Radical spaces: New Zealand's resistance bookshops, 1969-1977

<p>‘Radical Spaces’ explores the Resistance Bookshops and their place within the culture of protest and radical politics in New Zealand between 1969 and 1977. The bookshops, which were set up by activists in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch aimed to raise consciousness about political issues by selling political and countercultural texts which had limited availability in New Zealand. These ‘radical spaces’ of the 1970s are closely examined, looking at specific political campaigns, the interconnections between the groups and individuals involved, and the role that the Resistance Bookshops played in supporting the radical political momentum that flourished in New Zealand from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. For the Resistance Bookshops, distributing texts was part of the political process, it was recognised that there was power in ideas and print was a leading medium for which to circulate them. This thesis examines the role of print as a key part in political mobilisation. All radical political groups whether ‘Old Left’, ‘New Left’, feminist or anarchist used print to educate, communicate and persuade people to participate in street politics and the wider radical culture that was emerging in New Zealand during this period. The Resistance Bookshops provided a bridge between political groups and the printed material that helped shape the ideas behind individual campaigns. These spaces were instrumental in the dissemination of radical ideas and are important expressions of a ‘movement’ which placed prime importance on education as a political tool.</p>

Radical spaces: New Zealand's resistance bookshops, 1969-1977

<p>‘Radical Spaces’ explores the Resistance Bookshops and their place within the culture of protest and radical politics in New Zealand between 1969 and 1977. The bookshops, which were set up by activists in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch aimed to raise consciousness about political issues by selling political and countercultural texts which had limited availability in New Zealand. These ‘radical spaces’ of the 1970s are closely examined, looking at specific political campaigns, the interconnections between the groups and individuals involved, and the role that the Resistance Bookshops played in supporting the radical political momentum that flourished in New Zealand from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. For the Resistance Bookshops, distributing texts was part of the political process, it was recognised that there was power in ideas and print was a leading medium for which to circulate them. This thesis examines the role of print as a key part in political mobilisation. All radical political groups whether ‘Old Left’, ‘New Left’, feminist or anarchist used print to educate, communicate and persuade people to participate in street politics and the wider radical culture that was emerging in New Zealand during this period. The Resistance Bookshops provided a bridge between political groups and the printed material that helped shape the ideas behind individual campaigns. These spaces were instrumental in the dissemination of radical ideas and are important expressions of a ‘movement’ which placed prime importance on education as a political tool.</p>

The Way to Solve the Hong Kong Problem——from the Perspective of Educational Reform

The civic education in Hong Kong schools is not only valued and successful, but also controversial. In the process of implementing “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong, especially in recent years, some new situations and new problems have emerged, a series of fierce social movements have continuously erupted, and some social and political disputes have continuously emerged. some Hong Kong students in citizens’ political participation has gradually turned out to be the object of the “street politics” endures, even turned into ‘thugs’, Hong Kong, triggered a strong concern of the whole society. In order to strive for certain demands, these students have shown themselves to the public with outrageous, fanatical and even extreme actions, which run counter to the goal and purpose of Hong Kong’s civic education and have also been suspected of crimes. Faced with the uncontrollable political fanaticism of some students, summarize the experience and lessons of civic education in Hong Kong schools, formulate corresponding programs and measures in a targeted manner, and further improve them.

In the Street

The 2010s were a decade of protests, and if the initial few months of 2020 are any indication, various forms of street politics, including spontaneous protests, demonstrations, acts of civil disobedience, and occupations are here to stay. Yet, contemporary discussions on the democratic significance of such events remain limited to questions of success and failure and the relative virtues of spontaneity and organization. In the Street: Democratic Action, Theatricality, and Political Friendship moves beyond these limited and limiting debates by breaking the hold of a deeply engrained way of thinking of democratic action that falsely equates spontaneity with immediacy. The book traces this problematic equation back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s account of popular sovereignty and demonstrates that insofar as commentators characterize democratic moments as the unmediated expressions of people’s will and/or instantaneous popular eruptions, they lose sight of the rich, creative, and varied practices of political actors who create those events against all odds. In the Street counters this Rousseauian influence by appropriating Aristotle’s notion of “political friendship” and developing an alternative conceptual framework that emphasizes the theatricality of democratic action through a critical engagement with the works of Antonio Negri, Jürgen Habermas, and Jacques Rancière. The outcome is a new conceptual lens that brings to light what is erased from contemporary discussions of democratic events, namely the crystallization of political actors’ hopes in the novel ways of being that they staged and the alternative forms of social relations that they created in and through the intermediating practices of political friendship.

The Contentious Politics of Tunisia’s Natural Resource Management and the Prospects of the Renewable Energy Transition

For many decades in Tunisia, there has been a robust link between natural resource management and contentious national and local politics. These disputes manifest in the form of protests, sit-ins, the disruption of production and distribution and legal suits on the one hand, and corporate and government response using coercive and concessionary measures on the other. Residents of resource-rich areas and their allies protest the inequitable distribution of their local natural wealth and the degradation of their health, land, water, soil and air. They contest a dynamic that tends to bring greater benefit to Tunisia’s coastal metropolitan areas. Natural resource exploitation is also a source of livelihoods and the contentious politics around them have, at times, led to somewhat more equitable relationships. The most important actors in these contentious politics include citizens, activists, local NGOs, local and national government, international commercial interests, international NGOs and multilateral organisations. These politics fit into wider and very longstanding patterns of wealth distribution in Tunisia and were part of the popular alienation that drove the uprising of 2011. In many ways, the dynamic of the contentious politics is fundamentally unchanged since prior to the uprising and protests have taken place within the same month of writing of this paper. Looking onto this scene, commentators use the frame of margins versus centre (‘marginalization’), and also apply the lens of labour versus capital. If this latter lens is applied, not only is there continuity from prior to 2011, there is continuity with the colonial era when natural resource extraction was first industrialised and internationalised. In these ways, the management of Tunisia’s natural wealth is a significant part of the country’s serious political and economic challenges, making it a major factor in the street politics unfolding at the time of writing.

Antifascism in the Neighborhood: Daily Life, Political Culture, and Gender Politics in the German Communist Antifascist Movement, 1930–1933

This article examines grassroots communist antifascist politics in Germany during the final years of the Weimar Republic. In contrast to most studies on Weimar’s street politics, which focus on political violence, this research demonstrates that daily life, political culture, and gender relations shaped the communist antifascist movement in working-class neighborhoods. It argues that daily conflict with distinct political overtones or undertones increased steadily in the early 1930s. As a result, quarrels between neighbors were often colored with political narratives, and sometimes ordinary disputes escalated into political conflict and even violence. Political culture inflamed the tensions, particularly when Nazis and communists littered proletarian boroughs with their symbols. Women were often at the center of the conflict. Many joined the frontlines of communist antifascist struggle, where they faced widespread discrimination from male comrades who, flaunting a militant hypermasculinity, insisted that women belonged only in the rearguard.