No name

The author examines, using newspaper reports on corporate boycotts in the US from1990 to 2005, why some corporations that are boycotted are more likely to respond to the demands than others. Brayden concludes that boycotts are more likely to succeed when they attract considerable media attention, and especially if the corporation has previously suffered from attacks on its reputation and from declining sales.

Historian and activist, Barbara Ransby, explores the birth of the hashtag and social media platform #BlackLivesMatter by three Black activist women following the shooting of unarmed 17 year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, and the acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman. Through a series of interviews with its principal organisers, Ransby’s narration contextualizes the origin of the Black Lives Matter movement in prison reform and anti-police violence reform policies, the establishment of Black youth movements, and radical mobilizations across the country dating back for at least a decade.

Drawing on her years of research in El Salvador, legal scholar Michelle Oberman explores the consequences of criminalizing abortion. She then turns her attention to the United States, where the battle over abortion takes place, in her opinion, almost exclusively in legislatures and courtrooms. Focusing on Oklahoma, she interviews current and former legislators and activists, and shows how Americans voice their moral opposition to abortion by supporting laws that would restrict it. She challenges this approach to the law by highlighting the real life impact of laws and policies on motherhood and abortion on women.

Anderson discusses the nature of Putin’s regime, starting from two opposing assessments of it. The first, promoted by western journalists, stressed lack of legality, kleptocracy, thuggery and authoritarianism. The second, elaborated by some academic studies, suggested a more nuanced picture of gradual progress towards greater legal stability. Anderson then considers in some detail the implications of Russian policy in relation to the Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and situates Putin’s rule in the wider context of Russian and Soviet history. He concludes by noting the tension created by trying to combine traditional Russian emphasis on military power and regional domination with the logic of financial capitalism.

Especially chapters 21-22 (pp. 659-758). Charts the background to and evolution of the Prague Spring, international reactions to it and mounting Soviet and Warsaw Pact pressure, before outlining the August 1968 invasion and popular and official unarmed resistance to it. Skilling also discusses reasons for the gradual end to resistance and acceptance of the replacement of Dubcek by Husak.

Revised and updated from the banned book Raymond Suttner, Jeremy Cronin, 30 Years of the Freedom Charter, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1986 , pp. 266 . Recounts the process of formulating as well as discussing the political implications of the Freedom Charter adopted in 1955. (Part of Unisa’s series ‘Hidden Histories’.)

Argues popular protests led by Obrador against election results undermined democratic process.

This article examines sexual harassment that has occurred worlds of media and politics in Japan, in the context of the global (mostly Western) #MeToo movement. It argues that harassment by male political leaders constitutes a pattern and should not be seen simply as isolated individual incidents. This pattern occurs within a cultural context that discourages women from speaking out about individual grievances. The naming of this pattern of sexual harassment is important to address ‘Violence Against Women in Politics’ (VAWP), a problem around the world. The public and media outrage directed at individual sexist statements by male politicians often dissipates, only to emerge again after the next sexist incident makes headlines. By establishing a pattern of sexual harassment, the author aims to show that there is a systemic problem facing all women working in politics or in close proximity to politicians in Japan.

and also his essay ‘Fear, Laughter, and Collective Power: The Making of Solidarity at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, August 1980’, pp. 175-194, Jeff Goodwin, Francesca Polletta, James M. Jasper, Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) .