Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures is an homage to a constellation of women writers, feminists, and creators whose voices draw a map of our current global political-environmental crisis and the interlinked massive violence, enabled by the denigration of life and human relationships. In a world, in which ""a woman's voice"" exists in bodies called in to occupy important positions in corporations, government, cultural and academic institutions, to work in factories, to join the army, but whose bodies are systematically rendered vulnerable by gender violence and by the double burden imposed on us to perform both productive and reproductive labor, I ask what is the task of thought and form in contemporary feminist situated knowledge? Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures is a collection of essays rethinking feminist issues in the current context of the production of redundant populations, the omnipresence of the technosphere and environmental devastation, toxic relationships, toxic nationalisms, and more. These reflections and dialogues are an urgent attempt to resist the present in the company of the voices of women like bell hooks, Sarah Ahmed, Leslie Jamison, Lina Meruane, Leanne Simpson, Chris Kraus, AlaIde Foppa, Lorena Wolffer, Sayak Valencia, Pip Day, Veronica GonzAlez, Eimear McBride, Simone de Beauvoir, Elena Poniatowska, Susan Sontag, Margaret Randall, Simone Weil, Arundhati Roy, Marta Lamas, Paul B. Preciado, Dawn Paley, Raquel GutiErrez, etc. Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures continues the discussion on how to undo misogyny and dismantle heteropatriarchy's sublimating and denigrating tricks against women, which are intrinsically linked to colonialism and violence against the Earth.

Providing an unbiased analysis of the past, present, and future of the hostile relationship between Iran, Israel, and the United States, this book presents an up-to-date discussion of the security implications for each of the two states as well as the entire region. Ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel are highly dangerous for the Middle East and have the potential to spark another major war in the region, perhaps on a much larger scale than prior conflicts. Such a confrontation between the two nations would jeopardize regional and international security, and is of immediate concern for the United States. In this new book noted scholar Jalil Roshandel provides an in-depth look at topics such as Iranian state support for terrorism, its pursuit of nuclear capability and weapons, the implications of this activity for Israel, and their relations with the Iraqi Kurdish region. The United States' role in this conflict is also detailed, including a history if its relations with Iran, policy with Israel, and position as potential mediator. This book offers valuable context that explains the evolution of these relationships rather than simply summarizing the past and present situations, and concludes with thought-provoking policy alternatives for decision makers. Illustrates the complex relationship between Iran and Israel though an examination of historic events Provides a comprehensive bibliography of significant materials from the fields of history, politics, and international relations Includes an index of subjects, names, places, events, and related issues

How homophobic backlash unexpectedly strengthened mobilization for LGBT political rights in post-communist Europe While LGBT activism has increased worldwide, there has been strong backlash against LGBT people in Eastern Europe. Although Russia is the most prominent anti-gay regime in the region, LGBT individuals in other post-communist countries also suffer from discriminatory laws and prejudiced social institutions. Combining an historical overview with interviews and case studies in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, Conor O'Dwyer analyzes the development and impact of LGBT movements in post-communist Eastern and Central Europe. O'Dwyer argues that backlash against LGBT individuals has had the paradoxical effect of encouraging stronger and more organized activism, significantly impacting the social movement landscape in the region. As these peripheral Eastern and Central European countries vie for inclusion or at least recognition in the increasingly LGBT-friendly European Union, activist groups and organizations have become even more emboldened to push for change. Using fieldwork in five countries and interviews with activists, organizers, and public officials, O'Dwyer explores the intricacies of these LGBT social movements and their structures, functions, and impact. The book provides a unique and engaging exploration of LGBT rights groups in Eastern and Central Europe and their ability to serve as models for future movements attempting to resist backlash. Thorough, theoretically grounded, and empirically sound, Coming Out of Communism is sure to be a significant work in the study of LGBT politics, European politics, and social movements.

Around the globe, contemporary protest movements are contesting the oligarchic appropriation of natural resources, public services, and shared networks of knowledge and communication. These struggles raise the same fundamental demand and rest on the same irreducible principle: the common. In this exhaustive account, Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval show how the common has become the defining principle of alternative political movements in the 21st century. In societies deeply shaped by neoliberal rationality, the common is increasingly invoked as the operative concept of practical struggles creating new forms of democratic governance. In a feat of analytic clarity, Dardot and Laval dissect and synthesize a vast repository on the concept of the commons, from the fields of philosophy, political theory, economics, legal theory, history, theology, and sociology. Instead of conceptualizing the common as an essence of man or as inherent in nature, the thread developed by Dardot and Laval traces the active lives of human beings: only a practical activity of commoning can decide what will be shared in common and what rules will govern the common's citizen-subjects. This re-articulation of the common calls for nothing less than the institutional transformation of society by society: it calls for a revolution.

Born in 1917 in Bizana in the Eastern Cape, Oliver Reginald Tambo became Nelson Mandela's legal partner and a prominent member of the ANC's Youth League.

Following the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Tambo left South Africa to set up the ANC's international mission. As President of the ANC in exile, he led the fight against apartheid on both the diplomatic and military fronts. He died in 1993 on the eve of liberation. Tambo had a profound influence on the ANC during the difficult years of uncertainty, loneliness and homesickness in exile. His simplicity, his nurturing style, his genuine respect for all people seemed to bring out the best in them.

This is the story of one of South Africa's great sons - 'the most loved leader', the Moses who led his people to the promised land but did not live to enter it.

In The Political Potential of Upper Silesian Ethnoregionalist Movement: A Study in Ethnic Identity and Political Behaviours of Upper Silesians Anna Mus offers a study on the phenomenon of ethnoregionalism in one of the regions in Poland. Since 1945, ethnopolitics in Poland have been based on the so-called assumption of the ethnic homogeneity of the Polish nation. Even the transformation of the political system to a fully democratic one in 1989 did not truly change it. However, over the last three decades, we can observe growing discontent in Upper Silesia and the politicisation of Silesian ethnicity. This is happening in a region with its own history of autonomy and culturally diversified society, where an ethnoregionalist political movement appeared already in 1989.

Azzam Tamimi introduces the thought of Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi, the renowned Islamist political activist who heads Tunisia's most important Islamist political party, Ennahda, previously banned by the authoritarian regime of Zine Abidine Ben Ali, and now the main party in the tripartite government in Tunisia. Ghannouchi, who lived in exile for many years as he was hunted by the Tunisian regime, is also the leader of a school in modern Islamic political thought that advocates democracy and pluralism. While insisting on the compatibility of democracy with Islam, he believes that because of their secular foundations, contemporary forms of liberal democracy may not suit Muslim societies. Ghannouchi insists, however, that Islam is compatible with Western thought in matters concerning the system of government, human rights, and civil liberties. Tamimi does an excellent job in unpacking Ghannouchi the person, the political activist, and the scholar. His treatment of Ghannouchi’s ideology is unique and highlights why Ghannouchi is probably the deepest and most important Islamist intellectual of our time.

In the summer of 1980, the eyes of the world turned to the Gdansk shipyard in Poland which suddenly became the nexus of a strike wave that paralyzed the entire country. The Gdansk strike was orchestrated by the members of an underground free trade union that came to be known as Solidarnosc [Solidarity]. Despite fears of a violent response from the communist authorities, the strikes spread to more than 800 sites around the country and involved over a million workers, mobilizing its working population. Faced with crippling strikes and with the eyes of the world on them, the communist regime signed landmark accords formally recognizing Solidarity as the first free trade union in a communist country. The union registered nearly ten million members, making it the world's largest union to date. In a widespread and inspiring demonstration of nonviolent protest, Solidarity managed to bring about real and powerful changes that contributed to the end of the Cold War. Solidarity:The Great Workers Strike of 1980 tells the story of this pivotal period in Poland's history from the perspective of those who lived it. Through unique personal interviews with the individuals who helped breathe life into the Solidarity movement, Michael Szporer brings home the momentous impact these events had on the people involved and subsequent history that changed the face of Europe. This movement, which began as a strike, had major consequences that no one could have foreseen at the start. In this book, the individuals who shaped history speak with their own voices about the strike that changed the course of history.

Can you imagine an all powerful group, that knows no national boundaries, above the laws of all countries, one that controls every aspect of politics, religion, commerce and industry, banking, insurance, mining, the drug trade, the petroleum industry, a group answerable to no one but its members? That there is such a body, called 'the committee of 300' is graphically told in this book. Once you have read the applying truths contained in this book, understanding past and present political, economic, social and religious events will no longer be a problem. This powerful account of the forces ranged against the US, and indeed the entire free world, cannot be ignored.

Higher education has seen better days. Harsh budget cuts, the precarious nature of employment in colleague teaching, and political hostility to the entire enterprise of education have made for an increasingly fraught landscape. Radical Hope is an ambitious response to this state of affairs, at once political and practice - the work of an activist, teacher, and public intellectual grappling with some of the most pressing topics at the intersection of higher education and social justice. Kevin Gannon asks that the contemporary university's manifold problems be approached as opportunities for critical engagement, arguing that, when done effectively, teaching is by definition emancipatory and hopeful. Considering individual pedagogical practice, the students who are the primary audience and beneficiaries of teaching, and the institutions and systems within which teaching occurs, Radical Hope surveys the field, tackling everything from impostor syndrome to cell phones in class to allegations of a campus 'free speech crisis'. Throughout, Gannon translates ideals into tangible strategies and practices (including key takeaways at the conclusion of each chapter), with the goal of reclaiming teachers' essential role in the discourse of higher education.

Written from the perspective of a practising artist, this book proposes that, against a groundswell of historians, museums and commentators claiming to speak on behalf of art, it is artists alone who may define what art really is. Jelinek contends that while there are objects called 'art' in museums from deep into human history and from around the globe - from Hans Sloane's collection, which became the foundation of the British Museum, to Alfred Barr's inclusion of 'primitive art' within the walls of MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art - only those that have been made with the knowledge and discipline of art should rightly be termed as such. Policing the definition of art in this way is not to entrench it as an elitist occupation, but in order to focus on its liberal democratic potential. Between Discipline and a Hard Place describes the value of art outside the current preoccupation with economic considerations yet without resorting to a range of stereotypical and ultimately instrumentalist political or social goods, such as social inclusion or education. A wider argument is also made for disciplinarity, as Jelinek discusses the great potential as well as the pitfalls of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary working, particularly with the so-called 'creative' arts. A passionate treatise arguing for a new way of understanding art that forefronts the role of the artist and the importance of inclusion within both the concept of art and the art world.

Marian Alexander Spencer was born in 1920 in the Ohio River town of Gallipolis, Ohio, one year after the "Red Summer" of 1919 that saw an upsurge in race riots and lynchings. Following the example of her grandfather, an ex-slave and community leader, Marian joined the NAACP at thirteen and grew up to achieve not only a number of civic leadership firsts in her adopted home city of Cincinnati, but a legacy of lasting civil rights victories. Of these, the best known is the desegregation of Cincinnati's Coney Island amusement park. She also fought to desegregate Cincinnati schools and to stop the introduction of observers in black voting precincts in Ohio. Her campaign to raise awareness of industrial toxic-waste practices in minority neighborhoods was later adapted into national Superfund legislation. In 2012, Marian's friend and colleague Dot Christenson sat down with her to record her memories. The resulting biography not only gives us the life story of remarkable leader but encapsulates many of the twentieth century's greatest struggles and advances. Spencer's story will prove inspirational and instructive to citizens and students alike.

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.

A firsthand exploration of the cost of boarding the bus of change to move America forward--written by one of the Civil Rights Movement's pioneers. At 18, Charles Person was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, key figures in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who left Washington, D.C. by bus in 1961, headed for New Orleans. This purposeful mix of black and white, male and female activists--including future Congressman John Lewis, Congress of Racial Equality Director James Farmer, Reverend Benjamin Elton Cox, journalist and pacifist James Peck, and CORE field secretary Genevieve Hughes--set out to discover whether America would abide by a Supreme Court decision that ruled segregation unconstitutional in bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms nationwide. Two buses proceeded through Virginia, North and South Carolina, to Georgia where they were greeted by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and finally to Alabama. There, the Freedom Riders found their answer: No. Southern states would continue to disregard federal law and use violence to enforce racial segregation. One bus was burned to a shell, its riders narrowly escaping; the second, which Charles rode, was set upon by a mob that beat several riders nearly to death. Buses Are a Comin' provides a front-row view of the struggle to belong in America, as Charles Person accompanies his colleagues off the bus, into the station, into the mob, and into history to help defeat segregation's violent grip on African American lives. It is also a challenge from a teenager of a previous era to the young people of today: become agents of transformation. Stand firm. Create a more just and moral country where students have a voice, youth can make a difference, and everyone belongs.

Media, Ideology and Hegemony contains a range of topics that provide readers with opportunities to think critically about the new digital world. This includes work on old and new media, on the corporate power structure in communication and information technology, and on government use of media to control citizens. Demonstrating that the new world of media is a hotly contested terrain, the book also uncovers the contradictions inherent in the system of digital power and documents how citizens are using media and information technology to actively resist repressive power. This collection of essays is grounded with a critical theoretical foundation, and is informed by the importance of undertaking the analysis in historical perspective. Contributors are: Alfonso M. Rodriguez de Austria Gimenez de Aragon, Burton Lee Artz, Arthur Asa Berger, Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Marco Briziarelli, Savas Coban, Jeffrey Hoffmann, Junhao Hong, Robert Jensen, Douglas Kellner, Thomas Klikauer, Peter Ludes, Tanner Mirrlees, Vincent Mosco, Victor Pickard, Padmaja Shaw, Nick Stevenson, Gerald Sussman, Minghua Xu.

Since 2015, Poland's populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been dismantling the major checks and balances of the Polish state and subordinating the courts, the civil service, and the media to the will of the executive. Political rights have been radically restricted, and the Party has captured the entire state apparatus. The speed and depth of these antidemocratic movements took many observers by surprise: until now, Poland was widely regarded as an example of a successful transitional democracy. Poland's anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy? These answers are formulated against a backdrop of current worldwide trends towards populism, authoritarianism, and what is sometimes called 'illiberal democracy'. As this book argues, the Polish variant of 'illiberal democracy' is an oxymoron. By undermining the separation of powers, the PiS concentrates all power in its own hands, rendering any democratic accountability illusory. There is, however, no inevitability in these anti-democratic trends: this book considers a number of possible remedies and sources of hope, including intervention by the European Union.