Biblio

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A study of Costa Rica, which explores the relation between its demilitarized status and its safety, independence, and social wellbeing.

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

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.

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. 

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.

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/

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.

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. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/killing-student-is-killing-nation-sudanese-universities-revolt/ 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.

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. 

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.

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, 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.

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/.

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-thailand-divided/

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.

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