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Multidisciplinary study by 13 Nigerian and 6 American political analysts of attempts at transition to democracy, including historical, social and economic as well as political factors.
Sivaraska (an ‘engaged’ Buddhist) is a prominent social critic, who dared to compare the military to ‘termites’. Edits the journal Seeds of Peace, which comments on problems in the region.
chapter 7.
Original French version. Examines activist lesbian and gay organizations in relation to post-1968 feminism, gay ‘ghettoes’ and the gay press, and explores the impact of AIDS and revival of militancy in the 1990s. Notes influence of American movement, but also stresses differences.
After a general overviews of politics and resistance in the region, experts on individual countries explore the immediate impact of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria, and the subsequent developments, discussing the reasons for reassertion of repression on Bahrain and later Egypt; political breakdown in Libya and civil war intensified by external interference in Yemen and Syria. There are also chapters on the monarchical response to pressure for reform in Jordan and Morocco, and why the Arab Spring did not ignite massive resistance in Palestine. Adam Roberts provides a concluding assessment of the problems of using civil resistance in the Arab Spring, the difficulties of democratization, and the lessons to be learned.
Especially Isabel Donoso, ‘Human Rights and Popular Organizations’, pp. 189-200.
Part 1, Part 2 is available at http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72931.
Collection of analytical and descriptive essays spanning period from late 19th century to 1980s, but the main focus is on post-World War Two movement against nuclear weapons. Michael Randle assesses ‘Nonviolent direct action in the 1950s and 1960s’, pp. 131-61.
Discusses mixed fortunes of women’s movement in changing political contexts, and how Taiwanese women made selective use of western feminist theory.
Discusses the possibility of ‘MeToo’ of becoming a legal movement which could help shape the legislation on sexual harassment.
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.
This article (written in 2011) starts from the 1988 achievement of a new democratic constitution, soon subverted by a military take-over leading to a decade of civil war. Entelis stresses the growing frustration among many sections of Algerian society - the young, workers, women, the middle class, Berbers and Islamists - who were all demanding economic opportunity, political freedom and social justice. He examines how the FLN regime established after 1999 has so far managed to control this growing dissent at a time of revolutionary upsurge in the Arab world.
Oxfam provides a very useful analysis of developments in Malawi by Nic Cheeseman and Golden Matonga, who argue that two key lessons are that change results from a combination of pressures and that 'people power is critical to strengthening the independence and effectiveness of democratic institutions'. There are also 10 comments on this analysis by Malawi citizens.
See also: Corcoran, Bill, 'Malawi One of the Few Wins for Democracy in 2020:', Irish Times, 28 December, 2020.
Corcoran comments on Chatham House awarding their 2020 prize in December to the judges of Malawi's Constitutional Court in recognition of their bravery in annulling the presidential poll of 2019. He then elaborates on the evolution of the campaign to annul t he election and to celebrate the upholding of democracy in Malawi when it was under threat in many other parts of the world.
See also: Swift, Richard, 'Introducing Lazarus Chakwera', New Internationalist, September-October 2020, p.11.
Brief but useful summary of events leading to the election of the opposition leader Chakwera in June 2020.
(The 1918 edition, which includes references to the unarmed campaign for independence in Finland, is now online.)
This brief book – originally a series of articles – was influential in Ireland and translated into a number of Indian languages, and was almost certainly read by Gandhi. Whilst the historical accuracy is questionable, Griffith’s account was important in conveying the idea of nonviolent resistance. Csapody, Tamas and Thomas Weber, ‘Hungarian Nonviolent Resistance against Austria and its Place in the History of Nonviolence’, Peace and Change, vol. 32 no. 4 (2007), pp. 499-519, analyses the influence of Griffith’s interpretation.
Chapter 7 covers the 1945 general strike.
Examines presidential election of March 2006 and argues that, although the protests against abuses apparently failed, they created a ‘network of solidarity’ and a ‘revolution of the spirit’. Two essays by Silitski focus on the effectiveness of the authoritarian regime and why it can contain protest are: Vitali Silitski, Pre-empting Democracy: The Case of Belarus, 2005 , pp. 83-97 , and Vitali Silitski, Contagion Deterred: Pre-emptive Authoritarianism in the Former Soviet Union (the Case of Belarus), In Valerie J. Bunce, Michael McFaul, Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (D. II.1. Comparative Assessments) New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009 , pp. 274-299 .
Analysing Palestinian print media in 1987 reveals a convergence in calls for action.