In: New Internationalist, 2021, pp. 15-36
This very informative supplement on the aftermath of the coup on 1 February 2021 carries several articles on the resistance, the repression by the generals, and assessment of future possibilities inside Myanmar. It also includes discussion of the scope for international action, a summary of key statistics, a list of relevant organizations and initiatives, and a bibliography.
In: Global News, 2019
Combines UN reactions with pro-choice local initiatives by social movements and politicians demonstrating against recent bans on abortion in the U.S.
Now This World
2018
The short documentary explores the rise of the #MeToo movement in India. It also shows how the accusations on sexual harassment extended from the media industry to academia and the political sector, alongside campaigning for women to speak up when harassment happens in the private sphere as well. Men and women in India have been speaking up against violence against women since 2012-2013, following the death of a 23 year-old young woman. This episode initiated a more grounded conversation on sexual assault against women and especially against women of lower castes. In fact, according to Indian’s Crime National Bureau, more than four Dalit women – the ‘untouchable’ - are raped every day. In 2018, India was rated the most dangerous country in the world for women by the Thompson Reuter Foundation because of high rates of sexual violence. Reports attested that in 2016, India had 338,954 reported crimes against women (38,947 were rapes).
For first hand interviews with survivors, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13w-CJRoi30&vl=en.
See also: India was highlighted as one of the worst country for sexual violence, human trafficking, and for cultural and religious discrimination by Thomson Reuters Foundation’s 2018 survey (http://poll2018.trust.org/country/?id=india).
In: BBC, 2018
Discusses Australia’s decision to hold a national inquiry into workplace sexual harassment as part of the government’s response to the ‘Me Too’ movement.
Thomson Reuters Foundation2018
The survey reports on the worst countries in the world for women in terms of health (e.g. maternal mortality, lack of access to health care facilities, lack of control over reproductive rights); discrimination (e.g. over land rights, job rights, property or inheritance); culture and religion (e.g. acid attacks, FGM, forced marriages); sexual violence (e.g. Rape, rape as a weapon of war, domestic rape or by a stranger); non-sexual violence (e.g. domestic violence); and human trafficking (including domestic servitude, forced labour, sexual slavery and forced marriage). The methodology is outlined and each listed country is fully described in each of the categories explored by the survey.
In: New Internationalist, 2019, pp. 54-56
Brownell has been involved in a seven year campaign which succeeded in protecting half a million acres of Liberia's tropical rainforest from the Southeast Asia-based Golden Veroleum company, which had been granted t the right by the government to clear and use the land to grow palm oil. He took up the cause of the indigenous community in Sinoe County whose forests and cultural sites were being destroyed by the company. The article outlines how the campaign succeeded and Brownell's wider role in creating the Alliance for Rural Democracy throughout Liberia to work for environmental justice. He had been forced by death threats to move with his family to the USA.
European Commission , Brussels, 2019
The EU Commission presented its plan for updating its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in December 2019. The goal of net zero emissions by 2050 was to be given legal force by a climate law in 2020, and its target for 2030 was a 50-55" cut (lifting its previous 40" target). The plan links these targets to a call for a new growth strategy, decoupled from resource use, and sets out a time line and more detailed aims.
See also: Simon, Frederic, 'The EU releases its Green Deal. Here are the key points' 12 Dec. 2019: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/12/12/eu-releases-green-deal-key-...
https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
2018
Notes a new Moroccan law - Law 103.13 on the elimination of violence against women - that criminalises violence against women. The law was approved by Parliament on 14th February 2018 and entered into force in September 2018 and punishes various types of violence committed both in the private and public spheres, including rape, sexual harassment and domestic abuse. However, it was criticized for not outlawing marital rape or spousal violence, and failing to provide a precise definition of domestic violence.
See also https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/morocco-violence-women-law-effect-180912061837132.html and https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/violence-against-women-morocco-girls/
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/26/morocco-new-violence-against-women-law
In: Greenpeace, 2019
Celebrates UK government decision to halt fracking because of size of seismic shocks caused by drilling, but stresses role of nearly a decade of campaigning, especially at the Cuadrilla fracking site in Sussex, where local residents from the village of Balcombe were joined by activists in resistance, and at the Cuadrilla site in Lancashire.
See also: McWhirter, Kathryn, Frack Free Balcombe Residents' Association, 'The biggest thing since the arrival of the railway', pp. 85-90 in Rodriguez, Global Resistance to Fracking (listed below)
See also: ‘How summer fracking protest unfolded in Sussex village’, BBC, 17 April 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-26765926
Detailed account of the the protests in Balcombe that centred on oil company Cuadrilla's attempt to drill a 3,000ft (900m) vertical well to test for oil.
See also: Vaughan, Adam, ‘Fracking firm gets green light to test for oil at Balcombe … again’,The Guardian, 9 January 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/09/fracking-firm-gets-green-light-to-drill-for-oil-at-balcombe-again
See also Perraudin, Frances and Helen Pidd, Anger and blockades as fracking starts in UK for first time since 2011’, The Guardian, 15 October 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/15/fracking-protesters-blockade-cuadrilla-site-where-uk-work-due-to-restart
Reports on Reclaim the Power campaign’s against fracking in Lancashire.
In: The Conversation, 2019
Report on the Australia response to the emergence of the #MeToo movement.
In: Environmental Politics, Vol 27, No 6, 2018
This issue is focused on the roles of long established environmental NGOs (ENGOs), which often act as lobbying and advocacy groups seeking to influence government policy, and the potential of more radical campaigning groups. The introduction examines the implications of both approaches, as well as possible relations between ENGOs and protest movements. Other articles explore the role, strength and weaknesses of specific organizations, such as Friends of the Earth, and the problems as well as the benefits of transnational mobilization (as at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit). Topics covered include: an assessment of the effectiveness of transferring the US model of using the law to promote public interest environmental concerns to a European setting; the expansion of ENGOs in France; and a discussion of how to avoid conflicts of interest between indigenous peoples (concerned about economic opportunities) and environmental activists in Australia.
In: Journal of Democracy, Vol 26, 2015
This issue of the Journal published six articles assessing the regional uprisings. Michele Dunne 'After the Arab Spring: Caught in History's Crosswinds' suggests that despite difficulties in understanding the failures of the 'Spring' some lessons can be drawn; Michael Robbins 'After the Arab Spring: People Still Want Democracy' argues that data from the Arab Barometer suggested most Arabs still want democratic government; Marc Lynch, 'After the Arab Spring: How the Media Trashed the Transitions examines how the media that supported deposing dictators 'can make it harder to build democracy'; Charles Kurxzman and Didem Turkoglu 'After the Arab Spring: Do Muslims Vote Islamic Now?' assess whether Islamic parties have become more popular than they were before 2011, and Mieczslaw P. Boduszynski, Kristin Fabbe and Christopher Lamont, 'After the Arab Spring : Are Secular Parties the Answer?' examine sceptically whether the existing secular parties are equipped to play a positive role. (The sixth article on Tunisia is listed under E.V.B.b.2. Tunisia.)
May-June 2019
In: New Internationalist, 2019, pp. 15-37
Examines a range of technical issues relating to reaching carbon zero emissions targets, but focuses primarily on different forms of campaigning. These include Buddhist temples disinvesting from fossil fuels in Japan, and the often effective use of the law in Latin America, as well as examples of direct action. There is also a brief account of the Costa Rican government's programme to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Amnesty International2019
Amnesty issued this early condemnation of regime violence against 'verified video footage', eyewitness reports and other information on the 'excessive and often lethal force' used to crush largely peaceful protests in over 100 cities. Amnesty also notes the role of security forces in seizing the bodies of the dead, or compelling relatives to bury protesters without an autopsy, as well as the internet shutdown imposed by the regime.
See also: Human Rights Watch, 'Iran: No Justice for Bloody Clampdown', 25 February, 2020, pp. 18.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/25/iran-no-justice-bloody-crackdown
This lengthy report, written after the mass demonstrations had been crushed, provides information about protests, and the authorities' response, in different provinces. It also indicates the difficulty of getting precise figures for deaths (estimated at a minimum of 304) and imprisonments (about 7,000 according to one member of parliament), given the closing down of the internet and regime threats to families.
War Resisters International2020
Full statement by the WRI affiliate Ukrainian Pacifist Movement condemning the bill introducing 'intolerable elements of military dictatorship'. The bill required mandatory military registration for employment and draconian fines and imprisonment for COs and those showing solidarity with them. It also empowered police to hunt for draftees on the streets and transfer them forcibly to army recruiting centres.
See also: 'The Brutality of Military Commissariats in Ukraine: Reaction of UN and MPs', Truth Seeker, 23 September 2019
This article explores the practice of arbitrary detention of conscripts in Ukraine. It includes footage (in Russian) of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement that opposes compulsory military service.
See also: Harding, Luke, 'Ukraine reintroduces conscription to counter threat of pro-Russian separatists', The Guardian, 1 May 2014.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/ukraine-military-conscript...
Heinrich Böll Stiftung Report, Brussels, 2015, pp. 39
Edited every two years on the occasion of the European Union and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-CELAC) Summit, this fifth edition of the series ‘Feminicide: A Global Phenomenon’ addresses the chapter on gender from the Action Plan, and points to other initiatives aiming at eradicating feminicide/femicide, and also inspiring the implementation of the Action Plan EU-CELAC on this matter.
Translated from the French by Kristin Ross
Mauvaise Troupe Collective2018, pp. 240
Account of two major struggles by local people in conjunction with a wide range of external activists to defend their local territory: 1. against building a new airport near Nantes in France by ZAD (Zones a Defendre) and 2. against a high-speeed rail line (Treno ad Alta Velocita) in northern Italy by No TAV. The resistance has developed into alternative forms of social and economic organization within the defended territories. The book discusses the role of different strategies and tactics, and how to maintain alliances between diverse groups through dialogue.
See also: Jordan, John, 'Battle of the ZAD', Red Pepper, Jun-Jul 2018, pp. 24-29
Author(s): ' Mujeres Grabando Resistencia
In: NACLA Reports on the Americas, Vol 50, No 4, 2018, pp. 418-422
The initative of 14 women of capturing the feminist struggles through artistic production within the #VivaNosQueremos campaign. Many cities throughout the world joined the campaign and printmaking appeared in cities like Ciudad Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico State, Puebla, New York, Chicago, Montreal and Barcelona as well as other countries like Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Italy.
Author(s): ' Starhawk'
Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1988, pp. 384
Often cited exploration of issues from an eco-feminist perspective by activist drawing on experiences in 1980s peace movement affinity groups. Explores power along three axes – power-over, power-within and power-with, and provides materials on individual and group empowerment.
Author(s): ' Starhawk'
New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island BC, 2003, pp. 288
Part 1: the author, an activist and ecofeminist, chronicles the global justice movement from Seattle to Genoa. Part 2 explores the future of the movement and debates between advocates of violent and nonviolent tactics.