The Rights of Non-Human Animals

With our May posting, Inspire Solutions puts a focus on an important issue that we have not addressed until now – the horrific, yet avoidable, abuse inflicted daily on non-human beings. While many have argued that the disregard of the suffering of other sentient beings is a fundamental ethical wrong and argued convincingly for the […]

Continue Reading 0

Six Reasons Why Protest Is So Important for Democracy

In this short introduction to this month’s postings, British philosopher Richard Norman asks why protest is so fundamental for human rights and democratic society. The two articles that follow discuss two different protest movements. The first began exactly forty-one years ago when 14 mothers met in a central square to ask their country’s military dictatorship […]

Continue Reading 0

Protest in the Black Lives Matter Movement: An Interview with Activist and Lawyer Justin Hansford

As part of OpenDemcracy’s Right to Protest series, Anna Norman interviews activist and lawyer Justin Hansford on the frustration and anger that has given rise to Black Lives Matter, the cultural shifts that are taking place as a result, and the need for protests that disrupt the status quo. ********** Anna Norman (AN): Can you […]

Continue Reading 0

Why Don’t Men Care?

Achieving gender equality and ending violence against women requires a de-gendering of societal roles and a significant revaluing of those considered feminine. As feminist philosopher Sara Ruddick put it, “mothering is potentially work for men and women.” In this article, Gary Barker, argues as much, suggesting that what makes us all human is caregiving. Starting with […]

Continue Reading 0

Racism and the Persistence of Scientific Myth

In this important article, Eliza Wood reminds us of the deep roots that the myths of white racial superiority have in western society, legitimized over centuries by a self-serving science seeking to justify slavery and colonialism. While these ideas have been completely rejected by modern science, they continue to resonate today, and it seems lately […]

Continue Reading 0

The nuclear-weapons-ban thing is not going away, prime minister

In an otherwise grim international landscape, this July’s treaty  to ban the development, testing, possession and use of nuclear weapons,  agreed to by 122 states —  more than two-thirds of UN members, was a positive development. After more than a decade of work, a campaign uniting civil society and concerned governments brought about this breakthrough. While no […]

Continue Reading 0

The Dangers of Political Sainthood

In this timely piece, Harry Blain cautions us from putting too much faith in the “great leader.” Not only does this encourage collective denial and individual cynicism when, as with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, they let us down, but this all too common tendency ignores the thousands upon thousands of ordinary […]

Continue Reading 0

What an Eating Disorder Really Looks Like

In this latest contribution to our Silenced Voices series, Dawson Arts and Culture student Florencia Vallejo Ortiz discusses her struggle with “Ana,” in an effort to break the stigma that surrounds this serious mental illness and show that recovery is possible. TRIGGER WARNING: an image in this post may be disturbing. ********** What do you […]

Continue Reading 1

A Tale of Two Cities: Rio de Janeiro´s Violence

Isabella Smull begins with a devastating statistic: 80% of Rio de Janeiro’s residents believe they are at risk of being murdered in the next twelve months. Yet, as she adds, not all Brazilians experience violence equally. Roughly half of all homicides occur in just two percent of the city´s street blocks, an area of devastating poverty. Isabella’s […]

Continue Reading 0

Ten Reflections Inspired by the Rohingya Crisis

Building social change inherently asks that we speak truth to power. Human rights lawyer  and founder of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, Amal de Chickera, reveals certain truths about the way in which power shapes our responses to humanitarian crises, resulting in the international community’s consistent failure to protect those in the most desperate […]

Continue Reading 0

Peace Writ Large

It is difficult to have faith in the potential of conflict-ridden societies to build sustainable peace. Not only do one half of peace agreements collapse quickly, but the global resources sustaining military actions far exceeds those for peacebuilding. In 2016, just over 0.5% of the $1.72 trillion spent globally on military expenditures went to finance […]

Continue Reading 0

When the Person You Love Is Violent

In this inaugural posting of Inspire Solutions’ new series, Silenced Voices, Dawson Humanities professor Mariam Sambe interviews a former student, who wants to break the silences about abusive relationships. With courage and honesty, Dawson Graduate Rhea Giuliana speaks about how the relationship began, why she stayed, and how she found the strength to leave. ********** […]

Continue Reading 0

Why Artistic Activism?

Our first post of the new academic year once again puts the focus on nonviolent forms of resistance, and the need for activists (and indeed educators) to create opportunities that can disrupt people’s pre-existing ideas and values. For this, people must be moved emotionally, and artist and activist Rebecca Bray argues that this can best […]

Continue Reading 0

An Introduction to Our Topic: Resistance (2)

A serious consideration of nonviolent resistance requires us to confront both practical and conceptual issues. While the practice goes back at least to the 4th century B.C.E., its history and successes remain largely unrecognized. Given our current normalization of violence, we tend to see every nonviolent movement that fails as confirmation of the inherent limitations […]

Continue Reading 0

What Makes Nonviolent Movements Explode?

With a focus on the Occupy Movement, authors and activists Mark Engler and Paul Engler, provide us with a real understanding of how nonviolent movements succeed. The key is the powerful combination of sacrifice and disruption, something that only rare groups “combine in thoughtful and creative ways.” But when they do, the movement can explode […]

Continue Reading 0

Five Successful Campaigners Share their Secrets

Activist Ben Phillips interviews the leaders of five successful but quite different nonviolent movements, including the campaigns to end South African Apartheid, save Kenya’s forests and end the debt crisis in developing countries. He learns much that is not taught in social science classrooms. **********  When I was young I got involved in campaigns because […]

Continue Reading 0

Germaine Tillion, une leçon de vie dont on peut s’inspirer

In this very important contribution, Dawson College Professor Djemaa Maazouzi introduces us to Germaine Tillion, an anthropologist and ethnologist, revered by many as the “conscience of 20th century France,” whose life and work was driven by her moral outrage over human suffering. In the 1930s, she opposed the racist ideologies spreading through Europe and the […]

Continue Reading 0

Rediscovering Nonviolence in the Vatican

All of the world’s major religions have opposed the taking of human life, but when religions gain political power, the story becomes much more ambivalent, particularly with respect to the acceptance of warfare. Early Christianity expressed a strong commitment to pacifism and opposed Christian participation in war; this shifted once Christianity became the official Church […]

Continue Reading 0

Humor but Not Humiliation

Gandhi believed that the victim’s suffering could awaken the conscience of an oppressor. This process of conversion has been called moral jiu-jitsu, whereby the unexpected refusal to respond with violence makes the perpetrator lose their moral balance. While many, including Gandhi, have recognized that this process can take time, and often happens by way of […]

Continue Reading 0

Weapons of Mass Democracy

In this article, originally published in September 2009, Stephen Zunes reveals how veterans of successful nonviolent movements are spreading their knowledge to activists around the world, who are increasingly adopting nonviolent action to overthrow dictatorial regimes or foreign occupiers.  As he emphasizes, though, successful nonviolent revolutions are homegrown affairs that involve a large cross-section of the population, […]

Continue Reading 0

Reclaiming Nonviolent History

Many people’s histories recount armed struggles and violent insurrections, but often forgotten are the central roles played by ordinary people in nonviolent action. How many of us have heard of the Palestinian Gandhis and Kings, or the fact that most of the original 13 colonies of the US had achieved de facto independence a year […]

Continue Reading 0

Civil Resistance and the Language of Power

How can nonviolent movements mobilize people to resist injustice, even to the point where their actions put them in personal jeopardy? For Jack Duvall, the answer lies in using the power of language to awaken and sustain a people’s passions, but not through shallow appeals to trigger our emotions, as is popular today, but rather with a call […]

Continue Reading 1

The Trifecta of Civil Resistance: Unity, Planning, Discipline

It is often argued that the success of nonviolent movements is largely determined by the exceptional circumstances in which each movement operated. This conclusion downplays the  skills and agency of those involved, due perhaps, as Hardy Merriman suggests, to the fact that people doubt or do not know the premise on which nonviolent action is based—that […]

Continue Reading 0

The Pacifist Dilemma: Women Peacemakers’ Responses to Islamic State

In American scholar Theodore Roszak’s wonderful fictional debate between Ghandi and Churchill, the British Prime Minister challenges Gandhi’s commitment to nonviolence by asking him what one is to do when the enemy is at the gate. Gandhi’s response does not waver: the enemy was “the product of a long catalogue of vengeful and selfish actions” […]

Continue Reading 1

The Syrian Resistance: A Tale of Two Struggles

Maciej Bartkowski and Mohja Kahf suggest that it is a tragedy of history when so many people regardless of sect, ethnicity, religion, and gender join in nonviolent resistance to demand freedom for all, and achieve so much with so little during such a brief time, only to have their accomplishments go largely unrecognized, and their […]

Continue Reading 1

Defeating ISIS through Civil Resistance?

Maria Stephan of the United States Institute of Peace looks at the potential of using nonviolent resistance against ISIS.  This article, written in July of this year, picks up from where “The Pacifist Dilemma” ends by addressing how organized nonviolent civilian action could be effective in disrupting and denying the key sources of power on […]

Continue Reading 0

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes