Tag: civil resistance

Japan Detains Movement Leader to Silence Struggle Against US Military Bases

March 27, 2017

Published on 14 March 2017 at Waging Nonviolence, here. On October 17, Hiroji Yamashiro was arrested for cutting a wire fence at a protest against a U.S. military base in Okinawa. He has been held in detention ever since. Yamashiro, the chairman of the Okinawa Peace Movement Center, has been a fixture of the nonviolent … More Japan Detains Movement Leader to Silence Struggle Against US Military Bases

Nonviolent activism around the Olympic Games: History and lessons learned

November 25, 2015

This article was originally published at openDemocracy.net on 24 November 2015 and is available here. Whereas countless public figures have insisted that the Olympics be kept “apolitical” for decades, nonviolent action and civil society together have succeeded in revealing the hollowness of such a notion. A Tiananmen Square-themed Olympic logo. Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.Bringing … More Nonviolent activism around the Olympic Games: History and lessons learned

In Myanmar, students test the sincerity of democratic transition

June 15, 2015

Originally published at openDemocracy on 10 June 2015. Also available here. Students demand change in Myanmar. Creative Commons. Some rights reserved. In Myanmar, as university students around the world begin to exalt their summer freedom, a national student movement continues to demand greater political freedom. At the end of May 2015 Myanmar’s parliament was still … More In Myanmar, students test the sincerity of democratic transition

Matching resistance to repression in China

June 15, 2015

First Published at openDemocracy on April 8, 2015. Also available here. Prominent human rights activist Pu Zhiqiang has languished in pre-trial detention since his arrest last May – in the lead-up to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre – on charges for several crimes including “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. His case remains … More Matching resistance to repression in China

Violence and Nonviolence in the Uyghur Struggle

October 23, 2014

First published at opendemocracy.net on 10 October 2014 as Resistance, repression, and the cycle of violence in the Uyghur Struggle. On Tuesday, September 26, 2014 a Chinese court convicted Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur economics professor, to a life sentence on charges of separatism in a disgracefully political trial. Amnesty International’s China researcher William Nee wrote, … More Violence and Nonviolence in the Uyghur Struggle

Xinjiang or East Turkestan: Contending Historical Narratives and the Politics of Representation in China

July 8, 2014

July 5th marked the fifth anniversary of a series of bloody events in Xinjiang collectively labeled as the 7/5 Urumqi riots. Immediately afterward, state and international media set to reporting and analyzing the conflict, scholars and international human rights organizations soon joined. Meanwhile the government in Beijing launched damage control, exerting its monopoly of symbolic … More Xinjiang or East Turkestan: Contending Historical Narratives and the Politics of Representation in China

The contentious politics of China’s New Citizens Movement

June 17, 2014

This article was originally published by openDemocracy.net on June 6, 2014. Available here. – Corruption has been among the grievances that have inspired civil resistance and toppled empires, even in some of the most authoritarian regimes. In China, from indignation over the corrupt Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that helped mobilize the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, ending the … More The contentious politics of China’s New Citizens Movement

A striking pose: labor resistance in China

May 4, 2014

This article was originally published on May Day at wagingnonviolence.org here. It was also kindly republished by China Labour Bulletin here. — As if in anticipation of May Day, one of the largest episodes of labor resistance in decades unfurled in Southern China like a great red carpet of contention throughout the month of April. … More A striking pose: labor resistance in China