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An anthropological approach to explaining why the Thai military has tried to 'silence' politics, focusing on the emergence of the poor as political actors and the fears generated by this development. The article is based on research into squatter settlements on railway tracks in the provincial capital Khon Kaen demanding land rights (with support from NGO activists), between 2007 and 2017.
This article explores from a Marxist perspective the contributions the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has made over time within a context where the threats the world is facing are increasing. The article concludes by considering the challenges ahead.
Answer to critics during the major campaign to desegregate Birmingham Alabama. President Kennedy intervened to get King released.
Includes chapters on student activism in 1960 and 1971.
Takes Chile as case study of Christian response to torture. The Catholic Church’s Vicaria de la Solidaridad (pp. 264-7) was the major human rights monitoring body in the country, while the more ecumenical Sebastian Acevedo Movement against Torture (pp. 273-7) organized lightning protests to hightlight places or institutions implicated in torture.
Benefits from firsthand research in Western Sahara. For links to other writing by Zunes and Mundy, see http://wsahara.stephenzunes.org.
Collections of essays: Part 1 comprises Turkish experience and viewpoints; Part 2 examines conscientious objection from gender perspectives; Part 3 examines C.O. struggles in different parts of the world and Part 4 looks at conscientious objection and the law.
Study of both feminist and Islamist organizations in Morocco showing how two have influenced each other’s agendas through decades of activism.
Marxist analysis of the political and economic factors leading to a resurgence of national consciousness in the constituent parts of the UK. In a chapter on Ireland, he rejects what he sees as the oversimplified imperialist analysis of Ireland’s situation by Irish nationalists and some fellow Marxists from Connolly to Farrell. Argues the case for an independent Northern Ireland.
Martine Dufour is a member of the Movement for a Non-violent Alternative. She took part in several civil missions to Kosovo between 1993 and 2011. This book relates a pioneering experiment in civil intervention and includes elements of analysis, appreciation and assesment of the Civil Peace Intervention in a post-conflict area.
This paper identifies the impact of rampant sexual harassment on Egypt’s legal culture. As it had been vaguely defined in Egyptian laws and largely condoned by the society and justice system, sexual harassment increased over the years in both the frequency and in the intensity of its violence. As a result, legal initiatives and grassroots movements arose attempting to criminalise sexual harassment and end its social acceptability. With the fall of Mubarak, the human rights movements optimistically continued to call for an anti-sexual harassment law, but due to the continuing political turmoil, the struggle was more arduous than expected. Three years after the uprising, sexual harassment was finally criminalised and efforts to change public attitudes towards it continue, but the will of the state to enforce the law, beyond statements and promises, is yet to be proven.
Feminist legal scholar, writer, teacher, and activist Catharine A. MacKinnon discusses the #MeToo movement with Durba Mitra, professor of women, gender and sexualities studies. They discuss the origins of sexual harassment law and the relationship between the law and social movements. Other topics include the particular vulnerabilities faced by women of colour, immigrant women and trans people, and harassment in international law.
Through detailed analysis of Gandhi's campaigns from 1915 to 1922 the author illuminates the evolution of Gandhi's thinking and strategy. Overy stresses the importance of Gandhi's constructive programme, promoting local empowerment, and its interconnectedness with resistance campaigns against imperial rule.
The article argues that the Hirak is a revolutionary movement that connects with the 1954-62 independence struggle, uniting diverse social groups in a movement seen as 'the People' versus 'the System'. It also combines nationalist themes with the strategy of nonviolent resistance. The analysis draws parallels with 2011 in Tunisia, and notes the attempts to launch a similar nonviolent resistance movement in Algeria in January 2011 were successfully deflected by the regime. It then examines the record of the Boutifleka government over 20 years, which led to the Hirak.
Analysis of a selection of predominantly nonviolent struggles from Russia 1905 to Serbia 2000, arguing against ‘the mythology of violence’. Some of the case studies are standard in books on civil resistance, others – for example the 1990 movement in Mongolia – less familiar. Each chapter has a useful bibliography. The book arose out of a 1999 US documentary television series ‘A Force More Powerful’, now available on DVD, and therefore includes, in the more recent cases, information from interviews.
A clear summary of developments from 1989-1997, that also lays emphasis on the role of popular mobilization and protests.
Personal account by Guardian journalist of Zimbabwe’s politics and people since 1980. Chapters 12-19 (pp. 114-241) cover the rise of the MDC, the debate about the new constitution, resistance and repression, and Chapter 20 describes his own expulsion from the country.
By US journalist in Spain. See chapter 7, ‘The Opposition’, pp. 185-228.
Covers transnational farmer resistance to WTO and other global institutions and high profile global alliances such as the small farmer organization Via Campesina. Case studies include Indonesian forest dwellers chopping down rubber plants to grow rice to eat, and Mexican migrants returning home to transform their communities. Also includes information on early 20th century agrarian movements.
Argues environmental NGOs becoming more visible in Chinese environmental politics and seizing opportunities offered by the media, internet and international NGOs. Author concludes environmental NGOs both sites and agents of democratic change.
A personal account which includes a brief summary of the course of the war and statistics on the scale of draft resistance and desertion.