Political activism / Political engagement Books

Book SynopsisThe site of Recife's Brasília Teimosa favela emerged as a flash point of economic and political interests in the 1930s and the scene of subsequent strife into the 1980s. The name of this district is a contemptuous allusion to the new capital of Brazil, with its forward-thinking planning policies and urban design, in stark contrast to the favela. This concise account unearths events surfacing through periods of revolution, dictatorship, populism, Cuban Communism, the 1964 military coup d'etat and crackdown to the amplified reverberation of civil society voices and engagement decades later. Shifting ideologies and jolting transitions between regimes directly affected what occurred on this 110-acre parcel of urban land. Between 1934 and 1984 competing groups and individuals came to covet this space because of its strategic location and political consequence. Brasília Teimosa is about the politics of ouster and the power of resistance. What took place there still resonates in squatter settlements throughout Brazil; deplorable living conditions prevalent in favelas are the result of deprivation of access to market resources. This work examines the interactions between the state and neighbourhood associations regarding the allocation of public goods and services in the context of urban resources and their system of supply. In particular it focuses on the political struggles of shanty residents of Brasília Teimosa that are pertinent to the provision of and access to urban land tenure. Control and use of public lands have functioned as instruments of the state to pursue political projects in coalition with private real estate partners, to undermine the strength of opposing factions, or to seal populist pacts with the urban poor who, as illegal occupants of public land, are locked into a dependency relationship with the state. As will be shown, the residents of Brasília Teimosa discovered and exploited "space" for political manoeuvres in order to secure permanence on a centrally located, publicly-owned site.

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Book SynopsisValencia has traditionally been seen as somewhat exceptional within Spain: a prosperous, agricultural export-oriented economy dominated by small- and medium-sized farmers. This tranquil image of Levante feliz contrasts sharply with those of rebellious, proletarian Barcelona, or impoverished, feudal Andalusia, with which the CNT and the Spanish anarchist movement is most closely associated. However, this new study shows that Valencia in the 1920s and 1930s was anything but tranquil. The vertiginous growth of the CNT between 1918 and 1920 led to the province being a major target of government repression. The situation there was considered by one Interior Minister as more worrying than in Barcelona. Later, in the 1930s, urban Valencia became the focus of a fierce struggle between hard-line revolutionaries linked to the anarchist FAI and more moderate trade unions, whilst numerous local insurrections broke out in rural areas of the province. Eventually, these two factions would form an uneasy truce in time to lead the Valencian left in the battle to overcome the military coup of July 1936 and secure this vital economic region for the Republican side. In providing the first English-language study of this important movement, Dr Purkiss fills a significant gap in the historiography of the Spanish left. Drawing on a wide range of previously underused primary sources, he shows that not only was Valencia a hugely important source of anarchist support, but that the local movement was far more radical than has previously been thought. He thus provides a vital insight into the origins of the revolutionary and anti-clerical violence which swept the province in the early months of Civil War, introducing us to the 'expropriators' and 'men of action' whose activities terrified bourgeois Valencia in the 1930s. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Valencian Politics, Society & Economy at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century; The Rise of the CNT in Valencia, 1918-1920; Anarchist Violence, the Grupos & Repression, 1920-1923; Culture, Ideology, & Conspiracy: The Battle for Control of the CNT; The Re-organisation of the CNT, 1930-1932: Consolidation & Conflict; 'Revolutionary Gymnastics', Expropriations & the Split Within the CNT; The Fascist Danger & the Search for Working-class Unity, 1934--1936; Conclusion; Index.

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Book SynopsisPoet and anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus recorded a series of tapes in the 1970s which have been edited and annotated by Bernth Lindfors to give valuable insights into Brutus's life and works. Dennis Brutus (1924-2009) is known internationally as a South African poet, anti-apartheid activist and campaigner for human rights and the release of political prisoners. His literary works include Sirens Knuckles Boots (1963), Letters to Martha, and Other Poems from a South African Prison (1968), A Simple Lust (1973), and Stubborn Hope (1978). When Dennis Brutus was a Visiting Professor at The University of Texas at Austin in 1974-75, he recorded on tape a series of reflections on his life and career. In addition, he frequently responded to questions about his poetry and political activities put to him by students and faculty in formal and informal interviews that were also captured on tape. Transcripts of a selection of these tapes, as well as reprints of two interviews recorded earlier, are reproduced here in order to put on record fragments of the autobiography of a remarkable man who lived in extraordinary times and managed to leave his mark on the land and literature of South Africa. Brutus was an effective anti-apartheid campaigner who succeeded in getting South Africa excluded from the Olympics. His opposition to racial discrimination in sports led to his arrest, banning, and imprisonment on Robben Island. Upon release, he left South Africa and lived most of the rest of his life in exile, where he continued his political work and simultaneously earned an international reputation as a poet who often sang of his love for his country. The tapes are edited by Bernth Lindfors who has added an Introduction and a transcript of a 1970 interview as well as other transcripts of lectures and discussions. Bernth Lindfors is Professor Emeritus of English and African Literatures, The University of Texas at Austin, and founding editor of Research in AfricanLiteratures. He has written and edited numerous books on African literature, including Folklore in Nigerian Literature (1973), Popular Literatures in Africa (1991), Africans on Stage (1999), Early Soyinka (2008), and Early Achebe (2009).Trade ReviewAn exceptionally well-edited volume, greatly enriched by a comprehensive index and by succinct footnotes that offer essential biographical details. * JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN LITERATURE ASSOCIATION *An important and useful publication. [...] Brutus emerges here as modest and self-critical, courageous and articulate, convinced of the need for political commitment and artistic integrity. * WASAFIRI *This collection valuably fills out our picture of Dennis Brutus. [...] Bernth Lindfors is to be commended for producing this posthumous tribute to one of South Africa's most significant writer-activists. * RESEARCH IN AFRICAN LITERATURES *[A] fascinating and highly readable volume. [Brutus'] fascinating account is greatly enriched by editor Lindfors who meticulously provides a succinctly footnoted biographical sketch of every individual identified in the story. * JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY *A vivid and moving portrait of a man who contributed significantly, through his actions and words, to the fight against apartheid. [It] is a deeply informative and very personal portrait of both the public and private man. * LEEDS AFRICAN STUDIES BULLETIN *Table of ContentsIntroduction by the Editor - Part I: Life Recollections Family Background Attempt to Escape (Tapes 1, 2 and 3) Robben Island Interlude Notes on My Activities Notes on My Life - Part II: Writings Somehow Tenderness Survives Talking with Students Reviewing a Review On My Poetry On Literature and Commitment

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the emergence and development of SADTU's professional unionism and explores its implications for teachers and the delivery of quality education in the context of SADTU's relationship with the state and the governing party, specifically the union's location within the ANC-led Tripartite Alliance.It highlights SADTU's role in the struggle for democracy, including its crusade for recognition as a non-racial union and its involvement in the development of post-apartheid education policy. However, despite its centrality in the education struggles of the past, SADTU's continued role and relevance in the development of the education system have become the subject of intense debate in the public domain, as it is seen as more focused on unionism and the political battles in the Alliance than on furthering teacher professionalism. This volume explores how and why this has come about, and offers insights that would enable SADTU to reclaim its role and relevance in reimagining the future of education in South Africa in response to the socio-economic development challenges that confront the country in the twenty-first century.Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements Abbreviations Contributors Introduction Logan Govender and Michael Cross 1. SADTU and the Origins of Professional Unionism, 1976–1995 27 — Ihron Rensburg 2. The Influence of COSATU on the Evolution and Development of SADTU: An Insider's Perspective — Khetsi Lehoko 3. Teacher Unions and Policy-Making in South Africa: Exclusion, Contestation and Collaboration — Logan Govender and Michael Cross 4. Organisational Development and Efficiency: Key Ingredients for Professional Unionism — Logan Govender 5. Dilemmas of Unionism and Professionalism in the Promotion of Teacher Accountability — Michael Cross and Sibonokuhle Ndlovu 6. Leaders, Leadership and Change in SADTU — Michael Cross and David Matsepe 7. SADTU's Future Role in the South African Education Landscape — Ahmed Essop Conclusion — Michael Cross and Logan Govender Index

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Book SynopsisThis book focuses on the potential and possibilities for socially innovative responses to the climate emergency at the local scale. Climate change has intensified the need for communities to find creative and meaningful ways to address the sustainability of their environments. The authors focus on the creative and collaborative ways local- scale climate action reflects the extra-ordinary measures taken by ordinary people. This includes critical engagement with the ways in which novel social practices and partnerships emerge between people, organisations, institutions, governance arrangements and eco-systems. The book successfully highlights the transformative power of socially innovative activities and initiatives in response to the climate crisis; and critically explores how different individuals and groups undertake climate action as ‘quiet activism’ – the embodied acts of collective disruption, subversion, creativity and care at the local scale.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Addressing the climate emergency at the local scale.- Chapter 2: Building and bridging the knowledge base.- Chapter 3: Bringing missing actors to the table.- Chapter 4: Walking together with care.- Chapter 5: Realising transformative potential.- Chapter 6: Making and breaking connections.- Chapter 7: Quiet activism in climate change.

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Book SynopsisThis book serves as an introduction to the extraordinary diversity of women’s activism. Paula Bartley's original research is supported by a range of writing to provide a powerful impression of the actions taken by groups of women from across the social and political spectrum, making the book invaluable to both students and interested readers. These women set out to make a difference to their locality, their country and sometimes the world. The story of women’s activism embodies stimulating accounts of progress and reversals, of commitment and uncertainty, of competing rights and challenging wrongs. The story of women’s activism is not tidy or well-ordered. It is messy and unorthodox. And full of surprises.Trade Review“The book offers considerable geographical diversity with Bartley assessing the presence and impact of women’s activism within the home nations, as well as highlighting the different economic contexts across England. … Women’s Activism in Twentieth-Century Britain is a valuable work in its surveying of the century from the perspective of not only those women who were nationally significant to political developments, but also the organisations that worked at grassroots, local levels to change the position of women in society.” (Amy Longmuir, Women's History Review, July 27, 2023)“Women's Activism is an accessible and engaging read and makes an important contribution to the historiography. It is essential reading for students, academics and general readers interested in modern British women's history.” (Lisa Berry-Waite, Gender & History, June 20, 2023)“This book will, I am sure, become a core textbook for students, researchers, teachers, and general readers interested in twentieth-century British Women’s History and Politics. This will be facilitated by Women’s Activism in the Twentieth Century having been produced in both paperback and electronic form at a price which is accessible.” (Maggie Andrews, 20th Century British History, February 7, 2023)“I read Women’s Activism in Twentieth Century Britain as an activist who believes strongly in telling my history – and that of my community – and as a socialist, feminist and trade unionist. It is an ambitious book which sometimes made me feel overwhelmed with the inclusion of so much history. … This is so important-as is this book-as Paula concludes ‘Without new research and these fresh interpretations, there is a real danger that history itself-not just the people in the past-will perish.’” (lipsticksocialist.wordpress.com, May 9, 2022)Table of Contents1. Introduction: Themes and Debates.2. A New Age: 1900–1914.3. The Home Front: 1914–1918.4. The Not-So-Roaring Twenties: 1918–1929.5. The Hungry Thirties: 1930–1939.6. The Second World War: 1939–1945.7. The Post-War World: 1945–1960.8. The Less-Than-Swinging Sixties: 1960–1970.9. The Selfish Seventies?: 1970–1979.10. Margaret Thatcher’s Age and After: 1979–2000.11. Conclusion: Change and Continuities.

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Book SynopsisAlthough grassroots social movements are an important force of social and political change, they quite often fail to achieve their lofty goals. Similarly, the inability of research to systematically explain the impact of such movements stands in sharp contrast to their emotional appeal. "Protest and Opportunities" attempts to rejuvenate current scholarship by developing a comprehensive theory of social movements and political change. In addition to reviewing the existing literature on the political outcomes of social movements, this volume analyzes the examples of the American civil rights movement and anti-nuclear energy efforts in eighteen countries to forge a new understanding of their momentous impact.

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Book Synopsis* First book on gay identity and queer activism in the PRC examined from a cultural studies perspective. * An interdisciplinary project that combines historical and critical analysis of queer cultural texts and ethnographic studies of queer public culture in urban China. * Offers keen insights on identity, power and governmentality in China. This very timely, well-written and insightful exploration of gay identity and queer activism in the People's Republic of China today is more than a study of `queer China' through the lens of male homosexuality; it also examines identity, power and governmentality in contemporary China, as shaped by China's historical conditions and contemporary situations. This book offers in-depth analysis of recent queer history and contemporary cultural texts, including the processes by which queer theory and activism was introduced and received in the PRC, the transformation of Shanghai's queer spaces, leading queer filmmaker Cui Zi'en life and works, and personal diaries written by gay men receiving conversion therapies. It also presents rich ethnographic data gained from fieldwork conducted in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou's urban gay communities and documents queer public cultural events such as the Shanghai LGBT Pride, the Beijing Queer Film Festival, the China Queer Film Festival Tour, as well as a clash between cruising gay men and the police over the use of public space in the People's Park, Guangzhou. This book offers a queer Marxist analysis of sexual identity and social movements in contemporary China, where ideological negotiations between socialism and neoliberalism are constantly played out in the formation of public cultures and intimate spheres. In doing so, it critically assesses the role of Marxism and China's socialist legacies in shaping sexual identity, queer popular culture and political activism. Although the first of its kind from a cultural studies perspective, this interdisciplinary study speaks to scholars working in disparate fields including anthropology, sociology, media studies, film studies, political theory, and Asian Studies.

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Book SynopsisOffering important new understandings of the Indonesian independence struggle, this fine-grained study explores the international activities in the capitals of interwar Europe of the Perhimpoenan Indonesia (PI), an Indonesian nationalist student organisation based in the Netherlands. Operating in a vibrant political environment, the PI interacted with different anticolonial movements in cities across Europe. Focusing on the period between 1917 and 1931, the book follows the personal journeys of different students to cities such as Zurich, Paris, Brussels and Berlin as they established contacts, joined associations and attended international conferences. Here, the complex reality of movement building is examined, going beyond superficial suggestions of contact and collaboration. The study shows that the activities of the PI reverberated in the Indonesian political landscape, where the new collaborations in Europe were followed with great interest. In this way, the book offers new findings for multiple audiences - Indonesianists and scholars of anticolonial resistance alike. However, it also demonstrates that the political awakening of Indonesian elites should be understood not just as an indigenous response to Dutch rule but also as part of global anticolonial movements and struggles.Trade ReviewKlaas Stutje’s monograph is a pioneering contribution to global history from below. It interprets the origins of Indonesian nationalism and anti-colonialism in a radically new way. Stutje shows that Indonesian anticolonial activists in Europe were part of an emerging global network, and deliberately connected to members of other anticolonial movements. This highly original book may be the beginning of a new approach to the study of anticolonialism worldwide. (Marcel van der Linden, University of Amsterdam)

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Book SynopsisThis is the first comprehensive account of the multifaceted processes of gendered transformation that took place in Myanmar between 2011 and 2021, and which continues to shape events today. The period began with the end of direct military rule and the transition to a hybrid, semi-democratic regime, precipitating far-reaching political, economic and social changes across Myanmar. To date, the gendered dynamics and effects of this transition have not yet received sustained scholarly attention. Remedying this gap, this book provides a much-needed historical corrective through a careful, nuanced analysis of the gendered dynamics of transitional politics, institutions and policymaking; feminist resistance, mobilization, and movement building; and their effects on labor, land, and everyday lives. Although the February 2021 military coup brought an end to this decade of experimentation and transition, in the richness of its analysis and detail, the book offers a deeper understanding of the current political situation in Myanmar. The gendered changes that the transition brought about have shaped both the current configuration of masculinized, military dictatorship, as well as the unprecedented role played by women in resistance to military rule after the 2021 coup. This analysis of the gendered dynamics and effects of the recent decade of political transition in Myanmar is therefore critical for understanding current events, as well as the ways in which Myanmar’s political landscape might continue to be reshaped.

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Book SynopsisThis innovative volume is the first systematic study of civil society elites in Southeast Asia (and indeed anywhere in the world). Spanning two previously separate areas of research – civil society and elites – it sheds new light on power inequalities within and beyond civil society, identifies different types of elite formation and elite interaction within and beyond civil society, and traces interactions and integration with elite groups from party politics, the state, and the business sector. This tightly edited volume, produced by a research team ranging from senior scholars to promising younger academics, analyses how such processes are influenced by reliance on foreign funding and explores how they play out in two settings – where the political space for civil society is generally shrinking (Cambodia) and where it is relatively expanding (Indonesia). However, the volume offers more than a rethinking of civil society in Cambodia and Indonesia; it looks beyond. It thus challenges a view of civil society entities as relatively isolated from the state and from political and economic society, revealing power relations that link them. Suggesting a new direction for civil society research, the book will be of great interest to the many researchers working on civil society, elites and contemporary Southeast Asian politics as well as those engaged in other areas of society in Cambodia and Indonesia. Policymakers, donors and not least civil society activists themselves will find the volume highly relevant to their work.

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Book SynopsisThis book brings together writing from activists and scholars that examine leftist and decolonial forms of resistance that have emerged from Hong Kong’s contemporary era of protests. Practices such as labor unionism, police abolition, land justice struggles, and other radical expressions of self-governance may not explicitly operate under the banners of leftism and decoloniality. Nevertheless, examining them within these frameworks uncovers historical, transnational, and prefigurative sightlines that can help to contextualize and interpret their impact for Hong Kong’s political future. This collection offers insights not only into Hong Kong's local struggles, but their interconnectedness with global movements as the city remains on the frontlines of international politics.Table of ContentsPart I. Hong Kong Internationalism.- Part II. Strategies Toward and Against the State.- Part III. Hongkongers.

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Book SynopsisThis book reflects on the role of social media in the past two decades in Southeast Asia. It traces the emergence of social media discourse in Southeast Asia, and its potential as a “liberation technology” in both democratizing and authoritarian states. It explains the growing decline in internet freedom and increasingly repressive and manipulative use of social media tools by governments, and argues that social media is now an essential platform for control. The contributors detail the increasing role of “disinformation” and “fake news” production in Southeast Asia, and how national governments are creating laws which attempt to address this trend, but which often exacerbate the situation of state control.From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation explores three main questions: How did social media begin as a vibrant space for grassroots activism to becoming a tool for disinformation? Who were the main actors in this transition: governments, citizens or the platforms themselves? Can reformists “reclaim” the digital public sphere? And if so, how?

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