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This short video shows Bolivian President, Evo Morales announcing the creation of a Defence Cabinet specialised in tackling violence against women and in supporting grassroots efforts. This video situates Bolivia’s move within the wider international context of governments integrating women’s liberation into the executive branch, taking inspiration from countries such as Cuba and Vietnam, which have done the same. In the video, RT producer, Cale Holmes, analyses how, despite an increase in femicide, violence against women and reactionary backlash in Bolivia, the government under Evo Morales was supporting women’s struggle.
This work comprises almost 100 interviews with local coordinators of Polish Women’s Strike (OSK) groups throughout the country designed to reveal the people behind a countrywide network that organized the successful 2016 protests against attempts to tighten the already restrictive abortion law. The authors also explore what drove them to activism and how they understood the concept of an ‘ordinary woman’.
Discusses how, despite having a well-educated female workforce, the high level of employment in China is imbued with patriarchal gender norms.
This brief, but informative, article focuses on the campaign by the Marshall Islands to arraign the UK before the International Court of Justice for failure to fulfill its legal and moral obligations under Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty: to negotiate for nuclear disarmament. Barron notes that the 70,000 inhabitants of the Marshall Islands suffered the effects of 67 US nuclear weapons tests from 1946-58, and as a UN Trust Territory only achieved independence from the US in 1990.
Highlights how Russian authorities are conscripting men in occupied Crimea to serve in the Russian armed forces, although humanitarian law explicitly forbids Russia to compel Crimean residents to serve in Russian forces.
Examines protest camps as key tactic of movements from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street; includes Red Shirts in Thailand and teachers in Oaxaca.
Argues Occupy Wall Street was ‘less an organized effective movement’ than a dramatic performance.
Reviews the principal interpretations of the causes of conflict in Northern Ireland, including various Nationalist, Unionist and Marxist accounts, and proposed solutions. Concludes that both the traditional nationalist and traditional unionist interpretations had lost their popularity over the previous 20 years to be replaced by one prioritizing internal causes. Points also to the serious disagreements among Marxist commentators but acknowledges the major contribution a number of them, including McCann, Farrell, Bew, Gibbon and Patterson, have made to the literature, Suggests a new paradigm may be needed which, among other things, would take account of the contrast between different parts of Northern Ireland where areas only a few miles apart can differ enormously ‘in religious mix, in economic circumstances, in the level of violence, in political attitudes.’
This study of the #EndSARS protests that shook Nigeria in October and November 2020 considers how far they can be related to more violent acts of insurgency such as Boko Haram. The study adopts a historical framework and draws on qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore how endemic governmental corruption and 'the re-enslavement and recolonization' of citizens' by political leaders has led to youth rebellion. The authors conclude that protest and violent forms of revolt will not cease until the deep-seated causes are tackled.
See also: Oloyede, F. and A.A. Elega, (2019) 'Exploring Hashtag Activism in Nigeria. A Case of #EndSARS Campaign'. Conference Proceedings: 5th in Communication and Media Studies (CRPC 2018) Famagusta. Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, pp. 1-7.
Hannah Arendt presented her ideas about civil disobedience at a symposium of the New York Bar Association in 1970, and posed as the central question whether the law was dead. This article explains Arendt's 'republican' philosophy and distinguishes it from the liberal approaches of Rawls and Habermas, and from democrats like Etienne Balibar, before discussing in some detail Arendt's work On Revolution.
This article analyses the #EndRapeCulture campaign in South Africa, where women students took to the streets in 2016 to protest against the pervasive normalisation of sexual violence on university campuses. Some participated topless and brandished sjamboks (whips) to show their resentment and anger at the prevailing sexual violence. The article looks at the role of digital media in circulating slogans around the campaign and asks the question whether these protests can be compared with SlutWalks or FEMEN.
The article examines how far in the US consuming green products is linked to a desire to alter corporate practices that lead to climate change. It finds that concern about global warming and belief in consumer activism does predict ‘green purchasing, behaviour and opinion leadership’. The authors note the role of communications in promoting both concern about global warming and belief in consumer activism.
See also Laurence, Bill, ‘Boycotts are a crucial weapon to fight environment-harming firms’, The Conversation, 6 April 2014. https://theconversation.com/boycotts-are-a-crucial-weapon-to-fight-environment-harming-firms-25267
This open access article by academics at the American University in Dubai studies coverage of the 2019-20 protests and confirms that the ideological slant of the two TV stations (the pro-government OTV and the anti-government MTV) influenced their depiction of the protest movement. It begins by summarizing the causes and nature of the movement and comments on Lebanese people's often unfavourable attitudes to international media coverage of the demonstrations.
Discusses US involvement and assesses the ‘Serbian factor’ in diffusing strategic ideas. See also: Cory Welt, Georgia’s Rose Revolution: From Regime Weakness to Regime collapse, 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. 155-188 .
See especially Suu Kyi’s writings on the democracy struggle in ‘Part II’, pp. 167-237, and essays by Josef Silverstein. ‘Aung San Suu Kyi: Is she Burma’s woman of destiny?’, pp. 267-83 and Philip Kreager, ‘Aung San Suu Kyi and the peaceful struggle for human rights in Burma’, pp. 284-325.
See also: Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Alan Clements, London, Penguin, 1997 , pp. 301 , with contributions by U Kyi Maung and U Tin Oo, London, Penguin, 1997, pp. 301.
Documents impact of state terror on society in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay from 1950s to 1980s, and the emergence of resistance in various sectors.