Mass incarceration and militarized police forces are two of the most potent tools of repressive instruments of power. From the death and destruction in Israel’s latest war on Gaza to the dramatic arrival of the national guard on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, there have been plenty of brutal reminders...
Regardless of their views on the An-Nahda led-government, most Tunisians agree on one thing: that the country is experiencing a counter-revolutionary moment. The tragic assassination of leftist politician and human rights defender Chokri Belaid in Tunis is one of a series of incidents of political violence to hit the country...
Bahrain needs to set about the hard work of healing societal cleavages, to build the truly sovereign and democratic country which the majority of its citizens appear so determined to achieve. If their much-touted ‘democracy promotion’ rhetoric is to have any real significance, western governments must help rather than hinder...
Often overlooked in the western press have been the collective, or one could say national, grievances of the Tunisian people, expressed as frustration at Tunisia’s lack of real sovereignty in a global order enforced by international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.
Despite the best efforts of the US and its European and regional allies to ignore them, international and regional factors that enabled the domestic power structures to remain in place for so long have also been the focus of protesters’ grievances and demands.
