The first book to explore menstruation in the current cultural and political landscape and to investigate the new wave of period activism taking the world by storm. After centuries of being shrouded in taboo and superstition, periods have gone mainstream. Seemingly overnight, a new, high-profile movement has emerged one dedicated to bold activism, creative product innovation, and smart policy advocacy to address the centrality of menstruation in relation to core issues of gender equality and equity. In Periods Gone Public, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf the woman Bustle dubbed one of the nation's "badass menstrual activists" explores why periods have become a prominent political cause. From eliminating the tampon tax, to enacting new laws ensuring access to affordable, safe products, menstruation is no longer something to whisper about. Weiss-Wolf shares her firsthand account in the fight for "period equity" and introduces readers to the leaders, pioneers, and everyday people who are making change happen. From societal attitudes of periods throughout history in the United States and around the world to grassroots activism and product innovation, Weiss-Wolf challenges readers to face stigma head-on and elevate an agenda that recognizes both the power and the absolute normalcy of menstruation.

Nelson Mandela is widely considered to be one of the most inspiring and iconic figures of our age. Now, after a lifetime of putting pen to paper to record thoughts and events, hardships and victories, he has bestowed his entire extant personal papers, which offer an unprecedented insight into his remarkable life.

A singular international publishing event, Conversations with Myself draws on Mandela’s personal archive of never-before-seen materials to offer unique access to the private world of an incomparable world leader. Journals kept on the run during the anti-apartheid struggle of the early 1960s; diaries and draft letters written on Robben Island and in other South African prisons during his twenty-seven years of incarceration; notebooks from the post-apartheid transition; private recorded conversations; speeches and correspondence written during his presidency – a historic collection of documents archived at the Nelson Mandela Foundation is brought together into a sweeping narrative of great immediacy and stunning power.

In 2009 Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill became a top global news story. Three years later Hillary Clinton declared "Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights," but still today there is little consensus on how to advance those rights beyond the U.S. and Europe. The fact is that international LGBT activism and allies have created winners and losers. In Africa those who easily identify with the identities of the global movement find support, funding and care. Those whose sexualities don't align so neatly don't. In this faithful and moving investigation, award winning journalist Robbie Corey-Boulet shows that LGBT liberation does not look the same in Africa as it does in the United States or Europe. At a time where there is a groundswell of interest in LGBT life in Africa and attempts at reversing LGBT rights across much of the `developed' world Corey-Boulet lays bare past failures and, to the extent that there exists a right way to engage on LGBT issues in Africa-and, indeed, worldwide-Love Falls on Us is for those looking to learn what it is.

It was like a scene out of a thriller: one morning in April 2012, China's most famous political activist-a blind, self-taught lawyer-climbed over the wall of his heavily guarded home and escaped. For days, his whereabouts remained unknown; after he turned up at the American embassy in Beijing, a furious round of high-level negotiations finally led to his release and a new life in the United States. Chen Guangcheng is a unique figure on the world stage, but his story is even more remarkable than we knew. The son of a poor farmer in rural China, blinded by illness when he was an infant, Chen was fortunate to survive a difficult childhood. But despite his disability, he was determined to educate himself and fight for the rights of his country's poor, especially a legion of women who had endured forced sterilizations under the hated 'one child' policy. Repeatedly harassed, beaten, and imprisoned by Chinese authorities, Chen was ultimately placed under house arrest. After a year of fruitless protest and increasing danger, he evaded his captors and fled to freedom. With a foreword by the Dalai Lama, this is both a riveting memoir and a revealing portrait of modern China, this passionate book tells the story of a man who has never accepted limits and always believed in the power of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle.

In 2009, cabin crew in the BASSA union embarked on a historic, two-year battle against British Airways which was seeking to impose reduced crew levels and to transform working conditions. In the face of employer hostility, legal obstruction, government opposition and adverse media coverage, this workforce, diverse in terms of gender, sexuality, race and nationality undertook determined resistance against this offensive. Notably, their action included twenty-two days of strike action that saw mass participation in rallies and on picket lines. The dispute cost British Airways 150 million in lost revenue and its main outcome was the cabin crew's successful defence of their union and core conditions. Here, in their own words, Cabin Crew Conflict tells the strikers' story, focusing on cabin crew responses, perceptions of events, and their lived experiences of taking industrial action in a hostile climate. Foregrounding questions of class, gender and identity, and how these were manifest in the course of the dispute, the authors highlight the strike's significance for contemporary employment relations in and beyond the aviation industry. Lively and insightful, Cabin Crew Conflict explores the organisational and ideological role of the trade union, and shows how a 'non-traditional' workforce can organise and take effective action.

If you need inspiration in tough times, look no further. In this book, 40 activists recount the experiences that sparked their journeys and share the beliefs that keep them going. These individuals cross generations and embody different (sometimes opposite) perspectives. But their powerful narratives and KK Ottesen's luminous photographs reveal the passion, purpose, and optimism that unite these diverse figures. Together, their visions for peace, equality, and justice have reshaped society-from voting to reproductive rights, and from the environment to the economy. Their stories remind us that anyone can take the future into their own hands. This is an essential book for those who have fought to shape today's world and those who aspire to shape the world of tomorrow.

'A must-read for anyone who cares about women's equality' Sheryl Sandberg 'A flame-thrower for the rights of women who live under the thumb of repression and injustice' Tina Brown BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK This memoir is the extraordinary story of how one woman, Masih Alinejad, an awe-inspiring journalist and activist from a small village in Iran, overcame enormous adversity to fight for what she truly believed and founded a major movement for women around the world with the simple removal of her hijab. It all started with a single photo, a bold statement on Masih's Facebook page: a woman standing proudly, her face bare, her beautiful, curly hair blowing in the wind. Her crime: simply removing her veil, or hijab, which is compulsory for women in Iran. This is the photo that sparked a social-media liberation movement, 'My Stealthy Freedom'. Across Iran, women started posting pictures of their uncovered hair on Masih's page in open defiance of the strict religious beliefs of their country (and often, their families) while sharing their personal stories about this powerful mode of expression. With the creation of 'My Stealthy Freedom' Masih has gained over one million supporters around the world, and inspired Islamic women everywhere to take a stand for their basic human rights. She's been covered by the media from Vogue, to the Guardian, the New York Times and beyond. Last year she was the recipient of the Women's Rights Award from the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. But behind the scenes of this movement, Masih has been fighting a painful personal battle. She is a divorcee -- a sin equivalent to prostitution in Iranian culture. As a reporter, Masih has been actively speaking out against the government's corrupt policies for more than a decade, and has faced abuse and slander at every turn. In 2009 she went abroad during the Iranian presidential election with hopes of interviewing Barack Obama. Before the interview could take place, the elections were stolen, Masih's newspaper was shut down, and thousands of Iranians were arrested. She was expelled from her own country, and separated from her only son. Although she eventually was able to take her son abroad, she has not returned to Iran or seen her family in years. To this day, Masih has faith that one day she will be reunited with her homeland. A defiant, inspiring voice for women's rights, Masih Alinejad speaks for women everywhere. 'Intriguing and inspiring . . . her voice is so important to the Iranian people's struggles for freedom and democracy' Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

This is the powerful and moving life story of one of South Africa's leading trade union activists, from her childhood in Sophiatown to her first marriage and divorce, the dark days of her six months in detention and her lasting contributions to labour organisation in South Africa. Strikes have followed me all my life was first published in 1989 by The women's press but was never available in South Africa. Emma Mashinini's autobiography is an accessible, engaging account of a self-effacing union organiser, gender-rights activist and a phenomenal woman who has lived a difficult life and endured many challenges: detention without trial for six months (most of which were spent in solitary confinement); losing two daughters and a son-in-law; health problems as a result of detention; and constant abuse at the hands of apartheid's enforcers. But Emma's story is one of courage. It is engaging, at times sad (there is a heart-breaking moment in the text when she forgets her daughter’s name while in solitary confinement), but mostly it is an inspirational account of a selfless individual. This edition includes a Foreword by Jay Naidoo that brings the reader up to date with Emma’s life and opinions and the state of the labour movement in South Africa as well as moving letters from Mashinini's family that were written to her on her 80th birthday. This is a classic South African memoir in the same vein as Ellen Kuzwayo's call me woman, which recalls and preserves vital accounts of South Africa's history.

Riots, strikes, and protests broke out in the streets of Shanghai and Bombay (renamed Mumbai in 1995), with impressive frequency during the twentieth century. Many of the landmark protests and social movements had close connections with the neighborhoods, workplaces, and civic space of each city. By the late twentieth century, as the political geography of each city changed rapidly with the commodification of urban land, so too did the patterns of political contention. Using a comparative historical lens, Frazier chronicles the political biographies of these two metropolises and leading centers of manufacturing and finance. Debates over ideology, citizenship, and political representation took material form through clashes over housing, jobs, police violence, public space, among much else, in the lived experience of urban residents. Frazier puts contemporary debates over informal housing, eviction of inner-city residents, scarcities of manufacturing jobs, and questions of unequal citizenship in an illuminating historical context.

From Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood for more than a decade, daughter of the late Ann Richards, featured speaker at the Women's March on Washington, and "the heroine of the resistance" (Vogue), comes "an enthralling memoir" (Booklist, starred review) filled with "practical advice and inspiration for aspiring leaders everywhere" (Hillary Rodham Clinton). Cecile Richards has been an activist since she was taken to the principal's office in seventh grade for wearing an armband in protest of the Vietnam War. Richards had an extraordinary childhood in ultra-conservative Texas, where her civil rights attorney father and activist mother taught their kids to be troublemakers. She had a front-row seat to observe the rise of women in American politics and watched her mother, Ann, transform from a housewife to an electrifying force in the Democratic party. As a young woman, Richards worked as a labor organizer alongside women earning minimum wage, and learned that those in power don't give it up without a fight. She experienced first-hand the misogyny, sexism, fake news, and the ever-looming threat of violence that constantly confront women who challenge authority. Now, after years of advocacy, resistance, and progressive leadership, she shares her "truly inspiring" (Redbook) story for the first time-from the joy and heartbreak of activism to the challenges of raising kids, having a life, and making change, all the while garnering a reputation as "the most badass feminist EVER" (Teen Vogue). In the "powerful and infinitely readable" (Gloria Steinem) Make Trouble, Richards reflects on the people and lessons that have gotten her through good times and bad, and encourages the rest of us to take risks, make mistakes, and make trouble along the way.

Fiercely driven, passionately idealistic and secretly tormented, the British priest Michael Scott was a key figure in the struggles against apartheid, colonialism and, later, nuclear weapons. His activities during his ministry in South Africa in the late 1940s and early 1950s led to his being imprisoned and banned by the apartheid regime, whose attempts to annexe South West Africa (now Namibia) he was instrumental in frustrating. His fervent - some would say quixotic - campaigning fervour also led to his deportation from India and to three prison sentences in Britain. Even is his lifetime Scott was a mysterious and paradoxical figure: an ordained priest who worked, briefly, as an agent of the Communist Party, an admirer of Gandhi who trained as a rear gunner in the RAF, a modest orator who once held a committee of the United Nations spellbound. Unlike Trevor Huddleston and Canon John Collins, both of whom regarded him as their inspiration, he was accorded little honour by the Church of England, perhaps because he so resolutely insisted on practicing what his superiors were content to preach. Although Scott was loved and admired by all those he sought to help and by those who supported him - he gave away such worldly goods as came his way with almost reckless abandon - his friends and fellow campaigners were often frustrated by his apparent determination to keep them at arms' length. It was only as he lay dying that he could bring himself to admit to his oldest friend and mentor that his personal life had been blighted by the abuse he suffered as a child.

Resist! is the indispensable how-to guide for people looking to make a stand. Included are solid pieces of advice, practical tips and inspirational stories from those who have already successfully stood up and made a difference. Learn the principles of direct action, discover strategies for tackling social media, unearth ideas for motivating others, and understand how to get access to the people in power and get your message across. With a foreword by columnist, campaigner and best-selling author Owen Jones which unravels the political world and underlines why now is the time to act.

Widespread poverty and malnutrition, an alarming refugee crisis, social unrest,economic polarisation have become our lived reality as the top 1% of the world's seven-billion-plus population pushes the planet-and all its people-to the social and ecological brink. In Oneness vs. the 1%, Vandana Shiva takes on the Billionaires Club of Gates, Buffett, Zuckerberg and other modern Mughals, whose blindness to the rights of people, and to the destructive impact of their construct of linear progress, have wrought havoc across the world. Their single-minded pursuit of profit has undemocratically enforced uniformity and monoculture, division and separation, monopolies and external control-over finance, food, energy, information, healthcare, and even relationships. Basing her analysis on explosive little-known facts, Shiva exposes the 1%'s model of philanthrocapitalism, which is about deploying unaccountable money to bypass democratic structures, derail diversity, and impose totalitarianism, so that people can reclaim their right to live free; think free; breathe free; eat free.

One of Lady France Balfour's eulogists noted that she would be considered one of Scotland's greatest women, but today, few know who she was or what she did for British women. Joan B Huffman's biography is an effort to set the record straight and tell the first complete and accurate story of this remarkable woman. Lady Frances Balfour's parents and grandparents were forward-thinking, and she was interested in the world of politics from an early age. When she married Eustace Balfour, brother of Arthur Balfour, she continued to be intrigued by politics. As a woman in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries, however, she had practically no power, and had to seek other methods of pursuing her interests. In 1889, she found her calling in the fight for suffrage, where she was the constitutionalists' main lobbyist with Parliament. From fighting for the rights of working women to jobs and reasonable incomes; to defending the safety of unaccompanied women lured to London by charlatans; to supporting Dr. Elsie Inglis, founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals; to serving on various government committees, including one that studied the hugely unfair divorce laws, Frances worked and served to her last day, despite daily pain from a hip problem that was incorrectly treated in her youth. Lady Frances is the only leader of the votes for women campaign to lack a biography, yet she was the only aristocrat and the only Scot to have a national leadership role in that campaign. This biography will appeal to readers interested in British history, particularly those who want to know more about a key campaigner for women's rights.

In time for the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth, a specially curated collection of Mahatma Gandhi's writings on nonviolent resistance and activism. A Penguin Classic The year 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi's birth, and Penguin Classics presents a short but comprehensive selection of text by Gandhi that speaks to non-violent civil disobedience and activism. In excerpts drawn from his books, letters, and essays--including from Hind Swaraj, Satyagraha in South Africa, Yeravda Mandir, Ashram Observances in Action, his readings of Thoreau and Tolstoy, and his essays on the life of Socrates--the reader observes the power and eloquence in which Gandhi expressed his views on non-violent resistance, which have inspired activists from the U.S. Civil Rights movement and around the world. The Power of Nonviolent Resistance includes a new introduction and suggestions for further exploration by renowned Gandhi scholar Tridip Suhrud, which gives context to the time of Gandhi's writings while placing them firmly into the present-day political climate, inspiring a new generation of activists to follow the civil rights hero's teachings and practices.

A new edition of conversations between the artist Ai Wei Wei and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, coming up to the present day Ai Weiwei - artist, architect, curator, publisher, poet and urbanist - extended the notion of art and is one of the world's most significant creative and cultural figures. In this series of interviews, conducted over several years with the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, he discusses the many dimensions of his artistic life, ranging over subjects including ceramics, blogging, nature, philosophy and the myriad influences that have fed into his work. He also talks candidly about his father, his childhood spent in exile and his criticism of the Chinese state. Together, these extraordinary discussions are an essential reminder of the need for personal, political and artistic freedom.

Racism after Apartheid, volume four of the Democratic Marxism series, brings together leading scholars and activists from around the world studying and challenging racism. In eleven thematically rich and conceptually informed chapters, the contributors interrogate the complex nexus of questions surrounding race and relations of oppression as they are played out in the global South and global North. Their work challenges Marxism and anti-racism to take these lived realities seriously and consistently struggle to build human solidarities.

James Tollefson imparts an oral history that has the compelling drama of the best fiction. Conscientious objectors tell the stories behind the classification: the depth of their conviction, their efforts to prove sincere opposition in the face of persecution and criminal prosecution, and their feelings today about their actions during the Vietnam War.

In 2011, a wave of revolution spread through the Middle East as protesters demanded an end to tyranny, corruption and economic decay. From Egypt to Yemen, a generation of young Arabs insisted on a new ethos of common citizenship. Their bravery and idealism stirred observers around the world and led militant jihadists to worry that they had been superseded by a new and peaceful uprising. Five years later, the utopian aspirations of 2011 have darkened. In one country after another, brutal terrorists and dictators have risen to the top as old divides reemerge and deepen. Egypt has become a more repressive police state than ever before; Libya, Syria and Yemen endure civil war and the extremists of ISIS have spread chaos and carnage across the region, and beyond it. A Rage for Order tracks the tormented legacy of what was once called the Arab Spring. Writing with bold literary ambition, the distinguished New York Times correspondent Robert F. Worth introduces a riveting cast of characters. We meet a Libyan rebel who must decide whether to kill the torturer who murdered his brother; a Yemeni farmer who lives in servitude to a poetry-writing, dungeon-operating chieftain; two young Syrian women whose close friendship devolves into enmity as their sects go to war; and an Egyptian doctor who is caught between his loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood and his hopes for a new, tolerant democracy. In a final chapter, Worth tells the moving story of the two eighty-something statesmen whose unlikely camaraderie allowed Tunisia to escape its neighbours' worst fates. Combining dramatic storytelling with an original analysis of the Arab world today, A Rage for Order captures the psychological and actual civil wars raging throughout the Middle East and explains how the dream of an Arab renaissance gave way to a new age of discord.

An intersectional anthology of works by the known and unknown women that shaped and established the suffrage movement, in time for the 2020 centennial of women's right to vote, with a foreword by Gloria Steinem Comprised of historical texts spanning two centuries, The Women's Suffrage Movement is a comprehensive and singular volume with a distinctive focus on incorporating race, class, and gender, and illuminating minority voices. This one-of-a-kind intersectional anthology features the writings of the most well-known suffragists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, alongside accounts of those often overlooked because of their race, from Native American women to African American suffragists like Ida B. Wells and the three Forten sisters. At a time of enormous political and social upheaval, there could be no more important book than one that recognizes a group of exemplary women--in their own words--as they paved the way for future generations. The editor and introducer, Sally Roesch Wagner, is a pre-eminent scholar of the diverse backbone of the women's suffrage movement, the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and serves on the New York State Women's Suffrage Commission.