There's a very different idea of politics and democracy forming in my head
There's a very different idea of politics and democracy forming in my head than the one in the school textbooks. Read more from our You Tell Us bloggers on the topic of apathy in Europe.It's cold...
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The Egyptian counter revolution: the Gulf connection
Since Egypt, as a rentier state, can ignore popular demands and rely on coercion, continuous financial support from Arab states, similar to international financial support, will only act as insulation...
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The roots and grassroots of the Syrian revolution (Part 1 of 4)
In a series commemorating the uprising's third anniversary, Syrian revolutionary activist Joseph Daher answers key questions still circulating in the western digital commons. In this first part he...
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Film review: First to Fall
The author reviews a documentary film shot over an 8-month period about two friends who abandon life in Canada to return to their home country, Libya, to fight in the revolution against Gaddafi’s...
View ArticleJoint enterprise: no one should be punished for a crime they did not commit
Joint enterprise laws allow people to be convicted for crimes they didn't themselves commit, and are leading to too many miscarriages of justice.Like most of the UK population I had never heard of the...
View ArticleSerious concerns emerge over joint enterprise laws
Joint enterprise laws allow groups to be collectively convicted of a crime, including people who didn't commit it. New evidence compiled by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism shows its...
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Bosnia-Herzegovina: protests, problems and solutions
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the protests and plenums have been the best thing people have witnessed since the end of armed hostilities in 1995. What’s next? Can democracy be restored?Nearly twenty years...
View ArticleSyria: Kessab's battle and Armenians' history
The takeover by anti-Damascus rebels of an Armenian village in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey, has led to the evacuation of many of its inhabitants. It has also triggered a propaganda war,...
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The unspoken atrocity of standardized education
As the corporate takeover of public education proceeds in the US and other countries, schools cease to be training grounds for social transformation. We are not just fighting for our children, but for...
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The new Russian power bloc
A quarter century after Mikhail Gorbachev supervised the collapse of Europe’s cold-war division, a world of new dividing lines is emerging—with Vladimir Putin playing an active part in inscribing...
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Don't believe Cameron's hype - the Welsh NHS has much to teach the English
Cameron this week labelled the Welsh NHS 'a scandal', and some Blairites have echoed him. But Wales is 'doing more with less' more effectively than the English NHS - and without privatisation. Image:...
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Turkey’s election failings may lead to yet another legitimacy crisis for Erdoğan
In line with the AKP government’s rudimentary understanding of “democracy” that considers it synonymous with elections, Erdoğan has reiterated countless times that the solution to all problems,...
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Sorting out the opposition in Samara
People protesting against the Russian annexation of Crimea in the Russian city of Samara have been subjected to harassment and death threats from ultra-nationalist thugs – a sign of things to come?On 2...
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Sex workers in democratic societies
While there are certainly gendered imbalances in the actual structures of current sex markets, these imbalances are created, reinforced and strengthened not by sex work itself but by laws criminalizing...
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The roots and grassroots of the Syrian revolution (Part 3 of 4)
Dominant narratives on Syria simplify it to a struggle between a dictatorship vs Islamic extremists, with Syrians included only as passive, voiceless, victims. In Part 3, Syrians are re-introduced as a...
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Creating a culture of participation
As part of our series of interviews with practitioners and activists, Participation Now researcher Hilde C. Stephansen spoke to Mikey Weinkove of The People Speak, an artists’ collective that creates...
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Facing the challenge of elections in Afghanistan
War-torn Afghanistan does not possess a civil registry. It therefore lacks reliable statistics. Given widespread corruption, the absence of an identification system and the high security risk of...
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Military ambition in Indonesia's presidential politics
Indonesian society must decide whether democratic reforms will continue to strengthen civilian governance in the face of persistant interference from the nation's military in the upcoming presidential...
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The roots and grassroots of the Syrian revolution (Part 4 of 4)
The fronts of the revolution are many and overlapping, from patriarchy to Arab chauvinism. Despite harsh conditions, mass participation in the revolutionary process is still ongoing.'Enemies are...
View ArticleIn Turkey's political contest, rule of the law is the real loser
The events of the past three months threw a stark light on the way the AKP government and Gülenists used the justice system in the past for common political ends. The result has been a clear erosion of...
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