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On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 140th birthday the authors offer a guide to understanding Gandhi’s personality and life through different chapters in his life, for example the role of his family, his youth and the long period in South Africa.
This study seeks to reveal the relationship between the stereotypical images of Moroccan girls and women and the violence that is often committed against them. It suggests that women’s location in the power structures of the family, school, media and the law, as well as their unequal access to the economic and political spheres, all contribute to fostering violent attitudes and practices against women in the public arena. The evolution of the status of women requires changes in their freedom-of-movement, security and emancipation. Future research should address women’s discourse and experiences of street harassment as well as its social meaning, prevalence, severity and impact.
In this paper Juliana Batista discusses the interconnection between Confucianism and Feminism and their inherent conflict. However, she reaches the conclusion that they are not mutually incompatible.
This is a book examining what strategy protesters should adopt and critical of some common leftist assumptions, but is based on the author's role in the Occupy movement. He discusses Occupy at length, outlining its origins and reflecting on the tactic of occupation, and the movement's failure to adopt additional approaches and develop a movement capable of promoting wider social change.
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.
The author argues that social mobilization in Iraq, especially since 2011, has been politically significant, but not seriously analyzed. Her focus is to investigate 'nonviolent means to promote social and political change in violent contexts', which Iraq amply illustrates. She compares waves of protest since 2011 and concludes that cyclical violence and political dysfunction are a major limitation on the effectiveness of protest, but that social mobilization also holds out the possibility of more positive political change.
Seeks to address the lack of explicitly comparative analysis of how nonviolent methods promote political transformation. Examines success of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa (1983-90), and pro-democracy movements in the Philippines (1983-86), Nepal (1990) and Thailand (1991-92), and explores failure of such as movements in China (1989) and Burma (1988). Lists major actions in each movement. Includes analysis and criticism of ‘consent’ theory of power.
Explains background to the demonstrations, and elaborates on role of the US government in relation to the elections, and of the George Soros Open Society Foundation in funding opposition and promoting nonviolent prkotest. Comments also on the role of TV stations owned by private entrepreneurs.
Review article covering nine recent books, and providing overview of movement and noting the impact on the Arab world (Algeria and Jordan) and wider world.
The author, who founded a US support group for the landless, provides excerpts from her journal of visiting sites of land struggle in 1987. She notes intensified confrontations in 1980s between the landed elite and the landless, who resorted to lawsuits, demonstrations, fasts, vigils, marches, mock funerals and, above all, land occupations.
Examines post-1945 history of Yugoslavia and causes of its breakdown. Notes emerging feminist peace and ecological movement in the 1980s and the role of women in ongoing opposition to the war, including Serbian women demonstrating against the war with Croatia and demanding return of their husbands and sons.
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.
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.
International law has expanded significantly to encompass abuse of women’s rights, as a result of pressure from international civil society. There is now strong support for recognising violence against women as a human right issue. But attempts by women’s groups to promote consensus on reproductive rights, especially the right to safe access to abortion, have met with strong opposition or conservative religious bodies at both an international and local level. This article includes a case study of local direct action in Australia against access to abortion, and also a wider evaluation of the impact of anti-abortion protest groups on women’s rights. It also examines how far legislation to limit anti-abortion activism in designated areas is effective, and how far such legislation is consistent with international norms and feminised international laws.
The article assesses the impact of the main Russian online social network, VK, on the likelihood of protest with a focus on 2011. It argues that increased use of the network did have some impact on the likelihood of protest, but did so through simplifying coordination rather than increasing the availability of criticism of the regime. The authors also suggest that wider social use of the network actually increased support for the government.
In February 1943, Nazis rounded up 2,000 Jews married to Aryans and held them in Rosenstrasse, Berlin, pending deportation to Auschwitz. This sparked an initially successful campaign of public protest for their release. (A summary account appears in Kristina E. Thalhammer, Paula L. O’Loughlin, Myron Peretz Glazer, Penina Migdal Glazer, Sam McFarland, Sharon Toffey Shepela, Nathan Stoltzfus, Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People (A. 1.c. Small Scale, Hidden, Indirect and 'Everyday' Resistance) )
Tutu influenced world opinion in the 1980s and 1990s and chaired the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Analysis of fraud and manipulation of elections to favour the ruling candidate Felipe Calderon and account of opposition’s response.
Includes assessment of impact of grape pickers’ strike on immigrant labour in other industries.