attacking others seems possible.
In this work, Patfoort proposes a theoretical framework for nonviolent conflict management and provides practical examples on how to resolve conflicts non-violently at the personal level, in contexts affecting the environment as well as within international politics.
Criticizes coercive nature of a ‘fast to the death’ and dangers of civil society activism that bypasses parliament.
The spread of contemporary roller derby presents an opportunity to examine the ways sport can act as a form of feminist intervention. This article draws on a qualitative case study of a roller derby league in China, made up predominantly of expatriate workers, to explore some of the possibilities roller derby presents in activating global forms of feminist participatory action.
The author draws on existing literature to summarise a wide range of hidden, semi-open and overt nonviolent forms of resistance to Nazism inside Germany itself and in German-occupied Europe. Examples range from hiding and rescuing Jews (on an individual basis inside Germany and elsewhere, but also rescuing almost all the Jewish population in Denmark), graffiti, leaflet distribution, underground newspapers, boycotts, and the demonstration by non-Jewish wives of Jews against the deportation of their husbands. Not a scholarly treatise, but a source for important examples of courageous resistance (though their effectiveness is sometimes debatable). Paxton argues success would have been most likely if resistance tactics had been adopted at an early stage in the rise of Nazism.
Thorough study of grass-roots activism in Mississippi, with useful bibliographical essay.
See also commentary by Francesca Polletta in Goodwin; Jasper, Contention in Context: Political Opportunities and the Emergence of Protest (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) , pp. 133-152.
In this long article academics across a range of disciplines assess the factors that currently define the repercussions of and reactions to sexual harassment among survivors, perpetrators and in society in general. It explores the power of narrative in the post-Weinstein era; the waves of feminism that had led to the current movements; the role of culture and power in addressing gender relations and the power dynamics of sexual harassment; the role of formal policies and education in tackling sexual harassment, and the need to reframe masculinity.
Peace, a writer/activist, documents the growth of the peace and justice movement in the US, with particular focus on the 1980s. Areas covered include anti-nuclear campaigning and campaigns for justice in Latin America. Discusses also debates and controversies within the movement.
History of the 8 year anti-Contra campaign, its links in Nicaragua and its impact on deterring the US President from sending troops to oust the left-wing Sandanista government. See also on border monitoring: Griffin-Nolan, Witness for Peace: A Story of Resistance (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment) and shorter version in Moser-Puangsuwan; Weber, Nonviolent Intervention Across Borders: A Recurrent Vision (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment) , pp. 279-304.
Statements by two anarchists in the draft resistance movement, who went underground and then to jail, commenting critically upon it. An introduction by Takver notes the important role played by individual anarchists and anarchist groups in the anti-war movement.
Examination of how land is being taken from subsistence farmers round the world, for example across Africa, South-East Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.
Interviews with Palestinians. See also Pearlman, Wendy , Precluding Nonviolence, Propelling Violence: The Effect of Fragmentation on Movement Protest Studies in Comparative International Development, 2012, pp. 23-46 , which argues that ‘cohesion’ – to be assessed according to the strength of leadership, organisation and a sense of collective purpose – ‘approximates a necessary condition for nonviolent protest’.
Pearlman provides a summary of the background of civil resistance in overall Palestinian resistance since 1917, and a detailed analysis of why there was no third intifada in 2011. She also examines the protests that did take place. The chapter is extensively referenced.
Firsthand account by white activist who participated in both in the 1947 ‘Journey of Reconciliation’ organised jointly by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and CORE, and the 1961 Freedom Ride organised by CORE at the height of the Civil rights Movement.
The author examines the decades of enforced sterilization of Indigenous women in North America in the 20th century and the influence of eugenics ideologies on this policy. Use of sterilization was most common from the 1940s to the 1970s, when the Indigenous populations began (after centuries of decline) to increase in numbers. This trend alarmed both eugenicists anxious to maintain racial ‘purity’, and corporations seeking to exploit resources on indigenous lands.
See also: Howard-Hassmann, Rhoda, ‘Forced sterilizations of Indigenous women: One more act of genocide’, The Conversation, 4 March 2019.
See also: Virdi, Jaipreet, ‘The coerced sterilization of Indigenous women’, New Internationalist, 30 November 2018.
https://newint.org/features/2018/11/29/canadas-shame-coerced-sterilization-indigenous-women
Both links expose the forced sterilization of Canadian Indigenous women for several decades, up to the 2000s.
The authors draw on data on conflicts over oil production in the Ecuadorian Amazon to argue that not all these movements are primarily motivated by environmental concerns. The note the variety of motives involved. These varied motives also affect how these movements influence policy.
This book focuses on the role of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in the movement for rights for Black Americans. The author contests the standard view that they were rivals, and that Malcolm X was the radical exponent of violence challenging King's more moderate and peaceable approach. The author, a historian at the University of Texas, argues that their view of the United States and their strategies for achieving justice tended to converge over time, as King grew more radical in his later years and Malcolm X moved towards a more nuanced political approach. But they had separate power bases and styles of communication.
International law has expanded significantly to encompass abuse of women’s rights, as a result of pressure from international civil society. There is now strong support for recognising violence against women as a human right issue. But attempts by women’s groups to promote consensus on reproductive rights, especially the right to safe access to abortion, have met with strong opposition or conservative religious bodies at both an international and local level. This article includes a case study of local direct action in Australia against access to abortion, and also a wider evaluation of the impact of anti-abortion protest groups on women’s rights. It also examines how far legislation to limit anti-abortion activism in designated areas is effective, and how far such legislation is consistent with international norms and feminised international laws.
Contributions on various forms of refusal – to do military service, to fire at one’s own people, to participate in torture, or to accept orders relating to nuclear weapons – together with summaries of relevant international law.
Charts the evolution of the movement from spontaneous protests to highly organized resistance.
Perez Esquivel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980, has been a leading SERPAJ activist in Argentina and in Latin America generally.
Ms Saffaa is a Saudi artist who paints murals to support feminists in Saudi Arabia and transmits her art and political messages through the Internet. She is in exile in Australia (where she had a scholarship to study), having refused to return to Saudi Arabia to renew her passport, and campaigns against the 'guardianship laws', declaring 'I am my own guardian'. The article reproduces one of her murals.
Looks at little known worker unrest accompanying intellectual dissent.
Analyses reactions to government reforms, including both covert and open resistance. Distinguishes between intellectual dissidents and popular rebellion. See especially ‘Rights and resistance: The changing context of the dissident movement’ (pp. 20-38); ‘Pathways of labour insurgency’ (pp. 41-61); and ‘Environmental protest in rural China’ (pp. 143-59) which includes reference to direct action against a factory polluting water. Second edition has added chapters on Falun Gong, Christianity and land struggles.
This article surveys Swedish debates about gender equality in the military since 1965, when military conscription of women was first proposed, up to the introduction of 'gemder neutral' conscription in 2018. Using a wide range of sources, the authors note that women were assessed against the standard set by men, but that the 'woman soldier' became a solution for staff shortages and the need for particular qualities in particular situations, especially in international missions
A clear summary of developments from 1989-1997, that also lays emphasis on the role of popular mobilization and protests.
Ann Pettifor developed the concept of a Green New Deal as a global and systemic approach with a group of fellow economists in 2008, but environmental issues were overshadowed in the financial crisis. She argues the political and economic case for urgent restructuring of government and the economy to try to save the planet, drawing on the example of Roosevelt's New Deal during the 1930s Great Depression to show how government can constructively tackle the impact of global crises. She also sets out to show what global and national changes are necessary and how they might be brought about.
This article, written at the beginning of the mass protest movement that began in Colombia in November 2019, examines the political and economic context of the emergence of socio-economic protest and discusses its possible future significance for Colombia and the left.
Report on student-led pro-democracy protests in Bangkok and at least 20 other provinces, calling for new elections, a new Constitution and reduction in the dominant role of the Thai monarchy.
See also: '#WhatsHappeningInThailand: 10 things you need to know', Amnesty International, 6 November 2020.
https://amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/whats-happening-thailand-10-t...
See also: Selway, Joel, 'Thailand's National Moment: Protests in a Continuing Battle Over Nationalism, Brookings, 2 November, 2020.
https://www.brookings.edu/nlog/order-from-chaos/2020/11/02/thailands-nat...
The article recounts the emergence of the campaign #Cuéntalo in Latin America, which followed the wave of protests that occurred in Pamplona, Spain, after 5 men on rape charges were only convicted on a lesser charge. It reports that the rate of prosecution for femicide is very low in Latin America, and the region is considered one of the most dangerous in the world for young women and women’s safety.
Reports the jubilation of pro-choice demonstrators in Buenos Aires after the Senate (which had voted down legalization of abortion in 2018) passed a law allowing termination in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy for any reason. Argentina became then third South American country (after Uruguay and Guyana) to decriminalize abortion, and there are likely to b repercussions across the region. The authors summarize the five years of mass campaigning by the women’s movement in Argentina that led to this result.
See also: ‘Green Wave, Blue Water: Abortion in Latin America’, Economist, 9 Jan. 2021, pp.41-2.
This article discusses the significance of and probable repercussions of the legalization of abortion in Argentina, in the context of the generally very restrictive position in many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The article notes the possible positive repercussions in Peru and Mexico and that legalizing abortion may be raised in proposed constitutional change in Chile. But the article also warns that the Argentinian law will mobilize forces strongly opposed to abortion.
Almost a year after protests began, the author reports on the detention of political activists, but also the evolution of decentralized networked forms of communication to promote mobilization against the Thai establishment.
Assesses critically UN attempts to improve the position of women over half a century.
Brief article which details evolution of strike from 10-16 August.
Although sexual harassment and its consequences for women and society at large are not acknowledged in Chinese society, in June 2017 anti-harassment ads appeared in subway stations across Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen – in campaigns funded either by corporations or by the government-backed All-China Women’s Federation. This report from Amnesty International discusses the development of feminist struggles in China since the arrest of the ‘Feminist Five’ in 2015, with a particular focus on to the development of feminist activism from 2017 onwards.
For a very detailed report on the development of the #MeToo movement in China by the same author, see also https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2018/09/lu-pin-metoo-from-butterflies-to-hurricanes/
For an understanding on Feminist Five's activist, Li Maizi, see also https://www.juanxucurator.com/feminist-activism-in-china-in-conversation-with-li-maizi-2017.html#
The book discusses what factors encourage or undermine nonviolent discipline, including the reactions of the government and the way the movement is itself organised.
Examines why some nonviolent revolutions result in democratization, while others do not, and discusses how protesters can promote democratic outcomes. Focuses in particular on the role of civil society both before and after the revolution.
Story of six Maolucho women from the Campo Maripe community in the Argentine Patagonia, who have resisted fracking where they live by chaining themselves to fracking rigs and barricades. Pineiro represents the women as representative of the Latin American wide resistance by indigenous women to oil extraction.
In this short interview, Pinna recounts his reasons for becoming a conscientious objector and the impact this decision had within the political Italian context. Additionally, he elucidates the elements of nonviolent actions.
Available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emniqr2trk4&t=609s
This interview is a message that Pinna sent to the conference marking the 40th Anniversary of the legal recognition of the right to conscientious objection held in Florence on 15th-16th December 2012. He narrates his experience during the Second World War and how this shaped his decision to object to military service on the ground of ‘conscience’. He then explains his position on the co-participation of civil society in war-making and arms production and finally touches upon nonviolent civil disobedience.
Available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOz7PFa180A
The authors comment on the significance of the nearly 80 per cent support in the October 2020 referendum for a new constitution, to be decided upon by a special assembly. They also note the scale of the year-long movement which had achieved this concession by the conservative government, and the diversity of those demanding greater social and economic equality and political change. The article then focuses on the problems of both satisfying the diverse socio-economic and ideological groups involved in the struggle and of changing the institutional context that maintained the legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Pittock, a well known Australian climate scientist, examines the scientific evidence for climate change, including new evidence in the 2007 Fourth IPCC Assessment Report of the rapid melting of arctic sea ice. He also covers the possibilities of investment in renewable technologies, and examines the role of the (in 2009) recently elected Australian government.
Compares the efficacy of defiance and disruption with constitutional methods in four US movements.
Discusses Senate vote against legalising abortion in Argentina.
See also https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/10/argentina-women-abortion-hollow-senate-victory
Account by Maori activist and academic which covers links to other movements, ‘brown power’, the Maori Land Rights movement of 1975-84, cultural campaigns, claims to the Waitangi Tribunal and responses by the Labour Government.
This article presents a comprehensive account of Mahatma Gandhi’s life, work and thought and explores his continuing significance.
The period of sustained dissent in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, associated particularly with the Civil Rights Movement, the rising opposition to the Vietnam War and second wave feminism, also proud forms of radical art. The Getty Research Institute Library, which was active in documenting this art in Los Angeles, helped to define this era. Drawing primarily on the holdings of the Library, such as photobooks, photographs, performance art, and art books, this presentation discusses the visual language of different types of art media used for social activism. It also illustrates the role the Getty Research Institute has played in collecting these primary materials and making them increasingly available to the public, both locally and globally, through collaborative initiatives, exhibitions and publications.
Poirier reflects on the open letter published in Le Monde, which was signed by 100 French women, including the film star Catherine de Neuve, and became news around the world. The letter suggested the Hollywood campaign was intolerant and promoted censorship, and that MeToo reflected a puritanical strain in feminism, and led to intolerance of those not politically correct. It asserted that 'rape is a crime, but trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cackhandedly, is not'. The letter provoked anger among feminists, with many younger French feminists accusing the signatories of being over-privileged and not caring about victims of rape and harassment. Poirier argues that, although the letter included clumsy and provocative wording, it did represent an important strand in French feminism, inspired by Simone de Beauvoir, which is still the mainstream position. It is opposed to a younger American-inspired movement, which is seen by more traditional French feminists as extremist, and leading to censorship of the arts. Poirier also points out that although the Le Monde letter is usually identified with Catherine de Neuve, its initiator was Abnousse Shalmani, a 41 year old Iranian refugee from Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, who had herself experienced rape, and who had found in French culture the inspiration to become free 'as a woman and a sexual being'. Shalmani said on French radio after the letter's publication that the signatories did not dismiss those who had the courage to speak out against Weinstein, or their struggle, but wished to 'add our voice' to the debate.
Over 40 contributions from writers and activists on resistance to neoliberal globalization, including material on anti-privatization campaigns in South Africa and Indian peasants opposing the WTO.
In this book, Polito analyses the philosophical conceptualisation of ‘conscience’, central to the elaboration of the ethical and moral tenets of the practice of objection to military service. Polito pays tribute to the most famous conscientious objectors who shaped the history of the Italian Republic and promoted nonviolent theory and techniques, such as Aldo Capitini – anti-fascist Italian political philosopher; Ada Gobetti – anti-fascist jourbalist; Norberto Bobbio – Italian philosopher, Sereno Regis – peace activist; Danilo Dolci – peace activist; Lorenzo Milani – priest and educator; Rodolfo Venditti – Italian judge and conscientious objection supporter; Goffredo Fofi- Italian author, and literature, drama and movie critic; and Pietro Pinna – Italian nonviolent activist. The book provides a refutation of the belief in the necessity of violence embedded in politics - even where it may seem justified as in preventive wars and humanitarian intervention. Polito also argues that violence is at the root of the economic and financial global system that is becoming profoundly detrimental to the environment.
(reprinted in McAdam; Snow, Readings on Social Movements: Origins, Dynamics and Outcomes (A. 7. Important Reference Works and Websites) ).
Discusses the contagious impact of the sit-ins and the spirit they generated among participants.
Pollin compares two radically different approaches to political and economic change to meet climate change, referring to the book Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era (listed above) as representative of degrowth theories. He makes clear his own priorities are to secure massive investment in green energy and rapid progress in ending use of fossil fuels, rather than broad theorising about economic growth, or its opposite.
A discussion on the need to solidify a culture of nonviolence and peace education as the starting point for elaborating broader educational strategies and systems for peaceful coexistence.
This is an anthology of Gandhi’s writings on ethical-political orientations and his teachings on nonviolence. The first part covers the fundamental principles of nonviolence, including the difference between the nonviolence of the strong and the nonviolence of the weak; the relationship between ends and means; and his perspectives on violence and war. In the second part, Pontara discusses practical aspects relating to preparation for a nonviolent struggle and elucidates different nonviolent techniques.
Article on grass roots women's organisation Sikhale Sonke demanding prosecutions and compensation for 2012 shooting of workers during the strike. The women had campaigned for five years against Lonmin and the government, as well as confronting deep seated discrimination against women in their society. War on Want has backed the women as part of a renewed campaign in the UK to offer solidarity.
Sikhale Sonke is also the subject of a documentary film 'Strike a Rock', from the 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, that focuses on the struggle and friendship two women following the 2012 Marikana Massacre where 37 striking miners were killed by police.
Biography by British journalist. Covers the major protests of 2007 as well as 1988.
This follows-up to his eralier book The Lady and the Peacock and covers thew 2015 lanslide election and the expressions of intolerance against minorities, especially the Muslim Rohingya.
Focuses on the lack of institutional channels to resolve the crisis and politicisation of the judiciary, and argues that the violence used strenghtened the role of the far right.
Drawing on his own experience with the Otpor movement in Serbia and an analysis of numerous nonviolent struggles, the author shows how it is possible to start a democratic nonviolent opposition to a dictatorship, to structure it and to guide it to victory.
Popovic and his student friends formed Otpor, that developed into the movement that forced the dictatorial President Milosevic in Serbia to accept defeat in the 2000 election. Since then Popovic has advised civil and democratic movements around the world . In this book he provides suggestions and strategies for organizing nonviolent protests, for example how to gain favourable media coverage and find the right allies.
Popovic, an activist against the Milosevic regime in Serbia in the 1990s, went on to find CANVAS, which has offered advice and nonviolent training to activists in former Soviet states and other parts of the world, including Egypt before Tahrir Square and Syria. The book emphasizes the role of CANVAS (but does not address criticism of its role) and foregrounds the author's own experiences and interpretation of nonviolent action. It covers many varied campaigns with examples of how to mobilize successfully and use humour and imaginative forms of protest. It also addresses how to make oppression 'backfire' and the need to persevere in one's effort after apparent success. Written for activists rather than for scholars of nonviolence.
Examines range of anarchist approaches in both France and Algeria and also covers period after independence.
Detailed analysis by an investigative US reporter of attempts by the George W. Bush Administration and Israel to prove that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. Porter scrutinizes the evidence cited and throws doubt on much of it.
Advocates a ‘civic unionism’ which acknowledges both the Britishness and Irishness of Northern Ireland. To quote from the Preface it ‘accommodates questions of cultural identity, liberal emphases on the entitlements of individuals and a substantive understanding of politics in which the practice of dialogue is central’.
Provides an overview of the Sudanese revolution and developments in 2020, but also illustrates the great variety of women involved in the protests and their different styles of politics (political parties, unionism, resistance committees, climate activism) through brief biographical sketches. The authors also interviewed a Nubian woman who had sent evidence of war crimes to Amnesty International and the International Criminal Court and a mechanic who finds protection in wearing men’s clothing.
Study spanning women’s position in Tsarist Russia, th e Communist period and immediate aftermath of dissolution of USSR.
Eye-witness account of early stages, combined with broader analysis. Includes notes on key individuals and organizations and a chronology.
Potter has been involved in negotiations relating to Review Conferences of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for many years and was also engaged in the processes leading to the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. From this perspective he discusses how one phrase in the statement of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, opened the way to the diplomatic processes leading to the 2017 Treaty. His article also discusses the probable consequences of the 2017 ‘Ban Treaty’ on the NPT Review Conference scheduled for 2020.
In three Parts: 1. ‘Fear and Morality’, 2. ‘(Mis)trust of Medicine, 3. ‘Grief and Activism’.
Provides historical background and uses interviews with members of early AIDS Councils and covers role of ACT UP.
Valuable guide to both the theory and practice of nonviolence, summarizing 104 nonviolent campaigns and actions, listing methods of protest, and examining relevant organisations and personalities.
Argues that, although all forms of opposition had some effect, those that involved the greatest self-sacrifice tended to work best. However, these sacrifices had most impact first time or two, before the public came to accept and then ignore them. Concludes that opposition to the war did not cause US failure, but forced the government to recognize this failure.
Mariana Prandini examines how Brazilian feminists mobilized against the criminalization of abortion in August 2018, when people from different countries in Latin America gathered for a week for the Festival for Women’s Lives. Brazilian, Uruguayan and Argentinian activists exchanged information about their own struggles for abortion rights. Prandini also analyses the criminalization of the abortion pill and its effect on abortion activism in Brazil.
A history of the first 50 plus years of the radical pacifist organization (1921-1973).
This paper describes the Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone’s proposal, originally advanced by Iran and Egypt in 1974, as well as the extension of the concept in 1990 to include all weapons of mass destruction.
Discusses impact two years later of Spanish and Greek movements: their new form of political activism and extended definition of politics.
Evaluates claims that ‘nonviolence, if adhered to more resolutely, would have ended apartheid sooner’, reminding readers of the high level of support for the ANC’s armed wing. Suggests that despite some over-simplifications, the claims for nonviolence, though speculative, are plausible.
Issue on ‘Squatters’ covering London campaign starting in 1968, including extract from Kropotkin on ‘The expropriation of dwellings’.
Press compares peaceful civil resistance in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia to explore the impact of different levels of repression. In Kenya increasing open confrontation with the regime from the 1980s led to a 'culture of resistance' and the ousting of the ruling party in the election of 2002. In Sierra Leone activists faced both repression and the impact of the civil war. In Liberia, where repression was harshest, there was nevertheless resistance by journalists, women, students, the Catholic Church and others to both Samuel Doe and later Charles Taylor.
See also: ‘Civil Resistance of Ordinary People against Brutal Regimes in Africa: Cases of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Kenya’, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
This link offers a 56-minute video and transcript of the webinar led by Robert Press on the same topic.
Primarily with reference to Kenya, discusses interplay of human rights advocacy and democratic resistance in authoritarian state. Articles by Press on nonviolent movements in Kenya, Liberia and Sierra Leone can be downloaded from: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1319605.
Chapter 1, ‘Internal contradictions of Francoism 1939-69’, covers some of the major strikes and demonstrations, and chapters 2 & 3 the Carrero Blanco years 1969-73 and the Arias Navarro government of 1974-76. For political developments from 1939 to 1975, see also: Preston, Paul , Spain in Crisis: Evolution and Decline of the Franco Regime Hassocks, Harvester Press, , 1976, pp. 341 .
General analysis of evolution of movement in the US and the groups and organizations involved. Chapter 4 examines direct action groups and their protests.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with 35 Bulgarian journalists, the author argues that the media in Bulgaria - far from exposing corruption as a free media should - has itself become increasingly 'an instrument to promote and defend private vested interests' and is itself corrupted.
Distinguished British economist Vicky Pryce examines how discrimination against women is built into the free market system, both in terms of the pay gap, glass ceiling and obstacles to entering work; and also in the implications of the growing role of robots. She argues that equality for women requires ‘radical changes to contemporary capitalism’.
Detailed account of the beginnings of the Troubles in these two cities. Argues that 5 October 1968, the date of the first civil rights march in Derry, which was attacked by the RUC and a loyalist mob, has a strong claim to be ‘the second most significant date in Irish history’ – after Easter week 1916.
Includes reflections by leading participants in revolutions from Hungary, Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, a journalist’s view of ‘Why Romania could not avoid bloodshed’, and an essay by J.K. Galbraith on dangers of the triumph of a simplistic economic ideology, and a comparative chronology of 1988-1990.
Accounts of campaigns illustrating movement building and different types of action. Final section on ‘practical tips’ and list of organizations.
This pamphlet was for a long time the only publication on the history of nonviolent movements, reviewing classical cases such as the resistance to the Kapp Putsch, the Salt March led by Gandhi and the Prague Spring among others.
Criticises the law that entered into force at the end of 2018 – Bill C-51 – that is intended to counter-act under-reporting and “ensure that victims of sexual assault and gender-based violence are treated with the utmost compassion and respect.” However, the authors argue, there is nothing in the law to protect against judicial misapplication or inappropriate methods of defence in court.
An analysis of the role that women had from the period of the ‘Fasci Siciliani’ (Sicilian Workers Leagues’ revolts) until now in changing the mafia culture and mafia organisations in Sicily.
The author, a former Royal Hong Kong Police officer living in Hong Kong, provides a detailed chronological account of the protests in 2019. He examines both the protesters' tactics and the Hong Kong police strategy and tactics in dealing with the protests, as well as critically assessing the political responses by the Hong Kong government and Beijing.
Argues that the movement made a strategic error in taking to the streets because of the connection between street demonstrations and sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. Although activists drew inspiration from the US Civil Rights Movement they did not, in his view, take sufficient account of the different circumstances in the two countries.
Detailed account of campaign against the EDO Corporation in Brighton that started in 2004 and included numerous acts of symbolic protest and direct action such as lock-ons and roof occupations, and resulted in a dramatic trial in March 2010 after protesters broke into the factory and destroyed equipment to 'decommission' the plant (which they believed supplied equipment to the Israeli Air Force) during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2009. The court allowed eyewitness evidence of the scale of destruction in Gaza in support of the defendants' case that they were lawfully trying to prevent a war crime, and the jury acquitted them. The campaign was also boosted earlier by the banning of an activist film, which many people then wanted to see, publicity about police infiltration of the activists, and the launching of a judicial review in the High Court by an 86 year old protester of his inclusion on the 'National domestic extremist' database.
Purves focuses on a key issue in the campaign to ban landmines: the long term dangers of death and mutilation for tens of thousands of civilians from antipersonnel mines used in battle and left on the ground; and the urgency - stressed by campaigners for the Landmines Treaty - of clearing millions of these mines around the world. The book reports on some progress, but also some major problems.
This is a handbook explaining the scope of civil disobedience written in a readable, non-technical style. The first two chapters cover the origins and traditions of disobedience, followed by practical examples. Emphasis is given to tax resistance and conscientious objection to military service, with detailed explanantions how to engage in both, plus examples of letters to send to the administration. There are also chapters on theoretical issues arising.
Due to a political, economic and humanitarian crisis, Venezuelans are fleeing and leaving everything behind to reach safety. According to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, as the number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela tops 4 million, this has become the largest migratory flow in the history of the American region. This long report highlights the conditions of Venezuelan women and girls who face sexual slavery and child exploitation, amongst many other threats.
This article studies post-2000 Chinese feminist activism from a generational perspective. It operationalises three notions of generation - 1) generation as an age cohort; 2) generation as a historical cohort; and 3) "political generation" - to shed light on the question of generation and generational change in post-socialist Chinese feminism. The study shows how the younger generation of women have come to the forefront of feminist protest in China and how the historical conditions they live in have shaped their feminist outlook. In parallel, it examines how a "political generation" emerges when feminists of different ages are drawn together by a shared political awakening and collaborate across age.
A critical assessment of Chinese society by a Chinese social scientist, widely discussed within China, indicating the context for unrest. Inset is an article describing a pensioner campaign led by a former Party official (pp. 82-83).
Sets out the legal provision for COs in all the European states at that date. Notes the importance of resolutions in support of making provisions for COs adopted by the Council of Europe in 1967, the UN in 1978 and the European Parliament in 1983.
Assesses the impact of peace tax campaigns in the area of peacemaking and considers their possible future influence.
The article sheds light on the need to include the struggle of women from lower social classes, who suffer harassment and sexual abuse, within the public exposure that the #MeToo movement achieved since 2017. It argues that understanding the dynamic of sexual harassment and sexual assaults in every working context is fundamental to understand how to end it.
This collection of articles by the author gathers philosophical reflections on the ethics and politics of nonviolence, with reference to numerous classical and contemporary philosophers.
This book addresses a major problem of rape and rape culture on campus, revealed by media coverage of ‘rape chants’ at Saint Mary’s University, misogynistic Facebook posts from Dalhousie University’s dental school, and high-profile incidents of sexual violence at other Canadian universities. University administrations were called to account for their cover-ups and misguided responses. Quinlan explores the causes and consequences of sexual violence on campus as well as strategies for its elimination, drawing together original case studies, empirical research, and theoretical writings by scholars and community and campus activists. Topics covered are the costs of campus sexual violence on students and university communities, the efficacy of existing university sexual assault policies and institutional responses, and historical and contemporary forms of activism associated with campus sexual violence.
Focuses on the moderate non-partisan Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALD), examining its origins and scope and its roots in the humanitarian catastrophes of World War Two, especially Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
See also: McCurry, Justin, ‘New generation of Japanese anti-war protesters challenge Abe’, The Guardian, 16 September 2015.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/japanese-anti-war-protesters-challenge-shinzo-abe
Reports on the reasons given by young SEALD members for joining the movement.
See also: Takenaka, Kiyoshi, ‘Huge protest in Tokyo rails against PM Abe's security bills’, Reuters, 30 August 2015.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-protest-idUSKCN0QZ0C320150830
Highlights the rapid rise of a new wave of feminism in Chile thanks to students’ demonstrations across the country aiming at tackling femicide and impunity.
Analyses various stages of resistance, the role of the Communist Party throughout, of ‘military populism’ in the 1950s, of socialists and dissenting Catholics in the 1960s, and the impact of the colonial wars.
The opening chapters provide historical context, but the focus of the book is on interviews with leading activists, representing the great variety of ideological standpoints and concerns, to develop an analysis of feminism since the later 1980s.
In the early 1960s, the dictatorship approved the formation of various types of family and neighbours associations, which in fact opened spaces for oppositional networking.
The National Movement of Rural Women (NMRW), formerly known as the Rural Women’s Movement, was established in 1990 with a focus on, among others, uniting rural women and giving them a voice. Amongst the organisation’s aims was to create forums for rural women to unite against oppression, have equal rights to land and a say in political matters. The organisation has contributed as amicus curiae – ‘a friend of the court’ – to dealing with customary law cases involving inheritance, marriage and chieftaincy disputes. This article explores the two approaches used by the NMRW as friend of the court - the custom-based and gender-based approach - and concludes that these two approaches are in direct conflict with each other.
Concise outline of campaigns by group distinct from the better known international organization. See also: Vidal, McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial (A.4.c. Food and Drink Multinationals) for their epic struggle against McDonald’s.
Stresses that the ‘Tulip Revolution’ was very different from other ‘colour revolutions’ and notes the importance of localism. See also: Radnitz, Scott , A Horse of a Different Color: Revolution and Regression’ in Bunce In Bunce; McFaul; Stoner-Weiss, Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments)New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 300-324 , arguing that the events of 2005 better seen as a ‘coup’.
Analyses Ceausescu’s regime and outlines emerging resistance and mass worker demonstrations in Brasov November 1987, the Timisoara and Bucharest uprisings and subsequent confused politics and violence. Includes a survey of sources.
The first chapter by Raftopoulos is on ‘The Labour Movement and the Emergence of Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe’. Later chapters include criticism of the MDC from a socialist perspective.
This article uses the 2019 fires in the Brazilian Amazon as a starting point to consider the political conflicts over environmental rights in Brazil. The authors argue that the concept of ecocide provides a useful focus for examining the social and ecological consequences of President Bolsonaro’s ‘extractive imperialism’. They also stress the failure of international bodies to prevent continuing destruction of the natural environment.
See also Devine, Jennifer (2020) ‘The Political Forest in the Era of Green Neoliberalism’ in Antipode, Vol. 52, issue 4, pp. 911-927. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12624
Sexual violence within minority ethnic communities is endemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand, but grossly underreported. This paper presents the results of two small-scale qualitative studies that explored why. In-depth interviews were undertaken with academics, specialist sexual violence practitioners and community/social workers. Two main factors that led to underreporting were first, internalised barriers as a result of a ‘white’ and ‘male’ gaze; and second, the cultural relativism of meanings of violence. The authors discovered that issues of stigma, defensiveness about traditional norms, especially concerning gender roles and the referencing of minority group identity were deterrents to disclosure and reporting. The paper also explored the implications of underreporting for women seeking help and for the collection of robust evidence of sexual violence among minority ethnic women. The paper concludes with recommendations for improved strategic efforts to encourage safe disclosure among women in minority ethnic communities who experience sexual violence.
An informative interview with one of the co-founders of UKBLM explaining the group's history and policy. It emerged from solidarity demonstrations with the US movement in 2014-15, and an international conferencce in Nottinghma in 2016 which included US anti-racist activists and theorists. UKBLM were set up in Nottingham, Manchester, Birmingham and London and during 2016 challenged deportations, the police and prisons through a series of shutdowns of transport linked to airports. From 2017-19 UKBLM turned to work in local communities, schools and colleges. The organisation did not take part in the BLM demonstrations from May 2019, cautious about promoting crowd activism during Covid restrictions, but did provide legal aid to demonstrators.
A range of recollections from 1955 to MLK’s assassination in 1968.
Examines role of labour in the transition to multi-party democracy in 1991, and concludes that the trade union movement has remained autonomous from the state (despite efforts to incorporate it) and that this is the key reason why the unions led the transition.
Emphasizes local roots of movement. including development of ‘non-secessionist regionalism’ in Uttarakhand. The epilogue, written in 1998, adds historical perspective on the movement’s achievements and reports on-going struggles. Seeks to offer ‘corrective’ to romanticized western and ecofeminist interpretations.
Prolific author on history and culture of East and Central Europe, whose other titles Rocking the State: rock music and politics in Eastern Europe and Russia, Westview Press, 1994, and Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics and Social Change in East-Central Europe and Russia, Duke University Press, 1998, as well as various books on Yugoslavia and its successors.
Article assessing who the protesters in Belarus are and what they want.
See also: Richard, Helene, 'Russia's Watchful Eye on Minsk' in this issue https://mondediplo.com/2020/10/07belarus
Richard discusses the aims of the protesters and draws comparisons with the Armenian uprising of 2018.
A professor of community health tells the stories of 80 gay, bisexual and transgender activists and volunteers in Chicago and San Francisco.
Chapter by Juan E. Corradi on ‘The Culture of Fear in Civil Society’, pp. 113-129.
Discusses how the poll tax campaign spread beyond its origins in Edinburgh to the rest of Britain and describes its main tactics.
See also: Rand, Erin J., A Disunited Nation and a Legacy of Contradiction: Queer Nation Construction of Identity Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2004, pp. 288-306
Chapter 1 discusses the context of the revolutions, ch. 2 the build up of protest (including in Bulgaria) and the role of international pressures. Part II comprises interviews with key participants in 1989, both about the revolutions and future possibilities. Includes interviews on Romania and Slovenia.
Chapters 1-4 focus on the history and dynamics of nonviolent resistance, and its increasing use in recent decades, within a framework of broader historical analysis. The main emphasis is on national resistance to oppressive regimes. The second half of the book analyses civilian (nonviolent) defence (see A.5.b.)
A wide-ranging compilation of papers presented to the Nonviolent Action Research Project in Bradford from 1994 to 1999, with extensive notes on the group discussion.
Randle was a full time organizer for the Committee of 100, which was created in 1960 to promote mass nonviolent direct action, such as sit-downs and occupations, as a strategy to promote unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. In this article he compares the Committee's experience with the tactics and aims of Extinction Rebellion, noting the greater acceptability of nonviolent direct action today and the differences between the two threats (nuclear war and major climate change). He also notes that the Committee of 100 ceased to exist after eight years, whilst the more conventional CND has lasted over 60 years.
See also articles by Gabriel Carlyle 'Building the Climate Movement We Need', and Mya-Rose Craig, 'The Point of Striking is to Take Control over Our Futures' in Peace News, 2034-2035, Oct.-Nov. 2019 for further debate about strategy and focus. Carlyle makes a comparison with the US Civil Rights Movement and its localised, focused campaigns combining to create a national movement. Craig stresses the need to prioritize the Global South and when setting out alternatives, to advocate only actions that do not harm communities in poorer countries.
Introductory essay by Randle on training and another by Sharp on civilian-based defence.
One hundred years after some Canadian women were given the federal franchise, women remain significantly underrepresented in every legislature across Canada. Indigenous women, women from racial minorities, and young women face particular problems, which reduce representation even further. While barriers to participation are broad and pervasive, sexual harassment and violence against women in politics - whether in the form of direct threats, implied threats, violent symbolic images, and physical violence - play a significant role in limiting women’s political participation. This report presents non-partisan, evidence-based research on how governments, legislatures, civil society, and non-governmental organizations have addressed the problem of violence against women in politics both within and beyond Canada. The report draws on extensive Canadian and global research and also a number of interviews with current and former women politicians from across the political spectrum, who have bravely spoken out about their experiences of sexual harassment and violence in Canadian politics.
Recounts the life and work of black woman activist who played key role in three major organisations: the NAACP, SCLC and SNCC.
Historian and activist, Barbara Ransby, explores the birth of the hashtag and social media platform #BlackLivesMatter by three Black activist women following the shooting of unarmed 17 year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, and the acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman. Through a series of interviews with its principal organisers, Ransby’s narration contextualizes the origin of the Black Lives Matter movement in prison reform and anti-police violence reform policies, the establishment of Black youth movements, and radical mobilizations across the country dating back for at least a decade.
This book, edited by a climate journalist, features accounts from young activists around the world. Individuals in very different social and environmental contexts, and with varying motives and goals, recount their contributions to reducing climate change.
Story of the successful ten-year struggle of French farmers in Larzac to protect their land from military encroachment. The Gandhian pacifists at the Community of the Arch, and industrial and professional unions played a role in the struggle. An earlier account is: Rawlinson, Roger , Larzac: A Victory for Nonviolence London, Quaker Peace and Service, , 1983, pp. 43 . See also: Rawlinson, Roger , The battle of Larzac In Hare; Blumberg, Liberation without Violence: A Third Party Approach (A. 5. Nonviolent Intervention and Accompaniment)London, Rex Collings, 1977, pp. 58-72
Chapter Six, ‘Duty and Obligation’ (pp. 333-91) of this extremely influential philosophical restatement of liberal principles explores in depth the circumstances in which civil disobedience is justifiable in a liberal democracy. He summarises this argument in ‘The Justification of Civil Disobedience’ in Bedau, Civil Disobedience: Theory and Practice (A. 1.a.ii. Theories of Civil Disobedience, Power and Revolution) , pp. 240-55.
Perkins has been one of the leading activists in New South Wales and his role in leading protests is described in some detail.
This is an acadmeic contribution to memory studies, but shows how preserving knowledge and stories of past movements affects present politics, and how nonviolent activists can learn from past campaigns. Examples examined include the suffragettes, Greenham Common, Polish Solidarity, US struggles against racism and Australian aboriginal campaigns. The authors also illustrate how one movement can influence others and stress the need to make archival and other sources (films, music, etc.) available.
with articles by Firoze Manji, ‘Hope for the Future’; Justin Pearce, ‘Aspiring to Tahrir’ and Tommy Miles ‘After Gaddafi’.
The year 2017 began with Trump’s presidency, sparking women’s marches in the U.S. and across the globe. This edited collection of empirical studies of the U.S. women’s movement focuses on sociological and historical data. It includes discussions of digital and social media, gender identity and the reinvigorated anti-rape climate, while also focusing on issues of diversity, inclusion, and unacknowledged privilege in the movement.
This is a series of letters that Pietro Pinna exchanged with Aldo Capitini, both key protagonists of the nonviolence movement in Italy in the aftermath of the Second World War. Their relationship proved to be fruitful for the elaboration of a theory on nonviolence and related techniques. The first set of letters from Pinna to Capitini depicts Pinna's thoughts and feelings following his decision to refuse military service and challenge the Italian government. The second set describes the supporting network that was formed around Pinna when he was in prison, awaiting his trial. This network ensured Pinna's case resonated with the public. The third set of letters starts from his release from prison and reveal the process of creating the Nonviolent Movement for Peace with Capitini.
Available at:
- http://serenoregis.org/2016/04/22/ricordando-pietro-pinna-le-lettere-a-capitini-prima-parte-a-cura-di-marco-labbate/;
- http://serenoregis.org/2016/04/22/ricordando-pietro-pinna-le-lettere-a-capitini-prima-parte-a-cura-di-marco-labbate/;
- http://serenoregis.org/2016/05/05/ricordando-pietro-pinna-le-lettere-a-capitini-terza-parte-a-cura-di-marco-labbate/
Analysis of Estrada regime and the protests that led to his overthrow and replacement by Aroyo. The article is also a critique of western commentators who deplore the popular uprising, and an attack on a neoliberal conception of democracy. The author concludes that the 2001 rebellion was ultimately an elite controlled process, transferring power to a different faction of the elite, but also a model of popular mobilization and empowerment.
Citizen activism on issues of peace and security has historically been limited in East Asia, apart from the opposition to nuclear weapons in Japan. Since the 1990s, however, an increasing number of NGOs and social groups have focused on peace issues at local, national, regional and international levels .This article considers both domestic and international reasons for a rise in peace-related activism and discusses three relatively recent movements in Northeast Asia.
Part 4, pp. 433-90, covers the August Coup, emphasizing popular support for the resistance as well as the mistakes of the plotters. For a contrasting interpretation see:
Includes over 30 contributions from nine countries indicating women’s activism on issues such as reproduction, health and abortion, political and legal change and violence against women.
Training manual on civil disobedience addressed to political or social activists, it covers the theory and practice of nonviolent action, including strategy and advice on media and the law. The author is himself a trainer and former leader of Greenpeace on nuclear disarmament.
Training manual on civil disobedience addressed to political or social activists, it covers the theory and practice of nonviolent action, including strategy and advice on media and the law. The author is himself a trainer and former leader of Greenpeace on nuclear disarmament.
Examines student organizing and media activism in universities against sexual violence, including faculty/student relationships and adequacy of institutional measures.
This article examines how students organize and use media to address sexual violence, the problem of faculty/student relationships, and the failures of some institutional response. It notes, in particular, how students make sexual violence public through the use of open letters; how they create anonymous and informal online reporting platforms for students to disclose sexual violence; and how they model practices of accountability and survivor-centred care.
The initative of 14 women of capturing the feminist struggles through artistic production within the #VivaNosQueremos campaign. Many cities throughout the world joined the campaign and printmaking appeared in cities like Ciudad Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico State, Puebla, New York, Chicago, Montreal and Barcelona as well as other countries like Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Italy.
Reuters report on the alarming rate of femicides which occurred in Brazil since the beginning of 2019, leading to the initiative of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, supported by Human rights activists and civil society, calling on the Brazilian Government “to implement comprehensive strategies to prevent these acts, fulfil its obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible, as well as to offer protection and comprehensive reparation to all victims.” Between January and beginning of March 2019 Brazil counted 126 femicides and 67 attempts. (The full statement is available at this link http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2019/024.asp).
To see previous reports on femicide in Brazil, have a look at this link which states that the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) found that 2,795 women were victims of femicide in 2017 in 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (https://oig.cepal.org/sites/default/files/nota_27_eng.pdf).
Covers period from February 2019, when proposals for extradition to China were made by Hong Kong's Security Bureau, to May 28 2020, when China's parliament endorsed the decision to impose national security legislation on Hong Kong.
dedicates a section with articles from leading US-based social movement theorists, including Mario Diani, William Gamson, Jack Goldstone, and Jeff Goodwin – ‘Why we were surprised (again) by the Arab Spring’, pp. 452-6 – with Sharon Erickson Nepstad on ‘Nonviolent Resistance in the Arab Spring: The Critical Role of Military-Opposition Alliances’, pp. 485-491.
Main focus on contemporary transnational activism, including case studies of labour, environmental, human rights, women’s rights, social justice and peace campaigns. Readings include theoretical perspectives and critical views. A companion website provides information on further reading, films and documentaries and activist websites.
Comments on decline in the neighbourhood assemblies that arose in 2011, but argues widespread willingness to take part in local initiatives survives, and is (for example) strengthening the campaign against eviction of those unable to pay their mortgage.
Earle and Barbara Reynolds lived in Hiroshima, where he was studying effects of atomic radiation, from 1951-1954. In 1958, whilst cruising on their yacht the Phoenix of Hiroshima, they heard about the arrest of Bigelow’s Golden Rule protesting against US testing (see above) and later that year sailed 65 nautical miles inside the Bikini Atoll testing zone.
This article uses interviews with domestic workers and union organizers to investigate this issue in relation to the conditions that characterize domestic work and the racism and sexism in Brazilian society. The author argues that it is closely linked to the country’s slave-owning past and that women’s silence in relation to their experiences of sexual assault should be interpreted as a form of agency and resilience within a broader context of social oppression.
Rich discusses whether public attitudes in Japan to maintaining strict constitutional constraints on use of its military 'Self-Defence Forces' are changing. (The postwar constitution includes a clause to renounce war and Japanese policy has been based on a refusal to fight outside its borders, although it is closely allied to the US.) The article notes the consistent pressure from Conservative Prime Minister Abe to strengthen Japanese military power through increasing the budget, and his role in passing new security laws in 2015 that permitted for the first time Japanese troops to take part in combat overseas. It also notes there was strong popular resistance to the new security laws and that there are regular protests against US bases in Okinawa.
See also: 'Stop War': Thousands protest in Japan over military expansion law change', RT World News, 30 June 2014.
Rich, an essayist and contributor to the New York Times Magazine, focuses on the period 1979 - 1990 and the role of the US, which in 1979 emitted more carbon dioxide per head than any other industrialized country and had the political leverage to bring about international change. He charts efforts by environmentalists and scientists to make climate change a global political issue, and the roles of Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. Bush (who argued for action on climate change in 1988, but, influenced by his sceptical chief scientist and internal pressure, failed to deliver on his promise).
Focuses particularly on women crossing Israeli-imposed borders to maintain their sense of autonomy and freedom, and argues that although these actions are ‘framed’ as resistance to occupation they also covertly challenge patriarchal controls..
This book, edited by the international coordinator of Ecologistas en Accion, covers 15 varied struggles against fracking around the world, and is intended to be a source of inspiration for continued resistance. Many are first person accounts, by those involved. Chapters cover personal opposition fracking in the courts or at the municipal level, resistance by local farmers to corporations backed by the government, as in Poland and Romania and the campaign for 'frack free' municipalities in the Basque territory of Spain. There are also accounts of resistance from Argentina, Algeria, South Africa, Australia, the UK (against drilling in Sussex) and Northern Ireland, and on the role of ATTA C in France. Includes a timeline and 'some snapshots' of the resistance, as well as some conclusions drawn by the editor.
Given that no significant progress has been made in nuclear disarmament for two decades, the author explores an alternative approach to arms control, focusing on the human dimension rather than on States’ security. He also explores the role of civil society in securing other arms control treaties, in particular the positive experiences of the movements against chemical weapons, anti-personnel mines, and cluster munitions, as well as the recent conclusion of the Arms Trade Treaty. He examines whether civil society will be able to replicate the strategies that have been used successfully in the field of anti-personnel mines (Ottawa Convention) and cluster munitions (Oslo Convention) in the nuclear weapons field.
Account of the ‘unarmed resistance’ of the First Intifada and also an analysis in the context of theories of nonviolent action. Addresses the issue of leverage when the regime has no direct dependence on a population but would rather expel them. See also: Rigby, Andrew , The Legacy of the Past: The Problem of Collaborators and the Palestinian Case Jerusalem, PASSIA – Palestine Academy for Study of International Affairs, , 1997, pp. 94 , which considers the issue of ‘collaboration’ in more detail.
Also available (with discussion of issues raised) as ‘Nonviolent intervention’ in Randle, Challenge to Nonviolence (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp. 51-74 (online at http://civilresistance.info).
On more recent interventions in Palestine (excluding International solid-arity) see also Ann Wright, ‘The Work of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI)’ and Angie Zelter ‘International Women’s Peace Service in Palestine’ in Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp. 135-42.
Diasporas play an important role in supporting movements at home and as international lobbies, but they also can replicate internal conflicts.
Discusses factors promoting relatively smooth and successful transition, including democratic elements, such as local elections, even under KMT rule, and international pressure to democratize after the US and international recognition of the People’s Republic of China. Examines how ‘evolutionary, peaceful, and protracted’ transition also resulted in compromises that created problems for future. Latter part of article examines obstacles to a fully satisfactory democratic system.
Explores differing forms resistance can take through symbolism and speech and defensive support of those targeted by regime, as well as open ‘offensive’ resistance. Andrew Rigby has argued that creating autonomous organisations from below can be a sixth form of ‘constructive resistance’ that does not necessarily directly challenge the regime: Rigby, Palestinian Resistance and Nonviolence (E. V.A.3. Palestine) , pp. 3-6.
Saami in Sweden have right to use land for herding but no ownership rights. The dispute over iron ore mining has prompted calls for Swedish government to give legal recognition to Saami ownership rights.
This article explores the nexus of power and resistance in global nuclear politics to explain the aims and practices of the humanitarian movement (politically weak in relation to the nuclear weapon states) that led to the TPNW. It argues that the movement’s coherence and effectiveness was fostered by a coalitional logic that allowed different ‘identities of resistance’ to be steered towards a treaty banning nuclear weapons within the UN’s institutional framework.
Are revolutions made or do they come? This question is at the heart of revolution theory and has received plentiful attention from scholars. In this paper I suggest that adherence to this traditional dichotomy may not be the most useful to approach the study of revolutions. Therefore, I argue that theorists of revolutions are well advised to examine the role of the strategic decisions made by revolutionaries in their struggles against the state. Drawing empirically on the nonviolent revolution of Iran in 1977-79, I show that the strategic decisions made by the opposition movement not only allowed them to capitalize on a political opportunity, but that their strategic choices in fact helped bring that opportunity about in the first place.
Account of the 1963 Buddhist revolt, its origins and aftermath. See also later article by Roberts assessing the political potential of the Buddhists: Roberts, Adam , The Buddhists, the War and the Vietcong World Today, 1966, pp. 214-222 . Both articles now available online: http://www.jstor.org (but only via contributing libraries).
[Previously The Strategy of Civilian Defence]
Discusses campaigns of national unarmed resistance to military occupation (e.g. the Ruhr in 1923) and to both Nazi and Communist regimes. Basil Liddell Hart (pp. 228-46) compares guerrilla and nonviolent resistance to occupation. The 1969 edition analyses Czechoslovak resistance to Soviet occupation.
Discusses resistance to Kapp Putsch in Germany 1920 and attempted coup in France by generals based in Algeria in 1961.
Roberts discusses the 2011 uprisings in their broader historical context of the breakdown of empires and problems of creating order, and then summarizes the key events in the Arab Spring, with a particular emphasis on the role of civil resistance.
The Foreword to the 2011 paperback comments on the Arab Spring.
Succinct analytical case studies (organised around a set of questions) of movements of unarmed resistance from Gandhi to Burma in 2007, with incisive introductory and concluding assessments. Particular emphasis on the impact of external governmental pressures in promoting the success of resistance. One chapter analyses the role of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe up to 1989.
a preliminary attempt to assess the uprisings from a civil resistance perspective
After a general overviews of politics and resistance in the region, experts on individual countries explore the immediate impact of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria, and the subsequent developments, discussing the reasons for reassertion of repression on Bahrain and later Egypt; political breakdown in Libya and civil war intensified by external interference in Yemen and Syria. There are also chapters on the monarchical response to pressure for reform in Jordan and Morocco, and why the Arab Spring did not ignite massive resistance in Palestine. Adam Roberts provides a concluding assessment of the problems of using civil resistance in the Arab Spring, the difficulties of democratization, and the lessons to be learned.
Thorough study, with substantial chapter on strikes and workers’ mobilization.
Account of life on four reservations, the impact of government and emergence of new more radical leaders. Includes material on a protest march and ‘drink-in’ in 1960s.
Account of final voyage of Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior, trying to sail into French nuclear testing area near Mururoa Atoll, before it was blown up by French secret service agents in Auckland Harbour July 1985. See also: Sunday Times Insight Team, Rainbow Warrior: The French Attempt to Sink Greenpeace London, Sunday Times, , 1986, pp. 302
This brief history of opposition to nuclear weapons has a global focus, though from a US perspective, and covers the evolution of the movement up to 1991. It starts in 1944 with the opposition of nuclear scientists. The author argues that the movement included an array of tactics, from radical dissent to public protest to opposition within the government, and succeeded in constraining the arms race and helping to make the use of nuclear weapons politically unacceptable.
Begins with the Benin Conference in February 1990.
Recounts debates surrounding the use of direct action and civil disobedience in anti-nuclear campaigns, noting the influence of New Left politics and feminism and the rise of nonviolence training, affinity groups and peace camps in the 1980s. Demonstrates that direct action was initiated at the grassroots level but in time accepted by CND leadership.
Former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament, Douglas Roche describes the approaches of diplomats, members of NGOs, and individuals who have been working to ban nuclear weapons. This book contains links to global networks, and social movements that work to ban nuclear weapons.
Analyses the ‘Nuclear Freeze’ movement, the largest mass movement in the U.S. in the 1980s, that addressed the dangers of the ‘Second Cold War’ between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The book highlights the development of the movement; its social and political impact; and its transformation in the 1990s.
Wide-ranging analysis of West European anti-missile/nuclear disarmament campaigns 1979-1986, incorporating discussion of social movement theory and the wider political context. Focuses particularly on Britain, the Netherlands, West Germany and France. It includes great deal of information on organizations, campaigns and types of action, as well as many useful sources and references.
Journalist Lucy Rock briefly explores the history of ‘sexual harrassment’ in the US since 17th century slavery. She then focuses on the 1990s up to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, a moment which she considers revolutionary because of the reforms it can lead to.
Compares Australian and US environmental activism in relation to their political and social context.
Account by journalist who gave prominent coverage to the women’s struggle during the strike.
This work is collection of articles and essays exploring the roots and development of the fight for racial justice and human rights in Ferguson, USA. Political activist Jamala Rogers narrates the history of systemic racism and police violence in St. Louis and of the development of the Black Lives Matter movement in the region.
Examines lack of a constitutional right or political tolerance for selective refusal to take part in particular wars.
Anthropological study of resistance to fiscal regulation starts from the open and organised villes mortes campaign in Cameroon in 1992-93 (see E.I.2.1b.i). Main focus is on non-political forms of evading fiscal regulation, such as smuggling across borders.
Following the alleged murder of Caracas activist Sheila Silva, feminists and women’s movements in Venezuela launched a campaign demanding authorities take decisive action against gender-based violence and femicide. The activists’ initiative was supported by the Venezuelan government campaign ‘Peace Begins at Home: No More Violence Against Women’. The campaign saw various public landmarks lit up in violet light by night, aimed at promoting debate about the decriminalization of abortion and family planning, and also the need to criminalise domestic violence. These are all long-term demands of Venezuela’s feminist movements.
Examines different types of action used by movement against evictions and how a range of people drawn into movement.
Primary emphasis on sociological analysis of how environmental movements change, with statistics on participation in them. Chapters on Germany, Spain and Southern Europe and the USA. Derek Wall writes on ‘Mobilizing Earth First!’ in Britain. Jeff Haynes, ‘Power, Politics and Environmental Movements in the Third World’ (pp. 222-42) includes specific references to the Chipko, Narmada and Ogoniland movements, as well as other forms of environmental action in Kenya and the role of the WTO.
Tips from an environmental campaigner and communications consultant who has worked for Greenpeace, among other organizations.
Standard and frequently cited work by an American political scientist based in Britain. Charts the origins and development of the divided community in Northern Ireland since the foundation of the state, and considers the problems of governance it gives rise to. Includes a discussion of the civil rights movement. Sees no immediately practicable solution to the problem and draws a comparison with the race problems in the United States. The analysis is supported by data from an extensive social survey of public opinion and informal discussions with people active in Northern Ireland politics.
This PhD thesis is a detailed account of the history and everyday life at Greenham, based on participation in the peace camp and interviews with other women. See also Roseneil, Sasha , Common Women, Uncommon Practices: The Queer Feminism of Greenham London, Cassell, , 2000, pp. 352 , which explores life-style and lesbian issues connected with the camp.
Explores life-style and lesbian issues connected with the Greenham Common Women's peace camp.
The article examines how far in the US consuming green products is linked to a desire to alter corporate practices that lead to climate change. It finds that concern about global warming and belief in consumer activism does predict ‘green purchasing, behaviour and opinion leadership’. The authors note the role of communications in promoting both concern about global warming and belief in consumer activism.
See also Laurence, Bill, ‘Boycotts are a crucial weapon to fight environment-harming firms’, The Conversation, 6 April 2014. https://theconversation.com/boycotts-are-a-crucial-weapon-to-fight-environment-harming-firms-25267
In the context of rapid growth in consumption of green products in the US, the authors use national survey data to test their hypothesis that people's beliefs about global warming as well as their beliefs about consumer activism, predict their approach to green consumerism.
See also: Del Valle, Gaby, 'Can Consumer choices Ward Off the Worst Effects of Climate Change? An Expert Explains', Vox, 12 Oct. 2018,
Notes that the 2018 UN report on climate change warns less than two decades to limit global warming to 1.5% centigrade, and that in response proposals made for individual actions in response on issues such as meat eating and transport. But the article also notes that the Climate Accountability Institute in its 2017 'Carbon Majors' report traced 70% of greenhouse gas emissions to 100 companies, which suggests individual actions 'futile'. The article notes that individuals can also reduce emissions per household through energy efficiency and altering houses to conserve energy.
This survey of regional elections for governors and assemblies in 2015, 2016 and 2017 finds that the regime has switched from a strategy primarily reliant on manipulating election results (liable to cause criticism and protest) to focus on manipulating the registration of candidates, so preventing serious opposition candidates from standing. Whilst this approach has strengthened Putin's United Russia party in regional elections up to 2017, it has also resulted in widespread apathy and low turn- out, which could undermine the regime.
Describes the protests in Mexico City against the presidential election results with focus on nature of the protests. The writer is author of: Ross, John , Zapatistas: Making Another World Possible: Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006 Nation Books, , 2006, pp. 354 .
The author, an active socialist, argues contrary to widely held views that the left and working class supported earlier gay rights campaigns and that the left is central to Gay Liberation.
Reproductive justice activists have used the concept of ‘intersectionality’ to promote one of the most important shifts in reproductive politics. The Combahee River Collective, twelve Black women working within and outside the pro-choice movement in 1994 coined the term “reproductive justice” to “recognize the commonality of our experiences and, from the sharing and growing consciousness, to a politics that will change our lives and inevitably end our oppression.” This paper argues that this concept has linked activists and academics stimulating numerous scholarly articles, new forms of organising by women of colour, and the reorganization of philanthropic foundations. It examines how reproductive justice+e is used as an organising and theoretical framework, and discusses Black patriarchal and feminist theoretical discourses through a reproductive justice lens.
This anthology assembles two decades of work initiated by SisterSong Women of Color Health Collective, creators of the human rights-based 'reproductive justice' framework designed to move beyond polarised pro-choice/pro-life debates. Rooted in Black feminism and built on intersecting identities, this framework asserts a woman's right to have children or not, and that of parents to provide for the children they do have.
Scholar-activists Loretta Ross and Ricki Solinger provide an intersectional analysis of race, class, and gender politics and focus on the experiences of women of colour. They use a human rights analysis to show how the discussion around ‘reproductive justice’ differs significantly from the pro-choice/anti-abortion arguments that have long dominated the debate. They argue that reproductive justice is a political movement for reproductive rights and social justice, and highlight the complex web of structural obstacles facing women of different background.
In contrast to most accounts of the anti H-block campaign, this book focuses on the popular campaign outside the prison for the restoration of ‘Special Category Status’, originally accorded to both republican and loyalist prisoners in 1972 but phased out by the Labour Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees, in 1976. Ross maintains that the campaign that grew around the hunger strikes of 1981 and 1982 was ‘perhaps the biggest and broadest solidarity movement since Vietnam’, much of it driven from the bottom up by the republican grassroots, not its leadership. He also suggests that it propelled the Provisional IRA towards calling a ceasefire and shifting to a political strategy.
Includes assessment of the post-Communist economy: the end of state assistance and role of international finance agencies, leading to growing inequalities.
Rossdale has studied a range of British campaigning groups taking radical forms of direct action to resist militarism and the arms trade, including the Campaign against Arms Trade and the broad coalition involved in Stop the Arms Fair. He describes some of their protests over the previous 15 years, such as peace camps, auctioning off a tank outside an arms fair and protesters supergluing themselves to the London offices of Lockheed Martin, and argues for the 'radical and ethical potential of prefigurative direct action'. He also develops a depiction of militarism from the standpoint of those resisting it, and examines the disagreements and debates between protesters, including the interpretation of nonviolence. Chapters cover feminist and queer anti-militarism, and the lack of racial diversity among the protesters.
Includes chapters on Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, India, Mexico, South Africa and Zimbabwe (the latter refrains from discussing the human rights issues of the government sponsored post 1996 land occupations). Not all chapters discuss social movements, but the book does cover gender and indigenous issues.
Accounts by five farmers (and wives) jailed for resisting Shell high-pressure gas pipeline in County Mayo, Ireland. This campaign against Shell’s gas refinery gained national and transnational attention and support, and involved reciprocal solidarity actions with the Ogoni people.
This article, which draws on fieldwork in Andalusia in 2015 and 2016, examines the general position on abortion there. It traces earlier history: before 1983, when abortion was illegal; and developments up to the 2010 law (passed by the Socialist government) which allowed termination of pregnancy in the early stages at a woman’s request. When the Conservative government under Mariano Rajoy introduced the very restrictive ‘Gallardon’ bill in December 2013, it prompted widespread and ultimately largely successful opposition, in which feminists were prominent. The author, who interviewed gynaecologists in public hospitals and certified private clinics, health service staff, and pro-abortion and feminist activists, examines the ‘discourses’ used in the debate over the Gallardon bill. She also assesses the impact of that debate on provision of abortion in Andalusia, with particular reference to the role of conscientious objection by medical staff and the stigma of abortion.
Chapter 8 ‘Discovering their voice: the formation of national political movements’ (pp. 179-213) goes up to 1948; chapter 10 ‘The Federal dream and African reality’ (pp. 253-302) charts growing resistance from 1953; and chapter 11 traces ‘The triumph of nationalism’ (pp. 303-16). Gives some detail on protests and indexes ‘non-violent resistance’. Includes detailed bibliography.
Nobel Peace Prize physicist Joseph Rotblat and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda discuss how the application of 20th-century science and technology requires a 21st-century growth in newfound wisdom. Such wisdom must arise from basic human values that transcend the limitations of knowledge and state sovereignty alone.
Following the #MeToo movement and #TimeIsUp campaign, Rottenberg argues that the current neoliberal context that reduces everything to market calculation requires that a new wave of feminism should reorient and reclaim itself as a social justice movement.
A report on the development of the movement ‘Nosotras Proponemos’ (We Propose) demanding gender equality in the art world and the initiatives that art museums and art centres across the country are embarking on in response to the movement’s proposals.
Introduces radical geography perspective on spatial components to sites of resistance. Chapter 1 looks at the developing resistance to aspects of economic development (industrialization, dams, deforestation) and the numerous movements since independence among tribal peoples, peasants, women and squatters. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the Baliapal movement against a missile testing range, and the Chipko movement against logging.
Analysis of the causes of conflict in Northern Ireland, dealing mainly with the period from partition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, though with a brief survey of the longer historical background. Pays greater attention than the majority of accounts to economic and class factors.
By BBC and Sunday Times journalist.
Commentary by Booker-winning novelist and prominent Narvada Dam activist on struggle against the Sardar Sarovar Dam and the wider implications of government policy on building dams. Also available in various forms on the internet.
Chapter 6 examines the opposition’s struggle and breakthrough.
Argues that the July election represented a choice between continuing economic liberalization and a return to the past, but neither provided a solution to Mexico’s problems.
Influential, but also much criticized, argument linking women’s inclination towards peace with their role as mothers.
Discusses ICAN’s work, principles and strategies in the context of the ‘stigmatise – prohibit’ approach that was effective for the signing of the TPNW at the UN General Assembly in 2017.
This is an article querying the emphasis on gender in the UN Development Programme. Examining how gender was incorporated into Colombia’s Low-Carbon Development Strategy, they suggest that there are various risks in promoting feminist ideas within ‘mainstream institutional frameworks’.
This paper explores twenty years of legislation to protect women and the progress made. It also examines the attitudes towards women and girls that have been fueled by the thirty-six year internal conflict (1960-1996).
Ruiz-Navarro provides an analysis of the 2016 Colombia Peace agreement that incorporates the inclusion of women within the peace talk process. He also discusses the mobilisation in the country in support of the agreement, the role of Norway and Sweden in supporting this goal, the role played by women and the obstacles to the implementation of the agreement.
The authors focus on the ‘discourse’ used in North America to promote disinvestment in fossil fuels, based on statements by activists, mainstream media reports on campaigns and coverage in alternative media. They argue that there are four overlapping narratives. The first ‘of war and enemies’, with fossil fuel companies as the enemies, is most dominant. The others are: ‘morality, economics and justice’.
Study of the reformist groups which were active in Scandinavia, West Germany, France, the UK, Canada and USA, primarily in the 1950s and 1960s, which joined in the International Committee for Sexual Equality (1951-1963) founded by the Dutch COC (the first ‘homophile’ group).
After looking at earlier history of US feminism, examines 2nd wave and in particular the mobilization around the Equal Rights Act passed in 1975; also explores ideological divisions within the movement.
An early book on the second wave of popular rebellions in North Africa and the Middle East, with chapters on Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, bringing out similarities and differences between the movements.
Examines causes, range of demands, social base and ‘contradictory frustrations’ of the mass protests. Discusses political dilemmas and proposes ‘constructive alternatives for the left’.
Explores role of Christianity in colonial and post-colonial society and shows the crucial role of the churches in promoting an alternative politics.
Includes a wide range of experiences and viewpoints discussing the context and range of the Arab uprisings, and focusing on topics such as women and the Arab Spring, agents of change and the technology of protest and the impact of the Arab Spring on the Middle East. Highlights developments in Egypt.
Interview with Fatima Sadiqi, professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies, on the discourse around feminism, Islam, gender equality, social justice and democracy in Morocco.
Professor of Astronomy, Carl Sagan discusses the roots of the nuclear arms race in the context of receiving the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 1993 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award. His passionate speech was given at a time when the US and the Soviet Union possessed over 60,000 warheads all together, and calls for a shift from a mentality relying on mutual deterrence and ethnic hatred to one on mutual dependence, which are still very relevant in 2019.
Includes both an account of the protests and the authorities’ response, and scholarly essays interpreting the context. Extensive bibliography.
Explores the divisions in the feminist movement in Pakistan and how feminists see or silence the intersections between sexuality, religion, race and class in the struggle for equality in Pakistan. It contextualises the analysis within the legacies of colonial relations, nationalist reformation, development policies and neoliberal economies, including new forms of militarism introduced with the global war on terror, and the transformations of the political space across Pakistan’s political history.
A book by long-term academic expert on the Soviet Union/Russia, which situates coverage of Euromaidan and the subsequent local rebellions in Crimea and other parts of eastern Ukraine within a context of different cultural and ideological strands in Ukrainian society, and within the wider context of Russian-Western relations. Sakwa is very critical of Western policies after 1991 and, more recently, towards Putin, and also challenges the bias of much western reporting on the evolving Ukrainian crisis.
Traces emergence of Students for a Democratic Society from 1960-1970, with a major focus on campaigns against the Vietnam War, including the 1965 March on Washington.
In Egypt, research shows that a large number of women have been harassed at least once in their lifetime. The Egyptian Government, international organizations and non-governmental organizations have been working for several years to combat sexual harassment. With the widespread use of online and social media in Egypt, thse have become an effective and easily accessible means of conveying combating sexual harassment. The study is based on the Social Ecological Model, and seeks to identify how online and social media could be used to combat harassment through social change, social mobilization, and advocacy. The study is based on a case study of HarassMap – an Egyptian NGO working on combating sexual harassment through online and social media. Findings of the study show that online and social media could be used following a social change and social mobilization approach to: (1) encourage sexual harassment survivors to respond to harassment through changing beliefs, increasing self-efficacy, and changing behavior through social prompting; (2) encourage bystander intervention through changing beliefs, increasing bystander-efficacy, and changing behavior through social prompting; (3) change society’s attitudes and beliefs when assigning responsibility and attribution of sexual harassment and increase the society’s collective-efficacy to fight acceptability of harassment; (4) argue for organizational change to have sexual harassment-free workplaces/educational institutions through targeting the organization and its surrounding environment; and (5) campaign for more stringent sexual harassment law/law enforcement.
Study of both feminist and Islamist organizations in Morocco showing how two have influenced each other’s agendas through decades of activism.
Considers the reasons for emergence of movement and its challenge to free market provision of education. Argues experience of this education provides both mobilizing grievances and resources for political mobilization.
Brief account of the emergence of #CampusMeToo movement in 2019, which aims to tackle the sexual harassment of students on Kenyan university campuses. The movement arose after ActionAid and UN Women teamed up and conducted a survey which reportedly found that 1 in 2 female students and 1 in 4 male students have been sexually harassed to some degree by staff at Kenyan universities.
This paper centres mainly on issues of LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) organising in Africa. It mainly looks at the inroads that have been made in trying to organise and also the lessons and challenges that we have encountered along the way
Discusses attempts to develop African regional organization and activism and difficulties encountered up to 2006.
The authors provide a ‘discursive psychological examination’ of how ‘choice’ was interpreted in online debates during the movement for abortion rights. The interpretation of ‘choice’ was linked to alternative views of women, either as independent agents or as child-bearing mothers, which affected the legitimacy of women’s rights to ‘choice’.
Covers student activism in the 1960s and 1970s.
Collection of first-hand accounts, interviews, letters, speeches etc.
In this work, Sanfilippo provides a definition of nonviolence and elaborates on the Gandhian vision of the world. He also elaborates on the origin and root causes of the mafia system, according to which, he argues, a theory of systems is the necessary methodological and epistemological tool for the analysis of this phenomena and for building a nonviolent reaction against it. His perspective encompasses the cultural, economic, political, institutional, and social dimensions of the system where mafia organisations exist and where nonviolent antimafia movements need to be organised.
By recalling Danilo Dolci’s pioneering role, this work explores the relationship between civil society, mafia and nonviolence, a theme that remains predominantly unexplored up to now. It’s a composition of arguments, opinions and experiences stemming from a dialogue between individuals and organisations that want to build a solid anti-mafia movement in Italy, with particular regard to the South.
Sanguinetti, a lawyer and journalist, was President from 1985-1990 and played a central role in the negotiations at various times between 1980 and 1984 and notes the importance of dialogue, although this is a more broad ranging analysis of forms of transition.
This article briefly narrates the life of Giuseppe (aka, Peppino) Impastato, who initiated a cultural and political change that then gave rise to the anti-mafia movement from the 60s onwards. Impastato’s life is highly symbolic because of his political and civil anti-mafia struggle stemmed from his personal experience. In fact, he belonged to a family where his father was affiliated to the Mafia criminal organisation, and had his uncle murdered by them. Impastato’s revolt against some core members of his family, including his father, led to his murder in 1978, but he is still considered in Italy as one of the most iconic figures of the nonviolent anti-mafia struggle today.
Retrievable also at: http://www.centroimpastato.com/umberto-santino-peppino-impastato-alle-radici-dellantimafia-difficile/
This long article highlights the three different periods of time that defined the anti-mafia movement, namely from 1891-1894 until 1950s; 1960s and 1970s; and from 1980s up to now. The analysis provides an initial understanding of the typology and tools of the anti-mafia struggle in each of these phases, alongside the ethical and cultural factors that supported it. The article also elucidates the social, economic and cultural composition of the mafia organisation as well as the anti-mafia movement and touches upon its development as a national movement, rather than configuring it as an issue concerning solely the island of Sicily. Finally, it depicts the peculiar characteristics of the anti-mafia movement and what differentiates it from social movements as traditionally considered, by contextualising the analysis within power relationships in Italy.
This long article touches on the development of the anti-mafia movement and distinguishes within it civic anti-mafia and social anti-mafia. It delineates the developments that took place in three different periods of time in Italy: 1950s, that saw the birth of the nonviolent anti-mafia movement; the 1960s and 1970s, when socio-political-cultural aspects of the anti-mafia movement started to develop organically; up to the 1980s-1990s, a period that saw the development of the pacifist movement rising against the US militarisation of the Italian island of Sicily that paralleled the reinforcement of the anti-mafia movement and a stronger participation of organisations within it alongside individuals. It touches also on the growth of the anti-mafia movement outside the confines of Sicily, and its extension to the entire Italian peninsula, mainly because of the activity of teachers and students that facilitated the adoption of the first set of anti-mafia legislation and led to the removal from public offices of staff involved with the mafia organisation. It also establishes a conceptual distinction between the anti-mafia movement and social movements as traditionally considered, and stresses the peculiar nature of the first as being pro-system and anti-system, simultaneously. Finally, it highlights the weak points that undermine the continuity and cohesiveness of the anti-mafia movements.
Retrievable also at: http://www.centroimpastato.com/voci-per-il-dizionario-di-mafia-e-di-antimafia-di-narcomafie-2/
This work narrates the anti-mafia movement that started in Sicily at the end of the 19th century and extended to the entire Italian peninsula in more recent years. Santino recounts the origin of the Sicilian mafia organisation, the reactions to it by Italian institutions, and the socio-cultural context by drawing from different authors and first-hand interviews.
As an expert on mafia organisations, Umberto Santino elucidates the nature and structure of the Sicilian mafia phenomenon as well as the building of the anti-mafia movement and related campaigning by civil society representatives and social organisations in Sicily.
Examines history and organization of WSF and argues need to move beyond acting as platform for diverse movements.
This chapter provides an overview of Brazilian feminist and women's movements since the 1970s, showing how dialogues with the state began and eventually led to the establishment of Women's Policy Agencies at different governmental levels, as well as in the different branches of government. It demonstrates that, despite these setbacks, state feminism in its participatory form continues to be an important instrument in the fight for gender equality in Brazil. The chapter deals with a periodization of feminist struggles in Brazil, tracing the emergence and consolidation of state feminism and the challenges it encountered up to more recent years. It examines how state feminism in Brazil has furthered women's struggles in combating their underrepresentation in formal politics, confronting violence against women, and advancing state support for the exercise of women's reproductive rights, focusing on the legalization of abortion.
Discusses briefly the potential for a significant movement either against new nuclear power plants, especially in the light of the US 2008 deal to assist India's civilian nuclear energy programme, or against India's nuclear weapons policy. Sarkar notes that a number of lively local protest movements had sprung up against the construction of new nuclear reactors. There are also a number of groups, backed by 'prominent citizens', opposed to India's possession of nuclear weapons. But Sarkar is sceptical about the likelihood of an effective national campaign against either the energy programme, or the nuclear weapons policy, capable of influencing the government's commitment to both.
Republished as: A Month and a Day and Letters, Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2005, with Foreword by Wole Soyinka.
Highly-praised analysis challenging the inevitability of German reunification and the spread of NATO. Discusses role of political leaders and dissidents in 1989, drawing on documents and interviews, and assesses the views from various world capitals.
The end of World War II saw the emergence of a new public arena for imagining a “world society” in which nation-states would cooperate to achieve peace, a dramatic change from the previous world of competitive nation states engaging in multiple wars and imperial expansions. But, the author argues, this call for “world peace”—a renewed political imaginary after the failed attempt of the League of Nations and the Kellogg–Briand Pact—was not simply empty political rhetoric or a naive utopia. Its (re-)creation led to vigorous debate that resulted in various transnational political institutions and forms of transnational activism in the aftermath of the war.
Antonio Gramsci, the prominent Italian Marxist activist and thinker who died in 1937, is known for his elaboration of the Marxist theory of ideology and hegemony, and has been consulted by students seeking inspiration from Marxist thought – for example in Poland and South Africa in the 1980s. Gramsci’s major work, Prison Notebooks, is by its nature long and disjointed, and its interpretation subject to debate.
The author surveys the history of Islamic nonviolent movements and their contemporary role, including contextual analysisof sacred texts and examples of Islamic nonviolent action today, challenging false perceptions of violence in Islam.
Advocates of the TPNW know that it will not automatically lead to a world without nuclear weapons. The treaty’s main goal, the authors argue, is to stimulate a societal and political debate inside the nuclear-armed states and their allies, by strengthening the antinuclear norm and by stigmatising nuclear weapons and their possessors. This article assesses to what extent this process of stigmatisation might take place. It concludes by looking at different stigma-management approaches that could be used by the nuclear-armed states and their allies.
Examines sinking of Rainbow Warrior, commenting on New Zealand’s reactions and the heightened awareness of the dangers of nuclear testing in the Pacific.
Shows how neoliberal policies led to a crisis of accountability and representation that spurred one of 20th century Latin America’s strongest indigenous movements.
Studies cover Peru, India (Orissa), Philippines, Nigeria (the Niger Basin), Chad and Cameroon, as well as Australia and Canada.
Chapter 10 ‘Nonviolent Revolutions’ compares Czechoslovakia and East Germany.
In-depth analysis of the campaigns fought by Southall Black Sisters and the issues that they faced in the first ten years of our existence.
Primarily discusses the US civil rights and the British nuclear disarmament movements.
Social theorist Elaine Scarry recalls the threats to use nuclear weapons by successive US presidents and argues that the power of one leader to obliterate millions people with a nuclear weapon deeply violates the constitutional rights of the citizens in the US. She also argues that it undermines the social contract and is fundamentally at odds with the deliberative principle of democracy. She explores political and constitutional changes that she believes could make it possible to start dismantling the nuclear arsenals.
Recounts Fryer’s anonymous appearance on stage, at the 1972 American Psychiatric Association session on psychiatry and mental illness, to announce his homosexuality. (He spoke anonymously – as he explained later – through fear of being refused tenure at his university.)
Focuses on conflicts over urban space, resources and housing in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and includes accounts of resistance in squatter settlements, e.g. in Kathmandu.
An extensive examination of the possibilities and implications of artificial intelligence applied to the battlefield, from drones to 'killer robots', with varying degrees of autonomous ability to make decisions without human intervention. Scharre interviewed engineers creating new weapons and those in the military who might use them. He disagrees with campaigners seeking a total ban, which he thinks impossible, arguing instead for ensuring a minimum degree of human involvement in their deployment.
See also: Trying to Restrain the Robots', The Economist, 19 Sept. 2019, pp. 26-27.
A succinct examination of autonomous weapons and of issues arising, starting with the 'Harop' drone produced by Israeli Aerospace Industries, which can be classed as either a remote-controlled weapon or as an autonomous robot, depending on its software at the time. The article reports briefly on the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of 89 NGOs, and concludes by noting that in 2017 the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention, agreed in 1980) appointed an expert group to examine the implications of autonomous weapons and different approaches to controlling their use.
This analysis of 2743 cases highlights the characteristics of environmental conflicts and the activists involved, examining their mobilization strategies and the need for specific support for indigenous for indigenous activists. The study finds that bottom up movements for more sustainable and socially just approaches to the environment can be found worldwide, and across all income groups, indicating that grass roots environmentalism is a promising force for sustainability. The authors note that environmental defenders are of ten members of vulnerable groups and use largely nonviolent methods, playing a significant role in preventing environmental destruction in 11 per cent of cases studied. However, these activists also face serious risk of criminalization (20 per cent of cases), physical violence (18 per cent) and assassination (13 per cent). These risks increase significantly when indigenous people are involved. The analysis is based on the Environmental Justice Atlas, (EJAtlas) database), which the authors created in 2011 to monitor worldwide climate justice protests.
See also: Grist, ‘For Indigenous Protesters, Defending the Environment Can Be Fatal’, Eco Watch, 11 June 2020.
https://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-activist-violence-2646168966.html#toggle-gdpr
Definition of the nuclear predicament and radical proposals for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.
An argument by US intellectual on historical trends promoting nonviolence as a potential alternative to war. Part 2. ‘Nonviolence’, pp. 103-231, focuses in particular on Gandhi and dissent in Central Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.
Includes material on 1976-79 and 1986-87.
This long interview discusses the new rise of feminist protests in Chilean university and educational institutions, that emerged in April/May 2018 demanding an end to the reproduction of unequal gender roles, unequal pay and the streaming of women into low-paying careers. More generally, the new debate on feminism, which challenges the neo-liberal system, enables the politicisation of women and encourages forms of collaboration with ‘NiUnaMenos’.
The career of Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to political office in the USA – as a councilor in San Francisco – reflects the rise of the gay community in the 1970s. He was assassinated in November 1978. His life is also the subject of a 1984 documentary film, ‘The Times of Harvey Milk’, 1984, directed by Rob Epstein, and a feature film ‘Milk’ 2008, directed by Gus Van Sant.
Examines 200 peasant occupations in 1972 (assertion of a tradition of ‘les recuparaciones’) in context of developing forms of protest since the ‘great strike’ against United Fruit Company in 1954.
Documents and statements on conscientious objection, later sections cover COs in two world wars and Vietnam, and case for tax resistance.
A wide-ranging interview to Beatrice Fihn, in which she discusses ICAN’s campaign, capitalism and patriarchy as obstacles to denuclearisation, the impact of nuclear testing on child births, the possible connection between nuclear war and climate change.
A generally sceptical assessment of social defence as an alternative to military preparations against a putative Soviet attack. Concludes that it could supplement but not replace nuclear deterrence or military defence. Useful discussion of 10 conditions favourable to (or crucial for) success of social defence.
Covers three different types of land grab (one by military) and types of peasant resistance, from overt protests and petitions to ‘everyday resistance’ such as sleeping on threatened land and organizing road blocks.
Seeks to address the lack of explicitly comparative analysis of how nonviolent methods promote political transformation. Examines success of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa (1983-90), and pro-democracy movements in the Philippines (1983-86), Nepal (1990) and Thailand (1991-92), and explores failure of such as movements in China (1989) and Burma (1988). Lists major actions in each movement. Includes analysis and criticism of ‘consent’ theory of power.
Pays special attention to Ekta Parishad (an Indian land rights organization), the Assembly of the Poor in Thailand and MST in Brazil.
Survey of historical origins of nonviolent resistance (Gandhi, US Civil Rights) and the numerous recent movements, including both resistance to political oppression and movements for economic and social justice (e.g. Occupy). Schock also analyses the causes of resistance and reasons for success or failure.
On the spot account by pacifist during the occupation, noting the demands of the American Indian Movement protesters, that they had been invited by organizations representing many of the Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation angry about the conduct of the reservation government, and commenting on disparity between the light rifles of the protesters and the full military arsenal being deployed by the FBI.
On New Brunswick protest blockade by Elsipogtog First Nation and supporters.
Attempt in 1993 to set up a transnational peace caravan in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
This article looks at the strategies of nonviolent peace-keeping, will ask using the example of two NGOs with whom the author is familiar if ‘deterrence’ is the only mechanism that is being applied, or how ‘it is working’, and will suggest to put different approaches into a framework of an escalation of conflict without arms.
Nonviolent action is a form of political action based on the decision, either principled or pragmatic, not to physically harm or destroy human life. In many social movements it has proved an effective tool for political change, which can be explained by Gene sharp's theory that all power rests ultimately with those who can withdraw their consent. Nonviolent action applies in several fields: local and regional struggles; in popular (people power) uprisings; in the theory of civilian-based defence; in approaches of nonviolent intervention in conflicts; and in what has been called unarmed civilian peacekeeping.
This paper summarizes the most recent English-language literature on civil resistance for a non-English speaking readership.
The authors examine how far peace movements can stop wars, summarizing a number of attempts to do so in the past – for example in the 1905 conflict between Norway and Sweden – as well as more recent better known movements: against the Vietnam War, and against the Iraq wars of both 1991 and 2003. Their case studies include the movement to resist US support for the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s, and the Women in White in Liberia 2002-2003.
Historical survey of the contribution of seven peace movements to halting or preventing the involvement of their own governments’ in wars – from Sweden/Norway 1905 to Iraq 2003.
Examines role of various Protestant groups and stresses Christian basis of nonviolence.
This work examines the institutional and contextual causes and consequences of women's representation in Latin America. The authors argue that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in institutions, but also affected by the democratic challenges and political crises facing Latin American countries. These challenges influence the number of women and men elected to office, what they do once there, how much power they gain access to, and how their presence and actions influence democracy and society more broadly.
Much-cited analysis of forms of hidden and indirect resistance, as opposed to overt organised opposition. Develops at a more general level ideas explored in his Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (1985). Scott discusses how everyday resistance might turn into open revolt: an aspect of his analysis that has been critically examined.
Autobiography of Anglican priest who took the case of the Herero people of South West Africa to the UN, opposing their incorporation into the Union of South Africa. Chapter 8 describes the Indian resistance to discriminatory legislation in 1946.
Charts the sharp changes in US policy from collaboration with Noriega 1981-87, and the decisions to oust him, 1987-89, and to invade October-December 1989. Also describes evolving internal politics, including elections and popular strikes and demonstrations.
Seabrook argues that the great ideological divide today is not between capital and labour but between those (on the left as well as the right) who defend global industrial society and those who are trying to protect the (diminishing) resources of the planet. Later he reframes the basic split as 'between planetarism and parochialism'. He attacks mainstream political constructs of 'realism' and urges a rethinking of the real meaning of wealth, sufficiency and poverty.
An analysis by a bipartisan US policy research institute of the forthcoming March 24 2019 elections, including the junta's rules governing them and the parties participating.
See also: Hannah Ellis Petersen, 'Junta Finds New Ways to Win an Old Game', Guardian Weekly, 21 December 2018, p.21.
See also: 'Final Election Results Leave Thailand Divided', The Diplomat, May 2019, pp.5.
https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/thai-final-election-results-leave-thaila...
Discusses the involvement of activists in the revolution in preparations for elections.
Surveys development of conscientious objection from 1960.
Authoritative organizational history (commissioned by the UDF at the point when it disbanded).
Essays include a survey of British environmentalism 1988-97 in the changing political context, assessments of different types of environmental activity and role of the media. Brian Doherty, ‘Manufacturing Vulnerability: Protest Camp Tactics’ looks at evolution of nonviolent direct action tactics and transnational influences. There is some discussion of the incidence of violence and media (mis)perceptions.
John Lewis represented the links between the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950s-60s and Black Rights Matter in 2020. Elected to Congress in 1986, he continued to campaign in Washington for racial and social justice (including organizing nonviolent direct action) until his death. His last political act was to view a Black Lives Matter mural. His obituaries elaborate on the details of his lifelong political activism. (See also details of his memoir under Vol.1.A.3.)
See also: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53454169
Rita Segato, an Argentine-Brazilian academic and one of the most celebrated Latin American feminists, comments on the biases still affecting cases of femicide in Latin America due to the hyper machismo culture. She also discusses the need to unite academics working in the field of Communication, journalists and editors in order to promote discourses that encourage women to be seen as political actors rather than merely as victims.
An assessment of the significance, 'after one year of almost continuous protest', of the referendum vote in October 2020 to draft a new constitution. The article examines the context in Chile and also in Latin America.
See also: Sehnbruch, Kirsten and Peter M. Slavelis, eds., Democratic Chile: The Politics and Policies of a Historic Coalition, 1990-2010, Lynne Rienner, 2013, pp.375 for an analysis of the first 20 years after Pinochet under a centre-left coalition government, and the achievements and failures of this coalition.
Especially ch. 3, pp. 47-71, ‘Monitoring multinationals: lessons from the anti-apartheid era’.
On the evolution of Ruckus out of Greenpeace.
Companion to Eriksen and Morgenstierne, above.
Looks back at the 1975 Iceland women's strike at the start of the UN Decade for Women; the 8 March 2000 Global Women's Strike, the 2016 Polish women's strike to resist successfully anti-abortion legislation, the 2017 Argentina women's mass demonstration against the rape and murder of women, and the cooperation between women in Poland and Argentina in 2017 to coordinate the International Women's Strike.
This paper discusses the hegemony of U.S. White middle-class feminism and examines seven limitations that make it inapplicable in non-Western societies, and specifically in Middle Eastern countries. These limitations include (a) ignoring the cultural, historical, and political systems that shape women in the Middle East; (b) misinterpretation of some religious practices; (c) generalizing women's conditions; (d) universalizing Western values; (e) playing the role of the savior; (f) ignoring the influence of Western imperialism; and (g) ignoring women's strengths and actual needs. Finally, this paper included suggestions that can be taken into consideration to reduce the gap between U.S. White middle-class feminism and other types of feminisms in the Middle East.
Briefly explores the development of the feminist movement in South Korea in response to the country’s sexism, which is pervading different aspects of society.
See also https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/12/08/south-korean-women-v-the-patriarchy and https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46478449
Originally published in Dissent.
Raises caveats about comparisons with Gandhi, discusses Hazare’s diagnosis and prescriptions for corruption and comments on the nature of the Hazare movement. Argues against claims that it is a pawn of the extreme right RSS and/or CIA, noting the extent of mass protests and the depth of anger about corruption.
The article argues that the Hirak is a revolutionary movement that connects with the 1954-62 independence struggle, uniting diverse social groups in a movement seen as 'the People' versus 'the System'. It also combines nationalist themes with the strategy of nonviolent resistance. The analysis draws parallels with 2011 in Tunisia, and notes the attempts to launch a similar nonviolent resistance movement in Algeria in January 2011 were successfully deflected by the regime. It then examines the record of the Boutifleka government over 20 years, which led to the Hirak.
The authors examine how restrictive policies force women to travel both within and across national borders in order to reach abortion providers, often at great expense, over long distances and with significant safety risks. Contributors, who adopt both historical and contemporary perspectives, examine the situation culturally and politically diverse in regions that include Australia, Canada, Eastern Europe, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Prince Edward Island, Spain, Sweden, Texas, and post-Brexit referendum UK.
Investigates the forced sterilization of South African women and highlights the Report of the South African Commission for Gender Equality prompted by the 2015 complaint by the non-profit Women’s Legal Center, which documented 48 cases of women who were allegedly forced or coerced into agreeing to the procedure while giving birth.
The Report of the Commission can be accessed here: http://www.cge.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Forced-Sterilisation-of-Women-Living-with-HIV-and-Aids-in-South-Africa.pdf
See also: Forced sterilisation in South Africa: They removed my uterus, BBC, 27 February 2020.
History stretching back to origins of the republic, covering key individuals, NGOs and governmental responses.
Brief summary of key disagreements between government and Hazare camp on role and powers of proposed ombudsman.
A political history of the Inuit Circumpolar Council.
Then foreign minister addresses the question ‘how did a 100% Muslim country, acting in tandem with the international community, … peacefully turn centuries of autocratic rule into something resembling a functioning liberal democracy?’
Pre-2008 elections. Includes sections ‘Repression of Peaceful Opposition and New Media 1999-2002’ and on attempted reforms.
Account by authoritative Tibetan historian of Tibet under Chinese Communist rule and changing Chinese policies, and the role of the Dalai Lama. See too Shakiya, Tsering , Trouble in Tibet New Left Review, 2008, pp. 5-26 , for discussion of widespread unrest that erupted in March 2008 after initial protests in monasteries were suppressed.
Sharkey, Professor of AI and robotics at Sheffield University, Chair of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control and also spokesperson for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, sketches in the historical background to the evolution of Autonomous Weapons Systems, and dispels 'five myths about AWS'. He also briefly explains the evolution of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and how it had been keeping the issue 'on the table' at the UN since 2014.
See also: Chan, Melissa, 'Death to the Killer Robots', Guardian Weekly, 19 April 2019, pp. 30-31.
Report on role of Jody Williams and Mary Wareham, two leading activists in the Campaign to Ban Landmines, in promoting the new movement, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which they recognize to be a much harder goal to achieve. Chan notes that Israel is already using advanced autonomous technology, for example to patrol the Gaza border. the US is testing advances in the technology, and Russia wants to create a battalion of killer robots. The campaigners were in Berlin because the German government had indicated concern about the issue, but had not been consistent, so their aim was to put pressure on Germany to act.
Explores how Intifada strengthened Palestinian women’s movement and stimulated an Israeli women’s peace movement and led to joint movement.
Main focus on 1930-31 independence campaign, but also covers peasant struggle in Chamaparan 1917-18, and Gandhi’s 1948 fast in Delhi against inter-communal killings linked to partition.
Part 1 of this now classic analysis explores political and sociological theories underlying nonviolent resistance, including Sharp’s much-debated consent theory of power. Part 2 (‘Methods’) and Part 3 (‘Dynamics’) are noted below ( Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) ).
Part 1 of this now classic analysis explores the political and sociological theories underlying nonviolent resistance to develop a 'consent theory of power'; this has since been much debated. Part 1 also discusses nonviolent action as an 'active technique of struggle' and contextualizes Gandhi's contribution within a much wider historical context of major resistance movements dating from the later 18th century to 1968. Part 2 categorises and illustrates the now famous list of 198 methods, while the longest volume, Part 3, elaborates Sharp’s strategic approach.
Sharp, whose 1973 three volume The Politics of Nonviolent Action is now a standard reference work on the theory and strategy of civil resistance has here brought together a collection of writings from over 20 years to address key themes relating to social power and popular empowerment. Other topics covered include several essays on civilian-based defence, reflections on the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa (written as a series of articles in 1963), civil disobedience in a democracy, and review essays of Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, and On Revolution.
See in same journal: Sharp, Gene ; Safieh, Afif , Gene Sharp: Nonviolent struggle Journal of Palestine Studies, 1987, pp. 37-55 .
Examines theoretical case for relying on the power of society to deter and defend, rather than weaponry, cites examples of Ruhr 1923 and Czechoslovakia 1968-69 as examples of improvised civilian defence, and explores strategy and possibility of ‘transarmament’. Sharp’s 72-page Self-reliant Defense Without Bankruptcy or War, 1992, written for Soviet successor states (especially the Baltic states) can be downloaded from http://aeinstein.org.
An abbreviated and slightly modified version of Sharp’s general argument in The Politics of Nonviolent Action. Includes 23 brief case studies of campaigns from the Russian Revolution of 1905 to the Serbian people power of 2000 (some written by Sharp’s collaborators: Joshua Paulson, Christopher A. Miller and Hardy Merriman).
Also published by London, Serpent’s Tail, 2012, and available from the Albert Einstein Institution (see website).
Written at the request of a Burmese dissident, this is now widely known as a succinct analysis of how nonviolent resistance can overthrow tyrannical regimes.
Offers a set of definitions of the range of terms associated with (and relevant to) nonviolent action and mass unarmed resistance. Includes a brief introductory essay on power, and short summaries of the civil resistance in Serbia 2000 and Tunisia 2011.
Summary analysis of potential for popular nonviolent resistance to defeat coup attempts, recommendations for organised strategy and advance preparations to prevents coups, and with very brief description of resistance to Kapp Putsch in 1920, the Algerian Generals in 1961 and to attempt to overthrow Gorbachev in 1991.
Urban activist focuses on how to achieve social change even in difficult environments.
Detailed analysis of the evolution of the US war on Cambodia.
Based on extensive Pentagon files on conduct of war and US role, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, then an official in the Pentagon.
Special issue. See at http://mobilizationjournal.org/toc/maiq/9/3
A collection of speeches, interviews, short stories and academic analyses showing the development of protest and the role of the occupation od Pearl Roundabout, and also the subsequent crackdown on all form of dissent by the regime.
Shek examines how the Extradition Bill 'ignited' pre-existing social and political sources of conflict in Hong Kong to create a political conflagration. This was fanned by 'disinformation and misinformation, anonymity of the protesters, public support for the students, and support given by parties outside Hong Kong'. The author is critical of the extensive 'vandalism', which damaged the transport infrastructure, of assaults on opponents, and especially of the damage to the Legislative Council building on 1 July 2019.
Chapters on building Sahrawi identity, civil society, and countering the ‘wall of fear’.
The authors, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong argue that the Umbrella Movement was not unique. They aim to throw light on it through comparison with other potentially revolutionary movements, including Gandhian satyagraha, the US Civil Rights Selma campaign and Euromaidan in the Ukraine, as well as movements in Malaysia, Taiwan and earlier in Hong Kong itself. A chapter examines the Umbrella Movement through the lens of various International Relations theories and there is also a chapter on Beijing's perspective.
This study looks at feminism in China over the last century and reveals that feminist movements and arguments at most times have been linked to the nation’s development. Independent and mass feminist movements like those in the West never developed in China. By taking a look at the realities of women and their images in contemporary China, the study shows that feminism in the People’s Republic of China has still plenty of room for development.
See also Menke Augustine, (2017) ‘The development of feminism in China’, Undergraduate Thesis and Professional Papers, pp. 20.
Account of the revolt against Mubarak by a Guardian journalist, based on first hand contact with activists, but also people in slums and factories and those living outside Cairo, and covering earlier development of the workers' activism and unionism and also village revolts against landowners. It includes wider-ranging historical analysis of Egypt's political and economic relations with the West.
The article discusses the use of sexual violence against women during the conflict between the government, far-right paramilitary groups, left-wing guerrillas and drug cartels that began in Colombia in the 1960s. It then suggests the election of Conservative Ivan Duque, who has repeatedly pledged to roll back parts of the landmark 2016 peace agreement with rebels from the FARC group, is a risk factor for the protection and promotion of women’s rights.
Covers campaigns in Argentina, Chicago (USA), France, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, South Korea and China.
Filmed over seven years, Erika Cohn’s Belly of the Beast exposes state-sanctioned sterilizations in California prisons through the story of Kelli Dillon, who was forcibly sterilized while incarcerated at the Central California women’s facility in Chowchilla, and her lawyer Cynthia Chandler.
The authors link the rise of ‘the fourth wave of feminism’ to the impact of cyberspace on social movements. They argue that social media offer accessibility, a potentially wide audience, low cost and a user-friendly environment, which encourage women to publicise sexual violence, and to then tackle wider issues such as the gender pay gap. The Internet-based feminist movement is also trying to highlight intersectionality, i.e. the impact of multiple forms of institutionalized oppression based on sex, gender, race, class, etc.
(also Southgate Press 2010 and Kali/Women Unlimited 2011).
An eco/feminist argument about the special role of women in preserving the environment.
Analysis by expert on issues of ecology, development and the role of women in conflicts over natural resources in India; includes references to Appiko protests to save forests and satyagraha against mining.
Outlines 9 principles of ‘water democracy ‘ and highlights activism against corporations claiming water supplies.
Includes information on successful local campaigns:
- against Coca Cola bottling plant, closed in 2004, leading to national campaign “Coca-Cola-Pepsi Quit India Campaign’;
- resistance to water diversion in Uttar Pradesh;
- campaign in Delhi against raised tariffs and proposed privatization.
Analyses the Park Chung Hee regime, looks back to the Kwangju massacre and role of the US, and comments on the student and worker demonstrations in the spring of 1986 and US/Korean government attempts to channel unrest from the streets into electoral activity. Refers to his earlier article ‘Korea: Stirrings of resistance’, The Progressive, February 1986.
Biography of Hastings Banda, a central figure in Malawi’s independence struggle who later became his country’s increasingly autocratic president. Banda’s role in the struggle against the Federation is covered pp. 55-172.
The University of Auckland hosted a panel in September 2018 on preventing and responding to sexual assault and harassment on university campuses. The panel was organised by the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA), and included speakers from the University of Sydney and Universities Australia. Australian universities had launched a coordinated effort to address campus sexual assault and harassment in February 2016, and this panel served as a space for sharing their experiences and for Auckland staff and students to learn from them.
Reprinted by New York, Garland, 1972, pp. 351.
Respected early analysis of satyagraha with emphasis on strategy. Also comments on role of nonviolent action in democratic states in resisting an invasion.
The article focuses on the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Chinese state since 1980 through the prism of 'institutional theory', and charts developments in Wenzhou. It identifies four phases in state policy: religious restoration, tighter control, 'management' of religion, and limiting religious influence. The Church has responded in the past by 'accommodation, negotiation, confrontation and resistance', but in recent years tended towards greater resistance.
See also: Sibalis, Michael , Gay Liberation Comes to France: The Front Homosexuel d’Action Revolutionnaire The George Rudé Society, , 2005, pp. 12
Still useful compilation. Part I ‘Foundations’ includes extracts from ‘ancient religious statements’, Boetie, Godwin and Shelley, Gandhi, Case and Gregg; Part II covers unarmed resistance in classical Roman times, the general strike, Hungary 1849-67, resistance in Norway during the German Occupation and the 1953 Vorkuta (prison camp) strike in the Soviet Union; Part III provides extracts on principled nonviolent power, including colonial Pennsylvania, South African resistance in the 1950s, the US Civil Rights movements, direct action against war preparations and the possibilities of nonviolent national defence.
Discusses the women’s resistance movement that developed in the context of the incoming Trump’s presidency and the subsequent creation of the ‘Me Too’ movement, with particular regard to the restrictions on abortion and contraception put in place by the forty-fifth’ U.S. Administration.
The paper argues that the Arab Spring encourages movements for greater democracy in Africa as a whole, but notes that some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have already established democratic institutions, though others remain autocratic or are 'semi-authoritarian'. The Arab Spring has alarmed some dictators and prompted more than dozen dem onstrations in capitals. The paper also examines other factors promoting popular opposition.
A journalist's eyewitness account of the uprising in Belarus from 4 August to 2 September, covering major demonstrations, strikes and the brutal regime response in Minsk and other parts of the country.
See also: Way, Lucan Ahmad, 'Belarus Uprising: How a Dictator Became Vulnerable', Journal of Democracy, vol. 31 no. 4. (October 2020), pp.17-27.
The author examines the mass popular response to the fraudulent presidential election, and clarifies how the protests differ from earlier 'colour revolutions', with leaders stressing not changes in foreign policy but free and democratic elections and constitutional government. He suggests that even if the uprising fails it shows that Lukashenko is vulnerable to popular challenge.
Account by Irish Times reporter of the ‘Shell to Sea’ struggle and civil disobedience by locals in Rossport County Mayo against gas pipeline, but with emphasis on planning process and legal issues.
Reports on how more than 20 other Chinese feminists who live in the United States and belong to the Chinese Feminism Collective, a nongovernmental organization supporting feminists that face sustained political pressure in China, carry on with their activities in support of women in China such as Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in collaboration with the UN; photography exhibition ‘Aboveground: 40 Moments of Transformation’, art performance ‘Our Vaginas, Ourselves’ and others.
See also https://nuvoices.com/2018/11/18/100-attend-nuvoices-nyc-launch-and-discussion-on-chinese-feminism/ for a more recent discussion on Chinese contemporary feminism at a New York City conference.
Examines presidential election of March 2006 and argues that, although the protests against abuses apparently failed, they created a ‘network of solidarity’ and a ‘revolution of the spirit’. Two essays by Silitski focus on the effectiveness of the authoritarian regime and why it can contain protest are:
Silitski, Vitali , Pre-empting Democracy: The Case of Belarus Journal of Democracy, 2005, pp. 83-97 , and
Silitski, Vitali , Contagion Deterred: Pre-emptive Authoritarianism in the Former Soviet Union (the Case of Belarus) In Bunce; McFaul; Stoner-Weiss, Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments)New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 274-299 .
Inquires into the viability of an alliance between secular feminists and Islamists through the proliferation of deliberative platforms, where civil society organizations can meet at a safe distance from partisan politics and enter productive dialogue and generate policies to resolve the crucial problems women are facing in Turkey.
A personal account which includes a brief summary of the course of the war and statistics on the scale of draft resistance and desertion.
Discusses how NATO has come under pressure over the last fifteen years from coalitions of states and nongovernmental organizations to change its nuclear weapons policy. The coalitions discussed are the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Middle Powers Initiative and its article Article VI Forum, the New Agenda Coalition, the Non-Aligned Movement, and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.
By BBC reporter; includes a chapter on Romania.
Account of direct action campaign against the building of a nuclear-blast-proof bunker.
Analyzes varied class, age and political beliefs of the protesters (sometimes resulting in conflict between them).
This paper analyses conceptual and tactical approaches adopted by Las Fuertes, a feminist organization that campaign for abortion rights in the conservative Mexican state of Guanajuato. Since a series of United Nations agreements throughout the 1990s enshrined reproductive rights as universal human rights, Mexican feminists have adopted the human rights platform as the basis for lobbying the government to reform restrictive abortion laws. This strategy has been successful in Mexico City in 2007 when abortion was legalised. Rather than seeking to implement abortion laws through legalistic channels, Las Fuertes has effectively challenged Mexican reproductive governance in an adversarial political environment.
Concise philosophical examination of disobedience within types of democracy by scholar now better known for writings on animal rights and radical arguments about responsibilities of the wealthy to the poor. Ends by briefly applying the principles to Northern Ireland in the late 1960s.
This article explains the new laws which are the focus of the farmers' protest, describes the initial protest journey to Delhi and explains the spirit and organization of the protests and the building of solidarity with other groups, for example by celebrating International Women's Day and May Day to link with women’s and workers' struggles. Singh then engages in an analysis of 'disaster capitalism' including the revision of the labour laws. It concludes that the farmers' movement has become a struggle for 'a more just future for India's dispossessed'.
Provides historical background to the Indian farmers protests against the Modi government's 2020 farm laws and draws parallels with earlier movements since the 1970s for stronger government support for agriculture.
Discusses what Arab women could do to shape the meaning of the term “feminism”, and how does the legacy of previous generations of Arab feminists intersects with globalised movements like ‘Me Too’.
In the context of discussing the importance of public spaces where citizens can protest and make public speeches, this article examines how the Lebanese demonstrators have used and reshaped multipupose public spaces such as streets, open public spaces such as gardens, and abandoned urban facilites such as a partially built cinema.
The 2020 protests were the first major pro-democracy demonstrations in Thailand mediated on Twitter. This article examines how activists used hash tags in the early phase of the movement, and argues that they developed collective narratives and spread information, rather than using Twitter to organize protests. The focus within the #FreeYouth campaign was on criticism of the government and calls for democracy, creating a 'pro-democracy collective action framework'.
Capstone project, in consultancy with UN Women, explores how social media data —especially Twitter — can complement traditional data collection methods to help bridge gaps and influence policies on violence against women in Brazil. This report provides insights and recommendations regarding how this data can best be harnessed by civil society organizations, government agencies, and other stakeholders to work more effectively towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.2—to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls. This will assist UN Women in developing a social media platform with the aim of monitoring progress made towards the achievement of SDG 5.2 goal.
Addresses the development of the #MeToo movement in Japan that captured the nation's attention in April 2018 after a top-ranking Finance Ministry official was accused by a female reporter of repeated sexual harassment. A secret recording published online revealed the bureaucrat asking the reporter, “Can I kiss you?” and “Can I hug you?” and “Can I touch your breasts?” during an interview.
See also https://qz.com/1697589/japans-kutoo-movement-rejects-mandatory-high-heels-for-women/
Combines history of direct democracy from classical Greece to the Indignados, drawing on interviews with activists in contemporary movements, including Occupy, that are based on forms of participatory democracy and reject liberal parliamentary democracy.
Sivaraska (an ‘engaged’ Buddhist) is a prominent social critic, who dared to compare the military to ‘termites’. Edits the journal Seeds of Peace, which comments on problems in the region.
Especially chapters 21-22 (pp. 659-758). Charts the background to and evolution of the Prague Spring, international reactions to it and mounting Soviet and Warsaw Pact pressure, before outlining the August 1968 invasion and popular and official unarmed resistance to it. Skilling also discusses reasons for the gradual end to resistance and acceptance of the replacement of Dubcek by Husak.
See also Skilling, Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution (C. I.1.d. Czechoslovakia 1968-69) .
Skopcol is well known for her theoretical contribution to the theory of revolution, stressing the role of the state (States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China, Cambridge University Press, 1979), here she applies her framework to the Iranian Revolution of 1977-79.
Focus on the presidents and their relationship with the Vietnam Anti-War Movements between 1961 and 1975.
Specifically on Otpor’s demonstrations at police stations to mark the arrest of activists.
Achcar comments on the Algerian and Sudan uprisings, lessons learned from 2011-13, the role of regional and imperial powers, and the role of the international left in relation to Sudan.
This article points out the necessity of resisting anti-Black women policing practices, and argues that resistance must be organised by rethinking how we understand police violence in relation to the passage of time. Smith makes use of the term sequelae, which indicates ‘a condition that is the consequence of a previous disease’, to help shed light on the effects of police brutality on women, and its medium and long-term effects that are often overlooked. The article recalls four known Black women whose murder prompted vast public outcry - Claudia Silva de Ferreira; Marielle Franco; Luana Barbosa; and Aurina Rodrigues Santana – and articulates how sequelae are the combination of both physical and emotional trauma suffered by Black women.
Examines the militant American Indian Movement (AIM). from the seizure of Alcatraz in 1969 to Wounded Knee in 1973, assessing failures as well as successes.
The Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950 and subsequent changing Chinese policies and Tibetan responses are covered chapters in 9-15. Various protests in 1980s are noted in chapter 15.
Smucker has spent many years in grass roots community organising and is co-founder of the campaign in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lancaster Stands Up. He was active in Occupy, but is critical of its failure to move beyond a symbolic impact, and argues for the need to link campaigning to the political electoral process.
For more detail see interview with Smucker, 'Roadmap for Radicals', Red Pepper, Jan-Jul. 2018, pp 35-39.
Examples of nonviolent action from the 1950s to the 1990s. Brief extracts illustrate tactics such as boycotts, courting arrest, funerals, graffiti, ostracism, prayer, resisting removal, voluntary exile and ‘wading-in’ (against segregated beaches).
An assessment, by a US academic, of Navalny's role and impact in the immediate aftermath of his poisoning.
See also: Nikitin, Vadim, ‘As Alexei Navalny’s Life Hangs in the Balance, So Does the Fate of the Russian Opposition’, The Nation, 2 September, 2020.
Analysis of Navalny’s changing political stance that discerns ‘an unexpected but unmistakable left turn’ in recent years.
See also: Gorokhovskaia, Yana, 'The Navalny Case may Weaken the Idea that Putin is in Total Control', Guardian Weekly, 4 September 2020, p. 47.
This work comprises almost 100 interviews with local coordinators of Polish Women’s Strike (OSK) groups throughout the country designed to reveal the people behind a countrywide network that organized the successful 2016 protests against attempts to tighten the already restrictive abortion law. The authors also explore what drove them to activism and how they understood the concept of an ‘ordinary woman’.
Covers period since the French Revolution, but also contains summary accounts of numerous contemporary movements and organizations, including many included in this volume.
Clear critical analysis of third wave feminism, which also provides a list of relevant texts
This issue has several articles on Occupy. See:
- Kerton, Sarah , Tahrir Here? The influence of the Arab Uprisings on the emergence of Occupy Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural and Political Protest, 2012, pp. 302-308
- Pickerill, Jenny ; Krinksy, John , Why does Occupy matter? Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural and Political Protest, 2012, pp. 279-287
- Smith, Jackie ; Glidden, Bob , Occupy Pittsburgh and the challenges of participatory democracy Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural Political Protest, 2012, pp. 288-294
Content overview: http://tandfonline.com/toc/csms20/11/3-4?nav=tocList
An exploration of the history of the women’s movement in Bangladesh, its achievements and the internal and external challenges for a sustainable movement it faces. The author weaves in broader historical changes and discusses the nature of the current political context and its impact on the feminist movement in Bangladesh.
This work explores the causes of women’s under-representation of women in Japanese politics, their portrayal in Japanese media and the extent of their participation in social movements.
Thirty three essays, mainly by US-based activists, on the new radicalism and direct action in the Global Justice Movement.
Autobiographical account of radical campaigning activities against nuclear tests in Nevada. Author argues that policy of testing nuclear weapons in the American West is rooted in 19th century attitudes and policies towards native American peoples.
Brief personal reflections on activism and the potential for change, touching on Zapatistas, the social justice movement, indigenous peoples’ actions and the transnational opposition to war in Iraq. No index.
A collection of essays by a leading feminist, that responds to the rapid social change resulting from the latest renewal of feminism both in North America and worldwide. It starts with a long new essay ‘Silence is broken’, which explores the many ways in which not only women but other vulnerable groups have been silenced. The author notes that this is a book that ‘deals with men who are ardent feminists as well as men who are rapists’ and that ‘this is a feminist book, yet it is not about women’s experience alone.’
Focuses on the widespread student protests in Britain in 2010, but also extends to Italy, France, Greece and the USA, as well as the beginning of the Arab uprisings in Tunisia. Includes texts from the past and reminders of 1968, as well as coverage of contemporary events, and political and theoretical commentaries from established and new voices.
The author is assistant professor of sociology at the Catholic University of Chile. Examines causes of protests and educational system, ‘horizontalism’ of student organization, tactics, use of media and maintenance of internal unity.
The author notes that at first the May 2014 coup looked like a re-run of earlier coups which resulted in short term military rule and an interim government, but the strength of repression and reorganization of power soon indicated a more major shift towards permanent authoritarianism based on new class alliances. He explores how this new phase has its roots in the earlier development of Thai politics in the 20th century.
Report on the decision by Sweden to reintroduce conscription following alleged breaches of its airspace by Russian fighter jets.
See also: 'Sweden Brings Back Military Conscription amid Baltic Tensions' BBC, 2 March 2017.
Begins with the uprising centred on Tahrir Square and then examines the Mubarak regime, the economic trends, and the growing protests by workers, and by democracy, anti-war, social and environment activists.
Discusses the new theoretical strand within Chinese feminism that has been forming since 2010 up to 2018, which, for lack of a programmatic label, the author calls “socialist feminism.”
International solidarity has been crucial to 'a movement in the making' - the war resisters of Turkey. Plus a commentary from pioneer objector Osman Murat Ulke.
This article examines the impact of the uprisings on popular attitudes, using 45 public opinion surveys across the region to test his theoretical framework of a consequence-based approach that includes the concept of deprivation. When the data are combined to provide a country by country analysis they suggest that countries like Egypt and Morocco where initial protest had rapid political results but failed in the longer term, disillusionment was highest. Conversely a lack of major protest (Algeria) or of initial reform (Yemen) maintained desire for democracy. Results for Lebanon and Tunisia showed very different respomnses from different groups in society: Sunnia in Lebanon and the very poor in Tunisia.
Examines how the BSP changed from a Marxist party in the 1980s, arguing that it only altered significantly after being defeated in the 1997 elections, when it began to adopt new economic and foreign policies which made accession to the EU possible. The author also discusses the role of socialist parties in Western Europe in promoting this change.
Case studies from most of Europe (excluding eastern Europe and Greece) covering direct action to create social housing and other community services over 30 year period.
The article discusses the high levels of harassment endured by women in South-East and Eastern Europe, revealed in a 2019 OSCE survey, and the difficulty of speaking out. It gives the example Marija Lukic, who accused the former president of a municipality in Serbia and was insulted by 50 of his supporters when she went to court. The author also comments very briefly on short but ultimately unsuccessful social media MeToo campaigns in Poland and Romania and suggests that in Hungary the response has been confined to 'liberal and cultural circles'. She records that the Council of Europe's 2011 Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women was ratified by Serbia in November 2017 and Croatia in 2018, but has not been ratified by the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Moldova, Ukraine or Russia.
Covers earlier post-war period.
Often cited exploration of issues from an eco-feminist perspective by activist drawing on experiences in 1980s peace movement affinity groups. Explores power along three axes – power-over, power-within and power-with, and provides materials on individual and group empowerment.
Part 1: the author, an activist and ecofeminist, chronicles the global justice movement from Seattle to Genoa. Part 2 explores the future of the movement and debates between advocates of violent and nonviolent tactics.
Both documents and theorizes the growing transnational resistance to multinationals and neoliberal globalization.
The authors, who took part in protests at summits, from the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle to the 2007 G.8. protests in Heiligendamm (Germany), analyze direct action at 20 summits and how government social control (including a Berlin-type wall at Heiligendamm) limits space for dissent.
In this book, which was well reviewed, Starr - an Irish journalist - provides a detailed account of the complex nature of Syrian society with its many minorities and why some supported Assad. He had worked in Syria since 2007 and was able to send reports from inside the country to a range of respected US and UK newspapers during the nonviolent uprising and the subsequent civil war. His account is based partly on interviews with a wide range of people with diverse allegiances and viewpoints.
The author recognizes the pivotal role of NGOs in documenting and publicizing the suffering caused by the arms trade and its impact on human rights, fuelling conflicts and preventing development, as well as in pressing for international controls on the trade. But she is critical of the liberal ideology which defines NGO activity and justifies their intervention, which she sees as helping to perpetuate the hierarchy of a 'North' and 'South' world order.
Describes in some detail the first symbolic demonstration by 150 people on 29 March and the preparations for the major protests on March 30 and examines how the Great March and the Israeli reaction evolved.
See also: Darweish and Rigby, Popular Protest in Palestine (E.V.A.3.)
Account by participant in evolution of land seizures and of how MST eventually achieved legal possession.
Chapter 4, pp. 59-70, gives an eye witness account of the coup and stresses the inefficiency of the plotters and the limited popular response to Yeltsin’s call for popular defiance and a general strike.
Essays by six leading Catholic thinkers on the moral issues raised by nuclear weapons. Had considerable influence in Christian and wider circles. The 1981 edition has a postscript by Anthony Kenny on Counterforce and Countervalue nuclear doctrines.
Autobyography of Gloria Steinem, journalist and prominent activist in feminist campaigns in the USA from the 1960s onward, who was also one of the foundersof Ms Magazine. It provides detailed insights into the early feminist ways of orgsanizing and protesting, and the internal politics of the movement. the book also covers Steinem's earlier two years in India and contact with the Gandhian movement, her links with Native American women, and her continued actvism in varied causes.
On the development of the ‘Red Power’ movement rejecting white culture.
This book contains a number of articles on examples of nonviolent action, as well as more theoretical reflections on nonviolent action, both nationally and internationally.
Noting that nonviolent actions, like the resistance to 'Stuttgart 21', seem to become the focus of public attention, the authors (who have participated in many such protests in recent years) analyze the theory, practice, history, and current situation of nonviolent resistance in its international context.
US diplomat describes and assesses the evolution of protest.
Includes chapters on local social movements, and on the role of strikes in promoting popular unrest and encouraging move to elections.
Discusses transition to democracy and possibility of demonstrating how religion, society and the state can be satisfactorily balanced.
Stephan, co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works, examines the new threat posed by ISIS and its ambition to create an Islamic caliphate based on an extreme and violent interpretation of Islam. She suggests how civil resistance can help to contain ISIS and undermine its appeal and ability to recruit.
Urges external support for groups trying to help people devastated by war and also to create the organizational basis for a better future. Stephan notes the role of women-led 'peace circles' publicizing atrocities, promoting education and psychiatric help for refugee children, and planning for the future.
See also: Al Shami, Leila, 'Syria: Women Continue Resistance against Fascism, Imperialism and Patriarchy', Open Democracy, 5 January 2017.
Describes a young woman taking risks to communicate with the outside world before the fall of Aleppo, and then discusses the wider role of women in the opposition.
There are also a number of documentary films on aspects of resistance and constructive action inside Syria:
'"Islamic State's" Most Wanted', BBC World Service, July 2016 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qzk9g)
An account of citizen journalists in Raqaa (capital of the IS Syrian caliphate) taking appalling risks (and sometime suffering death and attacks on their families) to send online reports to the outside world. Hussam Eesa, who managed to escape Raqaa when he knew arrest was imminent in 2014, is interviewed for the programme.
'Syria's Disappeared: The Case against Assad', Channel 4, March 2017 (https://www.channel4.com/news/syrias-disappeared)
Reveals how prisoners in one of Assad's prisons smuggled out lists of names of those detained. They were written in blood on scraps of material, which any prisoner who was released could take out with him. The story is told by Mansour al-Omari, a human rights activist jailed in February 2012, who eventually managed to attain asylum in Sweden.
'The White Helmets', Netflix documentary, February 2017 (upon subscription)
A film about the White Helmets (Syrian Civil Defence), who had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and its 3,000 members across Syria. The documentary received an Oscar nomination and fueled controversy.
See introduction to Section V.E. Middle East and North Africa for notes.
This comparative study of 16 countries documents women's political resistance during and since 2011, with essays by both activists and scholars. The book stresses the diversity of the social groups and attitudes of the women involved, and gives a voice to often marginalized groups such as housewives and rural women. After an introductory chapter 'Advancing Women's Rights in the Arab World', the book is divided into five parts: What They Fight For; What They Believe; How They Express Agency; How They Use Space to Mobilize; and How They Organize.
Uses interviews with Black organisers to discuss disagreements about the best strategy to build on the mobilization resulting from the 2014 Ferguson 'rebellion' triggered by the shooting of Mike Brown. Notes in particular conflict between those working through the electoral process and seeking reform, and those focusing on resistance to the white power structure.
Economist Nicholas Stern led research for the British government on the economic costs of tackling climate change and implications for the global economy and compared these costs with those resulting from unchecked global carbon emissions. His 700 page highly technical report of 2006 concluded that cutting carbon emissions would be very significantly less economically harmful than the impact of unchecked emissions. This book, published 10 years later, warns that the risks and costs of global warming are more serious than he estimated in 2006, and argues strongly for a comprehensive low-carbon transition.
See also: Kahn, Brian '10 Years on, Climate Economists Reflect on Stern Review', Climate CO Central, 28 October 2016 (Climate Central describes itself as an independent body of scientists and journalists focusing on climate change).
The Ploughshares activist Wolfgang Sternstein compares Gandhi’s ideas of religion and ethics with the teaching of Jesus. He contrasts both to fundamentalism and dogmatism of any kind.
This volume investigates different abortion and reproductive practices across time, space, geography, national boundaries, and cultures. The authors specialise in the reproductive politics of Australia, Bolivia, Cameroon, France, ‘German East Africa,’ Ireland, Japan, Sweden, South Africa, the United States and Zanzibar, and cover the pre-modern era and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the present day. Contributors draw on different theoretical frameworks, including ‘intersectionality’ and ‘reproductive justice’ to explore the very varied conditions in which women have been forced to make these life-altering decisions.
The book notes the long history of pro-choice activism, and explores new limits on abortion in the United States under the Trump/Pence Administration, as well as the global impact of US policy. The author then charts the pro-choice movements led by women in Canada, Ireland, and Poland; the interconnection between diversity and abortion; and the fight against abortion stigma. It also includes testimonies of women who have had abortions.
Discusses distinction between principled and pragmatic approaches to nonviolent protest.
Discusses the significance of UN Conferences on Women and the role of both established and newly created women’s organizations in relation to them and the wider movement.
An analytical account sketching in the historical background and tracing the growing opposition during the 1980s.
In February 1943, Nazis rounded up 2,000 Jews married to Aryans and held them in Rosenstrasse, Berlin, pending deportation to Auschwitz. This sparked an initially successful campaign of public protest for their release. (A summary account appears in Thalhammer; O’Loughlin; Glazer; Glazer; McFarland; Shepela; Stoltzfus, Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People (A. 1.c. Small Scale, Hidden, Indirect and 'Everyday' Resistance) )
Examines how LGBT movement responded to over 200 attempts by religious right in US to promote discrimination through anti-gay referenda.
Examines evolution of US transgender movement from 1960s as it challenged violence, demanded legal recognition and resisted employment discrimination, poverty and media misrepresentation.
An Australian case study.
Argues that the post-election debate on replacing the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system is welcome and necessary, but so far has not dealt with the underlying political meaning of the UK being a nuclear weapon state and what it would mean for it to disarm. This article discusses the politics of Trident in relation to the UK’s military character and its imperial history.
Survey of US Transgender movement from mid 20th century to early 2000s in chronological order.
A grassroots movement exploded on Twitter after actress Alyssa Milano invited users who had been sexually harassed or assaulted to tweet with the hashtag #MeToo. This study examines opinion leadership within the context of social network analysis and explores how users engaged with the campaign and others on Twitter.
Discusses the challenges faced by Cuban women while searching for protection from sexual violence and sexual harassment.
This 'long read' article focuses on the nature and goals of Hindu nationalism and the role of the extremist Hindu organization the RSS. It also makes comparisons with the rise of right wing populism.
See also: ‘Subcontinental Drift: Danger – One Party State’, Economist, 28 November, 2020, pp.20-22.
This article examines in some detail the erosion of judicial independence and the Modi government’s stringent measures against state governments run by parties opposed to the BJP. critical journalists and NGOs, thousands of which have been closed down for receiving foreign funds. It also notes Modi’s emphasis on his role as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and his aspirations to rebuild Delhi to symbolize imperial-style power. It compares the autocratic trend under Modi to developments in Hungary, Poland and Turkey.
See also his MA thesis: Summy, Ralph V., Militancy and the Australian Peace Movement: A Study of Dissent Sydney, MA Thesis, University of Sydney, , 1971, pp. 273
Also available in Kumar, Mahendra ; Low, Peter , Legacy and Future of Nonviolence New Delhi, Gandhi Peace Foundation, , 1996 , pp. 141-57.
Reflects range of views of those actively involved in the anti-colonial struggle and resistance.
Revised and updated from the banned book Suttner, Raymond ; Cronin, Jeremy , 30 Years of the Freedom Charter Johannesburg, Ravan Press, , 1986, pp. 266 . Recounts the process of formulating as well as discussing the political implications of the Freedom Charter adopted in 1955. (Part of Unisa’s series ‘Hidden Histories’.)
Barbara Sutton collects stories of women in Argentina who have been tortured in clandestine detention. Her work centres on three main questions: how did gender hierarchies, ideologies and identities play out in the infliction of bodily oppression; in the disavowal of the tortured body; and in embodied strategies of survival and resistance. She also asks how can we account for the gendered tortured body and how do we tell stories about it.
Explores the criminalization of abortion in Argentina and its implications for the lives of women, such as maternal mortality and clandestine practice. The article also covers the struggle of feminist activists to include reproductive rights within the framework of human rights.
See especially Suu Kyi’s writings on the democracy struggle in ‘Part II’, pp. 167-237, and essays by Josef Silverstein. ‘Aung San Suu Kyi: Is she Burma’s woman of destiny?’, pp. 267-83 and Philip Kreager, ‘Aung San Suu Kyi and the peaceful struggle for human rights in Burma’, pp. 284-325.
See also: Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Alan Clements London, Penguin, , 1997, pp. 301 , with contributions by U Kyi Maung and U Tin Oo, London, Penguin, 1997, pp. 301.
Highlights important challenges that women face in the Kurdish part of Syria; Tunisia; Morocco; Egypt; and the Persian Gulf in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Future Forward was founded as a political party before the 2019 election and managed to come third in the polls, after the junta-controlled coalition and the pro-Thaksin party. It was led by former student radicals who had become successful (key leaders were an industrialist, law professor and TV journalist) and aimed to change the nature of Thai politics. A year later the government banned it. Swamy provides a useful summary of the book and its aims, and his own critique - he argues the authors do not explain the continuing strength of the Thaksin party.
See also: McCargo, Duncan and Chattharakul Anyarat, Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party, Copenhagen. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2020, pp. 240 (pb).
'Ni Una Menos', an Argentine feminist movement, has spread throughout Latin America largely due to its use of social media. The organisation is able to hold to account both the Argentine government and society overall, keeping women’s rights in the spotlight. This study examines ‘Ni Una Menos’ Twitter account since its formation in 2015, in order to understand how the organization has evolved over time, and how it continues to fight for women’s rights.
Traces how a movement developed in the US out of official debate and television coverage into the formation of thousands of neighbourhood groups, and over a decade the establishment of strong civic organizations tackling different toxic threats.
Examines the main traits of Nazi occupation of Europe, the complexities of non-cooperation, and the role of social cohesion and public opinion in mounting effective opposition. Chapter on civilian resistance to genocide considers why the Final Solution was hampered, or even prevented, in certain countries.
This book provides accounts of the various peaceful revolutions in Eastern Europe against totalitarianism after 1948, culminating in 1989, with a specific emphasis on the role of media.
Jacques Sémelin has brought together historians, sociologists and political scientists to analyse examples of civil resistance in countries of the East and South, mainly in the 1980s.
Short manual on civil education on nonviolence in simple terms, in the form of a dialogue with the author’s pre-teenage daughters. It has been translateed in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Japanese, Hebrew and Indonesian
Presentation of fifteen years of research into the resources available for civil resistance in the heart of totalitarian systems of the 20th century. Sémelin also extends and develops his analyses of civil resistance in the context of European Communism.
Huge historiography which uncovers the role of civil servants in resisting the deportation of Jews during WWII occupation in France; based on several years of archival and interview-based research.
Eminent French historian and theorist of nonviolent resistance explores the links between media of communication and nonviolent campaigns, focusing on key examples of resistance in Communist Eastern Europe from 1948-1989.
The “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine 2004 stirred up a discussion about the role of external support for social movements. There is a tendency to see this kind of support in black and white, either as something desirable or as something completely unacceptable that destroys a “pure” movement. Debates about financial support have been most vocal: one has to be either for or against US sponsoring of revolutions around the world. This paper will look at the complexities of external support, and try to get beyond the either/or discussions.
The author notes that almost 60 per cent of Africa's population was under 25 by 2019 and that they are deeply discontented due to unemployment and a sense of marginalization, and often very critical of governments. They are therefore prominent in political protests. This article examines both the causes and successes of these demonstrations since the Arab Spring of 2010, as well as drawing lessons from the movement in Sudan in 2019.
This interview with Joseph Tucker provides an immediate analysis of the October military coup, noting that steps had had been taken towards it over several months. The analysis also considers the regional and international context of the October 2021 coup and how the protests against military rule might develop.
Matt Taibbi discusses Eric Garner’s life and work as a cigarettes dealer, and his subsequent killing by the police of New York that strengthened the Black Lives Matter movement and protest. He reports on how he become targeted by the police, and allegedly mistaken by police officers on the day of his death. He touches upon his problematic personal and health conditions, within the wider context of the criminalisation of drugs policies in the United States of America. The work expands on Garner’s life and killing, contextualising its narration on the 2008 Bloomberg’s policy of tax increase on cigarettes of 400% per pack, which – Taibbi argues – motivated Eric Garner to sell cigarettes to people who couldn’t afford them. Additional contextualising elements to the analysis that Taibbi offers are the ‘broken windows’ policing, computerised policing and statistical analyses on crime rate and the inherently racialized imposition of order that stems from them.
See also: Takougang, Joseph ; Mbaku, John Mukum, The Leadership Challenge in Africa: Cameroon Under Paul Biya Trenton NJ, Africa World Press, , 2004, pp. 563 .
Ch. 9 examines the generals’ putsch in 1961 and notes responses to it both by the left and by De Gaulle, and their conflicting claims to have quashed the coup.
Nukewatch focuses on monitoring road convoys carrying nuclear warheads from the Aldermaston Weapons Research Establishment near Reading to missile bases. The campaign began in the 1980s, and in the 1980s and 1990s Nukewatch also tried to publicize the convoys to the local population by protests along the route. From the 2000s stricter Ministry of Defence controls to ensure secrecy and speed, and Nukewatch’s own concerns about possible acts of terrorism against convoys, led them to limit the information they put on the web. However, given the growth of social media and publicity about convoys on it, they joined in from 2015, whilst still using information with discretion.
See also article by Jane Tallents ‘Warhead Accidents on our Roads – Who’s Responsible?’, p.10. of the same issue of Peace News.
Tamlit writes as one of the 13 activists, giving a brief account of the occupation of a runway at Heathrow using locks and chains, and of the trial where the defendants pleaded 'necessity' to prevent local harm and harm caused by climate change. He also provides a summary history of the development of a broad anti-aviation campaign from 2000 against, the creation of Plane Stupid in 2005 which became a direct action network, and the Climate Camp at Heathrow.
See also: Mortimer, Caroline, 'Plane Stupid Climate Change Activists Block Heathrow Runway in Protest at Airport Expansion', Independent, 13 July 2015, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/heathrow-protest-live-plane-stupid-climate-change-activists-block-runway-in-protest-at-airport-10384280.html
Tamlit writes as one of the 13 activists, giving a brief account of the occupation of a runway at Heathrow using locks and chains, and of the trial where the defendants pleaded 'necessity' to prevent local harm and harm caused by climate change. He also provides a summary history of the development of a broad anti-aviation campaign from 2000 against, the creation of Plane Stupid in 2005, which became a direct action network, and the Climate Camp at Heathrow.
See also: Mortimer, Caroline, 'Plane Stupid Climate Change Activists Block Heathrow Runway in Protest at Airport Expansion', Independent, 13 July 2015 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/heathrow-protest-live-plane-stupid-climate-change-activists-block-runway-in-protest-at-airport-10384280.html
A critical assessment of the campaign on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and the gains and limitations of the resulting 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which is best seen as a stigmatization rather than a disarmament treaty. While the treaty may strengthen the taboo on using nuclear weapons, the ultimate challenge is to undermine nuclear weapons as a currency of power. The author examines four themes: processes of stigmatization, the democratization of disarmament politics, the advantages and disadvantages of codification, and normative strategies of disarmament more broadly.
Part I ‘East Timor: Resistance, Repression and the Road to Independence’ focuses particularly on the role of the National Council of the Timorese Resistance, the Catholic Church and the student movement.
Taracena reports on the abuse that people belonging to the LGBTI+ community suffer at home and in Mexican detention centres because of their sexual orientation. She also juxtaposes the violations they encounter during the journey from Honduras to Mexico and portrays their immigration as an act of resistance against transphobia and homophobia.
In addition to Taracena 's report, attached is also an account of the death of a transgender woman, Roxsana Hernández, from Honduras who died in a detention centre in New Mexico who gave rise to LGBTI+ activism in the country.
A survey by one of the major theorists of social movements, that includes some reference to the role of civil resistance.
Includes essays, articles and poems by black opponents of the war, including Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, and (in a section ‘The Black Soldier’) extracts from the diaries of black GIs and the Statement of Aims of ‘GIs United Against the War in Vietnam’. Taylor notes how the advice to African Americans from some leaders to ‘prove themselves worthy’ by taking part in the war in Vietnam became increasingly discredited.
An examination of how the anti-Iraq War movement in the UK tried to secure press coverage as part of their campaign. The focus is on local anti-war groups and their relationship with the local press and examines such questions as the influence of the social composition of the movement on their approach to the media. Taylor also assesses how local journalists and media viewed the campaign.
Three case studies of networks based in Latin America and Caribbean supporting garment workers (the Maquilla network created 1996) and domestic workers in Trinidad and Tobago; and promoting women’s health in rural and urban Brazil.
In this analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor offers a concise history of the Black Lives Matter movement, and an account of how the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency led to a state of uprising against the constant killing of Black people. Writing from a Black radical, feminist and socialist perspective, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor argues against persisting forms of structural racism, such as mass incarceration, Black unemployment and police violence. While connecting the fight against cultural and structural racism to a broader anti-capitalist project, she provides a rationale that depicts how this scenario has the potential to reignite the advancement for Black liberation.
Taylor provides a detailed account and analysis of the origins of Extinction Rebellion (XR), its structure and decision-making processes, its major demonstrations in 2019, and its evolution. He includes the internal debate about whether to try to shut down Heathrow, the ideological divides in the movement, and the decision by one of XR’s founders, Roger Hallam, to leave XR and found a new climate campaigning group. The article concludes by discussing the implications of Covid-19 and noting the plans to disrupt parliament peacefully in September 2020.
A Special Investigation by Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts on the role of fossil fuel companies in promoting the climate crisis. Includes list of the 'top five global polluters': Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia; Chevron, US; Gazprom, Russia; ExxonMobil, US; National Iranian Oil Co.
This article compares the positive impacts of the #MeToo movement in two different jurisdictions in the United States of America - namely California and Texas - in Brazil, and in the United Kingdom. It highlights the reforms promoting the prosecution and prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Well researched account of the first phase of the nuclear disarmament campaign in Britain, analysed and critiqued from a New Left/Marxist perspective.
Collection of analytical and descriptive essays spanning period from late 19th century to 1980s, but the main focus is on post-World War Two movement against nuclear weapons. Michael Randle assesses ‘Nonviolent direct action in the 1950s and 1960s’, pp. 131-61.
Account of how a nonviolent fleet of canoes and kayaks blocked Pakistani shipping at East Coast ports of the USA to oppose US support for Pakistan’s repression in East Bengal. Part 2 is a manual for direct action.
Includes assessment of impact of grape pickers’ strike on immigrant labour in other industries.
Examines development of lesbian feminism in the US from the early 1970s and explores its collective identity and engagement in range of actions challenging status quo.
This report in a Catholic newspaper stresses the role of Catholic and Christian bodies in this 'The Time is Now' mass lobby of the Westminster Parliament organized by the Climate Coalition (coordinating 132 environmental, social and religious bodies in the UK with a focus on lobbying). Teague reports: 'the whole day event started with a walk of witness down Whitehall, with Columbian missionaries, Jesuit Mission, Salesians, Arocha, Pax Christi and more'. About 12,000 took part, and over 350 MPs were lobbied.
See also: www.theclimatecoalition.org
Tebay has a chapter in King; Elmslie; Webb-Gannon, Comprehending West Papua (E. II.2.d. West Papua: Civil mobilization supersedes guerrilla struggle) .
Only 20 years since the concept of femicide became an issue in Latin America, following the notorious wave of unresolved killings of women in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico in the 1990s, Peru is also in the spotlight following a case of grave sexual assault against a 22 year old girl.
Discussion of pacifist theory and major objections to it from a just war perspective.
A study of civil disobedience from a legal standpoint.
This articles provides a systematic mapping of resistance movements against both fossil fuel (FF) and also against low carbon energy (LCE) projects. Hydropower projects dominate in the LCE category, causing both social and environmental damage. The authors find that over a quarter of the projects encountering social resistance have been suspended or delayed, that low carbon renewable energy projects cause conflict as much as fossil fuel projects, and that both disproportionally impact socially vulnerable groups such as rural communities and indigenous peoples. The authors also find that repression and violence against protesters and land defenders was widespread, and that assassination of activists occurred in 10 per cent of all the cases analyzed.
This thesis focuses on the 1986 Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament that lasted nine-month and covered 3,325 miles, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The author coins the term ‘endurance activism’ and explores two central questions: What is the relationship between long-distance walking and the politics of social movements? To what extent does ‘endurance’ shape meanings of the March’s related but twin goals: the building of a “prefigurative” community, and a mass movement capable of attaining media coverage and achieving concrete, or “strategic” political outcomes?
Divided into sections on 1. Campaigns against homo/transphobia; 2.Law and change; 3. Health and wellbeing; and 4. Community and diversity (covering Pride, representation in the media and LGBT communities and spaces). Includes coverage of policing, Section 28, civil partnerships and HIV/AIDS and mental health issues.
A collection of letters following the attack in the US on 11th September 2001 that Terzani published in response to some declarations made by his colleague, Oriana Fallaci, on the same event. In his collection Terzani discusses the need to explore the root causes of violence and extremism within human nature. He also advocates nonviolence as the only creative response to conflict, alongside the necessity to reconstitute the paradigms upon which the idea of Western globalisation rests.
Polly Terzian did a study on the development of the ‘NiUnaMenos’ movement in Argentina and raises issues about the historical participation of women in politics. Gender violence and femicide are connected to the analysis of legal issues surrounding them. She also considers the mobilisation of women and the visibility of violence against women in the media landscape.
Discusses examples of individual and group resistance, with an emphasis on defensive resistance (trying to protect key targets of repression) with a number of examples from World War Two and Nazi Germany; but it also includes the open challenge by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and communal struggles to preserve the local environment.
A report on the resistance movement six weeks after the coup. This is one of a number of relevant articles carried by The Conversation (an independent international source of news and analysis run by academics) on the coup and resistance to it and on the wider context in Myanmar.
Investigates the history of the forced sterilization of Native American Women as a practice that reflects the history of U.S. colonialism.
See also on forced sterilization of Latino men and women: Novak, Nicole and Natalie Lira, ‘Forced sterilization targeted Americans of color, leaving lasting impact’, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 23 March 2018.
The link to the documentary ‘No Más Bebés’ (No More Babies), which tells the story of immigrant mothers who sued county doctors, the state, and the U.S. government after they were pushed into sterilizations while giving birth at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the 1960s and 70s can be found here http://www.nomasbebesmovie.com/
Theodorakis, whose music was banned by the Colonels, was a prominent member of the broad-based Patriotic-Front Movement created in May 1967 to oppose the junta. Like hundreds of other members, he was imprisoned. This book recounts his successive arrests, internment and imprisonment, until external intervention secured his release from a prison hospital in 1970.
Well known theorist of nonviolence puts the Buddhist case.
The article explores why young people generally are turning away from political parties, civil society bodies and trade unions as channels for their frustrations and a means of defending human rights. It then examines the new methods and forms of mobilization specifically within the Algerian context.
Chronicles the Welsh cultural and national revival in the 20th century, including the nonviolent direct action campaign of the 1970s. Chapters on several of the leading figures in the movement. Critical assessment of the response of English socialists to the movement.
See especially pp. 263-318 on formation of united opposition and mass protests from March 1996 to February 1997. Account goes up to 1998.
Account of transnational direct action against nuclear missile base in Sicily.
This polemic, whose title was prompted by government civil defence advice ‘Protect and Survive’, provided considerable impetus to the rejuvenated nuclear disarmament movement of the 1980s, and the launch of the European Nuclear Disarmament (END) campaign in which Thompson played a leading role.
This book, which covers the period from the early peace process in the 1980s to 2017, is a comprehensive study of abortion politics and policy in Northern Ireland. Adopting a feminist institutionalist framework, the author illustrates the ways in which abortion has been addressed at both the national level at Westminster and the devolved level at Stormont.
Seeks to explain why in 1989 there was a massacre in Beijing but not in Berlin or Prague. Similar discussion in Thompson, Democratic Revolutions: Asia and Eastern Europe (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) .
Essays discussing people power in the Philippines, East Germany and Serbia, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of opposition, and the regime in China with Eastern Europe in 1989, to explain different outcomes, and reflecting on issues such as ‘female leadership of democratic revolutions in Asia’.
(see also Thompson, Democratic Revolutions: Asia and Eastern Europe (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) , pp. 84-97).
Analysis of Milosevic regime and reasons for the October 2000 uprising, plus brief reflections on links between stolen elections and the democratic revolutions in the Philippines 1986, Madagascar 2002 and Georgia 2003. Useful references to other literature.
Reproductive rights are an under-theorised aspect of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda as UN Security Council resolutions (e.g. UNSC resolution 1325) demonstrate. Yet reproductive rights are central to women’s security, health and human rights. Although they feature in the 2015 Global Study on UNSC resolution 1325, there is less reference to reproductive rights, and to abortion specifically, neither in the text of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions themselves, nor in the National Action Plans (NAPs, policy documents created by individual countries to outline their implementation plans for 1325). Through content analysis of all resolutions and NAPs produced to date, this article asks where abortion is in the WPS agenda. It argues that the growing centrality of the WPS agenda to women’s rights in transitioning societies means that a lack of focus on abortion will marginalize the topic and stifle the development of liberal legalization.
Reports on the legally aggressive strategy over abortion that Republican lawmakers have pursued since 2010 in at least five U.S. states. Provides detailed charts that show typologies of ‘abortion restriction’ state legislatures; examines how states have restricted abortion access, and makes prediction on how the Alabama Supreme Court’s conservative majority might legislate in light of the 2020 elections.
also entitled ‘Civil Disobedience’. Essay available in some editions of Thoreau’s Walden, in many anthologies and online.
Climate advocacy organizations are increasingly using social media to mobilize the public and so put pressure on policy-makers. The authors' investigation found that relatively few people repeatedly used Twitter on climate issues, though a small group of organizations and individuals did so repeatedly. They therefore raise questions about maintaining political interest over time.
Discusses post-Franco development of feminist movement and legislative results.
Comparing the US experience with India, this article promotes a broader discussion on the elements and causes of sexual harassment as well as mentioning some of the obstacles that need to be overcome in order to build a more respectful and equal society, namely toxic masculinity and the complicity behind it. The article envisages #MeToo India as a movement that can broaden the scope of #MeToo as an international social movement.
The Indian media platform ‘Agents of Ishq’ provides a brief guide online to tackle sexual harassment and sexual assault which can be found here: https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/the-metoo-faq-for-smart-women/cid/1672410?ref=also-read_story-page
Examines contribution of environmental activism to ‘an immanent civil society’. Chapters on Hungary, Poland, Romania and Russia.
Scholarly critical biography drawing on 90 volumes of Gandhi’s writings, arguing Gandhi aspired to be a world saviour. Author comments on inaccuracies in Gandhi’s own account of the South African campaigns, and provides incisive analysis of Gandhi’s political role and campaigns in India.
The thesis starts from the political context of the late 1970s when, despite detente, the US was developing its nuclear weapons arsenal, and apartheid South Africa emerged as a nuclear weapons state. Black campaigners against nuclear weapons emerged in both countries, and both suffered from racial discrimination, but the very different political contexts made organized opposition to nuclear policies very much harder in South Africa. However, in both cases nuclear weapon developments were closely linked to an international context, and both movements also relied heavily on international allies.
Report by French activist on plans to protest at the biannual Eurosatory arms exhibition in Paris 17-20 June, along similar lines to earlier protests in 1998 and 2000. Plans included a 'witness bearing peace vigil' and more noisy and colourful protests by Collectif Fermons Eurosatory, including nonviolent direct action. British arms trade activists had promised to join in, as they had since 1998. Britain and France, the two main arms exporters in Europe, each hosted regular trade fairs.
See also: Poulden, David, 'Paris Arms Fair: 50 arrests', Peace News, 2632-3633, Aug.-Sept. 2019, p. 7.
Brief report on die-ins and other nonviolent direct action at Le Bourget airport by the Collectif des Desobeissants to highlight French arms used in the Yemen war.
A classic of the social movement literature and the developing concepts of ‘repertoire’ and ‘contentious politics’.
Well-known exponent of the theory and history of resistance and revolt. In later part of book discusses whether the events in the Soviet bloc in 1989-91 count as revolutionary, and the possibility of nonviolent revolution.
Chapter 5, pp. 95-122, ‘Social Movements enter the Twenty-First Century’, takes as its starting point the January 2001 text message in Manila, ‘Go EDSA, Wear black’ and goes on to discuss the relationship between social movements and communications technology with further details on unrest in Manila.
Ting, from the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, focuses on the use of social media and mobile technology that allowed 'largely ad hoc and networked form s of pop-up protest', both in the protests against the Extradition Bill and against police brutality and abuse of human rights. The article elaborates on how protest repertories and movement goals have emerged.
Account by Reformed Church minister who resisted oppression of the Hungarian minority, and whose defiance sparked the December 1989 nonviolent protests in Timisoara.
Includes surveys of human rights and political change, worker resistance and potential for peasant opposition, and essays on Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland and Hungary from 1968-1978.
Chapter 4, pp. 167-209, covers opposition and dissent from 1962 into the 1980s.
Collection illustrating Tolstoy’s Christian anarchist-pacifist perspective, stresses individual refusal to fight in wars. Omits ‘Letter to a Hindu’, which reflects on why millions of Indians submit to a small number of British rulers and which is available in Peter Mayer, ed.,The Pacifist Conscience, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1966, pp. 166-76. See also Leo Tolstoy, Government is Violence, Phoenix Press, 1990, which includes essays on anarchism and nonviolence.
Journalist Karla Zabludovsky recalls the horrific murder of Micaela Garcia for her 'NiUnaMenos' activism in April 2017and how the movement developed in Argentina since her death.
Analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the constitutional arrangements embodied in the Good Friday Agreement. Argues that despite the difficult concessions unionists had to make, the GFA was a triumph for them politically since it embodied the principle of consent for any constitutional change in the province and the amendment of Articles 2 and 3 of the Republic’s constitution. Rejects the proposition that the separate referendums on the GFA in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic amounted to a genuine exercise in Irish self-determination, but expresses cautious optimism that the void left by ‘the demise of traditional republicanism’ can be filled within the broader EU context by a growing bi-nationalism and diminution of the north-south border.
The article discusses the significance of the UN Working Group Opinion no.40/2018 for securing the right to conscientious objection and freedom of thought internationally.
Comprehensive report on the 2017 Women’s Strike that involved more than 50 countries worldwide, and started by taking inspiration by 25,000 women in Iceland that, in 1975, gathered in the streets of Reykjavik refusing to go to work, clean, cook and taking care of the children.
For more info on the International Women’s Strike, also visit: http://parodemujeres.com/about-us-acerca-de/
Sheds light on the role of social groups that have promoted the definition of the crime of gender-based homicide as “femicide” and reports on the legal framework that exists in Cuba on the matter.
Toupin, who is Canadian, writes initially from that perspective in her history of a feminist campaign that started from the reality that a majority of women worked unpaid in the home. Wages for Housework asserted that domestic work and child rearing and caring for the elderly did have specific economic value. The aim was partly to make women's contribution to society visible and also to increase the independence of housewives - and the campaign mobilized to prevent cuts to family allowances in Canada and the UK, a financial source controlled by women. Wages for Housework ran counter, however, to the predominant feminist pressure to open up job opportunities for all women, and take them out of the home. The book includes an 'Afterword' on the current situation, in which care and domestic work is often outsourced to migrant workers.
Translation and abridgement of La prophetie anti-nucleaire.
Leading theorist of social movements explores research into opinions of ordinary members of Solidarity, and examines strategic decisions.
Examines how a small group of radical pacifists (such as Dave Dellinger, A.J. Muste and Bayard Rustin) played a major role in the rebirth of US radicalism and social protest in the 1950s and 1960s, applying nonviolence to social issues and developing an experimental protest style.
With a yearly figure of 251 activists assassinated in Colombia in 2020, and an average of 4 every week since the Paris agreement’s adoption in December 2015, indigenous activists in Colombia have risen against violence and environmental destruction with protests beginning in Bogota last month in October 2020.
Examination of the history of how the US Federal Government mistreated the First Nations since the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, brought right up to date, with an emphasis on the militancy of the 1970s and the subsequent improvements in the condition and role of Native Americans. The book ends with an account of the dramatic Standing Rock protest by a large gathering of different tribes over a proposed pipeline in 2016. This important history by a member of the Ojibwe, who is also a social anthropologist, appeared just after two Native American women were for the first time elected to Congress in 2018.
Focuses on Cameroon, Uganda and Mozambique within wider African context.
Tritto’s comparative chapter on worker protest starts with the important 1962 strike by the Asturian miners.
A member of Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants gives an account of the varied protests, including nonviolent direct action, and cultural events, that challenged the Arms Fair which exhibits the most recent range of weapons to thousands of potential buyers every two years in east London. A wide range of groups took part in the week-long resistance to the arms fair - Day 7 focused on borders and migration, noting how the weapons on display helped to displace many people.
Argues that civil society (despite its role in the opposition ) was too weak in these cases to achieve basic change, and that the democratic revolutions ‘proved to be little more than a limited rotation of ruling elites within undemocratic political systems’.
Criticizes the western view of Turkey as model for the Islamic world and analyses the Erdogan government’s domestic and foreign policy. Written the year before Gezi Park , but provides relevant background.
Discusses models of democratization, opting for an emphasis on processes rather than preconditions. Examines rather dismissively role of protest in 1970s, but notes evolution in the 1980s, and concludes that although 1986 did not mark a Philippine-style people power transition, it was a ‘tacit negotiation’ between the regime and the opposition. Cheng Tun-jen provides a similar analysis in Cheng Tun-jen, Democratizing the quasi-Leninist regime in Taiwan World Politics, 1989, pp. 471-489 .
The authors examine in particular on why the Maoists took up arms and then adopted civil resistance from 1996 to 2006, and on the continuing sources of more minor armed conflict since the settlement of 2006 due to 'flaws in the conflict settlement process'.
This article provides a useful overview of the immediate and longer term causes of the May 2021 protests, the responses by the government and the international reactions. It notes that New York Times videos showed police firing on demonstrators, as well as gas canisters and other 'low lethal' devices, but also considers briefly whether the protesters too have used violence and the impact of road blocks.
Information sheets on preparing for nonviolent action and nonviolent training resources and links to organizations offering training.
This book was written in 2011 by the present leader of the radical party ‘Podemos’, just before he became a TV star. His aim is to explain the genealogy of the 15M movement, linking it with’Juvenal sin Futuro’ (Youth without a Future) and ‘Democracia Real Ya’ (True Democracy), and connecting these with the lessons learned in the anti-globalization movement at the beginning of the 21st century, and with the Italian ‘Disobedienti’.
Archbishop Tutu discusses the arms race and the concept of world order in light of the Gaia Peace Atlas, a collection published in the year of the U.N. special sessions on disarmament, that provides a study of the prospects for peace and survival into the twenty-first century.
Tutu influenced world opinion in the 1980s and 1990s and chaired the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Begins with forced eviction (despite their resistance) of about 500 travellers from their homes in 2011, and explores exclusion and labelling of a range of ‘abjected’ groups (treated as scapegoats) and denigration of their resistance. Main focus on Britain, but makes comparisons with other oppressed groups, such as those in the Niger Delta.
It examines the communal rebuilding in Guatemala after the war (1970-1996) with a focus on the struggle of Ixil women to recover the remains of those killed during the war. Their activity is also centred on the resistance to the expropriation of land, weaving and textile expropriation, and the genetic modification of crops. It includes the testimonies of those who were victims of rape during the war period.
This article explains how abortion is understood within Sudan’s Islamist state, where it is politicized through its association with illegal pregnancy. It also the silent disobedience of Sudanese doctors for the purpose of protecting women’s reproductive rights. While abortion is not discussed in the domestic political debate on women’s reproductive and maternal health, and is not on the agenda of the national women’s movement, it has become politicized in the implementation of the law. A number of bureaucratic barriers, in addition to a strong police presence outside maternity wards in public hospitals, make it difficult for unmarried women to access emergency care after complications of an illegal abortion. However, many doctors, honouring the Hippocratic oath, disobey state policy, and refrain from reporting such ‘crimes’ to the police, to protect unmarried and vulnerable women from prosecution.
The authors argue that whilst Sudanese women were at the forefront of the uprising under the banner 'freedom, peace and justice', they were only marginally represented in the negotiations after Bashir's fall. They have also been sidelined in the process of creating a transitional government, though continuing to claim their right to be represented. This report focuses on the 'patriarchal mentality behind and composition of the negotiations' and Sudanese women's demands.
The report identifies the progress made by institutional approaches to tackling violence against women in the region. It also presents examples in some states in the areas of prevention, care, punishment, and reparation for violence against women and provides recommendations to address the obstacles that prevent the full implementation of measures tackling violence against women in the Latin America. It provides an important resource for many countries in the process of formulating, implementing and evaluating their own public policies and plans.
The report identifies the progress made by institutional approaches to tackling violence against women in the region. It also presents positive experiences that occurred in some states in the areas of prevention, care, punishment, and reparation for violence against women and provides recommendations to address the obstacles that prevents the full implementation of measures tackling violence against women in the Latin America. It provides an important resource for many countries in the process of formulating, implementing and evaluating their own public policies and plans.
Examines nonviolent traditions in Hindu, Chinese, Islamic and Judeo-Christian thought.
A collection of brief essays or speeches by eminent proponents of peace or nonviolence on dangers facing the world and role of civil disobedience. Contributors include Martin Buber, Danilo Dolci, Erich Fromm, Kenneth Kaunda, Jawaharlal Nehru and Albert Schweitzer. There are essays by founding members of the Committee of 100: Bertrand Russell, Michael Scott and Robert Bolt.
Influential Catholic document. Argues that ‘a justifiable use of force must be both discriminatory and proportionate’ and that ‘certain aspects of both US and Soviet strategies fail both tests’. Urged greater consideration of nonviolent means of resistance whilst upholding the right of governments to conscript (with provision for general or selective objection).
A critique of Chavismo from the libertarian left.
This account of the 19 months Revolution of the Carnations, which arose out of the military coup that overthrew the Portuguese dictatorship in April 1974, stresses that it was a mass popular revolution, not just a change of regime, that involved workers' strikes and widespread debate and communal organizing. It was also a socialist revolution, which was replaced by liberal democracy. The author is a professor at the new University of Lisbon.
Detailed scholarly study of Hungary from the Communist takeover to 1956, and with a final section on the period of 1957-61 when the Kadar regime established control.
Argues that despite violence used against opposition and shattered hopes, the protests promoted increased political participation.
Examines what can be learned from social movement activists, focusing on community, labour, feminist, gay and lesbian, peace and anti-racist groups in Hartford Connecticut.
The article starts by posing the question how protest over a subway fare increase in a seemingly stable and prosperous country turned rapidly into a constitutional revolution, which in 28 days led to political agreement on a referendum on a new constitution. It then proceeds to suggests answers.
The author argues that there are two stages in the process of developing an effective progressive force like the nuclear disarmament movement, whether regionally in South Asia, or globally. In the first phase a movement needs to attack and undermine the popular legitimacy that all governments seek to obtain for their policies. In the second phase, it can practically develop on a very large scale and achieve a critical mass that impacts on actual policy.
Analyses the ‘Second Democratic Revolution’ of April 2006, which led to the end of the Nepali Monarchy in December 2007, and the historical background to the revolution, with a particular focus on the role of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).
Reconstructs the history of female-oriented societies by retracing sacred feminine art or ‘Venus Art’ in order to retrieve women friendly egalitarian cultures with particular attention to East Asia.
See also https://www.themonsoonproject.org/feminism-in-the-asia-pacific/
Designed for British readership and gives legal as well as other practical advice.
Contributors include Naomi Klein, David Korten, Ralph Nader and Rebecca Solnit.
This book focuses on importance of community-based resistance to tackle major national and global issues. It covers diverse groups and campaigns in the USA, for example against racial injustice, coal mining and claiming workers' rights, and is based on the author’s interviews during her extended journey.
Uses three case studies to illustrate the complexity of the UDF. Addresses generational tensions and conflicts between belief systems that the UDF itself, and most studies of it, tended to ignore.
Vassileva, an activist and legal scholar, responds to questions from the Green European Journal explaining the origins and causes of the protests that broke out in July 2020, including the nature of corruption and the role of the prosecutor's office.
See also:
Vassileva, Radosveta, 'Bulgaria: 100 Days of Protest', New Eastern Europe, 28 October 2020.
https://neweasterneurope.eu/2020/10/28/bulgaria-100-days-of-protests/
Provides a brief commentary explaining how the Prosecutor raided the President's office with the aim of impeaching him (i.e. tried to 'orchestrate a coup') and so precipitated over a 100 days of protest. The author also comments on the role of the EU Parliament (unlike other EU institutions) in passing a resolution very critical of Borissov.
Vassileva, an activist and legal scholar, responds to questions from the Green European Journal explaining the origins and causes of the protests that broke out in July 2020, including the nature of corruption and the role of the prosecutor's office.
See also:
Vassileva, Radosveta, 'Bulgaria: 100 Days of Protest', New Eastern Europe, 28 October 2020.
https://neweasterneurope.eu/2020/10/28/bulgaria-100-days-of-protests/
Provides a brief commentary explaining how the Prosecutor raided the President's office with the aim of impeaching him (i.e. tried to 'orchestrate a coup') and so precipitated over a 100 days of protest. The author also comments on the role of the EU Parliament (unlike other EU institutions) in passing a resolution very critical of Borissov.
The author notes frequent comparisons between the Umbrella Movement and the Chinese student occupation of Tienanmen Square in Beijing in 1989, but argues that the Hong Kong protesters’ demands were more limited and precise and that they operated in a much more favourable political environment. Veg also comments on comparisons with Occupy Wall Street in 2011 (he points out the focus of protest was different) and the Taiwan Sunflower Movement of 2014, which he sees as a more precise comparison in terms of the context of the protests and the specific nature of their demands. He then examines the background to and evolution of the Umbrella Movement.
This study, based on over 1000 slogans and other texts and visual material, assesses the 'community with fluid borders' created by the movement, and the different 'cultural repertoires' including traditional Chinese philosophy and pop music. The author argues that the occupation also tried to develop a form of 'discursive democracy', and was an attempt to create a new civic culture among the younger generation.
Reports on 18 scientists and researchers standing for election to the new constitutional assembly tasked with creating a new constitution. The scientists are concerned to promote the role of research, but also to use their expertise on such is sues as public health, resource management and climate change.
Detailed account of the trial of two members of London Greenpeace, who refused to withdraw a leaflet denouncing McDonald’s.
This paper tries to understand the existing and possible strategies of transnational movements working for social change, especially those striving for an unarmed or nonviolent change of direct and structural violence, i.e. war and the social structures upholding authoritarian regimes, sexist, racist, capitalist and militarised societies.
Vinthagen provides a useful brief introduction to Scott's pioneering work on forms of small scale or 'hidden' resistance by subjugated classes. The interview then seeks clarification about the development of Scott's research and key elements in his theory.
Vinthagen develops a new general theory of nonviolent action which embraces Gandhian concepts and commitments, but relates these to modern sociological theory (for example, Haberms's conception of rationality) and reinterprets them within a more contemporary ethos. Four key dimensions explored are: dialogue facilitation; 'power breaking': 'utopian enactment' - Gandhi's constructive programme; and nonviolent training. Theoretical analysis is illustrated by examples drawn from a range of movements such as US Civil Rights, Movimento Sem Terra and radical protests against nuclear weapons.
On two ‘Academic Conference Blockades’ at Faslane Trident missile base in Scotland in January and June 2007.
Prominent Maoist contributors.
Briefly outlines the history of feminism from the Meiji era (1868-1912) until the present.
Vlachos, who refused to publish her right wing paper Kathimerini after the coup, was arrested for publishing an article abroad critical of the regime. She also wrote an account of her experience in Vlachos, Helen , House Arrest London, Andre Deutsch, , 1970, pp. 158 .
This article, incorporating an interview with Tikhanovskya, the leader of the opposition to the Lukashenko regime in exile, provides a useful summary of the resistance to the rigged election in 2020 and the subsequent repression. Vock notes the ruthlessness of Lukashenko against the opposition internally and those in exile in EU countries, and his unscrupulous use of refugees from the Middle East to challenge the Polish/EU borders. He also indicates that the Belarus opposition, which initially did not challenge ties to Russia, has become explicitly hostile to Putin's backing for Lukashenko and more dependent on EU and western support. Vok also reports that a leaked poll from inside Belarus indicates that although Tikhanovskya has significant support, two of the jailed opponents of the regime, Babaryko and Kolesnikova, are more highly regarded.
Argues the need for nonviolent resisters to re-evaluate strategies and tactics in the light of the opponents’ reactions; and (more exceptionally) to redefine their interests and goals.
On the week marking the United Nations Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, Council on Foreign Relations published a link featuring six publications from the Women and Foreign Policy Program. The publications are:
- CFR Discussion Paper: Countering Sexual Violence in Conflict (Include PDF);
- ‘Sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the workplace’ (http://fortune.com/2017/11/17/sexual-harassment-legal-gaps/);
- ‘Rape as a tactic of terror’ (https://www.cfr.org/event/countering-human-trafficking-and-sexual-violence-conflict) inclusive of a discussion with human rights activist, Yazidi survivor to ISIS’ sexual slavery and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nadia Murad. The link provides both the video and its script);
- ‘The economic costs of violence against women’ (https://www.cfr.org/report/closing-gender-gap-development-financing);
- ‘Ending gender-based violence in conflict’ (https://www.cfr.org/blog/its-time-end-gender-based-violence-conflict);
- ‘Addressing gender-based violence in peace agreements’ (Link not retrievable).
The disintegration of the Soviet bloc led to different kinds of peaceful transformation in Central Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s. In spite of many differences, common tendencies became apparent. Leading experts elaborate on similarities and differences in the GDR, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Volpi explores the advantages and disadvantages of leaderless mass movements such as the Hirak. Their ability to challenge the 'pseudodemocratic' mechanisms used by authoritarian elites is a strong point, but a key weakness is inability to create alternative institutional approaches. He also argues that the December 2019 election ensured the ruling elite remained in power, but undermined their legitimacy.
Wide range of contributors, including David Graeber, on economic meltdown in Greece and popular responses to government’s extreme austerity programme.
Reports on three major Latin American countries, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico that witnessed mobilizations against femicide and gender-based crimes in February 2019 comments also on the social and human rights organisations that are demonstrating against gender-based violence.
On the fifth World Social Forum gathering in Porto Alegre.
‘Exchange analysis’ between organizers of two protests against Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) weapons production, the first a 21 month campaign at Fort Detrick from January 1960, the second planting a tree inside the base.
Memoir by central (but increasingly controversial) figure in Solidarity.
Resistance to the use of Puerto Rican island as a US Navy bombing and gunnery range. Recounts direct action by Puerto Ricans and development of transnational action, involving US Quakers, to build chapel on the island.
Discussion, in light of lessons from the 2014 People's Climate March. of how to prepare for mobilization at the UN Paris Conference of the Parties on Climate Change
See also: Worth, Jess, 'Climate Justice Comes to Copenhagen', New Internationalist, 16 December 2009
https://newint.org/blog/editors/2009/12/16/climate-justice-invades
See also: Peoples Climate Movement 'To change everything, we need everyone', https://peoplesclimate.org/our-movement/
Sets out policy: to demand radical action on climate change, through mass mobilization and alignment with other movements for economic and racial justice. Provides very brief overview of campaigning since 2014 People's Climate March.
History of the Maori, including resistance to white occupation in 19th century: chapters 11-12 cover recent political protest, for example to protect land and fishing rights, and other forms of political activism.
Walker analyzes how the protesters in Belarus in 2020 used the 'Nexta Live' channel (run by a young Belarusian man in Warsaw) on the Telegram messaging app. The app combines easy availability of information and advice - allowing rapid dissemination of instructions to protesters and advance organizing - with privacy. Governments have great difficulty in blocking channels on the app. Whilst focusing on the Belarus context, Walker also notes that the app is used by protesters in Hong Kong, in Russia and by Extinction Rebellion. It has also been used by Isis fighters - though Telegram has begun to try to prevent this. The creator of the app is a Russian now living abroad.
Exploration of discourses that legitimate violence and importance of challenging them in the practice of nonviolent intervention. The author focuses on the civil war in Sri Lanka between the Government and the Tamil Tigers, and then analyzes the peacekeeping role of the Nonviolent Peaceforce Sri Lanka in 2008.
The author, an editor of NewYork magazine, writes not as a long term environmentalist, but an observer of the mounting evidence (such as the California forest fires of 2017) of the disastrous impact of global warming already being experienced. He also examines the implications of (on present trends quite likely) increase of 3C over pre-industrial levels, and how a 7C rise would make much of the equatorial region uninhabitable. This is primarily a call to action rather than a programme for effective action. An edited extract appeared in the Guardian Weekly, 8 Feb. 2019, pp.34-9.
Main focus on developments after 1996, the role of the Kosovo Liberation Army and the NATO war on Serbia (including documents such as the Rambouillet Text and the UN Security council Resolution of June 1999). But chapter two (pp. 11-19) discusses Albanian schooling in Kosovo, 1992-98, and chapter 19 ‘The limitations of violent intervention’ raises questions about nonviolent alternatives.
Critically explores key arguments for nuclear weapons: as an instrument of security; and as safe, affordable, and legal defensive tools. Wallis also queries the claim by nuclear-weapon states to be seeking multilateral disarmament, and examines the moral dimension of nuclear weapons.
A ruling by South Korea’s Constitutional Court in April 2019, that the country’s abortion laws were unconstitutional, effectively decriminalised abortion. The court required the National Assembly to reform the law by December 2020.
See also https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47890065; https://time.com/5567300/south-korea-abortion-ban-ruling/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/south-korea-court-strikes-down-six-decade-old-abortion-ban/2019/04/11/0200f028-5c43-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.66acd94bf340
Despite laws intended to protect women, Guatemala has one of the highest levels of killings of women and impunity for violence against women in the world. This article examines obstacles in the justice system to processing cases of feminicide comparing two cases. It argues that the sociopolitical context of structural violence, widespread poverty, inequality, corruption, and normalization of gender violence against women, generates penalties, or “legal tolls” on victims' families. These tolls of fear and time (the need to overcome fear of retaliation and the extraordinary time and effort it takes to do so in a corrupt and broken system) undermine efforts by victims to find a way through the justice system.
See also https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2017/gender-violence-in-guatemala/index.html
Based on articles from the newspaper Come Together. Walter was one of the founders of the British Gay Liberation Front.
Reports on anti-logging campaign in British Columbia, Canada, in 1980s and 1990s and discusses shift from pressurizing state to directly confronting lumber camps. Critiques approach leading to establishment of global regulatory body, the Forest Security Council, but supports offering ‘carrot’ of ‘certification’ in combination with ‘stick’ of campaigning for a boycott.
Series of essays discussing issues of obligation and disobedience from a standpoint emphasising citizens’ obligations and with an awareness of the traditions of the labour movement (‘Civil Disobedience and Corporate Authority’ for example discusses the right to strike) and concepts of honour and solidarity.
Highly regarded interpretation of just war theory. See also his earlier essays on war and disobedience, including an essay on conscientious objection in: Walzer, Michael , Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War and Citizenship [1970] Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, , 1982, pp. 260
Analysis of the roles of different types of transnational organizations and their impact on environmental ‘discourse’, including Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife fund. Chapter 3 is specifically on Greenpeace, direct action and changing attitudes. See also: Wapner, Paul , Politics beyond the State: Environmental Action and World Civic Politics World Politics, 1995, pp. 311-340 .
Ward, a leading anarchist theorist and expert on housing, examines the post-1945 British squatters movement (pp. 13-27) and assesses the revival of squatting between 1968 and early 1970s.
A social history that goes up to end of 20th century, primarily discusses British examples, but has references to many other countries.
A frequently updated overview of international human rights mechanisms available to conscientious objectors, including a wealth of case law (also downloadable as pdf).
Sections on ‘Introduction to Nonviolence’, ‘Developing Strategic Campaigns’, ‘Organising Effective Actions’, ‘Case Studies’ with examples from round the world, ‘Training and Exercises’ and advice on compiling one’s own handbook and lists of helpful manuals, references and websites.
A practical companion for conscientious objection movements and all those whose work forms part of the continuum of war resistance. It has been written by activists who are campaigning against all kinds of injustice, all over the world.
Article and audio defining important moments of the history of the Pilgrim nuclear energy plant, located in Plymouth, Massachusetts, from 1967, when it was built by the Boston Edison Company, up to 2019, when it shut down thanks to year of anti-nuclear activism and legal fighting against re-licensing the plant.
See also https://medium.com/binj-reports/pilgrims-50-years-of-anti-nuclear-mass-an-oral-history-8ea2a4624610
Discusses 1999 student demonstrations against the NATO bombing of Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, comparing them with earlier 1919 and June 1989 protests. Argues that, despite official support and encouragement, the 1999 protests did reflect significant degree of student autonomy and included allusion to 1989.
In 1963 medical and dental professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom played an important role in highlighting the health threat posed by atmospheric nuclear tests. Analysis of the deciduous teeth of American children born during the testing years showed the widespread presence of Strontium-90, a radioactive fission product that accumulates in babies’ teeth. The outrage of parents made fallout a central issue, and so put pressure on the US and UK governments to agree to the Partial Test Ban Treaty.
Written and produced by squatters, focusing primarily on history in Britain, but some reference to squatting round the world.
This book by a landscape architect explores how local solutions to particular environmental problems, often adopted in remote parts of the planet by indigenous peoples, have a much wider relevance today, and might be alternatives to western technological solutions that can have their own destructive implications. (TEK here means traditional ecological knowledge.) Watson has compiled 18 case studies, split into the separate categories of mountains, forests, deserts and wetlands, based on 10 years of travelling and interviewing anthropologists and scientists as well as indigenous peoples. She records, for example, how traditional methods of rice growing on hill slopes in Bali have proved more lastingly productive than the 1970s 'Green Revolution' based on pesticides and fertiliser, which in a few seasons led to declining yield, a degraded soil and return of the pests.
Reports that 14 year old Pedro Mattos Pinto, when playing in the street, was seized and later killed in a botched police operation in a Rio de Janeiro favela, a week before George Floyd’s death. His body was later found dumped. Brazilians demonstrated chanting ‘Black lives matter here too’. Notes that in 2019 police in Brazil killed nearly six times as many as in the US, and most of them were black.
See also: Libardi, Manuella, ‘Racial cleansing in Brazil: a 21st century genocide?’, OpenDemocracy, 27 September 2019.
Investigates the indiscriminate killing of blacks and the poor and argues that it is a historical and institutionalized event in Brazil: the perpetuation of an attempt at racial cleansing engrained in the history of the country.
See also: ‘Brazil: 80% killed by police in Rio de Janeiro in 2019 were Black’, TeleSur, 8 February 2020.
http://civilresistance.info/biblio-item/1998/walking-wind-memoir-movement
This article covers a major struggle for indigenous rights and environmental protection in Brazil, opposing construction of 49 dams on the Tapajos river and its tributaries to generate electricity and to create a canal to a major new container port. The scheme is backed by the Brazilian government and includes finance and engineering from Chinese and European companies, and would provide power to soya growers and mining companies. It threatens the home of the Munduruku tribes and an area of pristine rainforest. The protesters gained a partial victory in 2016 when the Brazilian environmental agency suspended the license for one dam, but the local people fear renewed pressure.
Account of preparation by indigenous communities to resist the destruction of the rainforest by farmers, miners and loggers backed by far right President Jair Bolsonaro. The article focuses on the discussions, held in the small riverine community Manolito in Terro do Meio, between indigenous people and international activists, including Extinction Rebellion UK organisers, Belgian activists in the School Strike and from the Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot. Watts outlines the wider Brazilian context, and discusses how international participants revised their ideas and campaigning plans as a result of the meeting, which was named 'Amazon: Centro do Mundo'.
Account of preparation by indigenous communities to resist the destruction of the rainforest by farmers, miners and loggers backed by far right President Jair Bolsonaro. The article focuses on the discussions, held in the small riverine community Manolito in Terro do Meio, between indigenous people and international activists, including Extinction Rebellion UK organisers, Belgian activists in the School Strike and from the Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot. Watts outlines the wider Brazilian context, and discusses how international participants revised their ideas and campaigning plans as a result of the meeting, which was named 'Amazon: Centro do Mundo'.
See also follow-up debate:
Journal of Democracy, Debating the color revolutions Journal of Democracy, 2009, pp. 69-97 (including contributions from Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik, Mark Beissinger, Charles Fairbanks, Vitali Silitksy and Martin Dimitrou, with reply by Lucan Way).
Article following the Court of Appeal judgement that the British government had unlawfully approved arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite a clear risk that they would be used in Yemen contrary to international humanitarian law. Wearing comments on t he UK's historic support for Saudi Arabia since the 1920s and central role in providing military aircraft and weapons under both Conservative and Labour governments, despite a major fraud scandal under Mrs Thatcher over an arms deal.
See also:: Smith, Andrew, 'Saudi Arms Sales were Illegal Says Court', Peace News, 2632-26 33, Aug.-Sept. 2019, p. 5.
The media coordinator of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) sets out the case against arming Saudi Arabia to fight in Yemen - tends of thousands killed as result of bombing over previous four years and at least 4.7. billion pounds worth of fighter jets, bombs and missiles licensed for sale from the UK. Notes the British government has appealed against the verdict to the Supreme Court.
See also: 'About CAAT: Ending the Arms Trade', https://www.caat.org.uk/issues/introduction/ending-the-arms-trade
Sets out aims of campaign and details of organization and provides links to the UK Court of Appeal ruling and other relevant issues
See also: 'Unions and NGOs Block Saudi Arms Ship', Peace News, 2630-2631, June-July 2019, p. 5.
Brief report on direct action by Italian dock workers from the CGiL union and activists from Potere al Popolo and peace groups in Genoa, who prevented generators being loaded onto the Bahri Yanbu, because they could be used in Yemen. The ship had previously been deterred from loading weapons in France by two court cases launched by human rights groups against the shipment.
On use of legal mechanisms under the 2005 Right to Information Act by anti-corruption and right to information groups.
Traces development of the ‘tree hugging’ movement to protect Himalayan forests, stresses the importance of the Gandhian style legacy in the strategy and tactics of the movement, discusses the role of women and profiles the leading men.
Foreword by Elise Boulding. Examines how the Gandhian movement in India developed Gandhi’s idea that nonviolent volunteers should act in place of armed police (for example to quell riots) and provide a nonviolent alternative to the army. Includes substantial bibliography pp. 267-84.
Develops issues raised by Stiehm’s ‘Nonviolence is Two’, see above.
Part II discusses various influences on Gandhi, and Part III Gandhi’s influence on Arne Naess (ecology), Johan Galtung (peace research), E.F. Schumacher (economics as if people mattered), and Gene Sharp (nonviolent action as a method).
Selection of personal views and stories with a focus on rejecting various forms of social and cultural oppression.
'SUPRAMARKET tries to provide those who want to see themselves as "disobedient consumers" with a "toolkit" with which one can crack the "fatal forces" of the "capitalocene" - the age in which capital determines everything - and reclaim their energy reserves in our collective favour.' (Olaf Arndt, p. 27)
Explores from leftist perspective failure of Reagan Administration to overthrow Noriega in spring 1988 and reasons why US turned against Noriega. Argues also that the internal opposition led by isolated upper class elite and 1988 protests indicated limits of its effectiveness. The authors accept that the July-August 1987 demonstrations did mobilize workers and peasants, but suggest that they were responding to the arrest of a popular politician and expressing popular resentment of World Bank-directed economic policies, rather than specifically opposing Noriega.
Wei, a prominent advocate of ‘the fifth modernization’ – democracy, was arrested and jailed in 1979.
For Weinstein’s account of the background to the 1973 coup, see: Weinstein, Martin , Uruguay: The Politics of Failure Westport CT, Greenwood Press, , 1975, pp. 190 .
Comparative examination of student-led protest challenging governments in Asia since the Second World War, with a focus on Burma, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines
By US journalist in Spain. See chapter 7, ‘The Opposition’, pp. 185-228.
Focuses on the contribution to the peace process in the lead-up to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement of three ecumenical Christian peace centres in Northern Ireland – the Corrymeela Community, the Christian Renewal Centre, and the Columbanus Community. The author, in contrast to the majority of commentators, identifies religious differences as the main cause of the conflict, though he argues that religion can be ‘both cause of and cure for social conflict’.
See especially chapter 6 ‘The Moment of Direct Action’ and chapter 7 ‘Networking: Direct Action and Collective Refusal’.
Argues that these movements should be seen as a process of ‘capacity building’.
Discusses US involvement and assesses the ‘Serbian factor’ in diffusing strategic ideas. See also: Welt, Cory , Georgia’s Rose Revolution: From Regime Weakness to Regime collapse In Bunce; McFaul; Stoner-Weiss, Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments)New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 155-188 .
West is a former Reuters correspondent in Egypt and now works for the UN in the Middle East. Lively personal account and analysis – a further subtitle on the cover is ‘Exhilarating encounters with those who sparked a revolution’. Focuses on Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. ‘Karama’ means honour and dignity, and West stresses its role in sparking and maintaining the revolts, quoting a Tunisian revolutionary from Sidi Bou Zid: ‘This is a revolution of honour’.
The authors begin by documenting the restorative origins of #MeToo, as well as exploring steps taken especially by Time's Up, to amplify and promote the credibility of survivors' voices, seek accountability, change workplace practices, and encourage access to the legal system. They then explore the key components of restorative justice: acknowledgement, responsibility-taking, harm repair, non-repetition, and reintegration. The aim is how these concepts might apply in the context of addressing sexual assault and harassment in the workplace and in the world at large.
By a founder of Greenpeace International, focusing on the 1970s.
Mostly on the period 1989-2002 and the nature of the Shevardnadze regime, but chapter 6 covers ‘pressure from below’ and chapter 7 the ‘Rose Revolution’.
Examines techniques of community organizing adopted by some environmental and climate change activists, and notes this approach alien to institutionalized and hierarchical NGOs.
Looks at prejudice and role of police, the homophile movement, the gay scene and the rejection of Paragraph 175 of the Constitutional Code.
Argues Middle East moving away from sexual diversity, which is demonized by clerics and persecuted by governments – but notes ‘pockets’ of change and tolerance.
This is a book examining what strategy protesters should adopt and critical of some common leftist assumptions, but is based on the author's role in the Occupy movement. He discusses Occupy at length, outlining its origins and reflecting on the tactic of occupation, and the movement's failure to adopt additional approaches and develop a movement capable of promoting wider social change.
Detached assessment of the evidence. Concludes that while discrimination against Catholics in this period certainly existed, it was more marked in some policy areas than others – more marked in electoral practices (especially at local government level), public employment and policing, generally less so in private employment, public housing and regional policy. But he notes that geographically, also, there were marked differences, with discrimination being more widespread in the west, which had a higher Catholic population.
Reviews the principal interpretations of the causes of conflict in Northern Ireland, including various Nationalist, Unionist and Marxist accounts, and proposed solutions. Concludes that both the traditional nationalist and traditional unionist interpretations had lost their popularity over the previous 20 years to be replaced by one prioritizing internal causes. Points also to the serious disagreements among Marxist commentators but acknowledges the major contribution a number of them, including McCann, Farrell, Bew, Gibbon and Patterson, have made to the literature, Suggests a new paradigm may be needed which, among other things, would take account of the contrast between different parts of Northern Ireland where areas only a few miles apart can differ enormously ‘in religious mix, in economic circumstances, in the level of violence, in political attitudes.’
Records a 40-minute conversation with respected theorist of contemporary capitalism, Naomi Klein, about the impact of Covid-19. She argues that it has encouraged greater empathy and solidarity with the BLM movement, but that it also creates the potential for powerful corporations to exploit the pandemic.
The article examines the popular insurrection in 2014 when President Compaore tried to consolidate his power by changing the constitution, as well as the resistance to his coup attempt against the transitional president in 2015. and considers factors in the popular success.
See also:
Hagberg, Sten, 'The Legacy of Revolution and Resistance in Burkina Faso', SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,22 Febuary, 2016.
Part 1 ‘the Abyss’ examines the socio-economic conditions of many Native Americans in the 1950s, Part 2 the development of a movement, leadership on the reservations and ‘Red Power’, whilst Part 3 explores ‘the Foundations of Self-determination’.
Focuses on legal struggle.
Pussy Riot demonstrated provocatively in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow (which is a symbol of Russian Orthodoxy) in February 2012, and then uploaded a video of this event with the caption 'Mother of God, drive out Putin'. This protest resulted in the arrest of the activists and made Pussy Riot world-famous, though they had staged four other politically and artistically motivated performances. This article assesses whether Pussy Riot's acts can be seen as civil disobedience.
A much more extensive list of German titles is available in:
Steinweg, Reiner, with Saskia Thorbecke, Gewaltf reie Aktion, Ziviler Ungehorsam, Sociale Vertedigung, Linz/ Donau 2011.
Link on http://reinersteinweg.blogspot.com//p/books.html
The bibliography (which includes a few titles in English and other languages) covers the theory of nonviolent action, case studies and reports on individual campaigns, movement literature, training for nonviolent action, civil disobedience, social defence and third party intervention including nonviolent action. It also includes materials on influential individual resisters and activists and theorists. Volumes 2 and 3 cover a list of authors and titles listed by year of publication.
NB It is hoped to make this bibliography more readily available on the internet in the future.
Account of gay and lesbian activism in Australia, from 1950s to 1990s, its successes and contribution to Australian society.
The first half of this book by leading campaigners for the ban is focused on assessing what has been done to implement the Treaty to ban anti-personnel mines. The second half examines the impact of the landmines campaign on issues such as cluster munitions and is ability rights, as well as assessing the contribution to 'human security'.
See also: Williams, Jody, 'The International Campaign to Ban Landmines - A Model for Disarmament Initiatives?', Nobel Peace Prize 1997. 3 Sept 1999.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1997/article/
Writing almost two years after the Mine Ban Treaty was agreed at Ottawa and signed immediately by over 120 governments, Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work together with ICBL, notes the achievement of NGOs in getting a governmental ban on conventional weapons in widespread use. She discusses succinctly aspects of the five year campaign that could become a model for the future. Williams stresses the importance of the post-cold war global context; the loose structure of the ICBL as a coalition of other bodies, which was, nevertheless, able to meet regularly and plan strategy; and the role of face to face meetings in achieving close relationships between NGOs and sympathetic governments.
See also: 'More Anti-Land Mine Work Ahead, say Nobel Prize Winners', CNN World News, 10 Dec. 1997.
Report quotes Williams on scale of problem remaining - 'tends of millions of mines in 70 countries...affecting lives on a daily basis' - and notes Cambodia represented at the ceremony by land mine activist who had lost his legs. CNN also summarizes speech by a former British soldier and ICBL activist on next steps: getting 40 countries to ratify to bring the treaty into effect, pressurizing major non-signatories and cleaning up the landmines on the ground.
Elucidates the structural oppression of women of colour to which white feminism contributes in the United States. The article highlights the connection between white feminism and liberal and conservative policies and ideologies.
Account of some of the most important nuclear disarmament movements, specifically the Aldermaston march in Easter 1958; the development of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the main activities they led in the 1980s; and the European Nuclear Disarmament Campaign.
The author analyzes the nature and power of extractive industries, their impact on local people, and how they prompt active resistance in North and Latin America. The book covers a wide range of extractive industries, including logging, hydroelectric dams, mining, and oil and natural gas.
Wilmot, director of 'Solidarity Uganda', which helps organize civil resistance in East Africa, provides an overview of movements for democracy in all Africa's regions. His survey also notes examples of growing authoritarianism, and stresses the diversity of the continent.
Supportive yet critical account of Chavez’s first term by founder of venezuelanalysis.com.
Lively analysis by academic expert on the country, stressing the complexity of Ukraine’s regional politics and of the ‘Orange Revolution’ itself. See also Wilson, Andrew , Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” of 2004: The Paradoxes of Negotiation In Roberts; Garton Ash, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)New York, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 335-353 .
Covers earlier Belarusian history and search for identity, but gives weight to analysis of President Lukashenka’s rise to power and how he maintained it effectively for so long, including his handling of the challenge in the 2010 presidential election.
British academic expert on Ukraine (author of books on the Orange Revolution) covers both the Euromaidan protests, which he witnessed (stressing variety of protesters and arguing that the far right played a minor role), and the subsequent developments in both western and eastern Ukraine. He concludes with a discussion of Russian policy. Wilson also wrote brief assessments during the course of the Maidan protests, for example: 'The Ukrainian #Euromaidan', by the European Council on Foreign Relations, 5 December 2013.
A film on the demonstration in the Maidan by Ukrainian Director Sergei Loznitsa (duration 134 minutes) was released in London in February 2015.
Chapter 6, ‘Feminists fight back’ (pp.169-224) covers the protests in Britain against male violence, and also constructive organizational responses and the campaign for legal change and challenges to prevailing attitudes.
Examines Putin's strength both in terms of his personal power and the effectiveness of his policies measured by economic growth, social stability and international standing. The article compares Putin's record with that of governments in other former Soviet states, and concludes that his achievements are not especially impressive.
See also: White, David, 'State Capacity and Regime Resilience in Putin's Russia', International Political Science Review, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512117694481
White argues that although state capacity in Russia is 'relatively weak', the Putin regime has achieved relative stability through enriching elites, controlling civil society and opposition, and promoting public support through 'economic benefits and national-patriotic appeal'.
A study that challenges five central arguments that shape nuclear weapons policies: nuclear weapons necessarily shock and awe the opponents, as indicated by Japan at the end of WWII; nuclear deterrence is reliable in times of crisis; destruction wins wars; nuclear weapons have kept peace for more than sixty-five years; and nuclear weapons cannot be eliminated altogether.
Provides snapshots of struggles by local people against chromite, bauxite, copper, silver and gold mining in Canada, Guinea, Burma, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Mozambique, and notes movement in northern Peru, beginning 2008 and erupting into mass blockades in 2009, against logging and oil drilling.
Feature review of several books on Zimbabwe with historical analysis.
The first half by Windsor explores the broad context and reasons for the Soviet invasion; Roberts (pp. 97-143) assesses the resistance drawing on the BBC monitoring service reports and interviews. Key documents relating to the invasion are included in appendices.
Uses evidence of two surveys to examine effects of protests on party-alignment and suggests a drop in support for the ruling Workers’ Party, but that no other party gained in support.
A brief history and analysis of the wars in Vietnam from the 1945 declaration of independence to the US withdrawal in 1973.
Part Three ‘Sixteen Months’ pp. 225-326 covers March 1988 to July 1989, the evolution of the protests and the regime clamp down; Part Four, pp. 329-429 covers Suu Kyi’s house arrest, the 1990 elections, subsequent attempts to mobilize international pressure, and her defiance when released from arrest in 1998 and 2003.
Advocates that nuclear disarmament movements develop a strategy to rouse the public from its torpor and shift the agenda of the nuclear powers from nuclear confrontation to a nuclear weapons-free world. He recalls the example set by the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and proposes ways to implement effective strategies today.
A reflection on how the anti-nuclear weapons movements worldwide have prevented a nuclear war after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the lessons that can be drawn for the future.
Examines anti-nuclear weapons activist campaigns, as well as public opinion. Wittner also explores some of the obstacles faced by disarmament activists and discusses how the efficacy of their anti-nuclear campaign might be improved.
Covers responses to the Bomb from 1945-1953, including by scientists and churches, but with emphasis on the Soviet-initiated protests under the World Peace Council.
Extensive and thoroughly researched history of campaigns and governments responses, which includes quite a lot of material on nonviolent direct action.
Traces the development of the movement in the 1970s, the rise of a new activism in the 1980s, the ‘breakthrough’ of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Agreement of 1987, and the end of the Cold War. While noting later more worrying trends, Wittner concludes that ‘This study – like its predecessors – indicates that the nuclear arms control and disarmament measures of the modern era have resulted primarily from the efforts of a worldwide citizens’ campaign, the biggest mass movement in modern history’.
A greatly condensed version of his three volume history (listed individually).
Lively account of peace, racial justice and labour activism in USA from the 1960s to 2000s by author of major study of transnational movement against nuclear weapons from 1945 (442-445 D.3.b).
A shorter account by Wokoma also available in George-Williams, Bite Not One Another: Selected Accounts of Nonviolent Struggle in Africa (E. I. Africa - Sub-Saharan) .
WOZA is one of the most imaginative and militant of the opposition groups and is also committed to nonviolence. See also Cherry, Zimbabwe – Unarmed resistance, civil society and limits of international solidarity (E. I.2.2.iii. Zimbabwe. Resisting Autocracy since 2000-) .
This is a political analysis of the possible ramifications of the Sudanese revolution across the Horn of Africa.
Notes that the official Algerian claims to be a model of political stability in the region - partly corroborated by the regime's ability to prevent unrest in 2011 turning into a revolution - have been proved illusory by the mass movement that erupted in Algeria in February 2019,and by the breath of its support.
The emphasis is on Bhutto’s political role and leadership and there is only very brief mention of popular agitation in chapter 7 ‘Winters of his discontent’ (1965-69), pp. 100-34.
A comprehensive report on the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign held from 25 November 2018 (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to 10 December 2018 (Human Rights Day) to galvanize action to end violence against women and girls around the world. The report provides links to previous years’ campaigns.
Indigenous women from Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Belau, Bougainville, East Timor, Ka Pa’aina (Hawaii), the Marshall Islands, Te Ao Maohi (French Polynesia) and West Papua (Irian Jaya) condemn imperialism, war, ‘nuclear imperialism’ (in the form of nuclear tests) and military bases in the hope ‘that when people around the world learn what is happening in the Pacific they will be inspired to stand beside them and to act’. The book is a contribution to the Hague Appeal for Peace, 1999.
Interview with prominent young leader of the Umbrella Movement charting his personal (Christian) background, and his earlier activism in 2011-12 when still at school, in opposing the Hong Kong government’s proposal to introduce a compulsory course in ‘Moral and National Education’, which he and his friends saw as ideological indoctrination. Notes the impressive support (100,000 signatures to a petition in three days) which his ‘Scholarism’ group mobilized, and the move in 2012 from petitioning to a large demonstration and hunger strike by three students.
Account based on Welensky’s perspective, stressing top level negotiations and relations with successive British colonial secretaries.
By respected writer on anarchist theory and movements.
Chapter 3 ‘Resistance and Reaction: April-December 1967, pp. 33-48, covers early opposition to the regime. Chapter 10 gives detail on ‘The Students’ Revolt: November 1973’, pp. 126-41.
On the campaign by OUR Walmart against the retail giant in USA in 2012, when non-unionized workers mobilized across the country with support from local communities, using blockades as well as brief strikes.
Survey of youth climate activism in schools and universities in Canada, focused on the climate impacts of excess consumption and fast fashion, symbolized by the November 2019 'Black Friday' shopping spree. Based on interviews with six young Canadians involved in a rang e of environmental activism.
Primarily examines role of women activists. Part I includes some historical studies from 18th and 19th centuries. But Part II covers period from 1970s -2000s in Netherlands and Poland and examines claims and projects of European movement. Part III examines how women’s movements have embraced global issues and role of minority groups within Europe.
Situates MST in the broader context of Brazilian history but also based on first hand research at MST settlements.
In 2017, two students at St. Francis Xavier University were arrested on charges of sexual violence. In support of student survivors, Theatre Antigonish staged the feminist collective piece ‘This is For You, Anna’ in 2018. This article focuses on how the on-campus production and audience responded to acts of gender-based violence. In examining the St. Francis Xavier University production and creation process, this article asks, what can theatre do for student survivors? How can theatre enact change on campus?
Wright's survey of protest covers the whole of the post-Mao period, examining the range of different types of protest by farmers, workers and urban homeowners, as well as environmentalists, dissidents, and ethnic minorities. She notes that popular protest has often achieved some positive response, though protesters also often suffer. The book includes consideration of Xi Jinping's more repressive policy and suggests this could lead to much greater tensions that might threaten regime stability. Wright also covers protest in Hong Kong in the rather different political context there.
See also:
Wright, Teresa, (ed.) (2019), Handbook of Protest and Resistance in China, Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishers, pp. 480.
Survey of various forms of protest in China since 1989 by a range of social groups (for example urban, rural, workers, religious minorities and ethnic minorities), with 29 chapters by experts in the field. The book begins with two overviews of the prospects for regime survival, and the whole gamut of social unrest. It includes sections on environmental protest, information and communication technologies, and also on Hong Kong.
(Initially published by OR Books New York on print-on-demand and ebook basis.)
Detailed account of daily life at the camp by figures on the left.
Examines how nonviolent marches and rallies against the Extradition Bill developed into more militant protest and violent clashes after repressive use of police tactics, and how the protesters extended their political agenda to demand wider political reforms and police accountability.
Wu, a university teacher of English educated in the US, returned to China in 1951. This is a personal account of his experiences. The Hundred Flowers campaign is covered pp. 47-72.
See also: Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements New York, Grove Press, , 1966, pp. 226 .
Gives examples of strikes and sit-ins and role of unofficial trade unions.
Critical examination of the multiplicity of the Gezi movement, the underlying factors and its repercussions . The author stresses the degree of violence and claims ‘the broader Gezi Park agenda represented a fundamentally Kemalist reaction against democracy’, citing the role of the Republican People’s Party as supporting evidence.
Discusses role of SERPAJ in struggle for survival by poor, including community organization and ingenious protests against hunger and unemployment, e.g. blocking supermarket checkouts with trolleys.
Argues environmental NGOs becoming more visible in Chinese environmental politics and seizing opportunities offered by the media, internet and international NGOs. Author concludes environmental NGOs both sites and agents of democratic change.
The author draws on a data set of 1,418 protests in China to argue that the state does allow a limited space for protest and that most protesters operate within these limits. Therefore 'contention' in China is a non-zero sum game, as opposed to the extremes of revolt and repression often studied in the past.
Examines the impact of anti-base movements on politics, and the role of bilateral military alliances influencing results of protest. Findings drawn from interviews with activists, politicians and US base officials in the Philippines, Japan (Okinawa), Ecudaor, Italy and South Korea. See also: Yeo, Andrew , Anti-Base Movements in South Korea: Comparative Perspective on the Asia-Pacific The Asia Pacific Journal, 2010, pp. 39-73
Examines the impact of anti-base movements on politics, and the role of bilateral military alliances influencing results of protest. Findings drawn from interviews with activists, politicians and US base officials in the Philippines, Japan (Okinawa), Ecudaor, Italy and South Korea. See also: Yeo, Andrew , Anti-Base Movements in South Korea: Comparative Perspective on the Asia-Pacific The Asia Pacific Journal, 2010, pp. 39-73
Investigative journalist Beatrice Yeung explores episodes of sexual violence that immigrant workers in the US experience in their workplace at the hands of employers who exploit them. It also gives an account of what type of reactions they face when they decide to denounce the abuses.
The article discusses how the BLM protesters tactics have changed the way the demands of the movement have been put forward, thus shifting the public discourse on the fight against institutional injustice.
See also: Rivas, Josué, The Nation and Magnum Foundation, ‘Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty Are Interconnected’, The Nation, 29 June 2020.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/black-liberation-indigenous-sovereignty/
Rivas, an indigenous film-maker, responds to parallels between the indigenous movement and Black Lives Matter, and offers his photographs as a contribution to the BLM movement
In this interview Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, talks about the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice. She discusses how climate change disproportionately affects women, especially through undermining food security, and notes that many women are farmers in developing countries.
See also: Editorial spotlight: Climate action with women, UN Women, 13 September 2019.
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/9/spotlight-climate-action-with-women
Link to women-led initiatives in Bolivia, the Caribbean and Cambogia to tackle climate change.
See also: Empowering women on the frontlines of climate change, UN Environment Programme, 8 March 2019.
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/empowering-women-frontlines-climate-change
Brief introduction to “Promoting Gender-Responsive Approaches to Natural Resource Management for Peace”, a Sudanese project implemented by UN Environment, UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme.
Younge assesses the impact of protests over police shootings on the US presidential election. He makes comparison with the political gains achieved in 1963, following the March on Washington and he also compares 2020 with the 2016 elections.
See also: Tavernise, Sabrina and John Eligon, ‘Voters say Black Lives Matter protests were important. They disagree on why’, The New York Times, 7 November 2020.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/us/black-lives-matter-protests.html
See also: Corbould, Clare, ‘What now for Black Lives Matter? Whatever happens under Biden, the role of African American women will be vital’, The Conversation, 11 November 2020.
On US movement.
Sympathetic account of the ‘Cedar Revolution’ by journalist of mixed Lebanese-American parentage.
Features brief but interesting comments by three scholarly experts on the Middle East on parallels and differences with 2011 and the implications of Algeria, Sudan, Iraq and the Lebanon being at the forefront in 2019.
The New Left became closely associated with opposition to the Vietnam War, and there are frequent references to this opposition in the US and UK, including a critique in chapter 9 ‘Vietnam and Alignment’, of New Left support for North Vietnam, pp. 163-88.
Although wide ranging in its theoretical approach to peace and in content, the Encyclopedia includes a strong focus on nonviolence, nonviolent action and groups and movements employing nonviolent methods.
In this ‘Long Read’ article Younge discusses how protests for racial justice in the US from the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter have prompted expressions of European solidarity, but argues that the European continent must face its own predominant role in the history of slavery. (Also available on The Guardian, 11 June 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/11/what-black-america-means-to-europe-protests-racism-george-floyd)
For an overview on how the BLM 2020 protests have erupted across the African continent see also: O’Dowd, Peter and Allison Hagan, ‘Black Lives Matter Movement Resonates Across Africa’, WBUR, 12 June 2020
(https://www.thenation.com/article/society/kkk-all-black-baseball-monrovians/) and
Wallace, Julia, ‘Africa Declares Black Lives Matter’, Left Voice, 26 June 2020. (https://www.leftvoice.org/africa-declares-black-lives-matter)
EU ‘neighbourhood plans’ agreed with neighbouring states link economic cooperation with human rights and democratization. This report includes case studies of how this has been implemented - or not - in Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Belarus and Azerbaijan. FRIDE has published a range of reports and policy briefs - all available online - with critical analyses of ‘democracy promotion’, especially by the European Union and its members, including in the context of the ‘Arab Spring’.
The schoolgirl Pakistani campaigner for girls’ education who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 tells her story.
Oral histories from Holmes County, Mississippi, voter registration campaign, which Payne (above) says ‘suggests what we may hope for’ in future historical research, identifying ‘themes important from an organising perspective’ and based on the collective work of teenagers – ‘a powerful reminder of what the movement’s values were’.
Exposes the widespread abuse of young women by lecturers and professors in Universities in Nigeria (as well as Ghana).
You can read the support statement by African Feminist Initiative here http://africanfeminism.com/sex-for-grades-solidarity-statement-by-african-feminist-initiative/, retrieve the different episodes on BBC’s website https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=sex+for+grades and read an interview with Kiki Mordi, the journalists behind the BBC documentary here https://www.okayafrica.com/interview-with-kiki-mordi-nigerian-journalist-behind-sex-for-grades/
Zhongly Yu explores four eras during which feminism evolved in China. The first wave was characterised by the May Fourth Movement from 1915 until 1921 – a political, social, and cultural revolution; the second wave that spanned from 1949 to the late 1970s, was government-led, with state policies mobilising rural and urban women in the public sphere as important builders of society; a third wave, beginning in the 1980s and ending in the 1990s, was led by female academics, and was characterised by the concept of ‘female essence’ and a concern for achieving harmony between women and men; the fourth, more recent wave is led by young feminist activists and focuses on gender equality and male sexual misconduct.
The author examines why the Chinese Communist regime has been able to retain control despite the period of rapid economic change and growth that have often elsewhere promoted strong pressure for democratization. The article suggests that one major reason is that the CCP 'has successfully strengthened the state's ’coercive capacity', in particular increased funding for the police. This article primarily covers the period before Xi decided to increase repression, but illuminates the context for his policy.
Assessments of degree of success or failure, unintended consequences, and lessons to be learned about movements. Contributors include David Cortright, William A. Gamson, Kathy Kelly, Lisa Leitz and Eric Stoner.
This paper connects aspects of public sexual violence against women generally, and politicized sexual violence in 21st-century Egypt in particular, arguing that successive political regimes in Egypt have produced and maintained a spatial culture of humiliation and subordination as a political tool to silence and oppress women and prevent opposition. This paper assesses the successes and failures of public feminism in Egypt in addressing this culture of female humiliation and isolation in public spaces, with a particular focus on fighting politicized forms of sexual violence directed against women since 2011. It also argues that sexual violence against women, and the repression of public feminism in Egypt, are parts of the failure of the processes of democratic transition.
Account by sympathetic environmental journalist of evolution of Earth First! and its tactics of guerrilla theatre and direct action.
Frames gender equality as a social and economic issue, rather than merely a female issue. It also touches upon three campaigns for gender equality: Feminism 1.0 launched by activist Gloria Steinem under the slogan ‘She For She’; Feminism 2.0 led by actress Emma Watson at the UN under the slogan ‘HeForShe’; and Modern FeMENism 3.0 developed under the slogan ‘We For We’ aimed at bringing men and women together to recognise that equality is in everyone’s best interest.
The authors explore some concerns about #MeToo and how feminist have responded to sexual harassment and sexual violence. #MeToo started in the USA a decade ago as activism by Black women who had experienced sexual violence to ‘let other survivors know they are not alone’ and create solidarity with the victims. The #MeToo campaign claims to be doing this now, but the authors query if this is actually what is being accomplished.
Presents the legal case against nuclear weapons and for people’s ‘direct disarmament’ actions against UK Trident missiles, and includes personal accounts by activists in Trident Ploughshares.
Following the 1996 ICJ Advisory Opinion that use or threat to use nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law, Angie Zelter, Ellen Moxley and Lilla Roder embarked on nonviolent direct action at the Trident nuclear base. The local Scottish Sheriff found them not guilty under international law as they were acting as 'world citizens'. The case was referred to the High Court, which refused to rule on the legality of UK nuclear weapons. The 'Trident Ploughshares' campaign therefore mounted other protests to challenge these weapons. This book is a personal account of the anti-Trident campaign, and includes profiles of other individuals and groups that have become involved in the movement to abolish nuclear weapons and contributions by them.
Following the 1996 ICJ Advisory Opinion that use or threat to use nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law, Angie Zelter, Ellen Moxley and Lilla Roder embarked on nonviolent direct action at the Trident nuclear base. The local Scottish Sheriff found them not guilty under international law as they were acting as 'world citizens'. The case was referred to the High Court, which refused to rule on the legality of UK nuclear weapons. The 'Trident Ploughshares' campaign therefore mounted other protests to challenge these weapons. This book is a personal account of the anti-Trident campaign, and includes profiles of other individuals and groups that have become involved in the movement to abolish nuclear weapons and contributions by them.
Angie could not attend the Coventry seminar but a few days later presented this at the War Resisters' International conference on Globalising Nonviolence
Zelter, a prominent activist against nuclear weapons and global injustice, charts the 365 days of protest and blockade, drawing on a wide range of groups in Scotland and across the UK, at the UK Trident nuclear weapons base at Faslane, 30 miles from Glasgow. The protest occurred during the period the Westminster parliament voted to re-commission the nuclear submarines. The book includes commentaries on subjects such as the history of Trident, nuclear weapons under international law, and the role of the police.
Comparative analysis of two Israeli organizations supporting conscientious objection and draft resistance during the Second Palestinian Intifada, exploring impact of Israeli culture on tactics and how different tactics of two organizations have different impact in Israel.
This study of China’s #MeToo draws upon the theory of connective actions to investigate how digital technologies influence the way in which feminist activism takes place. The author analysed over 36,000 online articles related to the campaign, and found 48 cases of sexual violence and harassment allegations. Time series analysis show that China's #MeToo campaign first emerged within educational institutions before gradually spreading to other sectors of society. Studying the ten most controversial cases, this paper identifies a series of counter-censorship strategies. The study of how the #MeToo movement in China evolved within an authoritarian context shows how connective actions traverse various platforms and cultural contexts. Methodologically, this study demonstrates how both qualitative and quantitative methods can be used to study connective actions on social media in China.
The author examines the context surrounding the #MeToo movement in China, how hashtags were used to circumvent censorship, and the role that Chinese diasporic communities played in the process. The results demonstrate the practice of disguised collective action, and the choices made by different actors in attempting to circumvent censorship.
Analyses gender in the Muslim world, particularly in Pakistan. Zia chronicles secular feminism and its past and ongoing achievements, and explores the limits of faith-based politics in the country.
The state, argues Zibechi, ‘is not the appropriate tool for creating new social relations’, and therefore Morales’ presidency represents a challenge to popular emancipation. Instead, he looks for inspiration to the social struggles in Bolivia and the forms of community power instituted by the Aymara people, especially in El Alto.
Uruguayan social analyst highlights the potential of autonomous community-based movements, while warning that they face not just repression or NGO-isation, but their liberatory project is in danger from left governments – ‘the most effective agent at disarming the anti-systemic nature of the social movement’.
Charts the cultural and political responses to Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Drawing on archives and more than 100 interviews with key participants, Ziegler argues that abortion rights proponents were insensitive to larger questions of racial and class injustice. She also contests the idea that abortion opponents were inherently anti-feminist. She demonstrates that the grassroots activists who shaped the discussion after Roe were far more fluid and diverse than the partisans dominating the debate today.
For an overview on the status of abortion laws in the U.S.A. up to May 2019, see the following links:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/abortion-laws-states.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/us/anti-abortion-laws.html?login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock
https://www.thecut.com/2017/01/timeline-the-200-year-fight-for-abortion-access.html
Mary Ziegler examines how Roe influenced a wide range of issues, including sexual liberty and the right to refuse medical treatment. The author explores a much wider range of political protest than simply abortion, and describes how social movements debated the meaning of privacy and struggled to use this concept to pursue political ends.
Since the Supreme Court seems likely to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision, American debate appears fixated on clashing rights. This work draws attention to an entirely different and unexpected shift in the terms of debate: instead of simply championing their own rights, those on opposing sides debated about the policy costs and benefits of abortion vs. the laws restricting it. This mostly unrecognized development deepened polarization. Whilst maintaining their constitutional demands, pro-choice and pro-life advocates increasingly disagreed about the basic facts. Drawing on unexplored records and interviews with key participants, Ziegler challenges the view that the Supreme Court is primarily responsible for the escalation of the conflict and charts social-movements divides and crucial legal strategies.
Includes interesting material on Solidarity’s underground period after December 1981.
Analysis of March 2002 Presidential election and conflicting assessments of its fairness from organizations within Zimbabwe and teams of electoral observers from the west and Africa.
Discusses the mass protests and Syrian troop withdrawal in 2005.
and London, Pluto Press, 2003,
Well known radical historian and contributor to the literature on nonviolence and disobedience.
Broad historical survey, ranging from Buddha to Arundhati Roy, and including Thoreau and Albert Camus, ‘Neither Victim nor Executioner’.
In this work, Zinn looks at the negative consequences of combat at the core moral and ethical issues citizens must face during times of war. He reflects on his youthful experience of combat in WWII, which led him to drop bombs on the French town of Royan. His later recognition of what the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki entailed prompted him to become one of the most committed and passionate advocates of non-violence in the USA.
Palestinian women’s bodies constitute a central site of the struggle between the Zionist state and Palestinian ‘citizens’ in Israel. At the intersection of critical feminist and settler colonial studies scholarship and drawing on empirical data collected in 2013–2014, this paper argues that Israel’s continuous drive to control Palestinian women’s bodies plays a pivotal role in the completion of the Zionist project.
This article provides an account of the Colectiva Matamba Acción Afrodiaspórica (Matamba Afro-Diasporic Action Collective)’s group of women activists fighting racism, sexism, colonialism and capitalism. They argue for an intersectional feminism and discuss a distinction between Black women’s feminism and white women’s lack of acknowledgment of white supremacy within the context of their feminist struggles. The work also establishes a comparison between displacement and sexual violence pre- and post-conflict that formally ended in 2019 with a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC in 2016.
Zunes provides detailed case studies of civil resistance to military coups in recent decades. His aim is to advance an analysis of the role of civil society and nonviolent movements in resisting such takeovers, and the role of international pressure and solidarity by both governments and activists. Eight coup attempts defeated by popular resistance are analyzed, including Bolivia, 1978, the USSR 1991, Thailand 1992 and Burkina Faso 2015, as well as four in which resistance did not succeed. Available in PDF at: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ICNC-Mono...
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See also Vol.1. E.II.1.c. Burma: Resisting the 2021 Coup, which covers the mass popular mobilization against the February 2021 coup by the Burmese military junta.
Zunes, a well known theorist of civil resistance and Middle East expert, interviewed activists and civil society groups involved in the movement to overthrow Omar as-Bashir to produce this study. He also interviewed journalists and academics who covered the movement.
Well-documented accounts of nonviolent action around the world, mostly since the 1970s. (Individual chapters are also cited in the appropriate geographical sections of this bibliography.) Also includes a feminist critique of the masculinist bias of many works on nonviolence (by Pam McAllister) and essay by sociologist Kenneth Boulding on power (cited under A.1.a. ii).
Analytical article with extensive references to literature on nonviolent struggle, examining definitions and strategy of nonviolent action, and covering a wide range of relevant topics. These include the Gandhian legacy, comparison of violent and nonviolent struggles, theories of power and dependency relationships, backfire and security force defections, nonviolent third party intervention, democratization, transnational networks, and collections of case studies and data bases.
Republished by Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, International Studies Association and Oxford University Press.
See also: Steinweg, Reiner with Saskia Thorbecke, Gewaltfreie Aktion, Ziviler Ungehorsam, Sociale Vertedigung (Nonviolent Action, Civil Disobedience, Social Defence), 2011, online. It is primarily a bibliography of German writings, but includes some titles in English and other languages. For more detail on contents and online link see: Vol.2. Addendum 2. German Titles.
Benefits from firsthand research in Western Sahara. For links to other writing by Zunes and Mundy, see http://wsahara.stephenzunes.org.
This article describes the case of Linda Loaiza López Soto, who was kindapped and repeatedly raped and tortured by her abductor for months in 2001, when she was 18 years old, after over 16 years of struggling for justice and exhausting all avenues in Venezuela. Her case was heard by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It was the first case related to gender-based violence in Venezuela to be judged by the court. On November 16, 2018, in a decision with potential implications for survivors around the world, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the State of Venezuela is responsible for the torture and sexual slavery of a young woman, who had spent half her life fighting for justice.
See also https://womensenews.org/2018/11/after-17-years-venezuelan-survivor-finally-wins-justice/
For more legal details on the case see https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2019/12/05/gender-based-violence-as-torture-the-case-of-linda-loaiza-lopez-soto/
Ozkan, Associate General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, comments critically on Rio Tinto’s record and notes his union’s commitment to campaign for changes in corporate policies. IndustriALL has produced reports on Rio Tinto, for example ‘Rio Tinto in Africa: Global Citizen or Corporate Shame’, available from: www.industriall-union.org
The article analyses the language used by the Polish nationalist right in relation to LGBT communities and women’s right to abortion. The authors show links between the language of Church officials hierarchs and right-wing columnists. The attack on gender uses the same methods of political mobilisation and power management as the campaign against refugees and immigrants. The anti-gender discourse may strengthen the narrative against the ‘liberal EU’ and create substitute ‘scapegoats’ inside Poland. The dispersed anti-gender discourse does have a real impact on social attitudes – on the one hand, it polarises social sympathies and, on the other hand, it strengthens right-wing attitudes. The analysis is based on right-wing press articles, Church officials’ statements, videos on YouTube and a parliamentary debate about the right to abortion.
A Guide to Civil Resistance
Volume One
Volume Two
The online version of Vol. 1 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). ICNC is an independent, non-profit educational foundation that develops and encourages the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies aimed at establishing and defending human rights, democratic self-rule and justice worldwide.
For more information about ICNC, please see their website.
The online version of Vol. 2 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of The Network for Social Change. The Network for Social Change is a group of individuals providing funding for progressive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, peace and the environment.
For more information about The Network for Social Change, please visit their website.
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