Women Rising in Defence of Life

Author(s): Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, and Verónica Gago

In: NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol 50, No 4, 2018, pp. 364-368

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.

#MeToo, feminism and femicide in Brazil

Author(s): Raquel Paiva

In: Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, Vol 10, No 3, 2019, pp. 241-255

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.

A People's History of the Portuguese Revolution

Author(s): Raquel Valera

Pluto Press, London, 2019, pp. 352

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.

Territories in Resistance

Author(s): Raul Zibechi

AK Press, Oakland CA, 2012, pp. 280

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’.

Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces

Author(s): Raul Zibechi

AK Press, Oakland CA, 2010, pp. 163

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.

Available online as PDF at:

https://libcom.org/files/Zibechi%20-%20Dispersing%20Power%20-%20Social%20Movements%20as%20Anti-State%20Forces.pdf

How a Farmers' Protest in India Evolved into a Mass Movement that Refuses to Fade

Author(s): Ravinder Kaur

In: New Statesman, 2021

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.

Available online at:

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2021/02/how-farmers-protest-india-evolved-mass-movement-refuses-fade

Farmers in India Have Been Protesting for 6 Months. Have they Made any Progress?

Author(s): Ravinnder Jodkha

In: The Conversation, 2021

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.

Available online at:

https://theconversation.com/farmers-in-india-have-been-protesting-for-6-months-have-they-made-any-progress-161101

Impacts of the Nuclear Ban: how outlawing nuclear weapons is changing the world

Author(s): Ray Acheson

In: Global Change, Peace & Security, Vol 30, No 2, 2018, pp. 243-250

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.

How to Get to Net Zero

7-13 Feb 2020

Author(s): Ray Monk, and Ruth Buckley Salmon

In: New Statesman, 2020, pp. 33-37

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.  

How Algeria's New Regime Won a Referendum but Lost Legitimacy

Author(s): Rayane Anser

In: Open Democracy, 2020

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.

Available online at:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/how-algerias-new-regime-won-a-referendum-but-lost-legitimacy/

Paving a Path to COP 26

Author(s): Rebecca Elson-Watkins

In: Peace News, 2021, pp. 7-7

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.

The humanitarian turn in nuclear disarmament and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Author(s): Rebecca Gibbons

In: The Nonproliferation Review, Vol 25, No 1-2, 2018, pp. 11-36

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.

In Britain we have our George Floyds too

Author(s): Rebecca Omontra-Otekanmi

In: New Statesman, 2020

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.

Available online at:

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/06/UK-black-lives-matter-protests-deaths-custody-police-rashman-george-floyd

The Mother Of All Questions: Further Feminisms

Author(s): Rebecca Solnit

Granta Books, London, 2017, pp. 194

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.’

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