Biblio

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.                                                           

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'.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.