Creating a Beacon of Hope for All Workers

Author(s): Silvia Giagnoni

In: Peace News, 2017, pp. 8-10

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.

Women art workers in Argentina demand gender equality, and museums start to listen

Author(s): Silvia Rottenberg

In: Hyperallergic, 2018

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.

Available online at:

https://hyperallergic.com/431714/nosotras-proponemos-buenos-aires-international-womens-day/

While the US has #MeToo, Latin America’s ‘NiUnaMenos' spotlights femicides, violence against women

Author(s): Simeon Tegel

In: NBCNews, 2018

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.

Available online at:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/while-u-s-has-metoo-latin-america-s-ni-una-n875091

Rethinking the American Anti-war Movement

Author(s): Simon Hill

Routledge, New York, 2011, pp. 208

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.

Armenia and the Velvet Revolution: The Merits and Flaws of a Protest-based Civil Society

Foreign Policy Research institute

Author(s): Simon Hoellerbauer

In: Geopolitics, 2019

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.

Available online at:

https://www.fpri.org/article/2019/02/armenia-and-the-velvet-revolution-the-merits-and-flaws-of-a-protest-based-civil-society/

Taiwan: China’s Last Frontier

Author(s): Simon Long

Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1991, pp. 264

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.

The Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong from Comparative Perspectives

Author(s): Simon Xu-Hui Shen, and Wai Shun Wilson Chan

Imperial College Press, London, 2019, pp. 300

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.

Violence against women in Brazil. Exploring the use of Twitter data to inform policy

Columbia University Capstone Project – UN Women

Author(s): SIPA

2019, pp. 44

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.

Belarus Uprising

Author(s): Slawomir Sierokowski

In: Journal of Democracy, Vol 31, No 4, 2020, pp. 5-16

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.

Occupy!

Editor(s): Social Movement Studies

In: Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural and Political Protest, Vol 11, No 3-4, 2012, pp. 279-485

This issue has several articles on Occupy. See:

Content overview: http://tandfonline.com/toc/csms20/11/3-4?nav=tocList

Transnational feminism and women’s activism: Strategies for engagement and empowerment in Bangladesh

Author(s): Solnara Aktar

In: Asian Journal of Women's Studies, Vol 25, No 2, 2019, pp. 285-294

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.”

The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine

Author(s): Somaly Mam

Random House Circle, New York, 2009, pp. 224

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.

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