THE WOMEN’S MARCHES: FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM & A WORRYING, WAYWARD TREND – PART 3 (OF 3)

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #balanceforbetter, #metoo, austerity, Bladerunner, Cambridge Analytica, conformism, demo, endorsement, equality, featured, feminism, gender rights, germaine greer, left, liberalism, Luce Irigaray, media, Naomi Klein, Nicola Rivers, populism, rally, Rashida Tlaib, speech, uk, womens march, work.

by Sunetra Senior

Part Three (of Three): An Ideological Ambush and Choosing Utopia. Read Part One here and part Two here.

Here, another sinister aspect of the Trump campaign, now verified by the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, was the invasive, online method through which I proposed that an amoral moneyed elite was not only manipulating, but also forcibly hijacking the public’s trust. I will again emphasise another, so far unacknowledged, caveat: this method of manufacturing investment not only cheats people short-term – including those vacuous nutjobs at the top- but sustains a deceptive, distinctly digital control well into the destructive future. Once removed and shiny, the technological medium of devices and social media is the perfect way to distract from the escalation of political inequality by cunningly feigning advancement.Continue Reading

THE WOMEN’S MARCHES: FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM & A WORRYING, WAYWARD TREND – PART 2 (OF 3)

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #balanceforbetter, #metoo, austerity, Bladerunner, conformism, demo, endorsement, equality, featured, feminism, gender rights, germaine greer, left, liberalism, Luce Irigaray, media, Nicola Rivers, populism, rally, Rashida Tlaib, speech, uk, womens march, work.

by Sunetra Senior

Part Two (of Three): Bladerunner 2049 and a Tragic Trajectory. Read Part One here and part Three here.

Yet, a year on and the opposite seemed to manifest. Last year’s big, sponsored march was populated by blatant careerists and women who seemed to think the Feminist conclusion lay in just stony vocational power. This was the severe, stifled energy I’d been feeling. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see a placard that read: ‘Good women Go to Work!’ No wonder then, that there was also interpersonal tension and division between the various organisations at the demonstration: women were feeling competitive. Here, I will emphasise: to fixate on external acquirement such as an invincible social status and intensive office hours and treat them as if a modern romance, is to internalise a toxic masculinity that does not oppose but instead reinforces historic gender inequality. Follow this regressive trajectory, and not only do women begin to undermine their previous progress, but too, start to become foot soldiers in a universally dark tyranny.Continue Reading

THE WOMEN’S MARCHES: FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM & A WORRYING, WAYWARD TREND – PART 1 (OF 3)

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #balanceforbetter, #metoo, austerity, Bloody Good Period, conformism, demo, endorsement, equality, featured, feminism, gender rights, left, liberalism, Luce Irigaray, media, Natalie imbruglia, populism, rally, sadiq khan, Salena Godden, Sophie Cameron, speech, uk, Women's Muslim Network, womens march.

by Sunetra Senior

Part One (of Three): Bourgeois Beginnings. Read part Two here and Part Three here.

‘Are we in the right place?’ was a semi-serious question posed by a friend of mine at the 2018 Women’s March, which took place in London on 4th March to commemorate worldwide Women’s Day. Having been to many demonstrations between us, including the historic 2017 Women’s March, which took place the day after President Trump’s inauguration, we had sound reference points between us too. Usually, there’s a friendly, lively atmosphere. You might even enjoy some canned ciders as you watch an animated speaker deliver one motivational speech after the next.

In 2018, however, the big women’s march was sedate, controlled, and most alarmingly of all: conformist. I even got elbowed in the face by a male police officer who told me to ‘stay within the demonstration line’. This was immediately after I’d passed a giant stone pedestal, encircled by a murder of male reporters, gathered creepily at that higher vantage point like gigantic crows. Hitchcockian voyeurism aside, women also seemed to be adopting the strange, disciplinary mood. One female speaker said to keep fighting ‘even if it took another 100 years’. But where was the urgency? Where ‘was the anger’? as feminist performer Sophie Cameron tweeted out.Continue Reading

EXTRACTING THE HITLER URINE

Posted on November 17, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Community, Inter|national and tagged antifa, Blues Brothers, Brexit, counterprotest, creative, EDL, fascism, featured, Hitler, humour, mocking, Nazi, norfolk, norwich, protest, punch nazis, racism, rally, ridicule, satire, slogans, Unity UK.

by Zoe Harding

Article contains strong language.

I went to a counter-protest last week.

Chances are you did too, if you’re reading this. The protest, by a group called Unity UK, was opposite the Norwich town hall and was probably against immigrants, although most of the people there seemed to think it was in favour of Brexit and one chap wanted to Drain The Swamp (an odd choice of slogan in a county that would be little more than Thetford and a lot of dry mud if we drained it, but I digress.) The counter-protest, on the other hand, was a who’s who of Norwich’s local lefties, turning up with drums, flags, megaphones and a generally good-natured if slightly intense demeanor, to stand opposite them and drown them out.Continue Reading

DO PROTESTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged activism, change, citizen rights, collective, complicit, cooperation, demo, demonstration, featured, g20, G7, government, grassroots, history, intelligence services, international, mosquito, Nicaragua, protest, radical hope, rally, terrorism, Tunisia, US, Venezuela, womens march.

by Gunnar Eigener

If you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito.

unattributed African proverb

Protests and demonstrations are an important part of democracy. They allow the people the opportunity to express their feelings about the behaviour of the state and its agents. They are a chance to point out society’s ills to those who can do something about it. But do they truly make a difference? Do those who are targeted by the protests feel their impact or are they just able to ignore (or worse) any public displays of anger or upset?

The election of Donald Trump saw mass protests take place across the US. Protests in Gaza have resulted in hundreds of deaths. Every G7 or G20 summit is greeted by demonstrations. In Nicaragua, protests against the government intensified after flippant remarks by the President, Daniel Noriega, and his wife, the Vice-President, demeaned the people. There have been protests in India over the caste system and the Supreme Court, in Tunisia against the cost of living, in Venezuela over the lack of food and medicine, and high inflation rates. The Women’s March globally, protests against abortion laws, the list goes on but the changes do not. Too often nothing seems to change. This is not to say that change should happen purely based on a protest but many protests are about the same thing. So what is the issue?

UNITED WE STAND, IGNITED WE MARCH – NEW YOUTH POLITICS IN INDIA

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Akhil Gogoi, BJP, Chandrashakhar Azad, Dalit, disinformation, featured, Gujarat, Hindu, India, Jignesh Mevani, Kanhaiya Kumar, Lucas Chancel, Muslim, Narendra Modi, politics, propaganda, protest, rally, Sagarika Ghose, Shehla Rashid, Thomas Piketty, Uttar Pradesh, violence, Yogi Adityanath, youth, Yuva Hunkaar.

by Scott McLaughlan

Politically engaged and youthful social movements of India’s marginalised and oppressed are coming together, under one umbrella, to demand social change with one voice. The situation on the ground has rattled India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

9th January 2018 12.00pm, Presidential Road, Delhi: Yuva Hunkaar Rally!

The slogan Yuva Hunkaar expresses a powerful agenda and a call to action. Yuva (meaning “youth”), attached to the term Hunkaar (roar/shout out/loud call) expresses a forceful, clarion call for social change. It’s a roar to action on issues of systemic discrimination against India’s marginalised and oppressed.Continue Reading

HAPPY TO BE ANGRY: THE ANTI-GOVERNMENT ROMANIAN PROTESTS

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #Colectiv, alternative media, Andrei Mosloc, angry, anti-government, Bucharest, change, children, classism, corruption, creative culture, creative protest, democracy, demonstration, education, Goodbye to Gravity, hope, march, Marius Tudor, media, Mihaela Precup, nationalism, nightclub, people, positive action, protest, rally, regulation, Roșia Montana, Romania, tabloids, technocracy, The Day we Die.

by Mihaela Precup

“Romania is not sexy,” a fellow academic once told me. “Nobody cares what happens there, nobody wants to study it. There’s so little going on there that’s really exciting or new. ” I thought she was right at the time. After all, I was also always going on about the political apathy of much of my fellow Romanians, the very slow pace of change after the fall of communism in December 1989, as well as the indifference of post-revolutionary governments towards preserving the memory of the totalitarian regime and its survivors. Apathy and amnesia were, I thought, the two main curses of my people.

But four years ago, something finally started happening.Continue Reading

THE FOSSIL FREE OCCUPATION

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged camp, climate, climate change, david richardson, divest, environment, fossil free, fossil fuels, occupation, occupy, people and planet, protest, rally, renewable energy, solidarity, students, sustainability, UEA, University of East Anglia.

By John Heathcliff

It’s 8.30 pm on 5^th November 2015, and for the first time in over four years UEA students have gone into occupation, just outside the Vice Chancellor’s office. It’s a cold winter night, and it’s raining quite heavily, but the protesters – resplendent in orange jumpsuits – are huddled together under a blue tarpaulin, which is swaying in the wind. Banners and placards are hung across the railings of the square, with one proclaiming loudly: “DIVEST”. There aren’t many students around yet to see the occupation, but there will be more tomorrow, because the protesters are staying for 26 hours: each hour representing £5,000 of the money that UEA invests in fossil fuels. This is the UEA Fossil Free occupation.Continue Reading

STUDENT POLITICS – JAPAN’S NEXT BIG THING?

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged anti-war, asia, book, democracy, elections, ideology, international, internet, Japan, Japanese, LINE, media, new media, politics, protests, rally, SEALDs, social media, student, student movement, student politics, T-nsOWL, teenagers, teens, war.

by Faizal Nor Izham

The words “democracy” and “Asia” aren’t always known for going together. But with the proliferation of the Internet and social media, Asia appears to be learning a few lessons from other developing nations when it comes to democratic reform. The Arab Spring, the online democratic movement which eventually culminated in protests in Tunisia and Egypt, is surely a recent example that could be learned from.

The Internet has certainly had a liberating effect on this region, previously known for being conservative in terms of political expression and dissent. The Japanese political sphere, for example, is usually not renowned for being politically active or outspoken. But that’s slowly starting to change.

rally

THE WOMEN’S MARCHES: FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM & A WORRYING, WAYWARD TREND – PART 3 (OF 3)

Part Three (of Three): An Ideological Ambush and Choosing Utopia. Read Part One here and part Two here.

THE WOMEN’S MARCHES: FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM & A WORRYING, WAYWARD TREND – PART 2 (OF 3)

Part Two (of Three): Bladerunner 2049 and a Tragic Trajectory. Read Part One here and part Three here.

THE WOMEN’S MARCHES: FOURTH WAVE FEMINISM & A WORRYING, WAYWARD TREND – PART 1 (OF 3)

Part One (of Three): Bourgeois Beginnings. Read part Two here and Part Three here.

EXTRACTING THE HITLER URINE

DO PROTESTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

UNITED WE STAND, IGNITED WE MARCH – NEW YOUTH POLITICS IN INDIA

HAPPY TO BE ANGRY: THE ANTI-GOVERNMENT ROMANIAN PROTESTS

THE FOSSIL FREE OCCUPATION

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Part Three (of Three): An Ideological Ambush and Choosing Utopia. Read Part One here and part Two here.

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Part Two (of Three): Bladerunner 2049 and a Tragic Trajectory. Read Part One here and part Three here.

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Part One (of Three): Bourgeois Beginnings. Read part Two here and Part Three here.

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