Civil Disobedience

How can Extinction Rebellion move from insurrection to renewal?

Villagers have mobilised to fight both for their homes and for more ambition in German energy policy.

The term ‘security’ is used as though it were neutral, but in fact it is underpinned by assumptions and prejudice, with some regarded as worthy of protection while ‘others’ are seen as threatening.

Every opportunity that comes up is used by mega-project promoters and their allies to stigmatise resistance movements.

An interview with the philosopher, writer and activist, Lieven De Cauter.

Introduction by the Editorial Board

In the protest movements that have emerged since the financial crisis, from Occupy in the US to the Arab Spring, social media has gained new significance as a method of communication, both between activists and as a means of bringing the message to the rest of the world. The protests which took hold in Turkey last year were no exception – but how has the situation developed since then, and how have the authorities responded?

The UK’s new ‘Tarpaulin Revolution,’ led by a revived Occupy movement and featuring many Greens, hopes to capture the imaginations of people across Europe – in cities and countries also suffering the impacts of inequality, austerity and ‘democracy’ weighted to benefit the 1%.

Popular protest may have saved Gezi Park, but elsewhere in Turkey the destruction on the environment in pursuit of private profit continues. The Green Though Foundation organised a conference to discuss the challenges posed by these developments and what they say about politics in modern Turkey.

Nearly 30,000 people took to the streets of Berlin on January 18, 2014 to protest the industrialisation of farming and the E.U.-U.S Free Trade Agreement currently under negotiation. In addition to making their demands heard, the organisers gave a voice and a face to Agrarwende, a citizen movement that is gaining steam in Germany and that calls for a rethinking of agriculture.