Biblio

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.

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. 

On the negative impact of preparations for the World Cup and increasingly repressive police tactics.

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.

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

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.

Muslim women’s struggle for emancipation is often portrayed as a showdown between Western and Islamic values, but Arab feminism has existed for more than a century. This documentary recounts Arab feminism’s largely unknown story, from its taboo-shattering birth in Egypt by feminist pioneers to viral Internet campaigns by today’s tech-savvy young activists during the Arab Spring. From Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, filmmaker and author Ben Mahmoud charts the progress of Arab women in their long march to assert their full rights and achieve empowerment. Features previously unreleased archival footage and multigenerational interviews.

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.       

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

Discusses the protests and their symbolism and the ideological conflicts evoked.

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.

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).