Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism

Author(s): L.A. Kauffman

Verso , London, 2017, pp. 256

Examination of major protests and movements in the USA from  the anti-Vietnam War mass obstruction of Washington DC in May 1971 to the Occupy movement of 2011.  The author discusses the role of feminists and gay activists in launching significant resistance on key public issues: notably the 'Women's Pentagon Action' in 1980 and ACT-UP battling discrimination against AIDS sufferers in the 1980s. The book also examines why some major protests were not well supported by Black activists and how they brought a different focus to others.

How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organising and Resistance

Author(s): L.A. Kauffman

University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2018, pp. 152

The author, who has experience of organizing mass demonstrations (for example against the Iraq War in 2003) compares two major protests: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (when Martin Luther King gave his 'I have a dream' speech); and the Women's Marches in Washington and across the USA in January 2017. She focuses on the different styles of protest -the first highly organized and centrally controlled by Civil Rights leaders (who strictly monitored the slogans on banners and signs), the second decentralized and spontaneous in origin with a multiplicity of demands and slogans. There was also a major contrast in the public role played by women (not allowed to speak at the 1963 rally and prominent in 2017).   Kauffman argues that the mass protests also had contrasting aftermaths - with the 2017 protests leading directly to continuing grass roots mobilization, whereas the 1963 march did not. 

Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings

Author(s): Michel Foucault

Editor(s): L.D. Kritzman

Routledge, London, 1990

Covers a range of issues, including Foucault’s interpretation of power and resistance, in accessible form (and also includes interesting discussion on the 1977-79 Iranian Revolution). See also Foucault. M., ‘Truth and Power’ in Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader: An Introduction to Foucault’s Thought, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1991. For a brief survey of Foucault’s evolving thought see Roland Bleiker, Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (A. 1.a.ii. Theories of Civil Disobedience, Power and Revolution) , pp. 530-73.

Algeria's Joyful Revolution

Author(s): Lahouari Addi

In: The Nation, 2019

This article by a professor of sociology, written a month after the outbreak of the revolution on 22 February, stresses that the 'gigantic rallies are peaceful and socially mixed'. The article  traces the background of the uprising since 1988, claimed by many Algerians as their 'Arab Spring', since it ended one party rule. Addi explains why this democratic experiment failed and led to a decade of civil war - the context in which Boutifleka came to power in 1999 promising to bring peace

Available online at:

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/algeria-revolution-bouteflika/

Religion in the African Public Square: Examining the Role of Religion in African Women’s Reproductive Rights

Author(s): lakeisha Harrison

Howard University , Washington D.C., 2019, pp. 175

This study examines of how religion (Christianity, Islam and indigenous religions) influences the laws and policies on African women’s reproductive rights. Using South Africa as a case study, this paper elaborates on the influence of religion on South African women’s reproductive rights and the African world in general.

Technique de la Nonviolence

Author(s): Lanza del Vasto

Gallimard, Paris, 1988, pp. 280

Originally published: 1974

Originally written in 1974, this essay explores the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence inspired by the author’s meeting with Gandhi in 1937, and applies it to environmental and solidarity struggles as well as in the daily life of the Arch communities, which he founded across France.

Nuclear War And Environmental Catastrophe

Author(s): Noam Chomsky, and Laray Polk

Seven Stories Press, New York, 2013, pp. 175

Noam Chomsky, an internationally renowned linguist, and Laray Polk, an artist and activist, discuss the two major problems humanity is facing: the use of nuclear weapons and climate change.

Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring

Editor(s): Larbi Sadiki

Routledge, London, 2015, pp. 688

Includes a wide range of experiences and viewpoints discussing the context and range of the Arab uprisings, and focusing on topics such as women and the Arab Spring, agents of change and the technology of protest and the impact of the Arab Spring on the Middle East. Highlights developments in Egypt.

With God for the People

as told to David Porter

Author(s): Laszlo Tokes

Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1990, pp. 226

Account by Reformed Church minister who resisted oppression of the Hungarian minority, and whose defiance sparked the December 1989 nonviolent protests in Timisoara.

Latin American Perspectives

no 2 (March)

Editor(s): Latin American Perspectives

Vol 332006, pp. 144

This issue focuses on Mexican politics, society and economy and provides background to the 2006 protests. Articles include: Rus, Jan and Miguel Tinker Solas, ‘Introduction. Mexico 2006-2007: High stakes, daunting challenges’, pp. 5-15; Gilly, Adolfo, ‘One triangle, two campaigns’, pp. 78-83; Semo, Enrique, ‘What is left of the Mexican Left?’, pp. 84-89.

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