Dissent

Istanbul (Special to Informed Comment) – Major protests over the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, have entered their sixth day. Demonstrations have erupted in at least 55 out of Türkiye’s 81 provinces, according to AFP, which marks one of the most widespread waves of […]

Democracy

Trump rages to snuff out Democracy’s Candle: Will we Rage against the Dying of its Light?

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Allow me to stipulate that I do not wish to die. In fact, had anyone consulted me about the construction of the universe, I would have made my views on the subject quite clear: mortality is a terrible idea. I’m opposed to it in general. (In wiser moments, I know that […]

Dissent

Social Movements constrained Trump in his first Term – Much more than People Realize

The Conversation

By Kevin A. Young, UMass Amherst (The Conversation) – Donald Trump’s first term as president saw some of the largest mass protests seen in the U.S. in over 50 years, from the 2017 Women’s March to the 2020 protests after George Floyd’s murder. Things feel different this time around. Critics seem quieter. Some point to […]

Democracy

What the US can learn from South Koreans who stopped an Authoritarian Power-Grab

Waging Nonviolence

Jungmin Choi As Elon Musk and his DOGE team set about dismantling government agencies, many Americans expected a strong response from Congressional Democrats. Instead, party leaders offered weak statements and little resistance to being refused entry to the very agencies they are tasked with overseeing. This lack of urgency amid what’s being called an administrative […]

censorship

Iran: Unchecked Repression of Dissent

The Conversation

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have continued their brutal, targeted repression even though the new Iranian president has promised change, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2025. The authorities have targeted human rights defenders, women, ethnic and religious minorities, and families of those arrested or killed in the 2022 protests. For […]

censorship

Professor Katherine Franke on being Fired from Columbia Law School for Palestine Advocacy

Katherine M. Franke

Statement from Katherine Franke, January 10, 2025 For the last year and a half, as students at Columbia University and across the globe have protested against the Israeli government’s genocidal assault on Palestinians after the October 2023 attacks, a response that has resulted in horrendous devastation in Gaza, I have ardently defended students’ right to […]

Climate Crisis

Repression of Climate and Environmental Protest is intensifying across the World

The Conversation

By Oscar Berglund, University of Bristol and Tie Franco Brotto, University of Bristol (The Conversation) – Climate and environmental protest is being criminalised and repressed around the world. The criminalisation of such protest has received a lot of attention in certain countries, including the UK and Australia. But there have not been any attempts to […]

Dissent

Protesting New York University’s Arbitrary Repressive Actions toward Faculty and Students Protest Gaza War

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Linda G. Mills President, New York University linda.mills@nyu.edu Georgina Dopico Provost, New York University georgina.dopico@nyu.edu Dear President Mills and Provost Dopico: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express […]

Democracy

Post-Election Beatitude: Beating the Blues

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Whatever postures our country has projected to the world – shining city on a hill; leader of the free world; model of democracy; the indispensable nation; a rules-based order–all have crumbled like a house of cards. Our country’s failures, however, are deeper and older than the recent […]