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Covers the London Squatters Campaign 1968-71, but notes background of the mass movement by homeless people in Britain at the end of the Second World War to occupy military bases, and later luxury flats, in 1945-46.
Traces the growth of disillusionment with the war amongst American GIs and the increasingly militant opposition within the US forces. Extracts published as pamphlet ‘GI Revolts: The Breakdown of the US Army in Vietnam’, available online: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/richard-boyle-gi-revolts-the-breakdown-of-the-u-s-army-in-vietnam
Drawing on interviews with transgender people charts impact of changing legislation in UK. Primarily about individual experience and social context, but there is a chapter on: ‘Transgender Care Networks, Social Movements and Citizenship’.
This article, which draws on fieldwork in Andalusia in 2015 and 2016, examines the general position on abortion there. It traces earlier history: before 1983, when abortion was illegal; and developments up to the 2010 law (passed by the Socialist government) which allowed termination of pregnancy in the early stages at a woman’s request. When the Conservative government under Mariano Rajoy introduced the very restrictive ‘Gallardon’ bill in December 2013, it prompted widespread and ultimately largely successful opposition, in which feminists were prominent. The author, who interviewed gynaecologists in public hospitals and certified private clinics, health service staff, and pro-abortion and feminist activists, examines the ‘discourses’ used in the debate over the Gallardon bill. She also assesses the impact of that debate on provision of abortion in Andalusia, with particular reference to the role of conscientious objection by medical staff and the stigma of abortion.
Following the 1996 ICJ Advisory Opinion that use or threat to use nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law, Angie Zelter, Ellen Moxley and Lilla Roder embarked on nonviolent direct action at the Trident nuclear base. The local Scottish Sheriff found them not guilty under international law as they were acting as 'world citizens'. The case was referred to the High Court, which refused to rule on the legality of UK nuclear weapons. The 'Trident Ploughshares' campaign therefore mounted other protests to challenge these weapons. This book is a personal account of the anti-Trident campaign, and includes profiles of other individuals and groups that have become involved in the movement to abolish nuclear weapons and contributions by them.
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...
Mixture of history, personal memoir and analysis by this Irish academic, writer and statesman. In chapter 8, ‘Civil Rights: the Crossroads’ (pp. 147-77) he argues that the campaign of civil disobedience begun by the civil rights movement in 1968 was bound in the context of Northern Ireland’s deeply divided society to increase sectarianism and lead to violence. Defends Partition on the grounds that the alternative would have been a much bloodier civil war than the one that occurred in the South in 1922-23. Cites a loyalty survey conducted by Richard Rose in 1968 to dismiss as unrealistic the proposition that the Catholic and Protestant working class might unite in a struggle against a common class enemy and create a workers’ republic in a united Ireland.
Sruti Bala comes from the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. In her dissertation on nonviolent protest she discusses some significant elements of nonviolent resistance such as 'action', 'play' and display'. She also tries to define certain consequences of nonviolent protest for political identity. Finally, these conclusions are related to the ideas of Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the 'Frontier Gandhi').
Blain traces the vital role women played in shaping Black nationalist politics between the 1920s and 1960s. It is addressed to anyone wanting to better understand the history of race, empire, and imperialism in the twentieth century.
See also https://www.aaihs.org/feminism-gender-politics-and-black-nationalist-women/; https://africanarguments.org/2017/03/08/how-african-feminism-changed-the-world/;
https://iycoalition.org/what-is-african-feminism-an-introduction/; https://thedailyaztec.com/90741/opinion/african-feminism-is-on-the-rise/ and https://www.msafropolitan.com/2017/12/what-is-african-feminism-actually.html
Interview with indigenous human rights defender, Virginia Pinares, from Peru, who came to London to represent communities in the Andes actively resisting - for example by blockades - mining for copper concentrates and molybdenum, which is controlled by the Chinese company MMG. Pinares argues that her community is not against all mining, but against the environmentally reckless way operations are conducted and the minerals transported, and they also demand a stop to the violence used against environmental and human rights activists. She stressed the need for environmentally protected zones, which could be used f or sustainable tourism.
Focuses particularly on women crossing Israeli-imposed borders to maintain their sense of autonomy and freedom, and argues that although these actions are ‘framed’ as resistance to occupation they also covertly challenge patriarchal controls..
Bartlett briefly traces the evolution of the movement. from high school students protesting about metro fare increases to major demonstrations in Santiago and across the country voicing numerous demands. The article analyzes both the socio-economic problems creating anger, and the neo-liberal nature of the Pinochet constitution, designed to maximize the role of private businesses and minimize the social and economic role of the state. It also notes the role of civil society groups in promoting public debate and crystalizing demands for a new constitution.
These are largely contemporaneous accounts, lightly revised from Pambazuka News, Pan-African Voices for Freedom and Justice, http://www.pambazuka.org. As well as interesting contributions on Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Algeria (noted again under E.V), this book covers unrest in a number of Sub-Saharan countries:
‘People’s revolts in Burkina Faso’, February-April 2011, involving students, the broad population and army mutinies (unfortunately the mutineers did not make common cause with the civilian protesters), pp. 131-46.
A ‘Protest Diary’ from Cameroon in February 2011, by presidential candidate Kah Walla, blogs about strictly nonviolent protests brutally suppressed (pp.107-10).
In Swaziland (pp. 155-169) the 12-15 April 2011 popular demonstrations went ahead in the face of roadblocks and despite the arrests of virtually the entire leadership of the democratic association, perhaps signalling ‘the beginning of the end’ for the absolute monarchy.
See also the recent discussion between Amy Risley and Brysk, pp. 83-113, in Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, Contention in Context: Political Opportunities and the Emergence of Protest (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) .
Examines 200 peasant occupations in 1972 (assertion of a tradition of ‘les recuparaciones’) in context of developing forms of protest since the ‘great strike’ against United Fruit Company in 1954.
Uses experiences of West Germany anti-nuclear energy movement to discuss how repression impacts on protest.
Examination of violence from a gender perspective by academic specializing in women’s political participation in Turkey.
This now famous work contains two essays written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation - "My Dungeon Shook. Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation," and "Down At The Cross. Letter from a Region of My Mind". It provides a three-point dissection on "The Negro Problem", an expression not owned by Baldwin that he refers to while discussing the roots of racial tensions of his time and how to overcome them. (To know more about the use of and debate on this expression by Baldwin himself, please see: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830326,00.html and https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2934484.pdf).
In the first essay, Baldwin focuses on the central role of race in American history, and specifically addresses himself to his 14 year-old nephew who was confronted with anger and outrage. Through his nephew, Baldwin aims to address any Black young Afro-American.
In the second essay, Baldwin discusses relations between race and religion. He addresses Christianity with particular regard to its meaning for US society and to its use for the oppression of Black people.
A common thread to the whole book is Baldwin’s call to both Whites and Blacks to use compassion, communication and mutual understanding to transcend tensions and overcome the legacy of racism.
James Balwin was an iconic essayist, novelist, playwright and critic, who worked primarily about the Black American experience, racial tension, homosexuality and religion. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement, but spent his last years in the more congenial society of France.
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 volume investigates different abortion and reproductive practices across time, space, geography, national boundaries, and cultures. The authors specialise in the reproductive politics of Australia, Bolivia, Cameroon, France, ‘German East Africa,’ Ireland, Japan, Sweden, South Africa, the United States and Zanzibar, and cover the pre-modern era and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the present day. Contributors draw on different theoretical frameworks, including ‘intersectionality’ and ‘reproductive justice’ to explore the very varied conditions in which women have been forced to make these life-altering decisions.